Matt D

So, we had the Duggan/Sawyer match obviously (#4 on the DVDVR set though maybe this version has something new/different/etc.), and Pete thinks we have the Gilbert/Nightmare tag. But do people think that: El Corsario & Steve Williams vs. The Bruise Brothers (Mad Dog Boyd & Pork Chop Cash) Jake Roberts vs. Lord Humongous Bounty Match: Butch Reed vs. Dick Slater are new?

A lot of what makes this fun is that you don't have any idea how Arn will respond to certain things. Nothing Bischoff or JR says at this point can really surprise me.

They've been having Rollins win by DQ on house shows (Also Tamina's teaming with Bayley).

There's no rhyme or reason to a lot of the stuff in the draft. Even Smackdown, where they didn't shuffle anything, was weird. Why Drew in round one instead of Owens? Why the Lucha Dragons so high? Why not Nikki/Alexa as a team? etc. Here it's pretty ridiculous that Bayley went two rounds after Charlotte when she had the belt. Cedric going right before the US champ. Etc.

The champ, and thus the belt, went rounds after Charlotte? Ideally Bayley turns this into a bitter promo.

Dude, don't imply that Joe got injured picking his nose.

No one in history has ever been that excited about Nattie.

Steph chastising the crowd for booing her was pretty funny. 'Guys, come on. I'm being a corporate professional. Don't embarrass me in front of the fox robot.''

My big talking point from GWE was that Shawn probably would've been a better director than an actor. Ambitious ideas but lacking the emotive chops to make them work. It was the most positive spin I could put on the back half of his library. I feel like he has spent the last couple of years actively trying to prove me wrong.

The key to finding this is searching only for the word "Arn", not Arn Anderson or The Arn Show or anything else. I just found it and am 25 minutes in and am enjoying it so far. A lot I didn't know colored in a way that is fresh. At this stage I can hardly imagine Bischoff or JR telling me big things I really didn't know. It's all about the little ones. With Arn, there are still primal things we just haven't been let into first hand.

Re: Likes: I pushed hard NOT to have it because it sort of encourages gimmick posting but I'll admit some regret there. I think this is still a very valuable place and I am glad for everyone's company (yes, even you), but it's also a very different place than right after GWE. It's all a bit more casual now.

I will say this. If I had to choose between no-selling Bray or meaningless suplex Brock, I'd probably take Bray. The difference is that one is presented as supernatural and unreal and the other is presented as more real and more legitimate than everything else. I'd take a monster over a MMA star being better than the rest of the wrestlers.

Yeah, I've read this thread and I still don't know who he is. I know five different versions of Nick Fury though.

Killed the Curb Stomp too. If you're going to do that, at least put Bray over for the belt so you can build someone to beat him? They have this tendency of having a match on the card where the laws of physics that apply in all the other matches don't apply. Generally it's the Brock matches, but it's always a mistake.

The tag match was a lot of fun. I didn't mind the lack of a formal tag structure since it was such a grudge thing. I'm don't have the wherewithal to watch the Sasha/Becky match until I see what Eric thinks about it.

I'm playing catch up (just got the kids down) and am watching the Roman/Bryan tag. Am I crazy or are there less quick cuts than usual?

Big John Studd - 2 Mauro - 1

Announcing a mystery partner six-man a few hours before the show is so weird.

I'm not actually sure we could get Mauro to show the proper enthusiasm because of the conventional wisdom.

I think Studd was a cleverly dissonant (in part because of his size relative to his actions) stalling/stooging heel, who while not having a perfect game, in part due to the fact he was too reliant on relatively boring holds during his control sequences, is about 40% underrated/underlooked due to workrate primacy, which really speaks to the larger issue, so he's kind of a microcosm, and a useful one because he's so looked down upon by conventional wisdom, when almost no one seems to have ever documented an appreciation for the things he was actually quite good at. Mr. Logic, being the aggravatingly acerbic and lightning sharp enemy of double-standards and hypocrisy that he is, was quick to point out that your championing of Mauro is probably more topical and relevant and less odd than me making the specific case I do for Studd whenever I have any new inputs or whenever he comes up.

Man, I wish I had the time to even take a flesh wound on that one.

What a uniquely frustrating hill to choose to die on.

You can't go to this well often, but on this night, I appreciated this.

Doesn't everyone under 34 watch things streaming later?

Don't AEW fans like Adam Cole?