C.S.

Is a midcard tag team spot really that big a deal?

They will. Belieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'DAT!

It's ironic that you use that comparison, because the West just got Fire Pro Wrestling World on PS4, featuring NJPW (and the PC version that's been out for months will have NJPW patched in by the end of September). But yes, you're right, that is definitely the exception to the rule. I'm a gaming enthusiast myself and know all about Mother 3 and countless other examples.

Apparently the regular Firestick is better than the Cube, which makes no sense given that the Cube is the newer device. Regardless, I am done with Amazon streaming products because the first-gen Stick was a pile of trash (and no longer updated, even though my Roku - which is older - still is) and the Cube is the worst device I've ever used. With that said, the NJPW app itself was mostly fine on it - it stuttered a bit, especially on older footage, but that happened on my PC too. NJPW needs to get with the program. More streaming options (Roku, AppleTV, PS4, etc.), better production values, less bush league mistakes like Ross almost getting crippled because they don't know how to secure barricades properly, etc. The in-ring action is great - everything else is at glorified ROH indie levels, but people ignore all of the problems because Meltzer once gave a match 12 stars or whatever his scale is up to now. *Rant over* Sorry for going off-topic, especially since it doesn't really relate to All In. It just frustrates me that NJPW could be taking some really simple steps to improve and expand even more than they have. Nothing I've suggested would cost a lot of money relative to the money they could make in return.

Has it ever been clarified if WGN is the only way to see the pre-show? I'm probably not going to order this - the lineup is beyond underwhelming to me - but the the nail in the coffin would definitely be if the pre-show was only available on WGN. Apparently, All In will be uploaded to NJPW World right after it's over. You won't see it live that way, but $9.99 for the show (and everything else) is a great deal. Edit: I may be wrong about this, so please double- and triple-check! I cancelled my subscription to NJPW World after I returned my Fire TV Cube - worst, buggiest device ever - or I'd probably watch All In that way. (I hate watching on a laptop or tablet, and certainly can't do that for 5-6 hours, or however long the show is.) I wish NJPW would get with the program and migrate to more devices - Roku, etc. With all of that said, I think this is an amazing accomplishment by Cody and the Bucks, and an awesome development for wrestling in general.

Came out for PS4 today. Did anyone else get it? The "Day One" Edition apparently comes with an NJPW Almanac. I haven't opened mine up yet to take a look though. I'd like to know this too, as I'm considering making the switch.

Is it just me or do Charlotte and Ric have a weird "chemistry"? Between this and their appearance on Ride Along, Charlotte tends to come across as a bit of a spoiled, disrespectful brat. She just seems to internally roll her eyes at Ric and appears exasperated by him in general. Granted, he's probably not the easiest person to be around sometimes, but still... And WWE wonders why Charlotte has never gotten over as a face and never will. Stuff like this is part of the reason why. I'd normally say it's bullshit for the cameras, and I'm sure some of it is (especially Ride Along) - but it does Charlotte no favors whatsoever, so what's the point? Also, this episode of Photo Shoot felt way too much like a glorified extended advertisement for the WWE 2K19 Wooooo Edition of the game.

I think he has really shined in these comedic roles. He's also hilarious in Central Intelligence. Baywatch, not so much - but that was okay for what it was...

It's listed as Pain & Gain on IMDb and was released that way in the U.S. theatrically. Did it get released in other countries with a different name? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1980209/?ref_=nv_sr_1 Edit: From IMDb - Also Known As (AKA) France No pain no gain Either way, we'll have to disagree on how worthwhile it is. I do think there's a good movie in there somewhere, but the one we got is bloated and downright boring IMO. Dwayne is great in it though. You can read my full thoughts here, if you're interested: https://www.silverscreensurprises.com/2013/08/review-pain-gain.html As for Michael Bay, I was going to say I quite liked Con-Air - but that isn't one of his. Oops! His filmography does absolutely nothing for me.

The movie itself was horrible, but Dwayne Johnson was great in "Pain & Gain."

Crazy idea: Velveteen Dream is called up and paired with Heyman.

FECK YOU, JABRONI, I MAKE YOU HUMBLE!!! Oh wait, you were agreeing with me. Very good, bubba. I no break your leg for Mr. Verne Gagne.

My thoughts on SummerSlam. Real-life issues popped up, so I had to watch the show in bits and pieces. I'm sure that improved my enjoyment exponentially. Pre-show: The only match I was able to catch was Rusev/Lana vs. Almas/Vega because of aforementioned RL issues. Lukewarm match and a waste of all four. Rusev vs. Almas would be good though. Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler: I had no idea which one of them was the champion going into this show, and that's after a pretty decent Iron Man Match last month, which shows you how much I care about them right now. They wrestled the kind of match that's popular these days, and it was good for what they usually do, but this style has never really done much for me. Props for Dolph's tights though. - I skipped New Day vs. Bludgeon Bros. because I didn't care what happened and I'm ready for Kofi, Big E, and Xavier to branch out into singles while still remaining aligned. - I skipped Braun vs. KO because this felt like a mismatch and a waste of time. With that said, I was convinced KO was winning because he had a KO in the Bank shirt and they wouldn't make those if he wasn't winning the briefcase, right? I was wrong, and glad to be wrong. Carmella vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair: Excellent match. Everyone wanted Becky to win, but that was never going to happen because of the story they're telling here. The fans were absolutely brutal, chanting "you deserve it" at Charlotte as she was getting destroyed by Becky post-match. Ouch! AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe: Easily Joe's best WWE match ever (including NXT), and a nice storyline with AJ's family. I don't like Joe at all, but I'm up for more of this feud - and hopefully a triumphant babyface victory for family man AJ Styles before being attacked by Miz. Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz: My favorite match of the night, even if the result was heartbreaking (and I love Miz). The reason I liked it so much because they had a fantastic wrestling match without any bullshit garbage spots, flashy shit, kicking out of finishers, etc. that has taken over every other high-profile WWE match. - I skipped Finn Balor vs. Constable Corbin because who cares? Total time-filler and a waste. Jeff Hardy vs. Shinsuke Nakamura: It was okay. Like Rollins-Ziggler, I forgot who was champion going into the match and didn't care. Cool Jeff Hardy facepaint. Did Randy Orton just show up and leave? Ronda Rousey vs. Alexa Bliss: Like Orton before her, did Natalya just show up and leave? Anyway, fun match for what it was. I'm glad they kept it short and gave Rousey a dominant victory. I don't want Rousey's matches to be like this a year from now, but it was fine for her title victory. The hug-a-thon afterward between Rousey and the original Total Divas (Bellas and Nattie) was weird. I was like "they're friends?" about Ronda and the Bellas. Roman vs. Brock: I haven't gone through this Monster Among Men 22-page thread yet, but I'm guessing I'm the only one who loved Braun being used as a red herring. With only 11 minutes left in the show, I knew there was going to be some fuckery and it would be short and sweet. I didn't mind the match at all. Even though the fans were chanting "you both suck," it felt like they were doing that more out of support for Braun than to be genuine assholes. The right guy won...finally and three years too late. Braun will live to fight - and cash-in - another day. Overall: I liked SummerSlam more than NXT TakeOver Brooklyn IV. Hot take? Probably, but it's true. Again, I watched in bits and pieces and skipped the matches I wasn't interested in, so that no doubt had a positive effect on my perception of the show.

All of that is well and good, but there's so much wasted time and air on the rest of the pre-show that there's zero excuse to place ads in the middle of the match when they can be placed before and/or after.

WHY are there ads during a match for a show I'm already watching?!?!

Triple H seems pretty indecisive and borderline doubtful about Matt Riddle.

Not necessarily. He missed SummerSlam last year because he was hospitalized right before the event, so I think it was super-important to him to make this year's show. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2018/0817/644908/ric-flair-on-how-he-feels-about-brock-lesnar-vs-roman-reigns/ Does biggest mean longest now?

The bloom has been off the rose for a while now. The terrible Balor/Joe/Nakamura reigns, the underwhelming Galloway/Black reigns, the uselessness of the North American Title... Gargano/Ciampa was still good fun at this show and still the greatest feud of the year overall, but this was definitely the least of their matches. It was too long, too bloated, with too many unnecessary and meaningless garbage spots. It shined when the garbage spots were creative and/or led to knockout counts, and the callbacks to their previous matches were nice to see because that kind of continuity in wrestling is rare today and such a lost art in general. The finish didn't have the desired effect because of Ciampa's bizarre decision to get up, prance around, gloat, etc. Like I said in a previous post, he should have gotten up to beat the count and then collapsed back down. That would've sold the idea that Johnny Gargano was willing to hurt himself if it meant hurting Tomasso Ciampa more. Instead, Gargano just looks like a clumsy, dimwitted, impulsive imbecile.

Forgot about the time change, so I watched the show later in the evening. My thoughts: Mustache Mountain vs. Undisputed Era: Match of the night? Even though the wrong team won, this was still great stuff. Roddy Strong may be the best "he's a good hand" ever, and both members of Mustache Mountain are fantastic. BTW, is it just me or was the camera work really bad at certain points in this match? Adam Cole vs. Ricochet: Keeping this mostly grounded was a strange choice and kind of limited Ricochet's aerial offense. As I'm sure others have already pointed out, Adam Cole constantly shouting "You're nothing special!" at Ricochet is really rich coming from him. I don't see what everyone else sees in the bland Bingo Hall Bay Bay. Calling him the next Shawn Michaels, as one of the commentators suggested, is absurd. Next Jackyl maybe. I'm glad Ricochet won, but the title isn't worth a damn, which kinda dampened the effect of his victory. EC3 vs. Velveteen Dream: EC3 has a million dollar body and a 10-cent ring style. Like all other TNA "darlings" not named AJ Styles, he has been a massive disappointment. Velveteen has nothing but potential, and he handled himself very well here. Is this his first victory on a TakeOver? If so, it's long overdue. Random side thought: I hope EC3 is brought up to the main roster with facepaint and pushed as a knockoff Ultimate Warrior/Sting midcard act. He'd actually be perfect in that role. Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane: Shayna Baszler is getting called up, right? No other way to explain her inexplicable loss to Kairi Sane. Then again, I didn't understand why Shayna lost to Kairi in the finals of the Mae Young Classic last year either. I have nothing against Kairi at all - she's a very competent wrestler - but her character (or lack thereof) does nothing to pique my interest whatsoever. There's no "it factor" with her, at least compared to Shayna. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano: Ricochet was complaining that he and Cole weren't going to get enough time compared to this match, and while I never want a Bingo Hall Bay Bay match to get more time than absolutely necessary, I kinda see Ricochet's point. This match really would have benefited from having ten minutes chopped off to make it tighter and more cohesive. As it stands, there were way too many garbage spots for the sake of it. Where this match shined was when those garbage spots were creative and led to actual knockout counts. One standout: office chairs, other debris, and even an official being piled onto Gargano - great stuff and very creative. I also liked the callbacks to their previous matches - something we rarely see anymore, so that was a nice touch. The finish would've benefited from Ciampa getting up just to break the count and then collapsing back into unconsciousness. The fact that he was standing around, smirking, and gloating kind of hurt the message of a crazed Gargano wanting to hurt himself if it meant hurting Ciampa. A mixed bag, and probably the least of their matches (including the CWC), but still great fun when it was firing on all cylinders.

Me too. I'll watch this later.

Shit, did I miss EC3 vs. Dream? I joined the show eight minutes in!!! Fuck this if so. I'll watch it later.

Ricochet vs. Bingo Hall Bay Bay joined in progress for me because my DumbTV decided to sign me out without signing me out, forcing me to reset my password. Gonna have to re-input it on Roku and phone later.

*Whew* That's a relief. Thanks.

Wait... He died?! What happened? (We're being trolled right now, aren't we? I really your post is poorly-worded sarcasm and JVK is still alive - regardless of whatever his views may or may not be.)

I wasn't expecting this one. I started watching wrestling after The Hart Foundation split up, but I caught their matches on tapes and was blown away by them. I may be the only one who thought The New Foundation with Anvil and Owen was incredible, and I was gutted when it morphed into the decidedly low energy High Energy with a past-his-prime Koko B. Ware. The Attitude Era Hart Foundation stable was amazing and a nice last big run for the Anvil. This one hurts.