WWE

[Captain Charisma]

Lita = the original Betty Bad Ass. Still the only Diva whose wrestling was the steak and potatoes and her charisma/looks were the desert. Her tattoo and anti-diva hotness were secondary to her wrestling. The WWE has done their best to eff up my Mania experience, but inducting my all-time fave Diva into the HoF at my Mania is really cool.

Think Punk would come back to be the guest referee for a AJ vs. Lita match? Lol, the lucky bastard. My favorite wrestler that debuted after my 5th birthday has slept with my 3 all-time favorite divas, Lita, AJ, and Maria. The more I think about things, I might be starting to hate Punk. Mickie James is my #4 Diva, did they really date pre-WWE days or was that storyline to push her as his manager when they first debuted? Anyone know? 

[bigraj]

Haven't watched much Smackdown lately, but it's been pretty good over the last couple of weeks or so and this week was pretty awesome. Another good Bryan/Shield 6-man match, an entertaining 4-way to earn an IC title shot, and Orton vs Cesaro was borderline great and I was glad to see Antonio get the clean win. I guess Orton will beat Sheamus on Monday so he doesn't look too weak going into the PPV.

The Bryan stuff is really remarkable. I don't think he gets louder pops than Rock/Austin/Hogan/etc. but it's pretty damned close and I've never seen crowds more involved DURING the match than they are during a DB match. And it's not just during his big comeback, there's almost as much reaction for almost any offensive move he gets in during the course of his matches. I hope it eventually translates to better TV ratings/merch & ticket sales. Why isn't WWE trying to sell foam "YES!" fingers? Pretty cheap stuff they could make a small fortune off of, and (even if it's only a few hundred people in a crowd) it would make for an awesome visual for a TV viewer.

[jackknight]

Is WWE really saying DBry's merchandise isn't selling? If so they've never been more full of shit. Every event I attend there's nothing but Punk and Bryan shirts with a few Cena and Shield mixed in. Can't remember the last time I've seen an Orton shirt... But they rig that shit anyway, how could the We the People shirt or the Wyatt shirt sell as well as Cena's if they don't even take them to live events? They should give the guys a chance to sell shit before pulling out that tired excuse. Of course Cena is going to sell more merch if there're bobble heads, wrist bands, hats, etc., etc. Ziggler or even Punk or Bryan fans don't have as wide a selection.

[bigraj]

Not sure how well his stuff is selling in comparison to Cena's or Punk's, but I only see shirts (and those goofy beards) in the stands and it's bugged me for quite a while now that more isn't available. Especially considering how ugly these beard and goat shirts are. The "Yes!" thing has been pretty over for a couple of years now and it only seems natural to try selling the foam fingers. Cena's got shirts, hats, pendants, sweat bands, etc. so why not try something similar with other hot acts?

[darthfoley]

They did release two new Bryan shirts. Shame they have a Che Guevara vibe.

Going to guess there won't be any new Punk merchandise coming down the pipe...

[bigraj]

Nice new shirt he has on tonight.

[bigraj]

Wow. The DB-Christian match was pretty good, but Cena-Cesaro outdid them by a fair bit tonight. I doubt Orton-Sheamus will come close to either match.

[Kimmel]

Cesaro is going to be breaking through very, very soon. He may well be the one who benefits the most from CM Punk pulling a Terry Funk.

[Captain Charisma]

Cesaro vs. Cena was unbelievable, that is as good as it gets on National TV in America. If Orton on Friday and Cena on Monday were Cesaro's "tests" he passed. With flying colors. I thought Twitter broke when he did the Uberplex on Cena. Cesaro was flawless. Pair him with Bryan out of Mania and let the magic happen. Orton/Sheamus wasn't terrible, and both guys are working hard so I hate not enjoying, but there was no chance of following the 20 minutes of awesome that was Cesaro vs. Cena.

[Kimmel]

Listen to the Austin podcast with Cena, he calls the WWE out for not making new stars etc, it's really, really good.

podcastone.com/Steve-Austin-Show-Clean

[Kimmel]

RIP Nelson Frazier, aka Mabel.

I remember seeing The Harlem Knights in George South and Stallion's PWF, and watched them get to the big stage and everything after.

[bigraj]

Didn't realize Mabel was so young. RIP.

[thecommish]

I don't watch WWE regularly anymore, but I signed up for the network this morning on my day off. It took about two hours on and off due to high demand, which I understand. When I finally did complete the sign up process, I kept getting "Media Error" messages when I go to watch anything. Urgh! Apparently I'm not alone - tons of tweets about people having the same problem.

I guess this is why they made the first week free! Although, I do wonder if Vince is screaming in the ear-pieces of the tech crew out of habit.

[tlyne]

I signed up after school and it went straight through. Right now I'm watching the World Class show the have up. Kabuki is in a handicap match against Samu and Raoul Castro, who is wearing a mask. Tje picture quality on Apple TV is hreat.

[darthfoley]

I breezed through sign up but haven't been able to get anything to play as of yet.

[tlyne]

I'm watching an MSG show 1991. Just saw Flair vs. Piper in Flair's MSG debut. Now it's Col Mustafa vs. the Bossman. IRS comes out to badmouth the Bossman.

[tlyne]

Bret Hart defending the IC Title against the Berkerker.

really good to hear Gorilla, the Brain and Lord Alfred on commentary.

[tlyne]

The Brain tells us the Berzerker is wearing "Hair" Jordans.

[bigraj]

Signed up with no problem after I got off from work. Checked out a little Great American Bash '89, which will be the first PPV I check out once I have some time to kill. Had the Raw pre-show on in the background, and it looked really good. Hopefully this quality maintains come WrestleMania time.

[thecommish]

Still 'Media Error' for me (but I can watch other videos on WWE.com just fine)... and it seems like it's the same for a lot of others.

[darthfoley]

Yeah, I still can't get anything to play on PS3 or my Android phone.

[thecommish]

WWE probably isn't doing itself any favors by continually burying the MLBAM in press releases and on Twitter. Yes they deflect the blame, but the actual workforce at MLBAM can't be pleased.

The mistake IMO is that they should have let people sign up in advance so they could have time to figure how best to cope with the volume. Instead, they wanted a publicity blitz of everyone signing up at once. What they got was a good chunk of media reporting on how the service wasn't working.

In fact, the walk through on Raw last night apparently included all the steps up to actually showing a video - because they couldn't guarantee the vid would actually play!

[darthfoley]

Well, if you notice every time they showed Lawler an JBL 'using' the network, they never actually tried to play anything.

[Kimmel]

Back home, watching the WWE Network, they are playing the Bret-Shawn Rivalry deal. One thing that has always bugged me, Bret talks about how pissed he was because Shawn was talking about just working with his friends when he became Champion and that rubbed him the wrong way. Um, didn't Bret work with his friends and family when he was Champion.

[bigraj]

As big a fan as I am of Bret, no one's a bigger Bret Hart fan than Bret Hart. He did work with Owen quite a bit and some with Davey Boy in the mid-90s, but he definitely mixed in more variety than the Clique did during that time frame, so he probably doesn't, or refuses to, see the hypocrisy when he criticizes Shawn. Probably the same case in a lot of the things he had beef with HBK about.


Having trouble with "on demand" content on the Network. Whether through my PS3 or iPhone, the content freezes after several minutes. The "Live" streaming stuff is fine, as is the recommended stuff. After GAB 89 froze midway through the opening battle royal, I had no trouble watching WM 17 which was on the main page as recommended.

Woke up this morning to see Bruno take on Superstar Graham in a wild 20 minute match. I haven't watch too many Bruno matches, but I loved how it was back-and-forth the entire time. Very different from a Hogan WWF match where he'd get beat up for 10-15 minutes before making the comeback. Bruno's style is pretty physical when he was on offense. Lots of kicks to the face and knees to the back. I liked it.