Stiva

Revisiting early 90s WCW and this seems like what all of the great TV at the start of 1990 was building up to. I'm sure Flair has some more great performances down the line but this is right in line with any otherworldy one you can name from his prime. Luger more than holds up his end of the bargain with great selling and a fantastic fired-up comeback section at the end but this is the Flair show, for one more night. I also LOVE Sting firing up Luger. Props for how it's filmed too which makes it seem like something from an action movie. In fact, Sting, in general, is brilliant in this ending sequence, instantly getting on his guard when Ole and Arn appear, arming himself with the crutch on instinct and being the desperate vessel for the crowd's cheers. I love the point about this being the touchpaper for the Sting/Luger relationship down the line and it's a nice little illustration of how wrestling fans used to have long memories

Yep yep yep, get Hero on that main roster and let's do it.

I think, in general, WWE is now much, much worse at establishing a modern "canon" for lack of a better word. They often dig into the past so much because they've made a terrible effort at making their recent history matter. This is definitely a consequence of more TV but that's no reason for them not to emphasise certain angles and moments instead of, for example, Mick Foley being trotted out to talk about his HIAC bump for the trillionth time. Do many people even remember Sasha and Charlotte main eventing a PPV in the cell? How often do they mention Bray Wyatt's magical appearance as an apparition to make funny faces at Dean Ambrose? One of those things is much better than the other but they were both treated as largely disposable moments instead of there being a conscious effort to immortalise them. Like, a lot of the big Attitude moments that they reflect on are bad but they still canonise them as something great. If they won't remember or mention things that are designed to be memorable then why should anyone else? What are the big moments of the decade that they actually reference? The Nexus Debut, the "Yes Movement" invading Raw (which wasn't the best moment of Bryan's ascension at all) and The Shield debut? You could argue they're hamstrung by certain guys not being in the company (Punk's Pipebomb) but something like the Heath Slater and Rhyno becoming tag champs story, for one example, seemed like a memorable, midcard story that the crowd bought into big time but I don't think I've ever seen it treated with any reverence or importance since. Maybe it's different in those WWE Top tens that they post to Youtube but they, by their very nature, are disposable time wasters. Maybe my point has been muddied but if they want Reigns to be a memorable top guy and all-round babyface, you'd think they'd remember the night he got past Sheamus and Vince McMahon to a roaring crowd to win the WWE Title, complete with McMahon getting arrested the next week but I guess not.

Wait, they're going with a red cell? Wasn't a major complaint about TNAs red cell that it was hard as shit to actually see what was going on? 2018 WWE mining 2010 TNA is making me uncomfortable since it gives off the impression that TNA was ahead of its time. They were ahead of its time in the way that a dude jumping off a roof with cardboard wings pre-dated the aeroplane.

I'll echo what others have said in thinking that this was a fun first installment and man, I'm so happy that Meiko was in the first episode. I really hope that this leads to a run on the main roster because Lynch/Satomura is something that needs to get 15 minutes somewhere down the line

Yeah, when Bryan was cleared, I assumed that the plan was Miz/Styles in the spring with Miz getting the title which would lead to Miz-Bryan for the title at Summerslam with the big moment of Bryan winning the title after being gone for so long and then you build towards Styles-Bryan at the Rumble/Mania. I suppose in my head, I was assuming that the Nakamura heel turn would have legs as a main event gimmick and that they'd build some long-term heat onto Rusev, not to mention the Bryan vs Jeff Hardy "dream" match that could have easily been a hot match in order to sustain what, could have been, a really hot title run. Of course, then you'd need 6 months of programs to keep Styles out of the title picture but that would mean giving him something else to work with other than being the champion or challenging for the championship and yeah, maybe I was expecting too much

I'm amazed he lasted 8 and a half years retired. But yeah, if these, morally repulsive, super shows in Saudi Arabia are going to be the place where Shawn Michaels comes out of retirement, for a meaningless exhibition match with minimal build for a show that only matters to WWEs coffers then that's a really awful omen for the next few years. Why bother booking to make money when you can pocket a fortune from this lot every year?

Just make Shane O Mac a special ref and you get the best part of his act i.e. his theme music and his cute little dance.

Regardless of whether Miz/Bryan arrives at Mania or not, it’s clearly, if handled right, the hottest pairing on Smackdown and Miz has been so good since pairing with Maryse, that he deserves another crack at a title run

Someone has probably beat me to this joke but is Ambrose now called "The Lunatic Buzzcut"?

Yeah, that's an absolutely awesome gimmick. It's the Eva Marie gimmick as written by someone intelligent.

Meiko Satomura is in! https://www.wwe.com/shows/maeyoungclassic/article/meiko-satomura-mae-young-classic-2018

Yeah, I’m all in on Su Yung. It feels like a gimmick that WWE would love for their Women’s Division since it would give them ample opportunity to flex their “production” muscle

Yeah, this felt like a really big deal and was laid out perfectly. Moose is a dude that's a bit of a freak athlete and you can really tell when he's in with someone like Aries who is similarly agile. Some great early spots like Moose meeting Aries on the dive and him shrugging off the strikes, only to get poked in the eye led perfectly into Moose just casually tossing Aries into the fucking crowd. Aries took an awesome bump on the spear too and it really did look like a killer hit and worthy of a great nearfall. Aries trying to use the belt only to have it taken away and Moose somehow surviving the brainbuster on the floor were awesome escalations of the heat until Aries finally hits his killer blow. It really felt like the first match in a series where Moose eventually wins after Aries runs out of tricks. Hopefully, that's the case as they matched up really well here and helped cap off a killer PPV.

Another wild brawl that, differentiated itself from the previous match by way of really vicious shit. I loved how we got some ROH 2005-07 callback spots with Homicide's drano in the tag match and then the railroad spikes here. What was interesting, as mentioned, was the quasi-comedy spots but they were still done in a way that heightened the violence; Callihan taking off the vest in a fit of hubris was a great character touch and then Pentagon straight up breaks the ref's arm when he was blinded. I loved that. Like the dude was so pissed off by getting dust in his eyes that he doesn't mess around this time and just breaks the guy's arm. And I LOVED how, even after realising he made the mistake, he was berating the ref for not using his broken arm to count. The piledriver through the chairs absolutely had to be the finish but that seems to be a running theme in Callihan's matches but hey, it all worked. Neat little post match work with Fenix helping his brother corner Sami and making him take his punishment. Another Slammiversary match that delivered.

Great brawl and the first of the three mains that delivered at this show. Homicide has always been one of the GOAT hardcore brawlers and he hasn't lost a step. He was taking nutty bumps onto tacks, getting awesome hits in with tame weapons and delivered the spot of the match with the crazy looking tope through the table. Hernandez looked like his old self and he and Homicide both had the air of older guys who you still would absolutely not fuck with. Current LAX held their own too with wild dives and their double team moves are super great. Solid finish that leads to more, complete with a great Kingston beatdown at the end. If Konnan was in anyway mobile, they could absolutely run another brawl with Konnan and Kingston in the mix. Great stuff.

Riddle/Rousey dream team is my fantasy booking

Man, pro wrestling is just fantastic

Yeah, I think this is it. If you take just about every WWE match in a vacuum, they're good by any conventional in-ring scale. It's when you hit the booking that things begin to take a sour turn. If you're someone who takes booking decisions into account when reviewing matches, Extreme Rules would probably be different but if you're just looking at the structure, execution, in-ring story etc, it was a high level wrestling PPV. They're their own worst enemy when it comes to creative and it leaves such a sour taste over everything else.

Yeah, add me to the list of people who are excited for the PPV. Impact has been a great mix of fun guys and wrestling how I like it to be presented. Aries comes off as a real star on top too so I’m not sure I’d have him lose it just yet, even though the winner of Sami/Pentagon is probably going to be next in line for the shot and that match will probably show which way the main is going to go.

Man, what a fantastic 5 minutes or so. Everyone looks good but man alive, La Parka was (is) one super charismatic dude and he has the crowd eating out of his hand all night. Los Fabulousos is hilarious as Silver King licks and sticks his eyebrows as El Dandy brushes that glorious mullet right before they all throw out some awesome sequences, filled with great dives, bumps and all cut at a breakneck pace. WCW could have had an astonishingly good undercard if they gave these guys the time of day.

Once more, the seemingly random nature of the clipping threatens to ruin things but luckily, it doesn't because man, what a 7 minutes. Everything they pulled off hit true and looked great and it felt like a real fight, played out at an awesome speed. Apache looked fantastic with her big power moves all looking like they could have broken Asari in half but when it came to bumping and making Asari look good, she could do that too. The bump into the chairs was a highlight but the way she fed and cut off her comebacks was great; a highlight being when Asari was giving a chance to get back into it after a missed swanton bomb but was soon cut off with a vicious spinning wheel kick. Apache is on the docket of workers I'm going to watch everything from going forward.

Yeah, this looks like a match that had a lot of good stuff that is either destroyed by the clipping or killed in its tracks by the goddamn interfering. Kong entering after a long wait and not even getting the chance to lay the hurt on the cheaters opposite kind of sums the disappointing nature of it up but GAMI coming in and hitting moves in front of the ref like it was a Prince Devitt Bullet Club IC title match is the kind of thing that completely loses me.

Fun sprint that manages to fit a pretty huge amount into 4 minutes or so. Despite his great debut, Tazz just never really worked in WWE and it's Jericho and Angle who look the best here. The crowd is hot for their interactions, including a nutty bump to the floor from Angle and a proto-double superplex spot. The finish is slightly overworked but it's fun to see Backlund around, even if it was for a short time and man, Chyna is STILL with Jericho. Still, a good TV spot and it was clear that they had two megastars on their hands

Not to derail but how could you watch that match and think ENGLAND were the underhanded ones? My word, there have been some TERRIBLE takes about the World Cup from people who have a surface level knowledge of it