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^ Guess a refund was out of the question? Kidding, really - but I'm not going to go to their June show. If it's good, I'll go to the third.

It's a shame that Douglas is pulling himself as a performer - his match w/ Scorpio was a very good brawl, overshadowed by silly TNA-esque booking (Kevin Sullivan? Tod Gordon?), and a largely sour attitude the crowd had at that point (myself included). Honestly, CW Anderson and Al Snow positively *murdered* the crowd with their match.

******

It's not improbable that Heyman is involved in the Lesnar stuff somehow.

We'll know for certain if it's a work in 1-2 weeks when WWE s it up.

OFF TOPIC: Someone asked me today if I thought WWE could/would ever make Santino World Heavyweight or WWE Champion...and for some reason I couldn't give them a straight answer.

EDIT: This article involving Hogan thinking that "Vince is getting nervous" about TNA made me laugh.

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainmen...#ixzz1thLoNkzr

Late to the party: If Lesnar's grievance is legit, then that shows how much pull Cena has in the company. What Cena did post-match is comparable to something Hogan would do in WCW. Some sort of dumbass ploy to save face with fans and put himself over.

Originally Posted by Dr. Venkman OFF TOPIC: Someone asked me today if I thought WWE could/would ever make Santino World Heavyweight or WWE Champion...and for some reason I couldn't give them a straight answer.

I'm actually a Santino fan. I enjoy his shtick. He's one of a few genuinely interesting characters in WWE. Everyone else is generic and playing it serious. For every Punk, Vickie, and Danielson, there's a Mason Ryan, Alicia Fox, and Ryback.

People are suspecting Cena of sabotaging Brock because there was a botched spot where Brock almost got hurt? How quickly the jaded marks forget WM19, an SD match with Albert, etc.

Brock is in it for himself and always has been so honestly I wouldn't care if Cena had just walked out of the match.

http://www.wwe.com/classics/greatest-tag-teams-photos

Pretty nice photo gallery of some classic tag teams historically. Some neat pics, including a rare picture of Demolition with Randy Culley as Smash, and both featuring some...questionable taste in face paint (and Ax with purple hair - was Bill Eadie into Troma films at the time?).

They try to showhorn a few "tag teams" from the last 5 years or so in there, but the photo gallery really underscores just hot little tag team wrestling has meant over the least 10 years or so.

Miz and Morrison?

Originally Posted by neocisco Miz and Morrison?

After they put Sheamus on their "Top 25 Talkers of All Time" list, nothing surprises me.

Originally Posted by mykevermin Come on, can't you guys at least *pretend* you're not stealing PPVs?

Shrug. I missed the stream everyone here was watching. Sorry.

The Miz fan in me won't let me laugh at Miz & Morrison. They were one of the last tag teams that actually matter for more than like 2 weeks (like Jeri-Show). I was actually surprised at Team LayCool, though.

Originally Posted by Chronis The Miz fan in me won't let me laugh at Miz & Morrison. They were one of the last tag teams that actually matter for more than like 2 weeks (like Jeri-Show). I was actually surprised at Team LayCool, though.

I'd place Miz and Morrison on a list for Most Memorable WWE Tag Teams of the 2002-2012. Dunno how high they'd rank, but they'd be on the list. I'm a little sad at how much tag team wrestling has died in the E in the last many years.

Looking through the list, Billy Gunn is featured three separate times for three different teams.

First he smoked ass, then he was an ass, and, finally, he tapped that ass.

Haven't posted in a few days, but Lesnar's 2012 mic work is godly.

Haven't posted since I was trying to avoid spoilers until I could watch the PPV/RAW back to back with my friend, but Extreme Rules was pretty solid overall .. considering it was a WWE PPV. Sadly, now it's back to mediocrity. Yay?

Originally Posted by KaneRobot Shrug. I missed the stream everyone here was watching. Sorry.

Oh, you're so clever and rebellious. Shoot, Shane Douglas. Shoot.

(those kids pretend, too, at least, so just own your screwup and don't get all "everyone else does it" because while most everyone else does, they're savvy enough to cover it up.)

I think the Bodydonnas being on there is much more laughable than Miz and Morrison.

Alright, so we've got Punk/Bryan set up for Over the Limit. This seems as good a time as any to ask the biggest question I've had for the past few months...

Why did Jericho come back?

We were all conditioned to think he had some grand plan, but it's ended up being a cluster of vignettes that went nowhere, baffling booking decisions, and a light-up jacket. I mean, let's be fair, those vignettes that aired were pretty good. They were intriguing, setting up a character that, frankly, never appeared. Oh, and I'm talking about a Jericho persona there, not the 'her' that also never showed up. It's like they had some cool ideas for a series of videos, but never bothered to come up with anything after that.

So, he debuts and has a light-up jacket. He doesn't talk, which really gets people going. Some love it and think it's the most brilliant thing in years, but others despise it. Still, it gets people's attention. No one knows the point of this, but then he speaks. One line. End of the world, all that.

... and then the Rumble happened. To anyone watching the match, it becomes painfully clear that Sheamus is going to win. For ten minutes, these two guys battled, but the outcome seemed obvious. Was it a Russo-eque swerve? Was it planned? What the was the end of the world as we know it? I'm inclined to believe it was the first option, only because it became pretty obvious that no one had bothered to write a storyline to bring a Punk/Jericho match about for Mania. Sure, those last two weeks of promos were decent, but the weeks immediately following the Rumble were just drifting.

The biggest gripe there, of course, is that he started talking. Once that happened, he instantly just became the same Jericho that had left, just with a light-up jacket. Then, he lost every big match. Everytime there was a chance to get some heat on him, he came up short. He lost the Rumble. He lost to Punk. He lost to Punk again. What should have been a great (albeit recycled) storyline was neutered because the crowd no longer thinks Jericho is going to win. The Punk/Bryan set-up seems to indicate that Punk/Jericho, as a story, is over.

So, again, I ask... what was the point? Was the past few months worth him returning? Has he hurt his 'brand', as it were, by having a disappointing run?

Or, is it a case of him not living up to entirely fan-created expectations? Did we expect too much? I'll speak for myself, but there also seemed to be a large portion of the IWC who assumed that Jericho was coming back because he had a great idea. Something different, something new. Something that wasn't just his heel persona with a light-up jacket. In fairness, his 2007 (2008?) return was awful, but most of that has been erased in people's minds by his amazing heel turn and run. Why did we expect something special this time? Those videos didn't help ease speculation. His non-verbal trolling didn't dispel the notion. His insistence online that people should shut up and just 'wait and see' certainly didn't dilute the thought process. But... there was nothing. It was last-run heel Jericho again, now with light-up action!

Anyway, sorry for the essay, but I've been thinking about this a lot. Am I the only one who doesn't really understand why he came back? Was I expecting too much? Or, maybe a better question is... is anyone *not* disappointed in how his return has gone? I'm honestly curious.

In his last return, a shitty couple of months was then erased by arguably the best work of his career. This time, though, his entire return is already halfway (or more) over. Is that enough time to turn this around? I really don't know. A bigger question is whether this was a misfire on Jericho's part, or was this just utterly derailed by WWE?

Originally Posted by KaneRobot I didn't see it on the WWE web shop and I'd be pretty shocked if WWE bothered to get the rights to use the Crimson Ghost on a shirt, so I'm assuming it's just something Punk wore for that one match.

Originally Posted by JJSP It's a shirt that Bridge 9 put out a while back. I think they've reprinted them a couple of times - they pop up on eBay from time to time.

Bridge 9 is capitalizing on the slight promotion of their shirt and has rereleased the shirt Punk was wearing its going for $15:

http://www.b9store.com/product/2592

I think they get a Bryan/Punk/Jericho triple threat going at the June or July PPV before he leaves.

To me the trolling is the entire gimmick now between the non-verbal stuff and then all of the CM Punk/alcohol tirades. Personally I think Jericho is at the point where he will always be considered a threat to win regardless of his win/loss record - though he should have won the Rumble just because it would have been easier to get the hype rolling for the match.

Originally Posted by 007 Why did we expect something special this time? Those videos didn't help ease speculation. His non-verbal trolling didn't dispel the notion. His insistence online that people should shut up and just 'wait and see' certainly didn't dilute the thought process. But... there was nothing. It was last-run heel Jericho again, now with light-up action!

Ever since Christian got...Christian'd...with the Big Gold Belt, anytime I read a wrestler say "just wait and see," they're really saying "maybe we'll come up with an awesome explanation, but for right now we ain't got squat."

I don't know that Jericho's been a disappointment. His angle w/ Punk was solid, and the matches were very good, I hear (I still haven't seen either).

Jericho seemed to intimate that he would reinvent himself, and he didn't - that might be the source of disappointment. I can grant you that. The "End of the World" vignettes didn't really pan out, and that is indeed a source of frustration, sure. WWE wouldn't be much different right now if Jericho hadn't returned at all - and that can be a peculiar thing to wrap your mind around.

In Jericho's first book (I think it was) he talked about how he lost that "Career" match against Cena in (I think) 2005 which basically retired Jericho for a long time.

People were upset with the WWE because to them, it seemed like a slight to Jericho. In his book, Jericho said that being dragged out of the building, crying, looking like a bitch was exactly the way he wanted it to go because he was the heel in the feud.

That speaks volumes to me about his character and his willingness to set ego aside for the greater good of the company and in that particular case, Cena.

I guess in the end, I'm happy because Jericho is happy. He's long since made his peace with life and pro-wrestling and anything he contributes at this point, I think he's doing simply because he genuinely wants to.