El-P

I'm changing my vote. I'm taking #1 now. It's basically what I've been doing for quite a long time anyway (since I've been done with my WCW & ECW projects years ago), I realize.

This week-end has killed me (and I haven't watched half of the indie shows I wanted to yet), but it had also reaffirmed my love for this absurdity that is pro-wrestling. After 28 years and tons of really down times, it's pretty cool.

You don't say. He's a smooth operator. There's a reason why he's Mr. Stephy.

Yep. Kayfabe-wise, Roman Reigns is both the Chosen One and a complete chocker. A mix of Jeff Jarrett and Lex Luger.

While the Adam Cole debate is going on, I watched Ciampa vs Gargano. MOTYC. Again. Almas remains the most impressive worker of the night to me, but this was also pro-wrestling at its most ridiculously great and epic. Not self-conscious epic, simply epic. That bump on the concrete by Gargano was Mick Foley cringe-worthy. The final was perfect. Pro-wrestling isn't that hard to do when you actually listen to what the audience wants. This has to be the best 1-2 punch of any WWE card. The only issue (apart from the stupid opener) I had with this show was Mauro, to whom I want to send a message :

Very true. Everything looks *true*. There's something out of Misawa in his work somewhere. (strange analogy that I can't really put my finger on myself, but that's what I thought at certain points in the match)

From the very few I've seen, Adam Cole is a whole lot of fun and charismatic as hell. I don't see the Edge comparison yet. To me he's Corino 2.0. That's a compliment. Anyway. Almas vs Black. Holy shit. That match. Almas' performance. Vega being the best valet since Sherri at her peak (with Savage). MOTYC. The finishing stretch was out of this world great. And although I take nothing out of Black's work, Almas looked like the best worker in the world here. Just insane on every level. The only one thing I still don't like is that double stomp set-up, which will never work well. But wow. Wow. WOW. What a difference a year make. Almas has made a Steve Austin level jump in one year. Ringmaster vs Savio to Stone Cold vs Bret level jump. The whole act with Vega is amazingly great.

That's how you do a clusterfuck. Exactly the opposite feeling to the opener, this felt like simply three teams beating the shit out of each other going a hundred mile an hour. And a great turn that I absolutely did not see coming. I have no idea why the heel The Undisputed Era is not universally loved, these guys are terrific. O'Reilly doing the "delayed selling.... no I'm dead" was gold. Adam Cole is charismatic as fuck. Roderick Strong was on fire here. The AOP have progressed so much since they debuted. Super fun match, excellent angle. This was really good.

Can you picture if they ran a gimmick like Raisha Saeed ?... I can only shudder at the PR they're gonna do over there too...

I must admit I'm morbidly interested in that Jedda show.

So, what about Takeover ? A lame-ass neo-metal band. Stuck in the early 00's WWE is. Speaking of which, the opening multi-man clusterfuck is everything I despise about the style. Completely purposeless, carefully pre-planned super dangerous stunts with guys killing themselves without ever establishing any dynamic except for "go up, fall down, break ladder". If you do chaos, do chaos, not a stunt version of artistic skating. Plus it was way too long, with way too much awkward setups. Terrible way to debut Ricochet, now he's Jeff Hardy in 00. Adam Cole is the only guy who displays actual character I thought and he's over as hell. I enjoy his Steve Corino 2.0 approach. The match can go fuck itself, just another one self-conscious multi-man clusterfuck in the vein of all these MITB matches I never cared for either. Where was Shelton Benjamin anyway ? And now I'm grumpy. More terrible live band. Ugh... Well, at least Ember Moon is sporting a great look. And Shayna punching her in the face and grinning washed the sour taste of the 30 minutes of garbage that preceded. Slower build to a hot stretch. Cool neat touches. Tons of character on both parts, Ember being a really good bad-ass babyface. Shayna popping her shoulder back on the post was something else. She's really got a unique charisma to her. Very good match. Thanks ladies, I was getting grumpy, you got me back on track. Although I don't know how I will be able to handle Mauro Ranallo for long. Settle the fuck down. Shut up for a second or two already. He's like the worst of JR on speed... Let Nigel speak.

Garbage. It's ridiculous these kind of stuntfest with no purpose whatsoever and awkward set-ups and overscripted internal sequence still pass for good work in 2018. I enjoy a good garbage clusterfuck if there's a sense of chaos. This had a sense of carefully planned super dangerous spots to pop a crowd of wankers who were chanting "this is awesome" even before the match started. This is an awful way to display Ricochet in his very first match because he's now the guy who gets tossed around on ladders. This was also overlong, overthought, overproduced. One of the worst, most boring, uselessly dangerous match of the entire week-end.

As a fan of both these guys, I'm glad I didn't watch that...

Derailing stuff : I don't dislike you. I don't know you. I dislike the way you interact with us on the board. That's different.

Nak is a banged up guy whose prime is behind him, who seized the opportunity to work a lighter style and get big time money by going to WWE. Good for him. But yeah, his match against Zayn two years ago was awesome. That's the last time we saw that Nakamura. That being said, those more familiar with the guy in NJ will say he was always more or less coasting and showing up only for super big matches. I thought the match against AJ was very good, maybe even excellent, and the idea of him working heel is rather promising. But AJ had a better match in WWE against Seth Rollins. That's the reality of it. Right now, I'm more interested in watching Bryan vs Sami than I am watching another AJ vs Nak.

I said celebrity.

I know you're a Reigns fan, but come on. He's been pushed as the number one guy in the entire business for four years, probably makes an insane amount of money in the process. This is ridiculous.

To be clear : if I were a mod, you'd be gone already. So there. Back to Mania discussion, please. Did I miss anything or there were no celebrity stuff this year ?

The anoa'i family needs to quit bitching. Roman Reigns has main evented four Manias in a row. Not a whole lot of guys can say the same thing. What is it ? The Samoan Mafia ?

Newsflash : no one gives a fuck. This thread is not about you. Get a grip already.

Derailment reply : I don't think I've seen ten matches in my life I would give the infamous 5* ratings. Yeah, what a joke. Just a troll. Don't feed him.

Gawwd, don't tease me with some dream matches that won't happen. Nikki elbowing the shit out of Rousey until she gets her arm broken in half would be such a fun match. Was I in your dream? Ah ah ah. I don't remember the posters involved, but I do remember browsing the thread. Me too. Really, this week-end made me happy to be an old pro-wrestling fan (and I'm watching Takeover tonight…). Pro-wrestling wasn't more fun before. It's great and fun now.

This is actually a pretty great and accurate description of the match and how these two guys worked. I think it speaks volume on how patterned it has become. They can't act & react organically as pro-wrestlers depending on the story they are supposed to tell, they just do token spots over and over again. Picture Rey Mysterio doing the 619 twenty times during a match...

All joking aside, Braun can be special and unique. Not the new Andre. Not the new Taker. Hopefully not the next Big Show. Just the first Braun.

Completely agree.