Stiva

I haven't seen it yet but I'm kinda surprised they made Ronda talk when she's, by all accounts, never been comfortable or great at it. That's something they used to be way more protective of. Her punking out Hunter is a good spot though, even if I have no interest in whatever it's building to. EDIT: Just watched it and it's clear that the crowd are super into Ronda which is great. But Stephanie is absolutely the shittiest Vince clone ever. Though HHH has found his calling as the world's best 1998 Sgt Slaughter impersonator.

Really enjoyable stuff from both guys here. Skipper looks really smooth, even if he does get struck down by the Billy Kidman Powerbomb virus but Kidman did have these kind of short, snappy TV matches down very nicely. It's heartening to see WCW continue to pluck good wrestling out of a surrounding aura of terribleness.

Raw has been astonishingly good at keeping its momentum going for the past few months and it's the first time since the halcyon days of Shield 6-man tags, that it actually justifies its 3 hour slot. It means the top guys can all have good, long matches and it allows the women to get the focus and time they need and there's so many people on show that are over and being kept strong. I hope they can continue it into Mania season.

Jarrett back involved with WWE is hilarious. Does HHH have a win from 1995 he needs to get back or something?

Jeff Cobb was backstage at Smackdown this week so he might be there sooner rather than later.

Bring in Matt Riddle as Ronda Rousey's stoner corner guy who KOs HHH when he tries to interfere at Mania.

Really enjoyable, simple pro wrestling match with good performances from both guys. I thought the big spots and near falls were earned after some strong work in the opening and the final stretch wasn't rushed to or through; it all felt like a natural scale upwards. The one thing that really frustrated me through it all was the ref. The dude was counting like he was a heel special ref who was trying to get his buddy a cheap win for every single fall. It's hard for there to be any real drama in a near fall if the ref is counting at lightning speed. That's a minor nitpick though and it doesn't take away from a really well constructed match.

Homicide was always one of my favourite mid-2000s indie guys so I'm super interested to see his early stuff and I'm watching this with most of my attention on him. I echo what Loss said about this standing out above the other crowd brawls we've seen so far and Homicide was/is always great at avoiding the head-holding style of crowd brawling. It's also clear that he "got " the brawling style almost immediately as there's a cool sense of escalation with enough little call-backs and shifts to stop this from being a meandering, violence-for-violence sake type of match. As an aside, I have heard nothing but good things about early 2000s JAPW so I'm super excited to see more of this going forward. Another point; it's a simple thing but guys motioning to objects or raising them above their head to build to the use of them will always get a pop out of me and to see that one dude do it with a cheese grater warmed my heart.

They stopped the split PPVs in 07 last time around and the brand split lasted a while after that. I dont see how this leads to it ending.

Totally. I'll pay whatever I need to, to stream that.

It's probably harsh to call Tarzan Boy a 'broomstick' but this is a total Satanico heel performance, encompassing the grand and subtle. Young Tarzan sells the beatdown pretty well (I love how he sells the early slaps) but every single motion from Satanico is filled with pure bastardry and malice. I agree with what others have said, that this needed to be a more violent affair to stand in line with the angles that built to it and that it was far too short. The second fall is a good example; it starts with an urgent Tarzan Boy flurry and then just...ends. Satanico gets his comeuppance after months of being a bastard but yeah, this was disappointing on a larger scale, even if the work within was fine and, in Satanico's case, excellent.

Ziggler to win the belt to get everyone into a tiz about not getting Styles/Nakamura until Styles wins it back on TV?

I'd say being the only (or one of) dude to really shine in the consistent shitfest that was TNA, only adds to his reputation as an elite worker.

They had MVP sitting around playing cards at Raw 25 and that dude was awesome on promos when he was in TNA. They could at least use The VIP Lounge on Smackdown.

I dug 205 Live this week. It's not quite the pure "wrestling in a vaccuum" joy of WCW Worldwide since there's angles and the running thread of a tournament but there was two fun matches and I'm a sucker for a tournament. I imagine that they haven't shown a bracket because Drake is going to insert himself and become a sly heel GM (I hope not) or they're trying to get Neville back and want to put him in there.

Throw him on Smackdown and find some excuse for him to team with AJ against The Usos.

Great match that built and delivered in the ways you want a big death match to. At the end, I was about to complain about another Honma match not ending when it should but the combo of the awesome dive into the ring and the instant armbar was enough to make me forget that fucking nutso powerbomb through the boards from Kobayashi. Both guys were awesome here, not only at the big moment to moment stuff but the little things that keep everything together. Honma's facial expressions are just fantastic and Kobayashi does tiny things like bending Honma's finger back during an Abdominal Stretch and giving sly little kicks as he sets up the next weapon spot. All of those spots meant something and the work in between escalated nicely. Great match.

That's a weird one. He always struck me as one of those Bob Ryder types. He worked closely with Hardy on the Broken videos on the production side so I'm assuming they want to do them right. Or Hardy has insisted.

And in even more exciting news, apparently WWE has signed Jeremy Borash.

Not too much to add other than I think the men's Rumble was probably their best one in a decade. Probably exactly a decade with Cena showing up at MSG though I may be blanking on some good ones along the way. The whole show had a great feel to it as mentioned, because it gave fans everything they wanted. Keeping the surprises in the men's to a minimum helped the women's Rumble a lot more but fuck, was it great to see Rey. They need to get that dude on Smackdown and give him and Styles some PPV matches ASAP. Nakamura winning is great and I'm genuinely amazed they had the patience to keep he and Styles apart to the point where this feels like a real dream match at the perfect setting. Loved the Women's Rumble too and you really couldn't have asked for a better way to kick those off. As mentioned, you're going to need to ramp up the signings and pump up the depth if you want to run one next year (maybe get some Women's Tag Belts?) but I imagine McCool, Molly and Trish could all work full schedules now since they looked like they hadn't lost much. I'm also down for Trish being in a comeback match at Summerslam. Was the Beth Phoenix thing a one-time deal? I could kind of dig her putting Nia over in a short spell. Asuka winning was right since, in kayfabe, she really is this unstoppable machine and it's awesome that Ronda let her slap the hand away which was a FANTASTIC visual. It said more than any promo battle ever could. I have a good feeling about Ronda; she has definite star quality. If they handle her right and she can pick up pro wrestling quickly, I think she'll be awesome. Not sure they could have booked a better start to Mania. They're quietly firing on all cylinders at the moment. If they can apply some magic to 205 Live, they'll be scarily consistent.

No idea if we're going to see Ronda but we are going to see COACH who is back on the announce team. The road to Wrestlemania and all its sign pointing has arrived.

Gargano/Almas is just incredible pro wrestling. Every move felt earned, every counter felt natural, it dipped, it rose, it told a fantastic story. Gargano sold like a master and Almas hit that illusive balance that made Flair's title defences so great. Letting everyone know that you're still the man while structuring a match that gives the babyface everything. Almas won but man, Gargano took him all the way. As much as that crowd would have went wild for Johnny winning, Almas needs that kind of win as the Ace of NXT and he has a built in feud with Ciampa. That match was just astonishing work and the pair deserve all the praise they're getting, Two amazing performances.

If Asuka gets dumped before 30 enters, we know whos winning anyway.

For when you require absolutely no actual wrestling and need overbooked nonsense NOW.

Evil GM Neville in a If you dont like it, you do better type slant