Matt D

It vaguely reminds me of Hunter's long heel reigns?

Hey, that finish sucked.

Jinder works his dangling jawhold better than 2017 Owens works anything at least. Am I going to get flack for calling his elbow to the skull the Yoga Noogie?

Merry and Pippin have to be happy that Treebeard is wrestling Nakamura and not Orton again, right?

Diminishing returns on this entrance.

The Shane stuff was predictable but not completely terrible. At least it made sense. I half figure we need to give them credit for that in this day and age. We knew the match was a means to an end coming in. At least I assume you guys did. I'm like Will on a Takeover post-show here. No idea how we got here.

Everyone copies each other's spots but Styles can't lock and load before his forearm?

I really did like that two minutes of Bliss/Banks armwork.

Owens and Bray both do the fat boy senton too. At least they're theoretically on different shows.

Those kids were sure excited that their dad was special ref.

How can they have Finn and Rollins both do the sling blade thing in consecutive matches.

I wish we could combine Sasha's bumping with Ambrose's ability to contort himself while selling.

I don't remember Rollins and Ambrose actually being fun together. I mean, I know they were, but I don't remember any details. Their babyface tandem stuff has been fun here though. Dorky, but fun.

Pretty good way to get Finn over, honestly. That he can do stuff as the demon that he can't normally do, especially if they play up that there's a cost to it or something.

I actually give Finn credit for wrestling somewhat different in the paint for once. He usually doesn't at all. Some agent got into his head.

They get what they deserve.

Oh come on. I miss 5 matches and none of them are Finn vs Bray? Yeah, I'm putting Defenders on. Someone tell me if there's some cool ring graphics. They spent way too much developing that to only do it once. Maybe it can be a montage of him planking (or whatever the hell it is he does with that pose) in front of national monuments to send fear into the hearts of all.

Does this skit mean we don't need to watch Dolph wrestle at least?

I like how they cut to the person in the crowd who looks like Sasha before she turns into JEM.

I don't know. This arm stuff is pretty fun. I can vouch for those two minutes.

I'm 25 minutes late,but I'm here now, right? I missed what, one match? I just turned it on to see Alexa Bliss' eyelashes falling off. I feel like they should be a color coded tag team. Oof, Sasha wiping out always make me feel dirty, like I'm watching Faces of Death 6 or something.

I'll have to catch up later, but isn't that basically almost every wrestler ever.

I've decided that we'll accept his late GWE ballot if he submits it.

1. The perception of what makes a five star match to him is more important than the truth. 2. While the WON is an institution, the secondary conduits are almost more important. The identity of being a smark around the turn of the century, and the way dirtsheet readers gave way to the "IWC" which gave way to the current social media majority. 3. I always liked the religious idea that a deity is shaped by the beliefs of his worshippers even as much as he shapes those beliefs. I agree that there are plenty of unintended consequences in all of this, including, perhaps, a bottom-up reduction in Dave's tastes.

Considering his history and taste over the years, it makes perfect sense. Flair > Michaels > Angle > Omega. You can see the morphing of old NWA style turing into a go-go-go style matches (Flair) to the same classic US stuff with way more athletic spots (Micheals) to an even more go-go-go style with lots of finisher kick-outs and reversals "like in Japan" (Angle) to the mutation of the style through the latest Japanese stuff influenced back by the US indies mentality (Omega). (and that's not to say I mean Flair is like the other three, although my feelings about Flair as a worker are pretty clear by this point, great but overrated too; in that respect, I can see the "flow of taste" from Meltz making sense to me although I obviously strongly disagree. I'd rather watch Bockwinkle, Bret, Joe or Naito) This is sort of it. It makes sense. It's an actualization of Meltzerism in wrestling to a big degree. It's fans of fans of wrestlers wrestling now. It's a processing of wrestling to maximize what he values and minimize what he doesn't. I won't fall into the argumentative trap that people in wrestling never wanted to have good matches, but I don't think we've ever been at a point where people want to have matches that would specifically earn them five stars from a single source. It makes sense that people seeking to do that would manage to do it more than anyone before them. The issue is if a watcher happens to think that Dave's criteria are backwards and clownish.