soup23

Kevin Kelly is filling in for commentary this week. Road Dogg interrupts King and they have a back and forth including some Who Wants to be a Millionaire jokes. After they get separated, Road Dogg is kind enough to go through his pre match routine. If he does that, who is the fucking heel here? Nothing much happens in the match before Pain and Morton interfere and then Dogg and Lawler team up to clean house of them. *1/2

Oh man am I hyped for this one. Jade almost trips on the way to the ring. Tarzan Boy has lips all over him. Satanico has some brutal strikes, front suplexes and a unique pin to win the first fall. Olimpico and Bucanero go nuts at each other into the seats in front of people and with trash and drinks flying all around them. The Arena Mexico crowd wants nothing to do with TB which I thought could happen. He gets Satanico in the pendulum submission to take the second fall. TB misses a huge moonsault at the beginning of the third fall. Satanico does great escaping from the submission and then hits a fat ass senton on the outside. He is so proud of himself. This does him in as he is gloating like crazy allowing TB to get a big victory roll and win the match to a huge pop this time. I loved that finish. Not an absolute classic but a ton to like in this match and after all the shit TB has been through, the finish felt deserving. Satanico afterwards looks a little embarrassed but doesn’t attack TB taking the high road. Satanico takes his hair cut like a man. ****

Wagner gets in the face of Perro Aguayo at ringside. This was his first appearance in CMLL since the AAA split. Wagner also hits a clever foul right as the ref was looking away. Atlantis really is a superb tecnico as he takes it to Wagner envoking a lot of hate even though he is entrenched in the big feud with Villano. Really fun finish to the first fall with Wagner and scorpio all tangled up in a crab together. Atlantis gets La Atlantida and wins the second fall. Out comes Villano III and the fight is on. Villano III is ripping at the match and Bestia goes after Perro! Villano takes the match off and parades around with it. Huge chants of Perro rain down from the Arena Mexico crowd. Here he comes as a house of fire as the Arena Mexico crowd erupts. Him and Bestia have a great exchange. Atlantis gets his mask back on and goes nuts on Villano on the ramp. Now he rips his mask! The showdown between Perro and Wagner is intense in the ring. The rudos retreat but Wagner and Perro aren’t done as Perro gets his suit ripped. A kid hugs Perro as the faces celebrate. Oh shit here comes the rudo reserves and they beat the shit out of Perro on the ramp and in the ring. We cut to kids in the crowd looking like they are about to cry. Here comes the tecnicos to rush them out and another brawl breaks out. Perro has color. I have no idea how to rank it because its not really about the match but holy shit what a segment this was. ****1/4

Corporal Robinson is Extreme is the first sign you see as Dreamer comes out. ECW is in Milwaukee for the first time. Dreamer is asking for Raven. I find it hilarious that he says lets forget the soap opera bullshit and out comes Francine for soap opera bullshit. She talks and the crowd only chants about her puppies. Impact Players interrupt and challenge Dreamer to a tag title match right here right now. I liked Dawn Marie telling Tommy to put on Francines skirt. Raven comes out in his street clothes and looking huge. Typical garbage brawl results but it has a ton of heat. Dreamer gets a row of chairs and Raven and Dreamer do stereo drop toe holds. Dreamer hits the Holy Driver through a table. CATFIGHT!!!! James Mitchell shows up and gives Raven powder. Raven throws it for Storm but he ducks and Dreamer gets hit with it. A blinded Dreamed DDT’s Francine. Raven carries Francine out leaving Dreamer on his own. Spike That’s Incredible onto the chair allows the Impact Players to get the win. Some convoluted stuff and it does feel like were trying to reach back to the glory days of 1995 and they aren’t coming but much like what is happening in parts of WCW, the energy is still there from the crowd and I do enjoy how much of a local babyface Dreamer can become. ***1/2

This was a big ol slice and dice brawl. Chairs, barbed wire, tables, cinder blocks you name it. This again is a guilty pleasure type match for me so I enjoyed it but I can see how some wouldn’t. A weird moment happens in the beginning when Lover and Strange turns on their partner. The lights flicker after the match and I have no idea who comes out there in a pair of underwear. Homicide smacks him with a chair shot right away. This show really put over this unit as a juggernaut. **3/4

Montoya has a big promo pre match and Homicide takes offense to that and has some words to say. It is said that after all these years, I still recognize Hansen as the referee. Montoya is shooting. The crowd chants for Low Ki even before he comes out and he has no boots on tonight. After clamoring to the fans, the match starts proper. Ki gets in a nasty tight choke right away and takes Montoya down. Montoya reverses that into a great armbar and I love how you are really seeing the escapes and strategies play out here. Ki goes after the leg which is a sound strategy on the big man. Montoya really lays in in with some cross forearms and a nasty crossface. Homicide calls for Ki to dump him on his head. The German that Don delivers looks especially brutal. Ki has Don choked out with the bullshit finish happens. Hansen gets pulled to the outside. Someone hits Ki with a chair and Ki is knocked out for the 10 count. A really gritty match. Afterwards, Da Hit Squad informs us it was Mark Reil so Ki retreats to the locker room and beats the shit out of this kid in the ring. This whole unit looks like something not be fucked with. ***3/4

The Haas brothers look huge in there. They are doing a quasi-Briscoe Brothers gimmick with rebel flag bandannas and all. I also had an eureka moment with Dixie seconding them and his name makes sense a lot more now being a part of this group. The match went on WAY too long but had some highlights. At one point, another team interferes and takes out Big Unit. Da Hit Squad are polished here with their brutal offense and overall reckless nature. Johnny D turns on the Haas Bros at the finish and aligns with Da Hit Squad where they win the JAPW tag straps. ***

A guilty pleasure. Hido as Willie Takyama makes no sense to me but the match itself was a fun and featured some brawling and stiff shot with him using the boxing gloves. Ending was unique in that Takayama was going through a flurry when Kuroda is able to hit two lariats and get the knockout. I don’t know if this was any good, but I do know this was memorable. ***1/2

Really good promo by Show as he has the evidence that Rock’s feet touched first at the Royal Rumble. I like heels that have a legit reason for their actions and this is about as concrete as you can get. Angle comes out to a ton of heat. He sides with Show. Jericho interrupts them and now is a full fledged babyface with chyna by his side. Rock decides to join us and became Jericho’s partner and we have a really cool and fresh looking tag match for tonight. Match isn’t much but quick action all around and sets up the PPV well. Everyone of these four men look like they could have an engaging feud with each other. Finish is especially well done with Show throwing Rock through a window with HHH and Steph giving him a thumbs up before loading the DX Express. Cactus is in a small cage being dragged behind the bus. The NO Way Out analogies are put over again. **1/2

X-Pac interrupting the worm gets him major heat. This is the DX pairing I like the best as Gunn to me has been the worst of all of the NAO tags. We don’t get Road Dogg’s entrance babyface pandering either which is a bonus. Rikishi is still over as hell even with an injured wheel. Really good action to set up the heat with HHH clipping Rikishi and him being the FIP. I liked that Scotty gets the revenge by doing the worm on X-Pac. HHH is able to get a chairshot on Rikishi’s leg further injuring it. Sexay has his goggle legdrop but X-Pac is able to move Road Dogg out of the way and steal a win with an X-Factor. The legal man went out the window here but as a match this was excellent and still made Rikishi look like a big threat. ***

Flair has Hogan’s belt and runs down Reno. The fans chant for Hogan like he is there. LOL. I looked it up and he did work 4 Thunders in 2000 which is honestly more than I would have thought. Flair presents an open challenge to anyone from the back. Vampiro answers the challenge and they present it as the biggest match in Vampiro’s career. The match itself is really good. I got the type of vibe as the 1996 Eddy vs. Flair matches where they have a different type of chemistry with each other. Flair does good to pepper Vamp’s leg throughout the match. Vamp goes to the top but here comes the Total Package to throw him off and a figure four gets the win for Flair. Actually enjoy that heel stable more than I probably should. **3/4

Good to see lucha back. Panther is such a prick and digs into the eyes of Mendoza. Each fall was again short but this seemed to be building to a Black Warrior and Casas feud which I am all for. The camera keeps panning to a woman in the crowd that looks about as disinterested as you possibly can. ***

A wonderful match full of drama, callbacks and execution that had a high barometer to reach. Only the Styles Clash off the Cena dive from the top didn't deliver and they covered up for that really quickly. The other stuff like the Cena hulk up and the figure four were ingenious moves that will really allow a match like this full of big time moves to still have memorable little moments that you can call back to when the match is brought up. My MOTY so far. ****3/4

I thought Charlotte once again looked like a great heel that is dominant in her character and abilities even though the matches over reach and have some botches. The finish here really was excellent as the sudden type finish that is presented like a true KO to the match and still leaves Bayley looking relatively strong. ***1/2

Im pretty high on this match overall. Nakamura's selling has been spotty at best in his NXT so while this was over the top selling, it was by far the most consistent he has been. Roode did a good job capitalizing on any mistakes and showed a desperation throughout. The ending that was full of WWE Tropes like the near stoppage worked for me in this regard based on the fact that you had some subtle things like Nakamura's knee being visible and the way it was really cranked on. Overall, a very strong professional wrestling match that showed me Roode is more than a snazzy theme song. ****1/4

Unless almost every Rumble is all filler, this seems like an odd claim to make for this year. Look at last years field with Breeze, Axel, R-Truth all scattered in the first 12 entrants. A quick look at last year and I can only surmise that Reigns, AJ, Braun, KO, Ambrose, Brock, Sheamus, HHH had a chance of winning. Braun is really stretching it because it was for the title. I would put someone like Zayn on par with Braun and Sheamus of that 2016 grouping for this years odds and you had guys like Bruan and Jericho in the match this year that had a better chance of winning than last year. This year, paths to victory could be seen for Braun, Zayn, Jericho, Ambrose, Bray, Orton, Taker, Goldberg, Reigns and that isn't including other ancillary guys like Dolph and Miz that honestly had as much chance of winning as someone like 2014 Punk. The lack of surprises I think is an expectation issue. We didn't get an AJ in 2016 or Cena in 2008 moment but of the big surprises that were legit threats to win the entire match, those are the only two I can think of. Seems like Joe coming out there to just be tossed by Taker or Orton isn't really productive to him for his debut. Sure a legend could have went in there instead of Apollo Crews but that isn't something I am losing sleep over because Tatanka didn't enter the Rumble. The eventual winner being Orton I don't think can be downplayed as a surprise if Meltzer hadn't reported it. While it may not be the most appeasing destination towards Mania for me, it did make sense for them to get there using Orton to win here. In retrospect it feels easy to levy a Rumble as not having enough surrpises and having dead moments. I think with time this one will be looked back at more fondly for being well booked throughout. The rest of the show I thought was great. I understand if modern WWE isn't your style, it can be a turn off but the KO/Reigns and AJ vs. Cena matches were the best iterations of WWE plunder brawl and Big Match Epics that they can bust out at this point. Slap on two other good matches in the womens match and the Cruiserweight one and this was one of the better Rumble shows overall for me. Just comparing to my #1 Royal Rumble in 2007, I have AJ vs. Cena and 2017 Rumble below 2007 Rumble and Cena vs. Umaga but I think KO vs. Reigns is as good of a match as the Hardys vs. MNM tag and the rest of the undercard in 2017 is better than Kennedy vs. Batista (which I do like) and Test vs. Lashley (ugh) in 2007.

I had a lot of fun listening to this show. There have been some really fantastic faces in history as someone like Kobashi would probably be on my list and wasn't mentioned here. I really liked the discussion on the tecnicos and whether they are the most "pure" babyfaces or not.

BJPW does a good job differentiating their death matches. This felt like a different style of match from the one previous. This has more of the boards and props but also has some semblance of a story throughout. The ladder shots that were used were well done minus a botch from Honma trying to run up one. Honma hits a gnarly blade job and the match culminates in a big dive from the ladder that wins a hard earned victory for Honma. This match shows that Abdullah could hang early on in his career. ***1/2

Nostalgia is running wild. Hogan is still really getting a good reaction here and I do like that he isn't even faking being a total babyface by using his cast at will. Flair and Luger is also being used as a nostalgia act but again they are bringing up their past which is about all I can ask for. I liked the action here better than the PPV match and thought this was actually a perfectly decent match. The finish with the heels winning isn't spectacular but I will take it over the NWO nonsense. **3/4

Opening promo sets up tonight, nothing really earth shattering here. The match itself I thought was a ton of fun and only a smidge behind the 2/7/00 tag. X-Pac was bumping everywhere and everyone else was working hard. For a feud that feels like a clear stop gap to get to Mania, Rock and Big Show does have a lot of juice behind it in the lead up to No Way Out and they have a good brawl on the entranceway in the waning moments of this one. HHH is able to sneak out the pin on Cactus but we get a great visually representation of how on Sunday he has NO WAY OUT by him and Steph retreating to the DX Express and Cactus ramming part of the Raw rig through the windshield. Super go home visual. ***3/4

This was the first Raw I ever went to. I find it amazing how honestly between all of the shows I went to, the WWF tv tapings are the ones I remember the least. The NAO as heels do their spiel which is annoying but at least we get a bit of something interesting where Billy attacks Christian with a microphone. NAO really stuck out here with all of this talent how far behind they are. Hardy is bumping like a loon and takes out a cameraman which Kevin Dunn immediately puts up as a replay. A kind of weird finish with the Dudleys and NAO imploding. E&C and the Hardys also have some words over who got the pinfall. Hebner was not very good at conveying the finish. This was used as more of a vehicle to advance things. **1/4

Where exactly is Slapnuts country? A lot of drama as to who was behind a door. I did have a quick look at the rest of this card and it looks absolutely putrid so even though this main event stuff isn’t that exciting, I guess in retrospect it looks that way. Hall and Jarrett battle each other before Sid even comes out. Buffer is thrown for a loop and has to consult his notes. Sid gets outsmarted by Hall as soon as he enters because of course he does. The match is an absolute mess with Jarrett decking referees until Mark Johnson comes out. Remember last month when we had a classic main event up until the finish? Heat is non existent when Johnson refuses to count Hall’s pinfall. Guitar gets smashed over Hall’s head. All of a sudden, Roddy Piper shows up in a referee shirt and a huge arm injury from the looks of it. Piper pokes Jarrett in the eyes. Sis chokeslams Jarrett and powerbombs Hall for the win. Tony quickly gets us off the air as time was running short. This was complete shit. *

A really weird Hogan promo talking about snapping Liz’s body around. He said he will go to Hollywood and back to defeat Luger. I guess Hulk didn’t get the memo that he can only be called the Total Package now. Match was alright but nothing spectacular. Hogan does live up to his promise of using some underhanded techniques including his cast. Liz and Jimmy Hart both get involved. Hogan wins to no surprise. After the match, Flair attacks and they beat up Hogan until Sting comes out and clears house with a baseball bat. I think this may have been the first time we have seen Sting since Mayhem. Crowd pops for Sting. Madden won’t shut up. **1/4

I couldn't help but be shocked that it was only ten years since their last major feud when they had this match. Yet, it felt like a lifetime ago. If CM Punk vs. Chris Hero had a match next month 15 years after their marquee match, it wouldn't feel as long or dated. Still, they do a good effort here to try to salvage something within the match. They work the Texas Death Match stip well and none of the pinfalls felt too cheap. The piledriver through the table especially looked brutal. It wasn't the ***** classic they had a decade earlier, but on an awful looking show, it was damn good enough. ***1/4

It is a commitment but I would say it is worth the investment if you are following CWF-MA going forward as so much of the current storyline really originated in that match.