NintendoLogic

Togi or Daniel?

This is why comparisons to Foley are so off-base. There may have been comedic aspects to Foley's character, but that was after he had built up years of equity as a dangerous lunatic capable of absorbing inhuman amounts of punishment. As a side note, I have to question how much credit HHH deserves for booking Sami in NXT. The golden age of NXT from a creative standpoint was when Dusty had the book and it became far more of an indy dream match promotion after he died. I'm hard-pressed to think of a single good NXT storyline after 2016. Speaking of AEW, I saw an interesting theory that the creation of AEW is what got WWE fans to accept Roman as the top guy by causing the fans who would reject him no matter what to migrate away and creating a rally-round-the-flag effect for the ones who remained. I think there might be something to that.

Rollins is Exhibit A for how dressing like a clown is probably the simplest shortcut to fool people into thinking you have charisma.

It seems like some people are making the mistake of viewing this as a self-contained story rather than part of a continuing narrative. Sami beating Roman for the belts would be the perfect storybook ending, but where do you go from there? Will crowds be as into him if he's the champ feuding with Gunther or Austin Theory or whoever else? And what does Roman do if he vanquishes both Cody and Sami? Fight Brock for the 800th time? Cody's only meaningful feud since returning was with Rollins, so there are loads of potential fresh and compelling matchups available with him as champion. Plus, he's the only star of stature in the company Roman has yet to beat, so he would likely suffer irreparable damage if he challenged for the title(s) and came up short.

Shifting course to Sami main eventing Mania and dethroning Roman would absolutely be the right call 99 percent of the time. But Roman's title reign at this point is like Goldberg and Undertaker's streaks. You only get one shot at putting someone over with it, so you have to make it count. If you're going to end it, it has to be to someone who can carry the company for the long haul and not just to pay off a particular storyline. Sami can get his revenge later on down the road.

The way I see it, Sami's closest equivalent is Batista in 2005. He wasn't slotted for the Mania main event until a groundswell of organic crowd support pushed him there. However, the fans were mainly into him as an antagonist to a particular heel and he started to fade once that story played out. Cody's a lot closer to 2005 Cena in that his rise to the top isn't tied to a specific adversary. The problem is that Roman is both HHH and JBL in this scenario. If you can only give the rub to one, Cody is the safer choice.

I really enjoyed the men's Rumble. Great decision to load the match with workhorses so there was no real dead space in between the set pieces. What happened to Rey Mysterio, though? The Mountain Dew Pitch Black match was too short to be truly offensive and they had enough sense to save the Uncle Howdy bullshit for after the match. Probably the best possible Bray Wyatt match, in other words. I was willing to give the Raw women's title match a chance, but I tapped out after it turned into chinlock city. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of the show.

I was under the impression that the destination was Roman destroying everybody until the fans had no choice but to cheer for him and a Rock match was just another step in the journey. But that was before Cody returned and heated up to the point where he could be a viable face of the company, making the need for returning legends to put Roman over a lot less pressing.

Like so many terrible aspects of modern WWE, the Mania sign point can be attributed to HHH. The first instance I've been able to find was him doing it at the 2008 Rumble when he and Cena were the final two. Speaking of Taker, he may not be in the Rumble this year, but he was in town last night for his one (dead)man show. https://www.boeingcentertechport.com/events/detail/undertaker-1-deadman-show I'm sure he talked a lot about how soft today's wrestlers are and how he stands for the flag and kneels for the cross.

I wanted to come back to this since the latest Observer confirms that the Confederate flag ring gear was a secondary reason for the ban, which is why it extended to Mark. It also reports that Mark is now cleared to appear on WBD stations going forward and Wednesday wasn't a one-shot deal. In addition, his belief that his brother is in a better place is the reason he's been able to hold it together. I'm far from a believer in any kind of religion, but even I can hardly fault someone for finding comfort in it in a situation like this.

Yet another nail in the coffin for CMLL.

Orton these days looking like he wants someone to bring him pictures of Spider-Man.

It's fun to joke about Hogan carnying his way to the top of Scientology or refusing to do the job when hit up for donations, but let's get real. These aren't hick wrestling promoters we're talking about. Scientologists are workers on a completely different level. It's far more likely that they end up taking him for everything he's worth. Jeff Jarrett, on the other hand...

Dynamite drew over 1 million viewers for the first time since October. Obviously a major asterisk involved, but still heartening to hear. Since it was a mostly regular Dynamite with a tribute segment rather than a full-on tribute show, there's a decent chance some of those viewers will tune back in next week. Hopefully the human sleeping pill Timothy Thatcher doesn't drive them off. In far more depressing news, Power Slap was up big over last week. So much for having faith in humanity restored.

I wouldn't write Santino off based on his WWE work because he has layers he wasn't allowed to show there. He's said that shoot-style/MMA-inspired wrestling is his favorite style. That was his gimmick in OVW. He also worked one of the Bloodsport shows a few years ago. I don't blame him for going the comedy route since there's no way someone with his size and look was going to get a push in WWE as a serious shooter. It's the same deal as Nick Dinsmore. As deplorable as the Eugene gimmick was, appealing to Vince's awful sense of humor was his only real shot at the main roster since Dinsmore the wrestling machine would have been dead on arrival.

Which is precisely the problem with a show like Level Up. You run the risk of trying to take advantage of a viral moment by putting someone in a position they're nowhere near ready for. No one needs to be on TV until they have the fundamentals down. Finding the hard camera and coming up with cool movez should be the last things they work on, not the first.

According to Meltzer, this isn't accurate. He said he asked directly if Mark could appear and was told no.

WBD must have been feeling the heat big-time. It would've been nice if people had been more proactive about this while Jay was still alive, but at least we have confirmation that public pressure works.

Sami is a lot closer to Ronnie Garvin than Sting. People will get behind him as a challenger, but giving him the rub of ending a multi-year world title reign would be a huge mistake.

Power Slap got beaten out by 1000-lb Best Friends in the ratings. I'm honestly flabbergasted that TV executives would think there's an audience for something that's barely a step above Ow, My Balls. I suppose it's a relief that Idiocracy isn't actually a documentary...yet.

You all need to stop acting like "gaijin" is an acceptable word to use. Anyway, I'll give LA Knight credit. He's doing his damndest to get this ridiculous Mountain Dew match gimmick over.

Santino never made me laugh out loud, but stuff like "Have you tried the Pepsi machine?" and referring to Cena as "John Chena" (the Italian pronunciation of Cena) was genuinely clever. Santina winning the Divas battle royal at WM25 probably single-handedly negates all that, though. Speaking of comedy, I have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that My Breakfast with Blassie was actually a thing that got made. A full-length parody of an arthouse film is just about the last thing you'd expect a territory-era wrestling star to be part of.

Raw is XXX sounds like a wrestling porn parody. By the way, the lead story in the March 17, 2003 Observer is about WWE moving toward a toned-down style due to injuries getting out of control with Kurt Angle's neck injury cited as the specific catalyst. It's true that any contact sport carries an inherent risk of injury and there's only so much that can be done about wear and tear to joints. But every effort should be made to minimize risk of head and neck injury. You can replace a hip. You can't replace a brain.

Rare BPJ W.