tim

this is the best typo but not really ever

Let's all just remember Goldust.

WWE is brilliant at ruining every hot and exciting act they have.

Very shitty. Everything from the beginning of the chair shenanigans was pretty bad.

That whole segment was great. More PTP on TV please.

Man that match ended up being great, loved the final sequence leading to the AA. Interested to see where it goes from here, though I strongly disagree with the idea of the WHC getting elevated to Cena-level but that's another issue.

Fun tag, Cesaro's second wind during the big swing was cool as was his pulling the ropes away. Swagger hitting the knee tackle mid-air was cool too. I'm up for more matches between these guys.

Even worse is that the shittiness of this feud is blamed on Ryback when really it's dragged him down. Ryback is a good character, good promo and usually seems like at least a hard worker in the ring so it's a shame that his star will likely fall after all this with the crowd already soured on him.

Honestly over the past two months Heyman/Punk has been the least interesting thing in WWE. I'd halfway rather Fandango, Kane and Miz come back out.

Well that spear through the ropes was pretty cool.

why did new york have to get this gimmick over

Awesome match. So glad to see the Rhodes win, because it means we'll get more. The three way dynamic was used really well both in the homestretch and Goldust's FIP. And now we get to see Miz pretend to be tough.

"bosom buddies" establishes a baseline 7 rating for this show

Yeah that Cena/Umaga match us on my shortlist of matches people could say were the best WWE match of all time without me thinking anything of it. I mean, the AJ tag probably wins but I haven't seen it in some years.

Might it be argued that Austin was more relatively important than Hogan? Hogan was the head of the 80s boom but I feel like that was thanks to cable, national expansion, Vince's vision etc and could've happened with a number of big, charismatic Champions on top (not that there are a whole lot of guys who fit that bill as well as Hogan). The Attitude Era boom though feels like a real outgrowth of Austin himself.

Undertaker has never been as important to the company as Cena has been but probably a good number more people know of Undertaker than know of Cena so that depends on how exactly you want to think of "stardom." Undertaker > HHH easy enough it seems to me. Savage > Taker probably. Guys like Bruno and Backlund are harder because of course "The Undertaker" registers with more people than does "Bruno Sammartino" or "Bob Backlund" but was Taker ever close to as important to the company than they were?

Well the whole story of Triple H here is he used to be the "anti establishment" guy that the front office didn't believe in because of was SO UNCONVENTIONAL AND REBELLIOUS but now he's become a corporate shill and turned into the same people who tried to hold him back. So his doubting and holding back Bryan isn't only wrong but hypocritical. Someone coming up to Trips and saying "hey you didn't draw either, you weren't really an A player" doesn't make sense because his comments as such about Jericho, RVD etc. aren't meant to be seen as astute business analysis but stereotypical and wrongheaded corporate talk people had supposedly said about him and his boy Shawn. Of course that angle of things is a silly Trips ego stroke but hey.

If Bryan weren't portrayed as having the talent to back himself up Loss' criticisms would be spot on, but Bryan has beaten Cena and Orton clean and regularly fends off all members of the Shield at once. Bryan's the guy stepping up and telling them they're wrong, by showing it. I do agree they need to make that more explicit though and they've really taken every possible edge off of Bryan's character to the point where he seems like a cheerful, catchphrase spamming midcarder who happens to get the biggest reactions on the show. Given that I can kind of see how someone actually could buy Bryan as being "B+" as part of the actual narrative.

I don't know how "smarky" is appropriate but: Does he feel that the "restrictions" of WWE style have helped his ring work? Does he prefer working that style or the less restrictive but less focused indie style?

So is there any kind of final word on how much WWE scripts its promos nowadays compared to how they did it years ago? Because Bryan's reading off flashcards diction bugs the shit out of me.

Watched a number of great matches for this today and was too lazy to write anything up, but man Nagata/Murakami from 2002 is awesome. Great dramatic spectacle and Murakami is nuts in that match, punching the referee and licking Nagata's blood off his arm. Watch it people.

Tangentially related, I've had two friends who've lived next to Steve Corino for some time. One in 5th grade but one of my best friends recently, who is also a wrestling fan (though really only keeps up with thats going on nowadays as opposed to actively watching) and Corino used to take him and his brother to ROH shows free a lot. It's just weird that I've liked Corino since I watched him in ECW as a kid, have had two close friends live literally next to him for extended periods and yet I've never met him myself.

Anyway as to the broader question, I'm sure just about everyone here, most of us watching wrestling from all parts of the world and all time periods available, I don't need to have a "connection" to enjoy the hell out of a great match. But that doesn't mean great matches are analytical, emotionless affairs for me. I don't have any "personal" connection to El Satanico or Gran Chochisse but doesn't stop me getting excited as hell for their crazy submission reversal segments and surely "excitement" is an emotion. Same with a lot of great matches. When I was 15 years old and just got a tape of 6/9/95 and watched it for the first time I didn't have any personal or emotional involvement but it was a hell of an enthralling viewing experience and I was engrossed by the action to a far more "personal" extent than sitting back and saying "yes, very impressive selling of the leg;" "hm, rather unique spot with Kobashi trying to shield Misawa from damage, that is a point in the positive ledger;" etc.

I think I'm a lot more optimistic about the WWE product than you but still I definitely see what you're getting at. I remember in 2009 I wasn't much "involved" in any particular character or angle but watching the great matches that were happening on every week on just about every show was the most I've purely enjoyed WWE in a long time. Even though I like the overall WWE product right now they still manage to mangle to some degree enough stuff that I get peeved not too infrequently.

cole's job cant possibly be worth the money