NXT Takeover Chicago, two matches in, might already be better than Money in the Bank is going to be.

Ricochet vs. Velveteen was as crazy as you'd expect.

 EDIT: HAHAHA, no chance in hell Money in the Bank is topping this, holy crap that show was awesome. Not saying Money in the Bank will be a bad show, but this NXT Takeover ended up being one of the best wrestling events I think I've ever seen; a match I'd have scored 9 out of 10 followed by a 10 out of 10, and then getting to the main event of Ciampa vs Gargano, and realized I set the 10/10 bar too low. Yes I felt a fool, but a thoroughly entertained fool.

Very sad news. Big Van Vader has passed away at the age of 63.

Is it just me or does every match on this PPV feel like 5 minutes or less? Aside from Roman Reigns and Lashley, every match felt pre-maturely ended. I hated how early KO vs. Strowman ended, it was starting out like a classic. HIAC would have been better.

And despite the horrible reaction of the crowd, that Reigns vs Lashley match has been the most satisfying so far. It wasn't extreme rules, but I enjoyed it more than the other matches so far.

Still to go, the Iron Man match and Rusev Day.

I mean, I liked the Attitude era for a lot of things it started - but leave the past be the past; it's 2018, not 1998. As much as people say they want the Attitude era back... go back and actually watch it - the 10% gold is what people remember, but there was an enormous amount of garbage - particularly in the 97-99 era; 2000 and 2001 were actually really good, though.

Also branding the PPV "Extreme Rules" when the only extreme rules match was a 5 minute women's match was bullshit... and it wasn't all that extreme. The LAST PPV was 5X more extreme than this. This is their idea of what an ECW-style show should be?

Michael Hayes probably booked and produced this.

They don't think this is what an ECW themed PPV should look like.  They haven't since the first "Extreme Rules" PPV.  I missed the PPV cause I was in Italy.  Was it that bad? 

WWE legend, Brian Christopher Lawler  has died. He was part of the Tag team "Too Cool". He will be missed. R.I.P.

He committed suicide. 

I feel terrible for Jerry.  

Mental health is the hardest thing to understand. 

Sometimes no amout of success, money, and support can overcome whatever is broken inside.

I think some people enjoyed it. For me, the matches were too short to be satisfying, they didn't really get the time to tell a story.
The second major problem I had with it is that the PPV wasn't as advertised.

Also, I'm a fan of the women's division, but this whole all-women PPV seems like a bad idea; it rubs me the wrong way - kind of like an all-black or all-white PPV would. It doesn't seem like it will create any longterm gain for the women's division either. IMO, a better idea to boost the whole concept of women's wrestling would be to A) Introduce new belts, like a women's IC belt and women's tag championships, and B) Have Ronda Rousey vs. Asuka vs. Charlotte for the undisputed women's championship close out Wrestlemania.

Note: I am not suggesting a merger of the women's championship like what happened with Jericho, I still think that whoever wins should only ever have to put one belt on the line at once - Smackdown women can only challenge for the Smackdown title and RAW for RAW.

What I think will happen at Wrestlemania: 4 vs 4 Horsewomen vs. Horsewomen. Although, IMO this should be a leadup to Wrestlemania match at RR or NWO.


As for Brian Christopher, that's both sad and shocking. Apparently, Jerry Lawler held his hand as he passed away.
Remember that hyena laugh he used to do until early 2000 or so?

It has not been a good past few months for wrestler deaths. Four months ago we lost Bruno Sammartino, Vader and Matt Capotelli a couple months later, now Nikolai Volkov, Grandmaster Sexay, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart.

SUMMERSLAM

My head is about to explode from tiredness, so forgive me (it's nearly 05:30 AM).
As a wrestling show, it was not nearly as strong as NXT, you could argue that all 5 matches on NXT were more technically skilled than every match on Summerslam. But Summerslam was a very enjoyable event otherwise.

Big Ups:
* Ronda Rousey obliterating Bliss - this is kind of what I wanted to see out of her from the beginning. Making her a monster among women... even though I really like Bliss as well, Ronda is the IT wrestler right now.
* Roman Reigns vs. Lesnar - by far the best match of their series. The crowd actually turned around and cheered Roman at the end. It was a lot faster paced than past matches. Too bad Strowman is all Braun and no brains.
* Demon Balor surprising everyone and eating Corbin alive in a very over-the-top performance.
* Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Carmella, especially Becky's berserker rage at the end of the match.

Moderate ups:
* Rollins vs. Ziggler was surprisingly decent after they kind of stunk up the last PPV's main event.
* Jeff vs. Shinsuke had some fun moments, and they managed to get some cheers out of a crowd that was otherwise completely unexcited this match was even happening. If that bump at the end was a sell, then easily the best sell of the night - otherwise OUCH! Painful to watch.
* B-Team vs. The Revival accidental... again! The victory came after Bo Dallas trips over a rollup and reverses the pin
* Rusev & Lana vs. Andrade Almas & Zelina Vega - was WAAAAY too short to really tell any story, but still had some interesting moments. Lana has improved a lot.

Average:
* The Miz vs Daniel Bryan disappointed, too much striking, not enough spots or story. It wasn't terrible; like AJ vs Shinsuka Nakamura, a lot more was expected.

Moderate downs:
* Joe vs. AJ, was like 20 minutes of headlocks followed by a 5-minute spot match, but I fell asleep during it and needed to down an energy drink after. I like it when matches get a lot of time, but only if they tell a story, and this one did NOT; EDIT - after reading some reviews, it seemed a lot of people liked this match, my opinion on it was probably swayed by the fact that I fell asleep during it, maybe if I watched it at a decent time.
* Cederick Alexander vs. Drew Gulak kind of underwhelming for a cruiserweight match - this was a match I was hoping to see some technical brilliance on, but it fell short.

Big Downs:
* Kevin Owens getting stomped, the best part of the match was his over-the-top selling getting whipped by Strowman. People speculated that he is injured, but this was just depressing to watch.
* The New Day, great match spoiled by a terrible DQ ending.

Overall: The show was good! While I gave it 5 negatives and 8 positives, that's not the full story considering the bad stuff was mostly during parts of the show that didn't matter as much: Summerslam opened up strong and ended stronger. All of the weak/slow stuff was in the midcard; BUT, Charlotte/Becky/Carmella was directly in the middle of all of that, and it was one of the best parts of the night.

Here's some pictures that sum up the biggest takeaways for me:

Honestly, I felt that Summerslam was overall pretty good aside from the pre-show and the 4 screwey finishes.

Seriously, the Bludgeon Brothers/New day fight ended in DQ. AJ/Samoa Joe ended in DQ. Miz/Bryan had Miz cheating, and Lesnar/Reigns was hugely influenced by braun.

Of them, I do think that Joe/Styles made sense (though this was not the place for that sort of end) and same with Miz/Bryan (Summerslam is not the place for screwball endings), but the only ending I liked was Reigns/LEsnar. I genuinely thought we were getting a triple threat match.