Stiva

ah yeah, I think I am. HoW isn't fully updated in places for Smackdown.

So, it's pretty obvious that The Shield are the best group in WWE on a pure match quality level for years and years, maybe ever at this point? Certainly, their first year has been at a ridiculous standard, Reigns has improved to the point where he's a standout guy in the entire company, they (along with Bryan) gave us Kane's best work in forever and their tag/multi-man matches are regularly the high point of every show. I assume WWE know what they have here and won't rush to break them up, especially since they're still so hot but how's this for a hypothetical "Shield Year One Comp"? The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan, Ryback and Kane - WWE TLC 2012 The Shield vs. John Cena, Ryback and Sheamus - WWE Elimination Chamber 2013 The Shield vs. Randy Orton, Sheamus and The Big Show - Wrestlemania 29 The Shield vs. The Undertaker, Daniel Bryan and Kane - Raw 4/22/13 The Shield vs. John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Kane - Raw 4/29/13 Dean Ambrose vs. Kane - Smackdown 5/3/13 The Shield vs. John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Kane - 5/13/13 Dean Ambrose vs. Kofi Kingston - Extreme Rules 2013 Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan and Kane - Extreme Rules 2013 The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan, Kane and Kofi Kingston - Raw 5/20/13 Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan and Kane - Raw 5/27/13 Dean Ambrose vs. Randy Orton - Smackdown 5/31/13 The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan, Kane and Randy Orton - Raw 6/3/13 Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton - Raw 6/10/13 Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan - Payback 2013 The Shield vs. Christian and The Usos - Smackdown 6/28/13 The Shield vs. Christian and The Usos - Raw 7/1/13 Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. The Usos - Money in the Bank 2013 The Shield vs. Mark Henry and The Usos - Raw 7/29/13 The Shield vs. Mark and The Usos - Main Event 8/7/13 Dean Ambrose vs. Rob Van Dam - Summerslam 2013 The Shield vs. Kofi Kingston and The Usos - Main Event 8/21/13 The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan - Raw 8/26/13 Seth Rollins vs. Daniel Bryan - Smackdown 9/6/13 Dean Ambrose vs. Daniel Bryan - Raw 9/9/13 Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler - Raw 9/16/13 Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan - Raw 9/16/13 The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan and The Usos - Smackdown 9/20/13 The Shield vs. 11 babyfaces - Raw 9/23/13 The Shield vs. Dolph Ziggler and The Usos - Raw 9/30/13 Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes and Goldust - Battleground 2013 The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes and Goldust - Raw 10/7/13 Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes and Goldust Raw 10/14/13 A lot of those have blended together for me (the series with The Usos) but those are what I've cherry picked from History of WWE that I remember enjoying at the time. Throw in those early Ambrose promos, their angles with Taker, Bryan, Christian etc and that's a pretty great set, and a pretty incredible start to life in WWE. And there's time for more matches with Dustin, a 5 on 5 match at Survivor Series and possibly another wild brawl at TLC. How was Adrian Neville vs. Dean Ambrose and The Shield vs. Xavier Woods, Corey Graves and Adrian Neville from NXT?

I really enjoyed the main but I'm higher on Orton than most. I thought everything he did meant something in the grand scheme of things and his selling as a heel is pretty great, especially selling strikes. Had they been able to work to a clean finish, I'd have enjoyed it more but surely the Big Show payoff punch needed to be to HHH?

Cole is so focused on the Vince-fed bullet points that all emotion is lost.

Man, they really shouldn't force JBL to say "What's Up?!"

EDIT: Double post

If TNA gave us something as entertaining as El Torito, they wouldn't be such a gigantic sack of shit on a consistent basis.

The current programs with The Rhodes Family and Bryan have been carefully engineered so HHH and Steph need not look foolish in any final outcome. It's kind of brilliant in the sense that there's been more attention paid to avoiding any heel humiliation for them than there has been in the booking of anyone since around 2008. WWE's attention can be channeled, it's just always in the wrong place.

How much time is dedicated to his heel run on Raw from 02-04? And if time is dedicated, how is it spun?

Dude, the fact a wrestling company can do that in 2013 is the most awesome pro wrestling move imaginable and I hope it happens. And this is someone who enjoys Chikara's approach to storyline continuity and would hate to see it die out. Sometimes, things are just so ingrained into the fibre of professional wrestling, that you just have to applaud this beautiful, crazy sideshow.

So, am I going crazy or is Miz really nailing the babyface fire right now? I enjoy this infinitely more than whatever his last year has been.

When rewatching 2007 WWE, Burke is definitely a guy who stands out in the first 6 months of the year. He's featured heavily with The New Breed stuff but as you say, his stuff looked good, he had a decent helping of charisma but got lost in the shuffle once they broke up The New Breed and John Morrison became the top heel on the show. I have a theory that they wanted to run with a Burke/Cor Von team on Smackdown when the talent exchange thing started up but Cor Von leaving put a stop to it. I can't remember a single thing Burke did after his Unforgiven match with Punk.

As long as it isn't something like the "B+ Knee" Wikipedia has/had it as "The Move That Beat John Cena" and that should be its name forever.

Just seeing Dustin back for this brief night is making me want a 6-12 month run where he teams with Santino and wrestles Cesaro every week on Main Event.

If this is true, WWE is in a really really good place right now. That SS crowd rivals any Crockett crowd I've seen to date, which would be the benchmark "hot" crowds for me. Although I guess WWE do probably do a better job on acoustics now than JCP did back in the 80s. I try and watch most WWE PPVs and I'm with you on this tbh, I thought the Summerslam crowd, especially for the main, was hotter than I'd heard in a while but, like I said in the thread, I was streaming it through crappy laptop speakers so I think it's hard to judge. I remember the Payback (I think it was Payback) crowd was hot for the Del Rio/Ziggler double turn angle so they have guys people want to invest in, they just need to give them a reason.

I think Survivor Series (or whatever the new PPV is called) is a logical point for them to build to him winning it back. How convoluted it gets on the way is another matter all together.

That John Cena can be a transcendental motherfucker when he wants to be. If they actually build on this and it goes to a Bryan redemption victory over HHH and Orton, it'll stand up as a good angle but man, I have no faith in them at ALL. That crowd was the loudest it's been for years for the main and the final angle, or at least it sounded that way through my crappy laptop speakers.

Lesnar/Punk: On first watch, I think I like this more than Brock/Cena. I thought they struck a good balance between Brock being this ridiculous monster and Punk picking his spots because he's the "best". I love how spots like the 3 Amigos look so much more vicious when it's Lesnar doling them out since he's so strong and powerful. I thought Heyman was fantastic, being the difference whenever Punk started using the chair and really liked the tug of war spot on the apron. The Punk near falls felt deserved as it really felt that he was landing match-winning shots whenever he had the chance and had it not been for Heyman, he could have pulled off the upset. I really enjoyed this.

The opening exchange being worked like Liu Kang vs. Shao Khan was also great.

I applaud this Ryback bully angle as it appears they've been reading DEAN's old Smackdown Workrate Reports where he mentions that Michael Cole can't call anyone a bully without it sounding really forced so I like to think it's a giant rib somehow.

I know they were at a soccer match last night so that makes sense. What? I'm genuinely curious about what circumstances would result in this fight at a football match. I think Christian/Del Rio will be the front runner for MOTN depending on how bogged down in overbooking Cena/Bryan is. Christian is a guy who has been a tremendous babyface since he returned in 2009 but when he's been given the chance, he's proven he can translate it to main event matches. It's just a shame he's not in a company that cares.

I'm sure HHH will graciously step up and fill his role.

Ah, that's awesome. When he came back in 2008, he looked a lot better for having lost all the weight he did. Hope this keeps him around, injuries permitting, for a few more years.

Having a good imagination mostly and, as Jerry says, setting your own little targets as you go as the game offers you nothing in reward. The things that kept me going were saves where I had a guy I wanted to get over (though it's very easy on EWR if they have good stats) or booking something like The Invasion. TEW is definitely more in-depth but requires a bigger time commitment than EWR.

Speaking of EWR, that random feature where Pinky and the Brain start up a Global competitor to WWE could be infuriating if they started taking your main event guys from you but could be hilarious if you managed to fend them off and they had to main event PPVs with Rene Dupree and fell out of business in 6 months.