WWE is much better with the crowds back. Plus, corbinfund.com had me in stitches. I was sick of the King Corbin angle, but this new arc he’s on meets my approval. 
I guess Peacock will be worth getting now.
I had the network off and on from its inception thru its demise. I signed up for Peacock right when they switched and the offerings were pretty slim compared to what the network had.
I re-signed up for Peacock tonight, mainly because I have a bunch of watchalong episodes of 83 Weeks and Something to Wrestle with that I haven’t been able to watchalong with while not having Peacock. Browsing around tonight, there’s a lot more content in the WWE bucket than there was back in April. It’s the same price as the network, and you get all the NBC content on top of it to boot.
Yeah, they’ve got RAW, SmackDown, and Nitro up, just by a brief look-see.
MITB was pretty good, for the most part. It did a good job of reintroducing live fans to the show. I was a little peeved that the heels won all the title matches, though - almost all of the champions, on the main roster and NXT, are heels right now, so things are far too imbalanced. Faces won both the MITB matches, though, which was encouraging - Big E is ready for a run as world champion, and I was starting to worry that Nikki ASH’s new gimmick was a rib intended to bury her.
Peacock absolutely shat the bed for about 15 minutes between the end of Charlotte/Rhea and the early part of the men’s MITB. Remind me again why taking the WWE Network away from US fans was a good idea? Oh, right, Comcast drove a dump truck full of money up to Titan Towers.
Cena got a Daniel Bryan-level pop for his return at the very end. Cena/Roman at Summerslam should probably be a good enough match to make up for the Lashley/Goldberg match the sheets are saying is going to be happening.
Same: started watching in the 1970s, then WWF, then WCW in the 1990s.
I didn’t see any bed-shatting when I watched it this morning. There was a blackout for a few seconds when Charlotte flipped off the crowd, but that was it.
Both ladder matches were copious amounts of fun. I liked the way Nikki climbed over the other women to claim the briefcase. I marked out for Ricochet’s acrobatics, but it seems like WWE just uses him as a spot monkey for pops, then okthnxbye.
Tamina seems to have finally found her groove. She was always pretty good, but lacked that spark. The new hair and gear did it.
Viking Raiders continue to impress. They are both so talented. They made Olmos look good, but he still has a ways to go. At least he’s not another Great Khali.
I’m not that much into Bobby Lashley, and seeing Kofi get squashed for the zillionth time makes me want to upchuck my Booty-O’s. OTOH, Big E now has a storyline reason for challenging Lashley, since Cena is back to promote movies while upstaging RR.
Not on the replay, sure. The live feed was pretty much a slideshow for about 15 minutes, to the point that “Peacock” and “WWE Network” were the top two trends on Twitter.
Thought it was a strong show top to bottom. Gotta be honest, I marked out for Cena and am excited to see him in the coming weeks. I wonder if he’ll wrestle some random warm up matches before Summerslam or if he’s Cena and there is no such thing as ring rust with him.
Worst part of the night? Charlotte winning. I kinda-sorta can’t stand her in general (my hate for her is second only to Asuka), and I REALLY hate how she keeps beating Ripley who deserves the title so much more. But whaddyagonnado
I think they’re trying to get her up to 17 title reigns (right now she’s at 13 - 5 Raw, 5 Smackdown, 2 NXT, and 1 Divas) so she can best her dad’s record.
…at the expense of much more interesting and deserving talent.
I’m sure this is the same thing people said of Cena and Orton and probably Trips and Shawn Michaels back in the day, but I haven’t been interested in a Charlotte feud in literal years because it’s just a forgone conclusion that she’ll win because only 3 women are allowed to have titles and she’s one of them.
Sadly (for me - happily for you), I think one of them is going into a period of irrelevancy (see 2 1/2 minute loss to Piper Niven from one move as proof).
So I go back to watching RAW, and Vince, Vince, Vince…
You send Keith Lee off for 6 months for more training at the PC, then you bring him back to be a dumbed-down jobber version to Lashley. Then you bring back Oldberg.
Let me guess… at SS, it’s Oldberg vs Lashley, SPEAR SPEAR SPEAR, Oldberg wins the belt, loses it at the following PPV. WTF is that supposed to accomplish? A .00000000000001 ratings increase? Og’s blood, this is sad.
Bill’s current contract is reportedly for two matches a year, so if he wins at Summerslam, he won’t be dropping it until the Royal Rumble at the earliest.
Nikki ASH cashed in on Raw tonight to win the women’s title from Charlotte, which is awesome.
Unfortunately, it probably just means she’ll drop it back to Charlotte at Summerslam to get her one title closer to dad’s run.
What is it with Goldberg being able to get a title shot whenever he wants it, and take up a title match at one of the Big Four PPVs that could be used to put over younger talent?
He gets '90s WCW fans to tune in, I guess?
I’ll admit, his entrance and theme music is still awesome, but even in his glory days he wasn’t much of a wrestler, and he’s a shadow of his former self now.
I missed it bc I hit the off button when Oldberg showed up.
I don’t blame you. I feel about Goldberg the same as Sir T-Cups feels about Asuka. Always have. Never understood the appeal.
One drawback to the live crowd return is that Taz and Ex had less time to do commentary. There wasn’t much to draw from but nevertheless, here is the
AEW Dark Taz/Excalibur moment of the day
Aaron Solow vs Dustin Rhodes
Solow cuts a promo on the way to the ring, saying Rhodes has been wrestling for five decades.
Taz: That’s fifty years. He said five decades.
Ex: He wrestled “in” five decades, not “for” five decades.
Taz: Give me a break with the damn semantics, Excalibur!
That’s also a big problem I have with the women’s division. Not only are just three ladies allowed to hold the belt, but they play hot potato with it so much that saying “X-time champion!” means nothing. I don’t want NXT-style 2 year runs, but somewhere in between.
Also, sorry everyone, but I’m part of the problem. I’m a WCW kid at heart and I don’t think Goldberg should be in any title run, but I get excited when I know he’s going to wrestle. Do I want him facing Lashley or someone for a belt? No. Do I want him in a tag match with someone or some kind of non-title match for pride or whatever? Bring it on. Lastly, good for Nikki! I’ve loved her forever and want the best for her. It also helps that she’s cute as a button.