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air_raid

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  1. Ah, memories of the Raw Bowl. Hey…. do you think Tony could get hold of Sid’s number?
  2. FEBRUARY 2019 Some of these cards look rough as fuck. On top of Lesnar nor Cena being around several top stars are hurt or half fit. MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN The Man is off - 2nd-4th in Vancouver, Spokane and Yakima its Daniel Bryan vs Samoa Joe vs Mustafa Ali for the WWE title but in Washington Asuka vs Charlotte goes on last. 9th-11th the stars are back - AJ Styles vs Randy Orton goes on last in DeKalb (IL), Fort Wayne and Canton. 16th in Alexandria it's back to Bryan vs Styles for the belt, 18th in Lake Charles AJ & Rey Mysterio vs Bryan & Orton - strange bedfellows. 23rd/24th in Columbia and Greenville Asuka v Charlotte is on last again, 25th in Savannah Rey & Jeff Hardy beat Orton and Joe. THE CARDS Jeff Hardy vs Shelton Benjamin sounds decent, its twice R-Truth vs Shinsuke Nakamura vs Rusev for the US title (which repeats in Savannah), Kairi Sane & Carmella vs The Iiconics and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs Eric Young & Alexander Wolfe on short shows week 1. In week 2 Jeff and The Miz face The Bar, Truth twice defends against Andrade (also repeats in Savannah), Asuka vs Charlotte runs twice more (repeats in Savannah), Carmella & Naomi vs Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville happens in DeKalb and Fort Wayne - Naomi vs Mandy in singles happens before that tag in DeKalb and in lieu of it in Canton (and again in Lake Charles). There's also three rounds of Shelton vs Tye Dillinger, and of Rusev & Nakamura vs New Day vs The Usos and two of Samoa Joe vs Mustafa Ali. New Day vs Bar in Vancouver and Alexandria straddles two loops. In Louisiana we return to Jeff vs Joe, we have EC3 beating Dillinger then talking himself into another match which he loses to Benjamin, Asuka vs Charlotte rolls on. Usos vs New Day vs Rusev & Nakamura kicks off in Lake Charles and runs into the final loop, twice the UST match is Truth vs Andrade vs Rey Mysterio, we get Miz tagging with AJ Styles vs The Bar, the Club now beat EY & Killian Dain and twice Nikki Cross & Lacey Evans beat Billie & Peyton, two more repeats of Hardy vs Joe and three of Asuka vs Charlotte. VARIATIONS Vancouver has one more entry to the Mysterio vs Andrade saga. In Spokane there's Truth vs Nakamura vs Rusev vs Andrade and another of the endless New Dar vs Bar vs Usos matches. In Yakima a swap has New Day vs Young & Wolfe and Usos vs Bar vs Club, in Canton there are missing bodies, it's Truth vs Joe vs Andrade and Asuka vs Sonya. Finally unique to Savannah Shelton puts over Bryan's new goon, Erick Rowan. MAIN EVENTS - RAW 1st/2nd in Saskatoon and Regina its Bobby Lashley vs Finn Balor vs Drew McIntyre vs Dean Ambrose for the ICT. 8th/9th the Braun Strowman vs Baron Corbin no DQ match no goes on last in Ottawa and Oshawa, then again 15th/16th in Edinburg and Laredo and 23rd/24th in Tupelo and Montgomery. THE CARDS Braun Strowman vs Baron Corbin no DQ, Apollo Crews vs Elias, tag title of Bobby Roode & Chad Gable vs The Revival and Bayley & Natalya vs rotating Riott Squad are highlights of week 1 in Saskatchewan, plus Nikki Cross vs Tamina and Titus O'Neil, Heath Slater & Rhino vs Rezar & The Ascension... ouch. In Ontario, Finn Balor vs Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush in a handicap starts up, Elias is now losing to Drew McIntyre, it's Bayley, Nattie & Dana Brooke vs Mickie James, Alicia Fox & Cross, it's The Ascension vs Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins (the Edgeheads reunite!!), Roode/Gable vs Revival go on and.... EC3 vs Dean Ambrose has Deano do jobs he'll be fairly vocal about later, as knowing it's a bit of a "fuck you" for not renewing. In Texas we finally get some star power back with Ronda Rousey vs Ruby Riott, its Lashley vs Ambrose vs Crews for the ICT, all three Lucha House Party vs Jinder Mahal & The Singh Brothers, Tyler Breeze vs Mojo Rawley, still Elias losing to Drew and Bobby & Chad are now chasing new tag champs Dash & Dawson. Last two shows - Balor defends his newly won ICT against Lashley, Sasha Banks & Bayley defend the brand spanking new Womens tag team titles against Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan, Ambrose is now losing to Drew, Titus/Slater/Rhino beat Jinder/Sunil/Samir, she's finally good to go on the road again but Alexa Bliss loses to Natalya, Revival vs Roode/Gable and Mojo vs Breeze continue. VARIATION - ONE! In Tupelo only Titus goes to a DQ with Jinder before the six-man ; for Montgomery they realize that's overkill and only do the six-man. MAIN EVENTS - NXT 1st in Casselberry its War Raiders vs Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish for the tag belts, next night in Lakeland a mostly different crew is topped by Ricochet & Street Profits vs Steve Cutler, Wesley Blake & Jaxson Ryker. We're off to the North East for another two pairs of matching cards - 8th in Poughkeepsie and 10th in Kingston RI it's Johnny Gargano vs Velveteen Dream for the NAT while 7th in Toms River and 9th in Lowell it's former enemies Dream & Ricochet vs former enemies Johnny Wrestling & Tommaso Ciampa. 14th in Bartow, Dream & Matt Riddle face Fabian Aichner & Marcel Bathel, 16th in St Augustine the Raiders and Aleister Black beat the Forgotten Sons. 21st in Sebring and 24th in Daytona Beach Dream defends against Luke Menzies, 22nd in Fort Pierce the Raiders defend against former champs Strong & Kyle O'Reilly. Finally 28th in Columbus (OH) Gargano vs Adam Cole is on last. B shows - these are getting steadily better. While the title feud runs the North East its Aleister Black vs Kona Reeves 7th in Ocala, next night Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish vs Street Profits in St Petersburg, 9th in Sanford Aleister vs Riddick Moss. 28th in Tampa while the top guys are in Ohio, Moss loses to Matt Riddle. CARDS The North East has two instances of each of Shayna Baszler vs Candice LeRae for the Womens title and War Raiders vs Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler and two defences vs Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner, two rounds each of Ricochet vs Kassius Ohno and Matt Riddle vs Dominik Dijakovic (repeats in Fort Pierce), and Ohno vs Dijakovic, none of which go well for our "Hero." It's Kairi Sane & Io Shirai vs Marina Shafir & Jessamyn Duke and Bianca Belair vs Deonna Purrazzo or its Candice vs Deonna (repeats in Lakeland) and Kairi/Io/Bianca vs Baszler/Shafir/Duke. Aichner & Barthel have two nights with Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan (repeating in St Augustine) the same nights as Jaxson Ryker vs Mansoor, other nights it's Riddle/Burch/Lorcan vs all 3 Forgotten Sons. Thereafter, Baszler vs Belair for the belt also runs in Casselberry, Fort Pierce and Columbus. It's Keith Lee vs Punishment Martinez in Ocala and Sanford and Martinez vs Brennan WIlliams in Lakeland and St Augustine, otherwise it's Riddle vs Babatunde in St Augustine and Sebring, Rhea Ripley vs Mia Yim recurs in St Petersburg and Bartow, Reina Gonzalez vs Lacey Lane in Sanford and Sebring and Chelsea Green vs Jessie Elaban repeats in Lakeland, Ocala, Fort Pierce, Daytona Beach AND Tampa! VARIATIONS - EXHAUSTING Casselberry - Keith vs Ohno, Dream vs Riddick Moss, Riddle vs Luke Menzies, Io & Taynara Conti vs Vanessa Borne & Aliyah. Lakeland - Johnny Gargano vs Humberto Carrillo, Keith & Mia vs Kona Reeves & Vanessa. Ocala - Adam Cole vs Williams, Carrillo & Xi Li vs Moss & Aliyah, Lane & Mia vs Reina & Rhea. St Petersburg - Cole vs Martinez, Carrillo vs Moss, Lane & MJ Jenkins vs Borne & Aliyah. Sanford - Cole & Bobby Fish vs Street Profits, a Denzel Dejournette & MJ vs Reeves & Borne. Bartow - why so many mixed tags?? Profits & Belair vs Cole, O'Reilly & Shafir, Dejournette & MJ vs Menzies & Deonna, Kavita Devi & Jeet Rama vs Raul Mendoza & Gonzalez, Babatunde & Lane vs Reeves & Borne. St Augustine - Mia & Jessie vs Aliyah & Borne, Ohno vs Dejournette, Deonna vs Chelsea. Sebring - Raiders vs Dejournette & Eric Bugenhagen (Rick Boogs), Lee vs Ryker, MJ vs Aliyah, Kavita & Rama vs Reeves & Borne. Fort Pierce - Profits vs Blake & Ryker. Daytona - Aleister Black vs Dijakovic, Martinez/Burch/Lorcan vs Roderick Strong & reDRagon, Belair/Mia/Xia vs Baszler/Duke/Shafir. Tampa - Mendoza vs Menzies, Montez Ford vs Barthel, Borne & Aliyah vs Lane & Karen Q (Wendy Choo). Finally a loaded Columbus - Raiders vs reDRagon for the tag belts, Dream vs Strong for the NAT, Martinez vs Ohno, Lee vs Dijakovic, Black & Ricochet vs Cutler & Ryker, Candice & Mia vs Rhea & Reina. TVs 4th Raw - Ronda continues her march beating Liv then Logan in back to back matches, Ambrose loses to EC3 on telly, Kurt Angle tags with Braun to go to a non finish with Corbin & McIntyre and having made an appearance in the Rumble last month Jeff Jarrett appears on Raw for the first time in 24 years to lose to Elias. Next night Machinery vs Young & Wolfe and Asuka vs Charlotte bookend the taping. Week after on Raw Kurt/Braun/Balor beat Lashley/McIntyre/Corbin and Revival win the tag belts. Night after its Machinery vs Sanity again but no dark main after 205 - boo. The Champion PPV on the 17th has the Usos beat Shane McMahon & Miz for the other tag belts, Balor beat Lashley & Rush in a handicap for the ICT, Ronda crush Ruby, Sasha & Bayley win an enjoyable Chamber to become the first womens tag team champions and Bryan retain the WWE title with a closing stretch against Kofi (in for the injured Mustafa Ali) which gets such a great reaction that after already losing Bryan vs Ali for Mania, they hastily scrap plans for Bryan vs Kevin Owens in favour of Bryan vs Kingston. Next nights Raw, Ruby lasts slightly longer with Ronda but loses again. Next night in New Orleans Truth & Rey beating the Colons is a hell of a treat dark, Asuka vs Charlotte on last again. Wednesday 20th at Full Sail Menzies vs Boogs and Cole vs Martinez are the bonus matches, Saturday and Sunday NXT:UK tapes in Coventry with Isla Dawn vs Killer Kelly as Saturday's dark match, highlight being Walter aiding Pete Dunne beat Joe Coffey & Mark Coffey, then Sunday its Ilja Dragunov vs Ashton Smith as the only dark match. 25th Raw in Atlanta Angle beats Jinder, next night in Charlotte Machinery beat the Colons, Matt Hardy returns to tag with Jeff against The Bar, and Asuka beats Charlotte yet again. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Revival (Raw Tag Team Champions) by DIY, AGAIN by Ricochet & Black, Asuka (SmackDown Womens Champion) by Mandy DEPARTURES These are the last house shows for Alicia Fox. She'll do two more TV matches in April then not wrestle for fucking ages, doing the 21 and 22 Rumbles and a handful more TV matches before finally confirming her contract expired in May 23. She says she'll wrestle again somewhere but thus far hasn't. I'm not going to lie, I never thought any of her matches were any good, but she is aesthetically pleasing. From memory, TV doesn't do her justice. Hideo Itami is let go from his deal on 22nd after requesting a release in January - oddly on 4th of the month they'll put a superb "behind the scenes" video up on YouTube about his last week there which made him look far more valuable than he had for years in terms of actually getting used on TV. He'll revert to "KENTA" and immediately get a gig in New Japan and have plenty more bangers, later describing his time in WWE as "the most frustrating days of my life."
  3. The treatment of Ted Jr was really odd. At Elimination Chamber he got a fairly good pop for betraying Orton - in Randy's hometown, no less - and the scene seemed set for Ted to be the babyface and Cody to side with Orton over him. For whatever reason, Simply Priceless stayed together, it was Orton that turned face, then beat them both by himself at Mania. The end of Ted and setting Cody back quite considerably.
  4. It was a one note joke though wasn’t it? Once every arena on the circuit has had a turn singing the tune, you ask “OK, what else is there?” And it turned out, not much.
  5. Was absolutely not his first pro match though, was it?
  6. Which is clearly the biggest fall ever, if you listen to Jericho. “Not everyone gets to beat a Chris Jericho in their first match.” Did you know he was the first Undisputed Champion too?
  7. Was absolutely not his first pro match though, was it?
  8. Lost somewhere in the story of Sable, between the manner of her exit and the lawsuit, the surprise of her return, that she ended up marrying Brock Lesnar and how great her boobs looked at Fully Loaded, was a really rather good debut match at WrestleMania XIV. I wasn’t expecting much for an total non-wrestler opposite a nutter like Luna Vachon, maybe that she’d take a few minutes abuse and catch a sneaky roll up if they wanted a crowd pleasing win. But Boston went crazy when she smashed her with a lovely powerbomb and again with that smooth TKO for the win. To be fair, they had. She was believable in the ring and got good pops, and though she found the road schedule tough she still made house shows and could be relied upon to draw a decent house when they had a lack of star power with Lesnar absent and Reigns battling cancer. They turned her heel for the Mania run in because Becky needed to be the only hero of the story, and Ronda was even better at being a smug bitch. Had she not gone off to make babies we’d probably already be talking about her as one of the best of all time.
  9. That match was absolutely cursed. Christian and Del Rio were both scheduled at different points to be on Team Johnny but Christian got hurt, then they couldn’t be bothered rushing Bertie back from injury for such an inconsequential match (they’d planned for him to wrestle Orton before he got injured). Miz’ fall was pretty rapid too, The Awesome Truth had played a major spoiler role in the Cena vs Punk vs Del Rio title scene of autumn 2011 and of course wrestled Cena & Rock at Survivor Series, so it was unusual to see them lost in the shuffle by Mania time. It was all window dressing for the real story ; Eve betraying Ryder and proving that in the end, like EVERY woman in WWE history to that point, she turned out to be just another Jezebel.
  10. Just a thought I had. If Otis is teaming with Tozawa instead of Gable in qualifiers for the tag team clusterfuck, might Gable still get added to the ICT match?
  11. The funny thing is, they did get TV episodes that felt the same as SNME did back in the day for filling that gap between the PPV meetings, during the first round of single brand PPVs - the other show would have a “big” episode of TV the month the other had the PPV. Examples being the week that Raw had Unforgiven 2003, SmackDown put on the Angle vs Lesnar Iron Man match. The month after SmackDown had No Mercy so Raw did Goldberg vs HBK for the belt.
  12. Re : Theory - so, if he’s not part of the tag team title clusterfuck, can I assume he won’t actually wrestle at Mania? If so, he’ll go from beating John Cena last year to being left off the card this year, which surely has got to be the worst drop off from one Mania to the next for someone still on the active roster since King Kong Bundy went from wrestling Hulk Hogan at 2, to wrestling Little Beaver at 3.
  13. Oh I get it, different strokes for different blokes. Like I acknowledge that while after Usos vs Zayn & Owens last year had such a story and commanded such respect on the card, I’d have liked to have seen the story (which has build) of Judgment Day vs Truth & Miz afforded the same treatment, that equally plenty of people don’t mind the tag team championship being the centrepiece of another “throw a load of guys at it” clusterfuck. I know we’re very much removed from the days that the Harts or LOD could go on last and still draw a full house in South Bend Indiana or Red Deer, Alberta, buts it’s nice to see them present the tag belts as worthy of telling a real story when there’s a chance. And this was a chance.
  14. Maybe I should rephrase ; I couldn’t pick any hole in these eloquent words and on paper it absolutely does read like it should get on a Mania card. But I find myself nowhere near as invested in it to merit so. It’s probably because I feel like everything peaked at Money In The Bank after they’d fallen out once over Zayn then reunited, stood up to Reigns and beaten him. I didn’t buy Jey as a challenger to Roman second time round and it felt unnecessary, and Jimmy betraying his brother felt very “Jesus, there’s more of this, is there?” It’s probably a factor but for whatever reason I’ve never latched onto either as a singles wrestler. Supporting players in the overall bigger story though they’ve been, it still feels for me personally a bit like if the Smoking Gunns split had made it to a match at Mania 13. Except in this case, they’re both Bart.
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