artDDP

The energy level in Houston is high and I like it. Probably because on the PPVs they don't stop the show dead for commercial breaks.

Rusev's promo was awesome. Rich Brennan: "Rusev? Rusev?" Rusev: "NO!!!"

Yes, it was. I hope they have more of these planned.

What, no GIF of Triple H dancing with New Day?

What about Earl flipping off a red-hot Steve Austin right after his WrestleMania match with Bret? I had forgotten about him trying to get between Rock and Austin at XIX and Rock several times trying to shove him away. My memories of Earl were my dad yelling at the TV about Earl's terrible ref bumps. Was the "Damn right I did!" phase of his TNA career something he came up with or was that just more lolTNA? I went to a TNA house show in 2011 and Earl, in the middle of a match, stops everything to grab a mic and scream "Damn right I did!" in response to "You screwed Bret!" chants. And he was selling a T-shirt with the same phrase in the lobby.

I honestly have no idea whether you made those up or if they're real PWI headlines. Because they COULD be real. At least that's the kind of headlines they had back in the day. My favorite part of the Brainbusters podcast trivia game is the "Real or fake?" Apter mag headlines game. I came up with them with a little help from noted wrestling psychologist Dr. Sidney M. Basil.

So when Triple H does finally face Rollins Hunter's definitely going over, right?

She's ready for the next birthday party on Raw.

According to her Instagram she was training to be an in-ring wrestler.

I'm at 9:38 p.m. on the west coast feed. The Seth Rollins promo was the typical badly-scripted, badly-acted stuff that seems to open every show. Not every main event guy has to stand in the ring for twenty minutes and recite a speech to the hard camera. Was the crowd chanting "boring" at the long promos or was I hearing things? Has everyone beaten Seth Rollins semi-cleanly now? Holy shit, Vince just sold me on that new Network program. I never noticed how much I missed Vince's voiceovers and commentary.

I miss PWI for great articles like "How Summer Rae is Secretly Sabotaging Rusev's Career--For Lana's Benefit!" and "Takeover! Triple H's Hacked Emails Uncover NXT Plot to Overthrow McMahon!"

I liked 1995 WCW better. I felt at the time including pre-Nitro that they had the better roster and were offering more interesting matches. The WWF had some good stuff but way too much Isaac Yankem, Mabel, Sid Vicious, etc.

Did the guys from MST3K come up with those names? I'm an MST3K mark from way back.

A Vince trademark is definitely humiliating people just for the hell of it.

There's a certain point in the list where the rankings are just assigned to whoever sent in a photo, a bio, and a small fee.

So when does Triple H get the Matadores and Byron Saxton to present him a gigantic plaque?

Agreed. I thought this was a fun little match and Hunter really kept up with Shawn instead of being his plodding self and needing Shawn to supply all the action.

Jesus, Buzz.

This 1000%. It's so annoying and devoid of any personnality. Then we they get to the ring, they do exactly the same movements/screams too. And when they get to the second rope to do a pose, it looks like a fucking animatronic (cf Randy Orton, king of void). No intent or "character work" , just a pre-planned routine that they'll do every fucking time the same fucking way. And they'll do it the same way no matter how bad of a beating they're supposed to be selling from the last PPV or even that same night. Someone like Dolph Ziggler will come out screaming and shadowboxing, flapping his arms all around and once he's made it to the ring and finished gesticulating he suddenly starts limping or clutching his neck.

If there's one guy I'm certain they'll book to lose clean to Rollins it's Sting. Will they bring Chris Jericho back to put Rollins over before WrestleMania?

I think even the most calloused fans have all come around to realizing what it means when WWE does a fuck finish: That they couldn't figure out how to deliver a proper win in a main event.

The main matches tonight reeked of WWE booking "big-time attraction" matches but being too chickenshit to actually end them cleanly. We got the usual stuff that attempts to squeeze one more week of interest out of the existing audience but prevents the company from growing. WWE will get a few seconds on mainstream TV with Jon Stewart interfering in the title match but their reigning World champion is still booked like, well, like Seth Rollins. If you're going to have Brock Lesnar bleeding hardway, flipping people off and cursing in your main event then you shouldn't have some fake-ass Russo finish lined up. The rest of the card was sort of entertaining but not spectacular. This card definitely didn't need to go four hours.

Triple H must be lurking forums like this and scouring Dailymotion for leads on new talent.

This was a fun show but completely forgettable until the women's match. Bayley and Sasha had a legitimate MOTYC. Owens vs. Balor seemed like a WCW PPV main event from 2001; good but not great. What makes the NXT product stand out is so much of it is organic rather than over-produced, buzzword-heavy, and scripted. Also, a wrestling program in 2015 without a few dozen video packages and commercials between every match is a breath of fresh air.

How the hell did they win quarter hours with shit like Jim Duggan vs. Galaxy?