Nakamura hiding away in 6-Man Tag surely must bring him flashbacks.

I love the Yano interview where he said he was proud of Nakamura for bringing low blows to an international stage (low blows are part of Yano's gimmick in New Japan if you didn't know).

Any chance Jeff loses the US Title and Joe wins the IC? I see no point in making Joe lose two big matches back to back when he's been cutting promos about winning both of them.

I'm not a fan of the modern day Harper Rowan George the Animal Steele distraction angle. I guess they have to give them an Achilles heel but that's lazy booking.

I dunno guys, The Iconics are now on some pure, uncut Laycool shit and I am so here.

I thought Billie was one of the absolute best on the indys around 2010-2011 so I'm hopeful she'll eventually reach some highs. Peyton excelled and shined throughout the NXT run. I still think Billie's been a lot of fun since their callup, thought they were the highlight of tonights show.

I just watched RAW on Hulu, and it was a great show. And I love that the go home RAW to the Saudi show I'll watch eventually but don't care about, was main evented by a Women's match that I thought was fantastic. Mickie James rules.

OH MY GOD JEFF HARDY AND SHELTON ARE HAVING BACK TO BACK MATCHES ON SMACKDOWN LIKE IT'S 2008 THIS FEELS LIKE A GIFT TO MY 18 YR OLD SELF FROM THE FUTURE THANK YOU DOUBLE DOUBLE E I LOVE IT.

 

EDIT: OK I spoke too soon.

EDIT: OK I spoke too soon.

Hey, at least it was better than the usual Orton snoozefest we were getting some weeks ago. Shelton making this singles run count is great.

 

There's something oddly fascinating about Jinder Mahal, Jeff Hardy and Shelton Benjamin being 2/2 in very good singles matches in 2018. So in for this.

I just like that they actually went out of their way to provide a kayfabe explanation as to why Shinsuke Nakamura had a theme song change.

 

And dammit, do I love psycho Nakamura.

Damn, Nakamura works so much better as a heel, it's not even funny. And I liked the guy before the turn.

 

Clever booking with Miz and DB, they know the fans want to see this badly, so they postpone it. What do you think, SummerSlam match? It's really worthy of a Mania blowoff, but i doubt they can keep these two seperate for a year.

Really liked both shows this week. Moreso Smackdown. Thought the Iconics were great and I really loved that finish with the roll-up through the ropes. Hell, I even enjoyed the Big Cass promo. Thought the distraction finish with Naomi was a case where it actually worked. Hoping this leads to a gimmick for her where she doesn’t listen to men telling her what to do and she sneaks into the Saudia Arabia show.

 

Smackdown does seem like it has a shot to be really good, even though it still does have awful aspects like Luke Gallows and Randy Orton.

Nakamura's always been a better heel to me, just because for as interesting as he is a TV character he'd be such a weird, annoying asshole in the real world.

Smackdown does seem like it has a shot to be really good, even though it still does have awful aspects like Luke Gallows and Randy Orton.

 

Surprised to see criticism of Luke Gallows. He seems like an internet favorite.

 

Personally, I think Gallows and Anderson are both geeks. They've done nothing to impress me in WWE.

 

Smackdown does seem like it has a shot to be really good, even though it still does have awful aspects like Luke Gallows and Randy Orton.

 

Surprised to see criticism of Luke Gallows. He seems like an internet favorite.

 

I'm surprised, too. That would imply people care enough about him or Anderson to give them shit.

 

He used to be better as Festus, which is crazy.

The last time Gallows got much love was as a Punk disciple. His New Japan run was generally panned, and he certainly hasn't done anything in this second WWE run to reverse that downward momentum.

Anderson was a pretty capable singles wrestler. Don't think they were ever anything special as a tag team. They work much better as goons.

I think most people who I've seen complain about how WWE has "wasted" Anderson & Gallows are only aware that they were tag champs in New Japan and were not watching during that run to know that they weren't setting the world on fire with their matches nor were they even treated as that important considering they worked a whole feud based around giving the camera men reasons to focus on Maria's ass.

Anderson & Gallows were both hilarious in the Southpaw wrestling stuff. Outside of that, including Japan, I don't think they've done anything I care about.

I dunno guys, The Iconics are now on some pure, uncut Laycool shit and I am so here.

100% agreed. LayCool was awesome and I am loving the Iconic Duo. I'm really amazed at how great Peyton's impressions are.

I think most people who I've seen complain about how WWE has "wasted" Anderson & Gallows are only aware that they were tag champs in New Japan and were not watching during that run to know that they weren't setting the world on fire with their matches nor were they even treated as that important considering they worked a whole feud based around giving the camera men reasons to focus on Maria's ass.

 

And I'm not even sure you can say they've been "wasted." They went into WrestleMania 2017 as the Tag Team Champions. It doesn't get much better than that for a team. Sure, they lost, but that's what heels do at big events.

 

I dunno guys, The Iconics are now on some pure, uncut Laycool shit and I am so here.

100% agreed. LayCool was awesome and I am loving the Iconic Duo. I'm really amazed at how great Peyton's impressions are.

 

 

I don't really have anything bad to say about Billie Kay but to me, Peyton Royce looks so much like the Shawn Michaels of this duo. Her upside is tremendous, especially on the mic.

Thought the ending of Smackdown was tremendous, with Anderson taking the bullet for AJ, and then AJ in turn desperately trying to do the same for his mate but just not having the strength to do so, all while a maniacal serial killer type enjoys making him watch as he hurts him.

 

Corey's line about the mob hurting you by going after your friends and loved ones was his best call in a while. On their review of the show on Post Wrestling, John and Wai likened Nakamura to a Yakuza boss hunting down his target by going after all his friends first, and I love it. Nakamura as the crazed heel is so far so good.

 

Overall, while not having any particularly inspiring in ring stuff this week (which isn't always needed on a weekly TV show) I thought Smackdown was really good for the storytelling and segments building up matches.

 

 

I dunno guys, The Iconics are now on some pure, uncut Laycool shit and I am so here.

100% agreed. LayCool was awesome and I am loving the Iconic Duo. I'm really amazed at how great Peyton's impressions are.

 

 

I don't really have anything bad to say about Billie Kay but to me, Peyton Royce looks so much like the Shawn Michaels of this duo. Her upside is tremendous, especially on the mic.

 

 

Peyton is definitely the better in-ring worker of the two. Think they're both about even in terms of character and mic work.

I wish there was more SHIMMER available online, because Billie's matches with Nicole Mathews and Madison Eagles was so good. Maybe she just works better as a babyface (though I do think she's been very good in this heel run)