Matt D

A really good, taunting promo from Dunne could fix that.

You really want to watch SummerSlam now after that already overlong Rusev vs Reigns match on TV, don't you ? And to get that cool Demon entrance that you only get to see on majo… ok nevermind. SummerSlam doesn't look appealing one bit to me. Is there a NXT show the same week-end like last year (which was great) ? Yes: Nakamura vs Samoa Joe © Asuka © vs Bayley II Revival vs Gargano/Ciampa Aries vs No Way Jose (you'd find him amusing in short doses) Almas (Sombra) vs Roode Debut of Ember Moon(Athena)?

The argument would be that it was due to the Monday Night War and that we've only seen a return to jobber matches (in very specific situations) over the last couple of years, and really, save for Ryback, just in the last month.

I feel that NXT works, as a territory, on a week to week basis despite all of that and for the most part, despite its fans. I think you're undervaluing structural issues, whether they be twitter, the rise of MMA and sports-driven casuals going that way, or the sheer amount of TV that WWE has to produce now without filler.

Nothing quite highlights the problem with 3 Hour Raws than hotshotting the Demon's debut and Roman vs Rusev two weeks before Summerslam, even in a world where these guys don't have to be on Smackdown.

Three years later and it feels like we're in a different world. Three Hour Raw, Smackdown as its own brand, NXT, CWC, The C shows (does anyone even watch them at this point?) A TNA with stuff that has surprising buzz for good reasons or bad. Two seasons of Lucha Underground with a third starting soon. THREE CMLL shows streamed live a week. An hour of Elite each week. AAA TV A whole NJPW streaming service with a lot of shows live, plus whatever US TV they have. ROH TV and whatever big shows THEY have. Fairly easy access to Mexican indies and to PR TV And what feels like a thousand indies (some of them like PWG or Evolve or Beyond whatever shooting out matches that people are giving 4* + to on an almost weekly basis). That goes without all of the WWF house shows popping up at once or the full TV shows from territories or NWAOnDemand which has ~3-4 matches a week (some of them lost classics) or Stardom and other Japanese Indies (or non Indies like AJPW) not on my radar. And we've got two DVDVR 80s sets in play. Two. Plus the 00s work being done. There's so much instantly available at our fingertips. You can't realistically follow wrestling in 2016 if you have a family and a job. Not in a way to really keep up with the conversation. I tried for a month or so last year to really watch as much of the matches with Catch Point as I could, to catch up with it and keep up with it, and while I enjoyed a lot of it, especially their matches with Chris Hero, it was just too much. If you had given me plane tickets, a hotel room, and show tickets to the SCI a few weeks ago, I would have turned them down. I didn't even want to hear about it. Something that takes up that much real estate and time investment just doesn't fit into the level of adulting I have to do combined with the bit of wrestling (likely relatively small compared to a lot of people here, but still substantial) that I am currently invested in. If I try to take on any more, it all becomes indistinguishable noise.

I love seeing Marty go through classics for the first time. Just dropping that here, especially since he's a young punk.

CMLL. Mask. Stilts.

Good post from overbooked. I think that one element related to this is the fans' ages. When you're young and on the internet and caught up in the moment and discovering the freedom that comes with having the veil lifted and the inner working of the business and tapping into the Meltzerian culture of workrate it leads to a too cool for school attitude where you become part of something fresh by rebelling against the establishment (even if, numerically, you ARE the establishment online). Wrestling is a bs carny business where athleticism is not necessarily the most important thing and there are plenty of territories where a guy like Bulldog Bob Brown or Verne or whoever used power and politics to keep himself on top. That led to a certain ease of resentment which isn't necessarily based on facts, and, a counter-reaction of circling the wagons whenever something new does come around.

Jerry Flynn would solve all of your problems.

OVW has a ridiculously fun roster.

I'm good. Everyone drop what you're doing and watch Hayes vs Doc - Cage Match that just went up. Holy shit, was that great.

Drew a house? Got both guys a payday? Got a little guy to look strong against a monster and former world champion even in losing? Showed that he's willing to do business despite his big mouth?

This couldn't really have lived up to my expectations for it. I'm really glad we have it though. Great novelty. It just didn't really know what it wanted to be. Obviously, Tatum had huge reason to go after Gilbert, but they seemed to be transitioning forward so there wasn't going to be real payoff here. While Tatum portrayed a wronged man with a just cause, he was still John Tatum with his stooging, bumping, and over the top facial expressions. They work so well as a heel positioned as a heel, but this was far more nebulous. Some of the best stuff here was when they were trying to out heel one another. The rest of the best stuff was the punching at the end which was really heated. There was just too much in the way of armbars for a match like this, and really, even though he worked well from underneath and was full of fury (for the most part) when on top, the crowd just never got behind Tatum and that hurt the match. Still really glad we have it though. The post match was, indeed, awesome.

Jesse, I'm not part of the project and will continue not to be, but I will also be thoroughly disappointed if you go in any direction other than this: Scene: A palatial poolside in lush, wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut. Vince McMahon sits with his inner circle, including Howard Finklel,and the newly signed Steve Austin. Finkel is the only one of the group in soggy clothes, for he had been tossed into the pool twice by McMahon. Vince has food in front of him, the others do not. There is a spattering of pictures on the table. Vince: So Steve, welcome. Steve Austin, huh? Steve Williams. It says here your real name is Steve Williams. Did you know that? I wonder if Steve Williams' real name is Steve Austin. Ha. Ha. We tried to sign him once or twice. Keeps getting caught in airports. They do it to themselves, you know. It costs us all money when they do. Well, what can you do? So you're a Hollywood Blonde, huh? A Hollywood Blonde. Sort of an old time character, don't you think? Something from the 1960s. It's not what we do here. We're in the entertainment business. Plus there's the.. well, you know, the hair issue. Austin: I've got to admit that the gimmick worked pretty well until the god damn hair started to go. It's all I've ever been though. Vince: It happens to the best of us. Well, not the best of us. Ha Ha. Let's look at some new characters that we have in development. Ah, look at this. A plumber. No, you don't want that? That's understandable. Ah, this one's good, but not for you. You know Ron Simmons, right? Good talent. Do you think he'd like the name Flash Funk? What about this? The Ring Master? Master of the Ring. Our trademark people say no one's ever used it. The hair's a problem, but could you do this with your tongue? Austin: That's good, Vince, but what's this one down here? Vince: The Ring M... ah? That's a new one that our team drew up. Had something similar with Keirn years ago. He was from Florida, you see. Skinner. Gator hunter. Was supposed to hunt Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, but Steamboat didn't want to make money. Again. Probably his wife's fault. Ha ha. It's the Stalker. Hunts the most dangerous game. I'm not sure what a Hollywood Blonde would know about hunting though. Austin: There's nothing like it, going out by that treeline, and sitting there for hours, waiting, watching, feeling at peace with the world. Hell, it's not even about killing the god damn deer, Vince. It's about the peace of it all. It's about making a pact with nature. The blood, well, that's just the god damn price nature asks for. It's got to be paid. There ain't no way around it. It's just got to be done. Vince: Well, that's a surprise. I think we're onto something here. Now talk about your opponent. Austin: Yeah, sure, well, ok, it'd be like this. It's the same in the ring. You go out there, in front of that crowd, and there you are, at peace with the world. It's nature, but it asks for its god damn price. It's the wild, just like being in the woods, and you got to make that pact and got to pay that price, and there's got to be blood. I don't know, Vince, that seems like bullshit. That's bullshit. Vince: That's perfect. We cut out the swearing and I think we have our Stalker! The Stalker, Steve Austin! Yes!

Quick, someone take Mocho Cota!

I only caught Metalik vs Tajiri (and thought Tajiri looked really great), but one of my favorite things in this tournament has been the post match selling as they raise the hands. It feels so different from the instruction given to the main roster. I'm not spoiled, but part of me has hopes up far, far too high for Gallagher vs Metalik in round 3. I'm half inclined to spoil myself so I'm not let down when they put Tozawa over him Jack instead.

They'll probably give you Brutus Beefcake for free.

RVD is a tool. Stan Hansen is a better tool.

I liked Bryan's reaction during the CWC when he was going nuts over Ciampa chopping Gargano in the face. They sure made that one mean a lot.

"Slightly injury prone journeyman whose impending hair loss means that he can no longer portray the gimmick he's had for most of his career." would be a decent way to describe him, no?

The Austin thing seems like way too much foresight to me. Even AFTER his ECW run, he was brought in to WWF to be a mechanic in a gimmick they had come up with independent of him.

I just assume that most top-level MMA fighters in 2016 are so used to fighting within the current confines of the sport as it has developed that Heath Slater charging at them with flailing arms like this would befuddle them into getting smacked in the face repeatedly.

My point is this: Nothing in wrestling, including stiffness, is great simply for the sake of itself except for maybe lucha mascots.