On the one hand, I can actually make a rational 2-3 months worth of booking out of all the WWE women's titles action tonight.

On the other hand, engaging in such speculation is pure folly since Vince is still alive.

Given the choice, I'll take the GoT ending over the MitB ending.

I appreciate the effort but does Finn Balor have a death wish? I think he took 3 enormous nasty bumps on a ladder last night.

Also Ali ripped his face open when he got tossed off the ladder at the end.

Two cameramen also bumped prior to that.

People getting hurt when Lesnar is involved in something? Shocking

Not to mention Kallisto making it sound like the blood Lars Sullivan got was from a Kallisto cheap shot.

Here are all of Balor's bumps. The one on the side of the ladder seems brutal.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxr-qMYhrFk/

Wow, the fans shit all over that 24/7 title in record time.

Another quality idea from the mind of VKM (or so the IWC said earlier today)

I rarely watch nowadays, but do read the PPV reports more often than not.

Could they be setting up a story to get Sami Zayn over, where he demands to fight Brock for the MITB case, wins a feud and then successfully cashes in the MITB?

#njbosj #NJPW https://t.co/d63mH2znnl pic.twitter.com/mjQsasuSoW

— Italo Santana (@BulletClubIta) May 19, 2019

I have no interest in the 24/7 belt. Besides it looking terrible, I just think it hurts everyone chasing it. Turns the entire bottom half of the roster into a bunch of geeks. I know the Hardcore title was popular for awhile doing this but it was after the belt was built up a little.

Brock having the briefcase seems like a waste. Use it on an up and coming talent that would be interesting to see cash in. Brock doesn't need a gimmick to get over.

Yep, saw that one. Heels doing heel things, it's pure gold.

And in the post match presser Ospreay referenced it, saying something to the effect that he was going to make it his mission to make every child that got picked on happy

WWE can't figure out why people cheer heels when the only way they can get heat is pulling on the tights during a roll-up.

To be fair, I'm not sure a mainstream U.S. crowd (or stockholders in a publicly traded company) could handle some of the NJPW house show shenanigans.

Fale?

Hell, I'm expecting blowback to ensue for Omega's signature "Bang" closing.

He also doesn't need a briefcase to get a title shot. He gets whatever he wants in the WWE anytime.

Trying to stay current with BoSJ gets harder this week. Three straight shows that are all group matches. That's 10 matches per day for three straight days.

Much tougher than the usual 5 per day + tags (which you can optionally skip when watching the replays)

Challenge of getting through all these matches aside, Juice Robinson on commentary is money.

And Opsrey vs ElP was madness, and a great changeup call from what was expected from them.

Osprey vs Bandido was pretty flippy ... but it was some pretty impressive flippy.

edit to add: And Bandido's "Star Quality" in TEW would have to be 100. Korakeun Hall was filled with smarts but daaaaamn Bandido was over (same reaction I saw him get in Atlanta for ROH).

anyone here actually gonna order DoN?

Fuuuuuuck no.

The only match that I had significant interest in seeing isn't even happening and even if it was the price point is completely absurd in 2019.

Way too expensive. Wouldn't it make more sense to make it free on the Bleacher Report app so they can build up a subscriber base of people interested in the product? I can't imagine many people are dishing out that kind of money for this show.

I will say that I found the pricing for the "all access" pass to Starcast even more comical. No wrestling, just talk & panels ... for the low low price of $40.

I think I figured out what makes Juice Robinson enjoyable for me on commentary: he's just watching the match & talking about what's in front of him.

Easy to imagine that he's got some popcorn & a beer, just watching like everybody else. And for him that works.

Get ready for lots of surprises

Just for fun, I'm gonna throw out predictions based on this comment

Moxley, a Bastard Pac run-in of some sort, and maybe Austin Aries.

My son adds "about the only thing that would make me regret not watching would be an obvious NJPW involvement"

Listening to some of the various interviews from Starcast and was struck by something Arn Anderson said. The gist of it was that he was excited about AEW because there was so many guys on the roster that he'd never seen / didn't know.

I think that's probably one of the elements that has my enthusiasm tempered: there's very few people on the roster that I'm not already pretty familiar with. There's not much "new" here for me to be eagerly anticipating.

Not a knock, just an element of this that I hadn't previously thought about quite that way.

This battle royal on the pre-show is an odd choice to try to compel buys.

It just looks like TNA but wackier. There's a guy with no legs lying in the corner, I'm afraid he's winning because his feet can't hit the floor. Edit: I think he's out now.

I'm not familiar with most of these people but Luchasauras is pretty awesome.

Lsaurus is a physical freak, and I mean that in a good way. He's maybe the highest ceiling guy in the ring not named Page. Saw him at an ROH taping, impressive athlete.

I'm also reminding myself that a number of those entrants (to my knowledge) are NOT under regular contract so we don't have to worry about seeing too much of them.

There was a LOT of low ceiling bodies there filling up space.

edit to add: That Librarians segment probably has TNT reading the out clauses. Christ on a crutch that was bad.

I would have marked out for Bryan Alvarez being in this, I know he's wrestled a bunch of these guys in the last year or so.

LOL, he just tweeted that he feels like he's wrestled half these guys.

Camera work has to pick up, two missed spots (so far) in the Sabian/Guevara match alone.

And good Lord, save me from Alex Marvez. What scares me is that he may be better than JR at this. (and Excalibur should apparently only be near a mic if he's drinking, 'cause presumably sober right now he's not good)

And, lol, JR is backstage and he's walking ... and walking ... and walking.
That SO needed Goldberg's music

Yup, he wrestled Jungle Boy, Orange Cassidy, and Marko Stunt.

I watched a few seconds of Alvarez/Stunt just now just for the absurd spectacle of Alvarez towering over someone.

Cm punk


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That SCU/Stronghearts match was pretty damn good.

I feel that Daniels really slowed down throughout the match.

Commentary will get better over time


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You should see him with the little brother

Excalibur just promised that the match is still on. Clearly someone is monitoring Twitter very carefully because that was a thing in a fairly / relatively small circle of social media.

Very good woman's match


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That final spot looked like a botch, wonder if that was the planned finish.

Interesting question that came up here in the Batcave: who was the originally planned Entrant #21?

My working theory - short of seeing an obvious #21 later that gets moved into a promo/attack/surprise angle is that maybe the cancelled match was anticipated well in advance of when it went public & that Page has been the #21 for a while now.

LOL at the twitter smark who noted that Sasha Banks is Tweeting like a woman who knows she's had six months added to her contract

edit to add: also suddenly reappearing on social media tonight is the old El Generico account (the one that was erased completely) tweeting his broken english support

re-edit: line of the night may belong to @Strigga (when the surprise tag team appeared): "JR is stupified"
(though in fairness, I doubt many people who actually like the product without getting a paycheck had immediate recognition of Super Smash Bros either)

How are folks watching that didn't pony up the Grant?

We're not, just following the social media. (hence me not commenting on match quality beyond the pre-show, etc).

edit: "we" referring to myself & the kid, I dunno what anybody else here is doing

With as much time as they had to prepare I'm a little surprised at the lack of chemistry in the commentators. They just aren't very good.


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One of them doesn't appear to be willing/able to prepare any more.
One of them just isn't suited for this.
And one of them is Excalibur.

Meanwhile, "there's no such thing as bad publicity" may be tested if Dustin Rhodes bleeds to death in the ring.

edit to add: Pretty much universal acclaim from all quarters for the Rhodes match. Not for the squeamish -- and surely he didn't mean to bleed THAT much -- but a career match for Dustin.

I was hoping that they wouldn't blade, dangit


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This is Dusty's son. He pretty much HAD to do that, for his heritage if nothing else. (though not to that extent, that was some Tommy Wildfire Rich caliber bleeding)

10 years from now I expect to find out that MFJ and his wife are expecting a baby girl.