Childs

The horrible thing is he may never get back to where he was heading into tonight. I hope that's not the case, but you can't count on it.

Main event fell really flat. I thought Brock would win but just didn't feel special at all.

I would've preferred them to go straight from one main event to the other. This crap is unworthy.

I'm surprised people thought that would be anything other than a center-cut WWE epic. It was a passing of the torch between the chosen ones. I mean, it's not my favorite style either but it was effective.

That Nia bump to the floor, Jesus.

Great performance by Sheamus and Cesaro. Well-designed match. Rollins and Ambrose are ... not good.

And again Balor put him away routinely after a blah match. Accompanied by blather about demons and eaters of worlds. So glad they ran that back.

The Wyatt-Balor feud is unbelievably stupid. Two ill-conceived characters, not to mention Balor already beat him clean in 10 minutes.

Jordan-Miz was a really solid opener.

Despite the fact some excellent wrestlers still work for EVOLVE, I'm happy to have washed my hands of both the promotion and FloSlam. Hadn't enjoyed either for awhile.

I'd take the best Tito-Valentine matches and probably a couple of the best Backlund defenses (Patera, Patterson, etc.) over Savage-Steamboat. Also, Bret vs. Owen was better than Razor vs. Shawn.

The discussion of this incident is far more bizarre than the original story. Who gives a shit?

Drew really suffered from being Vince's favorite toy before he had the chops to back it up. He'd have been better off flying under the radar early. He was actually quite good in-ring before they released him the first time (I always think of that Chris Masters match on Superstars), though it's fair to say he blossomed as a complete package on the indies. When you see him in person, it comes across how massive he truly is. Not just tall but thick, even though he's not absurdly musclebound. A lot of the EVOLVE guys looked like middle schoolers next to him.

I dropped the service for the time being. It just hasn't been worth a damn lately. I'll come back if it does.

Isn't it basically his whole career? He seriously started at the top of heap and just stayed there. If I had to choose, I'd say 93-98. Oh come on. He was precocious but he did not start at the top of the heap. No way he was comparable to any of the pillars until at least '96. My favorite period for Akiyama would be later, maybe 2000-2004. But it's true that his calling card is more that he's been really good for a really long time.

They held on to Okada and Tanahashi, who were always the aces. They did a good job of building Naito to fill the Nakamura vacuum and Omega to fill the Styles vacuum. Gallows, Anderson, Devitt, Honma and Shibata never mattered much as draws. And they've continued to deliver the main event style their fans crave. Pretty straightforward, really.

How far in are you? It picks up after about 3 episodes. I tapped out right around that point. But as I said, I'll probably give it another go eventually. I'm sure I was partially reacting to the dissonance between my tepid enjoyment and the outpouring of critical love.

This has become one of those things where I just don't understand why I'm not seeing what everyone else is seeing. I found the show deadly dull--neither funny, nor dramatic nor touching. And I like a lot of the people involved--Brie, Maron, etc. I'll have to give it another shot at some point.

I'd probably give this an extra star just because it wasn't built around Okada's leg being attacked. Seriously though, this was a good match. I liked Okada's little attempts to show off for big brother, and the race to hit a finisher made for a compelling stretch run. But as usual with Okada's better matches, I came away thinking most of the special touches came from his opponent. Nakamura's offense looked so much cooler and more violent.

Okada's opponent worked over his leg. Okada responded with a second-turnbuckle dropkick and some weak-looking neck stretches against the guardrail. Knock me over with shock, why don't you. This was a lesser rehash of their March match, which was no better than pretty good in the first place. I had hope when Naito started throwing his body around ringside and Okada momentarily responded with some top-notch leg selling. But they quickly tossed that away for a my-turn, your-turn stretch run. I guess Okada became the GOAT sometime after 2012.

They struggled to build on what they'd done in February. Again, they went to the leg vs. neck dynamic. I'm not a stickler on leg selling. But why build all of Okada's big matches around it when his key transition spots are ultra-springy dropkicks? I also thought his neck attack was haphazard but maybe that's just because so much of his offense looked like shit. I hate that convoluted neck submission. The finishing stretch felt completely disconnected from the body of the match--just a long string of stuff and reversals and more stuff. The crowd loved it so I'll give them that. And I did buy Tanahashi's passion for recapturing his spot. But this was an undistinguished performance from Okada. He didn't do anything particularly well.

Apparently, I had the same thought as Brad and Chad as I started re-watching some Okada matches because of the insane hype he's generating this year. I thought the Feb. title win over Tanahashi was an excellent, tight match that established Okada as a major player. But I didn't like this one nearly as much. First of all, it struck me as a complete knock-off of the Tanahashi match, with the same focus on Okada's leg and his opponent's neck. Okada certainly tried to sell conscientiously in these matches. But rather than convince me that his leg hurt, he convinced me that he wanted me to know he was trying to sell. I'm hoping to see him become more naturalistic with experience. Also, his too-cool-for-the-room vibe worked better in contrast to Tanahashi's ace persona than in opposition to Naito's eagerness. I wanted him to be more of a dick, basically, as he started to feel his oats. Naito, meanwhile, was too all over the place with his attack to feel like a major threat in the finishing stretch. The one thing I really liked was their treatment of the Rainmaker. Completely agree with Chad about the unfortunate devaluing of that move over time. Overall, there wasn't anything hugely wrong with this match. But nothing about it screamed classic, and Okada was still very much a work in progress.

Boring match. Didn't play to Choshu's strengths, to say the least.

Riddle needs to drop the Pele kick. Looks terrible almost every time. Actually, he's developed a lot of bad habits. I agree about the match though. O'Reilly's return to EVOLVE has clicked for me in a way I didn't expect, given how hit and miss (more miss) he was in ROH and New Japan.

Finally got around to watching this and what a treat it was. I love wrestlers whose physical appearances belie their skills, and I don't think you'd ever look at these two and think judoka and jiu-jitsu specialist. But fuck if they didn't bring the goods, with plenty of pro wrestling touches to top off the sundae. Shit like this is the reason to keep watching wrestling. You just never know.