#but there was so much fucking promise during this two show run in ddt and so many things they could have done after returning

[the-kipsabian]

(so it turns out i never posted this actual video so like.. here. i have so many brain worms about this now cause like. holy shit my dude. once again asking where. OH WHERE. the fuck is/was this character after his return and why wasnt he given a fair chance when all the building blocks were so obviously fucking there.......)

[timleob]

WWE Extreme Rules 2017

Well, another Raw PPV, and yet more idiotic booking from a team of writers and agents who have no fucking clue what they are doing. Let me clarify, there was some good wrestling on this show, but the booking of the finishes and treatment of the babyfaces, Bayley especially, is so fucking infuriating that it makes me wonder what they are trying to achieve here.

Miz and Ambrose was fine, not amazing, but fine. The psychology of the match was great with Miz doing everything he can to get Ambrose disqualified. He got his wife to slap him which failed, he took the turnbuckle pad off which nearly got Ambrose disqualified, and then he shoved Dean into the ref when he was distracted. And then, in a moment that was stupid, the ref goes to march over to the timekeeper to call for the bell, but then Miz hits his finish and gets the clean pinfall win. So what was the point of putting a stip where Ambrose would lose if he was DQ’d and not use it for the finish? For fuck sake.

The mixed tag was, well, it was there. Nothing really spectacular happened here except for, holy fuck, a babyface won a match in his home town! That one must have slipped past Vinnie who will no doubt insist that he be beaten repeatedly for the next 3 months. Also, remember when Sasha was one of the top wrestlers in the company? What happened there?

Bayley vs Alexa Bliss…fuck me. Just..what was the fucking point of this 5 minute match? Remember how as fans we used to joke that when a “divas” match came on it was time for a piss break? Well congratufuckinglations WWE, you’re back to that now. Dont get me wrong, Bliss is a good heel. She has that look of smug confidence and has a perfect condesending tone during her promos and does the best she can with what they give her. And what they give her is fucking terrible (see the This is your life segment on the go home Raw).

Also, what is the deal with Bayley? She is a babyface who cant succeed. For fuck sake WWE, fans fucking HATE dumb baby faces and thats what she is, thanks to your incompetent booking. They did a pole match (wasnt aware Russo was back on creative), got the kendo stick within one minute of the match. They did a spot where Bliss was like “Go on, I’ll give you a free shot” and like a total moron babyface, Bayley goes for it and gets attacked. Then she gets the stick and it leads to a whacky chase spot around the ring, and Bayley finally gets her in the corner.

Alexa played a fantastic heel here, smug and confident when she is up and a coward when she is trapped. Pro-wrestling 101 now states Bayley looks at the stick, remembers everything that has led to this and should beat Alexa to within an inch of her life. But no, Bayley hesistates cause she is just Bayley, she is too sweet and innocent to get extreme. Alexa gets the stick, kills Bayley, hits a DDT and gets the clean pin.

This pissed me off. So much. What are they actually doing with Bayley? They have a chance for this woman to be a hero to little girls worldwide, and they are fucking killing her momentum and burying her on a weekly basis. I’ll go into a longer explination about this at the end of this review.

Next was Hardyz vs Seamus and Cesaro. I have actually enjoyed this series of matches, its turned out some solid performances and helped elevate Seamus and Cesaro as a tag team. That said, this match was slightly overbooked and often made no sense, its a cage match where you can only win via escape not pinfall or submission. Which meant if one guy got out he was basically leaving his partner for dead. So why would you stop one guy from escaping? Surely it would make sense to have one guy escape and then beat the shit out of his partner? Cause if he runs back in to help his team mate, he has put himself back into the match.

This was done when Jeff escaped and Matt was worked over by both Seamus and Cesaro, which I was hoping would lead to the emegence of Broken Matt Hardy. Sadly not today, but soon I hope. The ending helped redeem an otherwise overbooked and somewhat lackluster match. Seamus and Cesaro are climbing up and over after Jeff did that insane whisper in the wind off the top of the cage while Matt drags his brother to the cage door.

It was a dramatic finish but also silly since the faces picked the stipulation. And lost. For those keeping score, that is now 3 faces who have lost on this show, 2 made to look like total geeks in the process.

Crusierweight match. I’ll be honest, WWE have dropped the ball on this division so I have no interest. But there was something that was pissing me off during this match, besides the stipulation and the lack of heat for the match, and then it hit me.

The cruiserweights are working the same slow “big man” style that the heavyweights work. Granted there are alot more top rope moves but come on. How many people remember the cruiserweight division in WCW? That was fantastic fucking wrestling, these guys could take a few clues from that. Its like no one behind that curtain understands what they are doing with this division, and its frustrating! There is some amazing talent that is being squandered here.

Main event, 5 way for the number one contendership for the universal title. Everyone in this match was super over with the crowd. By far the biggest pop went to Seth and of course Roman had the heat from the crowd. The match started with Roman basically cleaning house with everyone and having a fantastic pissed off look. Seriously, just turn the guy heel already and you’ll print money. It ended up leading to a truly fantastic pro wrestling moment with the two heels, Joe and Bray teaming up and getting the heat on all the babyfaces and just destroying them, it was fantastic and the crowd really got into it. Rollins madr a come back and hit a suicide dive on Joe and Bray on the outside with Bray pushing Joe into the firing line.

Joe and Bray turn on each other and it turns into total chaos which leads to the two big spots in the match. Roman charges and spears Joe and Finn through the baricade and the crowd pops big time, even the people who dont like Roman. Bray ends up on an announce table and Rollins hits a frog splash from the ring post and they both go through the table. Leads to the second holy shit chant for the evening.

Rollins and Reigns go at it which has the crowd the entire time, they repeat the fantastic bucklebomb to superman punch from Raw which the crowd ate up yet again. It leads to Finn nailing a slingblade on Roman, followed by a drop kick and the coup de grace. Finn goes in for the pin on Roman, but gets snatched by Joe who locks on the Clutch. Finn refuses to tap and passes out and Joe is the winner.

This match no doubt saved the entire show. It had great action, fantastic story telling and a great finish. Finn would have had it but got caught at the last second and he refused to tap which made him look like a legit god damn badass.

In what I felt was a nice touch to the match was when Joe gets to the top of the ramp after his win and screams LESNAR! It was a great little touch to the story.

Overall, the event felt lackluster, a common trend with Raw PPV’s lately, but thankfully the main event and the promise of a Samoa Joe vs Brock Lesnar match is there. I was hoping this would be the match going forward since these two will basically beat the living fuck out of each other. And we have Paul Heyman to hype the match, this gonna be great.

Now, lets talk about what I mentioned earlier - WWE’s booking of its babyfaces.

In this PPV, Ambrose and Bayley were made to look like total geeks. This is a recurring theme with WWE lately. And its simple as to why it happens. They are trying to replicate the Daniel Bryan rise. They basically were a dick to him and made him look like a total jackass time and time again, but the fans loved and respected him so much that they wouldnt stop demanding he get what they felt he deserved. And in spite of all the bullshit, he rose to the top and became a bonified main event star and became a valuable part of the company.

WWE in its arrogance honestly believes that all of this was their doing and thats why we had to put up with Stephanie McMahon going out and humiliating and belittling every single person on the roster. Every fucking week.

And now we see faces like Bayley being humiliated and belittled and made to look like a geek over and over. And its killing her push, momentum and credibility. But WWE honestly believe its helping her. Fucking idiots.

Anyway, thats enough from me. Leave a like or reblog if you agree and be sure to send the usual idiot hate mail that comes along with having an opinion.

Cheers, Tim

[atomicdrop]

WWE 205 Live (January 3, 2017)

We kick things off with a recap of Neville wrecking house on Rich Swann before we go live to somewhere in Florida for the most exciting hour of television that's not actually on television! The announcers let us know that because of Neville's heinous attack, Rich Swann is out of action this week, but we've got excitement nonetheless so let's get down to the ring for action!

Match 1: Sean Maluta vs. Tajiri

This is Tajiri's 205 Live debut and he comes out to a pretty big pop. Sean Maluta gets the jobber's entrance. Sorry Sean!

Maluta gets some scant offense in, but the match is more or less a Tajiri's Greatest Hits collection. We get the Tarantula, that handspring elbow thing, some kicks. It's a pretty short affair and Tajiri picks up the win after a buzzsaw kick.

Post match, THE Brian Kendrick comes down to the ring and is like, "Hey Tajiri remember when we were in 2003 Smackdown and how awesome it was? Let's do that with 205 Live!" He offers Tajiri his hand which the Japanese Buzzsaw takes before blowing Green Mist in THE Brian Kendrick's face.

Winner: Tajiri

This was a decent introduction to Tajiri for those who never saw him before and a good reintroduction for those of us who have seen him. I'm assuming that he and Kendrick will feud now which should be pretty good.

I liked him in the Cruiserweight Classic, so I’m glad that Sean Maluta’s sticking around, even if he is just 205 Live/NXT enhancement talent at this point.

Meanwhile Backstage...

Neville is pissed off that he’s been discriminated against for his nationality and the way that he sounds and because he has a butterface. He promises to end TJ Perkins in their match that night because he’s the king of the cruiserweights.

I like how pissed off Neville is here. He continues to surprise me with how good he is as a heel.

Video Package!

Tony Nese is one of the best, but got passed over by the WWE because he was small. He’s going to show why he’s one of the best. Video Package!

They recap Jack Gallagher and Ariya Daivari’s duel from the previous week. It was great the week before and it’s great to see it again here.

Match 2: Tony Nese (w/ Drew Gulak) vs. Jack Gallagher

Nese starts out strong, grappling with Gallagher, but Gallagher counters everything and outwrestles Nese. Nese switches to forearm strikes and forces Gallagher into the corner where he does his headstand spot and keeps Nese at bay. 

Gallagher gets in control but Ariya Daivari comes running out to the ring and chopblocks Gallagher in the knee and then puts him in the Tree of Woe and beats him down for awhile while yelling, “YOU EMBARRASSED ME!” Refs come out and Daivari eventually stops the attack.

Winner: Jack Gallagher

The brief bout Gallagher and Nese had before the Daivari run in was pretty good and I hope to see them wrestle an actual match sometime soon.

Meanwhile Backstage...

Cedric Alexander and Alicia Fox talk and she blames herself for Cedric’s recent string of losses. Cedric is like, “No, I’m responsible for what happens out there in the ring but please be more careful, okay?” She is like, “Okay I will,” and then they kiss.

Match 3: Mustafa Ali vs. Noam Dar 

Dar controls the early going of the match with a slow pace and strikes. He does the cowardly heel thing and screams for the ref to break a hold when he and Ali end up in the corner.

Ali starts to pick up the pace and gain momentum but Dar starts working the arm. Dar works the arm for a decent stretch before Ali makes a comeback, hitting a tornado DDT. He follows up with a kick to the face and a neck breaker that earns him a two count.

Ali is selling the injury to his arm as he goes off the ropes. Dar catches him in an arm bar further assaulting the injured arm. Ali is able to fight out of it and lays out Dar. He goes up to the top rope and hits an inverted 450 splash to pick up the win.

Post match Dar gets interviewed about his loss. He said that 2017 was going to be a big year for him and that Alicia Fox would always be welcome in his corner.

Winner: Mustafa Ali

This was a pretty good match. Ali looked like a million buck. Like Maluta he was another CWC guy that I like so I’m glad he’s getting another chance in the WWE. I thought he did a great job selling the injury to his arm during the match and am glad that he picked up the win in the end.

Noam Dar is a great weasely little fuck: the kind of guy you want to see a face wreck house on so kudos to him too.

Video Package!

Ceasaro talks about how good of a wrestleguy Akira Tozowa is. Tozowa is coming soon to 205 Live!

Meanwhile Backstage...

TJ Perkins is getting interviewed about his match with Neville. He says that no one was discriminating against him for how he talked or what he looked like or where he was from but because he acted like a douchelord. Perkins then amends it to say yes, some people probably discriminated against Neville for looking all goofy. Perkins calls him a bully and says that sometimes when dealing with a bully you have to kick them in the mouth. Words to live by kids...words to live by.

Match 4: Neville vs. TJ Perkins

Neville’s out first. He’s got a slower, heavier version of his theme song...the “I’m a Heel Remix” if you will. He walks down to the ring slowly and stops to stare someone in the audience down. I’m digging Neville’s commitment to being a heel, changing even the way he’s coming out to the ring.

Perkins comes out next, He’s apparently fighting for the honor of his friend, Rich Swann and so flat out refuses to shake Neville’s hand during the Ring of Honor prematch handshake thing.

The two start off the match pretty evenly matched going back and forth and countering one another. Perkins applies a head scissors but Neville escapes and blasts TJ Perkins in the gut. Perkins answers back with a bulldog that sends Neville rolling to the outside.

Neville heads back into the ring and aggressively works Perkins over before laying him out with a dropkick. He finally heads up to the top ropes and goes for a corkscrew 450, but misses. Perkins capitalizes on this and hits a neckbreaker that he follows up with a dive to the floor. Back in the ring Perkins hits a high cross and nearly scores a pinfall.

Neville hits Perkins with a right and tries for the dead lift superplex, but Perkins still has too much fight in him and escapes from Neville’s clutches and hits a rana off the ropes nearly scoring a pinfall.

Perkins goes for a kick but Neville avoids it and lands a kick of his own. Perkins goes for the rolling knee bar, but Neville catches him and destroys him with a sick looking wheelbarrow German suplex.

TJ Perkins goes up to the top, but gets crotched by Neville. Neville goes up top and sets up for the superplex. Perkins tries to fight him off to no avail. Neville hits the superplex and picks up the win and celebrates by screaming, “WHERE’S MY CROWN!!”

Winner: Neville

Neville is a great heel. I love that he doesn’t do flippy shit anymore because in 2017 WWE simply doing awesome looking moves is enough to get someone cheered. Seriously though, he’s such a good heel that I actually found myself hoping that TJ Perkins would pick up the win. I hate TJ Perkins...or at least did prior to this match.

Final Thoughts

This was a pretty good show. There were a couple good matches, all the main 205 storylines moved forward, Tajiri made his return, Mustafa Ali got a big win, and Sean Maluta got a WWE check which is all anyone could really ask for from an episode of 205 Live.