Matt D

To clarify, I don't think they're doing Rock/Rusev at Mania. I just thought the American Underdog story they were hinting at with Bryan vs Rusev at TTTT was compelling in ways I hadn't quite been expecting. Bryan in that more patriotic role felt very out of place on the show, but at the same time, it added to my enjoyment of the segment. THAT said, I don't think we're seeing Bryan back in a ring anytime soon. The news is a little all over the place there, but my impression is that he's held off on surgery he probably should have had months ago in the hopes that he'd recover without it (be it due to holistic wonkery or mere hope) and that maybe that hasn't been going quite as well as it could have. I could certainly see Rock vs Rusev happening sometime in the next year or two.

There was interesting talk on Austin this week where he praised heavily how much of the match Dynamite often took which is generally my biggest problem with him. That goes back to the shades of grey associated with the whole project. Dynamite was obviously a good enough wrestler to know what he was doing and what he was doing was good for him and his overness and credibility but it often made the matches he was in worse even if he was ultimately better off for it than if he had better matches. On one level he would have been wrong to do anything but what he did.

So, after TTTT I want to see Bryan vs Rusev way more than Cena vs Rusev or Rock vs Rusev.

That's a shame between what would come out with the leaks and then Vince's reaction.

I'd use Angle as an example instead of the Big Show.

They were desperate to get the renewals of the initial Network subscribers and felt that was the biggest match they could put on.

Personally I like it when Johnny comes up with the more elaborate explanations instead of just "He's a heel!!!!!"

I got 3 DVDs in the mail today from Mark (OdessaSteps) as an XMas present. He was dubbing old tapes. One was some 85 Crockett. One was an hour or two leading up to Shocker losing his mask. The third (unmarked) was a Brody comp. He was trolling me. Freaking Brody.

They did have a couple of house shows matches in March 90. WWF @ Providence, RI - Civic Center - March 10, 1990 (7,500) Al Perez defeated Paul Roma Hillbilly Jim defeated Bad News Brown via count-out Tito Santana pinned Buddy Rose Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart defeated WWF Tag Team Champions Andre the Giant & Haku via disqualification Greg Valentine defeated Sam Houston via submission with the figure-4 Brutus Beefcake pinned Rick Martel WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan & the Big Bossman defeated Mr. Perfect & the Genius WWF @ East Rutherford, NJ - Meadowlands - March 11, 1990 (just under 10,000) Al Perez defeated Paul Roma Greg Valentine pinned Sam Houston Rick Rude pinned Tito Santana The Bushwhackers defeated Nikolai Vokoff & Boris Zhukov when Butch pinned Zhukov WWF Tag Team Champions Andre the Giant & Haku defeated Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart Dusty Rhodes defeated Randy Savage via count-out Jake Roberts pinned Ted Dibiase after guest referee the Big Bossman punched Dibiase

Pete was spot on. Ambrose/Wyatt needed 300% more Memphis. I'll second the Rowan moment as the best in recap show. I'm with everyone that they need to retire the show.

Karl Marx Approves of this note?

I've got to watch this Super Porky match from 2010 first, but after that it's on track for a listen and I'll let you know. EDIT: It's already going rough since we had to get the Gazoo impression from Kris instead of Johnny. Ladder match discussion was really good though. I'm probably in the middle of both camps. I did think that Harper brought a ton of little touches that made everything feel organic and that yeah, it's the sort of match made for Ziggler. Match of the night but it would have worked so much better on a Wrestlemania or Summerslam or somewhere that it could feel important and stand out. Mizdow argument was pretty good too. I do sort of agree that it could end like Riley, or maybe a better example is Virgil, where it builds to one big match. I have a decent amount of sentimentality from Sandow from watching him come up years and years ago. He was a babyface for a while in that indy but he was sort of like babyface Edge from a character POV there. Maybe a little more towards Stevie Richards. When he went face, it went mostly straight. This will come up later with the last match I think, but one thing about this show that came through with the Rowan talk is the idea of finishes. Rowan looked good in losing. Dylan and Johnny felt that way. I did as well. And I wonder if I'm just so desensitized to WWE booking that it's something that we cling to or if it's actually true? My biggest takeaway from listening to you guys talk about the first half of the podcast is that WWE put on a show where they really accomplished a lot of what they were trying to do(ok, not the Reigns promo and the Kane/Ryback match), far more so than usual. Whether what they wanted to do was the right thing or not is a different question. Also they managed to make things seem different match-to-match in this setting. Which by the end I was a little hossed out, but is still impressive.

I think a loss where you control most of the match and have the biggest moments is worth more than a win where you look like an absolute chump the whole time. Granted, a win where you don't look like a chump the whole time is probably worth more.

I would vote 2009 Chris Masters (basically only on C shows) over 1989 Ted Dibiase in a heartbeat. I'm not sure what we're even talking about anymore or at least why we're talking about it.

See. So I am only remembering ONE of the two guys with the gimmick anyway. Pretty unimportant belt. I think a Network title that's defended on Main Event every week is not a bad idea at all, btw.

I think the most important thing was that they got the big one right at Mania. I'm not saying that forgives everything else, but it does help.

My biggest memory is Al Snow coming out to a different city each week. I think a WWE TV Title that's defended every week with a ten minute time limit is infinitely more valuable to them. I doubt a European Title would bump foreign tours all that much.

I'm a .641 on the Johnny Sorrow Scale on this show which seems higher than most of you.

We would have all been going nuts about that if Wyatt threw a fireball instead (especially if they built it from the Kendo shot to the eye).

I'm headed to the Rumble so it should be a fun crowd experience for Cena vs Lesnar at least.

That could be a photoshop. The site doesn't have the last paragraph

It's been trending on Facebook off and on for the last week with surprising resilience.

I think realistic asskicker is the opposite that they should be going for. They need to try to tap into the Monster High money instead. Bailey and Sasha and Tweens. Hunger Games AJ (collect all 8).

I'll be honest that I didn't make it to the main before I got caught up in work. There was a lot to talk about there and I imagine this particular panel would do a good job with the closing angle. I also may be colored by my enjoyment of the Vaudevillians, though i do agree that they should do more old timey moves. I just really didn't get much of a sense of understanding of the week to week build here, and that's so much a part of NXT as a studio wrestling show. You can watch a Mid-South Superdome show, but you're going to get a lot more out of it if you saw the TV building up to it. Etc. There was a sense of "So who are these guys?" which is something I'd expect out of let's say an 80s lucha watching party with Loco Zavalo and Climax but wasn't what I was looking for here.

This show peaked with Kris' explanation of Kevin Owens in the beginning. Honest opinion: I've made it about halfway through but the lack of familiarity from a big chunk of the panel in that it's kind of obvious that you guys haven't been watching NXT on a weekly basis made this not as enjoyable to me as these usually are. I do think that Johnny P always gives a good outside voice from what we're used to, but this might not have been the show for it.