Death From Above

Hunter will get the smallest pop by far. You know, just like tonight. And most every other night.

I seriously don't see how they can put Reigns over after this build. It almost looks to me like they are going to work a schmozz at the 3-way and have a 4-way at Wrestlemania.

I legit enjoyed the Miz/Jericho segment call me crazy. Watching posers feud over who is the bigger poser is, apparently, what I want to see.

I'm stunned the crowd is actually behaving themselves so far.

My response to that is why should WWE pass on popping a rating for Bryan's "last" (haha) appearance? Real sports do this constantly TUNE IN TO SEE PLAYER X'S LAST GAME. No reason wrestling should work any differently on this. Down the road I could see Bryan being a good face Authority Figure. I also see him being a guy that could take the Shawn Michaels once-a-year-or-so guest referee spot.

I take it at face value because Bryan's twitter hasn't been very wrestle-y in quite a while. A lot of shots of home life, VEGETABLES, stuff like that. A real shame but you have to do what's best for your health.

Literally moments ago through twitter. https://twitter.com/WWEDanielBryan/status/696757295879819264 Sad news but obviously you have to take care of your health first.

The Wrestlemania match is incredible. I'll also say the line "If you put a 'S' in front of Hitman, you have my exact opinion of Bret Hart!" is one of my favourite wrestling one-liners ever.

The thing that makes all great villains hate-able is that beyond having the right attitude they have to have done something you actually hate. And honestly, without getting into stuff like war criminals, jacking the price of life saving drugs is pretty goddamn hard to top on the scum scale. He is everything the movie Wall Street warned us about brought to life. He also does have a very punchable face.

It was literally the only reason I posted (sorry Johnny).

Why do some people persist with this utterly ridiculous lie?

In a business filled with ridiculous over-acting, he may be the worst over-actor of all time.

Although I take anything I have ever heard Michaels say with an entire shaker of salt, when he did do a shoot years ago he didn't exactly paint Jannetty as the world's smartest man.

WWE throws fits over a few guys in costume in the crowd trying to get over, yet still doesn't hold public executions for people starting WHAT chants. I do not understand this policy.

That Miz segment is going to hit the whole love it or hate it range.

Weird the WWE would call out Lillian on the Grammy flub, though it was funny.

The great contrast with Stephanie to me, is that when they actually do promos where people talk like normal people, she's one of the best in the company. It's such a different vibe than her Evil Witch stuff (which doesn't annoy me as much as some, but I get it).

An opening segment with neither the authority or Roman Reigns? Am I watching the right show?

Hard to hear. Hopefully the Hitman puts cancer in the Sharpshooter.

Quality of his work put totally aside (as I wasn't watching regularly during his run), I do find it amazing just what an impact he had on casual fans, to the point that quite a few of them I know legitimately believe (or at least want to believe) that he's going to be really successful in the UFC. He's legitimately convinced a lot of people that he is something special.

If they weren't so heavy on injuries I could see it, but aren't they sort of in a corner now? Who else that is healthy could have been built up to Wrestlemania beyond maybe Ambrose (who doesn't really have the look they want)? I'm sure they could do it with Bray Wyatt but I think it's clear the reactions to that would be mixed. Part of the problem is they've got into a very WCW-ish habit where the heels are great at teaming up and helping each other but the faces tend to operate as loners so there's only one or two of them with a focus at a time. That's only compounded with Cena and Bryan out.

I'm watching this on TLN in Canada right now (tonight's the debut of the run). I'm not even clear if this is from the start or the new season though. I'm coming in completely cold. EDIT: It sounds like it's season 1 we're getting, well it's still new to me dammit.

The thing I find weird about the "programmed style" (whether real or perceived) is how noticeable it is that the women's matches use a lot of joint locks that the men's matches simply never do.

WWE is clearly putting a lot of resources into developing non-wrestling content now for the Network, more than ever before. Maybe not in sheer dollars (I can't imagine stuff like Edge and Christian's show and Round Table will ever add up to costing what the XFL did), but in terms of focus and manpower, they've never had more going on. It's a very different kind of company now than it even was 5 years ago in that sense, they've got to have a ton going on with production staff.

I used to use Word to keep notes on matches I planned to talk about online (either DVD sets or long Japanese matches) but I have not done so in some time and I've felt no real motivation to go that far since coming back to WWE. It was mostly a tool I used to keep from forgetting "hey, this cool thing happened" or "this one moment that annoyed me" than anything. Considering how much I edit my posts these days maybe I should have kept it up, lol