Stiva

Alexander/Murphy continues to be a great match-up, even if this is a bit spot-spot-spot with the goal seemingly "Hey, watch 205 Live to see all this cool shit every week". But Murphy winning felt like a huge deal in his home town and he deserves it after the run he's had on the main roster.

Can they please put The Marine 6 on the Network? That looks truly terrible.

Ronda continues to be a natural, that was a great hot tag. It's a shame that she's eventually going to be lumbered in a match where she has to sell for Charlotte.

Man, they dropped the knee stuff immediately here. Joe isn't even selling it anymore. Thanks for making me look stupid by instantly using it for the finish

Holy shit, the SIXTH MOVE OF DOOM.

Cena with longer hair is real funny to me. He looks like a wrestling dad

Baby Cactus puts on a pretty damn good wrestling match. You can see that he's still a little green but this feels like someone beginning to find his feet and you even get a glimpse of the future with some nutty bumping and a nasty looking dropkick from the apron. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't clean but it looked all the better for it. Time limit draw is the obvious conclusion but it's another slice of fun tv wrestling from WCW.

In ring, this should be another strong outing since everything other than the main should be good and the main will probably have enough smoke and mirrors that it's at least entertaining. I just hope it isn't a 5 hour slog

Warrior is blown up within 3 seconds of hitting the ring which may be a new record. Perfect really tries here, in a way I'm not sure I've seen anyone try to shine a turd before. He bumps huge, he attempts to slow the pace to make everything, uses a great mix of comedy, stalling and heel offense that it was really impossible for Warrior to fuck up. An admirable carry job that also did its job to build toward Mania.

Warrior’s promo here is like a badly translated monologue in an NES JRPG. Complete nonsense from start to finish

Dave Brown casually runs down an upcoming card while Jerry Lawler dishes out another vicious beating. I love how Dave Brown has the detached air of someone who can no longer be surprised by anything Lawler does and simply has to work around it.

Lawler's reigns of terror over Memphis after a defeat continue to be a joy to watch. Champion took that slap like a...champ and Lawler throwing the stool at him for good measure is an absolutely perfect asshole move. As mentioned, this all needs a white knight to come in and save the day but it doesn't take away from just how impeccable Jerry Lawler really was.

Revisiting early 90s WCW and this seems like what all of the great TV at the start of 1990 was building up to. I'm sure Flair has some more great performances down the line but this is right in line with any otherworldy one you can name from his prime. Luger more than holds up his end of the bargain with great selling and a fantastic fired-up comeback section at the end but this is the Flair show, for one more night. I also LOVE Sting firing up Luger. Props for how it's filmed too which makes it seem like something from an action movie. In fact, Sting, in general, is brilliant in this ending sequence, instantly getting on his guard when Ole and Arn appear, arming himself with the crutch on instinct and being the desperate vessel for the crowd's cheers. I love the point about this being the touchpaper for the Sting/Luger relationship down the line and it's a nice little illustration of how wrestling fans used to have long memories

Yep yep yep, get Hero on that main roster and let's do it.

I think, in general, WWE is now much, much worse at establishing a modern "canon" for lack of a better word. They often dig into the past so much because they've made a terrible effort at making their recent history matter. This is definitely a consequence of more TV but that's no reason for them not to emphasise certain angles and moments instead of, for example, Mick Foley being trotted out to talk about his HIAC bump for the trillionth time. Do many people even remember Sasha and Charlotte main eventing a PPV in the cell? How often do they mention Bray Wyatt's magical appearance as an apparition to make funny faces at Dean Ambrose? One of those things is much better than the other but they were both treated as largely disposable moments instead of there being a conscious effort to immortalise them. Like, a lot of the big Attitude moments that they reflect on are bad but they still canonise them as something great. If they won't remember or mention things that are designed to be memorable then why should anyone else? What are the big moments of the decade that they actually reference? The Nexus Debut, the "Yes Movement" invading Raw (which wasn't the best moment of Bryan's ascension at all) and The Shield debut? You could argue they're hamstrung by certain guys not being in the company (Punk's Pipebomb) but something like the Heath Slater and Rhyno becoming tag champs story, for one example, seemed like a memorable, midcard story that the crowd bought into big time but I don't think I've ever seen it treated with any reverence or importance since. Maybe it's different in those WWE Top tens that they post to Youtube but they, by their very nature, are disposable time wasters. Maybe my point has been muddied but if they want Reigns to be a memorable top guy and all-round babyface, you'd think they'd remember the night he got past Sheamus and Vince McMahon to a roaring crowd to win the WWE Title, complete with McMahon getting arrested the next week but I guess not.

Wait, they're going with a red cell? Wasn't a major complaint about TNAs red cell that it was hard as shit to actually see what was going on? 2018 WWE mining 2010 TNA is making me uncomfortable since it gives off the impression that TNA was ahead of its time. They were ahead of its time in the way that a dude jumping off a roof with cardboard wings pre-dated the aeroplane.

I'll echo what others have said in thinking that this was a fun first installment and man, I'm so happy that Meiko was in the first episode. I really hope that this leads to a run on the main roster because Lynch/Satomura is something that needs to get 15 minutes somewhere down the line

Yeah, when Bryan was cleared, I assumed that the plan was Miz/Styles in the spring with Miz getting the title which would lead to Miz-Bryan for the title at Summerslam with the big moment of Bryan winning the title after being gone for so long and then you build towards Styles-Bryan at the Rumble/Mania. I suppose in my head, I was assuming that the Nakamura heel turn would have legs as a main event gimmick and that they'd build some long-term heat onto Rusev, not to mention the Bryan vs Jeff Hardy "dream" match that could have easily been a hot match in order to sustain what, could have been, a really hot title run. Of course, then you'd need 6 months of programs to keep Styles out of the title picture but that would mean giving him something else to work with other than being the champion or challenging for the championship and yeah, maybe I was expecting too much

I'm amazed he lasted 8 and a half years retired. But yeah, if these, morally repulsive, super shows in Saudi Arabia are going to be the place where Shawn Michaels comes out of retirement, for a meaningless exhibition match with minimal build for a show that only matters to WWEs coffers then that's a really awful omen for the next few years. Why bother booking to make money when you can pocket a fortune from this lot every year?

Just make Shane O Mac a special ref and you get the best part of his act i.e. his theme music and his cute little dance.

Regardless of whether Miz/Bryan arrives at Mania or not, it’s clearly, if handled right, the hottest pairing on Smackdown and Miz has been so good since pairing with Maryse, that he deserves another crack at a title run

Someone has probably beat me to this joke but is Ambrose now called "The Lunatic Buzzcut"?

Yeah, that's an absolutely awesome gimmick. It's the Eva Marie gimmick as written by someone intelligent.

Meiko Satomura is in! https://www.wwe.com/shows/maeyoungclassic/article/meiko-satomura-mae-young-classic-2018

Yeah, I’m all in on Su Yung. It feels like a gimmick that WWE would love for their Women’s Division since it would give them ample opportunity to flex their “production” muscle