Matt D

Do they need Show to be a challenger for Reigns in April or something? Because that physically hurt me.

I liked Riley trying to get Mizdow to go free.

There's a fine line between fun and tedious and overchoreographed, and that thing was straddling it like crazy.

Larry's said that Bruno encouraged him to.

Next I want Pete to book Australia in 83.

I want to make a chart with four quadrants on Monday. Someone hold me to it

I've been dusty pretty much off and on since Larry. I am a lightweight.

Can you guys feud on twitter already.

The most important thing to remember about the victory roll is that it's how Bret beat Bigelow to win KOTR.

I don't think they necessarily booked themselves into a corner where they had to resign Brock. If they really put over Reigns strong on Sunday, then on some level that would have transferred at least some of the value of Brock beating taker and his reign onto Reigns. Hell, they could have had Taker come out to "pass the torch" after the match and bring it all full circle. It wouldn't have been perfect, but it would have at least partially worked.

I'd kind of get a kick out of a Brock/Rock two man part time power trip stable.

I think they can pull things off with the secondary belts. No, let me rephrase that: I think it's possible to pull things off with the secondary belts. Cena on Raw with the US belt. Bryan on Smackdown with the IC belt. I don't think they could manage it with three dozen more writers on the staff.

Rollins cashes in to insert himself into the match. Ambrose comes out to screw him. They work together to screw Brock. Rollins decides that he can't beat Brock and that he'd rather be the architect of the championship. Ambrose is just nuts. It'd as good as anything they actually will do.

I feel better about things now.

What?! That seems random as hell. What am I missing? I don't remember there ever being a great friendship between them, either on or off-screen (Foley's books, etc.). Did they really have a match together in TNA?

I was reading the Stan Stasiak bio from the Observer and they mentioned that Gorilla Monsoon served as a manager for Pedro during his title run. I'd never heard of that before. What was the deal there?

It's very strange but at this point what I'm most excited about is the "pageantry" of it all. The entrances and what not. I want to see how Taker comes out and how Sting comes out and Hunter's ridiculous Terminator entrance and Rusev's russian soldiers.

It's Dunn. It's bugging me since I don't know where I heard it, maybe that writer who was on JR's podcast, but someone in the know was talking about how any mid-level NBA producer would do an endlessly better job than Dunn and would die to get a chance to update the production value.

I'm up to ECW vol 2 on this and I'm enjoying it. A few comments. 1.) It's probably unnecessary but given some of the other feeder systems mentioned, I think the Kowalski camp/Chaotic Wrestling might have earned 20-30 seconds. Mizdow, Palmer Cannon, Chad Toland/Dick, Antonio of the Heartthrobs, Nowinski (I think he went there after tough enough), Kenny Dykstra, Kingston, Mickey Keegan, and probably others I don't know about (EDIT: like Sasha Banks). 2.) I think you guys bypassed the "NEW TALENT INITIATIVE" branding in ECW vol 2, though you mentioned some of the guys they used there, but it was actually presented that way on screen. 3.) The biggest thing I potentially take umbrage with is the Triple H/Vince issue. I get what Dylan was saying, that Hunter was the one who, for years, would cut the legs out of rivals and what not, but what I'd like an opinion on is the idea that the star/stop booking was a side effect of the guys who left in 2002-2004, maybe most especially Lesnar, and it was very much a spiteful Vince thing having to do with making sure that no "superstar" would be bigger than the WWE brand ever again. Maybe Hunter benefited from that, but it always felt like much more of a Vince thing to me, with Hunter's power plays being more of a 1999(and earlier) 2004 sort of thing and maybe not so associated with the start-stop pushes, etc.

All the stuff about him being painfully insecure - you don't think that would/should bother him? No, it's about the character, not the performer. I think things like the Triple H squashes everyone video last year show that they're pretty good at making fun of the difference.

That thing was a love letter to HHH the villain, the one who got his comeuppance last year vs Bryan and likely will next weekend against Sting.

From what I've seen, those AJPW matches had selling in the moment, selling over time, and meaningful escalation. I think they have too much of the third but I woudn't deny the first two for the most part (give or take a few lapses).

Come on guys, no bumping this thread. It reminds me I never watched those matches Bill wanted me to (I forgot) and now I'm obliged to again.

I didn't get to hear anything that wasn't made by someone here this week so this was an especially helpful one.