Robert S

I somehow managed to get through the first two matches, I am not sure if I can motivate myself to watch the rest. Something like 30 of that 50 minutes were video packages about how they revolutionized women's wrestling (albeit stating that they continue what was started by Mae Young / "Alundra Blayze" / Trish Stratus etc.). I mean I FF through that shit, but still. The wrestling itself is (so far) also not very good. Though kudos to Mickey James for her performance in the opener, she was working for three women at least (the less said about Lita the better).

My bet: they will stop plugging the event on US TV and the Network, but nothing else will change. Unless the plugging is part of the deal with the Saudis. In that case nothing will change at all. I mean it is not as if any sponsors have threatened to quit in the case that if they go forward with the event. The only way this gets cancelled is if somehow there would be a risk in losing money that is remotely in the ballpark as the Saudi deal. And the only such thing I can think of is the TV deal, and there is just no way that they will lose that over this event. Not to get too political, but it's just the same thing as the weapon's deal: moral highground stops as soon as it effects the bottom line. And this November to Dismember joke made me laugh far too much. I am a bad person...

Nicole Matthews' battle with her top was too funny. She had to adjust it after every move to ensure her boobs not popping out.

If Cole says "the monster among men" one more time something is going to fly through my TV.

He looks like a smaller, more roided JBL. Actually, muscular-wise he looks pretty small by Cena standards.

If you take away the fuck-finish this match was awesome.

As part of the British Commonwealth, isn't Queen Elizabeth II technically the head of the state (like she is of Canada)?

Why do they show the five minute pre-match recap video AFTER the entrances?

The event starts at 11 AM over here (mainland Europe), so depending on the weather, I might watch at least some parts live.

The whole thing looked a bit like the Nagai vs. Iizuka match from 2001 New Japan where Iizuka put his head down (or was knocked down) after some brutal knees which only ended getting an even more brutal knee directly into the face which completely rearranged Iizuka's face.

The Full Sail crowd is on the way to becoming the worst audience in pro wrestling. They have got me to the point where I have to mute them for portions of matches to not lose my mind. I could not come up with a worse thing than a "This is Awesome" vs. "Fight Forever" duelling chant if I had to.

Cool, Jimmy Rave got a WWE event named after him. Seriously, how do they plan to top (or even match) HBK's return to the ring for the next Saudi Arabian shows? Short of cloning the Ultimate Warrior or Yokozuna (who the Saudis requested for the first show) I can only think of insane stuff like Hogan, Flair or Bret Hart wrestle.

I suppose that was the idea, though still strange considering that at this point they already have been smashing each other with Kendo-sticks and ring-steps. On the other hand, yesterday evening I was watching a WCW Saturday Night show from 1992 and saw Foley putting his head through a wooden pallet that was lying on the floor and having problems standing up afterwards (he seemed to be knocked silly a bit), so maybe I should not try to understand what is going on in Foley's brain in 2018.

After this show I have one big question: What is "table's good, table's good" supposed to mean? (1) Foley should be veteran enough not to shout backstage instructions in front of the camera. (2) Even if he did screw this one up why did they not mute him (like Heyman was for the cursing later on)? (3) And if this was no backstage instruction what else did Foley want to say? Was he cheering Roman on? The red cell was fine, by the way, though next time they should not dye the mesh as well as this became a bit irritating as times.

Could somebody please tell Ziggler that the desperate-leap-tag is a face spot?

Wait, that was a real movie trailer? I was sure that this was a spoof.

Vince really did not like Clinton. In a December 93 Raw he claimed that Jack Tunney was a candidate for Secretary of Defense in the Clinton cabinet (I had to rewind to ensure that I did not mishear as that claim sounds so out there). Shawn Michaels, who was doing colour commentary on that show, called bullshit.

I thought the opener was worse than the second match. The second match at least was fine at the end while the opener had some awful looking stuff like Kelly's rope running (which looked like first day of wrestling school bad), her double jump for the hip toss and Purazzo forgetting to hook the leg for the Russian leg sweep.

Different companies (including WWE and UFC) have been talking about getting into those markets for more than a decade. At this point I would be shocked if could be done (especially in the case of the Chinese market; with the Indian market the problem might be less in getting in and over and more in making money out of it). But then again, 20 years ago I thought the online shop business model of of Amazon would never work out, so what do I know.

Really? I thought she looked green and sloppy, the worst wrestler of the whole night. On the other hand I thought here opponent looked pretty good.

Sid also has a very prominent chin.

I have not seen much of Bruce or Keith before this but Keith looked to be pretty decent (in an 80ies prelim way) while Bruce did not. Bruce looked like an indy guy trying to get as much spotlight as he can (in the end even refusing to leave the ring while he was not the legal man). Plus I doubt Shawn really liked that super-stiff clotheline. It's hard to believe that Vince wanted to initially go with Bruce for the Owen role in the Bret vs. Owen feud. That would have been a disaster of epic proportions.

The IRS stuff is on Raw #33 (September, 27th), about 30:45 minutes in, the Horowith interview is on the same Raw, immediately after the IRS interview (about 33 minutes in).

I have a couple of "threads" on the WWE network that I jump between back and forth: - 1994 ECW - 1982 Mid South - 1998 WCW (Nitro, Thunder and PPVs) - 1998 WWF Raw + PPVs - 1993 WWF Raw + PPV: This is currently my main "priority", to some degree due to nostalgia (I started watching wrestling 25 years ago in the summer of 93). As with all old stuff there is some hilarious stuff, either having some future more known people as jobbers, strange booking or production errors. Examples: * Mr. Perfect vs. Tony DeVito (of Baldies and Carnage Crew fame): DeVito at the beginning of the match runs to the back only for Mr. Perfect to drag him back to the ring. Also Hennig threw maybe his worst dropkick of his career in this match. * Tony DeVito teaming with PJ Walker (Justin Credible teamed with the Carnage Crew for a bit in 2003 ROH). * Diesel spelled "Deisel" in a true WCW moment. * Vince McMahon calling IRS three times "Mr. Rotundo" during an IRS interview (though at least ending the interview with "Thank you, Mr. Schyster."). * Barry Horowitz getting mic time to announce that the 1-2-3 Kid will replace Reno Riggins as his partner against the Quebecers. For current stuff I watch the network specials (I don't think you can still use the term pay-per-view) and sometimes NXT TV.

I have been doing Judo from the age of 8 to 13 and probably have taken 100s of "bumps" (mostly weaker once, but some hard enough that it took my breath away for a couple of seconds) in that time and never had any issues (and neither had anybody else I know) so I doubt that a single (gentle) bump will have any negative effect. Not having seen the bump that is referenced here, mind you.