Well I guess the rumors were true. Owens will drop the title to Goldberg at Fast Lane so he can be champ going into Wrestlemania. Bets he drops it to Lesnar, who gets his revenge on the 3 straight losses. :smack:
And we get Roman Reigns v. Samoa Joe tonight. Vince’s finger prints all over that one. 
That was a fun Raw to be at, but it was probably better live than on TV. The pop for Goldberg was deafening, and I was surprised how many people in mark-heavy Portland cheered for Joe and Braun destroying Roman.
(That six-man tag was a slow-paced mess, though.)
Technically, there were nine guys in the various combinations of Midnight Expresses. Randy Rose, Jack Victory, Norvell Austin, Bombastic Bob, Bodacious Bart, Rikki Nelson, Stan Lane, Dennis Condrey, & Bobby Eaton.
I think greatest jobber team ever Mulkie brothers should be indoctrinated in HoF. I had a theory that there were actually more than two of them, maybe as many as five. The first three got killed in the ring and replaced.
I always wondered if the pop for him was really as loud as it seemed on TV.
I’ve always been a fan of Goldberg and him winning the WCW title for the first time (at Starrcade I believe) was the first and only wrestling PPV I ever bought (well, convinced my parents to buy…). Which means I’m stoked to see him in April!
That being said, him winning the title, just to lose it to boring-ass Brock Lesnar is stupid booking and really really doesn’t need to happen. If you want a Sting makeup call so badly, have him face KO at mania, win, then lose it the next night to a returning Finn. It gets him the title for a day and lets him put over a rising star.
Corbin wins the Fatal Four-way over Styles, Miz and Ambrose. 
Made me happy.
Of course, he won’t be winning the Elimination Chamber match, but…
That was probably the best Smackdown I’ve been to live. The four-way was great and Cena/Orton Part LXXVII was pretty good. The Ascension won for the first time in forever, which was way out of left field.
I was surprised how many people left before 205 Live , especially on the floor. Why leave an hour early from a show you paid $100 to see? Very happy to see Jack win - I hope he wins the title at Fastlane.
I think you need to look at the ones that made the biggest impact/had the most influence, in this case Sweet Stan, Loverboy Dennis and Beautiful Bobby make the most sense. There is precedent for something like this, look at who were inducted as the Four Horsemen.
I agree with the Mulkeys being inducted. If you’ve never heard Cornette talk about Mulkeymania you’re missing out.
Oh, definitely agree that Eaton, Lane and Condrey were the elite of the Midnight Express. Of those three, Bobby deserves whatever highest honor there is for work rate. He even teamed with William Regal for a while as the Bluebloods. Even though he’s a redneck from Alabama, he and Regal still had chemistry and their promos were hilarious.
I sometimes confuse him with Jack Victory, another utility player, who also allied with ME on occasion. When the Powers of Pain left for WWF, the Road Warriors needed a new team to feud against, so they found a giant Russian who wore a mask with the hammer and sickle emblem, and had Victory wear a similar mask and be his partner. Victory often wrestled twice a venue, one match as himself and the other as the 2nd Russian.
I just read that Brock was there for a dark match? Was that actually a thing?
A quick squash of the Big Show, yes.
That’s Mulkey brothers, and if you have WWE Network, find World Championship Wrestling and go to March 28, 1987.
Didn’t Eaton and Lane show up at Ric Flair’s WWE retirement on Raw? The definitive ME are Bobby Eaton and either Dennis Condrey or Stan Lane, but there has to be a reason Condrey wasn’t there at the Flair show.
However loud it was on TV, it was even louder in the arena. There were points where you couldn’t even hear Owens and Jericho talking over the “GOLD-BERG! GOLD-BERG!” chants. Having him make his entrance in the middle of their segment probably helped, since it was completely shocking when his name suddenly exploded onto the Titantron.
One thing I really found interesting this run of shows was how elaborate the process is of setting up the ring for the cruiserweight matches. There’s a team of twenty or so roadies sitting in easy chairs in a blind spot where the cameras don’t get pointed. The instant the show goes to commercial (during which the house lights go dark and the 'Tron runs highlight reels or commercials for WWE products), they all run out and surround the ring and proceed swap out the ring aprons, roll the mat with the cruiserweight logo over the ring surface, and wrap all the ropes with purple vinyl and gaffer’s tape. It’s pretty impressive and it obviously takes a lot of coordination for them to get it accomplished during the limited time they have.
BTW, did the botch during the six-man tag on Raw make it to TV? There was a moment in the middle of the match where someone in the production truck must have rested their elbow on the wrong button and the theme music for the Black History Month promos played for a second or two. It confused us in the crowd because we thought it was a run-in for someone whose music we didn’t recognize, and it confused the wrestlers because it obviously wasn’t supposed to happen. Hopefully, for the sake of that person’s job, it happened during a commercial break.
Smackdown also had a dark main event after 205 Live - Dean Ambrose successfully defended the IC title against the Miz, with Daniel Bryan as guest referee. It was a fun, slightly comedic send-the-crowd-home-happy match. I was kinda hoping they’d let Bryan actually hit Miz with a move (which he didn’t), but it was fun to see him in the ring, doing in-ring stuff, in his hometown. (Technically he’s from Aberdeen, the home of grunge music and economic depression, but he considers Seattle his hometown crowd.)
IIRC, the first time he won the Big Gold Belt was when he beat Hogan on Nitro from the Georgia Dome, while he was simultaneously US champion.
Sorry to backtrack, but could someone explain to me how the Wyatt Family broke up? And why Randy Orton, of all people, is now aligned with Bray? Thanks.
Orton and Bray were in a feud, and there were segments of them playing mind games with each other. The cult leader vs the man with voices in his head. At one point, Randy lured Bray into a room which turned out to be a semi truck cab with a sliding door. After Bray went inside, Randy slid the door shut and locked it. Later, they showed scenes of Bray muttering to himself and speaking in unknown tongues. By the end of the show, Randy slid the door open and Bray had disappeared.
There was some kind of tag match after that where Randy turned on his partner to help the Wyatts. When asked about it later, Randy said “If you can’t beat 'em, join 'em.” It then led to animosity between Randy and Luke in competing to be Bray’s number one. There’s speculation that Bray will win the SD title at Elimination Chamber so that he and Randy will meet at WM.
Erick Rowan was on the back end of the first Bray vs Randy segments, then he got injured. I think Harper was originally going to go to RAW when he returned, but they had him take Rowan’s place in the storyline. I don’t know when Rowan’s due back, or if they’ll have be part in the family again. His twitter feed shows him burying his sheep mask, so who knows.
Well I’ll be damned. I wonder what PPV I ordered then? Maybe I just Mandela Effect-ed myself into thinking I saw something. Maybe it was after I watched that movie with Sinbad as a Genie…
What would absolutely infuriate a lot of people and have me giggling with glee would be a repeat of the Finger Poke of Doom. Bray and Orton face off, Bray pokes Orton in the chest, he falls over and Bray pins him. 
Instead what I expect will be that Orton destroys Bray and then says since he couldn’t beat them together, he joined them and destroyed them from within. Further devaluing Bray Wyatt. 
I’ll believe Wyatt will win the WWE Championship when I see it. (Though I recall saying the same thing about Ambrose and Styles).
I don’t remember it, but the lights went out for a second at the beginning of the 5-way Elimination match on 205 Live. Corey Graves said it was due to the overwhelming level of excitement in the building.
I liked seeing the two Middle Easterners battle it out for Nese’s spot. That kept them from blowing up a race or something. I know, I’m going to hell for that one…
Well, I doubt that it will happen at all, as when Randy Orton was on Talking Smack a couple of weeks ago, he said that the fans might not know it, but what they really want is Cena vs. Orton.
No Randy, I don’t. We’ve seen that too damned many times and WWE needs to elevate new stars, not rehash the same decade old matches over and over.
Watching NXT today.
The Revival. Looking at their trunks. Someone needs to heel on those.
“Hey, did you guys get a ketchup endorsement?”
“What?”
“Your trunks. They look like a ketchup ad. Reminds me of you guys anyway. Slow, thick, tomato colored and vinegar tasting.”
