Kam

WOW...talk about a blast from the past! :eek: Hope you are keeping well! I remember catching some of WCW which I think used to air late night on ITV. Once Nitro got going they aired it on TNT over here, so I watched that every week. I never watched any of the PPVs though as they never showed them over here. I've got the WWE Network but I've never really felt like watching the PPVs now, I think I'll find it pretty depressing compared to these days.

Oops - I edited my post - ECW ended a LONG time ago! I meant AEW :oops2:

I think he'll be good for AEW...although I see him more similar to MJF character wise. Speaking of the WWE layoffs, I'd like to see Rusev show up too.

I like Taker and the deadman gimmick, he's had some great matches but his age has been showing more and more. Night #2 thoughts... ‪NXT Women’s Championship Rhea Ripley vs Charlotte Flair ‬ Charlotte ended Asuka's undefeated streak by making her tap out at WrestleMania and she never really recovered from it (maybe this year?). I hope Rhea doesn't end up in the same boat. Hopefully the plan is for them to do a rematch (when they can do normal shows again) and Rhea picks up her win then. The match was OK, I was a little disappointed with Charlotte making her tap. ‪Aleister Black vs Bobby Lashley ‬ It was alright, I wasn't that fussed about it. Dolph Ziggler vs Otis ‬ Match was OK for what it was. We've seen so many of these angles in the past where they have one of the divas fall for someone unexpected, I can't ever remember liking them. Although I had a look at WWE's Youtube channel and the most-watched clip from WrestleMania is the Otis/Mandy one with 1.3 million views (as of now). The majority of WrestleMania clips have under 500k views - so people are obviously interested. RAW Tag-Team Championships The Street Profits vs Angel Garza & Austin Theory This was ok, it felt more like a Raw match. A nice moment with Bianca running in but I was surprised they didn't mention that Ford was her husband. I guess that means this is just a one-off as I can't see her coming up to Raw yet. I'd like to see her have a run with the NXT Women's title first. ‪Last Man Standing Match Edge vs Randy Orton ‬ I liked what they did with this match but I thought it went on too long. It was almost 40 mins. It would have been better if they shortened it. There were so many moments where I thought it was about to finish but then it carried on..and on...and on. SmackDown Women’s Championship Fatal 5-Way Elimination Match Bayley vs Lacey Evans vs Sasha Banks vs Tamina vs Naomi ‬ For a moment I thought they were going to make Lacey win which would have been terrible. She's still not shown me anything that makes her a worthy titleholder. Nice little tease with Sasha and Baley but the right person won. ‪Firefly Fun House Match John Cena vs The Fiend Bray Wyatt I really enjoyed this, it was totally bonkers. It's not something I'd like to see all the time but as a one-off it was fun. WWE Championship Brock Lesnar vs Drew McIntyre ‬ This seemed just like the Universal title match with them just delivering finisher after finisher. There's not really much else to say about it as it was so short. When you look at the amount of time given to both the men's title matches (across both nights), it's less than 10 minutes combined in a 6.5 hour show! Overall, WrestleMania was okay, I had low expectations and they had a few good moments but it just didn't feel like WrestleMania without the crowd or the staging/entrances etc. ‬

There would have been some commitments with sponsors but ultimately it would have been Vince's decision. Every other major sporting event has been cancelled, WrestleMania is the only one I'm aware of that went ahead. I'm sure everyone would have understood if the event was postponed to later in the year. I think it's probably more likely Vince thinking he might be able to get more people watching/paying for it as nothing else is on. It will be interesting to see how the buyrate does, it was about $59.99 on PPV (for both nights), I wonder how many people actually paid. I'm sure most fans would have watched via the WWE Network ($9.99) but I think they might have got some casual fans to watch. We get it live but most people would probably watch it the following morning as it beings around midnight here (for each night). My thoughts on Night #1: I was disappointed with the set. I know they were limited with space but I thought they'd try and do something special to make it stand out more, especially the stage area. The song by The Weekend (Blinding Lights) really grew on me during the show - I love the 80s inspired part that they used when the graphics appeared before each match. You could tell everyone was told to be more vocal to try and add some noise to the event :) ‪Women’s Tag-Team Championship Match Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross vs The Kabuki Warriors ‬ Match was okay, Nikki looked good. Asuka was very loud :) I still find the team of Nikki and Alexa odd, they don't seem to fit, for me anyway. Elias vs Baron Corbin ‬ I was surprised they didn't show Rob/Mojo during the match considering their connection to it. I thought at the every least they'd show Rob/Mojo celebrating when Corbin lost. Okay match. ‪RAW Women’s Championship Becky Lynch vs Shayna Baszler I was a little disappointed by this one, I was hoping for something more, was okay. I think if this went ahead in the stadium with a crowd, Shayna would have won. ‪Intercontinental Championship Sami Zayn vs Daniel Bryan ‬ Pretty much went how I expected. SmackDown Tag-Team Championships Triple Threat Ladder Match John Morrison vs. Jimmy Uso vs. Kofi Kingston This was good, although it makes it so noticeable there is no crowd when they did some of their big spots.I quite liked the finish with them all grabbing the titles and Morrison falling off with them. (I know we've seen similar stuff before). Seth Rollins vs Kevin Owens ‬ I liked Seth's outfit :) This was good, nice spot from Kevin at the end. WWE Universal Championship Goldberg vs Braun Strowman We all knew this would be quick, was fine for what it was. ‪Boneyard Match The Undertaker vs AJ Styles ‬ I was surprised by this match. I quite enjoyed it, despite the cheesy moments. I liked the entrances, use of music and pyro. Match seemed good, it's the best Undertaker has looked in AGES. There were quite a few moments that had me smiling (like when AJ was about to bury Taker). I thought we might see Michelle back considering they've mentioned her so much. I was even thinking she might have another run (after Mania) to go for one of the women's titles. Overall, it was okay. I would have preferred it if they tried to make some of earlier matches more special, it felt like it was only the main event and Rollins/Owens that had anything special to them. It was alright.

@Knox - I amended your post to include the poster/scheduled matches, we might as well make this the official discussion thread :) I know some of the matches have changed but I've left it to how WWE have it announced at the moment. This feels so surreal for me. I cannot believe we're going to get WrestleMania with no crowd, I just can't see it feeling special at all. I would have preferred it if they delayed it. They could have set something up in the storyline to say, all WrestleMania opponents had to stay away from each other until the event was rescheduled. In the meantime, they could have run some alternative feuds for a month or two. Rather than looking forward to the event I'm kinda dreading it. I hope I'm wrong and they put something great together but I can't see it happening.

I thought it was another good episode. I hadn't seen the trailer so was surprised to see a battle. In the past, they'd tend to hype it up over lots of episodes before we finally got to it. Since the mid-season break it's nice to see them speed up the pace. I'm enjoying the show again. I feel like Negan's plan was to infiltrate The Whisperers however it will probably be harder than he anticipated. I'm intrigued to see if Alpha might test his loyalty by asking him to kill one of the Hilltop community. I'm expecting him to turn on Alpha and co...I just don't know how long we're going to have to wait before that happens. I hope the Stephanie/Eugene plot doesn't end up in a scenario where things seem too good to be true - we've had that SO many times before!

I noticed Amell too but thought it can't have been him since he wasn't mentioned at all. Glad to see you enjoyed it as much as I did!

I watched Revolution - I thought it was excellent! Jake Hager / Dustin Rhodes - Good opener, did what it needed to do Darby Allin / Sammy Guevara - How over is Darby?! He's got a great look/presence, some nice moments in this one. I'm glad Darby one but I'd like to see Sammy pick up some more wins. Good match. Kenny Omega and Adam Page / The Young Bucks - Great match, my favourite from the night, I didn't have any idea who would win or if any of them would turn on each other, really enjoyed it. Nyla Rose / Kris Statlander - This was my least favourite match of the night, it was alright but nothing stood out for me. MJF / Cody - This was good, I was hoping for something a little bit more but I still enjoyed it. Pac / Orange Cassidy - This one surpassed expectations, really enjoyed it, was a fun match where both men came out looking good. Jon Moxley / Chris Jericho - Loved Jericho's choir! This was good too, I thought Jericho would retain but I'm OK with Moxley taking the title too. Overall, a fun show (helped by a very vocal crowd) with some great matches!

It wasn't a great episode last week, the one segment I had to mention is THE BLADE...AND THE BUTCHER...AND THE BUNNY! I was seriously thinking I must have missed something with Excalibur constantly repeating their names as if we're meant to know who they are. I'm glad Ross asked that question because I thought I'd missed something somwhere :p They had a good look, it's a shame their introduction wasn't better thought out. I'm not sure about attacking Cody either. If it's because Allie has a beef with Brandi, it's a weak link. I guess it could lead to Cody teaming with Dustin but that wouldn't be great for BBB as I can't see them beating the Rhodes Bros.

Some random notes from this week's show: I laughed at the thought of Seth telling the roster to be better when he's not even the champ :) Matt Hardy looked great in the retro attire. I worry for Murphy, I'm not sure why they're giving him to Black rather than someone else. Murphy deserves a decent push but it doesn't look like he's going to get it. I can't see anything other than Black beating him. The 4-way match was good and Rey was awesome once again. I wasn't expecting him to win the title so that was a nice surprise. Charlotte/Asuka felt like it went on forever, it was alright but I hate that it took Sane's interference and the mist for Asuka to defeat her. I know she's a heel...but I still get annoyed seeing Asuka's downfall since the NXT reign. The current run with Sane has so much potential, I hope WWE can get behind it. So...AOP to be Seth's new backup?

I haven't seen much NXT lately but caught Takeover... I thought the women's war games match was excellent. Everyone looked great in it, some really cool moments, the crowd was totally invested. Kai's heel turn was fantastic, she went absolutely nuts and the crowd reaction couldn't have been better. This was my favourite match of the night. The triple threat was OK, I expected Dunn to win, so no real surprise. Riddle/Balor was good. The men's wargames match was great too, but I did prefer the women's match more. The crowd was hot all night, shame we didn't get that same atmosphere at Survivor Series.

This was the first week of Dynamite where I thought it was just OK. It started off great with Fenix/Nick Jackson, I had high expectations and it delivered. Glad Fenix won too. The women's match was OK. I didn't like the Dynamite Dozen Battle Royal. Lots of good talent in there but Billy Gunn looked bigger than all of them. I'm not sure why he was made to look so strong too, they really should be pushing their own talent more. MJF/Page should be good next week, although I thought it was strange not having the match on the same night. I can't imagine the fans were happy that they didn't actually get a winner on the night. I LOVED Jericho's walk from the back to the ring, some nice moments there. I didn't think the in-ring promo was as good as some of his previous work. I didn't like the whole SCU baiting Jericho for a title shot, it was so obvious, it just made Jericho look silly making it a title match. P&P/Private Party was alright. Moxley/Allin had its moments but nothing really stood out to end the night for me. They've had some great finishes over the past few weeks but this episode felt a little more subdued than most.

@Zack T - Did you watch Full Gear? If yes, what did you make of it?

Really enjoyed Dynamite this week: - The opener was just right, nice promo from Moxley after the match too. - As soon as Dark Order /Jurassic Express started I was thinking we might see the Dark Order win with a beatdown to follow, causing a Luchasaurus save. I was right (for once) - massive pop for Lunchasaurus, great moment! Darby Allin is OVER! Nyla Rose is finally back, they need to build her up more. Kong looked good, I liked the new entrance spot/lighting. MJF / Jericho was awesome - crowd was red hot for it too. I hope MJF doesn't join The Inner Circle but still has some involvement/connection with them. I'm assuming Wardlow is MJF's new muscle. PAC/Page was good, PAC getting the win was as expected. Nice brawl at the back with the Bucks and P&P...great pop for Orange Cassidy too :) Good main event, I was surprised with Jericho taking the pin but with the amount they're pushing Sky it's not that much of a shock. I guess he'll get a title match at some point not too far away. Overall, an enjoyable episode again.

Moxley did hardcore type matches in CZW prior to joining WWE...it looks like he's returned to that character rather than what you saw in WWE. Speaking of Moxley...FULL GEAR! I can't say I was that impressed. Baker/Priestly was fine for the pre-show. I like seeing Kong looking dominant, not so sure about the gold outfit though :P I'm glad they've stepped back on pushing Brandi as a wrestler and focusing more on pushing her as Kong's manager. The opening video was awesome and I liked the stage layout. I didn't like how they kept most of the audience in the dark with just the ringside area lit, it made it feel like not many people were there. I know we did get some pan out camera shots but most of the time it was just who you saw at ringside. Speaking of the crowd, I think this has to be the quietest one I've heard in AEW which didn't help the atmosphere. The tag match with the Young Bucks/P&P was alright, I was hoping for better. I didn't like Nick's leg injury angle...they (commentators) kept pushing it but he still had flurries of jumping all over the place. I know we see stuff like this quite often in wrestling but it seemed to bug me more here. I think it went on a little too long. I did like the involvement of the Rock & Roll Express at the end :) Page/Pac was OK again, some nice spots but it didn't really grab me like I was hoping. I'm surprised Pac lost but I guess Page needed the win also. Spears/Janella was OK. I was confused by the Kip Sabin interview. I thought he was going to bring out Evans and Angelico as a new faction but we get Penelope Ford instead. Tag title match was good, shorter than I expected, all 3 teams had some nice spots. I liked the Fallen Angel reveal at the end too. Riho/Sakura was OK, pretty much what I expected. Jericho/Cody was good although I feel it went too long. I wasn't expecting the MJF turn quite like we saw, I thought they may drag out the towel incident over the new few Dynamites before he snapped. Either way, it finally happened like we all knew it would. Glad Jericho retained. I think I mentioned before that I'm not a big fan of the ultra-hardcore matches (like deathmatches etc)...so I wasn't really looking forward to this. There were quite a few spots where I had to wince (looked like quite a few in the audience were with me there!) - with the barbwire, glass, screwdriver etc - It felt like it lasted forever. I bet both of them are really feeling that today! Moxley winning was as expected...I'm assuming Omega may blame Page/Bucks for not bringing out the barbwire table sooner. Overall, it was OK.

Good episode this week... The crowd was red hot for the opener. I was expecting this to be a shorter match with Pac getting the win easily but I really enjoyed it. Was that a bodge at the end as it looked like Pac was meant to win with the Black Arrow. Cody's promo was great, just want he needed to do/show. I still can't see Cody winning at Full Gear. I think he'll lose but somewhere down the line he'll get a chance at the title again. Jericho's video was great...I had a little mark out moment when I saw Virgil! Tag match with Private Party and Dark Order was OK...I was expecting PP to win, so no surprises here. Women's tag match was OK. I don't get why Sakura gets a title shot, had she won a match before this one in AEW? I thought wins mattered? I can't see the fans caring about the match at Full Gear. They really need a big moment for the women as they've not had one since Dynamite started. Shawn Spears / Cutler was fine. Main event was good and the brawl to end the show was EXCELLENT! I'm looking forward to Full Gear, so they've done their job! Fav moment of the night:

I was interested going into the show this week with the news that most of the roster was still stuck in Saudi Arabia. So...Brock just quits and goes to Raw. I guess that's one way to move a champion over :P I assumed Fox would have wanted Lesnar to stick with Smackdown due to his name recognition, I guess not. How lucky was it that just after the Survivor Series announcement about NXT taking part...they have a show where they need talent that didn't go over to SA. It was a safe bet that they'd use the NXT stars in some form, kudos to WWE for pushing them as much as they did. Baszler looked awesome taking out everyone. I think I asked this before, but what has Sami done to piss someone off. He's becoming a joke. I never realised how small Ciampa was, he looked tiny standing next to Miz. I don't think that will do him any favours if he ends on the main roster. Nice win for him there. I found Bianca's beatdown hilarious, but that was down to Carmella's selling. It looked like she was just sitting there watching Bianca take out Dana :D Great main event and nice to see Cole winning clean. Overall a good show and a great way to build some hype for the Survivor Series PPV. My only real negative was that the crowd seemed to be very quiet for a lot of surprises/action which didn't make them as impactful as they could have been.

That was a change of pace this week! I liked Shivonne meeting Cody by the Jet and that interview on the way to the arena, something different! Decent opener with the right winner, crowd seemed to enjoy it. Shida/Shanna was OK, better than some of the matches we've seen before. However, none of the ladies are really grabbing my attention like some of the tag-teams/men on the roster. I'm not sure about that Brandi vignette, it looks like she was doing some black magic against the ladies in AEW. I don't think she should be given so much attention until she can back it up in the ring, she's got a long way to go yet. The Rock & Roll Express segment was short and sweet. The crowd seemed to be genuinely shocked. Best Friends and OC seemed to be OVER! Nice little throwaway match. I quite liked having the contract signing on the stage rather than in the ring, it makes sense. Jericho is awesome and the crowd rooting for Cody was great too. Then to top it off, Dustin's beatdown - I loved it. No idea what was going on during Omega's entrance. I've since heard it's something to do with an old video game. I can't imagine many fans who aren't familiar with Omega would have got the references. I LOVED the 6-man match, lots of great spots, everyone looked good. Santana and Ortiz strike again :deviltail: Moxley promo was intense! I was hoping The Lucha Brothers would win, but I'm fine with either team. The match was good but it didn't really draw me in like some of the past tag-team matches in AEW. I wasn't expecting the roll-up finish but I guess it sets them up for a PPV rematch. I was totally expecting Lucha Brothers to attack SCU after the match so was a little surprised for that not to happen :) Overall, I don't think this was as strong match quality wise as some of the past shows but it did make up for it in some entertaining segments.

I'm definitely liking Drew more on Raw than I did in NXT. As you've said I'm surprised they've not pushed him as much as I thought they would.

I was thinking that it was an inside job at Alexandria, some of those that want him dead have taken him as they think its the only way to get it done. I don't expect them to go through with it though. In the closing moments of the episode, it seemed to focus on a building, he could be there. Or they could have just been highlighting the sound of the walkers behind the fence...

I actually quite enjoyed it this week. Nice start with Paige...now that the Kabuki Warriors are heels it makes sense to ditch Paige. I love the new attire by Kairi - much better than the pirate stuff. They just need to update the mashup music, I hate Kairi's one, it doesn't seem to gel well with Asuka's. The match was good, finally Asuka and Kairi seem to be getting some momentum again. I noticed that too! When Dio started talking about Ninjit...I thought it must have been one of the others who said they didn't know where the mist comes from :lol: YAY! Buddy Murphy :love: I thought putting him against R-Truth was a good idea, although I don't think he got to show much of what he's capable of. Murphy's match with Daniel Bryan on Smackdown was great...he needs something like that again and then given the opportunity to build on it. The crowd didn't seem that interested in them, they were more vocal later on but as you said, this was just silly. Ricochet/McIntyre was good, loved the ending with Orton too. I'm surprised they didn't give The IIconics any mic time. I liked what they did with Humberto Carrillo last week...I don't see why they needed to do the same thing again this week. I thought he'd face someone he'd actually defeat :) Last week Owens made the save, this week it was The Street Profits. I don't think there was any mention of Owens. When did Lana lose her accent? I think that's the first time I can remember her talking normally...rather than using that fake Russian accent. As much as I don't like the feud, the crowd did seem to be enjoying it, especially that brawl at the end.

Another decent show! I've been looking forward to Private Party/Lucha Bros - it was a good match, maybe a little too many flips/dives but everyone looked good here. I fully expected SCU to go over, they seem to be building a nice following from the crowd. The Dark Order seems to be struggling to connect with the fans, I like Grayson, not too sure about Evil Uno. Omega/Janella was good. That Cody/Jericho faction brawl was FANTASTIC. I'm surprised that didn't finish the show. Although it was a little disappointing to see the number of empty seats when the camera panned around. I was surprised to see another tag match considering we already had 2 taking up the start of the show. TYB looked great though. Wasn't that keen on the womens match. PAC/Moxley was what you'd expect, I wasn't expecting a winner as I thought they'd put this on Full Gear. As much as I enjoyed the show...I do have a criticism. Having match after match (albeit good matches) without things to break them up more (backstage interviews/vignettes/confrontations) is too much. I think it could be a good way of getting to know the wrestlers more and enhance their characters which could be useful for any casual fans who dip in to AEW.

Pretty meh Raw again. It started off good, McIntyre/Ricochet had a decent match. I'm not that fussed with Rusev/Lashley. It seemed like most of the crowd had the same reaction as me during the Velasquez/Benjamin segment :sleep: Humberto Carrillo had a great night - he did well considering this would have been the first time many of the fans would have seen him. My only concern is that he'll be treated the same way as Murphy/Ali (moreso Murphy) where they might have moments to shine but they could be squashed the next week. The Street Profits looked like a big deal...considering how dead the crowd was during most of the show, credit to them for waking them up. Nice touch being the main event also. However, my fav thing from the night was when I saw this on Twitter :D https://twitter.com/username/status/1186745240931262467

Really enjoyed the show this week, it felt like they really stacked the show. Tag opener was good. Are Best Friends meant to be faces? I thought they were but then we saw Chuck Taylor biting Scorpio's foot. Gutted we didn't get to see Luchasaurus, I thought it may end up as a squash match but was surprised to see Marco and Jack get so much offense in. There was some nice humour in it too. Lucha Brothers are on another level, I hope they win the tournament. Women's match was good, it's the best I've seen of Riho in AEW but Britt still hasn't impressed me as much as others on the roster. The tag match with PAC/Moxley vs Page/Omega was excellent. Darby impressed in the main event, some really cool moments considering he has his hands tied behind his back. I liked the post-match celebration too, I think that's the first time I've seen Hager smile in AEW :)