Stiva

I want that idea but with The New Day instead. 20 seconds of them beating a guy up and a minute and a half of Xavier playing the trombone and Kofi and Big E dancing.

Bayley/Jax completely ruled with a result that I wasn't expecting. Jax is a total star; the way she carries herself and her aura is enough but she clearly knows enough about being a monster at such an early stage, knowing when to be knocked down, what offense to use etc. Bayley was great too, just bumping like a lunatic and making that choke look like all of her energy was being ploughed into it.

It's wild seeing Americans on Twitter loving these chants when everyone in the UK who has had to put up with them at football matches for a decade is sick of them

I'm a huge fan of Dawson. He's a good bumper, good seller, his offense is always crisp with a real weight behind it and he's great at all of the little touches that play to the cheap seats. He and Dash are a great team and this is a hell of a title match.

2015 has really sucked

Deciding to watch Raw and Nitro back to back now that I have the Network and it's so odd. I've seen all of these shows before but never as they were aired, as it were. It stands out how much every single part of Nitro seems fresh and new, aside from the segments with Hogan. Even the Flair/Arn cage match, which should be a huge match, is over within 8 minutes and the announcers spend most of the time talking about the "NEW" Hulk Hogan. Turning heel was a masterstroke but it's telling how tired wrestling audiences were of him for most of the 90s to this point. At my current watch, Raw is right in the period where Watts was booking and one episode has that amazing Diesel/Shawn/Taker vs Bulldog/Yoko/Owen six man with the great heel beatdown and it's followed with a ten minute segment that's just Vince and Lawler commentating over Bret/Issac Yankem from Summerslam. You take the rough with the smooth, I suppose. Also, PG-13's WWF run really did rule.

If it is a tournament, I'm calling Reigns to win the tournament and Sheamus to cash in. Maybe after Reigns beats him in the first round.

Tournament at Survivor Series sounds like good fun. Wonder if they pull the trigger on Roman or anoint a new Authority guy with a heel turn as they screw him in the final.

This rules, thanks

They could easily get around that by having tags main event the house shows. Rollins could get a cheap pin over Cena but still eat his finisher anyway. Or his partner, whoever it may be, could take the fall.

I believe Steiners vs. Heavenly Bodies from Summerslam 93 counts here.

Bryan's organic connection with the crowd stood, and still does, stand out in a ridiculously controlled environment and if he's ever healthy enough to continue, the entire sequence will repeat again because nobody has taken his place as the fan's man. I agree with Loss that their idea of what a wrestler is and looks like is so removed from Bryan but I think, when he returns, they're going to get exactly what they've tried to repress for 18 months. It's how they react that's important.

No Johnny? Not sure I can handle such rampant negativity

Not to go into well-worn HHH territory but putting himself opposite the hottest act in the company time and again isn't something to praise him for. There's no way Bryan should have been working Kane in his first title program when Bryan/Batista and the Bryan/HHH rematch, this time for the title, were right there. There was no real reason for Evolution to work The Shield except that dumb Rollins turn that came way too early.

Great line-up. It says something that I have no interest in watching the show but a ton of interest in hearing you guys talk about it.

I agree that there's a tremendous amount of crossover between 90s fighting games and wrestling and that's awesome. As for why I like wrestling, I think the actual wrestling side of it is amazing; I love the idea that two (or four, or six) workers can tell a story in the ring with only 12 minutes to do so. I love the athleticism but my love of wrestling comes from everything awesome that surrounds it. The angles, the gimmicks, the promos, the deep history to dig into, the fact that different sections of the world all have their own rules and cultures. Wrestling is a world that seems impenetrable but once you get in, once you accept it, it's amazing. Basically, I like wrestling because I watched it as a kid but something stuck with me, something intangible, something unexplained. I remember realising I loved wrestling around about the Smackdown Six Era. Triple H on Raw genuinely turned me away but I came across Smackdown by chance and here are all these awesome tag matches.I was 12 years old and I vividly remember those matches restoring my love of wrestling. Now, I love wrestling because I appreciate the psychology that goes into a great match but I love watching Southern wrestling angles, Stan Hansen kicking the shit out of some poor and Jeff G Bailey Wildside promos.I love All Japan tags, I love lucha six mans, I love WWE gimmick match main events, I love TV cage matches, I love southern tag matches, I love everything. I honestly couldn't tell you why the wrestling bug, in all it's formulaic favour bit me but I love it so, If I had to give a reason, it's because there's an excitement; a genuine love for the product that's missing in every other adventure I couldn't tell you how I got into wrestling but I love the idea of telling a story through battle; I love the idea of someone encapsulating the gimmick for a promo and I really love how pro wrestling, seemingly against itself, is the most carny, self promoting industry in the world. And it's beautiful.

I think it would be really funny if they've edited it into a Homer Simpson on Rock Bottom style hatchet job and it took people weeks to notice.

Woods is incredibly quick on his feet. You watch him in any other setting and you can see that. I think Big E with Woods as his manager is money waiting to happen.

Pulling back from "stars", I'd think the likes of Big E, Cesaro, Balor etc will be floating around the top of the card. I expect Ambrose to have so much raw charisma that he makes it. I think Wyatt will have a run with the belt also. As for full blown stars, did anyone predict Daniel Bryan's ludicrous rise to the top in late 2013? Shit, it's almost possible that Jimmy Uso could get over huge ala Jeff Hardy.

I'm happy with The Dudleys being back because it results in The New Day having fresh guys to play off. Why aren't these things on TV?!!! I know they have to have those precious web hits but these kind of sit-down interviews would be a welcome breather on TV. I guess they wouldn't be so much fun for the people in attendance but they'd go some ways to helping feuds get over. Not everyone is as entertaining as The New Day, granted. Shit, you could just make it a live in-ring interview segment.

NXT gained such momentum from being a simple, well booked product and now it's selling out 16,000 seater arenas. I wonder if that'll trickle down to the main shows. Book it well and they will come?

Man, it's so disappointing that Joe never got to work on the main stage when he was in his prime.

Corbin as the hater of indie wrestling is the perfect NXT heel gimmick.

I'm laughing my ass off at that low-rent Michael Cole on commentary.

For all the talk of a renewed brand split, is NXT the new Smackdown? Do WWE go pillage Evolve etc. to fill NXT up? I've clearly missed the last 6 months of discussion but a "development territory" getting this kind of crowd sets the mind running. EDIT: Has WWE really sold out an arena around a Prince Devitt/Kevin Steen ladder match? That's fucking awesome!