[WinterPhoenix]

Summerslam has been awful so far The best match was the New Day Vs The Usos (actually pretty good) but they put that on the pre-show for some weird reason. Ambrollins Vs Shesaro right now, if it's done well it should be good, but I have no confidence at all. Also pretty certain that Jinder Mahal is going to beat Nakamura and leave me wondering why the hell I've kept myself up for this.

[Andorion]

A very average PPV saved by a stunning main event.

Styles vs Owens was very very good.

But Strowman stole the show.

[WinterPhoenix]

Thought Styles/Owens was definitely better than all their other matches in what has been a remarkably stale feud - considering how damn good they both are - up till that now. Still felt like their was something missing for me, those 2 should be able to put on a match of the year candidate in their sleep, but it feels like their chemistry is off. Still it was a pretty good match even though I'd say both the tag title matches were better - and I'm not usually a huge tag wrestling fan really. Shane is actually the exception to my general rule of thumb that says keep McMahon's as far away from the product as possible, because he usually has a positive impact.

Ambrollins becoming tag champs was a really good match on an otherwise lacklustre PPV as well. Felt a bit slow in the middle, but it ended very well, and Rollins actually showed that he's still one of the best in-ring workers around these days, which he hasn't always been doing.

Main Event was fantastic, up till a point. Strowman was great as he has been for a good while now, you could tell how much the crowd wanted Lesnar/Strowman one on one, and to his credited Lesnar sold like a frickin' champ for Strowman. Getting Lesnar out of the match though was an opportunity the WWE refused to capitalise on and it pissed me off, soured me on the whole match, it was so obvious he was coming back, but I kept hoping maybe he wouldn't Seriously, Strowman or at least Joe should have won that match. I was extremely disappointed by how little the match featured Joe as well tbh. That being said a clean pin on Roman is something to savour, even if it is the only guy with crazier superman booking doing the pinning.

As with all previous NXT Takeover events though, it was better than the main show. Even the opening match - Gargano Vs Almas - was better than anything on the main show. Itami Vs Black was great, Sanity Vs Authors of Pain was surprisingly good, with a great twist ending. Asuka Vs Ember Moon was brilliant, and the main event while slow in parts built to a good finish, and the debuting superstar involved in the post match beatdown was just great

Oh and they had Jinder beat Nakamura, I am so disgusted by this fact I would cancel my network subscription if I wasn't enjoying NXT as much as I am

[Aptorian]

Anyone been following WWE the last few week? I think they've actually managed to get me hyped for Survivor Series.

What with Kane coming back and being a monster (I'd forgotten just how big he is).

Kane pummelling Strowman and probably starting a feud that might run to The Rumble or Wrestlemania.

The Shield coming back and actually making the characters a bit edgy.

Kurt Angle returning to the ring. He looked rusty but he still had a bit of the magic.

And now with the invasion of Raw by Smackdown actually creating proper heat between the two shows.

Probably going to lead to a fight between Angle and Shane McMahon either at Survivor Series or later on.

The next couple of weeks are going to be interesting.

[Gorefest]

Angle isnt that rusty, he was still actively fighting in-ring up to about a week before he returned to WWE for his Hall of Fame inclusion. The invasion angle was pretty cool, didnt see that one coming. Going to see the UK shows (Raw and Smackdown) next week in Manchester so I am very happy that things seem to be picking up again. I have never seen Angle live and he is booked for the Raw UK show so I am very happy about that one. Good things on the horizon.

[Gorefest]

Holy crap! Jericho is fighting Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12 (NJPW)!!!!


What the hell. The face of wrestling truly has changed.

[Gorefest]

Holy crap. Been going to live shows for years now but this week surely tops the bill. Spoilers ahead!

Spoiler

Two sodding title changes on Raw and Smackdown! In all my days going to these events they never did an actual relevant title change, and now they bleeding do two major ones! First an awesome tag team match climax with an invasion angle and The Bar picking up the belts. Then on Smackdown they do one better and have AJ finally pick up the belt from Jinder Mahal. There is a god! AJ versus Lesnar at Survivor Series, holy crap!!!

Also an awesome run-out for Bruiserweight Pete Dunne on Raw. Man, just a perfect wrestling week. Best two back to back shows I've been to, hands down. Finally we have some relevant stuff happening in the UK. Amazing.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 07 November 2017 - 11:05 PM

[Malankazooie]

Did any of you booger eating wrestling fans watch the WWE RAW 25 special? They are celebrating twenty five years of WWE RAW and did a countdown of the top moments.

Wow, what a walk down memory lane. I haven't watched it since the late 90's / early aughts, but damn what fun television it was. Remember when Vince McMahon was in the hospital and Mankind visited to cheer him up? He brought a clown, had a fun whistle he kept blowing, animal balloons and he pulled out "Mr. Socko / Sucko". It ends with Stone Cold Steve Austin beating up McMahon in his hospital bed (including bashing him in the head with a bedpan and shoving a catheter up his butt).

Number one was Austin driving a beer truck into the ring when The Rock was on the mic in the ring (with Vince, Shane and others in the ring with him). Austin did the police fire hose trick on them but instead of water it was beer. What awesome television that was.

Tonight's WWE Raw is a special that will bring out legends from past 25 years of RAW. I think I'm gonna watch it for a good dose of nostalgia. And maybe even try eating my boogers.

[Aptorian]

No real way to watch it here in Denmark but I plan on catching the highlights on YouTube tomorrow.

They aired this trailer last week. It's a tear jerker:

[Malankazooie]

A lot of great memories in that video.

They got away with things I don't think they could get away with today.

One that comes to mind (and it made the list), is when Stephanie McMahon was getting married and the wedding was happening during RAW. Well Triple H crashes the wedding and shows a video of him driving a convertible with an obviously drugged or passed out drunk Stephanie McMahon in the seat next to him. They are at one of those 24 hour, drive through wedding chapels in Las Vegas and they get married (making her soon to be nuptials on RAW null and void). The pinnacle of inappropriateness is when Triple H says something about Stephanie's virtue right before they got married at the drive through chapel. Just think if they did something like that today?

Oh, and bra and panties matches. I have fond memories of those. Jerry 'The King' Lawler's commentary being the cherry on the sundae.

Also Val Venis and "Saving Ryan's Privates".

[Malankazooie]

That opening was pretty bad ass. It raised the goose flesh on my skin. Although there was a minor missed opportunity.

Man, there were wrestling personalities I haven't seen or thought about for like 20 years or more.

Best line of the night was by Jerry 'The King' Lawler: "I heard he went to the dentist and asked for a bluetooth. He aint right."

[Gorefest]

The 25yr anniversary show was okay, but I must confess I was hoping that they would have raised the bar a bit. It was very similar to the 1,000th episode special or some PPV events, where they cart out a bunch of legends (most of whom we see fairly regularly on PPVs and other events already) without really incorporating them into any build-up of current talent or to move storylines forward. No big surprises, no "epic" moments.

They used two locations (the location of the first ever broadcast in Manhattan and the arena in Brooklyn) but the two sites never really joined up in any meaningful way. So as a visitor, half the time you'd just be staring at a screen to see what was happening on the other end. It wouldn't surprise me if quite a few fans felt short-changed on that one. It would have been so much better if they had some people actually travelling between the locations or at least do something interactive between the sites. Heck, they could have let DX comment on the main event via live stream in their traditional tongue-in-cheek fashion or somesuch. Or maybe have two matches simultaneously on each site where whomever won first would get a title shot. Lots of possible gimmicks, but there was just nothing.

Taker did a weird farewell speech that still leaves you wondering if he has really finished or not.

Several of the matches were just Raw filler, which seems a bit cheap for a such a special event.

What I did really like was the DX and Balor groups, where DX sort of formally acknowledged/handed over the use of the 'too sweet' sign from nWo/DX/the Cliq to the Balor Club/original Bullet Club. That has a lovely sense of historical continuity to it. It was also nice to have Vince take up his heel persona and take a stone cold stunner at the opening. But other than that it just felt like a lot of missed opportunities.

[Malankazooie]

I dropped out of watching wrastling quite some time ago, but that Braun Strowman dude piqued my interest. Is that guy as beastly as they make him out to be?

[Gorefest]

Yeah, he's intense. He's basically the first guy that has come through in the past 10 years that has been built up in such a way that he genuinely feels a match for Lesnar. He really came out of nowhere last year but he has done incredibly well to build this persona of a behemoth. He is insanely agile for his size and he is genuinely bloody powerful. If you see how effortlessly he lifts big guys up from the mat and tosses them around, it is pretty impressive.

[Malankazooie]

Yeah, I was impressed with how he tossed Lesner against the barrier (not the table slam that was sort of lame and didn't payoff like I think they wanted it to). Lesner's a large man, so for him to throw him like that takes some strength.

[Malankazooie]

Razor Ramon looked pretty crispy. Years of hard partying/living - with all the trimmings - one can assume.

[Coco with marshmallows]

Malankazooie, on 25 January 2018 - 05:22 PM, said:

Yeah, I was impressed with how he tossed Lesner against the barrier (not the table slam that was sort of lame and didn't payoff like I think they wanted it to). Lesner's a large man, so for him to throw him like that takes some strength.

He was heavily into strongman competitions a few years ago, even made an appearance on the Giants Live tour (that runs World's Strongest Man)

EDIT: - think it's telling how many of the moments in that trailer ^ were from Attitude Era or thereabouts.

Or from callbacks to attitude era (ie Rock returning)

This post has been edited by Coco with marshmallows: 25 January 2018 - 09:00 PM

[Aptorian]

I'm watching the Rumble now. Just finished the men's Royal Rumble.

Pretty disappointing and forgettable show so far:

Spoiler

What is the point of hyping up that the winner of the Royal Rumble will go on to challenge the World Championship, if the World Championship is reduced to being the opening segment, in a terrible, uninteresting Handicap match between Styles and two annoying characters that seem to be going nowhere?

The main event is the Universal Championship. At this point the damn Intercontinental championship seems more important than the World Championship. I swear WWE has lost any and all sense of what the so called sport was supposed to be about.

Then you have the actual Rumble and fucking Roman Reigns just sours the whole thing. Thank god he didn't win. But then you have Nakamura as the winner and I just don't care about this retarded human being. He's a weird, unintelligible wrestler who's repertoire consists of kicks, flying kicks and elbows. I've yet to see a match with the guy who was any good.

Just send him back to NJPW already. I'd much rather a fight between AJ Styles and Finn Balor (Who has also been disappointing). At least then you could build some Bullet Club rivalry.

Well, now we have a tag team match in the middle of the whole thing.

Then a Women's Royal Rumble and the Universal Championship.

Man, this is a long show.

EDIT: Okay they are finishing with the Women's Royal Rumble. I guess that makes sense.

Not really that invested in it but the surprise appearance of:

Spoiler

Kairi Sane and those elbow drops

makes it all worth it.

EDIT: And in comes asuka and outshines everyone. I love that woman so much. She has more charisma and talent than the whole women's roster combined.

This post has been edited by Alternative Goose: 29 January 2018 - 02:53 PM

[Aptorian]

Oookay, that final appearance after the Women's Royal Rumble was probably the only interesting set-up for Wrestlemania.

Spoiler

Ronda fucking Rousey. Clad like Roddy Rowdy Piper. Challenging Asuka? Fuck yes.

I thought that whole showdown was super interesting. You can tell that Rousey doesn't have that wrestling camera training but there's this authenticity to her that I can sort of get behind.

They sort of left the whole thing unsettled though. Asuka didn't even get to pick an opponent for Wrestlemania. Are we assuming it's just gonna be Rousey now? Asuka didn't seem to want the fight.

Traditionally you'd expect Rousey to cheap shot Asuka to kick start the feud and make Asuka invested. But now what?

I guess they'll spend 2 months building it? Maybe have Rousey come in, like a Goldberg character, harassing Asuka, defeating opponents to prove that Asuka needs to fight her or something?

[Gorefest]

I assume Asuka will go for Alexa Bliss' title and Rowsey will take on Charlotte. At least that was my reading of it. Either that, or she is challenging Asuka for her WM ticket.

I quite liked the Rumble ppv, much better than some of the painful hacks of recent years. The first women's rumble was a delight with lots of nostalgia characters that are mostly missing from the men's rumble these days. Nakamura winning the men's rumble hopefully means a turning point on his horrible smackdown run so far. Nakamura versus AJ Styles at WM is a wet dream match on paper. But Nakamura really hasn't been able (allowed?) to show his stuff on SD like he did on NXT or in Japan. He really hasnt managed to translate his character to the big league so far.

All in all though, pretty entertaining ppv. Although again the NXT Takeover ppv from the night before outclassed it, unsurprisingly. The NXT ppvs consistently outshine the main roster ppvs. The Cole vs Aleister Black match was exactly what an Extreme Rules match should be. And the Gargano vs Cien Almas main event was a masterclass in in-ring storytelling. If you guys havent seen the NXT Takeover ppv, do yourselves a favour and go watch it. So much fun.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 29 January 2018 - 05:07 PM