And on a very sad note. Roman Reigns has announced he has cancer.

Sucks to see his leukemia has relapsed. I am not a big fan of Roman, but I hate seeing anyone get sick. Hope he and his doctors can knock this thing out again, and let him get back to his life. 

On a side note, and this is complete sarcasm, so don't shoot me. I say this wishing him the best, and expecting a full recovery. 

Vince finally got Roman over! 

Now seriously.

It was absolutely beautiful seeing everyone cheering for Roman, and the emotion in his eyes and throughout the Arena. It is so nice to see everyone unify when things get serious, regaurdless of there feelings. This is how it should be whenever we face issues, no matter what race, religion, sex, political party, country, etc., when someone or something is down, we should all come together. Bless the WWE, and Bless the WWE Fans, for setting the example. 

On a side note, WWE Evolution was surprisingly good considering it came off as a bit of a contrived event to counter the fact that they were doing an all-men event in Saudi-Arabia by law. It was poorly promoted outside of the Mae Young Classic tournament. But when the event was said and done, it ended up with one of the best battle royales that WWE has put on in its history, and Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair ended up being one of the greatest last man/woman standing matches in the history of the main roster - and one of the best main roster matches of the entire year.

The battle royale was interesting based on the fact that they told stories with it rather than just having a bunch of people in there until one person wins after 5 or 6 minutes. The star of the match was in the crowd's opinion: Ember Moon. The pop they had when Ember and Asuka engaged was deafening. In spite of the fact that Nia Jax won, the moment felt genuine and special. There has not been a battle royale quite like this one before. It makes me look forward to Royal Rumble.

Charlotte vs. Becky reminded me of something from NXT, not Smackdown. It was an epic performance that put Styles vs. Nakamura to shame. If an all-women's PPV like Evolution is the only place where you can get a platform to see such a performance from the main roster, then I am all for it. Though, I hope if they do it again they don't promote it like some kind of sideshow like Crown Jewel - where all the promotion feels very commercial and disingenuine. Personally, I'd prefer it if the WWE just made some of their regular PPVs more women's centric (like 90 minutes to 2 hours of women's matches with proper storylines) - but I'll take a PPV like Evolution over nothing if it gets more matches like Becky/Charlotte.

Also, after Evolution they did the post-show video highlight reel, which I haven't seen (maybe they normally just don't show it on the WWE network) in at least a decade.

Speaking of the Mae Young Classic - while Io Shirai and Toni Storm were the finalists, the tournament itself was stolen by Meiko Satomura and Tegan Nox. The top 3 matches of the tournament all involved Meiko (or at least 3 of the top 5). Tegan Nox was also one of the stronger performers, but it was her tragic leg break that highlighted how important this tournament was to those involved - apparently it even brought Triple H to tears; what occurred is her leg brace got caught in such a way that she wasn't able to brace the connection from the suicide dive, and she shattered her other knee (the one not in the brace) when it connected with the steel ramp; she tried to continue the match, much like Triple H did when he tore his quad off his knee... the injury happened early, and then it was stopped - and after the match it turns out the extent of the injury was gigantic (Dislocated kneecap, torn MCL, LCL, and ACL, both meniscuses torn, partial bone shatter, and a broken tibia)... how she managed to go 2-3 more minutes before her knee gave out shows the power of adrenaline and determination, she was literally just using the leg as a shaky balancing stick. She did cry afterward, but not from pain, at the disappointment that her body didn't work out for her, and all she worked for was lost all over again.

Japanese women's wrestling was kind of my gateway into pro wrestling, period; but I was unfamiliar with Meiko Satomura until Evolution despite her being around since the 90s. I am pleased to see women's wrestling getting the attention it deserves - Japan proved in the 80s and 90s that it could headline major shows, and I think we're already getting toward that point with women's wrestling in WWE.

So how about that garbage fire that is Crown Jewel?

Joe vs AJ Styles was a great match.
The New Day vs The Bar was pretty damn good
Rusev vs Nakamura was good

But that was it. I concede that most of the tournament was good but the ending was terrible and soured the whole event (and I'm genuinely wondering if Miz is okay, Not sure if this is a work or not).

Hulk Hogan's presence was just surreal in how foolish of a move it was to have him there. Like, how tone-deaf could they be?

I loathed everything about Brock vs Braun and seriously considered cancelling WWE Network on the grounds of "Holy shit I hate watching Brock Lesnar" (not heel heat, actual hatred for the man and actively skipping past his stuff when I pirate Raw/Smackdown/PPVs). I'd say Brock Lesnar's matches are the new bathroom break matches but they're too short for that; I prefer to actually relax a bit while in the bathroom.

The DX vs Brothers of Destruction Match is a decade too late (two decades, if we wanna go for their prime). I mean, I respect all the men in there but there were botches all over the place, HHH got a legitimate pectoral injury requiring surgery (You might notice how weak he was when he gave Kane the final pedigree), and HBK basically landed on his head on a moonsault from the top rope to the outside. could have been a good match, but I think it's time for these men to retire.

Also, fuck Saudi Arabia. fuck that woman hating country. The entire time I was watching the PPV I was thinking up random sarcastic and offensive things to say like "Wow, between all the executions of gays, the killing of journalists, and the repression of women, I'm shocked these men have any time to come see a Wrestling show!" I had more at the time but my seething rage has simmered down a bit. I hate that country, I hate what it represents, and I hate that WWE is tied down to a 10 year deal with them.

I love WWE, I truly do, but holy shit this was just seven layers of wrongness. Bad PPV, Bad decisions, bad booking, and the controversy was remarkably bad. Just a bad experience.

D- Pay Per View. At least it had Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles in it as well as some great performances by Seth and Ziggler.

I didn't watch it, nor did I ever plan to. I'd rather just pretend it didn't happen.

ANYWAY, some really great stuff to close out both RAW and Smackdown this week. Got my blood pumping!

Looks like WWE is writing Becky Lynch out of the Rousey match because of a "severe concussion and broken face" angle - and it seems just about everyone believes this to be legit, despite it being heavily worked into storylines and Becky showing literally zero symptoms of a concussion and no casting on her broken face. =D

The point is WWE realized their Wrestlemania headliner is not Charlotte vs. Rousey, but Becky vs. Rousey, and they had the perfect excuse (based on Becky's big black eye) not to blow their load 4.5 months early.

Haven't posted in this thread in a while. Current thoughts:

-NXT can do no wrong.

-If you're not following Becky Lynch on Twitter, you're missing out on the best thing in wrestling

-Oh man. Raw is tough to watch. Now should be Fine Balor's time to shine.

-Over a year as the champion with the most important title and they totally wasted AJ Styles.

-I'm crazy in love with Carmella.

Heel Becky Lynch is even better.

Edit: Btw welcome back!

Haha, I love Carmella too. Although I felt they went in a bit of an uncharacteristic direction with her during her championship run by making her super-confident and credible: I felt she would have been better as the ultimate coward heel - running away from Asuka at every opportunity: similar to her character before. I also love her team-up with R Truth (Who I will never stop thinking of as K Kwik)

Anyway, my top wrestlers of the year (assuming nothing changes in the next 3 weeks). These are the ones I watched the show for this year in rough order:

Special Mention: Meiko Satomura - not WWE, but she blew the roof off of the Mae Young Classic and put on some of the best matches in the ~ 10-minute range this year in any division. Triple H coming out for sendoff says it all (on a side note, it also shows how much of a fan of the talent he is).

Top Tier (these are the ones I want to stand up from my seat whenever they're on):
* Becky Lynch (I think the clear #1 of the second half of the year)
* Tomaso Ciampa (Best Champion of the year and a very clear #1 overall for the first half of the year)
* Ronda Rousey (Probably made the biggest splash of the year)
* Pete Dunne
* Ricochet
* Trent Seven (Give him his Seven Nation Army theme already!)
* Tyler Bate
* Ember Moon
* Finn Balor
* Daniel Bryan (Mostly based on what he's done since heel turn)


Tier 2
* Velveteen Dream
* Aleister Black
* Kevin Owens
* Asuka
* Charlotte Flair
* Andrade Almas
* Zelina Vega
* Kairi Sane
* Nikki Cross
* Shayna (She impresses me a lot, what other era could you be a female wrestler debuting at age 35? Not only that, but she seems better in all aspects of pro-wrestling almost on a month to month basis)
* Johnny Gargano
* Kofi Kingston
* Carmella (Would easily be Tier 1 if it weren't for her uncharacteristic championship run)
* R Truth
* Roman Reigns (despite everyone hating him)
* Seth Rollins
* Sami Zayn
* Alexa Bliss
* Jeff Hardy
* Sasha Banks (would be A if it weren't for her odd storylines through the summer which feel out of character for her)
* The Miz
* Mandy Rose (she'd have been the top "diva" during the Attitude era)
* Sonya Deville
* Billie Kay (Hands down the best on the mic in the women's division)
* Peyton Royce
* Devlin

Tier 3
* Deonna
* Rhea Ripley
* Ruby Riott
* Liv Morgan
* Sarah Logan
* Alicia Fox
* Bayley
* Curtis Axel
* Bo Dallas
* Matt Hardy
* Big E
* Xavier Woods
* Cesaro
* Naomi
* Jimmy Uso
* Jay Uso
* Nakamura
* Rowan
* Harper
* Strowman
* Rusev
* Lana
* Tayanara Conti
* Dakota Kai
* Isla Dawn
* Ligero
* Wolfgang
* The Modfather Flash Morgan (They better stick with that gimmick, it's too bad the guy looks about 14)
* Danny Burch
* Keith Lee

Others I think have been super interesting - and want to see more of:
* Toni Storm
* Io Shirai
* Marcel Barthel
* Matt Riddle
* Charlie Morgan
* Xia Brookside
* Millie
* Jessamyn Duke
* Marina Shafir

I think that's everyone as far as my opinions go, I may have missed some, may have put some people twice (I caught that I mentioned B Team as well as Bo Dallis and Curtis Axel, and I also had Ronda and Rousey).

Favourite PPVs of the year: Royal Rumble and Evolution.
Favourite programs:
1. NXT
2. NXT UK
3. Mae Young Classic (They want to do a Queen of the Ring next year. Screw off! Mae Young Classic is one of the only times, ever, WWE has done a tournament right! Keep with that format)
4. Smackdown
5. Mixed Match Challenge (series 1)

There's also a bunch of non-wrestling stuff on the WWE network that I enjoyed, but it's too much to sort through. Most of it is incredibly silly and I usually watch it after a bowl, so I can't really comment =D

First the Evolution PPV became one of the most best of the year - and it looks like it's among the most critically successful of the last decade.
Now the women totally stole the show at TLC by putting on more brutal matches than the men, but also significantly more interesting. You know they're doing something right when two of the best wrestlers to ever hit the main roster had trouble following up Rousey vs. Nia Jax.
Speaking of Rousey, she fucking carried that match. It wasn't Rousey's best match, but it was notable because it's Nia's best match, and Rousey clearly brought it out of her. This should erase all doubts that Rousey is a great in-ring performer. This match was clearly a lot more than just some rehearsed move set, it was chaotic and Rousey transitioned from move to hold like she had a decade's experience. She seems to have picked it up better than anyone transitioning from another sport since Kurt Angle - it's fair to say she's a natural... and I think a lot of MMA people are, as they all seem to do quite well, but Ronda especially.

I don't think it's that women are just naturally more interesting than men -look at the NXT men, they're WAY better than the main roster - I think it's important to see where the vast majority of these women come from; as I mentioned before, it's NXT. It seems the experience of being in that league is a huge benefit before moving into the main roster. It just happens that right now the bulk of women on the main roster had that experience, while most of the men did not. Take that for what it is, it's just a thought I had.

Sorry about the spoilers (if anyone actually came into this thread while having plans to still watch the event, virgin pure), but this was a truly awesome moment for those of us who have been fans since the NXT era (and maybe before when she was Kana).

The new years day smackdown has been the first in ages for me, wasnt bad at all. Loving the fact randy orton is still wrecking havoc. And jfc becky finally top dog loved her attitude ever since she joined the main roster. I got a feeling i might start watching more often again