I think he sells it well (mid-show his twitter sent out legal warnings "from the Cosmic Court" to Apollo Crews warning him not to call him Cody) but hasn't had a storyline to play off of in awhile.

I wonder if, long-term, the talk show will help even out Ambrose's character. He's always hopped across the line between "real violent" and "silly violent". I bet the show would ultimately give him a platform for WWE to write the "silly crazy" stuff they seem to love, then he can be seriously threatening when his…

Maryse's reaction after Cesaro's "Jackass" line MADE that segment for me.

Funny note: the Cheap Heat podcast interviewed New Day during Wrestlemania weekend and got to the subject of Bernie Sanders. I think Xavier was about to get into some very passionately pro-Bernie stuff before E and Kofi were like, "No! No! We're not supposed to talk politics! That was, like, the *first thing* they…

I think this is the first time they've gotten mic time on RAW, in addition to most of their main roster activity being confined to Smackdown. And they had to be in a segment with insanely over New Day and Enzo & Cass. They're great on the mic, but all those factors are like living through a monsoon in a cheap poncho.

Yeah but the Booty O's weren't (presumably) going in anyone's mouths.

God, it would be insane to use actual food as a prop for this purpose, right?

Oh absolutely. But knowing what's going to happen and experiencing it in real time can be very different. Foley's kids knew what their dad was up to, too.

That's a relief. So I guess Styles has a chance to go over at Payback.

Judging by some of the reaction shots from his kids, that's the last time they'll want to see him wrestle.

It would be nearly impossible to get the word out to everyone in an arena to do something like that. The boos will win.

Exactly. They could have gotten the crowd more on their side with something explosive and quick (the pops with that announce table neckbreaker and Steph getting speared!) but they went with… working Reigns' arm with submissions for like half the match? And then Reigns no sold it and speared his way to the title…

Disagree with that. She gets to do a ton of stuff for them in terms of public appearances, publicity and extracurricular roles (acting, modeling, voice acting). She's still very over, but they've been focusing on Charlotte/Becky/Sasha. It's kind of disappointing since she and Emma were early standouts in NXT, but…

At least Triple H only works with main event (or main event-ish, like Ambrose and Ziggler) talent now and will actually work a match with them. Rock shows up once a year, neuters someone verbally and physically dominates them with two moves and then disappears for another year. Ugh.

One of those Manias that were booked right (and both had a lot of nostalgia trumping the future) was booked that way with the entire company kicking, screaming, crying and clawing against it the whole way.

The thing is, Styles and Jericho have been having matches for a few months now. I don't know what the win-loss record is, but I think we're at 3-1 in Jericho's favor. I think they're two guys who have enough chemistry to do at least a 3-star match in their sleep, but I kind of don't ever want to see them wrestle each…

Yeah. People recognize it! The set up gets a pop! And he's hit it twice successfully (…and the first one was on Smackdown, for gosh sakes), and it's gotten a 2 count each time. Awful.

The match would have been significantly less disappointing if they hadn't done that. They promised carnage and Dean Ambrose refusing to give up, and… told THAT story during Shane/Taker.

WWE has a pretty good relationship with TMZ (like sometimes they'll leak news to them for mainstream attention), so that could have been arranged.

Two of the most filler-looking matches (the Andre the Giant Battle Royale and the Divas Tag Clusterf*ck) look like they're happening on the pre-show at least.