Professional Wrestling: Smark I

[briantw]

Another Takeover, another five star Gargano main event.

[The BlackBear]

Hmmm people saying that was better than New Orleans, I'll take the unsanctioned match personally. This one was too gimmicky, I didn't really feel it was that brutal either. Bloody good though.

That Tag Team match was one of the best in a while, I really enjoyed that, even if Lorcan and Burch need a bit more too them. The crowd were against them (L+B), and they really turned them around.

Loved Velveteen / Ricochet, Velveteen is going to be massive.

Cross / Shayna (love how Nikki says it) was good. The too tough to tap finish was a good choice. Hopefully Nikki's going to Smackdown now. I'm wondering if they saw the backlash at bringing Sanity up without her, and decided to wait until this was out the way. Why else tease them, and then they disappear?

Black / Sullivan was probably the weakest, though I've never really been in love with Black. 

[lmanion]

Takeover was pretty great the wrestling is so fast paced compared to the main shows. Tag match was great as was the street fight.

MitB was actually pretty good enjoyed both namesake matches as well as the title matches aj and nakamura had probably their best match on wwe and by some distance. Bliss with the quick cash in on Nia was the right decision and Rousey actually looked pretty good again in ring.

Strowman is still working for me that spot where he ran through a ladder after throwing KO from the top of the massive ladder was great as was the look on the face of Miz. Just sold it so well.

[The BlackBear]

Best main roster ppv of 2018 easily. Jinder Roman was surprisingly alright. Hopefully both the Zayn/Lashley and Cass/Bryan stories are over. Alexa cash in was the right choice, Ronda ain't ready yet, but she's damn close. Not sure how I feel about Braun as MitB guy, him winning is believable, but it always works better with a heel, and Braun is as face as they come. They could have turned Bobby, he'd have been great with the briefcase. But the match was bonkers (in a good way.)

My personal fantasy book is a Becky heel turn, but it wasn't to be. But I'm sure she'll have a really good year almost but not quite winning anything.

[The BlackBear]

NXT UK is a go!

https://cultaholic.com/news/breaking-major-announcement-at-wwe-uk-championship-tournament-tapings/

Tag Team Title, and Women's Title. Oh I'm really thrilled about this.

[briantw]

6 hours ago, The BelgianBear said:

Best main roster ppv of 2018 easily. Jinder Roman was surprisingly alright. Hopefully both the Zayn/Lashley and Cass/Bryan stories are over. Alexa cash in was the right choice, Ronda ain't ready yet, but she's damn close. Not sure how I feel about Braun as MitB guy, him winning is believable, but it always works better with a heel, and Braun is as face as they come. They could have turned Bobby, he'd have been great with the briefcase. But the match was bonkers (in a good way.)

My personal fantasy book is a Becky heel turn, but it wasn't to be. But I'm sure she'll have a really good year almost but not quite winning anything.

Personally, I thought the only good thing about that awful Roman/Jinder match was the crowd shitting all over it.  There were so many great chants.  I think my favorite was when they started the "Let's go Cena, Cena sucks" chant.  

The fact that they actually booked that match to be fifteen minutes long tells me that the people in charge have no idea how to book Roman at all.  Roman Reigns, man of three and a half moves, should not be wrestling in matches longer than ten minutes unless there are four other people in the ring with him.  Against Mahal, they should have made it a sub-five minute affair that was constant action with zero down time.  Let Roman go over in three minutes of fast-paced action and the crowd won't even have time to shit on it, and like Goldberg/Lesnar at Wrestlemania last year, maybe they'll even enjoy it. 

We saw that with the Rousey/Jax match.  That match was balls to the wall, constant action.  It was Nia's best match precisely because they didn't do her normal, boring as hell, slow-paced shit match, of which only Asuka, the best female worker in the entire company and probably top five in the world, has been able to do anything with.  They just beat the tar out of each other with no down time and the crowd loved it.  Same was true of that NXT tag match, another match that was a lot better than I expected it to be.  

[The BlackBear]

4 minutes ago, briantw said:

Personally, I thought the only good thing about that awful Roman/Jinder match was the crowd shitting all over it.  There were so many great chants.  I think my favorite was when they started the "Let's go Cena, Cena sucks" chant.  

I think that's a bit harsh, but YMMV. Maybe I just went in with rock bottom expecations and they were slightly exceeded  

My favourite chant was Stee(a)-M Punk, for Becky Lynch. And I love when the crowd chant we deserve it after Elias runs them down.

[briantw]

Just now, The BelgianBear said:

I think that's a bit harsh, but YMMV. Maybe I just went in with rock bottom expecations and they were slightly exceeded  

My favourite chant was Stee(a)-M Punk, for Becky Lynch. And I love when the crowd chant we deserve it after Elias runs them down.

Yeah, I love that Elias has gotten crowds to chant "we are scumbags."  Makes me laugh.  Dude really knows how to work a crowd, and he just put on the best match of his career to boot.

I will say that WWE made one good decision by not putting Reigns/Mahal on last like they were thinking of doing.  That would have been a disaster.  I think fans actually would have just walked out.

[lmanion]

The crowd started the universal sign of not giving a fuck about what is happening when they started a mexican wave during reigns/mahal and the camera crew were trying really hard not to show it. The crowds chants the rest of the night was great especially in the segment with elias

[The BlackBear]

I forgot to mention it earlier, but very excited to see Keith Lee at Takeover.

Bored, so stream of consciousness watching Raw:

I hate Coachman, he's awful. I want my Booker back, Cole and Graves love him, and it shows.

Rousey is still a little unpolished when she talks, but god damn is she electric in the ring. She's getting the Stone Cold treatment and is making it work.

Drew McIntyre and Dolph is working so much better than I feared it would.

At least Curt Hawkins is getting tv time, even if it is a 3 minute (if that) squash to keep Bobby Roode going. I do hope his streak will be paid off at some point.

Why are we still doing Roman? Braun is hotter than the sun right now.

Owens (who apparently is a Shania Twain fan) isn't dead! But Zayn who took a couple of Suplexes is too injured to turn up...

Corey: 'I might need a friend.'

Bayley and Sasha are friends again... terrific. I can't wait for them to fall out again.

King Maxel / Michael Cole is feud of the year.

Bo Dallas doing an impression of his brother was great. They're impossible to hate.

RIP Baron's awful hair, he's looking far too good these days.

Jinder is back to fighting Chad Gable... for some reason. Didn't we do this already? Gable deserves better. At least he appears to be done with Roman.

Oh my gawd! The Riottttttt Sqaud are knocking soft things over! Not a laptop! They didn't just put lipstick on a mirror? Oh the humanity!

Graves/Cole joking about ruined friendships. Coachman is clueless.

I Liv Morgans thing that she just had a slush puppy?

Sasha gets a cheap shot, guess it's time to fall out again. Urghg.

Can't get this show under control? It's almost like you need an officer of some sort, kind of like a Constable...

Oh fuck off Roman. At least when he won Elimination chamber it sort of made sense that he could challenge Brock again. How do they not see that this is entitled heel behavior?

Lashley first looks angry: Yes! Then immediately starts smiling: No! Lashley's making some good points... what is happening. And now the Revival are also making good points.

Kayfabe: Does Kurt ever have matches planned on Raw? They all just kind of get booked on the fly.

Let's go Roman/Roman sucks chants. So he's got some supporters. Lashley shows Reigns how to do his finisher.

I'm kind of surprised to realise Finn is taller than Kurt.

All these guys just bumping into each other in the corridor. And now it's a match, because that's real natural. Finn and Braun are buddies? Finn was in the team up against Braun, one day ago. And after his come back, Finn was his first victim.

Jose loses to Mojo who got a jobber entrance. Good to see they care about their talent.

Sasha parked blocking someone in, she's a confirmed heel.

Longest Elias song yet?

Seth: 'No excuses.' Hmmm, almost like that's how you book a babyface.

Corbin wrestling in a shirt, vest with dress shoes on, but keeps the music, and wolf stuff. Oh no he's taking the vest off, and it looks terrible. That's what I look like when I go to weddings. Blue Balor appears to be one of the weaker of the Balors.

It's a small touch, but I like Braun preparing to break up the pin, even though Balor is booked to kick out. He throws Balor back to his corner, steps out and tags himself in: Pure class.

Cole on Finn Balor: 'this kids got heart.' He's 36.

That was a surprisingly good episode.

[briantw]

6 hours ago, lmanion said:

The crowd started the universal sign of not giving a fuck about what is happening when they started a mexican wave during reigns/mahal and the camera crew were trying really hard not to show it. The crowds chants the rest of the night was great especially in the segment with elias

It was hilarious watching them try to edit around that.  

The sad part, though, is that instead of accepting that they are just booking the guy all wrong and making some changes, WWE will just do what they usually do and blame the crowd for being assholes.

[briantw]

So apparently Big Cass was released today.  Talk about out of nowhere.

[lmanion]

Braun jumping in and tossing finn back to their corner to tag himself in was fucking hilarious. 

Bobby hit a spear right out of the Goldberg in wcw playbook they really need to be smart with his booking because his return is really hanging by a thread after the awful 'fued' with zayn.

Ronda continues to do some good work and the more they keep her away from the mic at this stage the better she will be especially as thats where Bliss is quite good.

Not sure whether I want Rollins back as IC champ next week or pushed up to the universal champion level as he is probably the hottest star on raw atm

 

[The BlackBear]

Hmmmm, they didn't 'wish him the best in his future endeavors.' Which is apparently customary. I remember back when he did that awful segment with the 'little person' (is that the right term) he was just meant to kick him, and they were angry he went too far and beat on him. So maybe he had a bit of an attitude? If he truly was good mates with Amore, I can see him being a bit difficult to work with.

Just now, lmanion said:

Not sure whether I want Rollins back as IC champ next week or pushed up to the universal champion level as he is probably the hottest star on raw atm

Universal Champion level means nothing at this point. Until that belt comes off Brock (Summerslam?) it's all treading water. You want to do that with Roman and Lashley fine. Not Seth, he needs to be competing. That's his character.

[The BlackBear]

Ok so I could do without WWE's own fucking twitter accounts posting spoilers to NXT UK matches. WTF?

[briantw]

Decided to watch Smackdown for the first time since the one after 'Mania and I was immediately reminded why I don't watch this shit with that godawful Carmella segment.  Going to stick it out because the gauntlet match sounds awesome.  

Sanity's debut was fine.  Nice beatdown on an established team to immediately make them a threat.  Also nice to see Becky win, even if the match itself wasn't anything special.  The layout of the show has been really weird, though, with back to back women's segments and then back to back tag segments.  Why not alternate those?

Also, heel Nakamura is hilarious.  Saying he lost because the ref didn't count in Japanese and it was unfair and then this exchange:

Renee: ...Jeff Hardy.
Nakamura: Who?
Renee: JEFF HARDY.
Nakamura: No need to yell.

[DMC]

4 hours ago, briantw said:

So apparently Big Cass was released today.  Talk about out of nowhere.

Really?  Shit.  Daniel Bryan's still got it.  And ya can't teach that.  Sorry, still deciding on zingers.

[DMC]

1 hour ago, lmanion said:

Bobby hit a spear right out of the Goldberg in wcw playbook they really need to be smart with his booking because his return is really hanging by a thread after the awful 'fued' with zayn.

I don't understand why they bothered signing him.  Could have been built him up like crazy.  Instead, it smells like one of Vince's old revenge signings for anyone he happened to hold a grudge with (which was pretty damn random to begin with.

1 hour ago, lmanion said:

Not sure whether I want Rollins back as IC champ next week or pushed up to the universal champion level as he is probably the hottest star on raw atm

Rollins should be pushed.  He's on fire right now.

1 hour ago, The BelgianBear said:

Hmmmm, they didn't 'wish him the best in his future endeavors.' Which is apparently customary.

Well, Enzo was fired for sexual assault and they were partners.  So the answer is clear - he had sex with Enzo.

[Slurktan]

4 hours ago, briantw said:

Also, heel Nakamura is hilarious.  Saying he lost because the ref didn't count in Japanese and it was unfair and then this exchange:

Renee: ...Jeff Hardy.
Nakamura: Who?
Renee: JEFF HARDY.
Nakamura: No need to yell.

I actually prefer Smackdown usually... maybe just because it doesn't feel 5 hours long like Raw does.  And Nakimura the heel has been great.  Tons of stuff with Renee that has been awesome.  There was one, I can't remember the exact exchange but it was something like,

Renee: Why are you so against AJ Styles?
Nakamura: He is simply my opponent, nothing more
Renee:  Why did you do the low blow then?
Nakamura: Me no speak english

[lmanion]

5 hours ago, The BelgianBear said:

 

Universal Champion level means nothing at this point. Until that belt comes off Brock (Summerslam?) it's all treading water. You want to do that with Roman and Lashley fine. Not Seth, he needs to be competing. That's his character.

Yeah you put him in the mix having matches every week then run some angle like Brock wants to show him whats up after seth cashed in on him and reigns and have him beat Lesnar and be a fighting universal champ but then what do you do with the monster in the bank?