rolling Jericho calls The New Day trap queens 2016

well there you go. this weekend just peaked. that was brutal.

That was everything I could have expected. At times it felt like Nak was a bit too preoccupied with getting his signature stuff in, but the finishing stretch was awesome and he already came off looking like the biggest star in NXT.

that was a very pleasant blend of wwe/njpw. that was so good. i honestly saw more in nak there than i have in njpw (but maybe i'm just conditioned). for a match with 0 build that was perfect.

You could feel at the start of the women's title match that the crowd was burned out from Zayn and Nak. The submission counters were awesome. I smell a rematch.

Balor is infringing on Dean Ambrose's gimmick!

demon entrances getting worse and worse imo

can the dreads at least

amazing wrestlemania guys. i doubt the rookies will be able to top it on sunday.

Odd match. The first ten minutes were a chaotic war, it was exactly what was missing from their previous match. The finish was out of nowhere. No clue what they do with Joe now.

On second thought, they'll probably have a Nakamura vs Joe #1 contenders match, with Nak going on to face Balor. I'm there for all of that.

what's joe done to deserve another #1 contenders match?

http://s10.postimg.org/dla236p7d/finn.jpg

officially starting the "finn pooped" rumor you heard it here first

Really fun show. Zayn/Nakamura was match of the night.

I'm a little deflated by the finish to the main event. I'm not much of a Finn Balor fan, whereas I think Samoa Joe may be the best wrestler in the world right now, and winning the title here seemed like such a natural arc for him. I was having visions of a Joe/Nakamura title match, and then mall goth Balor won with a flash pin. Bummer.

One other thing that struck me during the show was that Zayn/Nakamura and Bayley/Asuka were both cases of a humble hometown hero against an eccentric killer from Japan, and in both matches the latter wrestler won. And they were back to back!

i'm guessing they didn't want all three belts changing hands. i think joe's face getting busted might've made that match weirder than it was supposed to be. would've been a great time for bullet club to show up for a double turn, joe was already basically a babyface for the first 10 minutes and finn was MIA

asuka/bayley was good but i hate how often they do face-passes-out-slowly finishes. that should be rare. fast passouts are fine. but bayley passing out wasn't the right move.

I'm inclined to agree, especially since they just did that finish with the Joe vs. Zayn 2/3 falls match. Also, the Asuka Lock doesn't look like it should make anyone pass out. And I wish she would stop crossing her feet when she does it, that's a rookie grappler's mistake. (It was a good match, though!)

Watching it live, I thought the dueling submissions in Bayley vs Asuka was the setup to the finishing stretch of the match. That's why I think they're doing a rematch. If so I'm fine with Bayley passing out -- it gets the submissions over more as viable finishers and the story leading into the rematch writes itself.

what's joe done to deserve another #1 contenders match?

Nothing, but beating him still means something and they might as well use that to build someone else to challenge Balor.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDrmmL_gFCh/

i agree there'll be a rematch, but doesn't bayley tapping out also get the submission over? not every babyface needs to be a mini-cena NGUer

WWE's fault for always equating tapping out with yellowbelliedness, but still. bayley doesn't need "never taps out" to be a part of her character right now and she doesn't need to be protected from looking like the loser of a match after losing (same with sami). save it for dean on sunday.

I meant that they helped get over submissions as holds that could end the match at any time. They're mostly treated like crowd participation spots in WWE -- you see a babyface in a sleeper hold and you know it's not the finish, you know you'll see the arm drop twice and on the third time the babyface starts a comeback and gets the crowd charged up.

Basically no submission gets taken seriously in WWE unless they've already done a hot stretch with trading finishers and a bunch of near falls. I guess that's why the crowd was in shock at the finish to Bayley vs Asuka, they were expecting a comeback and another five minutes of the match (and so was I).

what a fuckin great show. Zayn / Nakamura match of the night, fans really took it to the next level. Sami brought excess levels of fire though so kudos to him, he really went step-for-step the whole way through.

tag match was basically perfect except for that one fuck-up by the Revival and even that wouldn't have been a problem whatsoever if it wasn't for the crowd chanting "you fucked up" and "botchamania" at them, probably the shittiest and most negative of all possible crowd reactions, especially during such a balls-out amazing match. But yeah, this was like the best possible version of the Steiners vs the Brainbusters fantasy match, the Revival's heeling was A++++++, they really brought it last night.

Women's match was a cool change of pace. the Nak/Zayn match didn't burn the fans out so much as torch the whole fucking arena and scorch the ground it stands on, so it was always gonna be tough for Bayley and Asuka. but the shift in focus onto submission work and counter-wrestling was great, brought the crowd back in really well i thought. agreed on them going to that particular well a bit too often with the finish, but it sets up a rematch that i'm excited to see so that's fine.

The main event was fucking nuts for a while there. a shame really because by the end it had kind of reverted to just your bog-standard "good wrestlers doing good wrestling" kind of a match, but that opening stretch with Joe getting busted open and then just hauling off and kicking Finn's ass from pillar to post was so thrilling.

Agreed that when he gets into full-on beast mode like that there's pretty much no one better in the world than Joe. You could see that the fans were feeling it too, it seems like he might have actually turned face last night. Was convinced while watching that he was gonna continue beasting Finn right the way through to the end and the Bullet Club were gonna show up to save Balor and instigate the double turn. I'd have preferred this finish I think but then I suppose we dont know what they're doing with the Bullet Club dudes just yet.

Anwyay this was fuckin great man who could've predicted this, Nakamura / Joe when it happens will be all-time and teasing us with fucking Kota Ibushi, gaaaaaah <3 u NXT

I'm sure Ibushi will do the Global Cruiserweight tournament and wants to continue freelancing, but we've seen that NXT will bring in guys for one shot deals in the past (Liger), and therefore I've realized that IBUSHI VS NAKAMURA III IS A THING THAT MIGHT HAPPEN IN WWE.

what's joe done to deserve another #1 contenders match?

The finish was Hart/Piper at WMVIII, or a twist on it anyway. Joe has legitimate grievance to take up with Regal should they intend to continue with the feud.

Speaking of classic finishes, Bayley/Asuka was a pretty obvious twist on Hart/Austin from WM13. You'd think a crowd of smarks would get that but no, what a cold reaction to Asuka. Yeah, I get it, you wanted Bayley to win, but aren't these kinds of expectations killing the surprise, and ultimately the enjoyment, of the show?

Also, I haven't seen any news about the event staffer who got laid out when Bálor went over the railing near the start of the main event. I assume it was a shoot because the camera cut away as soon as you saw the guy out cold face down on the floor, and the direction was weird for a few seconds as they couldn't exactly cut back to Joe gushing blood (and they had a tight zoom on Bálor when he came up over the guardrail a minute later).

I am so happy i got up to watch it live at 3am this morning but i really wanna rewatch takeover dallas again tonight, i def dozed off during the womens match and the title match a bit. One rewatch and i think i'd rate it as highly as mitb2011, wrestlemania 30, wk9 and ultima lucha as one of the best 5 shows ive seen this decade.

The only negative I can come up with is the constant stoppages during Joe vs Balor that prevented them from hitting that extra gear. Otherwise this show accomplished *everything* it set out to do. I haven't seen Ultima Lucha, but other than the three shows you mentions, I'm hard pressed to think of another major PPV like that and with this type of match quality up and down the card.

extreme rules 2012 is my other go to

The match quality was great at Extreme Rules 2012, but Brock losing in his first match back? In terms of booking, it doesn't compare with the other three (or Takeover Dallas).

So WHOSE EXCITED FOR WRESTLEMANIA WOOOOOOOOOO

Ok yeah but last year was a good un after a shit build

Yeah lookit people can whinge about the build and go on about nxt takeover as much as they like but if anyone thinks that this is gonna be anything other than fuxking dope well then they are dumb imo because this is wrestlemania and they're gonna be pulling out all possible stops.

Maybe less potential than usual for stone cold classic 'wrestling matches' than usual, but the clusterfuck / spectacle potential for all the main matches is massive

What time does it start over here? 2am? Im gonna get shit fucking faced tonight (best week ever at my business and i only know the one way to celebrate) and get like 2 hours sleep? I may need a sick bowl of nachos.

Nahh midnight start, 3 hour pre show starting at 9.think 7 hours might be a bit much all told but I'll probably stick it on before / after motd 2

Oh ok apologies in advanced for very drunk liveblogging then. Ive made bankroll, im going to the pub and then wrestle fucking mania!

A three-hour pre-show? Only if you're in the States and get the USA Network, no? The Network is repeating the Stone Cold/Foley podcast from last week at 9, then the pre-show at 10pm.

Scratch that - the USA Network pre-show is only the second hour of the network one. So it all starts at 10pm, not 9.

Right you are! Just the two hours for pre-show

I'm inclined to agree, especially since they just did that finish with the Joe vs. Zayn 2/3 falls match. Also, the Asuka Lock doesn't look like it should make anyone pass out. And I wish she would stop crossing her feet when she does it, that's a rookie grappler's mistake. (It was a good match, though!)

stoked for Asuka's first loss to result from getting footlocked because she crossed her ankles from the back

Samoa Joe headbutting an Irishman and bleeding himself is a near-fatal disaster for Samoan kayfabe imo

I also enjoyed Orc Warlord Baron Corbin

just watched Zack Sabre Jr. vs Will Ospreay from the Evolve show on Friday - not bad! i still feel like some of Sabre's schtick is a bit too cooperative looking, makes the match feel like an exhibition rather than a fight.

Will Ospreay looked athletically impressive but some of the shit he was doing seemed like pure overkill - there was at least 3 spots where Sabre tied him up for minutes on end in increasingly deadly-looking submission holds and literally the second Ospreay escaped he was running around throwing springboard phoenix splashes etc. sell something for at least a second you cunttttt

that said, there was a super sexy bit where Ospreay went for a standing shooting star press and ZS countered into some kind of triangle submission and it was excellent.

in other news that will surprise no one, independent wrestling crowds and independent wrestling commentary are both the dirt fuckin worst. everything about the crowd was hideous, it makes it tough to watch.

props to Chris Hero and Tommy End for using 'Blockbuster Night Pt. 2' by Run the Jewels as a theme, that's a heavy song to come to the ring to

Idk if i wanna know but what did the crowd do?

Shooting star into a triange seems INSANE; like i cant even figure out the logistics of that. Is their a gif?

Definitely want to see that ZSJ vs Ospreay match

From what I've seen of Ospreay when he does sell it's really corny Shawn Michaels tribute stuff where he's like wobbling his legs and crawling round doing goofy agonised faces (think he was like this vs Okada for RevPro in Reading last year)

Buuuut he's 22, plenty of time if he doesn't get hurt

possibly not a triangle i am terrible at calling moves like that - it may have been some type of armbar perhaps? anyway it involved zack sabre locking his feet behind ospreay's neck / shoulders in the way that a triangle would, so that's what i'm going with. no gif yet so far as i know i'm afraid, i grabbed the show off of xwt but it's only been up for a day or so.

crowd didn't do anything especially egregious i suppose, just fucking relentless with the "holy shit" "this is awesome" "this is wrestling" "both these guys" chants. and the commentators were practically joining in. and then they did the show of respect to rapturous applause that you get 3 times on every one of these shows. eruuugh can't stand it.

makes me wanna watch old videos of people hurling trash while Jerry Lawler gets his head shaved by Austin Idol. crazed drunken rednecks trying to scale the cage just to get near any motherfucker who dares lay hands on the King

i hate that there are no bad guys in wrestling basically, Nakamura / Zayn last night gets a pass because y'know, wowzers what a thing to have even happened on a WWE show, but as a rule, just give me a fucking bad guy man.

Baron Corbin ftw, I've been thinking about it a bit and like, this is a very fortunate dude imo, because he has been given / developed for himself the perfect gimmick at the perfect time and he is basically set up to have runs against ALL of the NXT stars and the Full Sail assholes are gonna hate him for it and it'll be fantastic and he'll be fantastic. even his look works in his favour here, becuase the point is precisely that he isn't Roman Reigns or whoever, he's this balding dude with just a bit of a gut, who is big enough and tall enough to pass himself off as "traditional WWE system guy" without being an obvious superstar in waiting. he's like a second rate WWE system guy. i'm really excited about what they do with him. give him the title soon and feud him with everyone imo

and he's heeling! he isn't doing suicide dives and playing for cheers or another fucking "this is awesome" chant, he's slapping on 5 minute rest holds and telling the audience that they're a bunch of fat mark pigs that need to sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up. "oh you wanna see Austin Aries do a bunch of cool shit?! well fuck you, have this chinlock instead" good on this guy for actually having a clue of what wrestling is supposed to be like

otm.

also im quite hammered so idk if i even make it to the start of mania, fuuuck why does it have to be sooo long away

one hour, i was almost asleep 20 mins ago but i'm starting to feel it now. so much potential for awesome happenings

Poor kalisto for being this early

snickers shane mcmahon vs the undertaker

never knew shane was branded

that Flo Rida / Jason Derulo track is one of the better ppv promo songs they've used in recent times i think. I would quite like to marry Renee Young.

noway i make it to 12am, let alone 4am.

also suicido whats yr feelings on xwt? i keep having to set up fake email accounts cos idk im not seeding enough or uploading enough or paying for it? i dont really understand why i cant hold down a membership for more than a week

also is there a funkadactyl whose butt finisher is called the rear view? i feel vaguely that is racist and sexist but im too drunk to type a real opinion.

xwt is good! classics is p. much my most visited website, it doesnt have everything that's out there by any means but it has a lot of it. bit of a chore building up a ratio as it always is with these things.

i paid for a seedbox for a couple of months and just downloaded all big new packs immediately and let them seed. i'm a couple of terrabytes to the good on both xwt and classics now and i've got loads of the stuff saved on an external harddrive anyway so i don't bother seeding too much anymore

ohh shit new Women's Championship! about time man

what is everyones thoughts where it comes to spoilers regarding tonight by the way?

should we do another thread or do a bunch of spoiler tags or?

i kind of feel these thread should just be a free for all but maybe we should just do like 10 big ***spoiler dont read any further*** posts first?

I'm so happy this is the end of ~diva~. that belt looks sweet, and isnt a fucking ugly butterfly vagina thing.