rolling Jericho calls The New Day trap queens 2016

that fenix mil muertes match last week!

got bored of trying to smash through an entire series of Lucha Underground so skipped right on to Ultima Lucha which was amazing as everyone had already said, am currently enjoying busting thu the 8 spidodes of LU Season 2 that have been broadcast so far in order to bring me up to date.
aside from that and NXT i've been watching a ton of Georgia Championship Wrestling 19880-1982 which has been incredibly fun so far.

BUT the most fun ive had with anything for months and momnths has been my rewatch of WMX7 which was one of the first shows i ever stayed up late on a school night and paid out cash monies to watch live as an 11 year old school boy and have always remembered fondly as a special and important event and here i am 15 yrs laters rewatching it in full for the first time and MY GOD but it is fucking unbelievable (a) how many of these guys would go on to become uberimportant within the world of professional grapple dudes and (b) how fucking awesome so many of these guys were at the whole grapplin thing in the first place

i mean it really has been probably been a full 15 years since i watched any of these matches but the TLC and it is all awesome and amazing and i honestly don't get how in the name of heaven a wrestling promoter could have a roster this stacked and contrive to fuck the whole thing up forever and ever man fuck vince mcmahon you hubristic chump, how the hell did you fuck this up??!!!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!????????????????

and yet perhaps there is some kind of salient pro-wrestling lesson in all of this in so far as you can have an entire roster filled with p. much peak-era, never-this-good-again Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Kurt Angle, Triple H, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Hardy Boyz, Eddie Guerrero, William Regal, Edge and Christian etc. etc. etc.

and yet none of it meant a thing in the end bcuz all of that shit up there ^^^^^^ multiplied up together is not even close to equaing to ONE HOT STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN in the right place at the right time which all just shows what terrible taste yr mainstream wrestling fan has i guess

ONE HOT GUY in the right place at the right time is worth more than all the talent and deliberation and foresight in the world when it comes to rasslin is i guess what i am drunkenly and wordily trying to say. Roman Reigns is so boned

It's interesting to look back at WM17 just to see how many people from that show are still active on the roster (i.e. wrestling several times per yer). I count seven: HHH, Undertaker, the Dudleys, Jericho, Kane, and the Big Show. Plus The Rock has come back to wrestle a handful of times over the past few years, and Shane McMahon is coming back for Mania this year. And a few more are still around in non-wrestling roles: Bradshaw, E&C, Regal, and Albert.

Meanwhile, the roster overlap between WM17 and WM2, fifteen years further back, is literally zero.

got bored of trying to smash through an entire series of Lucha Underground so skipped right on to Ultima Lucha

yikes

how much did you miss? UL was great but not better than grave consequences, all night long, the trios tourney. and maybe aztec warfare if you didn't get that far. and the build to pentagon/vampiro! that's so much to miss. lol i literally immediately rewatched the entire series before UL, which took a while but it didn't get any less exciting. the only time it lagged was the build to UL, because it was a build, and all weekly wrestling shows are probably a lot better when there aren't any PPV builds.

but until that point (last 6-7 episodes before UL) i'd totally fallen in love with the show and couldn't stop thinking "holy shit how does this keep getting better". i'm jealous of people who haven't seen the whole thing straight through.

i know i should want everyone to watch S2 and spread the word and i know it's still Just Wrestling but it's one of those things where i can't possibly suggest skipping around. i'm not comparing it to hbo/amc shows (it is way better!) but i will respond like every loserdork dude when they hear someone just started GoT at season 14. like how dare you skip that one shot of bengala licking himself clean. how dare you.

that said i haven't seen the last uh SIX episodes because now i'm watching it with my partner and it's so fucking easy to get behind when you're watching with someone else

It's interesting to look back at WM17 just to see how many people from that show are still active on the roster (i.e. wrestling several times per yer). I count seven: HHH, Undertaker, the Dudleys, Jericho, Kane, and the Big Show. Plus The Rock has come back to wrestle a handful of times over the past few years, and Shane McMahon is coming back for Mania this year. And a few more are still around in non-wrestling roles: Bradshaw, E&C, Regal, and Albert.

Meanwhile, the roster overlap between WM17 and WM2, fifteen years further back, is literally zero.

― JRN, Sunday, 20 March 2016 03:42 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9WnHNdxdQjk/hqdefault.jpg

ok lol i looked it up and really didnt expect the answer to be 1 person nikolai volkoff

Wowzer, apologies for drunken over-enthusiasm earlier this morning but what can you do?

yikes

how much did you miss? UL was great but not better than grave consequences, all night long, the trios tourney. and maybe aztec warfare if you didn't get that far. and the build to pentagon/vampiro! that's so much to miss. lol i literally immediately rewatched the entire series before UL, which took a while but it didn't get any less exciting. the only time it lagged was the build to UL, because it was a build, and all weekly wrestling shows are probably a lot better when there aren't any PPV builds.

but until that point (last 6-7 episodes before UL) i'd totally fallen in love with the show and couldn't stop thinking "holy shit how does this keep getting better". i'm jealous of people who haven't seen the whole thing straight through.

i know i should want everyone to watch S2 and spread the word and i know it's still Just Wrestling but it's one of those things where i can't possibly suggest skipping around. i'm not comparing it to hbo/amc shows (it is way better!) but i will respond like every loserdork dude when they hear someone just started GoT at season 14. like how dare you skip that one shot of bengala licking himself clean. how dare you.

yeah i get this and I didn't express myself very well at all when i posted this morning (what a surprise!). it's definitely not that i was bored with the show that made me decide to jump ahead. i probably jumped about 12 episodes or so, a bunch of which I actually saw at the time of broadcast but without much of a frame of reference (Grave Consequences I saw when it aired without any prior knowledge of the competitors, for instance).

thing is, much as i might enjoy having loads of stuff to watch all lined up for me, it just doesn't compare to "live" or "fresh" stuff or whatever that i get to watch completely blind at the point of broadcast. i spoilered Ultima Lucha for myself such a long time ago that I've known when Season 1 has been headed the whole time.

i just wanna watch this amazing wrestling show develop on a week-to-week basis as the shows are broadcast rather than letting them build up again to the point where it becomes this thing i've gotta sit down and do all over again. i'll probably go back and fill-in some of the episodes i missed at some point, but right now i feel like i'm missing out by not following season 2 as it airs.

eurgh that was supposed to be a quote, not italics

All these posts made me go back, as i'd also kinda stopped watching season 1 and immediately i got drago v aerostar and cage v puma so i was happy as larry. The drago v aerostar match is one where full suspension of disbelief had to happen as they go ten thousands miles a minute and never sell but whatever, it was fun.

Lucha Underground is one of the few wrestling shows where it's OK to be a bit behind what's 'fresh' because it's so self-contained. The closest comparison in 'conventional' pro wrestling is maybe CHIKARA with their season format.

i know what you mean but i still prefer to be up to date with it, reduces the risk of accidental and minor spoilers from some of the websites i read. once you're caught up with a show the new episodes start feeling like a treat each week in a way that just doesn't happen for me when i've got them all queued up.

Oh NEVER EVER READ LU WIKIS. I wanted to look up Rey Rey last week and i got burnt.

Yeah, WMX7 is amazing. What's weird is that it was the peak of the Attitude era but also its "jump the shark" moment -- and both were evident at the time. You have a stacked card, killer payoffs to all the big storylines, and a huge main event that delivered and then some. You also have the Rock's career as a full time wrestler coming to an end (after RAW the next night he was off to film a movie for the next three months), Austin's WTF were they thinking heel turn (in Texas???), and the WCW C-team watching the show from the nosebleeds in a prelude to the botched WCW invasion.

ok wtf the network just auto unsubscribed me? ugh

apparently it can't handle changing cc info so it just cancels your account

anyway i discovered the greatest taker promo of all time

https://40.media.tumblr.com/30185813c9277736dce2d3a7bf3f5cad/tumblr_o4brmewujE1qzb8z0o1_540.png

Not bothered watching Raw this week, but I saw the news about the IC title ladder match at Mania, which is basically Money in the Bank with the belt instead of the briefcase, which is fine by me.

idk, past time they abandoned thhe multi-man ladder match imo, money in the bank or otherwise. about a decade past time.

Yeah considering zayn-owens was their chance at a legit 5 star amazing match also *mania moment* its a load of shite. Even if it was a ladder match, those steen-genrico ladder matches were insane.

Otoh well done zach ryder, you'll finally be in a mania match 6 years too late.

Calm down peeps, this is WWE we're talking about! Things haven't got quite desperate enough for them to give what the IWC says they want.

just read the recap for raw, boy am i glad there's a reason they stuck sin cara and ryder in that match... when i saw the booking w/o context i was like "holy shit, just how many people ARE injured?"

I guess they wanted a car crash opening match like ... the exact same IC title ladder match they had last year. At least the champion isn't a lame duck this time. I still don't get they didn't do a fatal four way with Owens, Zayn, Miz, and Ziggler. Aren't there enough gimmick matches on the card already?

i know it's the equivalent of saying "i' watching the super bowl for the commercials" but at this point i think i am watching wrestlemania for the entrances

aare there any arnold movies coming out this year for hhh to ape in his entrance?

Oh man, I hadn't even thought to get excited for HHH's entrance this year. His last two were fantastic.

kinda hoping that kalisto comes to the ring riding a flying dragon and ryback comes out with tank treads stapled to each of his legs

yeah tbf no matter what's happening on the card it's impossible not to be at least a little bit excited about the pageantry. Full brass band to provide musical accompaniment during the New Day match! or can someone at least dig out a couple of Naitch's old robes for him Charlotte to wear to the ring? Provided he didn't sell them all on eBay in 2010 or whatever.

Raw wasn't up to much last night but it was so good seeing the Funker on WWE tv again! Cautiously optimistic for the Ambrose / Lesnar match following the Funk / Foley appearances, though I still think they need to do something special to establish Ambrose as a truly dangerous lunatic rather than just a kooky am-dram oddball. really get some hype behind him heading into the match. The old Roddy Piper "beer bottle over the head" spot or similar would serve. like, if you ever needed lessons in how to convince a bunch of slack-jawed rassle-fan boobs that you were a legit crazy man....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzvNPq_5P2g

may the lord bless thee and keep thee, Hot Rod, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

i like how 3/7 of the IC ladder match were literally introduced as a joke

i guess you could handwave it as owens is a heel so he was just fucking with the real ("real") competitors but really it just came off as lol these guys suck

that said i would almost be into one of them winning over anyone else in that match (don't want ziggler/miz to win because zzzzzzz, kinda don't want don't want owens/zayn to win so they can feud without the belt)

thing is it can't be ryder because he's working nxt and it can't be sin cara because seriously are the lucha dragons going to hold the us and inter? but... fuck that leaves stardust. make the cody rhodes face turn now and give him the belt? idk wrestlemania is stupid

^ as if that's the only reason it sohudn't be sin cara lol

think it's got Sami Zayn written all over it tbh, but then i'm applying logic to the situation and shit, can't be banking on them doing the same. surely gonna be either that or Owens to retain though.

I'd actually quite like to see them have a good long run fighting over the belt, the way Jericho and Benoit did way back when. start it off in singles, have it get increasingly heated with the gimmick matches and the uber-personal promos, maybe have them trade the belt a bit; they could go till Summerslam with that.

again, i don't know why the hell they wouldn't do that as a proper exciting upper mid-card feud is exactly what the show has needed for god knows how long and it would be the making of both Zayn and Owens. but i daresay they'll rush the whole thing through in a month and a half post-Mania with a bunch of distraction finishes and 3 minute Raw matches.

That would be incredible. Also zayn has never got his comeuppance on owens, and to somehow have him win the multi man stuff or screwy finishes or keep zayn on a leash until summerslam or even wm33?

God knows theyd have no idea how to pull something like that off though.

loool New Day to induct the Freebirds into the HoF, this company is hilarious

http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/features/the-rise-and-fall-of-wrestlings-weed-dealing-cat-breeding-phenom-20160323?

that was a fun read Mordy! the "old" wrestling industry can never truly die while you've still got fuck-ups like Teddy stumbling around.

so according to Meltzer's recap, the following are just some of the matches happening in and around Dallas this weekend -

Reigns - HHH
Shane - Taker
Lesnar - Ambrose
Sasha - Charlotte - Becky
Styles - Jericho
Joe - Balor
Zayn - Nakamura
Bayley - Asuka
American Alpha - Dash/Dawson
Aries - Corbin
Sabre Jr. - Will Ospreay
Ricochet - Ospreay
Timothy Thatcher - Marty Scurll
Adam Cole - ACH
Kyle O'Reilly - Matt Sydal
Kyle O'Reilly vs Adam Cole
Young Bucks - Motor City Machine Guns
Roderick Strong - Bobby Fish
Ospreay - Scurll
Chris Hero - Sabre Jr.
Ibushi/Gargano/Perkins - Ospreay/Scurll/Tommy End

won't all be available at once of course, but that is still a LUDICROUS amount of wrestling. and that's not even counting the Ric Flair pre-Wrestlemania party at a local bar/restaurant!!! god i would kill to be in Dallas this weekend

who is will ospreay? i guess i stopped following indies.

he's one of the new English school of guys that are making waves at the moment, a high-flier up there with Ricochet and Ibushi for smoothness. Meltzer loves him and has been giving him increasingly rave reviews as he's emerged over the last year or two (to the extent that he's called it that Ospreay vs Ricochet or Ospreay vs Sabre Jr. will be the match of the weekend.

his profile's about to take a jump it seems cause he's signed up with NJPW and he's booked to face Kushida for the junior's title at Invasion Attack next month. Not a bad way to debut!

Yep, Ospreay is great - impressive high-flyer with remarkable body control, and top-drawer heel charisma. He'll be a star in New Japan no doubt.

Takeover Dallas and Mania predictions, anyone?

Takeover:

Aries
Nak
American Alpha
Crews
Joe
Bayley

Mania:

Taker
Reigns
Ambrose
Styles
Charlotte
Owens
New Day

what do u think they're going to do w/ shane after taker wins?

Probably nothing. Shane goes back to working behind the scenes and appearing on camera once in a while (assuming he's back working for the company full time again) and the Authority goes on being the Authority.

Aries Corbin (it's about time he won a big one, and Aries will do ok without this one)
Nak - i can't imagine sami winning but i wouldn't mind either way, prob my most hyped match of the weekend
American Alpha - please yes
Crews - this can be the only outcome, right???
Joe - now or never i guess
Bayley Asuka - joe/asuka at the top of the div is just too exciting to imagine not happening, and bayley to wwe seems inevitable

Mania:

Taker - how not?
Reigns - given last year's swerve, there's gotta be SOMETHING this year that fucks it up, and reigns/brose standing tall only for brose to take out roman seems right
Ambrose - yeah
Styles - if he loses, this never ends does it?
Charlotte Sasha - not sure if it's my head or heart but i can't see sasha not walking away with it. bosses gotta boss
Owens Ryder or Stardust - i can imagine a wacky swerve where KO/Zayn cancel each other out, Zig/Miz cancel each other out, Sin Cara falls off the steps on the way to the ring, one of these two steals one for a "wtf(tm) moment sponsored by digiornio" or whatever
New Day League - why would the champs bother winning a non-title match even at wm?

(Andre) Kane - and then he retires lol jk idk let's just #prayforcesaro
Kalisto - i don't think i hate anyone more than ryback, don't make me pick him
Nobody - divas vs divas is a lose-lose

I'll stick to NXT predictions first, not really thought too much about Mania yet

Corbin / Aries I can't pick tbh. do you wanna start Aries off with a debut loss? do you want to job out Corbin's "I hate indie geeks and I'm better than them" gimmick just as it starts getting good? Let's say a non-finish with Corbin beating Aries' ass post-match, it's about time he got some proper heat on him.

Crews / Drifter who gives a fuck, they need to go back to the drawing board with Crews in a big way imo, Drifter has been getting a nice little push so maybe he takes this?

Nakamura winning is the most predictable result of the weekend, there's just no chance in hell that he doesn't get this. Zayn will probably win at WM so it's fine, you always lose on your way out of the "territory" (you know HHH loves that kinda shit)

American Alpha are definitely winning here I think.

For the two singles titles... i dunno actually. Asuka's definitely getting the belt at some point but I could see Bayley clinging on for the next Takeover show, don't really see any need to rush this change through.

Balor might turn sometime soon I guess? he badly needs it and bringing in the Bullet/Balor Club dudes here to help him retain would be a pretty great shock ending to set up a Balor / Nakamura program maybe? yeah i dunno, apparently Nak is gonna be working Jericho through the summmer for the main roster Japanese shows so who the fuck knows. Balor vs returning Itami? I'd be pleased to see Joe win it but I wouldn't be surprised if they keep the belt off him and he's there to function as an upper-card gatekeeper.

Also first confirmed names for the Cruiserweight Invitational thing - Rich Swann, Johnny Gargano, Zack Sabre Jr., Tommaso Ciampa, Noam Dar, Ho Lun Lun, Akira Tozawa.

idk anything about Ho Lun Lun or Tozawa, quite excited about the other guys. Seems like they're pushing for relatively big guns as indy performers go. King Cuerno was approached but is tied down to his Lucha Underground / AAA deal.

It's repeated so often nowadays but it very much bears repeating - it is CRAZY how much the indy and international scenes bleed into the WWE right now. like there is now a clearly defined path from Korakuen Hall or your local high-school gym to the main WWE roster, Wrestlemania etc. When you remember how things were even like 6 or 7 years ago it's just fucking nuts

Winners I feel moderately certain of: Asuka, Nakamura, Styles, Lesnar, and Reigns.

The match I'm looking forward to most, by far, is Alpha/Revival, in part because I really don't know what they'll do. I'm most intrigued by the possibility that the Revival might win clean. That would further the storyline they've set up with Jordan and Gable never being able to win the big one (stretching back to their amateur days), which would give some character to this feud beyond good guys who win a lot vs. bad guys who win a lot. Plus it would cement Dash and Dawson as tag team kingpins, making it that much more meaningful when J&G finally take the titles down the road in the 2/3 falls match they've been workshopping at house shows.

Then again, I saw a guy on another wrestling board point out that there are no other major matches on the show that allow for a big crowd-pleasing babyface victory. That does make me think the Revival are probably going down.

in NXT i've got corbin, nakamura, american alpha, crews, joe + bayley in gutsy all heart title retention that proves she's bonafide - can win against the monster - before rematch formally gives title over to asuka (and sends her up to raw). raw divas division is still a little cluttered i think and nxt a lot of the next gen of women don't seem ready to take the next step. like if they send up bayley who feuds with asuka? you already know she can beat emma + dana w/ ease. carmella, alexa bliss, and nia jax are all getting there but none seem like credible champion threats.

mania i think i'm going to be contrarian - hhh goes over reigns in main event bc they're scared of the boos, lesnar obv, styles, sasha banks (50/50 on this one), i say owens retains, new day. is the new day match really non-title? that's absurd. also - i think shane over taker bc why bring him back and all of this just to drop it? it seems more reasonable to me that this is taker's last wrestlemania than that shane came back just to lose this match.