Interesting that they would decide a pre taped Christmas Eve show was the best time to announce they are creating Women's tag titles, but at least it's a thing that happened.

WWE Christmas shows, for the most part, are lame duck shows. I can understand them using this time to add some buzz to the product going into the new year. Despite all the talk from last week about 'listening to the fans', its weird WWE rewarded the fans ,who sat in the arena for five hours, with a Baron Corbin vs. Seth Rollins main event. Lio getting egg nog'd was awesome and Lashley still, more than ever, needs to have Lex Luger's WCW 2000 theme and entrance stat (minus the butt stuff). I avoided the Natalya vs. Rousey match for various reasons. Is it worth checking out?

I actually heard online that it was worth checking out. 

Plus, we had Santa Vince. Can't be a bad thing.

13 hours ago, fakeplastictrees said:

WWE Christmas shows, for the most part, are lame duck shows. I can understand them using this time to add some buzz to the product going into the new year. Despite all the talk from last week about 'listening to the fans', its weird WWE rewarded the fans ,who sat in the arena for five hours, with a Baron Corbin vs. Seth Rollins main event. Lio getting egg nog'd was awesome and Lashley still, more than ever, needs to have Lex Luger's WCW 2000 theme and entrance stat (minus the butt stuff). I avoided the Natalya vs. Rousey match for various reasons. Is it worth checking out?

I haven't seen it but from what I read, as opposed to the usual meticulously planned Ronda match, this one was 100% called in the ring.

I really liked Ronda/Natalya, went about 15 mins with a fun story of Ronda being hesitant to beat on her friend while Natalya would capitalize on any opportunity of Ronda not pulling the trigger.

1 hour ago, SirEdger said:

I haven't seen it but from what I read, as opposed to the usual meticulously planned Ronda match, this one was 100% called in the ring.

 

Yeah, Dave mentioned that all the planning went to the women's gauntlet match that took place (last week but the same taping) and they had faith Nattie could go out there and wing it with her and have a good match since she's been the one doing most of Ronda's training. 

I always wondered, for all the stories of people being stretched and tortured in the Dungeon, Stu must have done a good job teaching match layout since everyone he had a hand in training ended up really good at it. 

Stu was also credited with helping to lay out Bret and Owen's WM10 match.

Oh man D-Bry versus the entire 205 live roster is going to be freakin' great

Holy shit AJ lays out Vince!  Are they writing Vince out already or is this building to something?!  Interested here

That entire segment, climaxing with Vince getting off on AJ's punch, was one of the best things they've done all year. His faults are legion but the man is an all-time great television performer.

First reaction is this might be building to AJ v Hunter at Mania 

Will Hunter even be ready for Mania? Not sure of the healing time for a torn pec on a 40 something year old. 

Not sure what to make of that segment. Seems like swimming against the tide to turn AJ, especially when Bryan's killing it in the role and it also hasn't been too long since Nakamura turned (and you still got Joe quietly doing well). Seriously, I'm not against dual brand PPVs, but aside from whatever Rousey's doing, I don't think there's a single feud on RAW that I'd like to see represented on a PPV more than the least interesting feud on SD. Like, I'd more interested in a Naomi/Asuka rematch than whatever cockamamie gimmick match they'd do with Rollins/Ambrose or Balor/whoever if there was PPV on Sunday. 

So, then, if its not meant to turn AJ, it seems like its meant to "darken" him - but for what? HHH? Hard pass. Taker? Having the McMahons involved sounds like the most convoluted route to get there possible. Maybe Vince will exact revenge by making AJ #1 in the Rumble? And he'll win it and then, to prove to Vince he's got the "animal" instinct, he'll challenge Brock? That scenario works for me but it just seems ludicrously far-fetched. Then again, realistically, when they lost Reigns and looked at the numbers, was AJ the #2 merch seller? Or was it Rollins? Or someone else? 

I was thinking AJ was heading towards the Viper at Mania as that's still a relatively fresh match

Triple H (if not injured) I thought was going for Batista if available.

On merchandise sales, this is what Dave Meltzer reported in April this year:

Quote

Regarding merchandise sales, Cena is still far and away No. 1. Styles and Reigns right now duel for the No. 2 spot, so Styles is probably making a ton of money right now. The New Day are also very strong performers in that regard, and guys like Balor, Rollins and Strowman also do very well.

 

Holy crap Rusev vs Nak was great.

The Ronda-Natty match was a lot of fun live and the crowd--those that stuck around--were into it despite being worn out by an hour-long women's gauntlet earlier.

On 12/25/2018 at 8:39 PM, sek69 said:

Holy crap Rusev vs Nak was great.

While I loved the match, it was here where I finally got really angry with the overdone "1-2-kick out--exasperated face" sequence everyone must do after every single near fall now. It's as overdone as every NXT wrestler having to position themselves directly in front of the hard camera before hitting their finisher and getting the win.

If you don't know what I mean, it's the "I can't believe s/he kicked out!" face everyone makes while the camera zooms in tight after every "dramatic" moment in a big match.

On 12/30/2018 at 12:42 AM, artDDP said:

While I loved the match, it was here where I finally got really angry with the overdone "1-2-kick out--exasperated face" sequence everyone must do after every single near fall now. It's as overdone as every NXT wrestler having to position themselves directly in front of the hard camera before hitting their finisher and getting the win.

If you don't know what I mean, it's the "I can't believe s/he kicked out!" face everyone makes while the camera zooms in tight after every "dramatic" moment in a big match.

Sadly, you kinda see that everywhere. Just saw it on MLW and iMPACT too. Yet another awful WWEism that has spread out.

I'm pretty sure it became a thing after the HBK/Undertaker match at WM25. It worked in that match because Shawn kicking out of the tombstone was a genuinely shocking moment that warranted a reaction of stunned disbelief. But of course WWE couldn't leave well enough alone and had to turn it into yet another cliched big match spot.