Should be Nak’s advocate. It would work and Nak’s easily a more varied worker than Suplex City Brock.

Raw could be bonkers tonight. Or...people could leave New Orleans pissed.

Zoomed out:

I loved the NXT Takeover show because it worked the way it’s supposed to per my perspective on rasslin after watching this shit for 35 years. Monsters are monsters that have to be taken down. Heels are heels that people throw strong hate on because they have earned it. Ciampa for instance. That is what a main event heel should get when he comes to the ring...just a pure rainstorm of boos and hope to see him get what’s coming to him. People still like to see bad people get theirs. Almas and old girl finally got theirs after cheating to stay on top. The tweeners like Velveteen get love from nerds like me cuz he’s good at what he does. The gymnasts like Puma Ricochet get love for elevating everything they’re involved in to a spectacle. And I’ll be damned if people don’t love the hell out of lil Jonathan Wrestling as a pure face. It was that way in Evolve when I saw him 2 years ago. It’s that way now. He is so good at this shit it ain’t even funny. I would’ve cried if he would’ve somehow lost that match. I swear. And they teased it amazingly well but allowed him to rise above it in a mostly reasonably way. And bang..it works!

Mania felt a little Russoriffic/swerve too muchy. Truth’s commentary over the years about the ills of horrible booking rang true a bit too often for my taste last night. I’ll make myself wait until the whole mania week ends before I go too far with anything too negative but I’m skeptical about a few things the morning after fo sho.

The funny thing: the crowd was lit for the moments where things were built even reasonably well. Ronda’s hot tag for instance. They built to that moment well, she delivered ridiculously well, and the crowd was overtly pleased. And when she finally got Steph’s hands pried loose for the armbar? Shiiiiiid. The crowd was hella happy. It was the mountain top of the show to me. Hmmm...imagine that! Build shit, pay it off, then build to the next shit. Simple storytelling! Don’t start me on her getting at HHH too! That dude is trying like hell to pay for his sins from 15 or so years ago.

Meanwhile, they booked Reigns to disrespectfully and repeatedly survive death itself at the end of a long ass show. The crowd saw it coming and shat all over it. The crowd damn near quit watching the match after he kicked out of the 2nd f5. There were super random chants. There were at least 10 beach balls. I don’t know how it sounded or looked on the network yet, but it sounded/looked like the worst thing ever in-person for a main event. Compared to nxt, it was embarrassing. At some point, Reigns kicked out of an f5 and the crowd chanted ‘bullshit’. That’s not good! And then, swervity swerve, bro with a 6th F5 to end it. Folks were walking out complaining like nobody’s business. That is not good!

I’m hoping/assuming Brock loses tonight to a non-Reigns entity. Well hell, we’ll see. It is clear that they know how to book stories well so it is just a matter of if this Brock story has a good end coming or not. I’ll take Taker putting the gongs on him, kicking his ass, and then vacating the title. I’ll take Paul latching onto Strowman and then letting that be what happens. It’s not happening, but I’ll take a Samoa joe appearance...even better, Cesaro. Okay okay...I’m dreaming now. But do something.



>https://tinyurl.com/trillride (no, that's not a typo)
>
>Same rules as always. This goes without saying but if
>Carmella's attempt at a cash-in is thwarted before the bell
>rings it does not count as a cash-in.
>
>For the purposes of the Elias question we will define
>finishing moves by what's listed as "present" on wikipedia.
>For instance, I picked 3 cause I believe The Rock shows up and
>delivers 1 People's Elbow and 2 Rock Bottoms. If he happens to
>do one of his 1996 finishers (running crossbody or
>shoulderbreaker) I would NOT count that:
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwayne_Johnson#In_wrestling
>
>
>If there's anything else you need clarified, let me know.
>
>EDIT: oh yeah, also who else is going and what indie shows are
>you checking out? I'm going to some of the WWN shows (Evolve,
>Progress, Beyond), the Lucha/Impact show, and the Wrestlecon
>Supershow