air_raid

Good shot Mr, give yourself a goldfish!

Re : Samantha - I don't get why she'd want to fake an emotional wobbling voice instead of just announcing as clearly and powerfully as possible i.e. doing her job the best she can.

JULY 2019 MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN 6th in Utica and 7th in Binghamton its still Kofi Kingston vs Dolph Ziggler for the belt (LOL), 8th in Glens Falls Ziggler challenges Finn Balor for the ICT. Kofi's still off 13th in Petersburg (VI) so it's Balor vs Shinsuke Nakamura vs Mustafa Ali, 15th in Poughkeepsie Kingston vs Nakamura for the big belt sounds alright. Huge 9 or 10 match cards in week 3 - 20th in Columbus (GA) its Kingston vs Samoa Joe, 21st in Pensacola Kofi vs Joe vs Randy Orton, 22nd in Estero Kingston vs Orton vs Ziggler. Finally 28th in Cape Girardeau, in a kind of symmetry, it's Kofi vs Orton vs Ziggler. THE CARDS Women's Champ is all over the fucking shop - it's Bayley vs Charlotte in Utica and Estero and Bayley vs Charlotte vs Nikki Cross in Binghamton and Columbus which are far from her only permutations this month. Repeats in New York are Aleister Black vs Randy Orton in Binghamton/Glens Falls, Finn Balor vs Andrade for the ICT in Utica/Binghamton, Chad Gable vs Buddy Murphy in both Utica and Glens Falls and Gable vs Shelton Benjamin in both Binghamton and Glens Falls where he beats both back to back, and Big E & Xavier Woods vs Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas all three nights. Mid month Aly vs Andrade is the only match that repeats. In week 3 having lost to the Kabucki Warriors non title in Glens Falls its The Iiconics vs Asuka & Kairi Sane for the belts every night (repeats in Cape Girardeau), three rounds of Big E vs Sami Zayn, Apollo Crews vs Andrade, Heavy Machinery vs B-Team and Ember Moon vs Mandy Rose - two of which go to a DQ followed by Moon & Carmella vs Mandy & Sonya Deville, plus a new ICT match of Shinsuke Nakamura vs Mustafa Ali vs Matt Hardy in Columbus and Estero. Creeping into month end, Bayley vs Charlotte vs Alexa Bliss and Nakamura vs Ali repeat in Pensacola and Cape Girardeau. VARIATIONS - MANY In Utica it's Black vs Elias, a DQ in Gable vs Murphy leads to Chad & Matt vs Murphy & Benjamin, there's Carmella vs Liv Morgan and Ali vs Zayn. In Binghamton, The Fabulous Truth of Mella and R-Truth beat Morgan & Zayn. In Glens Falls, Ali & Matt beat Authors Of Pain and Ember beats Charlotte and Morgan. In Petersburg there's Daniel Bryan & Erick Rowan vs Machinery for the tag belts, Bayley vs Cross for the womens, Moon vs Morgan, Big E & Woods vs Elias & Zayn and Asuka & Kairi vs Fire & Desire. In Poughkeepsie it's Bayley vs Ember vs Liv vs Mandy, Ali vs Murphy, Woods vs Elias, Asuka vs Billie Kay in singles, and after Crews, Gable and Matt beat Dallas and AoP, Akam & Rezar demand another match and lose to Machinery too which I imagine was the pits. In Columbus, Drew McIntyre beats Gable. In Pensacola Drew loses a streetfight to hometown hero Roman Reigns. In Estero before the B-Team lose to Machinery they lose to a reunited Shelton & Gable and Big E & Woods defend their newly won tag belts against AoP. Finally unique to Cape Giardardeau are Big E & Woods vs Machinery vs B-Team vs AoP, Black vs Andrade and Crews vs Murphy. MAIN EVENTS - RAW 6th/7th in Washington and Wilkes-Barre, 12th/13th in Augusta (ME) and Springfield (MA) it's still Seth Rollins vs Baron Corbin for the belt, sometimes a streetfight. Week 3 and 4 the streetfight goes on, now without the Universal title, 20th in Wildwood, 21st in Orlando, 27th in Oklahoma City and 28th in Springfield MO. How was Seth supposed to stay over against this chump? THE CARDS Week one, Ricochet vs AJ Styles vs Cesaro sounds awesome for the US title (repeats in Orlando after the switch), Becky Lynch vs Lacey Evans goes on first, it's The Revival vs The Usos for the tag belts with no finish followed by the Usos, Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins beating Dash, Dawson and Viking Raiders, Naomi & Natalya vs Sarah Logan & Tamina (ew) and EC3, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs Lucha House Party. Week 2 Lynch vs Evans repeats in Springfield and both nights the UST is now Ricochet vs Cesaro (repeats in Wildwood without the belt) and tag title is Revival vs former Major Brothers followed by the same 8-man. Cedric Alexander vs Robert Roode is a strange job for Bobby to be doing, there's No Way Jose vs Mojo Rawley which has Mojo then talk himself into losing to Titus O'Neil, then AGAIN to Braun Strowman (that part repeats in Wildwood). In week 3 we add EC3 vs Titus and Nattie/Naomi vs Logan & Nikki Cross, Lynch vs Evans is back on and the tag title and impromptu 8-man rolls on. Identical month end cards see Styles vs Matt Hardy for the UST, Gallows & Anderson vs Hawkins & Ryder, Strowman vs Cesaro, Drew McIntyre vs Alexander, House Party & Jose vs Rawley, Roode, EC3 and Eric Young, and continuation of Lynch vs Evans. I'm no longer sure from reading reports which show some wrestlers are supposed to be on. VARIATIONS In Augusta its Naomi & Dana Brooke vs Logan & Tamina and Lynch is off so Lacey beats Natalya. In Springfield it's Nattie vs Dana vs Naomi vs Logan with Tamina mercifully not wrestling. In Wildwood Mojo loses to Cedric before to Braun, in Orlando Alexander & Jose beat Rawley & Roode (huh??). MAIN EVENTS - NXT First three weeks they're giving back to Florida - 11th in Winter Haven it's Adam Cole vs Keith Lee for the belt, next night an almost completely different roster in Largo has Veleveteen Dream vs Roderick Strong for the NAT on last, and 13th in Citrus Springs Dream and tag champs Street Profits beat all three Forgotten Sons, Steve Cutler, Wesley Blake & Jaxson Ryker. 18th in Lakeland is weak - Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak (Dan Matha) goes on last, next night in Tampa Cole defends against Kushida, 20th in Cocoa it's again Dream vs Strong. The big guns are back down to Southern barbecue territory - 25th/26th in North Charleston and Columbia and 28th in Concord NC Cole defends against Matt Riddle, 27th in Atlanta Cole/Riddle and Strong/Dream are conflated to a tag won by the storyline good guys/real life bad men. B shows - while the real stars are in the Carolinas and Atlanta, 25th in Orlando it's again Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak, both that show and next night it's Drew Gulak vs Jordan Myles for the CWT which goes on last in Fort Pierce. THE CARDS Velveteen Dream vs Roderick Strong runs as both a main event weeks 2/3 in Florida and month end support in the Carolinas, likewise Street Profits vs Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake for the tag belts runs and runs. Tyler Breeze vs Dexter Lumis occurs in Lakeland and Cocoa. Damien Priest vs Jordan Myles repeats in Winter Haven and Tampa, Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak ("The Outliers") shows up on Cocoa's midcard as well as two main events. There are two instances in WCW country of Shayna Baszler vs Mia Yim for the Women's title, there's two nights each of Priest vs Breeze and Pete Dunne vs Cameron Grimes then Breeze vs Grimes and Priest vs Dunne, three of Bianca Belair & Karen Q vs Rhea Ripley & Reina Gonzalez and four of Killian Dain vs Mansoor (having also wrestled in Winter Haven). Other repeats see Mansoor losing to Brendan Vink (Duke Hudson ) in Largo and Tampa, Drew Gulak vs Myles for the CWT month end as noted above plus Lacey Lane vs Rachel Evers. VARIATIONS Winter Haven - Breeze vs Shane Thorne, Kacy Catanzaro & Lacey Lane vs Baszler & Marina Shafir, Karen vs Deonna Purrazzo and Lumis loses to Rik Bugez. Largo - Belair vs Rhea Ripey, Matt Riddle vs Ridge Holland, Bugez vs Angel Garza, Bronson Reed vs Thorne and Karen & Lacey vs Aliyah & Vanessa Borne. Citrus Springs - Keith Lee & Myles vs Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, Io Shirai vs Karen, Priest vs Isiah Scott, Kacy & Lacey vs MJ Jenkins & Taynara Conti. Lakeland - Here he is! Jordan Omogbehin beats (Angelo) Jeff Parker and Matt Lee (Menard) in a handicap - he's going to be Omos. Plus Priest vs Mansoor, Io vs Kacy and Karen & Jessi Kamea vs Borne & Aliyah. Tampa - Blake & Cutler beat Scott & Dio Maddin (Brennan Williams/mace), Lumis loses to Humberto Carrillo and Kacy & Lacey beat Shafir & Conti. Cocoa - Belair vs Kavita Devi, Thorne & Vink vs Parker & Lee and a four way where Mia & Karen beat Deonna & Rachael Ellering, Shafir & Conti and Borne & Aliyah. Concord - Bianca & Mia vs Rhea & Reina. Orlando - Kassius Ohno vs Cal Bloom (Von Wagner), Dominik Dijakovic vs Reed, Raul Mendoza vs Vink and Jessi & Tegan Nox vs Borne & Aliyah. Fort Pierce - Reed vs Lumis, Io vs Jessi and Scott & Maddin vs Vink & Thorne. TVs 1st Raw in Dallas has Seth & Becky beat Mike Kanellis & Maria to warm up for their mixed tag at the PPV and Rollins vs Corbin dark. Next night in San Antonio, Ali vs Murphy runs before the show and both Bayley vs Charlotte AND Kofi vs Ziggler after it. 8th Raw has Reigns and masked Gary "The GOAT" Garbutt lose to Drew & Shane McMahon (Garbutt unmasks later releaving Cedric), the haphazard booking of the Club really amplifies as Ricochet is able to beat both in back to back singles matches, and dark Lynch beats Evans then Seth beats Corbin. Next night Ali beats Murphy again and Bayley beats Charlotte again the dark matches. 14th in - topical - Philadelphia, a fair amount happens around Extreme Rules. Nakamura wins the ICT from Balor on the pre-show, The Undertaker shows up as Reigns' partner to beat Drew & Shane, New Day win the SmackDown tag belts, Kofi retains over Joe, Styles wins the US title from Ricochet, and in a double titles match (probably the weakest main for a while) Rollins & Lynch beat Evans & Corbin in the 10th match of the show... after which Brock Lesnar cashes in and crushes Seth to win back the Universal title yet again. 15th Raw is notable for The Fiend making his in-ring first appearance, attacking Balor to start the build to SummerSlam. Night later in Worcester, Heavy Machinery beat the B-Team yet again before the show and after it Reigns pins McIntyre. Two nights of NXT:UK tapings in Plymouth feature a bonus main on the Friday of Riddle & Street Profits vs Joseph Conners & Grizzled Young Veterans, and on Saturday Shayna vs Xia Brookside, Profits vs Ohno & Saxon Huxley, Riddle vs El Ligero and Dunne vs Alexander Wolfe are ALL bonuses to what's taped to air. 22nd Raw has fun cameos with Pat Patterson, Gerald Briscoe, Kelly Kelly, Candice Michelle, Alundra Blayze and Ted DiBiase Sr all winning the 24/7 title - some of those refereed by Melina - although the belt inevitably leaves the building with R-Truth. Next night its Machinery vs B-Team and Bayley vs Charlotte again bookending SmackDown. 29th Raw, apparent losers Anderson & Gallows manage to win the tag titles in a three way. Finally... I can't be arsed typing those same two dark matches for SmackDown again. But what matters most is Trish Stratus appears as a guest on The Kings Court and Charlotte challenges her to a match at SummerSlam. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Balor, obviously (Intercontinental Champion) by Nakamura, Nakamura himself (new Intercontinental Champion) by Ali, Styles (US Champion) by Kingston. They sure treated that belt like crap before Gunther, huh? DEPARTURE Rhino lets his contract expire despite, he says, an offer of renewal for better money on the table. As reasons not to go, his is one of the more charming - he doesn’t want the schedule as he’s about to open Big Daddy’s Boat Yard, which is exactly what it sounds like - a marina, in Michigan.

For those that don't recall and thus will have been "whooshed" here.... (snipped for brevity) ..... I had considerably less to say in the pit of my angst.

He never misses a big PLE these days. "Bloodline" is a 9 letter word.

Nah, I think you're being harsh on yourself if you suggest recency bias. I've been watching Manias at/around the time since Mania IX, and in terms of the stuff that I loved on the first watch, keep reflecting on and saying "that was great, that was" and know I'll go back and watch again, this was easily the most I've enjoyed one since XXX. EASILY. And when I watched XXX, I immediately considered it one of the best WrestleManias of all time. It wasn't 17 which was objectively the best ever. It wasn't 19, which was subjectively a personal favourite. But I'm considering it a strong contender for best of the rest.

It definitely wouldn’t have, although there’s a case that arrogance being his undoing could have been a catalyst for a split/the rest kicking him out/turning him babyface. Many a baddie has fucked themselves by throwing a well-planned-out, umm, plan out the window right at the key moment. Might have been a good excuse to Starscream him. As it is…. well, the new champion dropped a fall to “The Final Boss” on Saturday night. Probably reason enough for him to supplant his fake cousin if that’s the route they want to go down.

Totally off on a tangent, but a real attention-to-detail bit I loved was the cherry blossom scattering during the Damage CTRL entrance on Night 1. Peak for cherry blossom/Sakura in Japan is early April and it's very symbolic of life, death and rebirth - New Japan call their big April show(s) "Sakura Genesis" for this reason and it was a nice little production effect.

Yes. They didn't put the belt on Cody at Mania 39 because the plan hadn't been for the match to happen at all, so they didn't plan for Cody to win it. They had planned for Rock vs Reigns because Rocky had turned it down for 38, because he wanted to do it in "LA/Hollywood" at 39 instead. They had to change to Reigns vs A. N. Other when Rock told them he wasn't going to be ready in time. The wait certainly did a lot for us in terms of what the two-nighter and build up with Rock involved has given us, but in terms of for Cody, he gets to say he won the belt at Mania XL rather than just "at WrestleMania" - in other words a serious landmark show which will be considered arguably the biggest Mania of all time* until Mania L comes around. * I mean, it's wrong, it's clearly Mania 17. But that's what they'll say.

They can fuck off, can't they? The right story being scrapped because it was "too obvious" is something Vince believed in and that those same people used to complain about. Was it predictable that Cody, Bayley, Sami, Awesome Truth and to my mind Ripley were going to win? Yes. Did that affect my investment and enjoyment of those matches? No. I think it's rather ... after so many boring defences ending with predictable interference from his hired goons. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Maybe I'm just glad it's over? Whatever people want to say about Reigns' determination, spirit, character, performances, that he's a lovely bloke in real life, it's been incredibly boring him holding the title for so long. About the only positive I can find is that they waited for the right guy to come round to beat him.

I wouldn't have given a shit, I don't think, if he'd taken Rollins' stomp, an AA and a Tombstone as long as they all cleared out so he could do Crossrhodes and bring it home. Might have even been poetic for Reigns to finally get what he had coming to him. It's one of those quirks of the notion of "the clean win" - in a no DQ match, if both sides are cheating, nobody's really cheating. I don't think anybody whined too much that Mankind won his first WWF title as a direct consequence of Steve Austin belting Rocky with a chair - because there had been a tonne of Corporation interference already. If everyone has their mates piling on, it's all fine. Having said that... bollocks, you're right. Roman was still in the ascendancy until Cody stood up and put him down in the "reset to 0-0" fair fight, and it was beautiful. True fan service, as a lot of the last 6 months have been. I think that was more fan service. He may be booked as a babyface - unless he's speaking to CM Punk at the time - but I think they know quite a lot of people think he's a wally and would find that funny.

I was relieved that it was Rollins to run in on Reigns which at least made sense, as opposed to some of the fanfiction I was reading where Rollins was going to turn on Night 1 and maybe Steve Austin would turn up on Night 2, leading to a confusing Mania 31 style situation of Cody & Attitude Era vs Bloodline/Shield stand off... even though Rock could belong on either side, like poor old X-Pac not knowing who he was meant to be kicking.

This better mean one last Rock vs Cena is on the cards. Imagine the hype!! Imagine the video wall!! Imagine the video game stuff they could post to their socials!! Fuck, wrestling is best when it isn't wrestling, it really is.

A final random couple of historical notes for dorks like me who appreciate this kind of thing - while a couple of men (Edge and Punk) have twice successfully cashed in the briefcase before, in losing the Silver Medal to Priest, to my memory this makes Drew the first man since to be cashed-in on succesfully twice since.... Rollins, in 16 by Ambrose and 19 by Lesnar. Who'd followed Cena in 2006 against Edge and later against RVD - of course, Cena would later be unsuccessfully cashed in on too, by Sandow. At first though, I considered if this made Seth the most "involved" wrestler in briefcase history, having cashed in on Lesnar, been cashed in on twice and now been the recently defeated champion when Drew fell victim. Until I remembered that as well as cashing in twice and losing a title by cash in as well, Edge was the catalyst for both Cena losing to RVD AND Y2J losing to Swagger. And without thinking about it too much, Cena's up there too - he lost two titles by cash in, turned back Sandow, cost Corbin his cash in, and lost his "called up front" cash in against Punk at Raw 1000. So it probably is Big Match John. And finally.... in lifting the big one, Cody adds his name to the list of WWE Champions that won their first at a Mania, after Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, Yokozuna, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, our man Cena, Rollins, Kofi Kingston and Drew. Plus, he becomes the latest man to complete the original/true Triple Crown (original titles only, no UST/WHC etc bastard titles), adding his name to a pantheon of legendary names. Although interestingly enough... Cena isn't one, having never been the Intercontinental Champion. If interested - neither did Mick Foley, Batista or Lesnar win the ICT, and Kurt Angle didn't complete the true Triple Crown either, winning the SmackDown tag belts but never the original/Raw/"World" tag team title.

Revisiting some of the entrances and finishes... is it my imagination or was that the loudest a stadium crowd has sounded for a Mania in... well, in recent memory?

Totally got confused with Yoshiko for a moment, which baffled me (is she still cancelled?). I can't see Danielson replicating the Infinity Destroyer, but I imagine he could manage a pretty mind-boggling Cattle Mutilation variant on Yoshihiko.

Torrent? I haven’t torrented anything since I found out there are easier ways to Watch the Wrestling.

Mania spoiler :

Totes emosh. And who knew, John Cena was the hero we needed all along? Poetry! Finally, massive thanks to the efforts of everyone involved in crowning Cody so I never again have to read a shite tweet about the potential for Roman to (not really) break Hogans (not real) record.

I never took to Chimel. Probably because during the first peak he seemed to be doing B town tapings when Fink was still in Boston/Chicago and Mike McGuirk wasn’t available, and during the second he did Raw whenever Fink was off, so he always seemed “second string” to me. Plus, I hold “Rated R Suuuuuperstar” responsible for the Justin Roberts School of Over-pronouncing Everything. I’m not sure I’ve actually liked a ring announcer since it was Fink on one channel, Penzer on the other. Well, Joanna Rose aside.

I’d love it to have started life as a work, and Punk to have “got fired” to make it “seem real” and head to WWE as part of his master plan, like Pillman in 96.

I have a suspicion the draft will sort this out and unless they waste time with Cargill/Belair going after that tag belts first, one of them will be knocking on Ripleys door. A bigger problem for me will be getting a new baddie for Bayley. When’s Charlotte back…?

Yes, I managed for forget about DM Hunk, if you can imagine that!! Still, I don’t think the two title matches will stand up to the big tag and three momentous title matches, the rest is a bit filler.

No chance. It’s a two match night.

Yes. It happened a lot during the Monday Night War.