Impressions on Wrestling

The dust has settled on Battleground.  Starting tomorrow, we enter a "New Era" in the WWE with the brand extension in full effect.  The show was very entertaining from top to bottom, and did a good job at setting up stars for this new era. This show had very few low points and held interest for over 3 hours, and that includes the Kickoff show.  They started setting a good foundation for the new era with Breezango beating the Usos on the Battleground Kickoff show. This sets them up nicely as a meaningful team in the Smackdown tag division. Bayley and Sasha celebrate The main card started off with a bang. We got the first appearance of Bayley on a WWE main roster card.  This was billed as a one night rental for Sasha Banks.  This may be an extremely smart move to introduce her, let her finish her NXT run, then bring her on after Summerslam.  Bayley received an enormous pop from the Washington D.C. crowd, and all the ladies gave a good performance...

The WWE Draft is done. The landscape has been set for the new "war" in WWE... Raw vs. Smackdown. On one side, we have Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley running the "Flagship show" in RAW. On the other side, we have Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan running the "underdog" show in Smackdown. Let us look and see how the draft went down and then we will analyze the outcome. RAW Seth Rollins Charlotte - WWE Womens Champion Finn Balor (NXT Callup) Roman Reigns Brock Lesnar The New Day- WWE Tag Team Champions Sami Zayn Sasha Banks Chris Jericho Rusev w/ Lana - United States Champion Kevin Owens Enzo & Cass The Club (Gallows & Anderson) Big Show Nia Jax (NXT Callup) Neville Cesaro Sheamus Golden Truth Titus O'Neil Paige Darren Young Sin Cara Jack Swagger The Dudley Boys Summer Rae Mark Henry Braun Strowman Bo Dallas The Shining Stars Alicia Fox Dana Brooke Curtis Axel Smackdown Dean Ambrose-WWE Champion AJ Sty...

Wednesday night kicked off the opening of the 32 man tournament known as the Cruiserweight Classic. This is an extremely significant venture for the WWE and the WWE Network.  Growing up a wrestling fan, I didn't think I would see something like this happen in a major North American promotion, and certainly not the WWE.  The fact that most of the talent lineup are not under a WWE contract makes it even more fascinating. What also makes this tournament fascinating is the presentation.  This show is being treated like a sporting event with serious discussion on weight cutting, fighting styles and the representations of their countries.  They even did a Bracketology special.  This is a complete departure from the WWE presentation style.  This isn't sports entertainment, this is professional wrestling, and they are pushing that fact.  Mauro Ranallo and Daniel Bryan bring a feel of legitimacy and excitement to their announcing that this show feels even ...

As a very passionate and dedicated wrestling fan, it has been hard to watch the main WWE product for some time now.  The writing was sloppy, nothing felt important, and they shoved the same thing down your throat for three hours.  Tonight felt different from that norm.  Coming off of a lackluster Wrestlemania and a decent RAW the week before, WWE came out swinging this week. The WWE announced that Shane McMahon was in charge for the second week in a row due to "social media" demands.  So in story, it still doesn't make a lot of sense... but no Vince or the Authority has been refreshing. Right away Shane laid out a solid show with a Women's Championship match as well as the start of the Tag Team Championship #1 Contenders tournament. He also announced a match between AJ Styles and Sami Zayn where Sami could add himself to the main event of Payback if he won.  This set up Kevin Owens coming out which started a fun confrontation.  This led to another good ...

The internet... The internet is a giant cloud of knowledge, media, information, and opinions. Many innovations have formed through the internet; online chat, webcam video, news delivery, message boards, streaming videos, and many other innovations. As the base of users has grown so has the technology and the features.  Now you can write a opinion piece on your own blog without any job and have hundreds read it within days. You can stream a trailer for a new film within minutes of it's release.  The world wide web has truly changed the way people obtain information and entertainment. Today we will be talking about how much the internet has changed the way we consume Professional Wrestling. To do that properly, we shall go back in time... First we start from the beginning. In the late 19th century, where wrestling was a side show at events such as carnivals. For decades the only way to watch professional wrestling was in person.  In the United States, television bro...

I write this post almost an entire year after our last post.  I have lost plenty of interest in the WWE over the past year. I won't lie to you and say I stopped paying attention to it, but my care for it dipped to a point where I would skip shows for a few weeks and ask my Dad what was going on.  This is very much a change coming from a guy who used to clamor for every bit of wrestling he could find. During this time of bad Authority angles, bad Divas storylines, and lack of an interesting mid-card, there was only one thing that held any level of my attention.  That one thing was NXT.  NXT is based out of my hometown Orlando, Florida.  It provided an alternative to what the main shows were offering.  When I was unhappy with the Authority vs. Daniel Bryan/Cena/Reigns/Orton or watching Dolph Ziggler get another rug pulled out from under him, I had the Zayn, Neville, Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Finn Balor, and Kevin Owens.  NXT provided a haven of an old sc...

I think Wrestlemania XXX will go down as one of the more memorable Wrestlemanias in history. There were some very happy moments, some confusing moments, and one downright shocking moment.  I look forward to talking about this show for years to come. Starting at 6:00 pm EST was the Wrestlemania Pre-show that delivered a very fun match.... The Usos def. Rybaxel, Los Matadores, The Real Americans for the WWE Tag Team Championship This match delivered as for the Pre-show.  It was fast paced and had some fun moments.  The last few minutes were the highlight of the match.  The Usos won with a double splash on Cesaro .  This then led to a post match face turn for Cesaro. Crowd was really hot for Cesaro's giant swing on Swagger.  Very good stuff. Rating : *** The main show opened with a long but very fun intro with Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and the Rock.  Hogan messing up and saying Silver Dome was hilarious, as was Steve Austin and the R...

Hello everybody!  Tomorrow is the show of shows and I can't wait to see the spectacle from the Super Dome.  Today we are covering the Friday of Wrestlemania Weekend.  Due to work, I was unable to watch any of the independent IPPVs last night and I will attempt to watch some of the shows in the coming days and give quick reviews. What I did end up watching was Wrestlemania Today and Legends of Wrestlemania.  Wrestlemania Today was more of the same from Thursday with more interviews and match rundowns.  The biggest reason to watch? Part two of the Shield interview.  Truly awesome and these videos are truly making the Shield feel more special than they already are.  Other than that, everything felt business as usual.  There were some funny moments with Fandango's interview as well as Dolph Ziggler walking around the Axxess floor. The highlight of Friday for me was Legends of Wrestlemania.  It started off as just typical hype for classic star...

Sunday night is looming, but there is still so much more happening before then.  Last night marked the beginning of the Wrestlemania Weekend coverage from the WWE Network with Wrestlemania Today.  It is a two hour talk show hosted by Josh Matthews, Alex Riley, Booker T and others.  I just wanted to take the time today to break down my thoughts on the first night of the show. First off, this is awesome.  The show feels slightly chaotic with people talking over each other, but it feels fresh.  Different wrestlers come up to the panel and get interviewed and give their thoughts on their matches or other matches on the Wrestlemania card.  There are also exclusive taped interviews and video packages.  The funniest moment on the show was the video package of Big E going around New Orleans getting his fortune told, meeting fans, and hilariously eating beignets at a cafe.  In a few short minutes, Big E was able to show how much personality he has. ...