As a moment of wrestling fandom, it just absolutely killed me that Alex Riley visually looked like a poor man's Miz in this episode. Also it was somewhat touching that even here it felt like he was trying way too hard.

That Enzo/Cass segment was brilliantly executed and I thought Enzo did a great job in explaining why he would be willing to forgive Cass and trying to win him back. And as Cass did the apology, they were smart in dragging the betrayal for so long that I actually for a moment wondered if they were actually having the…

As down as I am on Lesnar generally, I have to give him a lot of credit for taking the Coquina clutch like he did. For his face to get that color means that Samoa Joe had to be legitimately choking him out so kudos to Lesnar.

There is no way LaVar didn't go heavily off-script in that MizTV segment and, while there was some enjoyment watching that car wreck, it really hurt putting over anyone else in the segment. Although, as the recap points out, LaVar has never been about that to begin with.

I mean look at the way the Harlem Heat was first introduced at the beginning to 90s as being a part of a chain gang controlled by a dude that looked like a southern plantation owner. Nobody looking at that went that it was shocking to the system.

Carmen's dad was such a delight in this episode as, like mentioned in the review, he was this overbearing presence, but is also shown as someone who understands what he is talking about. However, and I mentioned this in the first episode recap, what makes this all so tragic is that there was an actual buildup during…

Something I appreciate is that even when the show tries to get your sympathies for these characters, it continues to remind us that they are not perfect and many are actually somewhat selfish. I thought the Sheila/Ruth discussion was a great example of this as Sheila finally explained her feelings and Ruth did her…

An obviously biased stance from a Reggie mark. Creative clearly just saw the gimmick work better with Debbie, completely independent of her own input, and then gave Reggie a clear main event level character. Not that that primadonna can appreciate that and is probably already contacting the dirt sheets about this.

By the way, to those interested and with an hour to kill, the original GLOW pilot is on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/wat… and it is just insane. For example, as staggeringly,and inspiringly, racist the Wellfare Queen, it still at least more creative than the blatant racism in the very first match of the pilot. In…

I thought Alison Brie was just superb in this episode. Just the way Ruth acted around Debbie across several scenes told so much about their relationship. Additionally Debbie's tearful admission that she had no one to unburden to really drove hom that Ruth was Debbie's only friend as well, which made that betrayal so…

You know, when Bash criticized Sam's post-apocalyptic vision as being too complex, my first reaction as well was that it was still easier to follow than Lucha Underground. Also damn that producer interface that prevents Sam from creating true art which has hidden depths.

That moment where Sam just knew why Debbie had left Paradise Cove was so brilliant as I thought it hit so much harder on the difficulties of being a female actor in that era than what we saw with Ruth in the previous episode. For Ruth, everything she experiences is because they don't write good female characters,…

I don't think I've ever met an actually interesting person who would describe their special skill of not being boring. The moment she did at the special skill part was the point I was rolling my eyes so hard at Melrose.

As a minor sidenote on the show, while I completely understand why it wasn't feasible, I am actually really bummed that they couldn't have Ashley Fliehr or Mercedes Kaestner-Varnado even do a cameo, let alone a longer guest starring role. I don't know why, but it would just feel so fitting to see those two here in any…

I think setting the show to mid-eighties is a brilliant time, not just because of the fashion or that GLOW did take place then, but that was the era was really the era of big personalities without the flashy moves. It was also the closest women's wrestling got to breaking through before the current era as Wendy…

And of course Ruth saw herself as Valjean. Was there even any doubt of that. It also cemented to me why she is such a great heel. She is utterly convinced she's the hero of the story despite the several red flags signaling against that interpretation.

The moment where Ruth ripped off Les Mis to provide motivation for the hair snap move was so brilliant and told the audience so much about the character, especially that not only was she an Artiste, she was the worst kind of an Artiste. I also like that the show never explicitely told us that she was using Les Mis,…

Not disagreeing at all, especially when that big moment was as deflating as this one was. Some of the theories I've seen is that they were doing it for the ratings, which is probably at least partially true.

On a positive side, this was probably the best SDL since Mania, and perhaps even before that, as everything just flowed. There was an energy in this episode and even more importantly, for the first time in a long time they tried to convey us who we should care about instead of just throwing everyone out there at once.

My current favorite theory is that this was a panicky backpedaling move from WWE despite them starting to hint at the repercussions directly after the match. I agree with the review that they almost certainly had this response planned from the start.