Stiva

LAX have now been pulled from the show, apparently.

Ember winning the thing single handedly with Hawkins claiming that his unbeaten streak is now over seems the likely destination for this. So, all of this build and promotion for more comedy when Hawkins gets squashed immediately in his next match. Speaking of bad comedy, Raw was putrid. Did Vince wake up yesterday and decide he wants to be SNL again?

At MSG for the WWE Title between two guys who were genuinely hot at the time and this felt like a big deal. Orton came out of a HHH title feud with the title and his heat while Hardy had been getting a super push all through January, culminating with a huge dive off the Titan Tron that the company actually sold huge for a long time after this. Anyway, I always feel that Orton's best run was in 2011 but I did enjoy his work through 07-08 up until his injury. He was working a slower style, he was busting out things like the Garvin Stomp, the punt and the apron DDT and when he did have to bump and sell (some of his best attributes in my opinion), his matches tended to bump up a notch. He was Cena's best opponent at this time and based on this, he would have been Hardy's had this become a series. I remember reading a review of a Hardy match where someone (I forget who, sorry) brought up how Hardy's sloppiness used to result in self-harm but now he was using that sloppiness to hurt everyone else and that's really the case. And while I wouldn't call it sloppy as such, the way he throws himself at Orton, in the same way he used to throw himself at ladders, makes everything look incredibly painful. His dropkicks look like they could stop Orton's heart and Orton takes a nasty bump from a baseball slide, just throwing himself backwards into the apron, neck first that kicks the match into overdrive. Orton decides to bail and take the count out before Hardy interrupts and slams his head off the table as Orton adds a nice touch where he swings at nothing in his addled state. This time, Hardy takes a spill to the outside as Orton interrupts a springboard attempt with a great dropkick. From there, the pattern of the match unfolds with a lot of spots based around Hardy "putting his body on the line" to win the belt; there's a running clothesline to the floor, a big bump to the post sprinkled around Orton's attempts to keep him down, choking the energy out of him. Orton always used to get a lot of shit about the rest holds of doom but here, he has a lot of subtle touches like wrenching the neck, using a leg scissors, occasionally standing for more leverage and it really feels like a dude who is just desperately trying to stop his opponent from flying around and beating the shit out of him. Hardy's comeback and the nearfalls begin with a nasty looking Whisper in the Wind that Orton decides to take on the back of his head, the corner dropkick which, again, looks like it could break a rib and another dive to the outside, this time a moonsault. Hardy rolls Orton back inside, goes for the Twist of Fate but Orton smoothly reverses into an RKO which puts Hardy down. At the time, it felt disappointing that Hardy lost but with the imminent return of Cena, along with HHH, you probably needed a heel champion going into Mania but I'll be damned if people weren't crying out for Hardy to get a run with the belt. I've always had a fondness for the match but you can definitely criticise Orton's control segment, even if I felt it fit the whole story and it did feel oddly truncated or like it was the first in a series, considering Orton gets the flash victory and barely escapes with the belt (note that Hardy doesn't hit the Twist of Fate or Swanton Bomb once). The whole thing felt like a champion who was always on the cusp of losing his belt, who had no answer to the guy in front of him and had to take his one shot when he got it. Unfortunately for Hardy, he did. Like I said, this would have been a fantastic series to run throughout the Autumn PPVs but it never happened and this, I believe, remains their one and only shot on PPV.

Watched this on a Punk whim and yeah, this is fantastic and really strengthens my argument that Orton's selling has largely been his best attribute. He comes into this with a taped knee and man, does Punk ever focus in on it. There's a great spot where he drops Orton in the Tree of Woe and then just leaps off with a big knee but this is really a match about subtleties. When Punk has Orton in the ringpost figure four, he's adding more damage by stomping on Orton with his injured leg, when Orton's leg buckles during the punt attempt (awesome psychology!), the camera immediately catches Punk laughing at how his plan is coming together and even the initial switch to Punk's control segment is nice, with Punk leaping over the steps only to kick them straight back into Orton's knee. Finish comes when Punk goes for his springboard clothesline, only to get caught in an RKO and it's nice to see Orton hit that on a guy that is doing a move from his regular arsenal. Really great match-up with both guys giving killer performances. 2011 semi-motivated Punk is an absolute world away from the Punk of the last 6 months, it's a shocking turnaround in quality. Props to Orton too for going right there with him, giving a great selling performance of his own and making his few moments of offence look really good. It's only 7 years ago but I don't think we'd get a match like this at a Mania now; everything would be rah-rah-rah. This felt like something you'd see on a 90s PPV and was all the better for it.

I wonder if Lesnar knew Bryan even had that in him until he started stomping on the side of his face

This is a weird one since this era has a ton of individual moments but it's hard to say what full shows stand out since the in-ring stuff wasn't hot. Are we including 2000? Because I'd be tempted to say the Raw with the Radicalz turn and that awesome 10-man main event.

Once the Brock match is done with, I hope we get "Best in the world, I have til 5, referee!" heel Bryan, rather than your generic chickenshit WWE heel.

Yikes, Becky is a total star. I really hope they run with it and make her the face of the Horsewomen for that feud going into Mania

"He looks like his mom dropped him off at the wrong building for karate school and he decided to stay AND FIGHT GROWN MEN!" - Excalibur on Mike Bailey

I'm watching it, fuck it. It's hilarious seeing Hogan side-stepping any mention of Saudi Arabia but it has the typical WWE way of not actually making any sense. It sounded like Hogan got on a plane to the WWE Universe

Man, if Becky/Ronda was always the plan, Becky should have laid Ronda the fuck out during that embarrassing PR, patronising curtain call business. Everyone should understandably be proud for putting on a fantastic show first time out and god knows they've all worked ridiculously hard to get to this point but every time they talk about "revolution" when all the women have to stand around, out of character, it ends up weakening the whole thing for me. These women have proven, beyond a doubt, that they're able to anchor hot feuds and deliver awesome matches, they need to stop undercutting it because they think they deserve applause for treating women like human beings for the first time in their history. Anyway, Becky/Charlotte was great and Becky is a total star at the moment, Ronda is going to accelerate so far ahead of everyone in about 18 months that you need to hope somebody comes along to match her, the "Attitude Era/Divas Era" stuff was handled really well, similarly to the Rumble, MYC Final and NXT Title matches delivered and got all 4 workers over just about as well as you could want and, most importantly, it was in front of a crowd that popped and reacted like I want a crowd to. I don't know if all the annoying fans were on that Jericho Cruise but if so, I hope he does one every month.

I’m amazed that didn’t contain “putting smiles on the faces of fans all over the world”

Yeah, I agree that the Ambrose turn got over twice as huge due to the overriding circumstances. There's definitely a debate to be had about whether or not it was in bad taste but fuck, that's how to turn a guy heel. Have him attack a guy who was in tears over his friend's cancer returning earlier in the show AND after he's just won a title. Professional and personal attack. And I think this is the first time I've bought Ambrose as a "lunatic" That turn really did feel like the way an unhinged dude would react, the kind of guy you have to walk on eggshells around, because of an imagined slight.

Awful news. Every time I've seen an interview with him, he comes across as super humble, down-to-earth and likeable, not to mention him being a young man with a family. Everything crossed that he can beat it

This seems like a work based around that. As well as something to get eyes on the product now that the ratings are dwindling.

Despite this, Meltzer says the show is still on as scheduled.

Part of me hopes that WWE continues to be grossly tone deaf with things like this because I would REALLY like to see the press release that gets released in WWE-speak after the show goes ahead. FWIW, I think they will cancel or quickly move the show elsewhere. I think there's enough time to go before the show that, as the news continues to circulate, they'll realise how bad a decision it will be to run it. Having said that, I think they'll be back in Saudi Arabia next year after it all dies down.

I don't think Impact has been on form as it was in the summer but there's still enough on that card to make me interested. The six man matches, more Su Yung antics and Aries' running ability to put together great main event title matches is enough. Not to mention I'm a mark for open challenges.

Doesn't/Didn't Shawn train the top class? I.e. The guys getting primed for an NXT run

So far, King Salman's run as head booker is leaving me cold.

Can the crowd's complete lack of interest in this please end the Attitude Era Nostalgia snooze fests?

Yikes, this crowd could not care less about this. They're just waiting for whatever angle is going to set up the tag in Saudi Arabia.

God bless those WWE plants for trying to start a "This is Awesome" chant when HHH and Taker are cutting a glacial pace

I'm glad they cut Miz/Bryan short so we can watch some old dudes walk to the ring for 15 minutes

That was...oddly booked. Plus side, we're getting Bryan/Styles. Downside, it's at Saudi Blood Money Mania