Both Cesaro and Sami have their limitations as a promo (which, again, was never really Daniel Bryan's strongest suit either), though obviously Cesaro is a bit further behind on that. If Vince McMahon would relax his policy on managers (and, ya know, Cesaro not just be paired with Paul Heyman as a subsidiary of some…

I kind of take Samoa Joe at his word when he says he's nobody's puppet. We'll see how things play out, of course, but he seems like a different beast than Seth or even KO — he's his own destroyer of a man, and Triple H is going to find that out the hard way sooner or later.

I mean, didn't Sasha Banks just even the odds in that match after Dana Brooke pulled her same old shit to help Charlotte? I get that the show isn't really hammering that point home, but that's not an entirely fair thing to elide.

I agree with most of this, honestly. I think — and I believe this comes across in the review — I'm just glad to see a show even *try* to be political when it isn't normally, in hopes it can get better at it in the future, and so I'm willing to grade this a bit more on potential than execution (like I might an episode…

He wouldn't be so completely shit at fighting if he were perfect, surely…

I could offer a better defense of Susan as "terrible person, good reporter" if she weren't sleeping with him, admittedly. I mostly just like to push back against the idea that being a good journalist and a good person are necessarily the same thing, although I do try to be both as much as possible.

I rarely have time for a second viewing, to be honest. I do try mostly to focus just on what's the screen, though this isn't consistent — if I do happen to come across some behind-the-scenes thing, I will include it for sake of context.

I think Susan might be a pretty good reporter! She's clearly working on a hell of a scoop with respect to Oliver being the Green Arrow, though we can certainly argue all manner of ethical lines she's breaching by dating someone she's obviously reporting on. But if one's fundamental definition of reporter is "someone…

I guess I'd have to rewatch, but I didn't really take rudeness as her primary objection, though for sure that was in there. The whole episode was didactic, so all the characters felt a *bit* off, but I didn't find Felicity too far out of character. As you say, though, YMMV.

At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if that whole plotline got Flashpointed out of the timestream. Either way, the show *really* clearly wishes it had never done that storyline.

I read that less as her not having an opinion and more her being the type who doesn't like "needlessly" combative, "pointless" debates, especially when she's trying to actually get things done.

I feel like "lawyering" refers to things that TV lawyers do that have the vague appearance of law-related stuff. If he actually, like, filed a motion or something, I'd probably say he did "legal work."

Ranallo (esp. 205 Live Ranallo) and Phillips are both pretty good, though obviously not in the same universe as JR in his prime.

An admittedly somewhat dopey Alicia Fox angle isn't really the equivalent of being surrounded by flames, though. More like a slightly underripe tomato in a sandwich, or something.

Eh, I think it's fine. I also think most things are fine, though.

With Alicia Fox and the Cruiserweight stories in general, I think there's still good reason to grade these things on a pretty generous curve, given 205 Live is still in its infancy. The fact that the Dar/Alexander/Fox business is at least memorable counts for something, even if it's still a decent ways from good. The…

I actually think this is *fairly* straightforward: Wrestlers this year have declared their Rumble entry, and a GM or commish has approved it (sometimes on-screen, sometimes implicitly off-screen). Zayn just wandered into a Steph trap by being such a goodie two-shoes about proper procedure.

I guess I could have spelled it out more, but yes, "varying ratios of hit or miss" means pretty much exactly that. Though I go back and forth on how good Charlotte is as a promo. Sometimes, she's great! Other times, she's a bit flustered and unnatural in her delivery. Bayley is generally awkward as hell on the mic,…

I mean, you say that, but after this year's OK State-CMU ending, last year's Miami-Duke game, that fifth down game way back when, the Miami-Ohio State championship game, and about a dozen others, I'm not ruling anything out.

A) Yeah, my time watching wrestling postdates all of Nikki's title reigns. Only started with the Royal Rumble 2016, so first time I saw her in action was her SummerSlam return.
B) While that was a sloppy thing to say without knowing more about the specifics of her reigns, the present-day presentation is that she's a…