PREDICTIONS: NXT Takeover Brooklyn 4

Fourth time’s the charm! i 

This could literally be the single greatest TakeOver of all time. I mean, it can’t be beat on paper, so unless things go horribly wrong somehow, I’m very much looking forward to this.

Weekly Wrasslin’ Wroundup (Hey Wrestling Happened Edition)

NONE MORE HEEL.

I haven’t been in the mood to write about wrestling for a couple of weeks, partly because of a deep abiding Farpoint obsession (more on that later) that has now cleared up, but there have been some things happening over the past couple of weeks that need to be addressed. Events, if you will, of Significance.

TOMMASO CIAMPA WINS THE NXT CHAMPIONSHIP

This is huge. Tommaso Ciampa is the greatest heel in at least a decade. He is the closest anyone has come to being stabbed by a front row old lady since kayfabe died. And I was thinking this BEFORE Ciampa literally got into it with an old lady in the front row of Full Sail this week. Despite losing nine months of heat due to an injury right as they broke up DIY, Ciampa has managed to minimize even Full Sail smark tendencies to get the boos to 90/10, and the intensity of those boos up to a 12. It’s insane. And now he holds the belt heading into Takeover Brooklyn, one of the hottest Takeovers of the year.

EVOLUTION, THE ALL WOMEN’S PPV

This is a good thing. I like this thing. I hate the way they talk about it in WWE. It’s simultaneously self-aggrandizing and patronizing to the talent. Plus it’s so heavy-handed with the “say this thing that nobody would ever say in this way to satisfy branding requirements” that it’s grating. But I’m looking forward to the show.

REIGNS-LESNAR AT SUMMERSLAM

They are literally doing everything short of having Brock Lesnar eat a puppy in the center of the ring to get people to hate him and cheer Roman Reigns for beating him, and it’s sort of working? I mean, we want anyone to take the belt off Lesnar at this point, even if Reigns is at the bottom of the list. Well, near the bottom of the list. He’s above Lashley and James Ellsworth.

CARMELLA-LYNCH-CHARLOTTE AT SUMMERSLAM

This is disappointing, because they’ve been building Becky Lynch up great for a couple of months now. She gets a shot at Carmella’s title, and then they add Charlotte to the match immediately upon her return from minor surgery. I honestly wanted Lynch to interfere in Charlotte’s qualifying match, but it’ll be interesting to see if they do anything with this dynamic over the next couple of weeks.

SANE-BASZLER AT TAKEOVER

In a Mae Young Classic rematch, Kairi Sane and Shayna Baszler will go at it for the NXT Women’s Title at Takeover Brooklyn. Should be another great match, even if I don’t see Sane winning.

MOUSTACHE MOUINTAIN VS> UNDISUTED ERA AT TAKEOVER

Seriously, how shit hot is this show going to be?

Extreme Rules 2018

One of the few extreme things on the show.

Extreme Rules was a bad show. People hated Backlash, but I think Extreme Rules may have been worse. Lots of bad matches, bad outcomes, bad returns, and badness. Bad bad bad.

PREDICTIONS: WWE Extreme Rules 2018

Nearly 50% Extreme!

It’s time for Extreme Rules, the PPV where anything goes, as long as you’re in one of the five matches where anything goes! Well, OK, one of the matches is an Iron Man match, so not anything goes. And one match just has a dude in a shark cage, so also many things don’t go. But definitely three matches where anything goes, if you count the pre-show!

MOTHERFUCKING LUCHA UNDERGROUND! (Episodes 5 and 6)

Don’t know why this worked as well as it did, but damn.

Lucha Underground picks up a a ton of steam after an off week, with the consequences of last week’s Three Way To The Grave match playing out against a backdrop of Aztec medallionage and gradually increasing insanity and death.

Weekly Wrasslin’ Wroundup (July 9-11)

Moustache Mountain, or The Knights Who Say Knee

With Extreme Rules on the horizon, it’s time for the secondary shows to pick up the Events Of Significance slack with a pair of important title matches.

Luke Cage Season 2: “Episodes 3 Through 7”

The Internet’s failure to find me a proper Comanche screengrab is disappointing.

The second batch of Luke Cage examples throws plot twists and nigh-Shakespearean tragedy around willy nilly, but it seems to have forgotten the first three episodes happened.