Hollinger.

Looking at this card, it's a bit light because so much of the talent is working the main event. But it's also 2-3 matches longer than most Ring of Honor shows. The opening six man is nothing, just some local guys warming the crowd up. In the three way, you have Hollis & Posey who have worked a lot of southern ROH shows and are "names" for the area. Not sure what the story is with Samson getting the win and the match with Lethal. He's not really a name, but he's got some size and maybe they just wanted an excuse to get a look at him against Lethal later in the show. Kingdom tag match was likely a squash. Adams and Paco are both midwest guys who can be really fun, but they are both small and green, so I'm sure it was a jobber tv tag. Page is an established guy, and Ferrara is a trainee that has been elevated to a regular. Both are smaller, but both are good. Cheeseburger is popular, and was playing the tiny dude in the ring with three established hosses. Total comedy spot, and gives them someone to throw around. Castle and Romantic Touch are regulars, though neither are big names. I mean... I can see the complaint, but it's largely just part of going to a TV taping. A couple TV main events with name guys, and then feature matches against local guys/trainees/young guys.

FWIW, he's getting ready to film a movie in London, so they might be doing something to get him off of TV for a while.

The problem being that you can't just bring guys in for a 6 month run and then let them go elsewhere until you want to use them again. And they've never really figured out how to cool guys off and then elevate them again, beyond guys like Big Show or Kane whose size makes them instantly credible(ish) when they need it. If you want a hot heel, they need to be able to disappear. And ideally, you have a Bobby Heenan in place as the real main event heel, giving instant credibility to whoever he decides is getting the next run at the super baby champ.

Fair enough.

"Listen bitches, we like wrestling and talking about it but not with clueless fucks." and the facebook rant seemed like a poor way to handle it, but that's just me.

I love Thatcher. I don't see him as best in the world. The way he carries himself in the ring is excellent. Does the little things well. Great facials.

Who is running the Titans account and being a total embarrassment on Twitter?

I'm just amazed that fat fuck Gigolo Massaro, who I was watching in the 90s when Roland used to send a young boy free video tapes, is still working.

Absolutely. The ridiculous pageantry is the best part of Wrestlemania, to be honest.

Yeah, I think people underestimate how much of that persona is him taking the piss out of himself.

I'd be into that.

Sitting w/ Rob at BOLA was fun because we kept getting excited about the opposite people.

Heh... watched the show with half a dozen people and not one of us came away thinking it wasn't the Kingdom. There was a lot of drinking involved. Makes total sense, though. I could see the Chuck Taylor thing, with him not being booked at PWG and all of the public grousing about Trent getting signed ending his career. Maybe a Gentlemen's Club thing? I notice Johnny isn't booked next month either... Team FIST? Although I can't see Gargano bailing on Gabe. I do agree that Aries/MCMG is a pretty appealing option, and a big deal re: ROH history. Though WWN making a big deal out of the GenNext reunion for this weekend seems to point against that. It's much tougher to tell with the way the relationships between ROH/WWN/PWG have changed over the last couple months.

I have a theory that the Benoit matches really ended Angle's career (in terms of being good). Those matches were so crazy and awful and got such praise that he went even more and more into that style. Agreed. The reaction to the Rumble match ruined him as a worker.

And now apparently the battle royal. So it's basically just stretching the show to 5 hours.

Well, there is Axxess stuff being shown on the Network, but who knows what it will be. I'd imagine the NXT tournament matches will be shown to some degree.

at the PPV, it was obviously the Kingdom, and the announcers were making reference to it when they were hitting all of the Kingdom's signature spots

a 7 man ladder match will pretty much be exactly like the other MITB matches, with a belt instead of a briefcase. Seems pretty straightforward.

I can't believe Dalton Castle/Ashley Remington hasn't been signed yet. Dude has charisma out the ass, a good look, and two fun gimmicks. Perfect dude to develop for a midcard JTTS gimmick.

Yup. Put on quite a bit more weight since then, but he's been hanging around the Wisconsin/Chicago area forever. I thought it was odd when he popped up in the "Top Prospect" tournament. Good for him, though. Good hand and brings something different to the table for ROH.

Working for Harley back in the early 2000s, he was Dinn T. Moore. Good dude.

Knowing the wives of those involved, I can say without a doubt that is absolutely false.

If I were to tell you one of the last two entries mentioned Johnny Sorrow, and it WASN'T the guy calling himself "Wrestlerotica", would anyone believe me?

I haven't been particularly enthusiastic beyond "It's Wrestlemania" but even though most of the show was boring, being at RAW this week helped get me kind of pumped up. The Brock promo and Heyman/Reigns got me more into the main event than I had been, the six man was fun and that match should be entertaining, and the shit with Sting at the end was really exciting in person, with the crowd reaction making me think they might be able to pull this off.

I love what I've seen from Smash. $7.49 for unlimited access to all of their shows? Fantastic deal.