Stiva

Holy shit at Smackdown. Their PPVs should have some fantastic matches without even trying. EDIT: Oh shit, they scrapped them! One more cosmic joke: finally give Smackdown a roster that could sustain their own PPVs and then stop them

I also thought Pearce was great in the ROH vs CZW feud. He cut some good promos when the feud needed a mouth piece and he knitted the arena brawls and Cage of Death together really well without distracting from the guys that needed the spotlight in those matches.

I think a ***** rating represents objective perfection which can never be achieved in a creative craft that is at the mercy of subjective analysis. But if I had to answer on Meltzer's ratings, that Dragon Gate tag from ROH. And I love CIMA.

Don't worry, it will all go toward the 2020 Presidential campaign. I know Kid Rock wants to run for Senate but if we're putting money behind a WWE HOF'er, then let's get Mark Henry in the White House.

More great stuff from Evil Liger which sees the tanks actually get some good shots in on Godzilla. It isn't enough in the end but man, what a great sprint. The ending brainbuster looks suitably devastating after two excellent, explosive performances. I'm not sure what I've enjoyed the most so far this year: Evil Liger or El Satanico being a complete bastard. Viva heels.

I saw that Matt Striker shoot interview preview and he just came across as Michael Scott.

I enjoyed this, not as much as Loss but I really think this was an excellent opening tag match (if it was, I have no idea). As alluded to, the pace they cut was impressive but it breathed when it had to and I actually enjoyed the finish in a vacuum. The heels have had one avenue closed so they exploit another one. It's not something that you can do all the time because it brings up the logical fallacy of "Why doesn't the heel just always get intentionally DQ'd?" but I do think it works from time to time as a way to get heat. The ref even took a nice bump on the finish too! I have a standing belief that Joey Matthews is one of the lost or underrated workers of the 2000s so I hope PWO2K sees that be true.

I can't remember what order everything went in so I'm just bouncing around but I can co-sign Evolve 102 as having a really great main event but it also has Keith Lee throwing Darby Allin around in pretty special ways. A fantastic mix of great power offense and nutty bumping which I love. The Impact/Lucha Underground show had the feel of a televised house show but I actually enjoyed it well enough since there are definitely guys on both sides of that divide that are personal favourites (Jack Evans, Sydal, Aries, Drago, Trevor Lee). Everyone except Teddy Hart worked really hard to try and put on a good show amidst all the other hyped gigs. They had Teddy teaming with Steiner and I genuinely think Steiner put in more effort on his hot tag than Hart did at any point. It was kinda funny to see but the FIP sequence mostly involved him sitting in the corner as moves were heaped upon him and then nonchalantly making the hot tag after a quick high spot.

Taker/Rusev ends with Taker sending the casket off to the morgue. We follow the hearse and the "morgue" is just an outhouse with "TNA" spray-painted on the side.

Theyve been Impact Wrestling for however long now and even the talent is still calling it TNA. Thats some rebrand.

Really strong Mania on the whole that was REALLY fucking long. My viewing was definitely helped by consuming it in 2 chunks, rather than live but even then, I was ready for it to wrap up after Nak/Styles. Mixed tag was probably MOTN with Ronda looking like an absolute natural and Steph giving off the greatest performance of her career. She should seriously just pack it in now, she's never going to top that. HHH/Angle were there and I thought HHH bumped and worked hard to cover Angle's deficiencies. Nak/Styles was a really well worked match in front of a crowd that was totally burnt out. The heel turn was a hot angle and I'm glad they're trying to inject some life into the feud since you can't sell a "Dream Match" twice. Even then, the Dream Match was cold as hell. Main event was a total clusterfuck and I can't believe that they're still throwing money at Brock, The dude is worthless; we're going to get a rematch with Reigns in a cage and then what? Another 5 minute main event opposite Lashley? The act could justify itself when they were thin on top but look at the workers they have in top positions now. Without Brock, your Raw main event scene could be Reigns, Joe, Braun, Lashley, Miz, Rollins and Balor. That's a group of guys that the crowd is into and pop for. Anyway, everything else was great. I'd have liked to see Asuka and Rusev go over but Charlotte is their golden girl and she's great in her own right so whatever. The Rusev result though. It's pretty ridiculous that the dude put together a great act with English, came up with a catchphrase that everyone loves, has a top selling merch item and is a bonafide mega worker and they won't do anything with him. Yet they're content to rake in the money from his shirts. I hope he does get his release and can work in places that will give him the chance to shine. I think I've focused on the negatives too much but the opener exceeded all expectations, the Cena/Taker angle/squash was pretty much worked perfectly, the Braun/Nicholas stuff felt like a bit of a let down but I'm not sure that they could have delivered anybody that would have satisfied, especially with the match they worked. The two women's matches were strong and I liked the three pre-show matches all in all. They need to shorten these shows right down but this was probably my favourite Mania since 30. Also, the show is long but Rusev losing pretty much killed the crowd. And then once Rousey was done, they just tapped out. That should have went last.

Roderick Strong just turned heel on a WWE broadcast. What a wild world we live in. Dunne/Roddy for the UK Title is something that can definitely headline a Network special from Manchester

Between Cole winning the ladder match and taking the early table bump, I wouldn't be surprised if he retains the tag belts here and they're heating him up for a run opposite Almas. If not Almas, he's Balor/Rollins first opponent for the IC belt

I don't want to say it but Paige looks totally fucking out of it in these promos for her biopic.

Would love to think that Rhonda at ringside is planting seeds for feuds with Ember and Shayna in the future

I'm taking that as one for one

As lame as Adam Cole may be, he's at least over

I dug Bloodsport, well, am digging since I still have the main to watch. I was fearing the worst when hearing about the early matches but I actually thought Kingston/Hot Sauce was really fun with Kingston donning the singlet and the pair of them throwing some mean strikes. The finish on the Stone/Masada match was really bad and I don't know if the ref went too early on that finish or if it was actually the plan but man, it killed things as it got going. Luckily, WALTER/Lawlor was awesome. Really made use of the size difference, the arm injury and managed to tease both KO and submission finishes down the stretch in a really fantastic way. The show length doesn't really bother me too much since on a personal level, I have an obscene amount of wrestling to get through but I also couldn't see myself sitting through an extra hour of it all. It's it's own entity and works in a shorter 2 hour blast. EDIT: Oh yeah, the Severn finish was blew but it was the same ref as Stone/Masada, right? Was it a rib to give him the shitty finishes? Is Riddle bringing back heel refs?

I cracked the fuck up at Brains Strowman. Every time they give the dude a segment like that (Elias and the double bass, for example), he knocks it out the park.

Doubful considering the Raw champs will be BRAUN and his mystery partner by then. Some kind of multi man match announced for Raw. Sami and Owens are signed by Kurt; Owens pins, idk, Scott Dawson. He and Sami rush off through the crowd and Braun obliterates every opponent and even his team mate. That seems like Raw after Mania booking to me.

Bryan and Shane win, KO and Sami leave Smackdown, show up on Raw the next night and win the Tag Belts.

If you only have time to watch one make it the Hell In A Cell. Agreed. One of my favourite WWE matches in the last 5 years. Great violent feel with a career best performance from Woods.

I've never thought about a mental image for Loss but I'm now imagining him as Boss Hogg and quite frankly, I never want to be proven otherwise.

I had heard of Jeff G Bailey's scorched earth promos and my god, they haven't disappointed. And neither did this. Both guys are very raw but the potential is definitely there, certainly with Styles who is just dripping with it. Both guys are kind of bland, even if they do have their share of solid attributes; Styles' bumping and grace was already crazily impressive already and the two of them knew when to hit those big moments and when to slow it down. A shame that Onyx didn't really amount to a lot more but maybe PWO2K will help his standing. Two things jumped out; I chuckled at Onyx getting backdropped into the crowd by a "Happy Anniversary" sign for some reason and Styles' backflip off Onyx in the corner was GIF-worthy.