Once again, watching Sidney Crosby become the 5th fastest player to reach 100 playoff points in style with a hat trick won out over Smackdown.
We had the Teddy Long formulaic tag team match combining various Extreme Rules contests. with Randy Orton (w/Del Rio and Sheamus) pinning Jack Swagger (w/Mark Henry and Big Show) via RKO, while Swagger had the Patriot Lock on the illegal Del Rio (illegal man, not illegal.. you know). The highlight of the match for me was Lilian Garcia introducing Ricardo Rodriguez in Spanish, leading Ricardo to introduce Del Rio in English. Will he finally give introductions I understand? When will La Resistance return so I can be the one who gets to understand the foreign languages being spoken? Sort of understand, at least.
Other stuff. Miz beat Damien Sandow (who wants his own talk show now), to set up Miz vs. Cody Rhodes on the pre-show. Kaitlyn received flowers and gloves from her mystery admirer, who now has a Twitter account, before beating Aksana with a spear. Zeb Colter continues to troll Republicans by wanting to know the truth about Benghazi. Antonio Cesaro and Chris Jericho had the best match of the night, which Jericho won by rolling through the deadlift gutwrench into the Walls of Jericho. And the Shield (Rollins and Reigns, at least) beat the Usos in a tag match before being chased off post-match by Kofi with a chair. No sign of Bryan or Kane tonight.
I'd like to have high hopes for Extreme Rules, and I know it's usually surprisingly good, but the TV leading up to it has been unfortunately lackluster. When are we do for our Summer Surprise storyline? Hopefully it's a Return of CM Punk to Save the WWE rather than Randy Orton turning heel to face John Cena for the title...
I can't remember, and I'm sure someone can help me here, but when was the last time a manager was held back by his wrestler? Zeb Coulter should be the biggest heel in the WWE, but Swagger anchors him to the midcard.
Maybe if they attached him to Cody as the new American Dream ...
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
Originally posted by Matt TrackerI can't remember, and I'm sure someone can help me here, but when was the last time a manager was held back by his wrestler?
Someone can probably provide us with a more recent example, but I'm going to throw out Trish Stratus with T&A. Of course, that's with a manager/valet becoming an active competitor, which is something we aren't going to see out of Zeb.
Originally posted by Matt TrackerI can't remember, and I'm sure someone can help me here, but when was the last time a manager was held back by his wrestler?
Someone can probably provide us with a more recent example, but I'm going to throw out Trish Stratus with T&A. Of course, that's with a manager/valet becoming an active competitor, which is something we aren't going to see out of Zeb.
Lita and Essa Rio. The continued push of Jack Swagger amazes me, because there are so many better heels just on Smackdown, its ridiculous.
The Wee Baby Sheamus.Twitter: @realjoecarfley its a bit more toned down there. A bit.
Remember when everyone was really upset that Swagger used to get jobbed out all the time, and how WWE were stupid for using him so poorly? Ahhh, good times.
Originally posted by Amos CochranRemember when everyone was really upset that Swagger used to get jobbed out all the time, and how WWE were stupid for using him so poorly? Ahhh, good times.
Well, they're still using him poorly, but now they're using him in a way that also makes me not care about him. I can still think back to the guy he was when he debuted, and that was a guy that I really thought was going places. This "We the People" angle deserves to be put in the ground, and I'm sorry, but I think I'm about out of patience for poor Swagger.
In that case, Booker T and RVD are the co-favorites to win the belt. Assuming WWE is going to change the title, history suggests it will be to someone who has never won it before.