Stephanie screaching and screaming for 15 minutes to open the show. Reigns was over but I wouldn't say it was off the charts or anything. Of course Steph sold no fear for him. If it was any other character it would be a set up to be taken out or humiliated but obviously not happening.

 

Neville wins breakout star

I don't get why she'd sell fear, he wasn't trying to be menacing. He was laughing at her and trying to annoy her...

He was pissed off last week and she still sold no fear

I don't know of any way to respond to that without coming off as a smartass.

Rollins wins Superstar of Year. That has to be considered an upset and prove maybe fans are beyond him for a babyface push

It's weird that they burned the "main" award off like a third into the show...

I find it weird that at least some of these must be shoot results because it's got to be a bit of a downer for the audience for back to back awards to go to Cena and Sting who aren't even there.

 

Show has actually moved along pretty well considering it's alternating between awards show and filler wrestling.

Another no show winner. Crowd getting restless

They've done a strong job of pushing the LON tonight. Looks like Sheamus will get Reigns at the Rumble based on the push tonight

It's interesting that they are keeping Triple H off TV to sell the angle on TV which is good, while he tweets every day and took a pic at NXT London which is not so good. But shit, at least they are doing the TV part.

It's interesting that they are keeping Triple H off TV to sell the angle on TV which is good, while he tweets every day and took a pic at NXT London which is not so good. But shit, at least they are doing the TV part.

 

I watched an episode of upupdowndown with the Miz playing street fighter, and Bray Wyatt was just sitting there in the back watching in civvies.

 

It's over.

That was some of the best heat that Miz has ever drawn, though.

Sure. It's not over. It's just something else. But whatever it is, there's no HHH keeping kayfabe.

It makes the heat on Lana for showing off her engagement ring all the more puzzling.

They are weird with kayfabe. Stephanie was pulled from the "hero in all of us" Slammy category after initially being included. I guess they didn't want their top heel being associated with charitable acts. Yet she's all over the place for Connor and Kommen. They aren't consistent

Kayfabe may be dead, but patriarchy is alive and well.

 

(Unless your standing as daddy's little girl affords you the opportunity to wield WWE's corporate feminism as a #brand, of course.)

I actually enjoy UpUpDownDown, for the most part.

 

Maybe I should have been more complimentary in that actually keeping someone off TV at all for an injury angle because it is so relatively rare these days. Bringing up Triple H's social media activity (and the company's social media approach in general) sort of muddied that point.

There are no rules Stephanie is not allowed to break. None. Hunter has but one, don't cheat on my daughter or openly call me a moron in public.

 

Even in her early days Stephanie was booked to pin the Rock with chicanery, held the women's title for months, beat Brie when doing so made zero sense (and that Trish match is a great example of an unselfish worker dealing with a selfish one) and only put over Lita with the Rock's help.

 

WM 2000 her finally get hit was considered MORE important than the Rock beating HHH to win the title. As if him doing that was better.

 

I think it's as simple as Vince has some massively disturbing issues relating to his daughter (read the Playboy issue for the stuff he claims to have been through) and as a result will give her anything she wants. She's the JFK of the WWF. Joseph Kennedy once famously told Tip O'Neil that his kids were never grateful for anything, that they had gotten so much every day of their lives they expected it. That's her in a nutshell.

 

I don't think she's a bad person per se but she's grown up in such an insanely sheltered pampered world she's in a different reality than 99.99 percent of the planet.

Guys on the internet doing psychological profiles on people they've never met is always fucking hilarious. Tell me more Sigmund Fraud. Yuck, stop that.

 

But far more important is the Rob Naylor sighting on Breaking Ground ! Naylor at Rawley's party getting HYPE!

I don't really care to psychoanalyze Stephanie, but if she's going to always get one over on the wrestlers then eventually there should be a payoff. Since they're not going to do man-on-woman violence on TV any time soon (and I probably wouldn't be a fan of that anyways), they should either have a payoff with another woman or find a way for her to get her comeuppance that doesn't require physicality. The latter is difficult to do well on a wrestling show.

 

Breaking Ground was awesome this week as always. Scott Hall giving random advice to people was cool, and so were Sami's poetic descriptions of wrestling. No Nhooph so I didn't need to feel any fremdschämen for her. The Dana / Asuka cliffhanger was a good way to end an episode.

I guess they probably think that Vickie Guerrero pushing Steph to the mud was a great payoff and that they need to "rebuild" Steph for another one in th next 5 years or so

All I know is I hope Tom Phillips got a little extra in his paycheck since it looked like Steph legit slapped the piss out of him. Also not sure how smart it is for a company so paranoid about concussions to have one of the owners doing a gimmick where she slaps people in the head as hard as she can (she made Roman's eyes water last week).

All I know is I hope Tom Phillips got a little extra in his paycheck since it looked like Steph legit slapped the piss out of him. Also not sure how smart it is for a company so paranoid about concussions to have one of the owners doing a gimmick where she slaps people in the head as hard as she can (she made Roman's eyes water last week).

Well shit, we might as well ban every move except the chinlock if we're gonna be that sensitive about this stuff.

There is absolutely no good reason to book Tom Phillips of all people to get his head rattled by those slaps. I don't think she should be slapping wrestlers but there is SOME logic in that but announcers or interviewers with no athletic backgrounds? Absolutely not.

Is this how they write Phillips out so the new guy can announce?