Total Bellas is mostly separate. Naomi was on Total Divas for ages and I'd say this is the most she's been "represented" on the show.

Charisma.

Might have just been WM-related, hometown and all.

Oh, how I missed this.

Somewhat, but it both personalized the "seriously, anyone could be a zombie" thing for Clive (and the viewers!) in a way that hadn't existed before and set the stage for the season. It's plenty convenient, but I thought it worked pretty well and didn't feel exploitative.

I think you can tell a lot about a show's writers' room by the way they handle the first episode of a new season. This episode is yet another demonstration that Rob Thomas and co. are skillful as fuck. They made the pivot seem pretty effortless.

If anyone is going to get Shinsuke over, it's Shinsuke.

"Third, based on the representation, I'd argue that she was the top woman of Smackdown."

They held Balor off Mania because Taker and Balor on the same show would have meant an hour of entrances alone.

Come for the awesomeness of the entire thing, stay for the descriptions of individual wrestlers.

Nakamura's a fucking rock star. I could go on at length about him or link to any number of great matches from Japan, but instead, I'll give you his first match after signing with WWE (debuting in NXT, as opposed to tonight, which was his main roster debut). I feel like it's pretty representative of the full Nakamura…

Welcome back, Evil Emma.

I… guess.

Those need to be his parting words.

Left, right, front and back!

Same, except I did not feel that way about Matt Smith.

Aw, already?

So, this episode seemed pretty much designed to be my favorite of the entire series, and obviously everyone involved is just a phenomenal singer, but uh… I didn't really love this one. :|

Death is failure.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury… I'm just a cult member!"