KB8

If Steph works this like cheapshotting Jim Cornette the whole time I can deal.

Oh my gravy this entrance

Charlotte/Asuka was pretty fucking choice, tbf.

As someone who shared the life of an alchoholic for ten years, I know the feeling. Gotta work that pint. Charlotte & Asuka feels big. Moolah would be proud... (.......) I’m a Scotsman, nursing pints is a foreign concept to us. I’m not sure why they never wanted to save that Spanish fly spot specifically for this, rather than busting it out already on the pre-show.

Cena’s been nursing that beer for about two hours.

Totally. I have no use for a triple threat match, but this was some clean old fun with only a couple spots that I thought were daft.

That splash was so, so pretty.

I love how Miz has been selling that chop basically the whole time.

Well I thought that was a pretty dang fun battle royal.

That braid shot is my favourite spot in wrestling.

Have they actually done anything with Sane after winning the MYC? Feels like she’s kind of floundered.

Bianca Belair’s braid is unbelievable! How has nobody stepped on that thing?

Ali wants to be a positive example and to communicate this he's come out dressed as Sub-Zero who's finisher was turning folk into giant icicles and literally kicking them to bits. Hot damn.

They missed a trick by not having Cena weep like this was Savage/Elizabeth 2.0.

Who the fuck is this green Kabuki looking guy?! EDIT: okay he literally just got eliminated

By Christ that is the greatest Goldust get up I've ever seen.

I literally don't know who 75% of these guys are. I might be out the loop.

Man, that set is killer. I just checked the card and I love how they haven't even noted Cena/Undertaker as being a match that's happening.

I'm off tomorrow and Wrestlemania has fallen on my birthday this year so I guess it's only right that I try and sit up and watch it live. I've actually managed it the last couple years, but that was with my brother and this year I need to go it alone, so we'll see how that goes. Perhaps I will join you all in here and we'll see if that keeps me pushing on. Card looks pretty great, either way.

Thought the show totally delivered. The multi-man ladder match has been run into the ground as a concept by now, but this was about as much as I'm ever going to enjoy one these days. I don't even actively dislike matches like this, they're just not very interesting anymore because pretty much everything has been done already and you inevitably reach the point of diminishing returns. But I'm absolutely 100% all in on Velveteen Dream so for the first time in ages I was rooting super hard for a wrestler to win a predetermined contest. I thought he was legitimately great in this. His selling has an awesome car crash quality to it where his limbs go all rubbery on those big bumps. Him hitting elbow drops on everyone and capping it with the Purple Rainmaker off the ladder was my favourite spot of the year. I love him. I want him to win matches and titles and I'm bummed when he doesn't. I don't even dislike Adam Cole, but I was deflated when he won, not because Adam Cole won a match and he's lame or whatever, but because Velveteen Dream DIDN'T win. When/if he wins the NXT title I'll absolutely flip and I never expected to be invested in a wrestler like that again in my old age. I generally have no use for Ricochet but he's perfect for a match like this. That SSP to the floor at the start was wild and he was the projectile in an impromptu person-chucking contest so I liked him fine. Hopefully he curbs more of his annoying tendencies in the NXT run. EC3 never really did anything for me in this. Most of his offence was very early 2000s indieriffic and I wasn't sure whether he was hitting a move or the other guy had reversed it. The beefies were fun and I'm fine enough with Cole as the best possible version of Edge. They maybe could've done with trimming it by a few minutes, but I was hyped for this and it came through. Baszler/Moon wasn't doing much for me until they started playing up Baszler's arm injury. I haven't seen a ton of Ember Moon, but I'm not sure she's very good. Her intense facials are super hokey and her offence is really loose. Baszler's selling was good, her striking mostly looked good, I liked her using the ring post to pop her shoulder back in even if the crowd seemed to be a bit confused, and the one-handed choke where she used her HAIR to secure it was fucking phenomenal. I've never seen that before and I popped big for it. Three way tag was a little clusterfucky but fine enough. O'Reilly's facial expressions are the worst but he absolutely comes off as a little shit and I guess that's a good thing for a heel? Finish was kind of stupid in that, you know, why didn't he just do that earlier, but maybe he decided in the spur of the moment that he thought he was better off with Cole and the rest and who are we to question the psyche of a man in the heat of battle and fuck it this was alright. Almas/Black was really, really good. I've liked Black in NXT more than I ever expected and Almas is growing on me with every match. Vega is amazing as well. The strike exchanges weren't always great and some of the choreography was pretty obvious, but otherwise this was another strong NXT title match. I'm not as high on the main event as the majority, but I still thought it was pretty excellent. It was maybe the best possible version of a WWE grudge match with all the DRAMA and STORYTELLING and whatever else that you could ask for. Ciampa getting all that heat was incredible. They were booing him for absolutely anything at the start and he reveled in it. Thought this could've done with being trimmed a bit as well, but the big spots were BIG and the stretch run was pretty great. Mostly felt like they communicated the hatred as well. I'd rather they went the Duggan/DiBiase route, but I'd rather every match went the Duggan/DiBiase route and this is 2018 and those expectations are unrealistic and so we take what we are given. Gargano grabbing Ciampa's beard as he slapped him about the face was great. The finish was basically perfect and drew the whole thing together really well. The melodramatic acting, the INNER CONFLICT, the bastard trying to be a bastard, the comeuppance...yeah, this promised something special and it delivered. Hell of a show. Takeovers are sort of a can't miss prospect at this point.

Yeah, Rude/Steamboat was the fucking business. Their interactions in tags/multi-man matches, the first go-around at Superbrawl, then the Ironman match at Beach Blast, which I'd also put it in my top 5 for WCW. Rude was my favourite wrestler in the world that year.

I don't know, I've watched about a hundred and fifty RINGS undercard matches over the last six months or so and there certainly weren't any like Riddle/Suzuki. Ton von Maurik and Masaaki Satake sure weren't doing anything like this. I thought the main event was some fun, goofy entertainment. I didn't actually think it was very shoot-stylish in the first place, but I'm someone who finds mediocre shoot style easy enough to sit through (maybe it's because I've sat through enough mediocre MMA over the last eighteen years) so I guess the IDEA of it spoke to me? The strike exchange was kind of silly but I was into it when they were rolling around on the mat. The fact the ring had no ropes gave it an interesting dynamic as well. It was leaning more towards the Battlarts end of the shoot style spectrum, albeit a poor man's version, but I know I'd rather watch something like this than a fair amount of New Japan or current indie wrestling.

That Gargano/Ciampa video package was tremendous. North American title hype to close the show. Every Takeover match being spotlighted to some degree. Yeah, that worked.

I've never seen EC3 before (that I'm aware of, anyway), but I've been binging a lot of NXT from around November last year through to where it's currently at, and I'll be fucked if I haven't enjoyed Adam Cole quite a bit. I had never particularly cared for him before and the Adam Cole Bay Bay stuff is goofy and all, but to me he's come across as a guy that feels soon-to-be ready for the main roster. I have no dog in an Adam Cole v EC3 fight, though. If I'm pulling for anyone in that ladder match it's Velveteen Dream.

This was fucking dynamite. Velveteen Dream is my favourite guy in NXT by a distance and I like Black fine, so I had some expectations for this and they absolutely delivered. I loved Dream in this so much. The tights! The early going with Black controlling via the arm was really neat. He wasn't about to be thrown off his game by Dream's nonsense and I liked how he basically schooled him. The little "mind games" sequence after that was just great stuff. Sometimes that kind of thing can come off a bit hokey, but both guys have such unique charisma that it totally worked. Dream's facial expressions, initially at being ignored, then at being fucked with in equal fashion, were amazing. And yeah, every single thing he did in this ruled. Loved how he bumped for Black's strikes. Loved how he was obsessed with Black saying his name. Loved how that obsession had him yelling shit at the ref' like "ask him to say my name!" or "say my name!" while he had Black in a camel clutch. LOVED the swivel hips from the top rope where he sold the back. That's one of my all-time favourite spots and I'm all for someone channeling the spirit of Rickie Rude. Basically loved everything he did. They kind of teetered a bit into no-selly back and forth towards the end, but it wasn't egregious and Black catching Dream with Black Death as he was yet again telling him to say his name was a great finish. There's that obsession again, getting him in hot water.