Rolling Chris and Kevin's Bogus Journey 2017

Even with three years of build I had no interest in seeing that match.

After EC, Cena won't have anything to do. HHH vs Cena hasn't happened in nine years, and the match would be a crazy heat machine.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1197735140342083&id=100003168241103

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/02/07/513883586/in-mexico-the-crowd-loves-to-hate-pro-wrestler-who-plays-trump-supporter

NJPW New Beginning(s) -- the second show was excellent, as expected, Dragon Lee vs Hiramu Takahashi was off the charts, Naito carried Elgin to probably his best match in NJ, Ospreay vs Shibata had a really cool chemistry and felt like the first chapter of a soon to be great feud. KUSHIDA is one of my favourite guys in NJ and I thought he did a great job of carrying the junior division, but Takahashi has a superstar presence that even most of the heavyweights can't touch.

The Okada worship is getting totally out of hand, I'm really not a psychology snob but when someone works on your knee for 40 straight minutes, including about 10 minutes in submission holds, and when it's time for your comeback you start throwing dropkicks like it's nothing, that's some bullshit. No, doing all your normal stuff at full effectiveness but grabbing the knee once in a while for a half a second isn't selling. Elgin vs Naito was a textbook example of how to have a long match focusing on a body part, while keeping the match within the realm of realism when it's time to build to the finish (and to have that work factor in to the finish).

jfc even with corino gone i can't listen to the english commentary

Kevin Kelly is awful, like wtf stop shouting destino all the time

Corino was useful because he could understand Japanese and would give live translation of promos. Callis doesn't add anything, but he doesn't take away anything either, unlike say Matt Striker who was the absolute worst. Kevin Kelly is OK, he comes off like a genuine fan of the product, but I think he'd be so much better even with a halfway decent colour commentator.

don't give two hoots what kind of knowledge they bring to the table if they're gonna remain dead set on calling exciting matches like they're calling the puppy bowl (and puppies make them sort of uncomfortable)

no lawler attitude era jokes please it took a while to come up with the right metaphor

"A new list! ... why is my name on this?" Wrestling is the best theater in the world sometimes.

bogus :(

i watched that segment again, so great

the gasp of horror from the crowd was incredible, Jericho probably felt such a warm glow of professional fulfilment at turning a comedy list into that payoff

It was Owens' genuine tears that made it. He didn't attack Jericho because he wanted to, he did it because he had to. I thought storytelling of that calibre was beyond WWE these days.

i think it kinda is? but fortunately for us all Chris Jericho is a mastermind and he's allowed to bring his own ideas to the table. what an amazing heel turn.

great episode top to bottom actually

I kind of feel bad for Owens now, it's reminding me of Kurt Angle's first title reign in 2000-1 where he was booked like a paper champion for months, then took his character to another level and became an awesome psycho killer just in time to get steamrolled by the guy main eventing Wrestlemania.

Man, I remember around this time last year, people all over the internet were saying Jericho was played out, couldn't make it happen in the ring anymore, and should basically get lost. For him to go from that to pulling off maybe his best character-reinvention yet, topped off with this instant classic TV segment, all in his mid-40s, is just fantastic.

the gasp of horror from the crowd was incredible

yes i loved this. it's impossible for wwe to get the fans invested in tough guys being mean to each other, but two jerks having a sweet friendship? this we care about

Bummer that George "The Animal" Steele and Ivan Koloff both died. Not enough love given to these two in recent years.

been watching the most recent WWE 24 documentary thing on the Network (the one about WM 32) and it got me to thinking about the wider presentation of the product today, particularly the whys and why nots of a realer, more "pure sports" approach to promoting their guys

for instance, i had never previously heard that Zack Ryder had suffered with multiple bouts of cancer as a kid, had tumors removed from his lungs and shit. they accompanied this info with a little highlights package of him talking about how all he ever wanted to be when growing up was a "WWE Superstar (TM)" replete w. pics of him as a nipper done up as Hulk Hogan / stripper-era HBK

like.... why the fuck would you NOT assume that this is something that I as a wrestling fan would respond? the fact that its cropping up in this documentary would suggest that Ryder isn't averse to its being used by the company to develop his character. i mean sure i lolled when Ryder won the IC title in the ladder match later that night (in order to facilitate a bad punchline in an advert later in the show), and I felt good for the guy seeing him celebrating with his dad immediately afterward, but I feel like there was actually way more of an emotional punch to that victory than the show itself let on, and that was probably a directorial / production choice, for reasons unknown

it is a truly terrifying look into vinces mind* that i read that and just immediately assumed its because vince hears cancer, he thinks weakness and disrespects and distrusts you... and ive sat on this comment for 5minutes to see whether i could think of another logical explanation, but no, i just presume vince is a psychopath.

*and i guess his team in washingtons mind

I really don't think it's anything twisted like that on Vince's part. He has a fixed idea of what is marketable and what isn't and he only changes his mind if it's unavoidable like with Daniel Bryan for WM30. He doesn't care about the character development of anyone besides a few hand picked main eventers, and doesn't pay attention to 95% of the content on his own network.

i vaguely recall seeing something about how zack ryder himself didn't want to make it a character point. tho i guess he's okay with making it a second-level character point for the character of zack-ryder-the-person-not-the-tv-character. uhhhh

but yeah, wwe's characterisation of its wrestlers remains baffling and feels 20 years out of step with what you'd think the brand direction should be. heck, just think about how much they managed to wring out of mick foley's irl boyhood dreams, yet as far as i recall they haven't remotely tried to replicate that success

Fastlane was sad. The bar was laying on the ground and they still managed to trip.

i think i need to give up on wwe yall

can't make it through fastlane, this has been torture, can't even press unpause on a braun strowman match. i can't even make it through a recap.

it's all just dead. i can't care anymore. the brand split has killed any desire to watch any of these matches or care about any of the performers in any way.

probably working 12 hour days isnt helping things. i could've spent these past 2 hours catching up with njpw though and it would've been time well spent

this is a total bizarro world bc the only wrestler i want to see wrestle anymore is john cena

People will miss Cena now that he's off to be a movie star. The Rock faced plenty of backlash when he was full time (fewer years than Cena, but still) but staying away did wonders for his legacy.

I spent some time yesterday catching up with NJPW, Day 1 of the New Japan Cup is skippable outside of Evil vs Tanahashi, the Day 2 tournament matches are worth seeing all the way through.

I spent some time yesterday catching up with NJPW, Day 1 of the New Japan Cup is skippable outside of Evil vs Tanahashi, the Day 2 tournament matches are worth seeing all the way through.

Thanks for that, I can compress both shows into one sit-down before the weekend.

Thoughts on Southpaw Regional Wrestling?

A++++: Farmer Rusev, the theme song
A: most of the rest

Sea creature reveal, rusev and what greg valentine did were my personal favs.

Also shame on the internet to its reaction to paige, although i am intrigued as to what it means for xavier and the new day.

Smash cut to Rusev screaming "IT IS A DEVIL" was magnificent

Jericho only has one schtick; Cena was sort of incredible

Also shame on the internet to its reaction to paige, although i am intrigued as to what it means for xavier and the new day.

It's all best forgotten. Draw a line under it and move on. As I read elsewhere, Seth Rollins set the precedent for this kind of thing. No punishment for Tom Phillips, by the way.

Paige should pursue the matter legally of course, if that's her call.

Speaking of shaming bullshit: all this speculation about Mauro Ranallo and his health needs to stop, too.

As for Southpaw, Tyler Breeze was my favourite. That sea creature bit was magnificent! Better than the references.

Cena's mid-80s Vince impression was glorious.

It's sad that Southpaw Regional Wrestling is the best thing they've done in years.

"Chad 2 Badd, It may be true that my right arm has gone dead because you somehow squandered up the money to send Gregg Valentine over to my trailer and put me in an armbar for two and a half hours..."

I feel like this entire thing wouldn't exist if Luke gallows hadn't demanded a way to resurrect Sex Ferguson for a WWE audience, and I am so glad he did.

It's not even sad that this is the best thing they've done in years. I hope an indie decides to roll with it and makes a really smart 80s throwback league inspired by this. TNA needs a new hook, right? Broken Matt was leading to this. Lean in, Impact.

"i feel like i can hear chad 2 badd in my right ear. we'll never be able to compete with vince if we don't up our production values."

ric flair playing a tired ric flair impersonator might be one of the most perfect moments in anything, ever, period. i might even buy kfc as thanks

With five minutes of promo time based on the goofy shit they do in their spare time, Gallows and Anderson got themselves more over than Vince's team of 35 comedy and soap opera writers has managed in almost a year. It's sad, really.

p sure this whole thing was written by parts of the creative staff too

I can't believe this, but.....this is my brother in this commercial w/ Bayley! it's supposed to air during Wrestlemania. so jealous of dude....

http://www.cagesideseats.com/2017/3/19/14975254/bayley-snickers-commercial-video-hug-yourself

awesome!

lol that is great stuff

The Greg Valentine line from Southpaw Wrestling was very cutely done. The "bounty on the head" was the one story you could guarantee that every territory everywhere would run at least a few times a year. Tbh it'd still make for more compelling storytelling than anything they've done recently

Love the Bayley commercial!

Speaking of shaming bullshit: all this speculation about Mauro Ranallo and his health needs to stop, too.

After missing Smackdown for a second straight week with no clear reason given, it is getting a bit worrying though ...

Call me crazy but the match I'm most looking forward to at Mania might be Cena/Nikki vs Miz/Maryse. They've all done an amazing job in building the match with the Total Bellas spoofs and fired up promos on Smackdown, and the match should be a Mania-worthy spectacle with plenty of smoke and mirrors. The payoff is obvious but in this case the obvious is exactly what this match and feud needs.

I agree.

But man the wm card is like they literally made a game in creative that was 'how to make wm as un-fun as possible'

so who else hasn't watched nxt since midway through the last takeover and is desperately trying to catch up in 20 minutes

god WM crowds are the worst