WWE Big 3: Lorcan, Gallagher, Gulak 4/12-4/25/20

Oney Lorcan vs. Aleister Black WWE Raw 4/13

ER: Lorcan is turning up on every damn show these days (Willing to die? Live in Tampa? Your ticket to the main roster starts now!) and I love how competitive this was. Black has been making quick work of guys lately and I am so very thankful that wasn't the case here. Lorcan was presented as Black's equal and that's alright by me. I expected this to go a couple minutes and it somehow took us through a commercial break, and I was into all of the headlocks we got to start. If a match has a moment where someone tries to push out of a headlock, but the headlocker holds on? I'm almost certain to like the match and what they're going for. Lorcan holds onto a couple of them here, and dishes some nice uppercuts and chops when they're apart. In some ways Black worked this like the underdog, going for schoolboys and bailing out of holds, and that felt like a cool nod to Lorcan's ability. Every time it looked like Black would pull away, hitting a quebrada, kicking Lorcan to the floor, kicking to get out of subs, Lorcan would fire back with something else. My favorite bit of home stretch Lorcan offense was a big damn lariat, love when a guy I'm sure is losing gets an awesome last gasp. I didn't love the final strike exchange that lead to the winning Black Mass, but loved that we got this as a serious match.


Jack Gallagher vs. El Hijo Del Fantasma WWE NXT 4/22

ER: This was a cool style clash, had a real "Hey these guys are both on the WCW roster and they randomly crossed paths on Thunder for 8 minutes" feel to it. It didn't really seem like it had a specific goal or story in mind, and that's what gave it that fun carefree WCW "go out there and do some cool stuff in the 6th quarter hour" vibe. This was Fantasma's TV debut and he needed a guy to show off his cool stuff against, and Gallagher is a cool guy to eat a few clotheslines, eat a plancha, fly out of the ring after taking a nice superkick, and then eat a big tope. I would have liked to see them work some conflicting matwork, Fantasma's lucha upbringing with Gallagher's violent twisting, and we didn't get that. WWE does not bring in luchadors to do flashy matwork, but I liked Gallagher routinely yanking Fantasma around by the mask, kicking him across the shoulderblades, and more mask yanking. Gallagher's big headbutt was the highlight of the match for me, that perfect Zidane arc that landed flush, and whenever I see something look that good I always just want it to be the finish. This was clearly going to be a Fantasma showcase, and that's cool, but I'd like to see them run this back without the need to get someone over in their debut.


Drew Gulak vs. Baron Corbin WWE Smackdown 4/24

ER: This was really cool. even though I obviously wanted a different result. This was a major change from the 2-3 minute matches Gulak was getting on Smackdown at the end of 2019, and really illustrates the important difference 3 extra minutes can make. It was tough to write about a 2 minute Gulak match against Braun, because what more can I say other than "Well it was cool the way Gulak hit that one punch before that truck ran over him and then also backed over him." A few extra competitive minutes takes the sting off a Gulak loss, and while it was a loss and it would have been cool to see him featured at Money in the Bank, this was not a clean win for Corbin. An optimist could argue that the tide was clearly turned for Gulak when Nakamura and Cesaro interfered, and that the match was professionally laid out. I thought Corbin had some cool stuff here that Gulak fed into really well, like that dope unrolling powerslam that spun Gulak into the mat, or the nicely pulled off Boss Man lariat around the ringpost (and for all the crap Corbin takes he's maybe the only guy I've seen post Boss Man who can pull that off without a hitch), the End of Days looked crushing, and he had some smaller things like a cool blocked strike that lead to a wicked kidney punch. Corbin as counter striker to Gulak would make for a great match.

But Gulak looked like his equal for much of this, and I loved how Corbin took a lot of Gulak's offense. We got some cool stuff on the floor with Gulak hitting a hard dropkick to send Corbin flying over the announce table, and Gulak hitting a leg whip that sent Corbin into the ring steps, and later flying off those ring steps with his nice diving lariat into Cesaro. I'm always going to be into a guy who utilizes parts of the ring and surrounding area, and Gulak is good at that. There were also a couple of strong Gulak nearfalls, including a convincing schoolboy and a great crossbody. And maybe the coolest part of the match was when Gulak's strikes really started landing, and he backed Corbin into the corner with a series of nasty forearm strikes to Corbin's chest, and the forearms all looked powerful enough to actually back up Corbin. Those forearms blossomed into bigger strikes and I loved the visual of Gulak having Corbin literally on the ropes. Silver lining: hopefully this loss and his strong presentation just lead to an actual cool match at MITB, as I'd rather see him in a cool singles than a big ladder match anyway.

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WWE Elimination Chamber Close to Live Blog 3/8/20

ER: Chamber shows seem to deliver a higher rate of success than other yearly WWE PPVs, and this card looks especially strong on paper. I'm so used to not being very excited by cards (and then being pleasantly surprised) that it feels weird going into a show actually excited for most of the matches.


Viking Raiders vs. Curt Hawkins/Zack Ryder

ER: I'm used to seeing Hawkins and Ryder work even matches with guys who most people don't even realize are on the roster, like Eric Young or Shelton Benjamin. But every year or so they show up on a PPV pre-show and suddenly they're the ones cutting of the Viking Raiders. I expected this to be the Vikings absolutely wasting these two, but instead we get a cool section of Hawkins and Ryder cutting off Erik from Ivar. Hawkins even dropped Erik with a vertical suplex on the floor. That ended once Erik tagged in Ivar, and Ivar had the kind of hot tag that really snaps a pre-show crowd to life. Ivar's timing looked really good, hitting a huge lariat on Hawkins after cartwheeling past him, flattening Ryder with a crossbody, drops down with a great butt splash, and their finish looks like a damn finish, a big flapjack into an over the shoulder powerslam. The finishing stretch of this really made them look like the kind of wrecking ball tag team that WWE hasn't been featuring as much, but I also like how we got a fun stretch of them selling. Typical good pre-show match.


Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak

PAS: I am used to seeing these kind of non-WWE style matches hidden on 205 Live or NXT UK, but this is the most un-WWE match I can ever remember seeing on an actually big card. It is crazy that Bryan has the juice to work a 15+ minute match with Drew Gulak, have it go almost entirely on the mat and get in on PPV.  So much to love here, total star making performance for Gulak, who got to dominate most of the match, with the story that he knows Bryan better than he knows himself. He is like the Survivor super fan who knows all of Tyson or Boston Rob's strategies.

Bryan took a hellacious beating to put over Gulak, that Saito suplex was awesome looking with Bryan selling a stinger, the released suplex looked a horrific as one of those has ever looked, and I actually thought Bryan might have Misawa'd his neck. All of the little things were cool too, with Gulak able to either win the mat exchanges or fight Bryan to a draw. Nasty grinding mat wrestling too, after the leglock exchange, Gulak had a mouse over his eye, and Bryan had multiple welts and bruises.  Finish run was so class, the Ultimo Guerrero reverse suplex into the Gulock was perfect, and I really thought Gulak might go over. But the desperation reversal into the super violent Yes lock for the pass out, was really great grappling. I had super high expectations for this match, and it exceeded them. Gulak's career match and honestly really high on Bryan's career list too.

ER: Wow. The other night I watched a real dream match for me, Eddie Kingston vs. LA Park, and it landed at #1 on our MOTY List. And now the very next night I get ANOTHER genuine dream match of mine, and it immediately, easily becomes my favorite match of 2020. This is a real teacher vs. student match, trailblazer vs. acolyte, two guys having a match that looks like no WWE PPV match has looked before. Gulak wouldn't be in WWE if it weren't for what Bryan did in wrestling in the 2000s. There's a chance Gulak wouldn't be in wrestling at all if it weren't for what Bryan did in wrestling in the 2000s. This match is Gulak's return to TV wrestling, a guy who has seemed rudderless since they took him off 205 Live with no warning almost a half year ago, and here he is in his first WWE PPV match. Nobody rightly expects dream matches to fulfill their potential to this degree.

These two take it to the mat and work it so intensely that you really see how easily a WWE audience could get trained to get fully behind that style. They built the matwork in a way that kept the crowd engaged, even thought they weren't working strikes or highspots for the first half of the match. This kind of extended matwork is rare on any TV (even lucha TV format has phased out a lot of extended primera matwork), and here is an all time legend making another star on a big PPV working a rugged mat style. They cranked headlocks, twisted ankles, bent knees, fought with intent over kneebars and each wrangled over Boston crabs. Gulak booted Bryan right in the chest to break a hold, and it wasn't long into the match before both bodies were showing bruising. The fans got into a surfboard as if it were a move they'd never seen before, and by the time Gulak dished out chops and elbows in the corner they were even more into it.

Gulak and Bryan kept that matwork looking like a fight at all times, so that by the time the two were actually fighting, the building had been ramping up for 7 minutes. We got some of the nastiest throws and suplexes seen in WWE history, like the two were fighting to be included in highlight packages featuring Brock and the Steiners. Gulak throws Bryan with a Saito suplex like a Russian Olympian, and his release German is one of the most holy shit spots I've seen in WWE (which is saying something since the match also had a vertical suplex from inside the ring to the floor). Bryan got launched halfway across the ring and lands squarely on his left shoulder, and as the cameras linger on his body slumping and folding into the mat you get to visually see how much punishment his body has been through. The expertly teased count out finish really felt like it could have been the actual finish. Bryan took a complete beating here, and his known history of neck problems made every fall feel even worse. Sure, he had his own shots, Gulak had his own bruises and got dumped with a nasty dragon suplex, but Bryan looked like a guy really getting put through the shredder. Bryan takes a hard fall onto the top buckle, and as Gulak is locking in the incredible reverse superplex, I think Gulak really has a chance to win this. This really was built to make Gulak look like a star, and he looked all of it. This match hit a point where it ceased mattering who won or lost, just because of how unforgettable they had made it. That superplex and Gulak bending Bryan's body backwards into the Gu-lock would have been violent enough to successfully run a fake Bryan injury retirement angle. But Bryan's victory seemingly opens the door for them to do more. This was really the first time in WWE that Gulak hasn't been featured as a comedy figure on the main stage, and I have to think this match really opened some eyes.


Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo

ER: I thought this ruled too. Andrade went out there clearly realized he had to follow what Gulak and Bryan just did, and so he beats the hell out of Carrillo. These two have had a lot of matches already, several on TV and one great one a couple months ago at TLC. All of their matches have gotten a lot of time to do their thing, so they've really been able to grow their style a bit. Phil and I were chatting about the match, and he thought they should have worked more of a Rey/Juvy match than working a similarly stiff match to the already legendary match that preceeded them. But I've seen them work their Rey/Juvy match, and I liked it, but now I'm glad I got something different. I actually thought they were going to have a 4 second match, and honestly thought that would have been cool. Andrade's whipping back elbow looked like it decapitated Carrillo, who took it like he ran headlong into a doorframe he didn't see. Carrillo kept pasting him with shots, and I liked the way Carrillo worked into slick flying spots around the violence. Carrillo benefits from being in there with someone like Andrade, and Andrade takes his payment in bruises. All of his shots landed hard, from his elbows looking like Carrillo was getting knocked back to his heels, to his running knees threatening to break Carrillo's collarbones. But then he made Carrillo's biggest moments look even bigger. That super rana showed they had retained the crowd after a real tough match to top, and he put that kind of bumping energy into everything Carrillo did. The finishing roll up sequence was inventive and I thought the narrow win off a quick leveraged pin was a great way to have him escape. This PPV has started great.


The Miz/John Morrison vs. Robert Roode/Dolph Ziggler vs. Gran Metalik/Lince Dorado vs. Heavy Machinery vs. Big E/Kofi Kingston vs. The Usos

ER: New Day are wearing all white Paint By Numbers gear, with a key for the colors on the back, and it's some absolutely all time gear. Is Paint By Numbers style a trend that I haven't heard? I love it. The crowd is noticeably quiet during the Usos/New Day opening, and those are teams that usually get reactions. It's possible they got burned out from the previous two matches, but I think the ring entrances for this match alos dragged on too long. Too many long, separate entrances felt like too much of a cooldown. But they didn't let it discourage them, which can happen. The match gets fun when Lucha House Party gets in. Just as Drew Gulak had his first PPV match, this was somehow the first PPV appearance for either Metalik or Dorado. That's really cool, and they both come into the match hot (a little too hot, as Metalik ends up taking a powerbomb on a failed rana attempt on Big E, but they treat it as if the rana connected) and once they settle down we get a great run from them. Metalik does his gorgeous ropework that always gets a reaction, and he and Dorado work some fun misdirection chained spots, ending with two nice moonsaults. Metalik was also getting reactions from big bumps (always gotta have a lunatic taking the hiptoss bumps on the edge portions of the Chamber), and Dorado gets to be the guy flying off a Chamber pod onto guys, and then gets to hitting a Spider-man shooting star press onto everyone from the top of the Chamber. Dorado's spot off the center of the Chamber is probably the most successful version of that kind of spot. Shame they got eliminated by a Heavy Machinery compactor literally right after, but I like the attention to detail in having Otis be the only one to be left standing after Dorado's big moment. Tucker tossing Ziggler off a pod and Otis catching him was a super impressive spot, and the hotshot Otis gave Ziggler right after looked great, but catching Ziggler felt like such a big deal that it felt like it needed a bigger exclamation point than the hotshot. Felt like it needed a big slam. But then Tucker flies off the top of the pod with a cannonball into the remaining bodies and goes tumbling away from the group. Tough to top that right?

Well Otis immediately tops it by crashing through two walls of the pod to fly completely out of the Chamber to the floor. He crashed through those pods like Pee Wee riding a motorcycle through a billboard. It was a total Wile E. Coyote spot, and one of the all time greatest spots in a gimmick match that has created a ton of all time great spots. Otis slander can stop now, this guy is a tank. I wish they would have gone all the way through with Heavy Machinery, would have been nice to see them have a run, even keep the Mandy story going with a Roode/Ziggler feud. Usos vs. Miz/Morrison doesn't excite me much, feels like I've been watching Miz fight the Usos frequently for the past 5 years. Morrison brings something different to the equation in theory, but it still feels like a thing I've seen too much. Ending a Chamber match with a feet on the ropes roll up is a pretty amusing way to do it, but I'm not sure it was the right move. I like the dichotomy of the match having some really crazy moments, then ending with the oldest trick in the book, but the purist in me feels like you need something stronger there. Good match overall though, plenty of memorable big moments.


AJ Stlyes vs. Aleister Black

ER: This had a lot of strong work, but was much slower paced than not only other No DQ matches, but slower than the two very similar matches we've had on this card. This was focused on some stiff striking and wrenched in submissions in the same way Gulak/Bryan was, with Black hitting several kicks to the chest that Styles made look like he was getting hit with a full baseball swing, and Styles throwing several kicks and stomps to work over Black's leg. Styles would kick his leg at a buckling angle, and had a couple real sick calf crushers. But the downtime in between the cool stuff left a lot of the crowd cold, in a way they perhaps wouldn't be had they been attending a lesser show. This was a show that already had a lot of stiff strikes and big highpots, so this was a tough position for these two. Plus, the Singapore cane stuff felt far less interesting than any of Black's kicks. I also didn't care a ton for Black's knee selling, getting a little too performative at times. It's kind of neat seeing a guy hopping around on a leg selling a limp, but after seeing him go for another quebrada you start to think he's maybe asking for a sore knee. This match loses me once the OC get involved, but at least the finishing Black Mass looked good (it always does, but still). The No DQ stip didn't lead to anything interesting, a regular match between them would have been fine. This might have stood out more on a weak show, but this has not been a weak show. The Undertaker stuff does not move me in either direction.


Street Profits vs.  Seth Rollins/Murphy

ER: Hey here's a match I didn't want. How to lose my interest in a great show, check out these past two matches. This match is really shoveling on the dirt, and the quiet crowd appears to be with me. Street Profits keep some fans interested, but Rollins is so cold for me. What's funny is that Rollins and Murphy each had a headlock that I really liked, it was all their athletic spots that I thought looked light. Murphy can make a scary bump off the apron look like a routine tumbling exercise, and he has a tendency to bump everything with the same level of impact, actually doing his opponent's offense a disservice. Dawkins' hot tag was good, big man lariats and his 360 spin avalanche is a great signature hot tag spot. Ford takes some big bumps (really liked him eating knees on a high frog splash, and liked Rollins turning it into a small package), but can also come off a step slow in ring. Rollins/Owens isn't a match that I am interested in seeing, don't care about the match involvement, but this match made the show feel an hour longer. But I will watch Viking Raiders vs. AOP.


Braun Strowman vs. Shinsuke Nakamura/Cesaro/Sami Zayn

ER: This is another match that I don't really care about, so the unfortunate Styles/Black match followed by the dull tag, capping it off with a kind of silly handicap match, isn't going to help the show. BUT giving Sami Zayn an IC Title run is an actual great move. His kind of opportunistic undersized weasel works great as a mid level title holder, always making a babyface look good in the chase, and he's a good guy at getting clowned for 75% of a match and still somehow win. So this was a kind of nothing match that had a fun end result that should make for some entertaining programs, so it was an overall win.


Asuka vs. Sarah Logan vs. Liv Morgan vs. Shayna Baszler vs. Ruby Riott vs. Natalya

PAS: This was clearly designed to get Baszler over, and pretty much everything after she came in was an angle, but man what a delivery. I want to give real props to Logan, Natalya, and Riot who all absolutely killed each other in their section before Baszler came in. The Riott senton off the side of the Chamber was nastier and cooler then any of the crazy highspots in the tag chamber, and Logan's running knees to Natalya and the plexiglas were super nasty. Once Baszler came in she rampaged. I think they should have worked the times a bit, I think Baszler had to dance around a minute or two too long before the pods opened. I also would have liked to see her tap the women with different submissions instead of always the RNC, although I get how you want to establish that as deadly to people who don't watch NXT. I am a Baszler fan, so I enjoyed the monster push, and hope they have her beat Becky too. You need to set up Baszler vs. Ronda when she comes back.

ER: I really liked the looks of this match on paper, almost all of my favorite women on the roster in my favorite gimmick match. And I thought this match absolutely ruled...whenever there was actually a match happening. There has been a killer violent streak happening in the women's division this year, with some nasty under the radar TV bouts (Asuka vs. Natalya, Carmella vs. Bayley, and a host of other individual performances) and this continues that trend. Riott, Natalya, and Logan really killed each other. All of the stuff pre-Shayla was hitting hard on every level for me. Riott had a great return to prominence. Her trash talking was great as she smashed Natalya with shots, but then took a hard beating of her own with a couple nasty bumps on the Chamber edge (including a great powerbomb). Logan looked like she broke Natalya's face when her pod opened, flying into her knees to chin. When Baszler came in I felt bad that those three got completely steamrolled by Brock Baszler, after all they had just all clearly worked their ass off in the main event of a big show, but the killing was handled so well that I loved it. Baszler murdered Logan and Riott with knees, and her rear nakeds on both looked braincell reducing. Logan especially sold it incredibly, and Riott had a great sell from the kneelift.

But the match made a major faceplant by hanging Baszler and Asuka out to dry by stubbornly sticking to actual real time. This desperately needed a worked clock, as Baszler did not have enough material to fill in the incredibly, fast forward worthy downtime. How did nobody call an audible? The downtime was so long, and the crowd got deservedly restless. Who in the back is so dedicated to the art of taking proper time, that they didn't realize the MAIN EVENT was in danger of dying? Baszler/Morgan and Baszler/Asuka delivered, even though I wish Liv got a longer go. She's been a strong house show performer that for some reason hasn't been given much of a chance on TV the last year, and she died a valiant death here but deserved a run in charge. Asuka vs. Baszler felt like a big deal main event (one that fans had to wait a deathly long amount of time to see), and Baszler was killing her with knees. Asuka has so much charisma and has been absolutely unleashed the past several months, and I thought she was actually going to conquer Shayna with her chickenwing choke. But the final showdown came off great, they just bizarrely blew out two of their tires on the easy trip to the finish line.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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WWE TLC Gently Behind Live Blog 12/15/19

Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo

ER: These are two guys who are perfect pre-show participants. And yes obviously Andrade should be past pre-show status, I'm just saying he's a guy who can be trusted to reliably put something hot on the pre-show. The pre-show on these cards deliver more often than not, settling firmly into the level of "Cool 8 minute Velocity match you watch at 1 AM while eating Taco Bell on a Saturday" and that's a great level to be at. Carrillo is a guy who will take death bumps on PPV, and you can tell these two really want to ignite this crowd. They did some dance sequences I actually liked, dug the way these two bounce off each other. Carrillo does indeed take a big bump, getting shoved off the top to the floor into an ad break. A big bump leading to an ad break did affect me as a child, always made that bump seem bigger, like they had to cut away from it as if something was wrong, not yet registering as just a good time for an ad. And pretty early we get a big cool spot where Andrade gets his knee hung up in the ropes, and Carrillo does his best Fenix attempt, climbs the ropes and dropkicks Andrade right in the eye. And Andrade's shutting bleeding eye shaped the rest of this match as something awesome. At first I thought Andrade was doing cool little selling touches, occasionally going to his eye as a guy who thought he might be cut, but then he was hitting back at Carrillo as a guy who WAS cut. Once I saw Andrade belt him on the turnbuckles, saw that closed eye, I was hooked. Everything had a little extra meaning to it, made Andrade look like a spaghetti western villain, firing off two knees into the corner. I thought they killed it down the stretch, not sure how many other matches will get this same kind of building crowd interest that this one grabbed. Carrillo's moonsault was the most flush I've ever seen him hit it, thought Andrade came off like a total badass even with the clean loss, and Andrade coming off like such a badass only made Carrillo's win look stronger. If anything else on this show is as cool as this match, then this will be a good show regardless.

Ladder Match: New Day vs. The Revival

ER: Well I thought this was fantastic. This felt like the best parts of grimy 2000s indy ladder matches, and the best parts of a hot southern tag brawl. Revival came off like real assholes and we get a great stretch of them using all of New Day's Looney Tunes tricks against them in violent fashion. All the brawling was looking snug anyway, but things kept getting better when they were catching New Day in their own game. Kofi tries some quick work around a ladder, New Day ends up just bashing the hell out of that ladder he tried to Bugs Bunny under; same happens when they sucker Big E into hitting a sick splash onto the apron. I liked seeing Revival one step ahead of the New Day, and it went on long enough that the crowd reaction to New Day kept swelling. When Kofi finally broke away and turned the tables by teeter tottering a ladder into Revival's faces, the fans chanting "Kofi! Kofi!" felt more like a great 80s territory babyface reaction than a modern one. They were so excited just to see Kofi finally get his chance to climb a ladder for those belts. It was great once Revival was finally not a step ahead, and Kofi's tricks started working, like his wild tornado DDT off a couple of weird rope leaps. The only minor drag of the match was a slowdown for a major ladder set up, but the big moments that resulted more than overcame that, I think. Big E hit his frankly incredible spear tope, falls off the top of a ladder with a Big Ending on Wilder, eats a suplex on a set up ladder, eats a splash through that same ladder, all sick stuff. Everybody takes stupid bumps, and tried dangerous things, but there was always a sense of build and I never got the sense anyone was getting back involved too quickly. This was a lot of dynamite, great old school hate but entertain vibe to the whole thing.

Buddy Murphy vs. Aleister Black

ER: Murphy sitting Indian style in front of Black made it look like he was looking at a mirror image of his own CAW, asking "hey what would I look like with Tattoo E setting?" And I keep wondering why things are looking better tonight, why guys look like they're really leaning into strikes and flying face first into ladders and going mouth first into ring steps, and then I notice guys keep getting busted open. And I will take it! Everybody on this card is working like they want to be noticed and a busted nose is something that can actually make me interested in a Buddy Murphy match! I still don't love all the dancey parts of this match - and there are going to be dancey moments in a Buddy Murphy match - but there are enough hard shots that added to the frenetic pace that most of this came off well. Murphy doing his silly DDR strikes before hitting a nasty brainbuster, is exponentially cooler when Aleister Black's nose leaves a blood smear on the mat. And I liked Murphy mixing up some of his regulars, like kicking Black quickly three times after trapping him in the buckles. And I love the gravity that Black Mass carries, really treated as the very end, and the dance fight that built to the Black Mass was fun (and I also like Murphy going for footstomps). Match was a real crowd pleaser, and while it's not my favorite style, I thought it delivered.

WWE having a KFC table at ringside is super 1995, really capturing a Coliseum Video kind of special feature. That's a level of desperation advertising WWE hasn't hit in awhile, and I appreciate that willingness to hustle. But dammmmmn was that a missed opportunity to have a couple of big ass vikings absolutely massacre that table, just pillage through those sides and wolf down every chicken leg there. Otis would have fucked that spread up.

Viking Raiders vs. The OC

ER: This was definitely the comedown match, but it wasn't a bad one. This played more like a Raw match that surprisingly delivered, but felt like a step down on this show. The OC are pretty dead as a tag team, and there were plenty of more interesting teams we could have seen out there even in a losing showcase. Because OC got to showcase some stuff here, it wasn't a beatdown by any means. And OC are a perfectly fine team, and so I guess it's fine to have the Raiders win a decisively in a mach like this. It was the cooldown, it didn't need to be as hot, it just needed to end with a big Hanson hot tag and that KFC family losing their table. I love how they instructed the actors to never stop eating, and act like the people aren't literally directly in front of you. These big dudes were fighting right in front of them and that one guy never stopped eating his chicken while not blinking. The double teams from both teams looked good, Hanson got the big reaction, and Anderson wound up with potatoes and gravy on his butt after a powerbomb. That's what people wanted.

TLC Match: King Corbin vs. Roman Reigns

ER: I'm...not so sure how I feel about this one. I liked the slow burn of Corbin laying in a beating, knowing it would lead to a hot Roman comeback. And I liked how long the Corbin beating took, because it really did make Roman's comeback sting harder. Roman was going through paid off security, eating hard shots into the ringpost, getting leveled by Corbin's nice lariat, Corbin's big backbreaker looked, well, backbreaking, everything was lining up nicely. And sure enough, the Reigns comeback was great, and this was feeling great. But it's always weird to me when you have a ton of heels kicking the shit out of a big babyface, and the announcers are talking about how the locker room is falling in line behind Corbin, and there is just nobody in sight who is interested in saving Reigns. Are the Usos around? Ali? Gable? Nobody is around to run out and get a huge babyface reaction to save Roman from injustice? So even while the big heel beatdown was done well, it just feels like not using that chance to elevate someone knew not only makes no sense, but it makes Reigns come off like a bigger dummy too. So I just couldn't vibe with that finish, couldn't get behind it, and I really liked where the start of this was going.

The Miz vs. Bray Wyatt

ER: I'll level with you, none of this is doing it for me. I don't care about Wyatt, I don't care about the Miz, and this is something I'm not interested in. I regret sitting through this, but I'm also kind of fascinated by it. Are people into this? Some people seem into this, for reasons I might not understand. And that interests me. But I don't think I'm into whatever graphic novel juggalo detective comic this is turning into.

Tables Match: Bobby Lashley vs. Rusev

ER: I couldn't get into this one either, even though I really wanted to root for Rusev. I haven't been paying close enough attention to the details of the storyline to care either way about that, but it also doesn't feel like a story that I want to learn more about. I think this just went a little long, and should have had far more aggressive hate and bad decision making by Rusev, and some cocky underestimating that bites his ass from Lashley. And it was instead worked like a sensible yet escalating brawl with some big bumps and a fairly defeated man. That's not the correct tone, and this whole thing felt odd for it. Rusev was trying his damndest, really carrying the bumping and rough spills, actively appealing to the crowd for some support - and getting it, for awhile - but I wanted some enraged Rusev, some dangerous Rusev. I'm not sure where this is all going, but I wanted something different here.

TLC Match: Kabuki Warriors vs. Becky Lynch/Charlotte

ER: What a bizarrely messy but kind of hypnotic fight that main event was! This felt like Charlotte working as blowoff match Ian Rotten, being super unprofessional in a protected bully kind of way, and I thought Asuka (and a likely concussed Kairi Sane) turned in a couple of insane performances, the kind that should cement them even further as stars. They came off like a great stooge heel team and a never say die babyface team during appropriate parts of the same match, really connecting with every moment. Charlotte is reckless and bullet proof, and Kairi is someone who recklessly flies into everything, and that's a dangerous combo. Kairi flies into a big boot, gets tossed hard into the barricade, eats a fallaway slam that whips her head around the corner of the barricade, and just keeps sprawling out onto the back of her head. Charlotte is pretty relentlessly after her, and it peaks with a crazy deadlift powerbomb through a table, Sane looking half knocked out but still throwing stiff punches to get out of it, and getting dropped viciously through it anyway. Asuka was such a megastar here, really elevated the messy chaos of it all. She has been crushing the heel turn, adding more personality than anyone, and here she just Dikembe Mutombo bossed her way through this damn thing; having Kairi out there as your concussion zombie chair throwing maniac only makes you look more cool by association. Becky Lynch's run as The Man has been so undeniably disappointing, and that's only magnified   when Asuka is so fully in charge in there. But this whole thing had a real shoot dangerous indy match feel to it that I really loved, helped the rough edges stand out as cool features instead of awkward blemishes. They really went full out on dangerous and stiff looking spots and that made this thing come off the right amount of vicious. The only tragedy about the match, is how they IMMEDIATELY cut away from Asuka's triumphant moment. That was a genuine main event delivery on a show that was trying to be noticed, and they made it possible to miss that moment so that the viewer could instead see Roman doing an almost comical endzone celebration spot. That's a stupid note to finish the show on, totally undercutting the cool moment that had just happened in the ring the past 20 minutes.


ER: Overall I call this show a win. The first two matches of the evening were total knockouts, and the main event sent things out on a high note. The misses involved angles I don't care about anyway, so wasn't as invested in them being good or bad, so that lessened the blows. Feels like these undertalked about shows always have a high delivery %, and this was no different.

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Cesaro vs. Black

25. Cesaro vs. Aleister Black WWE Extreme Rules 7/14

ER: This was really damn cool and played like a really fun Big Mouth Loud undercard match. It got time but not too much, and saw Black slowly breaking down Cesaro with kicks to all parts of the body, throwing combos early in the match that set up other combos later in the match. The finish played directly into that with Black throwing a sharp kick to the inner thigh and then going for a high right kick, Cesaro leans in to block the high right and then gets his right temple dented in by Black Mass. Black kicked at shins and inner thighs throughout, and Cesaro was really good at selling cumulative damage in his legs, falling on a lift late in the match in a not overdone way. Cesaro still did plenty of cool Cesaro stuff, dug that big springing uppercut and snug cravate, loved the way he would try to counter Black's kicks, just a cool pairing. Black feels like a guy who could really get over if given the kind of exposure Cesaro got.

PAS: Really nifty match, with some cool counter wrestling which actually looked violent instead of swing dancing. I love strength highspots, and the spot where Cesaro caught the double knees and powered him into a press lifter was one of my favorite strength highspots in years. Loved how Black would cut him down with kicks, which Cesaro sold great, Black's combos are really cool and he has really learned to land them with more spice since his Tommy End days, he really looked like he dimmed Cesaro's lights with the big knee, and that final spin kick was right on the jaw. Great match up, enjoyed this a ton.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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WWE Extreme Rules 7/14/19 Blog

Jeeeez these things start earlier and earlier. Are 4 PM starts the norm now? They always catch me off guard. I dig Beth Phoenix's new haircut, though it feels like they're doing that thing where they make her look like Renee Young, as they made Michael Cole look like Todd Pettengill.

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Finn Balor

ER: Feels like there will be people upset that these two are on the pre-show, in a title match no less, but these are not concerns that I share. I prefer when the pre-show matches are guys who typically wind up on 205 Live or Main Event, as it plays like a fun 8 minute try out match at that point and they usually deliver. This just feels like a couple of established guys slumming it. I'm pretty certain that every single strike Balor threw landed about 6" to the side of Nakamura. Pele kick? Somewhere over Shinsuke's shoulder. Kick from the apron? somewhere past Shinsuke's head. Balor's cut off double stomp looked good, and Nakamura's two finishing shots looked good (knee to the back of the head looked great and then kinshasa was a good follow up), but I didn't really expect them to change the title in such a vanilla match. This felt like the touring 6 minute match these two would have around the circuit, felt very going through the motions.

Tony Nese vs. Drew Gulak

ER: Early on we get a "Let's Go Gulak" chant which is an awesome surprise. If Gulak actually starts to get over the same way Bryan got over earlier in the decade, how great will that be?? This is kind of what anybody could have expected going in: Gulak looked great, Nese did not, but Nese tried some things that worked in a stupid risk taking way. Nese has that "hey Evan Karagias is getting better" vibe to him, but he doesn't actually have babyface charisma. He does things that some fans should find cool, but Gulak is the one getting the reactions here. YES, obviously this is being held right in Gulak's stomping grounds, but that isn't a guarantee to get a great reaction and he got them throughout. Nese did a wild moonsault to the floor, hitting Gulak who was tied up in the ropes over the apron; it didn't really work, but I like him going for stupid stuff. He also overshoots a 450 and slams those knees right into Gulak's ribs, throws him messily into the corner with a german suplex, basically the nastiest parts of Nese's attack were kind of accidents. Gulak threw great kicks, and I think his reactions are going to keep getting louder, and they'll eventually babyface him. Early in the match Gulak hit an awesome diving clothesline off the apron (hard to make diving clotheslines look good) and his folding powerbomb looked great and would make a fine finisher, but I love the old school style of his spinning back suplex. Gulak is here baby!

No Holds Barred: Shane McMahon/Drew McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns/Undertaker

ER: Starting off the show with this one! And you know what? I thought it was awesome. I was hooked in throughout, feeling it the whole time. The NHB stip is mostly wasted as this was worked about as straight as you can work a tag match (until 12+ minutes in), but they worked a damn successful tag formula. The key was Shane actually treated the way Shane *should* be treated in the ring. Shane is never portrayed as an equal, he comes in with his stupid little punches, and then gets absolutely manhandled. That's what should be happening. Undertaker never once treated him seriously, which thank fucking god. Reigns was throwing big uppercuts to Shane, and Undertaker is full crazy old man. I gotta respect the guy. He got dropped his head by Goldberg not even a couple months ago and here he is, breaking out the greatest hits, dropping a big leg on the apron, throwing big boots, looking like The Undertaker. McIntyre hits a huge overhead belly to belly on Roman and he gets a cool showdown with Taker (McIntyre appeared to be taller than Taker at this point), but a lot of this was Roman and Taker working over Shane, and it was great. The turning point of the match was really well done, with Shane making a low bridge to send Roman bumping big over the top. Elias comes out to officially make use of the NHB and interfere, and we get two big Shane spots, putting Taker through an announce table with an elbow, then hitting the coast to coast in the ring. But I think those are the way Shane should be getting offense in, doing your long set up car crashes when you have two actual guys holding down your opponent. This was a smart way to set up Shane moments. The finish stretch is really well laid out, with Taker making his sit up comeback on Shane, but then DREW getting to pop up behind Taker. The camera clearly set up the shot, but it played as a great wrestling visual, something they should get video package use out of. I didn't see Roman's cut off spear coming (and the cameras didn't show it well at all), but I thought this wrapped up really cool. I wasn't expecting to be into this one going in, but I loved the formula and layout worked to perfection, thought it was fun bell to bell. And my god they said "Big Dog" literally a dozen times. Absurd.

The Revival vs. The Usos

ER: This was the match on the card I was most excited about, and they obviously had a good one. What was odd is that the crowd did not care at ALL. I wouldn't think the Taker appearance and match would kill them dead that easily, but it was eerily silent through most of this match. And this match should have gotten a great reaction! This was an exciting tag match! The Revival are a finely tuned machine, love how the set up their double teams, love their shtick, love their pace. They are good foils for Uso offense, scramble out of the way on superkicks and lean in when they need to, always good at stooging into place. We got a couple tandem Usos dives that sprawled out impressively, leading to a cool long section of Revival cutting off the ring. Dawson looked like he was having a ball the whole match, guy is so good. I kept waiting for people to get into it, but they couldn't care less. There weren't a ton of twists, but these teams match up so well you don't really need them, and I thought the finish was satisfying. This was classic tag wrestling, which has been getting great reactions for decades. No idea why the crowd would be so bored so soon. Watch this on mute and it would probably come off like a classic.

Cesaro vs. Aleister Black

ER: This was really damn cool and played like a really fun Big Mouth Loud undercard match. It got time but not too much, and saw Black slowly breaking down Cesaro with kicks to all parts of the body, throwing combos early in the match that set up other combos later in the match. The finish played directly into that with Black throwing a sharp kick to the inner thigh and then going for a high right kick, Cesaro leans in to block the high right and then gets his right temple dented in by Black Mass. Black kicked at shins and inner thighs throughout, and Cesaro was really good at selling cumulative damage in his legs, falling on a lift late in the match in a not overdone way. Cesaro still did plenty of cool Cesaro stuff, dug that big springing uppercut and snug cravate, loved the way he would try to counter Black's kicks, just a cool pairing. Black feels like a guy who could really get over if given the kind of exposure Cesaro got.

Nikki Cross/Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley

ER: I really don't get this kind of handicap match. Bayley doesn't have the kind of offense that can control two people, and nobody wants to see two people just cut off a ring by themselves. Of anything on the card, I am least excited for this. I can't imagine the crowd being won back with a handicap match, either. And this was about as lame as I was expecting. It wasn't long, but it felt too long. None of the spots where Bayley did tandem offense to Bliss/Cross looked good (at one point Bliss basically had to put herself in a headlock), and I couldn't get too into Bliss/Cross teeing off on Bayley because I still don't really understand the Bliss/Cross relationship. There were nice moments: Cross does the Finlay ring skirt trap well, and Bliss threw a nasty dropkick to Bayley while she was trapped in the skirt; Bliss's double knees to the stomach both landed hard (really stuck those moonsault knees), and Bliss hit hard on Bayley's knees doing the twisting moonsault. I just couldn't get into the result of this match. It wasn't going somewhere I was interested in seeing. My overall interested in the women's division has sunk like a rock in a lake these past few months.

Last Man Standing: Bobby Lashley vs. Braun Strowman

ER: We're in Philadelphia, and these guys set out to have a big ECW crowd brawl match, and it was better than a lot of ECW crowd brawling. Fans gave it some obligatory ECW chant (which certainly wasn't a guarantee given how quiet they've been) but two big dudes crashing through walls and taking prop bumps was enough to rouse them. They avoided the "walking and holding heads" kind of ECW brawl, and kept this more about big spills. Braun suplexed Lashley into a merch set up but not through a table, he just vertical suplexed him into a wall and let Lashley fall. Lashley speared him through the ring barricade, both fell over announce tables, they fell into concrete steps, a real nice brawl that could have been next level if they were allowed to bleed. We built to a huge moment where Lashley sprang up to beat a 10 count, leaped up and over the barricade to chase Braun, but then got tossed into the alt. language commentary pit. Lashley's bump into the pit was great, could have been a great capper to a cool match really. They wind up finish with some climbing up to a big mysterious crash pad location, with big comical black plastic gates and a big black box on the lower level that nobody noticed before. The Braun powerslam through it looks cool, and Braun crashes through the front of the box to emerge standing, but I thought it all felt too set up and phony to be effective. Braun sidestepping Lashley into the pit came off more organic.

Big E/Xavier Woods vs. Heavy Machinery vs. Daniel Bryan/Erick Rowan

ER: This was really fun, as you'd expect a match with these guys to be. Otis vs. Bryan is a pairing I really like, and I love how Otis and Tucker work together. The match is filled with cool spots: Rowan's big crossbody on the floor into Bryan's knee off the apron, Otis tossing Bryan into a Tucker belly to belly, Bryan sinking in the LeBell Lock and subsequently tying off all of E's limbs as he would reach for the ropes, E hits his best-in-wrestling standing splash and kills Bryan with the spear to the floor, Otis makes me laugh the whole time with his apron work, Tucker hits a wild plancha to the floor, Otis corgi leaps off the apron, tons of really great stuff. I didn't want to see New Day win the belts. I'm kind of sick of New Day constantly being in the title scene, really felt like this should have been Heavy Machinery's first title win. New Day don't need the belts, they'll be as over as they can possibly be just doing whatever they do. Of the three options, I would have much rather seen Bryan/Rowan retain, or HM win.

AJ Styles vs. Ricochet

ER: This did very little for me. Both guys do cool things, but it all felt pretty empty. Ricochet is obviously a freak athlete but doing silly things like a shooting star clothesline don't really help him. He's more interesting when he's throwing his whole body into attacks (and his springboard to the floor onto Gallows looked good), his big springboard shooting star looked good, but this whole thing was so dry. The middle rope Styles Clash was cool, and the interference while lame was actually well done (Anderson getting kicked from the apron into the ring was a cool moment), but this did next to nothing for me.

Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler

ER: God bless these men.

Samoa Joe vs. Kofi Kingston

ER: I thought Joe was really awesome here, bullying Kingston around the ring and throwing hard kicks to bully him into corners to attack with fists, then trip him to the ground with kicks. He had a legsweep to Kofi's shins that was so killer. Joe looked like enough of a killer that I immediately wanted this to be a dominant Joe victory. Kofi's reign just means I have to see more Kofi Kingston matches, and the prospect of more Joe matches is way more interesting. I thought Joe crushed Kofi here and this was my favorite Joe performance in some time. Kofi tries to get cute with him at one point and Joe hits a mean uranage. I wanted this to be one of those shocking beatings of a champ, for Joe to walk in and just steamroll Kofi and win the title. Something like that would make a rematch more interesting for me, Kofi going in completely unprepared for Joe, something like that. I thought Joe's beating was strong enough that it was going to make Kofi's inevitable comeback look a little silly, as I've never liked Kofi's offense and don't think it's something that looks great against a guy like Joe. Still, I thought this match delivered overall, just not quite what I wanted it to.

Baron Corbin/Lacey Evans vs. Seth Rollins/Becky Lynch

ER: This was mostly pretty dull, and filled with people I don't really care about. Lynch hasn't been interesting at all, really making her brief period as THE most interesting thing seem like a distant or false memory. First thing I notice her do here is miss a stomach kick by a foot, so she's not exactly inspiring me. It's just a bad sign when there are 4 people in the match and Baron Corbin is the one I like best. Lacey was probably the most interesting during the dull parts of the match, she had the most interesting personality at least. I didn't care about much of this, but the big table spot was genuinely spectacular. Becky just crushes Lacey with a senton/legdrop, Rollins blows up Corbin and a table with a long distance splash. But the finish was legitimately great, a super great finish to something I didn't care about: Baron Corbin absolutely kills Lynch with the end of days. It was really great within the context of the match, as they'd made a big deal the whole damn time about the women staying separate from the men. Corbin annihilates Lynch and it's the first interaction of the match, played so well. And with that, Rollins actually has the most interesting moment of the past calendar year. I thought him snapping and just wasting Corbin with kendo stick shots, chairshots, and three curb stomps was the most actual interesting character he's shown in god knows how long. A heel going too far and immediately being on the business end of a babyface's justified sadistic revenge. It's a great kind of 80s babyface comeback, with the dickhead heel suddenly backpedaling because the babyface was pushed too far. I wouldn't think Rollins could pull that off, but he did, and he did it well. Corbin gets good marks for making the curb stomps look good.

And then BROCK comes out and destroys Rollins! Brock as champ is SO MUCH MORE interesting to me so thank god. I'd much rather see people coming at Brock, Brock defending is something I like (I think more than most people), so hell yeah bring on the challengers to BROCK! I liked how the cash in was handled and do not care how it made Rollins look.

I thought this was a good show that went too damn long. 3 hours is fine for most PPV. 4 hours + a couple matches before that 4 hours is too much. Even if the wrestling is mostly good. But the show had good performances top to bottom. The Graveyard Dogs overdelivered, Revival had their good match, Cesaro/Black stood out as a cool style on this card, tag trios delivered, Braun and Lashley had a good brawl, and the final match ended strong. That's a good show! I just wished it were shorter.

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NXT TakeOver: New York 4/5/19

Didn't actually get to see or watch this show live, but I also don't actually know anything that happened on the show, so I'm back home and figured why not watch some TakeOver?

War Raiders vs. Aleister Black/Ricochet

ER: So this is one way to open up a TakeOver! This starts as very much a sexy dance fight learned behavior match, that I was ready to dislike for being too dance-y but then they just kept going and pulling out bigger and wilder things, and by the end I thought this was a fantastically paced out tag. We had some early tape studying spots, fun stuff like Black anticipating a Rowe knee, or Rowe anticipating a Black kick by catching it with his head and neck. And as the train really starts leaving the station the match's charms become a bit impossible to ignore. There were still some silly dance fighting spots - namely Ricochet running 4 steps across the ring to leap into getting handspring elbowed by Hanson - but this was some well done go go go. The dives we built to were great, with Rowe hitting a tope, Ricochet naturally flipping in several ways, and peaking with Hanson flying off the top like a falling piano. This whole tag had a ton of moving parts and the pace they kept was really impressive. We got smart use of saves, with Rowe certainly getting beat before Hanson crashes everybody into them to break up the pin, and Black getting an awesome surprise pinfall save by landing a double stomp off the top. Ricochet was a fun ham throughout, getting knocked around plenty of times by the Raiders, but also hitting all of his stuff tighter than he's looked ever since getting called up to Raw. And the chained spots can be a real impressive thing when they're done as fluidly as they did here. Everything was mapped out and executed at high speeds, so that you feel like you're seeing a lot, while also feeling like a big Hanson tope is still treated as a big deal. Not many events will be able to start off this hot.

Matt Riddle vs. Velveteen Dream

ER: I really liked this, with Riddle going on dominant runs, catching Dream in submissions and nasty throws, with Dream scrambling just to keep up. Riddle broke out some increasingly brutal stuff: rolling gutwrenches, exploder, building up to Riddle catching Dream on an axe handle to the floor and dropping him with a slow German, and then going beyond that to Riddle dragging Dream up over the ropes and hitting a suplex into the ring from he middle rope. All of these were awesome visuals. Dream looked like he was scrambling the whole time, even when he was in control. He was still cucumber cool, but Riddle was going for constant strikes and submissions, and even when Dream would counter one it would end with Riddle elbowing him as punishment. I like the Riddle match structure where he is dominating but kind of cockily distracts himself thinking things should be over. I love moments like Riddle catching Dream's big elbow or Riddle breaking out a new twisting moonsault, the latter really helped give this a bigger match feel. The finishing stretch is real quality, with cool trading, Dream stunning Riddle out of the triangle but getting hit with another knee and German. I'm not sure how I feel about the finish, I liked that Dream flipped his desperation switch into panic mode and went for the last pinfall he could get, but also think Dream should have controlled for a bit more earlier in the match. When this was all over it practically felt like Riddle bullied him around at every turn of the match. I loved the personality in this and the work looked spectacular, would love to see this run back again. I'll have to watch it again to see how much Riddle dominating affects that for me. Still, these two matched up great together and I dug it.

[sorry, started writing up NXT and then got incredibly sleepy and zonked out AT the computer. Writing up the rest of this before Mania]

WALTER vs. Pete Dunne

ER: Rachel, wholly unfamiliar with WALTER, looks up as he's walking to the ring and asks, "Did they give someone an SS officer gimmick??" She's not wrong. Also, it appears referee Drake Younger is working a full blackface ref gimmick. This match was kind of weird for me, as Dunne has had this belt 700 odd days, and I don't think he ever looked like he really belonged with WALTER in there. This match got a ton of time 25 minutes, and at no point did it look like Dunne should be hanging with WALTER. And really, he didn't. Any time he did start to pull away from WALTER, he would do a light enziguiri or something that looked like it shouldn't be sold that much by WALTER. I liked stuff with Dunne avoiding the big chops, and his only chance looked to be targetting WALTER's fingers (and smashing his hand on the ringpost was a good moment), but I don't think any of the finger work went anywhere exciting. I don't think it ever even slowed WALTER down outside of the precise second it was happening. This felt like a similarly structured match to Dream/Riddle, only those two looked like they belong in the ring against each other. By the time they got to the inevitable strike exchanges it kind of felt ridiculous. WALTER just crushed Dunne the whole match, big kicks, nasty sleeper suplex off the top that felt like something you end a match on (but instead leads directly to Dunne doing a German and crucifix bomb that felt entirely like WALTER doing the moves to himself), big lariats, and of course that superbomb/splash combo to finish it. WALTER came in and definitely, the whole match, looked like a guy who should be the champ. So I'm glad they gave him the belt. If/when they do the rematch, I'm interested in seeing how they actually make Dunne look on WALTER's level.

Kairi Sane vs. Bianca Belair vs. Io Shirai vs. Shayna Baszler

ER: I thought this ruled. It felt tidy and like they could have gone longer but I'm happy they did it, just kept it at 15 minutes of fast action and no overkill. A lot of this was worked as the Sky Pirates working against the other two, while Belair and Baszler were against the other three. The 4 way brawling could have been an absolute mess but I loved how the Pirates crossed up the rope running and used that misdirection to sneak in their shots. Belair's hair is such an integral part of her matches and it's great when she uses it, and great when it's used against her, like when she gets whipped into the corner by her braid. And I LOVED the early ringpost spot, Baszler tossing Belair around the post and holding her braid to pull her into it, only Belair got her boot up to block and used the power of her thick ass amazing braid to yank baszler into the post instead. Mauro says, "Bring back any memories, Nigel?" To which Nigel should have humorously replied "No...actually. None at all." Belair is great at showing her power, hard shoulderblocks and catching a crossbody for a fallaway slam, big spear right at the chest, huge press slam to the floor, she totally looks like a boss. I also thought Shirai looked more explosive and violent than I've seen from her. She usually looks flimsy and nothing connects, here she hits a missile dropkick and the corner knees land hard, and I dug the way they worked themselves into the match (their acting got a little melodramatic at points, acting like saving a pinfall was the most physically exerting thing they'd ever done, but joshi gonna joshi). The corner suplex/powerbomb spot actually looked good and they kept the set-up brisk, the flying to the floor looked cool, Shirai's moonsaults actually hit hard for once, the pinfall saves were all expertly timed, Belair's KOD on Baszler looked great, and THEN she got to plant the Sky Pirates with one, Sane's elbow slammed hard into Baszler, Baszler had a cool counter of Belair's double chickenwing into the clutch, really the whole thing was a blast.

Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole

ER: Totally serious here, but are these the two smallest guys to ever be fighting for a WWE World Title? Did Rey ever defend against someone similar sized? And you know, I really liked this. I was expecting to not like this very much. I figured it would go long, and figured there would be tons of wide eyed heavy breathing shocked kickout faces. Both of those things happened. The latter happened a lot. And there were little things I didn't like, such as the way Cole threw the most half-assed missed clothesline right before he hit the knee to end the first fall. It's when guys halfass their way through things like that, where you can really see they were just not focusing on step a and only thinking about step b. It's an ugly trend but it's been where we're at for awhile. I also don't think I'll ever get used to the "I'm dead, I'm dead, I can't move, also I'm up and sprinting" brand of selling, and we got plenty of that. I also will forever laugh at how outright stupid Adam Cole's finisher looks. That little bunny hop off the middle buckle never ceases to crack me up. It's so isolated and never part of a smooth turn into the flipping piledriver, possibly the dumbest and silliest any big league wrestler has ever looked setting up a move.

But again, I liked this match. This was the match where Johnny Gargano fulfills his destiny and finally pulls out the big win, overcoming the numbers, defying the odds, all things that could have been insufferable. But they built a nice match with some memorably wild moments, and I was impressed at Gargano's timing throughout. This kind of match hinges on timing, hinges on guys being in the right place at the right time, and I don't think this came off as dance-y as it could have. Gargano's big spots looked big, the spear through the ropes, the slingshot DDT, big flatliner, big Air Raid Crash, and even more importantly he helped uberwuss Cole actually look dangerous. Gargano bumped around spectacularly for Cole, especially impressing me with two consecutive ringpost bumps. He really flew into ringposts in the classic Lawler post bump style, my personal favorite post bump, running in fast with the face and throwing the legs up high on the back bump. His ringpost shots looked great and I liked that we got some Gargano color, and later on Gargano tops his ringpost bumps by flying over a table and then getting pulverized into the top of said table by the Devil's Wings (my god is anything about Adam Cole cool?). That table was the true heel of the match, as good lord that unbreaking table must have hurt like hell. The finishing run of the third fall felt like smart use of non-falls and bullshit. Gargano hitting the reverse rana and superkick only for Cole to fall out of the ring is a great way to not burn kickout, and I actually liked the involvement of UE as a way to make fans flip even harder for Gargano. Once O'Reilly was ripping at Gargano's face to break the Escape, I found myself actually annoyed in that "No! Not like this!" kind of way. Gargano fighting off UE and getting the Escape tap was very satisfying, really feels like they need to get far away from emo wrestling as there's nowhere else they can go with it.

ER: Even with Dunne's performance not resonating with me (apparently that match was called match of the weekend at one point, which never approached that for me), this was still a really great show. I loved the tag, thought Riddle/Dream was fantastic, and thought the women's match was one of the hottest women's sprints we've seen in WWE. The main event delivered the best version of what I was expecting, and there was nothing approaching "bad wrestling". TakeOver's are a thing I always look extremely forward to, and that's because they've just rarely let me down.

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WWE Fastlane 3/10/19 Adjacent-to-Live Blog

Shinsuke Nakamura/Rusev vs. New Day

ER: Lana's got a cool new shoulder length 'do, though it's styled a bit too triangularly. This is kicking off the pre-show, and was treated as such when it got the smaller square of screen during a Roman Reigns promo vid, and the smaller screen on a cutaway to Miz talking with his dad and Shane. Rusev and Nak cut off Wood's tag to Big E well enough, but nothing flashy or very interesting. This feels like a house show match, without the charm of a house show match. Rusev and Nak are complementary partners, but they don't do a ton more than stop action here and Nak just always seems lethargic. I liked Woods' missile dropkick off the top, and Big E has the greatest standing splash in pro wrestling history, with no close contenders coming to mind. Finishing stretch gets betters when some interference from Lana adds intrigue to a nearfall, and both Rusev and Nak bump to the floor to set up Woods hitting a flip dive, which they catch and powerbomb him on the floor. But as a heel team both of these guys seem completely uninterested in making things interested, and it's rare that the crowd is this quiet for the very first wrestling action they're seeing, but there it is. This match got plenty of time to do something, but this wasn't it. Pre-show matches don't typically feel this low energy.

Shane McMahon/The Miz vs. The Usos

ER: Shane is actually plenty good at doing things like armdrags and has a nice Russian leg sweep, because he throws his body entirely into the move, guy is pretty fearless with landings. His stuff only really falls apart whenever he thinks his strikes look good. The second he starts throwing strikes in matches it looks like a bad White Collar Brawlers bumper. I'm not sure who decided to start the evening's action with these two tags back to back, but it feels like someone is specifically trying to highlight how poor Rusev and Nakamura are in their current roles, as the Usos immediately step into a cut off the ring situation and work a far more interesting match with the same formula. Shane is a really fun FIP for them and there's a great moment where the Usos shoot him into a rope running sequence with one of them forcing Shane's movement with a dropdown, leading to him eating a lariat the way someone would eat a good spear. Miz has a spirited hot tag that the crowd is hyped for, even coming in with a springboard axe handle, and ends it with him doing a big plancha off the top onto both Usos. I'm not sure I've seen Miz do either of those things, and he's clearly playing to the hometown crowd and they love it. We go into the run that feels like the finish, and Usos are really good at bringing the match back from those moments to get more heat. The whole match builds to a ridiculous spot where Miz is on the mat and an Uso is slumped in the corner, with Shane and the other Uso on opposite buckles. Uso and Shane jumped at the same time and I guess it was supposed to look like Shane intercepting him out of mid air? It looked like two guys trying to avoid each other at the last minute, and then not sure what either was supposed to be selling upon landing. They both kind of held their balls and kicked their legs. It might have seemed spectacular on paper, but it came off confusing and overly thought out in execution, took away from the finish for me. I don't care about, nor do I understand the Shane turn, so I FF my way through. From what I did see, I'm amused that Shane appeared to tighten up his strikes for the first time since his comeback. He threw a couple of closed fist body shots to Miz that were better than any strikes he's thrown in an actual match the past year.

Mandy Rose vs. Asuka

ER: Really excited about this one even though I'm not sure it can deliver to my expectations. I've seen them both (especially Mandy) have such strong house show work, and that doesn't seem to come through nearly as often on TV. I know there's a good match to be had here though. But I fully dig how they start this, doing some quick mat reversals and some nice stuff around a waistlock, ending with Mandy locking in a nice octopus hold that Asuka reverses into an even better octopus. They don't bring many strikes into it until 4 minutes in, thought that was cool. Though once they do get to strikes Asuka comes up too short on what's supposed to be a big knockdown high kick, so that was awkward. Mandy has a couple really nice knee strikes, a great high knee early in the match, and a nice moment with Asuka missing her hip attack and getting hung in the ropes before eating a knee. Finish was a little sudden but had a nice set-up that felt like a Finlay agented spot: Sonya had lifted up the ring skirt at ringside to get a kendo stick from under the ring, and Mandy got reversed into the ropes, slipped on the ring skirt that had been gathered into the ring, and then got to her feet just in time to eat Asuka's heel across the right side of her face. The finish didn't really feel built to, and the match was a bit underwhelming, but the finish was great. They even do a slo-mo replay at the end that felt like the first time you saw Misawa rearrange Kawada's face in slo-mo with an elbow, seeing Asuka's boot turn Mandy's face into a rubbery Jim Carrey expression.

Kofi Kingston vs. Cesaro/Sheamus

ER: This was an angle, not really a match, and the fans hated it but in the way that will make them cheer louder for Kofi when he actually gets his big singles match. So it wasn't very exciting for me to see a 2 on 1 beatdown, and the fans didn't want to see it, but it felt like something that would at least advance the angle. I did like when the crowd was chanting This Is Boring, Cesaro said, "No, this is OVER!" before going for a pin.

Ricochet/Aleister Black vs. Chad Gable/Bobby Roode vs. The Revival

ER: I've been so hyped for Revival this past year, Dawson especially might be my favorite WWE male to watch right now. I like how this turns into both Revival and Roode/Gable working over Ricochet, really wish that would go on for the duration, it's a fun layout you don't often see from a triple threat tag (which is a clunky concept). Ricochet snaps off a nice headscissors and after that it's all him getting worked over. Dawson has a great back suplex, does nasty things like tear at his nose, Gable comes in and snaps Ricochet's arm around by trapping it in his ankles and dropping a knee on it. Gable bumps big for an Aleister front kick, though I think Roode might have been the weakest choice for guy to take all of Black's hot tag offense. I dug the sequence of Gable rolling through the chaos theory German before Wilder hit a top rope splash onto Gable; Black totally made the sequence by flailing all four of his limbs wildly as he was going over for the suplex. WWE guys are almost always really great at setting up those runs of chain smoking offense, where one guy hits a move only to get up and get hit by someone else's move. They aren't easy to naturally layout but someone there must be great at doing so. However, I don't think they're good at all at setting up big spots involving EVERY member of the match. I hate when a match like this devolves into the moment everyone is waiting around for, grinds things to a halt too much and the spot always looks too prepared. Ricochet hits a wild as hell dive over the ringpost, but I think that 6 person spot (Dawson getting rana'd to the floor onto everyone) peaked the match awkwardly and made the finish coming shortly after come off flat.

R-Truth vs. Andrade vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Samoa Joe

ER: What a bunch of dirty dogs, telling me I was getting more Mysterio/Andrade and instead getting another multiman. I actually got the push notification from WWE telling me "Andrade vs. Rey Mysterio kicks off the pre-show!" so I am not sure what kind of last minute call got made or what angle I blew past. The whole things starts off as a pretty great Joe showcase. He was really turning it on, loved his tope onto everyone, his corner chops looked brutal, and his headbutts looked great. Joe appears to be working at 2006 stiffness levels and I know it won't last, but it looks great while we're getting it. Rey is getting as high on offense as ever, and it makes no sense. His hang time always looks so damn elegant, and he makes implausible stuff look effortless, like giving a leaping rana to Andrade and Truth at the same time. My mind blows wide open when I suddenly realize that we've never seen Mysterio or Joe oppose one another until the past couple months. I'm watching them work, watch Joe take a great tornado DDT off the side of his head, and just thinking about what natural dance partners they make...and realize we've only ever even seen them dance together three times, all from the past couple months. Some nice moments down the stretch, Andrade had a gorgeous tornillo to the floor, Vega got involved and you know it was good because she lost an earring, and a lot of the ringwork looked good, but I again thought it could have used more build, and could have gone through a ton more nearfalls.

Sasha Banks/Bayley vs. Nia Jax/Tamina

ER: Boss Hugg would have been such a great name for the tag team, they were this close but they went and fell on their face with their actual name. And this starts off plenty good. Tamina is less offensive than normal, and every quick tag in to Nia is Fia. Tamina would handily carry the brunt of working over Bayley, then Nia would come in and plant her with a powerbomb, and get right back out. I would have liked them building more to Sasha coming in, think they should have had Bayley miss a couple tags first. Tamina is so damn lumbering while taking offense, she moves like she's wearing a suit of armor. Then they go for a spot where Tamina backdrops Sasha into a Nia Samoan drop, but Tamina whips Sasha WAY too fast into Nia and the spot gets wrecked but Nia saves Sasha from a vertical landing, so that counts for something. I did like Tamina's missed charge into the ringpost, so that's something, and Bayley hitting a tope onto everyone looked great, even though it crossed my mind that was the 4th time that near exact thing had happened, and the 3rd match in a row. That's not helping the freshness feel of this show, which has very much underwhelmed so far. I would mess with a Nia/Beth Phoenix feud though. Aw shit, Natalya is involved in it. My sails appear to no longer have wind in them.

Kevin Owens vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Mustafa Ali

ER: Fans are naturally acting like puds because they aren't getting Kofi/Bryan on this specific show, but they're clearly building to that, so it's annoying when they try to tank a different match when they will eventually get what they want anyway. It's like they're turning on Ali even though they were all in Ali's ass like 3 weeks ago. It's this obnoxious thing where the loudest fans in these situations are the ones who think WWE is somehow screwing them and not pushing their favorites, but Kofi is a guy they've been officially flipping out for now for...like a month. People clearly dug Kofi before, but none of these people were clamoring for Kofi to get a long singles run with 8 star matches against Bryan before that. They were shown Kofi was worth getting behind, and then started acting like they somehow weren't getting what they wanted, while thinking they're making a demand against authority, who actually agrees with what they think they're rebelling against. It makes no sense. Anywho...

Bryan's demeanor in these scraps really is incredible, guy leers around the ring and looks like someone with no time for bullshit. Ali is doing his best in a dumb situation and takes an insane bump off the top, looking like he falls forever before hitting the floor. Crowd appears to be less shitty after that. This match obviously would have been much more interesting if it was a singles match between any two of these guys. We've had one singles match on this show and it feels like one of those indy shows that are nothing but 6 man scrambles, and 3 way tag matches. The pacing is totally screwed because every match feels like a variation on the same match. There's plenty of actual great looking stuff in this - Ali hitting a 450 to the freaking apron, Owens almost damn dying flipping too fast on a tope con hilo (and almost smashing his face into the announce desk), Ali bumping his way into shutting the fans up and hitting a big ass high arc Spanish Fly - but the triple threat stip kept taking me out of the match. There's a wild sequence down the stretch where Ali gets shoved off the top and basically does a moonsault landing on his feet to the floor (my poor ankles would be at 90 degree ankles best case scenario), then Bryan misses a leaping knee off the apron, and Ali hits a wicked tornado DDT on him, Bryan whipping super fast into it. But it felt like the actual finish came too quickly after that, felt like Bryan was back in the ring too quick after what felt like a big moment. Him kneeing Ali out of the sky looked like something that should definitely end a match though, so no complaints about what finished, but plenty of complaints about how we got to there.

Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch

ER: Charlotte's boots are sick as hell, probably my favorite thing on the show so far. The maroon and gold scheme doesn't go with her magenta gear, which means Charlotte just needs to get herself some damn maroon and gold gear! Maroon is an underutilized gear color (he says, without taking even one second to think about it). And this match was great. Lynch comes out limping and Charlotte mocks her and spends the whole time going after Becky's leg, and it's the best stuff. There are a bunch of nasty short spills that Becky is forced to take, and they do some shots that look like they came straight out of BattlArts, no joke. Little things like Becky kicking at the side of Charlotte's knee from her back, or Charlotte kicking at Becky's knee while standing over her. Honestly it felt like Ikeda vs. Ishikawa in parts, and I realize how stupid I can come off saying that. Charlotte practically dumps Becky onto her head hitting a sliding tackle into her knee, and I'm all in on it. Becky fights in with little cornered animal attacks, Charlotte takes a big bump off the top, and the thought of a figure 8 seems even more exhilarating since Lynch's has had her knee smacked around for a week. Naturally we get a Ronda run in, giving Becky a nasty as hell punch while about to maybe get tapped, giving Becky the win and the Mania appearance. I'm thankful as all hell I remain purposely oblivious to Ronda Rousey Online Activity, so I'm going to also assume that she hasn't done anything stupid this week on the internet. So saying that, I absolutely love her shitty smirk and bad eye makeup as she stands in the corner, and I could see this match being the best match at Mania.

Baron Corbin/Bobby Lashley/Drew McIntyre vs. The Shield

ER: I'm just not caring about this one too much, and that's too bad because Shield trios were my absolute joint in a not too distant past. I don't care about the Shield anymore. It's over. The McIntyre/Roman moments felt like they should have been better, and the crowd is really quiet the whole time. This has been a pretty suck crowd almost the whole night, honestly. It gets better when Dean hits a really nice elbow off the top to the floor, there's a big powerbomb, and they work some decent crowd brawling stuff which was at minimum a welcome change of pace to the cold ring work. Fans do eventually get really into this and there are big spots, a great Roman spear on the floor, McIntyre going through an announce table, and the crowd really loves getting to see all three Shield guys get Corbin alone in the ring. The match eventually came off like a success but it never grabbed me. Maybe my mood was down because I think the PPV almost entirely underdelivered compared to my (reasonable) expectations. This certainly wasn't a bad match, but it felt like it should have been better.

ER: This was a kind of disappointing PPV. That seems kind of harsh, because I don't think there was anything bad on the card. But there wasn't a lot that moved the needle for me. I really got into Becky/Charlotte, even the Ronda finish (even though I still wished there was more match before Ronda), but the rest felt like it had a good amount of nice moments, but not great matches. Felt like a high potential card going into the night, but I don't think this was my fault.

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NXT TakeOver: Phoenix 1/26/19

War Raiders vs. Undisputed

ER: Soooooo....I think the War Raiders entrance was the baddest ass version of all of the HHH rape and pillage if-Mad-Max-were-a-Meat-Loaf-video entrances. Them rising up out of the fog in loincloths and helmets could have easily looked silly, but I think it genuinely looked cool. And this match feels like NXT doing late 90s FMW workrate tags, and it's some pretty tasty popcorn. This was a nice big spotfest that earned the This is Awesome chants and was worth cringing through the Fight Forever chants. I used to always be underwhelmed by Hanson on the indies and in New Japan, but thought he looked great when I saw him at an NXT house show in November, the tightest I had seen him look. And he continued making that impression here, having one of the most joyous hot tags of recent memory, crashing through Undisputed in several ways, hitting a high leaping crossbody, upending O'Reilly with a lariat, banzai drop, running Porky senton in the corner, a hell of a run. He's also just a real bump freak, and he takes one here that would rank respectably on the Hamrick Scale, going for a tope and finding everyone had gotten out of the pool, just a big thudding back splash. Roderick Strong was a really great Tully in this one, nasty when he needed to be, but also great at being sneaky and working to cut off the ring. We got big moments like Hanson being bodyslammed off the apron into Undisputed, big splashes off the top, Strong sticking some mean backbreakers, O'Reilly planting a great kneedrop off the top rope, and War Raiders hitting many big running lariats. This was a real fun spotfest that felt like it nicely spaced out the big moments, and I think this delivered in a way that made the titles feel like a big deal worth fighting for. Real fun start to the show.

PAS: That entrance, man alive, this match this had the feel of a internecine Unite the Right battle between Convington Catholic MAGA teens and Vargsmel Zorn 88 cosplayers. I kind of want to hate the Undisputed Era, that cornball fantasy booking name, combined with the Davey Richards residue still sticking to O'Reily, it is hard for me to admit that these guys are pretty great at this kind of car crash tag match. I thought this was a star making performance for Hanson. He timed all of his cartwheels really well, so they were an organic part of the match rather then just a taunt, his crash and burn to the floor was nuts, and he made both a good hot tag and face in peril. I really liked how Rowe kept hurling him at the opponents like a gigantic Spike Dudley.  O'Reiley and Strong are great at finding ways to pick away at bigger men, always running in to clip a knee or land a cheap shot. I thought the War Raiders both did nice bits of no-selling when they got hit head on, only to sell big when they didn't see it coming. I thought they had a kick out or two too many in the end run by Hanson, but they definitely kept the crowd on a string and the finisher combo was really impressive.

Matt Riddle vs. Kassius Ohno

PAS: These guys had a really great series in EVOLVE and they brought that chemistry to this match. Ohno brought a bunch of fun new offense, including blocking a sunset bomb to the floor by putting Riddle's head in the ring skirt and stomping on it (shout out to Fit Finlay), they also steal the Yair Rodriguiez vs. Korean Zombie finish with the odd angle back elbow. Ohno is a maestro at leg slapping, maybe the only guy in wrestling who can pull that dumb stunt off, and he really looks like he is pummeling Riddle with big elbows and kicks, something that was helped with the visual of Riddles swollen and bloody lip which came after Ohno stomped right in his open mouth. Riddle threw some great stuff too, his slow motion Everest German looked great and the sleeper suplex dropped Ohno really nastily on his neck. I dug the finish with Riddle getting a tap out on strikes, although it really buries Ohno, they kept mentioning his 0-4 record at Takeover and he was basically crying after the match. They might be redoing the old Hero losing streak gimmick from early 2000s IWA-MS, or they may just be taking him off TV, but man was that finish convincing.

ER: Loved all of this, just a real great sprawling fight between two guys who I like a ton. It's wild how long Hero has remained one of my favorites, and I love the moveset he's settled into that still allows for surprises.  I was into this one, but I really got into it once they moved into a Finlay adjacent spot, with Ohno slipping Riddle's head into the ring skirt with his foot, like a jersey pulled over his head in a hockey fight, and then stomps on Riddle's head. Later we get slo mo footage of Ohno throwing a running boot right into Riddle's mouth, his face contorting in freakish ways. It reminded you of the first 90s All Japan Comm. tape you ordered, and you didn't quite get All Japan on first view but then you got to a slo mo shredding guitar music video of Misawa and Kawada hitting each other and sweat flying off Kawada's hair as he eats a huge elbow, and it all started to make more sense. I love all of Ohno's kicks, and love the knees he yanks Riddle into, and love the way a guy can go into a match 0-3 and still be shit talking. Riddle had some impressive as hell throws, hitting a cool Karelin gutwrench, and the always great slo mo German, and my god that sleeper suplex was just brutal; Ohno's head looked like it bounced diagonally off the mat. Just like the match before, these guys felt like they were pulling out all the stops, and this one managed to build all the action to a fever pitch before crushing Ohno down to 0-4. Genuinely curious where they go with this, would love to know Ohno will still get to be in matches like this. Because this stuff is among the best in wrestling.

Johnny Gargano vs. Ricochet

ER: I really loved the long, Low-Ki/Red Jackie Chan throwback at the beginning, with modern turns to it, with this being the extended cut. There were long portions of this match where everything, all the sequences came off very rehearsed. BUT, they were executed so well and laid out cleverly enough that even the overly prepared presentation was still almost always fun to watch. Yes, long sections felt like bonus extended features on the Only the Strong dvd, but it brought us a ton of fun dodges and escapes, and it felt like that oddball stage fight from last year's Red/Low-Ki House of Glory main event. I appreciated that Gargano always stuck to the heel persona, didn't sucker people into an dumb faced Gargano sells, always looking for ways to cut corners but not always overly. There were plenty of moments I thought were eyerolly, some big kickouts and some mirror kind of stuff that didn't work as well as their best sequences, and of course we get a poison rana on the floor that doesn't actually lead to the finish.....but then something would happen like Gargano taking a nasty tumble to the floor and hitting the apron on the way, and I'd be snapped back into enjoying everything. The ways the match ramped up were cool, and the finish was mean as hell: Gargano drops Ricochet with a brainbuster on the floor, mats removed, Ricochet's body making a sick smack on the concrete. Back in the ring and Ricochet gets spiked with a DDT and Gargano's victory actually did feel like a big deal. Everyone is busting their asses to an absurd degree on this show, really feels like a cool environment where everybody wants to be noticed. Definitely a 3 for 3 show right now.

Bianca Belair vs. Shayna Baszler

PAS: This was a match which clearly owed a lot to Baszler's greatness and whoever lays out the women's matches at the performance center. Belair is clearly still a rookie and has a long way to go, but they put together a pretty good match with Baszler being a vicious asshole tearing at the bad shoulder, and Belair having a couple of huge moments. That hair whip is an all time great bit of shtick, I loved how Baszler used her hair against her, and how Belair opened up that cut when she used it as a whip. The power out of the rear naked choke was pretty awesome, and I loved how she almost did it a second time before collapsing. I didn't think they needed all the bells and whistles with the run ins, and Belair still isn't there in between her big moments. This was about as good as it could have been though, and Baszler is a star.

ER: I was really into big parts of this. The stuff that worked REALLY worked. Shayna yanking the braid to tug Belair into the ringpost was a great start to all the arm work, and Shayna's armwork is always guaranteed to be high end. I thought Belair did a fantastic job selling it, several cool spots revolved around her not being able to fully pull something off due to her bum wing, and she made it come off naturally. Her body movement on the missed flung right hands was really cool, and the build all the way up to that horrific whip crack braid shot across Baszler's stomach was insane. I can't believe Belair opened up a CUT on Shayna's body with her HAIR. Her hair is a marvel of course, so at this point it probably wouldn't take a lot to convince me that she could swing from it. I thought the run-ins were a bit too predictable and silly. Duke and Shafir looked like such boobs that it would have just been better to have them not out at all. They got dispatched immediately and then moments later Duke got easily kicked off he apron and pratfalled into Shafir, looked like Keystone Cops. The finish was dope as hell with Belair powering through a rear naked and slowly shifting Shayna's whole body to be able to do an awesome, hard suplex. The immediate missed 450 was a cool own petard finish, and I appreciate that they gave us a nice looooooooong tease that the clutch would actually finish or Belair would be able to power through again. The layout of this was awesome, Phil is right that whomever is helping agent the women's NXT matches is someone with a brain worth picking. The layout really felt like it turned Belair into a full babyface, totally nailed it, and both came off bigger. This is a great show so far.

Aleister Black vs. Tommaso Ciampa

ER: This was a big batch of sexy dance fighting, but it was really well done sexy dance fighting. To me sexy dance fighting feels like something that always feels within itself, like you're watching a pre-taped performance that wants live performance reactions; there's a disconnect that's always present, every step feels workshopped or overly organized, or like a great match as conceived by a computer simulation. When you're locked into the formula, performance and execution are key, and the execution was great here. It's exhausting and always impressive, but doesn't always engage because you get the sense early that they're locked into exactly what they're locked into, regardless of reaction. The pace is persistent and impressive, and they threw out a lot of sequencing I really liked. I liked how Black played the knee injury, shaking it a little after landing a tope con giro (though even that felt overly planned as Nigel jumped in and point it out a little too quickly) and leading to a few fun moments where his knee failed him. The best was during the very finishing stretch where Ciampa was rolling him through on multiple Fairy Tale Endings, and Black came up to his feet with a Black Mass that fell way short because of the knee, allowing Ciampa to hit another FTE for the win. But there was a LOT of that swing dance vibe happening through out, and it's hard for me to stay into a match that has a lot of that. You catch my leg, swing me one way, I come through with a kick from my other leg that bounces you off the ropes, your momentum off the ropes with a lariat sends me bouncing in another direction, etc. It all looks impressive when it's as well executed as these guys can do it, but it never really feels like pro wrestling to me. They're doing something seamless...while also showing too many other seams. And a lot of impact is lost when guys have to be in position for the next dance move, so you get awesome moments like Ciampa perfectly timing a missed Black Mass to catch Black with a nasty elbow in the back of the head, looked like a perfect nearfall shot...but because the dance must go on, twas merely a flesh wound to Black. I am both very impressed by this match, and left somewhat cold.

ER: Awesome show, even with the main event that wasn't always my thing, but had impressive action with an unmatched pace. We're landing three matches from this on our newly growing 2019 MOTY List, and this was a very fine way to spend 2.5 wrestling hours.

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NXT TakeOver: WarGames 2 11/17/18

We went to the NXT Tapings/House Show in San Jose on Thursday, had a great time, and have dug every single TakeOver I've watched so far. Plenty of potential on this card.

Matt Riddle vs. Kassius Ohno

ER: Well this was not quite how I was expecting to start off TakeOver, but Ohno *did* sound pretty whiny on the pre-show, so he kinda had it coming. Mauro says the match lasted "about as long as a Hollywood marriage" which was probably a pretty hot reference when Drew Barrymore married some bartender 25 years ago.

Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler

ER: Bummed I didn't get to see Shayna live on Thursday, but she was there with her Horse Girls. I'd never seen Duke or Shafir wrestle (and have no clue how much they have wrestled), but they were fun. I knew they would get involved here but wasn't expecting it so soon, and I do like the trope of a heel getting an immediate pinfall advantage in this kind of match. 2nd fall was fun with Baszler attacking immediately with a knee to the chin, and the knee looked good enough that I thought they would be running two incredibly short matches in a row. Baszler always looks good in control, although Sane isn't an interesting seller, just kinda flops and rolls around no matter what happens. But things ramp up when Baszler eats a crazy DDT on the ring apron, really planting that head in a great visual. I also liked the Horse Girls interference backfiring, especially Duke missing a kick and hitting the ringpost, and Sane doing her wild elbow off the top onto all of them. Things get pretty silly from there with the match basically serving as the background for Dakota Kai and Io Shirai running out and taking out the Horse Girls. Kai looked good, really booting Duke in the face, but Shirai does that super dumb thing where you run out to save your friend, and instead of attacking them when they're 4 feet away, takes all the time in the world to slowly climb to the top and hit a moonsault onto all of them. The visual looked good, but it's really dumb when you think about it for one second. The finish I don't think worked at all, with Sane hitting her elbow but Baszler immediately rolling her over for the crucifix pin. I don't get how the elbow can finish all her matches, but also be instantly ignored and reversed into a pin. Maybe it wasn't supposed to hit and it was supposed to look more like Baszler catching her? Whatever it was, it didn't work, and this whole thing underdelivered. I guess they're focusing on this as a trios match instead down the line, which is a match up that can be fun.

Johnny Gargano vs. Aleister Black

ER: They start with a bunch of cat and mouse that feels directly inspired by Low-Ki/Red or like they were jacking Anderson Silva highlights, but I thought it was cool, Gargano using head movement to dodge jabs, eventually getting caught when Black faked a jab to get Johnny to duck and then nailing him with a kick. Also liked Black doing his little yogi pose and Gargano running right in to kick him. The whole first several minutes are a bunch of fun bullshit, but a modern indy twist on stoogey bullshit, using a lot of constant movement without really gaining ground. But it's tougher to make that kind of swing dancing bullshit work when you're getting into the meat of the match, as you start taking big bumps that then get kind of immediately ignored for more ladies night square dance spots. Black eats a crazy DDT off a Gargano tope, and then back in the ring eats another DDT that leaves him suspended vertically on the mat for awhile, but seconds later they're back do-si-do'ing and springboarding into superkick trade-offs. A lot of it looks cool, but a lot of it also feels like total nonsense. Sometimes I find really fast spotfests exhilarating, but this feels like they need to be letting some of this breathe a bit. A lot of the stuff would still look great if it was slowed down a bit, and things do get better when Gargano stops Black with a couple of big flying knees. But there's just not a lot of space here. We go into a formula strike exchange that ends with Black teeing off on Gargano, but Gargano immediately shoves him to the floor, and Black immediately no sells a bump to the floor by kneeing Gargano out of the air on a tope. Again, a lot of the stuff they're doing looks cool, and almost all of it feels completely hollow. Even the finish seemed to come almost out of nowhere, as Gargano had been running around the whole damn match barely fazed by anything, but then goes out like a light. They went for go go go, and a lot of it just went went went in one ear and out the other. Also, I'm trying to write more 1980s Gene Shalit punchlines in my reviews now.

Velveteen Dream vs. Tommaso Ciampa

ER: Dream's 1998 Hollywood Hogan gear is fly as hell. He was Macho Man when we saw him Thursday, and did a ton of great Macho axe handles including a great one to the floor. I mean he's clearly a Savage acolyte anyway so it's a pretty lateral transition. And as I'm typing that I'm realizing that means we might see him doing a bunch of Hogan cosplay here and....and  man that sounds lame. But Dream is one of my absolute favorites this year. I think he's improved incredibly in the past two years and if he can make some Chikara horsehit work then he might be top 25 in the world. It's a big if though. And there is some Hogan cosplay, but mainly with a legdrop and boot, which is something you can work into your offense. He's not out there working a death days Charlie Haas gimmick or anything. And I like a lot of this but really loved the moment where Dream locks in a ringpost figure 4 on Ciampa's chronically bad knee. Not only because ringpost figure 4s fucking own, but we get a surprising tap from Ciampa while the ref isn't looking, and it's cool because maybe he did it to break the hold, maybe he did it because Dream beat him. Once Dream starts working the knee it gets really good, and I liked the figure 4 drama, liked the big dramatic spill on the floor...but fully expected and was fully annoyed by Ciampa limping around on one leg, but still doing every single bit of his offense that involves dropping Dream onto his own hurt knee. "Oooooooo my kneeeeeee!!! Whelp, time to powerbomb a guy onto my knee!" The finishing stretch was both hot, and kind of long winded. There were some awesome moments and awesome nearfalls. I loved how all of the DDTs were set up: Dream jumped off the top but stopped short and caught Ciampa's boot, got kicked to the floor and got planted with the DDT coming back in. Great set up for that DDT. On the floor both flew over the announce desk but Dream caught him with the rolling death valley driver and rolled him in to plant the elbow for a great nearfall. The Dream DDT on the belt looked great, we got Dream crashing and burning to the floor on a crazy missed elbow, tremendous bump, and the match finishing hanging DDT on the metal joining the two rings was an awesome use of a ring. That metal grating is never there otherwise, and it feels like a great Finlay idea to utilize that into a unique finish. But I think there was some unnecessary excess and wasted time, and I think we had some unrealistic kickouts instead of creating actual drama. I don't think this was far from being a really good match, and I thought Dream looked fantastic (getting a little bored with Ciampa's whole thing at this point), but I don't think this quite got there.

WarGames Match: Undisputed Era vs. War Raiders/Pete Dunne/Ricochet

ER: Man those shark cages are dorky as all hell. And Adam Cole was not at all the guy I wanted to see wrestling this entire match. But at least they're smart and put the heels up 2 to 1. It's insane how often that gets screwed up. Everybody screw over Roderick Strong on his entrance, doing all of their selling at the same time in the ring farthest from the cage door. So Strong runs in like a house on fire and has to run through a fucking Double Dare obstacle course to get to everybody standing around watching him like an idiot. And this whole match is just a reallllllll...slog. First off, you know a WarGames with no blood is just always going to be lame as hell. One of the first VHS wrestling tapes I rented from the video store was the big beautiful Great American Bash '87 clamshell, with two different WarGames: THE MATCH BEYOND matches. I was WWF only at this point in my life, and the wrestling I was so used to was so much more...grimy and violent than I was used to. I knew most of the wrestlers in those '87 matches, most had been in the era of WWF that was my first wrestling, but it felt so different than the wrestling I had been watching. This didn't feel grimy or violent. It felt like a series of uninterestingly laid out spots. It had some of the sloppiness of a big CZW cage match, but without any of the grime or violence. There are always going to be good moments from something like this, but my god I was so young when this match began. Mauro says "It must be a nightmare for all involved" and it's the only time he's made sense tonight. This match is a neverending nightmare of a match. If I was King of the References Mauro Ranallo I would say "This match is such an unending nightmare that I'm begging for Freddy Krueger to appear and rip me apart asshole to throat!" Ricochet had some big flying spots (including 7 guys managing to miss catching him on his huge backflip senton), and there was an awesome moment where Rowe alley-ooped Fish into a killer Hanson powerslam, but man did this whole thing draaaaag. I can't decide if the stupid 8 man dude Christmas tree powerbomb off the ropes was really really stupid or just really stupid, but I was laughing hard enough that it didn't really matter.

ER: This was easily the worst TakeOver that I've watched, with few positives. Velveteen Dream delivered huge, but a lot of the match structures felt like they failed huge. And really, Mauro turned in a show long atrocious performance. He stinks.

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