Stiva

Hang tight, El-P. By my reckoning, you're about 4 shows away from Big Show and Heyman leaving and 10 shows away from The New Breed beginning where the show actually becomes watchable.

95% of the UK PPVs had very little going for them. Glorified house shows really and the workers tended to put in performances to match. I was treated to a 20 minute Kevin Nash vs. HHH street fight at Insurrextion 2003 which was a fitting way for them to end the idea of UK PPVs.

Yeah, that was a real helpful few posts, thanks!

I thought this was a really good show and a great example of what this roster could do with two hour Raws. The presentation felt different; you had the spot heavy opener, the Brock squash, the Balor title win and the Saturday Night's Main Event main with the Cena win. Imagine that kind of tightness with WWEs three hour nonsense.

Liked the Neville/Jericho opener but I loved Lesnar's jean and boot combo more. Lesnar nailing the touring American in Japan circa 1986 look.

Wrestlemania cards for the past few years have been purely nostalgia-driven because they don't know how to book compelling top guys anymore. Makes sense that the ratings would drop when the one top guy they do push is doing a Triple H 2002 tribute act. Right when the ratings plummeted last time. Rollins may be the least compelling guy on the roster.

I've been dipping back into some WWE shows from summer 2013 and it's ridiculous how over Bryan is. No matter who is at fault (and you can make the case for both parties), they really had something with him until they went one bullshit finish too far in his matches with Orton. You listen to that Summerslam crowd and they're ready to anoint him as king of the known universe. It'll really suck if he has to retire but if it's beneficial to his health, then there's really no other option. But man, Bryan could have been it, man. Imagine Bryan vs. Lesnar. I'm giddy just imagining it.

I haven't watched it in a while but I remember the 2011 Elimination Chamber having another great Rey performance.

So, tonight's episode of Impact is going to have some crazy shit go down if Twitter is to be believed...

Is Barrett on the way out?

Awesome! Excited to dig into this when I have time. Sure you guys will do a hell of a tribute.

Well, this fucking sucks. Completely shocked. RIP.

Caught the two latest Evolve PPVs and had fun watching them. I loved the Trevor Lee vs. Chris Hero match from 43. Simple story of younger guy trying to prove himself against an established talent but Hero was really laying into him with the strikes and Lee had some great jelly legged selling. it was like watching a boxer get up from a dramatic knock-down. The main was Galloway/Busick and that was fucking great too. Featured some nice brawling through the crowd and Busick gets so much snap behind his running strikes that Galloway looks tough as fuck getting up from them. 44 had Galloway/Strong, which is becoming one of my favourite match-ups. This had Roderick go after him relentlessly and he looked so great busting out all kinds of hurty offense that Galloway just couldn't mount a consistent comeback. The two mains are definitely worth seeking out. As an aside, as an Englishmen (Newcastle), I feel thoroughly ashamed of not keeping up with UK wrestling. I catch a few local shows that my friend works on but I really need to subscribe to some Youtube channels.

I think "This TV show has got to be a troll" is probably pretty accurate for it's first 7/8 months. Like they were actively fighting against Heyman, just to be awkward.

If he was ever going to turn, he should have broken the streak by cheating. The time is probably gone now.

Imagine the disappointment if it's Jack Swagger

I've been out of the WWE loop but, on paper, the main, the two chambers and Owens/Cena should be, at minimum, good. If we're lucky, they'll all get plenty of time and be great.

FINALLY all caught up with the last year or so of ROH and, I hate to just repeat everyone else, but man, is this promotion on a roll. Just finished Global Wars Night 1 which I thought was a solid enough show though nothing really stayed with me, other than the crazy main event. I thought some of the pairings didn't lend themselves to good matches; Elgin/Tanahashi for one. Nakamura/ACH felt like it needed another few minutes to really kick up a gear but I thought Okada/Alexander was really nicely put together with Okada giving Alexander plenty of opportunities to look good. Starting up War of the Worlds now and can't wait to see the other NJPW stuff roll out with the new TV slot.

Yep, WWECW (I think I might have said it in this thread) gets good when Miz and Morrison are an official team and becomes great when Finlay, Matt Hardy and Mark Henry are drafted across. Anything pre-September 2007 is awful.

If Killings ever clarified on who used racial slurs at him, it would be a real interesting fallout

His ECW run had great matches with Mark Henry, Finlay and Jack Swagger for sure. I'd imagine there's even more when you consider he was working Smackdown at the same time.

Didn't they do an angle, I think it might have been for a live crowd only, post-Raw type deal, where the people he'd wronged came out and hit their finisher on him? That seems apt. Only with a cut to the paramedics putting him in a private jet and the jet flying off into the sun.

Road Runner is losing the smarks. There's constant "Same old shit!" chants during his matches

Yeah, I'll agree that it was a great match but man, does Cena ever need a new finisher. Nobody is buying the first Attitude Adjustment as a match-ending move anymore.