Matt D

All you need is Bret's book, really.

Very interesting stuff. It seemed like we had more from 57 and 59 than 58. 1957: 32 1958: 18 1959: 27 And then when we hit the early 60s, we seem to get a depressing drought, like only 1 in 64.

No more than five. They don't even look like they're going to finally do things right most of the time. Of course, even when they do, they mess it up.

Fuck. I'm going to lose a bet some day and someone's going to make me watch that match.

I thought Orton was overly protected at the PPV. If it was so he could eat a clean loss to Lee at Payback, that works though.

Ok. So for next week we have, most likely, two more 1959 matches. One's a tag that goes an HOUR which is something we haven't seen in this footage yet. But in the start of the announcing, when introducing the sides, the commentator calls the babyfaces... (les) baby face. So that's new.

I haven't listened since February or so. How has the podcast been for the last half a year? It started out very well but I could see how the modern WWE stuff week after week could get tedious relative to what you'd actually want the thing to be.

I had no idea this one existed until this morning. actually. I loved the beginning, where you're not quite sure Candido knows what he has in Casas, but where he gets him to pose big and cheesy regardless. I'm not going to say that they were always on the same page here. There was a funny moment where Casas tagged in, did a double team, and then headed right back to the apron and they had to tag about three more times before it all made sense. There were some nice "taking the leg out" moments here both from in front and behind from Casas and yeah, that period relatively early on where he did a bunch of stuff, including the plancha and his big seated senton dive from the apron as Candido watched on was what you'd expect from a match like this. I think ultimately, the match was pretty formless. Casas and Candido controlled with their tagging but never to any real narrative effect. Lots of fun individual spots. Some things, like Makabe kicking out of the first senton at one detracted. The sequence where Candido tagged in and walked right into the Makabe spear was great though, and I liked the power bomb turned into the a roll up, especially because it played into the finish. Ultimately, I thought this was a bit of a mess but certainly an enjoyable one. I would have liked to see the tenth match with Casas and Candido teaming. I think they would have really gotten it eventually.

I didn't know you were tight with Norman Smiley.

They never do two things when they think they can get away with one. Having Retribution come out there and stare at Roman from different parts of the arena or some such would have worked too.

Wait, why is This Tuesday in Texas next week? If they really wanted to run two PPVs two weeks in a row, they should have made it Summerslam Part 1 and Part 2

Roll up finish does Drew no favors. If they really wanted to go that route, they should have had Orton roll him up after the missed Claymore (which would remind people of Bayley's win earlier) and then have Drew reverse it for the 3 or something.

The camera work is mind boggling. It's like some sort of rhythm video game where you have to switch every time they come into bodily contact. And you lose points if you miss one. What madness.

All of this is very interesting. I was curious why, after not being mentioned at all in the Bourreau match, they led by calling L'Homme Masque the mirror image of L'Ange Blanc and that clears it up You look at all those cards and lament all that we don't and never have. Now that we know these wrestlers a lot better, the quality is so high up and down.

Piper is a guy who I think footage has smiled upon, actually. We got an over the top great JCP Valentine match. A rare Piper/Brooks vs Adonis/Starr match. A really good Rude dark match. Some of his 77 AJPW run which is fun if nothing else (And occasionally great like the tag with Mullgan). A new 86 Savage match. The super cool Kuwait tag with Orton against Afi and Tonga, plus a bunch of California stuff has become easier to find.

I'm much higher on Bryan's current return than I was on his 2015 return.

Here’s a fun thought: within two years we’ll probable get an interminable Rollins/Cole feud.

Thanks. That's interesting and, even if it doesn't necessarily make sense, does explain the reality of it. Obviously, I immediately want to know the etymology of that and what I found (all I found quickly with English searches) is that in fencing, still, the last hit in a tied match is called "La Belle" too. That's even for English speakers.

Sure, we'll probably be doing this one next week. Around the 3:10-20 mark

Ok, translation time. Couderc will announce a 2/3 falls match something along the lines of "en deux manches un bruit le bel il ya league" What's the "bel" doing in there?

Did they just do a poison-related Ultimate Warrior heart attack angle?

We'll hit it on Friday for NFF for a full review but I think you're underselling it. They really go hard in the first ten minutes and Chene has this way to make sure he bumps himself 30% more than he ought to at times. Davis seems to switch which one is which at times, mind you.

The person to keep forever in NXT was Bayley. With a studio show, you can run a top babyface for a lot longer and she could have carried that brand like its Hogan or Sting for years, especially when you factor in that people would only see her live once or twice a year tops at house shows. She would have meant so much more in NXT than on the main roster.

I wasn't going to bring this up because : 1.) it seemed a little self-serving, especially because it's consistent with at least my view of Shawn over the years. and 2.) During GWE, as I've stated before, one argument for cinematic Shawn was that he had good ideas but not the acting chops to pull them off and that he'd be a better director than an actor in this regard, and that is probably the single most erroneous take I've had in the entire 2010s. But yeah, have at it. There's definitely a throughline between Shawn the wrestler and Shawn the agent.

I had said this back in October. So I'd put a turning point with the 2016 callups (American Alpha/Finn/Bayley especially), but there were other turning points both before and after.