Woof

At the 14th Anniversary PPV a couple weeks ago.

I'm assuming that under tag team where it says "Guerreros" that refers to Eddie/Chavo Jr, since the Chavo Sr/Hector pairing is broken out separately?

I also think a lot of the "Malenko is overrated" narrative springs from him netting the #1 spot on the PWI 500 for 1997. I know it's a kayfabe mag and all that, and most fans don't take it to be all that meaningful, but it still stands as a barrometer of the time and people look back on it now as such a monumental head scratcher given that he never really springs to anyone's mind as the "best" of his era.

Dean falls into a category of guys with me like Lance Storm, Christopher Daniels, and Alex Shelley, where what they do comes across as WAY too smooth. I often get the feeling watching them that they're doing a rehearsal of a particular routine (almost like a dance) and once they get to the actual performance they'll add in the "acting". Problem is this IS the actual performance, so I'm left cold because there's no sense of struggle. I think that's why I always enjoyed Benoit and nowadays I'm super into Timothy Thatcher, because they make every little move feel like a battle with their opponent to just be able to pull it off. I can appreciate the athletecism of what Dean and his ilk are doing, but as storytellers they leave me cold even when the match structure is on point.

Gable is pretty? If Ricky Morton, Robert Gibson, Tommy Rogers, and Bobby Fulton were all once considered "pretty boys", then Chad Gable can be. Those dudes weren't winning any modeling contracts outside of a wrestling ring. It's a different world. And it's more about flash and style (which American Alpha have gobs of) than actual movie star looks.

Can someone remind me again what exactly it is that Triple H has against Roman Reigns to begin with? I mean, the storyline is they want to keep the belt off of him and specifically him. What is the authority's reasoning? Are they really just clinging to the idea that he was part of the Shield-Evolution fued back in 2014? Because that doesn't feel like it has much traction to me, but I don't follow the weekly shows close enough to catch everything. With Bryan it was clearly "he's not big enough/cool enough to be the face of WWE", but that's not Roman's issue. In fact, the whole meta thing where the on-screen angle ("ANYONE BUT YOU, ROMAN!") is the mirror image of the off-screen situation ("ONLY YOU, ROMAN!") makes it even cloudier. I'm honestly confused as to the crux point of the current fued. A little help?

Girard/Ciampa as two grumpy fuckers is money. Them getting into a prolonged program with pretty boys Gable & Jordan would make my heart sing.

Yeah, that crowd the other night was embarassingly silent. I felt bad for the workers because almost nothing they did was getting a response and they were working their butts off.

A couple of other observations about what makes NXT great that aren't necessarily from last night's show: AThey almost never fight outside of the ring save for the occasional dive (that almost always goes right back inside). They keep stuff mostly between the ropes, so on those rare occasions when they do it has meaning. On a similar front, what have there been in terms of garbagey stipulation matches in NXT history? I can remember the two ladder matches (Dallas-Neville and Balor-Owens) and a No DQ match between Corbin-Dempsey. Outside of that we've had the Iron Man match (Bayley-Banks) and some Best of 3 Falls Matches (Zayn-Cesaro and now Zayn-Joe), but those are just regular wrestling with multiple falls. Notice the complete lack of reliance on steel cages, last man standings, street fights, I quits, etc. They keep rotating the match-ups through at a pace that manages to keep things fresh without needing to resort to tricks. When they finally do a cage match, for example, it's gonna mean something.

I came out of that opening tag wanting to really see what Buddy Murphy has to offer as a single, at least in one decent length match. You're right, Goodear, in that as a team they really know their place and what to do. I wonder if Murphy has more in store when given the chance. Not really sure why, but there was just something about him last night that I had never really seen before. Makes me curious.

Honestly never heard of Carl Malenko until today. Interesting. I like that you're using the likes of Ace Steel and Devon Storm as the jobbers they should be. One of the issues with actual TNA was their propensity to just randomly throw new guys out there with no build but then try to treat them as somehow legit. I get that they were throwing a ton of shit at the wall to see what might stick, but their inability (unwillingness?) to create a defined pecking order in the first 6 months was infuriating. I think that's one of the reasons ROH surged ahead of them in my eyes at the time, because in addition to consistently better matches, ROH developed a clearer booking philosophy right out of the shoot. I'm reading with fingers crossed that The Krew remains just that and Konnan keeps his ass away from it, as he is my personal kryptonite when it comes to big-time pushed wrestlers. The Sewell/Kendrick pairing is interesting. I like that you're making a few new tag teams rather than simply using established ones. Looking forward to Dragon's debut.

I said it in December when the Philly fans popped huge for Vince's return, so I feel it bears repeating here...

Is it just me or did Brie kinda botch that roll-up and Charlotte stiffed her with that kick as a result?

If I'm the guy stuck behind Byron Saxton right now I'm pretty pissed. "Hey dick! History says there's about two dozen steel chairs under the ring right now. Why not grab one of those and sit down!"

Sorry man. Will get on this this afternoon and fix. No worries.

Tim/Steven, any luck with Tim's #11 problem? I wanna do a composite list with Steven, Tim, Parv & Chad's lists but I don't wanna do it until I have Tim's list set. Thanks. #nerdwithspreadhseetblueballs

Looks like it's gonna be a 32-man tournament rather than a cruiser-themed promotion.

I like the format. Most of the stuff Pete and Johnny cover I've already seen (or at least read a recap on) so I enjoy the more laidback approach to that material. The stuff with Timothy is usually something I haven't seen so more background is needed and more detail is appreciated. Switching back to Johnny for the last section then winds things back down in a more lighthearted manner. And since your sole purpose for doing these is to please me and me alone, I'm fine with it as is. Carry on.

Thanks for the Progress info, guys. Timothy, do whatever works for you, man. I can understand you fine. I just don't know how you keep up that pace.

I'm beginning to worry about Timothy's health. Slow down, dude. Breathe. What's the deal with the Progress service? Is it a pay-per-show deal or an access-to-all for a monthly fee deal like the WWE Network? Thanks, boys.

Just curious if you plan on sticking with a set roster or are you gonna be bringing guys in for one-shots/short runs (like TNA actually did).

Finally got around to adding the December matches, as well as a few other random additions for the rest of the year.

I maintain that one hour is the perfect length for a weekly wrestling show. Agreed, although in a perfect world I'd like two one hour shows a week, because waiting a week in between is too long. Gimme an hour on Tuesday and an hour on Thursday and I'd be a happy, happy man.

Hate to be a pain in the ass, but after the re-working of Tim's list it's now missing #11. Was it just left out by mistake or does everything have to slide back down one?

Did I miss something or was their no new episode for the week of 2/1-2/6?