Eduardo

It was pretty well known at the time that he wasn't happy and likely wouldn't be resigning. I was expecting Benoit to win at the time. Meltzer was also reporting from Feb. and March of that year that it would be a triple threat ladder match with Michaels and HHH in recognition of the 10th anniversary of the Michaels-Ramon ladder match. Obviously the ladder match didn't happen. I expected Benoit-Lesnar since Benoit's run to the Rumble started with him losing to Lesnar when he passed out from the Lesnar Lock. Difficult to remember honestly, I feel like it was around No Way Out, either a little before or little after when rumors and news came out about this. It's been 14 years but I remember Eddie being upset that their match got shortened last minute. Reason why the match feels a little rushed or different. Honestly don't remember the post-match so can't really comment on it.

Chris Hero vs WALTER and Hero vs Keith Lee. One of the best weekends I can ever remember. The Sunday morning AXXESS show is almost a mini-Mania with NXT, WWN, and Progress title matches.

I'm higher on Bret than most here, but yeah he's just not on Misawa's level. Even for some of Misawa's legit flaws at certain points in his career, his highs were so high. Some of the best offense I've ever seen along with being one of the greatest sellers of all time. Styles just another level above Michaels. I saw Styles at a couple of house shows recently and the amount of effort he was putting in his matches was so cool. The Daniel Bryan vs Chris Benoit match up is closer than these other two match ups. I'd rather watch Bryan, both for in-ring and real life reasons.

Duncan is subtle but he has such great body language and humor. Spurs broadcasts of games used to always show him trolling Sean Elliott, and his dry sense of humor during post-game interviews, especially when it comes with playing off Pop. During games, he was subtle but you could tell when he was excited, upset and when he was frustrated as hell, and yes the classic selling of a foul call. If Duncan is Misawa, Manu Ginobili is clearly Kenta Kobashi, Coach Pop is Giant Baba and Joey Crawford is Tirantes.

I call him the Tim Duncan of selling.

Same, I think Misawa might be the greatest seller I've ever seen. He feels like an elite level athlete grinding through a grueling contest.

Fascinating thread. shodate, curious to hear your thoughts on Black Terry?

Would there really be someone from the commission at 3 a.m. making sure Joey Janela and The Great Sasuke don't get too carried away?

Dave messed up this week posting Th_BodyElectric's name in the newsletter. That was pretty shitty of Dave. A few weeks ago, I was in a workshop with a nationally known investigative journalist. She's worked on a lot of different topics, but one thing we were talking about was about immigration. She told a story about how when she first started in the 1980s, while doing a story in El Paso, she printed the name of a person she interviewed who was an undocumented immigrant. A few weeks later, that person ended up being deported and she believes her interview and story was a factor in this happening. Still haunts her. So we were going over exercises over ways to communicate sensitive information and interviews without revealing a vulnerable person's name. Dave comes off so careless and thoughtless not putting any thought into any of this, and I'm sure he's not going to think twice at all about any valid criticisms he receives about this. I don't care much for Ryan Satin, but fuck, even Satin redacted her name. This is really such a shitty and potentially dangerous thing to do to a survivor.

I hope now that Jeff Jarrett vs Shawn Michaels at In Your House 2 officially becomes part of the WWE canon of great matches. Genuinely my favorite singles Michaels match.

Still astounded so many people thought the Asuka-Banks spot was a botch. Even mainstream websites reposted the video saying it was a botch, or asking what they were going for. It was so clear as day: Asuka simply countered Banks' tope with a kick. Anyways, that was a great spot in a great match.

After watching all the NWA On Demand footage on Jose Lothario, I think he legit has the best worked punches I've ever seen anyone throw. Really beautiful varied punching offense.

This. Along with the story about how they aren't going to be Adam for months upon months worth of work that he's done for Powerbomb.tv because of all this.

Booker was so great on several levels and I just can't understand anyone preferring Coach to Booker. Booker really stood out to me, and his enthusiasm was infectious. The dynamic also brought out more personality out of Michael Cole and Corey Graves, and made all three of them really shine together.

I've been praising Booker T on Twitter for months too. Politely engaged with Loss on Twitter too to try to convince him of the greatness of Booker T. Hardly anything sudden for me, I've been praising and enjoying Booker since at least September. Random Tweets that came up of me tweeting about Booker (ignore the Astros tweet ha):

Agreed with goc and CapitalTTruth. Coach sounds so lost and empty out there. Like some dude just reciting lines for a video game. I don't know why, but Coach has worked in WWE and ESPN and through all his work it just sounds like he just honestly doesn't give a shit about the stuff he's talking about. Booker T made RAW so much more interesting. The whole Jason Jordan stuff worked because it was both funny and insightful. I know there were a lot of jokes about Booker just hating on Jordan, and that was true at times, but he was also bringing up good points about not only nepotisim but about the building of a prospect in a combat sports setting. When you have a boxer with a lot of potential and appeal coming up the ranks, you just don't throw him out there against somone that would derail their career. Booker was also so good about understanding sports and how that could be used to talk about pro wrestling. Corey Graves and Mauro Renallo try to do it but they come off sounding like an F4W poster. Booker understands sports on a deeper level and you can tell he actually talks about sports on a daily basis, and not just about UFC. I know Booker got a lot of criticism for his TLC performance, and that's valid, but if that's Booker at his worst, he's still a hundred times better than Coach. RAW was still pretty fucking great this week, but seriously missed Booker a lot. He would have had so much to say about a lot of things - some funny, some silly, but some insightful points as well - that went down this week. Also pretty sure this is a work.

Asuka's awesome, and already had some fun squash matches against enhancement talent since she's been on the roster too. Totally believe that Asuka shouldn't lose in 2018, they are building up something special with Asuka and have been doing a good job of presenting her as someone special. Too soon for Asuka to lose on the main roster at this point, she's only been on national TV for a few months at this point. Most people seeing RAW haven't seen her run in NXT. Asuka vs Sasha Banks last week was great, but was still presented in a way where they will meet again down the line, and it'll be bigger and even better. Then looking further ahead we got eventual showdowns with Charlotte and Ronda Rousey, rematches with Ember Moon (crowd went wild when they had a showdown at the Rumble) and Bayley, and eventually Kairi Sane, Shayna Baszler, and Bianca Belair. Dedicating a year to Asuka being undefeated on the main roster shouldn't be difficult to book, and the moment she loses (hopefully at a WrestleMania or SummerSlam) should be an all-time great moment in WWE history.

In Robstown? So sad I missed this tonight, had some scheduling conflicts and was really hoping I could make it.

Yeah most love Rey, but there's a certain group in some 'smart' fan circles that is very anti-Rey, and I'm never seen anything more wrong in my life. Their issues with Rey usually come from the 619, connection with younger demographic, his height, 'not being realistic', his injuries, the way he's been booked, and all sorts of bullshit. They refuse to acknowledge not only Rey's all-time great in-ring work, but his impressive drawing ability. I remember being so annoyed at the post-WM30 RAW crowd booing Rey badly that night. In my experience, so many casual fans I know seem to love Rey and think of him as a legend, it just seems to be a weird part of some niche internet circles that are anti-Rey.

Coach was so bad, like usually I can just ignore bad commenting but he was brutal. Totally miss Booker.

Just found this Thanks! Never done the whole WrestleMania weekend before but really hoping to go this year. Especially excited about Joey Janela vs The Great Sasuke.

Any word yet on who will be appearing at the Shimmer 100 show on April 7? Debating between that and the CZW show, if I do end up making the trip.

Almost all the people in my circles, from the ages of early 20s to early 30s, know who Ronda Rousey is, more so than even Conor McGregor. And most of the people in my circle don't even care for sports. The only time any of my women and gender non conforming friends had any get-together over a combat sport was during Ronda Rousey's fights. Some of the popularity and charm has been lost over time, for several reasons, but she's still very popular, and this felt like a major deal.

Yeah the main event, from the beginning with Almas coming out with the mariachi band to the end with Gargano being attacked, was as great of a presention of professional wrestling I've ever seen in my entire life. The match might be the best WWE match I've ever seen, with drama and moments as good as any I've seen from Houston and Memphis wrestling during the 1970s and 1980s. Just master-level performances from both Gargano and Almas.

I wore a Manami Toyota shirt yesterday to a pro-choice rally in South Texas. Everyone kept complimenting it, for two hours, asking where they could get it, etc. Was so confused at how beloved Toyota appeared to be. Then realized that the reason everyone kept praising it and wanting photos of it was because they thought it was Selena.