Shane O' Mac Version 2

I feel like this comes down to the FU/AA being his established finisher. You can't have him doing all these crazy suplexes and powerbombs, then finish the match with a relatively weak fireman's carry slam. Maybe if he kept the move closer to the Death Valley Driver it was originally, he could sprinkle in more power stuff. As it is, he kinda needed the AA to be his one big display of power in a match- especially if wrestling a Big Show/Khali type. It's like, the impact of the actual move isn't that impressive, but your closing impression is "wow, look how he lifted them up! So strong!"

I hope they do a better job balancing the two nights this year. Just finished watching WM38. You've got an elite Night 1, and Night 2 is a drastic comedown from that. I'll probably chuck on WM39 next, but it's fresh enough in my head anyway- epic Night 1, and Night 2 is very lucky to have the IC triple threat on it, otherwise it'd be another big comedown. Would be nice for the highlight to be Night 2 for a change.

I'll hold my hands up and say it was a misunderstanding from me, when you talked about WWE jerking Reigns around, I thought you meant his career as a whole, not specifically the title reigns. And I was for sure cloudy on some details. But I think we need to agree to disagree because yeah I don't really think he was jerked around. Given suspensions, illnesses and his perpetual status as a top star, I don't think the fact that he wasn't carrying a belt around really harmed him. Finn Balor got hurt once and they never trusted him in a top spot again, Reigns had chance after chance and was always close to the title picture. You think him pissing around with Strowman negated his wins over Undertaker and Cena, whereas I view it the complete opposite- those big wins are what stands out to me more. Appreciate all the details and the discussion but, I think we just view Reigns' career and the importances of titles to it under very different lenses. Anyway, it's all a moot point as he's now the greatest champion to ever live as the Tribal Chief.

No, I was watching the whole time. My memory was a little hazy on all the wins and losses, I'm guessing my brain tuned out anything I didn't consider particularly high quality. I know a lot of 2017-2019 I was kinda watching along out of habit, hoping for it to get better. I definitely felt like we were turning a corner coming into 2020 before COVID happened. But there was never a point, whether he had the title or not, that I didn't consider Roman Reigns the face of the company. In 2017 he was the main event of WrestleMania, simply because he was Roman Reigns. In 2018, they did a similar thing at Backlash, where Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe was the main event because... reasons. Can barely remember who the actual WWE/Universal Champions were around that period. AJ and Shinsuke were kicking each other in the balls over the WWE title, right? Never considered Roman to be twiddling his thumbs, or looking stupid or being a loser. He was often the main event guy while Brock took one of the titles hostage. I looked back at his actual title history, and it goes with winning at Survivor Series, then they had the Sheamus cash-in and a faux-Authority storyline to try and get Roman cheered. Beats HHH at Mania, then has to drop the title because he violated the Wellness Policy. Not WWE's fault. Then after he returned from the Wellness Policy suspension, obviously they're not going to be quick to put a big title back on him. But he was still main event/title picture the whole time between. Then he wins the Universal Title in 2018. Lost it due to his leukemia. Not WWE's fault. I guess his 2019 wasn't too great looking back at it. He still seemed like the top guy though. It sure as shit wasn't Kofi Kingston.

Ah yeah, all I really remember about that was Reigns pissing out a lot of blood at Mania. But I completely forgot who won- I'm guessing my thought process at the time was, "well, he's obviously getting it back at some point", and well, he did. Was genuinely racking my brains at air_raid's post, so I looked up Reigns' history with the big belts. Late 2015/2016 saw him win and lose the title in a little attempt at a Daniel Bryan thing, having him face The Authority- and he won at Mania against Triple H. Then he dropped the title due to violating the Wellness Policy- his fault, not WWE's. Then after he won the Universal Championship, he got diagnosed with leukemia- no one's fault, that, and certainly not WWE's. Then he was set to take the Universal Title back at WM36- and COVID happened. That brings us back to his mega reign that he's currently in. I don't know, one Mania loss that was avenged at Summerslam doesn't sound like a guy who's been hard done by by WWE.

Wait, what? How on Earth did WWE jerk him around? He's been earmarked as THE GUY from day dot. He's always been main event/top of the card, usually with some title in tow. Only times he hasn't been the top champ really is when Brock had the belt, and really Roman was still The Guy back then because he was actually the one on TV every week. All I can think of is Seth cashing in at Mania 31. And that only happened because the fans were rejecting Roman, I wouldn't call that WWE jerking him around.

It was Grayson Waller's birthday yesterday. He turned 34. The Twitter comments were a little outrageous, carrying on like he's ancient. I sometimes wonder about Twitter- even though it came out and started to get popular in my late teens/early 20s, whenever the topic of age comes up, the consensus seems to be that anyone over 30 is a dinosaur- not just limited to wrestlers either. In the case of Grayson, people were saying, "well, he's too old, he's not going to make it, just let him go". Which is wild when he's just getting started and just about all the current top stars are 5-10 years older than him. He also started relatively late, with his wrestling debut coming at 27, so he doesn't have the miles on his body that a typical 34 year old wrestler might have, say if they started on the indies at 18. Maybe I'm a little sensitive on this one because Grayson and I are exactly 3 months apart- I'll be 34 myself in June. But seriously, that's not old!

If he starts doing shots of vodka and giving middle fingers after hitting everyone in sight with Cody Cutters, maybe I'll start to like him.

The wildest thing about this Will Ospreay AEW run is that the awesomeness of it currently has little to do with his kick-ass, 5 star + matches. In two interviews with Tony Schiavone, he's come across as this likeable but tough and endearing character, full of confidence and a little humour and self-deprecation too. He speaks well and has the crowd in the palm of his hand. And he's got a banging theme song and the cues to hit his chants- the "Ospreay, Ospreay" was infinitely louder than the "CEO" chants that Mercedes seems to almost beg for. And after Ospreay getting himself to this new level of stardom just by speaking on the mic, he's bound to STILL go and have a bonkers match with Bryan at the PPV.

Currently watching some old Manias to prep for WMXL. Sticking with the milestones every ten years. With the first one and Mania X accounted for, I went to WrestleMania XX tonight. Got to Evolution vs. Rock & Sock Connection. I remember Foley being disappointed in that match, but I love it and consider it an underrated gem, mostly because of The Rock and Ric Flair mucking around being awesome. The Rock, who by 2004 had wrapped up his full-time wrestling career, gone Hollywood, and was in this spot at WMXX as a returning legend. He was 31 years old.