Project Nim

Worth bearing in mind this isn’t the usual Mania audience; none of the “international fans” who react differently than Vince wants them to 

Rewatching Wrestlemania 8 as the final stop on my nostalgia tour before I exit the network after next weeks Mania.

Vince had swapped from a stadium to a arena show the previous Mania due to poor ticket sales. What gave him the confidence to run a stadium show for 8? Was it the introduction of Flair?

I hadn’t been interested in the QT Marshall and Cody storyline however I thought the angle in this weeks show was well done.

Didn’t take long for The Pinnacle to be made to look like jobbers. 

Apologies if it’s been done before. What are the awful matches you’ve seen in an otherwise superb event?

Currently rewatching Rumble 92 with its legendary main event however there is a match between Bushwhackers and the Beverly Brothers that is a permanent stall. It goes on and on and on. Plus Jameson. 

This is probably old age and my eyes going but does Matt Sydal have a look of Dolph Ziggler? Why would Excalibur point out that someone kicked out of the “one winged angel” outside of AEW? Shouldn’t the whole point be to build up that move to such a point that when Hangman kicks out of it; it’s as massive moment as possible. 

You could just tell Schiavone gave JR a huge shit eating grin when he said “the d-d-tay for the three conti”

I see Apollo Crews has done a reverse Kofi Kingston with his accent. 

A lot of the backstage skits are just plain awful. 

That Orton-Bliss thing was dreadful. However, it is superb to have The Yeti back in wrestling. 

Bryan genuinely looked like he was having a whale of a time in the main event. They’ve got to add him for Mania haven’t they?

As part of my farewell to the WWE network tour I’m watching some of my favourite events each Saturday night until I get shut after Mania.

Rewatching Summerslam 92 the first live show I attended and I’ve never noticed until tonight that when Perfect and Flair come to ringside during the World Title match one fan gives an exuberant “Nescafé handshake” towards Perfect. 

Jim Ross’ one word attempt at an Irish accent gave me diabetes. 

Spears just does not belong in that group. 

“How much times” oh Darby that’s unacceptable. What was Jake talking about?

Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa worked bloody hard didn’t they? Hope both of them were ok afterwards it was brutal. Fucking hell that power bomb and thunder driver looked stiff.

Felt Kingston and Mox did the best they could considering. They’re better leaving it at that now though.

Ben should have translated; “Penta thinks you’re a right wanker”

Nobody gets to do a full promo without getting interrupted do they?

JR seems to have trouble recognising names for people now and you could tell he despised that 6 woman tag match, I wasn’t fond of some of it myself.

Good show closing angle.

3 hours ago, Carbomb said:

And special enforcer Nick Gage

Ring announcer Paige

My thoughts -

Superb tag team battle royal and Felix’s elimination of Christopher Daniels deserved more spotlight.

I know it was to rest his voice but JRs silence during the bulk of the women’s title match had me thinking did he tuck a newspaper under his arm mute his mike and say “right lads, off for a dump”.

The ending of Page v Hardy was fun. Thought Archer waiting whilst sandwiched in the ladder couldn’t have been more obvious.

Re the surprise new signing, met him at FTLOW in Liverpool in 2019 and he’s a lovely, lovely man so all the best to him.

”Get to the ring already, enough” I hear you Taz. 
Enjoy your paternity leave Mox, Kingston’s appearance would have been so much more emotional had the final explosions not had the shock and awe of some sparklers. What a wet fart that was.

In general, felt like several issues were advanced during the show rather than most WWE PPVs which appear to be in a perpetual holding pattern.

The Big E 24 episode is superb; give that man the world title sooner rather than later.

I know this is stating the bleeding obvious seeing as he played basketball but Shaq is massive.

Noticed the ref having to give Cargill a nudge to get in position to get a spear.

The line about Jericho “jerking the curtain at the Performance Centre” is very counter productive in my view; he’s positioned as a top star on AEW but that line infers he would be nothing in WWE at the moment. 

Excalibur channeling 90s Vince with his “UN-BE-LIEV-A-BLE” 

First things first, it lifts the spirits when you put this on and you see a nice short runtime. There’s nothing worse than selecting the event and it saying it’s the best part of four hours or longer. 

Baron Corbin is so similar to Aaron from the paranormal investigators team who recently spent a week in the Cecil Hotel on Discovery Plus that it was nice to see him not being terrified by the ghost of the Night Stalker. I was waiting for Brock to come out at the end; can’t say who did come out filled me with anticipation for Drew’s match at Mania. Urgh Miz.

I can honestly say I don’t think anything on this event stood out for me. It’s not them though it’s me. I’m getting shut of the network after Wrestlemania; I just don’t find it enjoyable anymore. I’m doing a nostalgia run of my favourite events before it goes and that’s been great.

“A week of stupid decisions” little dig at the Impact-Sammy kerfuffle from Jericho?

Enjoyed the closing section of Deeb v Riho.

I don’t know why but Shaq slowly nodding at the camera during the training montage made me laugh.

What the hell was that kindergarten thing? Surprised they cleared the filming of that during a pandemic.

Papa Buck keen for the camera to get off him so he could get back to his phone.

What did Jake Hager say to be muted on ITV?

I was praying for Schiavone to scream “his horns have grown back” for Luchasaurus. 

Liked the mellow opening rap a nice change of pace from the usual nu-metal dustbin banging themes they usually have.

Ref in the women’s Dusty Rhodes final was a bit clueless; both members of team made the pin?

Don’t watch the weekly show anymore so haven’t seen Kushida in a while; has he bulked up a bit?

Can’t believe one of the last live wrestling events I was at was front row at a small venue in Maghull to see GYV, glad they’re doing so well over there.

Balor v Dunne was good; assuming when restrictions allow they will get Tyler Bate over there.

Didn’t want to see that ending though, big fan of the Era.

4 hours ago, Liam O'Rourke said:

I actually liked it - I didn't catch it the first time, but it was just a way to get Hardy looking away while Hangman switched the contract on him. In an attempt to be clever, Matt fucked himself.

Liam I’ll hold my hands up here I missed the switch; in my defence I’m getting older and my eyes are woeful 🙂

Whilst I’m here have loved your recent deep dives on 91 WWE, I started watching shortly before Summerslam of that year so it’s bringing back great memories with the usual deep insight you provide so thank you

Entertaining enough episode and my fast forward button remained untouched. Do I know Cesar Bononi from CWC or NXT or both?

Loved MJFs sly smirk as Sammy quit the Inner Circle; as Sammy left the stadium the childish part of me wanted the turnstiles to be locked so he would just have to sadly stand there. 

Could have done without Matt Hardy’s stage whisper to the camera. 
Loved the ref having to hold the tables during the Mox-Kenta kitchen fight. Archer was impressive. 
 

5 hours ago, Chili said:

Cool. What did you like? 

Baltimora.

Jungle Boy is great and when crowds are back I can only see him getting more and more popular. 

Fenix is an incredible athlete. 
 

That wedding was fucking shit. Also found myself annoyed by Play Ojo in every ITV advert break and Excalibur. 
What was Tully going to do to Marko Stunt? 
Oh great, Janela is back. 

Just listening to Tony Khan on Talk is Jericho I hope Chris will be able to safely retrieve his tongue 

1 hour ago, WyattSheepMask said:

He didn’t even get the accolade of being his former tag team partner, Cole goes “here comes his former buddy”. There supposed to be brothers arn’t they? And if he’s his “former buddy”, that implies he’s his buddy no more, how is that supposed to help Edge? If Ray Rougeau’s still doing the French commentary, I’m listening to that next time.

Read that too quickly and thought it said  “If Ray French is still doing the commentary” and I would be all in for that 

My Rumble thoughts - 

Heard a backstage interviewer refer to someone as pesky. Who talks like that other than the villain in Scooby Doo?

That new camera definition looks like a video game.

Did I imagine that if you didn’t get into the rumble before the next entrant you were out? In kayfabe if that’s not a rule what’s the point in getting into the ring? You could have a cracking rumble one year with everybody refusing to get in the ring; all sat round having a brew and a pie. And I still think it’s bollocks you can be eliminated by someone who isn’t in the match.

Some of kings commentary was a bit dated shall we say.

They totally missed Bayleys elimination. Why was Charlotte laughing after being eliminated?

I’m sure Corey called Cole “Vince” during the Last Man Standing match.

Pissed myself laughing when the ref had to stop the count when Heyman was fumbling with the key to the handcuffs.

Shame we can’t have crowds safely yet as I reckon Zigglers entrance would have received a massive collective groan. 

Enjoyed the Riddle-Rollins interaction brief as it was.

Enjoyed the ending; I’d actually forgot about Orton at that point. 

My thoughts - the bump Kingston took would possibly have been a major angle not so long ago, now it’s a mid match move in a TV match. Be careful fellas. 
The Cody segment started with a sleepy Shaq and continued to slalom downhill from there. 
The Kip/Miro thing is WWE shit. 
Thought the Jungle Boy-Dax match was great, anyone have any concerns how FTR are being booked though? 
I know I have a weekly moan about the things I don’t like on Dynamite on this thread but that’s because I am old and I still find it an easier watch than WWE.