NintendoLogic

I hope the agents devoted all their attention to this match. It would be the only excuse for Ambrose/Rollins.

I have a new appreciation for Bryan/Styles. I wasn't as high on that match as the rest of the board, but it was 6/3/94 compared to this.

Oh boy, another "Will Seth's knee hold up?" match.

I'd call that the WWE singles MOTY without hesitation, even if it didn't quite reach the heights both are capable of reaching.

Looks like I was wrong about Bryan/Styles being the main event. The Raw women's title match was as good as it could have been, but it was by far the worst of Ronda's PPV matches. Nia continues to be the absolute worst.

Interesting how the crowd pops pretty big when the babyfaces go over and dies for all the HEAT~! segments. Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned there.

LMAO @ Nattie selling the Anvil table gently falling on her like a Burning Hammer.

It's listed as the top match on the preview at wwe.com. That might not mean anything, but the matches do seem to be listed in order of importance.

It looks like the WWE Championship match will be the main event. When was the last time that happened on a dual-branded PPV? I find that the WWE PPVs that look strong on paper invariably disappoint while the ones that appear underwhelming tend to overdeliver. This one could go either way, so I have no idea what to expect. Bryan/Styles looks to be WWE's last best chance to make my MOTY list, so I hope they knock it out of the park.

From Microstatistics, I got a JWP title match from joshi's dark ages. I found the match fascinating because none of my usual issues with joshi presented themselves. The selling and transitions were fine, there was no interminable apply-a-hold-and-release-it-for-no-reason mat section, and there was no overkill in the sense of them kicking out of things they shouldn't have. In fact, I can't think of anything that was bad on a micro level. Despite all that, I couldn't really connect to what they were doing. I think it was because there was no real hook to the action beyond Hyuga and Haruyama throwing bombs at each other. It probably would've worked better for me if they had built up to the bombs rather than going all-out from the opening bell. A hook arrived about eighteen minutes in when Hyuga injured her leg, and they managed to suck me in during the final five minutes. Hyuga's one-legged bridge out of a pin attempt was an awesome spot. Other than that, the most compelling part of the match for me was Haruyama mudering Hyuga with chairs outside of the ring and showing reckless disregard for both her body and her opponent's. From cad, I got a AAA trios pitting El Hijo del Santo against his would-be archnemesis (Psicosis and La Parka are announced as the captains of their respective teams for some reason, but Santo and Santo Negro are the actual captains). The story of the match is as follows: the rudo team jumps the tecnicos before the opening bell and dominates the first fall, ending with Santo Negro forcing Santo to submit to the camel clutch. Santo's mask gets torn up to the point where he's out of commission for the entire second fall, forcing Parka and Octagon to make a 2-on-3 comeback, which is facilitated by Santo Negro being knocked out of the ring. Santo returns in the middle of the third fall and cleans house, leading to him finally getting Santo Negro in a one-on-one situation. But Santo Negro takes the easy way out by fouling Santo, taking the L but leaving with his head held high. I find that that matches like this don't really lend themselves to play-by-play analysis because so much is happening simultaneously. It's more about the overall vibe and standout moments. To that end, Psicosis supplies his usual insane bumps, a pre-Chairman Parka supplies the dancing, and Eddy supplies the suplexes. I always enjoy Eddy in a lucha setting because his Japanese-style offense comes across as even more devastating. I must note that the end of the second fall contains one of the most horrifically business-exposing moments I've ever seen. Octagon lands a huracanrana on Psisosis and Eddy, who is standing right there, makes no attempt to break up the pin and instead goes after Parka. Overall, though, the match did a good job of advancing the Santo/Santo Negro issue and the crowd remained hot throughout, so I'll mark it down as a success. It's unfortunate that Santo's family forced them to pull the plug on the Santo Negro gimmick, because a proper blowoff no doubt would have been a barn burner.

I figured Seth's tweet wasn't so much an expression of his genuine opinion as a way to earn brownie points with the front office. Also, I took "all the extraneous variables that affect the final outcome" to be a euphemism for "having to cater to the whims of a senile psychopath."

Seven(!) new inductees according to Dave. There's a good chance the lucha logjam finally broke.

Somebody on r/SquaredCircle did something like that a few months ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/944mhp/i_fed_a_bot_a_years_worth_of_raw_recaps_and_made/

Taichi/Ospreay was awesome. By far the most Kawada-esque performance Taichi has ever turned in.

I was terribly busy this past week, but I should have a review for Micro's match pretty soon. Meanwhile, here's something for cad.

I'm worried Dream has the kind of Dancin' Homer gimmick that'll die horribly on the main roster because it goes over Vince's head.

Yeah, Dave said that Vince rewrote the show to have less HEAT~! because they were in Houston and he wanted to put smiles on faces since Bush had just died.

I don't think I've heard a single Dynamite-related anecdote that reflected well on him as a person. Still, he repaid whatever karmic debt he had incurred several times over in his final years.

Plus, Houston is usually one of WWE's stronger cities. It really is astounding that this company has managed to achieve record profitability when interest in the product has never been lower by most metrics (to wit, they actually lost money on house shows last quarter). Maybe the contrarian take that Vince fell into success is spot on. Maybe not entirely, more like 75%.

In other news, it looks like Vince finally saw The Dark Knight Rises.

When I read the show recaps, it seems like 90% of the segments end with a babyface being laid out by the heels. I don't know why anyone would want to watch a show that's a constant bummer.

Microstatistics:

It does feel like every single aspect of society has become more politicized in recent years. I think a big part of that is Trump's singular talent for making everything about him. As Will Leitch said, it's probably the only thing about him that's genuinely impressive.

So, um...are they really building Raw around Baron Corbin as the top heel?

Count me in.