artDDP

Something about that closing angle seems like a total work. They never cut away from it and I don't doubt for a second that Orton was willing (or talked into) taking a stiff shot to get the angle over. Personally, I'm sick of Brock Lesnar. He shows up five times a year and does virtually nothing aside from tossing a few guys around because of the "suplex city" bullshit. He gets to swear and use blood to get himself and his angles over and isn't subject to a wellness policy and by all accounts it hasn't helped ratings or attendance one bit. I liked the Cena vs. AJ match and that was about it. Dean was acting like "see, I told you so" during his match and especially at the finish. Charlotte and Sasha tried way too hard and took too many risks to have an "epic" match. It was good but could have been toned down quite a bit and it wouldn't have hurt. The crowd chanting "this is awesome" will just enable them (I saw someone on Twitter say that and I agree). Charlotte will need to work on being a heel because she can't be crying throughout the match because she dropped her friend wrong. Seth Rollins was whining on Twitter about the fans chanting about the belt during his match. Carmella coming out to total silence never ceases to make me laugh.

I thought the exact same thing watching Joe last night. He walks, talks, and wrestles like a champion.

Am I mistaken or did I hear Bryan on last night's audio say Dave is going to miss the main events of Takeover to watch the UFC undercard? My subscription only began two years ago but it really seems more and more to me that Dave would really rather talk about MMA and to a lesser extent NJPW.

I loved this show. None of the usual crap that infests WWE PPVs because of the 50/50 bullshit and "this feud MUST continue" that robs us of decisive finishes. The tag title match was incredible. Every near-fall and tease was just perfect. I'm not that high on No Way Jose yet. Billie Kay looked good. It's kinda sad to see the NXT audience isn't buying Almas just yet. Bayley-Asuka was good but it felt like it needed a little more in the middle maybe. Still, I like a good, decisive win for your champion. And, if Bayley is leaving for the main roster that was the right way to say good-bye. It's funny how WWE can be so sentimental and sweet with certain talents while at the same time going out of their way to humiliate others.

Finally had time get caught up with NJPW on AXS and holy Christ was Ross unbearable. Just boring, added no life to the matches, and kept taking shots at the critics on Twitter who "still live in their parents basement." A complete turn-off.

It seems like wherever I go as a fan, Mauro Ranallo haunts me. He was the play-by-play guy when Stampede briefly had their comeback on A Channel here in Canada. Then he shows up during the dying days of PRIDE. Then he's on The Fight Network calling all sorts of stuff, including Japanese wrestling, so if I want to see Puro with English commentary, it's got to be him. Now I start watching WWE for the first time in 15 years, and there he is on Smackdown. My issue with him has always been that he comes across like he's trying too hard and is trying to beat you over the head with how smart he is, or more accurately, how smart he thinks he is. He has to use the long form name for every move executed, and give you a bio of who invented the move, or perfected it. Then he has to try and be clever and throw out his wordplay and wannabe Howard Cosell descriptions of the action. In some ways, he reminds me of all of the things I hated about Matt Striker. I can appreciate it when the commentator knows a lot, but when it seems like they're trying to beat you over the head with it, it grates on the nerves. He's better in WWE than Michael Cole or a guy like Byron Saxton would be, but that is damning him with faint praise. For my money, Tom Phillips and Corey Graves are the best broadcast team in WWE, hands down. Mauro sucks for the reasons TKK noted. I figure Dave adores him because he called MMA and he just loves anyone who was in any way mildly connected with MMA. He tries way, way too hard to work his pop culture references into his WWE commentary. Still, I'd rather hear him call NJPW than Jim Ross.

I was way off on my GM prediction. I thought they'd go for more shenanigans but so far it doesn't appear that way.

Vince somehow tainted the sample to get even with Brock and Dana White.

Brock's statement: "We'll get to the bottom of this." Here's hoping Brock keeps the streak of ludicrous PED excuses by UFC talent streak alive.

My guess is that Shane will get a heel GM that he can embarrass every few weeks and Stephanie will get a babyface GM that foils her dastardly plans. The obvious choice for Raw would be Daniel Bryan. I have no idea who goes to Smackdownunless they really do put Triple H there. No way is he stooging for Shane (or anyone), though. I'm guessing next week Vince says they get to pick each other's GMs?

A billion times this. Not a fan of Brock, and the sense of entitlement that surrounds him because he's "legit" makes him even less fun to watch. x2 The night of Brock's UFC return Dave was virtually insisting WWE should put the belt on Lesnar and build the company around him immediately. Despite the fact that even Dave has reported Brock hasn't been a draw for a while now. Putting aside that Dave just loves anything MMA/amateur wrestling. I don't really remember it working the last time Brock was the champion and a champion who isn't even mentioned on television unless he has a PPV match upcoming kinda devalues the title. Judging from the reaction of some UFC fans to the fact there was a SummerSlam commercial during the UFC telecast I doubt there's a much of a crossover in interest between WWE and MMA as so many think.

Dave thought they were trying to help garner sympathy for Reigns by having Rollins mock his drug test failure. The fans already hate Roman and WWE felt announcing that he failed a drug test would make people feel sorry for him?

The last week of NXT convinced me Corey Graves is an excellent commentator. I loved when he said something like "With that top-knot and those tattoos I figured we found this guy at the local CrossFit gym."

Does Wade offer anything anymore besides wild, speculative fantasy booking disguised as analysis? He clearly has zero sources outside of one or two in TNA.

Dave kind of danced around it this week on one of the audio shows but he said that Rock won't do anything he thinks will make him look bad. I doubt Rock will put himself in a position to be in a ring getting booed again.

Wasn't the quality exceptional, too? Is Vince so stubborn he just won't pay Bret whatever he wants for the rights to air the footage or does Vince just not care about the segment of the Network audience that would want it?

In 1987 didn't they do something where they went to Detroit to film an SNME a month or so before WrestleMania III, toured some more, then went back to the Detroit area for WrestleMania? Sek mentioned something about it somewhere. It was the SNME where Andre won a battle royal and bloodied Lanny Poffo.

Agreed.

Because Triple H has to have his epic 25-minute-plus star-making main event without anyone's attention being diverted?

"When Kevin Owens showed up I thought he was the plumber" -- Alex Riley

Actually kinda funny. After Monday's trickle of blood, cursing, and Dean getting the barbed wire bat I expect to see message boards and social media overflowing with "OMG IS THE ATTITUDE ERA COMING BACK??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" type posts.

This should be loads of fun tonight.

Wade thinks wrestlers should stay in character in every media interview and only use social media to further storylines. This I completely disagree with. I will, however, agree that wrestlers shouldn't break character during the show itself (i.e., heels being featured in charity segments minutes after doing something dastardly).

Hogan and Fujinami turned into an "out-and-out shoot, brother" and Hogan barely escaped with his life. Hogan had to do it to prove to Andre the Giant that he could hang with the big boys but it wound up killing Vince's chances of every working with the Japanese again.

Yep. Every single show he finds something to complain about "destroying the internal narrative".