Matt D

I swear that Sonya moves like Balrog from Street Fighter II. You guys won't be able to unsee it now.

Then they ruined it with "I'M ORANGE!"

They're trying here at least. I liked that little NXT unity movement.

Bayley is cosplaying as Aztec Jarrett? Also, I think Paige is morphing into Sherri before our eyes?

Remember how cool Becky's gear-on-the-ground entrance was a couple of Manias back. Ah well.

I'm pretty sure I was most looking forward to the battle royal because I like surprises and battle royals. I'm a moron. Watch Braun not even have a mystery partner.

I want a Cena Commentary, like JBL at One Night Stand.

Is KENTA healthy? Poor guy.

They should hire the guy in red with the beard behind Renee.

Oh good. Split screen promoting Hogan and the NWO later on. They really do have the Cruiserweight feel down. All we need now is Sid to come out to destroy them. I mean this is fine and they're working really hard, but its also the most meaningless and pointless thing basically ever. I get that the show has been producing good matches lately but the whole concept is meaningless when guys like Rollins are Balor are just normal guys on the roster. Why are these guys dying at 6:18 PM?

Mustafa kind of looks like Mini Roman Reigns in that gear.

I hope this match ends with someone blinding someone with the Repulsor Ray. Is that blasphemy to want a Cruiserweight Title match to end that way?

Ok, more or less caught up. I can't believe they didn't announce the guys on the way out (Did I miss that? I was jumping around). Plus no real surprises in the BR? We had Tatanka and Shaq and whatever else before. No random NXT guys either. I feel like Bray should have had different gear for that. I'm totally with everyone on the Cena reaction shots.

Between dinner, kids, errands to get ready for the week, sickness, etc. I'm probably hours away from syncing up with you guys. 5:00 PM wrestlemania is insane.

Then when they blow Gargano as a face and use him to put over every new heel for 18 months, he can go heel and team with Ciampa against Shane.

I have been trying to give Sabre more of a shot lately since people I trust are high on his recent work and I shouldn't be holding 2011 against 2017-8. WALTER is a once in a generation talent, mixing size and presence, with deep and complex selling. He has Henrys sense of timing and knowledge of when and just how much to give and the riddle of Aja Kong where its just fascinating to watch wrestlers try to figure out how to solve the puzzle of him. I liked this. I thought it was good and at times great. I loved how Sabres first real offense was because WALTER found himself stuck in some chairs. I thought the finishing stretch was excellent. Where I struggled was in the character of Sabre, who came of as a wrestling savant moron, more concerned about being cocky than anything else. He wrestled the entire match as reactive and that clashed with my perception of him. He seemed to have no strategy and when he did lock in a hold, it was due to luck and reflex and he never capitalized. It was as if this was some video game challenge about how many times he could get up from WALTERs stuff and execute his taunt in his face. Again, thats ok and it can be effective in general, but it wasnt what I was expecting or looking for from Sabre and I struggled a little bit accordingly. I also think, that in an absence of strategy, he shouldn't have survived as long as he did. I am ok with wrestlers with different body types surviving against giant odds if the match warrants it, but it was toughness and not skill that kept Sabre in this, and I just didn't but that. Ultimately, I do think it accomplished what they were going for, but what they were going for was more like 4 stars then 5, and that is absolutely okay. I am guessing this was something of a work in progress for Sabre as he transitioned into a heel and WALTER probably wasn't the best opponent for him in the midst of that progress.

That match was everything WWE always wanted with the concept of being "cinematic" just with all of the other shit you and I want out of wrestling too. It's what Michaels hunted for year after year with his big Mania matches but never had the emotional chops to pull off. Everything he was going for in those Taker matches, but actually hit instead of just attempted, and then on top of that, it was full of hate and callbacks and worlds within worlds. There might be better matches, but is there really a better match possible that goes for exactly what WWE wants out of wrestling?

Almas is exceptional at making heavily choreographed sequences seem not just organic but inevitable, like there was almost no other way the dominoes could fall, no matter how contrived the sequence might seem on paper. That might be the single most important skill in 2018 wrestling.

Playing catch up: it's actually been forever since I saw one of those car crash matches. I didn't see War Games. I've missed the last few TLCs. Etc. Since I haven't seen one in a while, I thought this was fairly compelling. I liked the personalities in the match for the most part. Just a strong variety. I thought it was pretty well put together though it would have benefited from losing the segment in the middle with a lot of "one person climbing, another pulls him off." It was definitely most interesting when multiple guys were involved at once. My favorite bit was Dream's elbow drop parade. His selling is so much fun to watch. I liked the build and the payoff to Dain vs Lars. I've never seen an Adam Cole match before, actually, and the finish was definitely a let down.

I came in skeptical of Riddle vs Suzuki but liked it. Very little wasted motion. Real sense of struggle up and down. Eric said that it was everything you wanted from the match up and I'd add that it had next to nothing I didn't want from it, too (which isn't always the case with Riddle).

I watched Fenix vs Pentagon vs Aries. That was fun. I guess Del Rio was supposed to be in it as a tag (which would have been more interesting just because it would have had a bit more structure) but ah well. You can't actually expect him to be places he's booked. That was on youtube. That's about my speed this weekend. There are fancams of Ohno vs Keith lee out there too. People should find those.

He's like a Scooby Doo monster. He can just keep breaking up fights so that they can never name a new champion.

Have they released matches for these guys on the network in the past? I'd love to see some unearthed Hayes at the very least. We just have a handful.

Huh. I mean I feel like Alfred could have gotten a full induction but I'm glad he's in there anyway. I like that list a lot.

Are we sure its not Shane?