rolling (non-millenials) grabbing the brass ring 2015

lol i ought to include some kind of disclaimer on any posts i make here on Thursday nights to the effect that the following is likely to be a poorly punctuated mess of unsubstantiated drivel and should probably be ignored by the public at large (I have Thursday evenings / Friday mornings off work).

but yeah i was being silly and hyperbolic and I went totally overboard with the criticism the other night, but even so, agree to disagree on this issue i think. though it is very likely that my opinions on this matter are shaped by a childhood in which I was a total mark for The Rock, to such an extent that I really wasn't into Stone Cold at all, I just take very little joy in Austin's character and performances back then relative to his work from 96-98. And it isn't just a ring-work thing either. I love his 2001 stuff with Angle, Benoit, Jericho and the aforementioned HHH match. That stuff was all great. And I'm absolutely not trying to deny what he achieved in terms of revolutionizing the prevalent style of the day and what he did for the business. I'm just saying I can't take very much pleasure in a lot of it now for whatever reason.

I can rewatch his rise from 96-98 and be utterly thrilled decades after the fact with how intense and how obviously superior this guy was to everything that was happening around him (and I would probably include Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels in that) and it's like when you watch that stuff any element of mystery as to how this guy carried the company and the industry as a whole into such a hot period just kinda vanishes because it is immediately obvious when you watch him how completely sand occasionally transcendentally awesome he was at the whole shebang. But his stuff post-98 tends leaves me cold and idk i can only apologise but i do disagree and there are a ton of guys from that period who i would rather watch now

2001 is a sneaky contender for his best in-ring year tbh. it's not fashionable to say so because nobody liked the heel run/the invasion but he was clearly hungry after missing most of 2000, the angle/benoit/jericho/hhh stuff is absolutely great (and even with that heel turn, rock/austin at mania 17 is a strong contender for the best mania main event.)

austin in 99-ish is important obv but a little too pander-y, his best year as a babyface character is definitely 97 imo

2001 was easily his best in-ring year IMO. He was tearing it up on PPV and free TV all year.

v sick of getting LU championships spoiled via wiki, and nerds who act like the dates they were filmed are "canon"

generally don't look up any wrestler who has ever appeared on the show it'll be like "super fly is a wrestler who has appeared on lucha underground. he is not lucha underground champion; prince puma, instead won the championship in october 2014 in an episode that aired in 2015. super fly had nothing to do with that."

not lying, i literally found out prince puma was LU champion in 2011

it really made the announce tables look weak

― qualx, Monday, March 30, 2015 9:34 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean, my literal response to that reigns/show spot was "so fucking what" so gj wwe booking

everyone is stupid:

1. what is the point of a cage match if the authority is in charge and can do something like stick kane in as "the gatekeeper"? how did orton not think of this?
2. aren't cage matches no dq? what was stopping orton from using it?
3. why are the announcers making a big deal out of rollins using it? no dq! and if it were dq he'd retain anyway so who cares?
4. if rollins does it doesn't that automatically make it not an RKO? why can't it just be a diamond cutter?
5. was orton dq'd when he RKO'd kane? none of this is clear!
6. the entire point of this match was to put over the importance of being clear and thorough when declaring rules

intro to raw tmo should just be steph admonishing the two of them for their decisions

I haven't even watching Extreme Rules yet because I felt like it was going to be garbage and I chose sleep instead. I do like Rollins using the RKO since they banned his curb stomp.

The return of heel Bo Dallas is something I really appreciate and so is Sandow. I'm glad we're getting to see more of him.

Also: the return of King of the Ring. How much did people care?

extreme rules was solid enough for what it was. tag match and pre-show match both great, and reigns has figured out how to be a good big match worker. kind of terrible main event

re: king of the ring, they basically just kinda threw it out there and it was done by tuesday, so probably not much beyond the initial nostalgia pop. we got a real good neville/harper tv match out of it though

https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/595019376513949696

Worth checking out Sami Zayn's Raw debut against Cena last night. They let him kick out of the AA, promising start

It was about as perfect a debut he could have. He was allowed to stay in the ring as JOHN CENA backed away clapping and saying "tough kid" to the camera. He kicked out the AA and got out the STFU. He hit that diving through the ropes DDT, a blue thunder bomb and got Cena in the koji clutch. And Bret fucking Hart, in Montreal, introduced him in his home town, by hitting jobber Heath Sleater with the mic.

Raw in general was great. I've not seen much Raw recently, even clips of much. I guess I love the New Day and the Kidd/Cesaro team.

i really want to believe it's all a work but http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2015/0505/593997/sami-zayn-injured-on-last-night-wwe-raw/

i'd be more doubtful if the aggravation didn't visibly happen during his entrance, or maybe it's just a well-planned work

At Verne Gagne's funeral, Bob Backlund "started yelling out out what was described as a heel promo at Greg Gagne while Greg was delivering the eulogy

itami's hurt too after they were kinda building to him being the new #1 contender. nxt might have to undergo some panic booking soon

such a bummer. i have tickets for nxt philly next week and i was looking forward to seeing zayn + itami :(

yeah man, i'm going to the friday philly show and i'm really bummed about it

kevin owens tho!

wooo! live nxt tnite!

good news fad- they announced a championship match for tmmrw finn-Owens and Finn says he's bringing the demon

http://www.wwe.com/shows/wwenxt/nxt-takeover-unstoppable-2015-05-20/tyler-breeze-declaration-of-intent-27390265

how was nxt?

loved it. the crowd was great. mick foley came out to say hello, hhh came out to introduce the main event which was a sasha/charlotte title match, he got lots of "thank you, hunter" chants from the crowd. the crowd also gave tons of "E-C-W" chants, esp when rhino faced corbin. corbin won and then teased the crowd afterward about how he'd beat any ECW legends, and then rhino gored him. owens-breeze-balor triple threat for the title... whole thing was a blast.

Sounds like the best show. How was Owens? Does he show signs of his injury?

Sasha Banks is like my favourite current wrestler. Hope people appreciated her in the main event.

I was annoyed Corbin was getting boring chants after like 10 seconds On tv the other night. Was that match good? I presume it was a warm up for the rookie before takeover?

Owens looked great. For the first 1/3rd of the match he sat down outside the ring and watched and the crowd chanted: "Rest, Owens, rest!"

Corbin got boring chants too - hard for me to tell tho whether it was bc he was facing Rhino or bc people are generally cool to him. He was definitely in heel mode on the mic after the match. The Dempsy-Jason Jordan match was so bad, the crowd cleared out to hit the bar and bathrooms. People in both lines were joking that in NXT the Divas aren't the bathroom match, Bull Dempsy is.

the crowd at the last nxt episode was awful 100%

feel like sasha/charlotte are one of those pairings who are just going to be totally electric together for years ("wrestling soul mates" as ambrose has said)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHsuWP7q-mQ

I'm sad they've decided to go back to making Sandow a joke. Ascension is such a waste. Has anyone watched the whole PPV?

yeah. best things: tag match was terrific, bray/ryback overdelivered, main event was a lot of fun albeit predictable finish

worst things: cena/rusev. i like both guys and think the us open challenge has been one of the best parts of raw, but christ this was unwatchable

i thought cena/rusev was fine apart from the obviously terrible ending, though maybe 80% of the credit goes to rusev's facial expressions.

i liked that rollins got a clean win (errrr or as clean as you can get having three guys interfere on your behalf, i guess) and the shield reunion bit was great. would be good if rollins spent another few months trying to settle on a new finisher.

yeah, tbf i think the ending really colored it for me. and i've probably just seen too many of these things, reusing spots from cena's older matches with umaga and orton stuck out. rusev worked hard as always, really hope this breakup doesn't leave him dead in the water.

man i love the shield

can't wait for MITB!

also uhhh elimination chamber

Uhhhhlimination Chamber

I am kind of fine with the idea of these short-notice mini-Ppv special provided they use them as an opportunity to let some of the mid card guys to go out there and tear it up in the ring without the pressure of a buyrate or whatever. The tag match elim chamber might be a total clusterfuck but it's certainly better than having a 4 minute thing on the preshow

i am really really deeply excited to watch kevin owens do anything. so i guess i will watch uhhlimination chamber

kevin owens is in uhhlimination chamber??? sold!

KO vs JC for USA strap!

so kinda like the zayn/cena match?

hope KO powerbombs JC into the ring apron multiple times

did anyone watch raw? i only watched that bit bc my friend was like "WATCH THAT PART ASAP"

owens goes out when the open challenge starts, he and cena shit talk each other, he says he doesn't even want to fight for the strap, then he kicks cena and pop up power bombs him and u cant see me's him in the face. then steps on the us belt and holds up the nxt belt. guys it was the best moment.

i love kevin owens so much

since the montreal one, the last couple raws have been shockingly solid tbh

Shit so wrestling is really pretty good right now, huh? Just finished watching Takeover - Unstoppable, lordy lordy lordy but I never thought we'd see this

yeah, that said, i have to commit to not watching smackdown now, and maybe raw, even though it's showing signs of life. it's taking up all my free time now and i'm close to burning out.

tbh i find myself increasingly taken aback at the very idea of actually watching an episode of Raw in this day and age, and Smackdown you gotta be fucking kidding me. i'm sure i'm not the only one feeling like this (honestly not trying to be a snarky little bitch about this but my god, who the fuck would watch 5 hours of contemporary WWE a week?!) surely the only sensible way to interact with this stuff in this day and age is to read the after-action reports while trying to remain as spoiler-free as possible and then checking out the potentially interesting stuff after the fact. sure you lose the element of surprise but on the other hand you avoid literally hours a week of total bullshit. i honestly can't imagine committing to watching a WWE TV show all the way through anymore, i can only just manage it with the PPVs, and this is during a period when the product and match quality is in a relatively good shape.

btw if anyone hasn't already seen it everyone should watch the Sasha Banks / Becky Lynch match from the other night, it was fucking next level good and more proof (as if any were necessary) that women's wrestling could totally be a major and important part of the show if anyone in a position of power were inclined to make that happen.

i can't think of a better match in 2015, period