Here's some good news: ratings for this week's Raw were very good, with an average of 5.14 million viewers. With luck, anybody in the WWE power structure who wasn't sure if pushing Daniel Bryan was a good idea will no longer have doubts after seeing those numbers.

I just found out about this.

I didn't really pay attention to his appearance on Raw....

Holy shit, that's so insane. I mean it just days after his first public appearance on TV in years, just days after being inducted into the Hall of Fame....

Wow.

Whatever his flaws, I still want to say Rest In Peace Warrior.

One Strip! One Strip!

One thing I've noted on WWE recently is JBL's announcing style.

Now, I don't have a ton of experience with wrestling, but I've noted that there's a tendency for the announcing formula to be one play-by-play announcer who appreciates wrestling, will credit heels for their good points but denounce them for their heel tactics. And then there's the heel announcer who loudly lauds everything the heels do, and condemns everything the faces do.

I've noted how JBL doesn't quite fit into that mould as the heel announcer. Sometimes he does justify the heel actions being shown. Though I note there are times when even he condemns the heels. He also tends to talk up certain wrestlers. I've noted when Kofi Kingston pinned Randy Orton a few months ago, every time Cole called it a 'huge upset', JBL would always get upset. "It's not a huge upset! Kofi is a talented young man! We'll be seeing him on the main event scene in a few years." And, of course, you can't hide from his constant marking out for Rey Mysterio, almost always a popular underdog face. (Though I do wonder about the reason for recent fan reactions.)

Don't take life too seriously. It's only a temporary situation.

I've seen a decent amount of shows where Jesse Ventura was on commentary, and he was unique in that while he was pretty much always on the heels' side, he often made good points.

For example, I remember a match where the Rockers took on Big Boss Man and Akeem. They were using a lot of double-teams, and Jesse asked why the ref was allowing it when the rule was you had to get out of the ring like five seconds or so after tagging your partner in. Monsoon, IIRC, had no good answer for him.

I'm also pretty sure (though not 100%) that he would always be outraged when Hogan nailed somebody with a chair shot (e.g., Ted Di Biase at Mania IV, Undertaker when he was feuding with Hogan), correctly pointing out that if a heel had done the same thing Monsoon would be talking about how despicable he was, but Hogan seemed to get a pass because he was Hogan.

edited 10th Apr '14 12:17:24 AM by KilgoreTrout

Hey look, Bobby Lashley's back in TNA. EC 3 is not in a squash match.

I can say that is most enjoyable impact wrestling I've seen in a while, or at least surprisingly enjoyable one.

They still have the twitter thing, but it is much less obnoxious than it used to be and much more tolerable than WWE's shilling, if that counts for anything. Angel Williams is back, in the beautiful people, again (sometimes I forget Shine is only a state away) but maybe the gimmick has just grown on me? Maybe Gail Kim will turn now, given TNA has yet to put her up against anyone I felt like cheering for over her (that feud might be a retread but this time Roxxi and Kong are not around so I can't say it will be the least interesting feud)

Eric Young is your new World Heavyweight Champion, for real this time. It is something he probably should have been before a lot of his prior silliness (the legends title, world elite, the knock out tag) but it was a good match, an interesting royal rumble type gauntlet and the crowd was hot. It was really nice not to see Ethan Carter the third not squashing anybody either. Maybe he will have a proper feud now (I was hoping Sharkboy would be it but I'll settle for Willow)

Points to those who found Waldo last Smackdown!

I surprisingly got over Undertaker's loss at 'Mania rather quickly.

edited 12th Apr '14 1:15:43 PM by PhilosopherStones

GIVE ME YOUR FACE

Well, I'll be watching Impact again, even if it is on someone else's tv. I think their next pay per view is sacrifice, might try to get that too, though exactly what will be on the card is uncertain we probably won't be seeing any repeat performances the very next Impact given what just happened.

Shawne Merriman has joined WWE.

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."

I'd bet money that he debuts as a heel. I don't think the Terrel Owens gimmick will be seven years out of focus by then, no idea what it will be like but that is my prediction.

Whatever it is, I hope he keeps the momentum longer than six months, so he doesn't end up with another short page on the wiki.

Went to Night of the Superstars 3 last night. It was entertaining.

Facade vs. Ilya Malkin vs. some Russian guy

This was originally supposed to have Zema Ion for the third guy, but he was absent. It was... alright. With two Russian guys, it basically became one of those "See how the Americans can beat unbeatable odds!" matches. There were some nice stunt bits and it's always fun to see two bad guys team up and stomp the bad guy before they turn on each other. The striking was anemic, unfortunately, on all three sides. Even Facade was striking in a limp-wristed manner that didn't look or sound at all believable. Facade was also a bit slow and sloppy on his movements, which makes me think that he may have been working through an injury. He won, of course, I think with his signature Arashikage Driver.

8-Man Tag Team Match: Team STDs vs. Gregory Iron, Jay Flash, Keith Haught, and Bronco McBride with Marshall Gambino as special guest referee

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't like these massive tag matches. I know that it gives a lot of wrestlers a chance to make their mark without inflating the total time of the show, but it always comes out as a bit messy. As is usual, there were some nice bits of choreography where all of the faces were beating on respective heels in the corners or vice versa. Very fun bit where the referee, Marshall and his valet, Madisynn did a running leap through the ropes to splash Team STD on the side. Ultimately, Keith Haught pinned Corey Futuristic for the win. Side note, Ginger and Flexor reused outfits from a prior show.

Dalton Castle vs. Matt Taven

Apparently Justin LaBar brought Taven in to take the title off of Castle. It was a good, solid match. Castle started out on the offensive (supposedly, this was just Taven being paraded in front of the crowd before his match later that evening, but Castle came in and started the match early) and the action moved back and forth several times before Castle eventually landed his trademark deadlift suplex for the pin. This match features a lot of Taven apparently trying to work over one arm of Castle. Castle sold the "injury" right up until he bounced back at the end.

RJ City vs Davey Boy Smith Jr. with Bret Hart in Davey Boy's corner

Much to my relief, they did not have Bret Hart fight. Good thing, because he is not in good shape as far as I can tell. He's stopped and grey-haired. I wish I could have understood his speech, but between a bad sound system (there was feedback all night with echoes that cancelled out the words spoken) and slurring, I couldn't make out any of it. Anyhow, RJ City played the smart heel and worked Davey Boy's one leg relentlessly. Ultimately, Davey Boy won but, of course, they had to find a way to reverse the decision to avoid the tile shifting hands to a guest worker, so RJ City planted brass knuckles in the front of Davey Boy's trunks and claimed an illegal weapon had been used.

Jimmy Nutts and the Steiner Brothers vs. Team Big League

It was a pretty decent match overall. I was a bit leery of the Steiner brothers, having seen them cited multiple times on "Bad Wrestling" pages as being overly stiff, injuring people in the ring, but they comported themselves well. Scott Steiner is still huge and surprisingly toned despite his age. Rick, you couldn't really tell because he kept his T-shirt on the whole time. Rick did his "ass biting" bit once against Joseph Brooks and looked to be ready to do the same with McChesney's new valet, but was interrupted by Rex Lawless. The match was a bit of a wash overall. Team Big League did their usual schtick with Brooks acting as a punching bag. Lawless being pulled in to apply a credible offense, and McChesney only fighting when he couldn't help it. Kind of disappointing, really, as lately they've been building him up as more of a credible threat, but he seems to be transitioning a bit more back to being a talentless coward. Nutts oversold the "desperately reaching for my teammates' corner to tag", but was good on the wrestling overall. I honestly don't remember if the Steiners and Nutts got a clean win out of this one or not. I sort of lost interest by the end.

The Founding Fathers vs. Asylum and Rocky Reynolds

How can you go wrong with pitting two up-and-coming wrestlers versus the longstanding cheating grandmasters of the promotion. The Founding Fathers were comprised of Dennis Gregory and Justin Idol this time, with Jimmy Vega$ on the sidelines on crutches. Predictably, the crutch came into play several times. Despite a very strong showing by Reynolds and Asylum, The Founding Fathers managed to eke out victory largely through triple-teaming the newbies.

Bobby Fish vs. Matt Striker

Arguably, the best match of the night. It was a semi-comedic one with Masters riling up the crowd by denigrating the local sports teams and arguing that Fish was an idiot for wrestling for free that night (many of the IWC wrestlers did so since the event was benefiting the Meadville Middle School). Fish proceeded to play mind-games with Masters, constantly evading Masters's attempts to close in and swapping hands for the traditional Brawler Lock. Oh, and after a series of leg-sweeps, Striker swept the referee, leading to the referee sweeping and temporarily pinning Striker. It got a bit more serious later on with them trading what looked and sounded like solid blows (although they were probably merely well-acted of course) and strong exchanges of grappling. It verged back into comedy with Fish getting the upper hand and enlisting the referee's unwitting aid for a series of slams, resulting in Fish raising the referee's hand for victory. Minor thing during the match, Fish either started with or picked up an abrasion on the inside of his left arm and it wasn't long before the blood was spreading.

A.J. Styles versus Anthony Nese

One of the least-favorite matches of the night. It was alright in some places, but the beginning involved a lot of very technical grappling which was about as exciting as watching amateur wrestling and, by the end, I'm pretty sure that one or both of them had lost their temper and weren't pulling their strikes as much as they were supposed to. Either way, it verged in between uninteresting and uncomfortable.

Overall, it was a solid night. Not all of the matches were great, but they were generally pretty good. Definitely planning to attend again next year.

~Watches Raw~

....

Holy shit. Is there anyone Antonio Cesaro can't lift?

Cause now he just picked up the Mark Henry. It's unbefuckinglievable.

One Strip! One Strip!

Although I'm pretty sure Mark has sold less for way worse.

Still impressive on Cesaro's part though. Still polarizin' though.

GIVE ME YOUR FACE

Huh? I like seeing technical pin attempts and escapes. I thought amateur wrestling was boring just because matches had a tendency to end in a second? Maybe I need to see the match to understand what you are trying to say.

Anyway, I am kind of happy to read about Davey Boy Smith getting some work, though I find it strange ICW decided to put him over a champion, unless he is going to be sticking around. I see Matt Striker is, getting to prove to everyone that he is indeed "top tier" (I think he was a fine commentator though and kind of wished WWE had kept him in that role).

Did not know that was an actual gimmick. I hear you about massive tag team matches too, but believe me, they're worse when televised than at live events where commercials don't interrupt matches or decrease from overall time of the show.

It's entirely possible that I'm describing it badly. It's also possible that it just wasn't my sort of match. It was the sort of match where the first several minutes of it involved swapping hammerlocks with a long period of time in each hold. If it had happened later in the match, I'd probably be thinking "rest holds". There are a number of possibilities, of course. It could be that they were going for a dramatic tension with both sides struggling for domination. It could be that there was a miscue and the holds were a chance to hold a quick conversation mid-match to establish where they were going with the match. If it was the former, I think they may have just not sold it well enough. There were matches earlier in the night, such as Fish versus Striker, where they were able to do several holds one after the other and it looked like an actual struggle for dominance. This one felt jerky, get into a hold, wait several seconds, next hold, several seconds, and so on.

Regarding RJ City and "Davey Boy", it probably adds context that RJ City plays an egotistical heel. Much like last year's NOTSS, where Wrestling/Goldust beat down McChesney, the fans were cheering on the outside guy coming in and helping clean up shop. Come to think of it, that actually describes a lot of guest spots... if they're normally faces, they usually wind up taking on one of the prominent heels. It serves a dual purpose of giving the fans some satisfaction and also establishing the heels as credible threats since they've managed to hold their own against someone in a higher league of competition. The latter bit plays into when the heels come in versus faces, of course, but there, the guest star usually loses (which I sometimes wonder how much it rankles... I know Striker has been used twice already this year to put people over).

And you're right. I'm mixing my metaphors. Face as patriotic character and Face faces unbeatable odds and yet pulls through. :) Better? Oh, and the other Russian guy was Serge White according to the official results:

1. Facade d. Ilya Malkin and Serge White (replacing Zema Ion)
2. Greg Iron/Bronco McBride/Keith Haught/Jay Flash d. STD's
3. Dalton Castle (c) d. Matt Taven
4. Founding Fathers (Gregory/Idol) d. Rocky Reynolds/Asylum
5. RJ City w/Justin LaBar d. Davey Boy Smith Jr. w/Bret Hart via DQ
6. Bobby Fish d. Matt Striker
7. Steiner Brothers & Jimmy Nutts d. Team Big League (McChesney/Lawless/Brooks)
8. AJ Styles d. Anthony Nese

edited 15th Apr '14 5:57:57 AM by FuzzyBoots

I apologize to everyone who would rather forget it ahead of time, but just could not help myself.

Popping to say a couple of things and then ask a question.

One: I'm not sure if I qualify as a fan of pro wrestling, but I wouldn't mind watching a match if I have nothing else better to do (which is usually the case when one of my pro wrestling-fan maternal uncles visits).

Two: If you ask which is my favorite wrestler among the men, I'd say that it's John Cena (Yes, I know, rather predictable). Can't really answer about the women, though; haven't gotten to see enough matches, you see^note My family would get suspicious if I start watching all-women wrestling matches.

Three: Are there/Have there been any stables that include(d) sub-teams with their own distinctive identity and group name — specifically, ones whose identity and name originated within the parent team, rather than starting off independently and then joining later on?

edited 17th Apr '14 6:24:35 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

The Outsiders from the The Kliq

So, anyone here have the WWE Network? While a lot of the original content is basically fluff (though countdown is surprisingly entertaining, and the recent warrior doc on the channel was very well done), its still convienent to have access to the complete ppv libraries of WWE,WCW, and ECW (including events that were either never put on home video, or released with matches missing). Hopefully they'll add SNME, Clash of the Champions, Nitro/Thunder, and what im looking forward to in paticular, superstars/challenge/prime time wrestling.

No.

So Kurt Angle is back, and I was kind of surprised to see him, but I guess that explains why they how TNA has been using Ethan Carter The Third up to this point. I was hoping Willow would give him a decent run, and it certainly was better his squash matches but I guess this where we really get to see him in matches.

More surprisingly, Kenny King is back. The crowd chanted boring at him though, which is never a good sign from the Impact Zone. He was not doing any wrestling so I can understand why they did but I think they had better have him do something to catch the audience's attention quick.

That's what I think anyway. Wonder if Gunner knew Willow had the same spot in the earlier match and just said "to hell with it"? Either way, that finish with Bobby Roode and James Storm is probably going to show up on botchamania, if you're into that kind of thing...

Also

So that's why they call Jeff Hardy the charismatic enigma.

edited 18th Apr '14 12:06:21 PM by IndirectActiveTransport

So, did Zema Ion show up for TNA? :) Kind of curious because he apparently got pulled from the IWC event because TNA invoked his contract for him to be there for the event.

I used the WWE Network once during one of their free trials. I liked it. I enjoyed the ability to watch pretty much every WWE, WCW, and ECW pay per view ever as well as some of the live streaming content (like Main Event and NXT). Alas, I could not afford to pay for it monthly, but maybe someday I'll pay it.

edited 18th Apr '14 2:54:56 PM by Nettacki

That just fucking boggles my mind, because I have never seen a bad Kenny King match, ever. Lord knows he deserved to win the "Tough Enough" he was on more than either of the people who actually did.

@Marq: I was thinking of what match I could recommend for your viewing enjoyment, and Indirect's post helped me decide. Here is Kenny King vs. Austin Aries.

Austin Aries is one of my favourite guys to watch wrestle btw.

As far as Cena goes, I'm not really a fan. This is partly because they have him win too much (and whenever he loses, it's usually because the other guy cheated somehow) so that he's become a Boring Invincible Hero in the eyes of many, including me. The other reason is because even though he used to have an impressive repertoire of moves (his first match in WWE against Kurt Angle is proof of this), for whatever reason he has stopped doing stuff like the Throwback and—just my opinion here—the offense he's left with isn't particularly exciting.

edited 18th Apr '14 3:48:40 PM by KilgoreTrout

Do not recall seeing Zemo Ion.

As for Kenny King, I did say he was not wrestling and hoped it would go away once he was. Still, that was just bizarre coming from the Impact Zone and given his announcement about challenging for the X division championship, that will likely be another week of no wrestling for him since the champion has one more match in the best of three series...

...or maybe not, does TNA still show Xplosion?

No idea about Xplosion. I also missed the part about King not wrestling—I really should read things in detail before responding and usually do. Sorry about that. Still, when Kenny isn't wrestling he cuts very good promos, and from what I've seen of the results (which admittedly is incomplete) he was in there with another good talker: MVP.

As far as EY becoming champion goes, I'm happy for the guy considering how many horrible gimmicks he's been saddled with when he was capable of being so much more than a (often bad) comedy character. But it still does feel like TNA is plagiarizing what WWE recently did.

The good news is that while Russo is back with TNA, he is reportedly only contributing ideas which can be used or shot down. (This presumably means that we can't blame "Willow" on him. That is Jeff Hardy's fault, and the fault of whoever decided it would be a good idea to let Hardy do this.)