The Wrestling Thread

I've liked a few. Royal Rumble was really good, Mania was good but a bit disappointing because of the potential, MITB was overly pretty good, and I did like much of this SummerSlam. In my notes I haven't given a match below a 2.

---

My first PPV since WrestleMania, a PPV I actually left in the middle of.

I liked it.

A lot of the finishes were fucky and I have a lot of questions (why would you turn the Owens match into a squash if you're just going to end up throwing the result out the window by the end, why did Orton come out at the end of the Hardy/Nakamura match if he wasn't going to do anything, etc.) but I rather enjoyed myself.

I hope people got fined or fired after that triple treat women's match, though. Carmella and the ref were sloppy as fuck and everyone was suffering as a result, both in the ring and in my circle of friends.

---

I liked Mania, but I don't think I was a fan of any of the others I've watched this year. They have a good match here and there, but overall have been pretty bollocks.

I'm pretty sure I've won 5 times. I've counted.

Also SS was like... 6 out of 10. Not bad at all, but won't go down as a classic.

---

In hindsight, in good faith I can't really give the proper squiggity-squashes more than like a 1.5, fancy Bálor paint or not. It's a good moment without any real storyline meat to it.

---

Still can't and don't believe he busted out the demon just for a fucking Baron Corbin match. Not a major feud, not a title shot. A Bald Baron Corbin 1v1 squash.
Sad!

---

Summerslam 2018 is going to go down as one of those "don't pay attention to the plot" shows. There's much to like in there as long as you sort of file down the serial numbers a bit and throw context out the window. Really good choice for an accessible first-time-ever PPV that isn't a Royal Rumble.

---

Honestly? I can accept him busting out the Demon. It basically excuses the squash. Dude went Super Saiyan and bopped him. Sure.

---

PRE👏SHOW👏PRE👏SHOW👏PRE👏SHOW👏

1) Andrade Cien Almas and Zelina Vega vs Rusev and Lana
Vega pins Lana with schoolgirl while not on the ropes cause she's 5 foot, then actually on the ropes cause she got out of the middle of the ring.

2) Cedric Alexander vs Drew Gulak (Cruiserweight Championship)
This is a main card match on a pre-show. This had a lot of hard work in it, false finishes, fun spots, should have been there. Cedric win with a roll-up.

3) The B-Team vs The Revival (Raw Tag Team Championship)
No one gave a shit about this. Don't even remember who got the pin on who, I just remember it was a roll-up.
This entire Preshow can best be summarized as "and then they got a cheeky roll-up/pin, and some audience members were a tad cross about that".

SUM👏MER👏FEST👏 SUM👏MER👏FEST👏 SUM👏MER👏FEST👏
1) Dolph Ziggler vs Seth Rollins (IC Championship) - 3.75/5
Seriously did not need Ambrose or McIntyre there. You just have them there for one distraction spot, and even that was just for the finish, which did not need them. Slow build, but crowd loved it, maybe because it was the first match and not the last match. It's amazing what not being subjected to subpar performances for several hours will do to a large crowd.

2) The Bludgeon Bros. vs The New Day (Smackdown Tag Team Championship) - 3/5
Summerslam is one of WWE's biggest PPVs all year, second next to Wrestlemania, so a DQ finish is pretty gutsy. Short match but pretty packed with action, Woods was all over the place. Thought New Day would win until Rowan brought out the mallet. This is still a fun match, but now there's a lengthy wait for a conclusion. Doing that conclusion at a smaller PPV seems dumb, but go for it.

3) Braun Strowman vs Kevin Owens - 0/5
Braun beat the hell out of Owens for about 2 minutes and then everyone waited for another match that wasn't 2 minutes. When this was live I went to the bathroom as they were doing entrances and when I came back to my computer it was over and twitter was upset, so i'm just saying, we had a very good pre-show match that could have been right here. This never had to be on the main card.

4) Carmella vs Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch (Smackdown Women's Championship) - 3/5
I know i'm supposed to feel bad for Becky not winning, I get that's the storyline here, but Charlotte gets booked in a similar way to Roman Reigns where I already know the outcome, so it's hard to get invested in an opponent's storyline when the end result is already clear. Carmella looked really good here, probably the best she's been in WWE performance-wise. The turn by Lynch at the end was really good, I was hoping for it and it was well worth waiting for, even if I already knew what was coming.

5) AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe (WWE Championship) - 4/5
Especially for your premiere title belt, and because so many of these title matches with AJ Styles keep ending with DQ finishes that frankly, I don't expect a clean finish anytime soon. That being said, this was a very good match overall, a slow build but worked its way into being the best overall match of the night. Joe kicked out of the Styles Clash and beat AJ senseless, started talking smack to his wife and daughter. Styles went nuts and tackled him through a barricade, started landing chair shots for the DQ. AJ looked like the vulnerable hero, Joe is the tactical villain, this is how a DQ finish should be if you're going to do it, and i'm ok with this one.

6) Daniel Bryan vs The Miz - 3.5/5
Nothing after this match got enough time to do anything. Really good storytelling but you would expect a lot more heat in the match. The dirty finish makes sense, did not know they actually used brass knuckles at first, I thought it was a chain or something like that, neat. Lot of reversals and technical spots, they play off each other well, lot of figure fours too. Miz has really established himself as one of the best workers in the company over the past couple of years.

7) Finn Balor vs Baron Corbin - 0.5/5
Baron Corbin is such a powerful opponent that Finn Balor had to summon the might of the Demon King in order to squash him in 95 seconds. Sure it's special, I get that it only comes out on occasion, but for this match?

8) Shinsuke Nakamura vs Jeff Hardy - 2/5
No one cared about this match. No one even cared that Jeff almost killed himself doing a swanton bomb and smashing his back on the apron even after saying "yeah I don't do that anymore". Match was sloppy, Nakamura took a twist of fate kinda funny, hit an ax kick and kinshasa for the pin. Randy came out afterwards, walked up to the ring, turned 360 degrees and walked away.

9) Alexa Bliss vs Ronda Rousey - 2/5
hey did you guys know that back in her MMA days Ronda Rousey used to beat her opponents really fast for titles, so in keeping up with the tradition WWE has her beat Alexa Bliss in 4 minutes for a title by selling nothing and killing her. Then, the Bella Twins came out and celebrated her victory, because of all the women who could be present in the ring to signify the revolution in the Women's Division of wrestling in WWE, naturally the first ones that come to mind are the Bellas and no one else.

10) Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns - 2.5/5
None of the final 4 matches had enough time to do anything. I know one of them was a squash match, but all of them combined were shorter than the Bryan/Miz match. Strowman said he was gonna cash in as soon as this was over. "Haha, no you aren't" said I, "no babyface dork says that before a match, you do that before a PPV even happens." Lesnar beat up Strowman and Reigns, but then he got tired so Reigns speared him like 3-4 times and pinned him for the win, and then they cut the feed IMMEDIATELY. Lesnar gave Strowman an F-5 early on and sent the briefcase flying so they never did the cash-in, not they were ever going to.

This was fine until the 3/4 mark and then everyone in the crowd died because a 6 hour PPV is bad.

---

okay here are my non-ratings for this ppv

flavour of the month fan favourite couple vs flavour of the month fan favourite couple: of course/10, the beginning of the end for rusev i feel
cruiserweight match: stop shafting the cruiserweights please. no rating because this deserved to be on not the pre-show
b-team improbably beats another superior team, again: on a scale of a+-team to f-team, i give this a d-team

dolphin vs seth: pretty good/10, nice of them to put the best match at the start so we can fuck off early
beardy boys vs new day: HAMMERS/HAMMERS. screwy finish for the sake of a screwy finish. this'll be at the next us-based ppv
braun stro-- oh wait, it's over: squash/10. here's a tip: don't tease the possibility of braun getting dq'd and losing the briefcase only for that to be totally irrelevant
wwe hates becky lynch, the squeakquel: "not carmella"/10. charlotte apparently being the face in this situation is a sad sign of the times. can we make asuka relevant again so she can actually look like something more than carmella's bitch please
the ajay community vs senor joe: pretty good/10, except for another screwy dq finish. this was a well-done screwy dq finish though, which shows how the beardy boys match's dq wasn't
miz and mr.: interference/10. saw it from a mile off. two family-related angle matches in a row? why not, says vince mcmahon who is trying to ensure the company doesn't survive him at this point.
finn bal-- wait, again?: squash/10. hope "demon finn balor" doesn't become the new "thedemonkane"
shithead nutshot vs suicidal man: rip hardy/10. jeff is done. by his absence, matt is done. sad, really
rousey wins lol: no rating. bellas being the signpost of the women's revolution is sad when you consider they're even worse "diva in a women's era" than carmella is.
foregone conclusion: FINALLY IT'S OVER/10. i say that for the ppv and the neverending will-he-won't-he between reigns and lesnar. don't tease the briefcase thing if it's not even going to happen.

overall rating: fuck wwe again

---

My rating for Summerslam is MEDIOCRE/5. Of all PPVs I have to win... this was one of them.

Go rewatch the G1. This was fuck all.

---

What do you guys think about Neville finally getting released, and NOT having a no-compete clause?

In my opinion, I hope he goes to impact and restarts a rivalry against Austin Aries.

---

question for you hardcore smarks

njpw or nxt?

---

NJPW. But they're both fanastic companies, being the #1 and #2 for proper pro wrestling. Each have very distinctive styles, so you can take your pick or watch both and still be happy.

---

Hands up if you forgot Hell in a Cell was tonight lol

---

Big hands up.

I'm honestly about to start just doing predictions for NJPW shows. I would hope that everyone here cancels their Network subscriptions for some New Japan World. 2018 has truly proven that there is no real point to watching WWE.

---

that aint happening

---

The only reason I didn’t do HiaC predictions was because I’m not at my own PC. I’m a good 2000 miles away.

However I am still gonna watch because I am a fucking sheep or whatever.

---

Yeah, I cancelled my sub and haven't watched a RAW or SD since the post mania week (though I did resub briefly for SS, which was a mistake). I should give NJPW a try, but I probably won't.

I would've done WWE if I didn't know there would be some shit non-finish to Reigns/Strowman. Sadly I knew that was coming.

So, basically..

is happening.

---