NintendoLogic

Baba was a heel in Florida. He was one of the guys who came in to try to collect Gary Hart's bounty on Dusty Rhodes.

The new Observer says that Gable/Gallagher wasn't supposed to end by countout. Gallagher was supposed to roll back in at the last minute, but he was too slow and the referee called it as a shoot. Even so, it was much better than whatever the planned finish was supposed to be. It's the kind of non-finish that leaves you wanting more rather than feeling ripped off.

Also, here's battle royal winner Mansoor reenacting the Happy Merchant meme. Maybe he and Lars Sullivan can form a shitlord tag team.

They were upset that they didn't get the usual Okada post-match promo.

Given the announced card for Stomping Grounds, I'm kind of surprised they've sold as many tickets as they have. None of the matches look even slightly compelling. Who in their right minds would want to see rematches of Rollins/Corbin, Becky/Lacey, and Kofi/Dolph? Between the Raptors having a chance to close out the Warriors and the overall malaise surrounding the product, tonight's Raw stands an excellent chance of setting an all-time ratings low. The good news for WWE is that the game doesn't start until 9 PM EST, so they have a chance to retain some viewers by running a hot angle in the first hour. Maybe Lesnar will actually cash in. The wwe.com preview is all but saying that he won't be on the show tonight, so he definitely will be according to wrestling reverse psychology.

A roided-up immobile KENTA stiffing the shit out of people and never leaving his feet actually sounds pretty awesome.

Check out the logo for the next PPV: Here's a hot take: WWE kind of sucks right now.

KENTA~!

That shows the importance of having HHH as the good cop. I think European promotions would have been much more guarded about getting entangled with WWE if Vince had been leading the charge.

One thing I find incredibly striking when watching 2000s puro is how much of a non-factor Jun Akiyama is in most of the all-star dream match tags. I wouldn't go so far as to call him luggage, but he doesn't come across as a superstar at all. It's like his role in the matches is to eat up minutes and then fade into the background when the real stars go at it. There's a moment in the 4/24/05 Kobashi/Shiozaki vs. Tenryu/Akiyama tag that perfectly encapsulates what I'm talking about. Akiyama is working over Shiozaki in the ring when Shiozaki goes after Tenryu on the apron. Akiyama just stands there and watches while the two of them go at it. Akiyama was world-class both as a young up-and-comer and as a grumpy old veteran, but you would expect a true great to feel like more of a top guy in his prime.

Or maybe they were the only ones with wrestling gear that covered their whole bodies readily available.

Even worse than the leg work that didn't mean a thing (except when it did) was the interminable crowd brawling in the beginning. Juice's stage dive off the entrance was downright embarrassing. Not to mention all the Sabu cosplay and the sub-Angle/Benoit submission trading. If they had shown some restraint and trimmed the fat, they could have delivered a blowaway great 10 to 15-minute match. But they just couldn't help themselves from throwing everything they could think of against the wall to make it an "epic." I do agree that Moxley looked better than he has in ages, possibly ever. The way he worked the cut after splitting Juice's eyebrow open hardway was indeed reminiscent of Terry Funk, and the spike Dirty Deeds he won the match with looked vicious. I also got a kick out of him mockingly bowing to the referee and the audience.

I suspect that the fans turning on her for no real reason left a bitter taste in her mouth.

New top three picks for 2010, 2011, and 2019.

WWE is impossible to defend on the merits these days, so the only thing left for the apologists is to go after straw men.

I have no idea why anyone would pay to see an ROH show in 2019. Who is their target audience supposed to be? Are they trying to be a super indy? An incubator and launching pad for the stars of the future? WWE/TNA lite? They need to make up their minds, because they can't be all three.

Look, there have to be repercussions when someone announces they're going to do something and then doesn't do it. That undercuts WWE's legendary commitment to delivering what it advertises.

The fact that Bubba told the guy not to say anything he wouldn't say to his mom leads me to believe he was going well beyond simply booing the heels and cheering the faces. Even so, this is incredibly bush-league. Getting into an altercation with a fan is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Have him kicked out if he's that out of line.

No-nonsense tag sprint featuring four guys who aren't afraid to take or dish out boatloads of punishment. The match is centered around Meiyu Tag working over Honma, and his selling is off the charts. In particular, he sells a sucker punch from Shibata like a blow from a baseball bat. I also loved Shibata setting up the PK only to boot Nagata off the apron, followed by Nagata kicking the guardrail in frustration. Honma reversing the shouten into a small package was a great nearfall late in the match. They keep the fighting spirit nonsense to a minimum and deliver 11 minutes of hard-hitting action without overstaying their welcome. If New Japan has produced a better tag match this decade, I haven't seen it.

I think this comfortably smokes the 4/2/93 WAR tag, which is honestly pretty dull before Choshu gets posted. Hell of a gutsy performance from Ohara as he absorbs an unreal amount of punishment but keeps firing back. Plenty of highlights packed into a relatively short time frame, including Ishikawa contemptuously stomping Ohara after a double clothesline, Hashimoto breaking up a pin and trying to drag Ohara to his corner only for Tenryu to drag him right back, and the monster match-ending chokeslam. There are a couple of blatant restholds, but that's the only real problem with this match.

What would Gargano do on the main roster? He has no ready-made feuds, and all the singles champions are babyfaces. He'd be just another midcard geek lost in the shuffle.

Why did Gargano try to pin Cole while the referee was out? I mean, he's the one who took out the referee. Is he an idiot?

Is there a worse move in wrestling than the Panama Sunrise? It's like someone dared Cole to make the Canadian Destroyer even stupider and he did it by adding a bunny hop beforehand.

Please tell me this match isn't going an hour.

I'm a Shayna fan, but every single one of her feuds ending with her choking out her opponent is a total buzzkill.