The Buffalo Returns - Omega in wrestling gear again is definitely a cool moment. It seems like kind of a cop-out for him to suddenly have a partner... I was kind of looking forward to seeing Omega in a righteous struggle against the evil Disciples, but eh. Someone who hates Hess as much as Omega? That can only be Sean Knight, although there are plenty of other people with cause to hate Hess!
Luck of the Draw - Pfft, does Drake Bernard even KNOW who Buck is?!
Lmao, the munging again! Pretty funny segment, I love Burke's "why did I do this?" line. Zaid gets to fight for #25? Everything's coming up roses for that guy!
Zaid vs. ??? - "Gia DiFiero’s future ex boy toy" fabulous
I liked Johnny coming out with a head full of steam - makes perfect sense given his storyline with Zaid so far. Good job on the commentary too, selling the fact that Johnny is so concerned with beating up Zaid that he doesn't realize what's at stake. I like the ending too, perfectly fits with Zaid's character to get the sneaky rollup there. I really hope Valentino and Zaid are in the ring at the same time during Escalation, but if not I definitely hope to see this feud continue after the PPV. It's been a lot of fun so far.
Play Time's Over - While I think The Master has been kind of corny so far, he had a pretty funny line in regards to the announcers not learning his opponent's name last week, haha. I'm still not really sure what The Master's deal is, but it seems as though he's going for a super serious technical wrestling gimmick. We'll have to wait and see how that works out.
Magnum vs Orion - Hope ya'll enjoyed my debut, and I hope Bret's satisfied with how I wrote his character!
4/3/2 - I like that Burke is dealing directly with the tag teams as well, typically authority figures really only get invested in the main title so it's cool to have a segment like this. Two out of three falls? That should be a good one. BTW, Dale is fantastic.... I love the God's Favorite Wrestler thing.
Conduit for Pain[/b ] - Ha, nice throwback to Foster's old nickname in the title there. Foster seems more British than ever before "Lucky for him I'm a fucking lovely bloke," fantastic. Good segment. Foster's really come into his own as a face.
[b]Foster/Miller - More viciousness from Miller here. I think the beatdown went just a bit over the top, but Miller is looking like a bigger threat at this point than he ever has in his career so he's got that going in his favor. Not sure what to make of Miller's one spoken line, or this whole storyline in general at this point... I think it'll be one of those things where I'll only be able to assess how I feel about it after it's all over, because Miller's intentions/potential accomplices/etc are still complete unknowns. At this point I'm just ready for answers, so I hope we get them at Escalation.
Enmascarado - YES PORKCHOP! Welcome dude! Always exciting to have newbies. Pretty good introductory promo, looking forward to seeing what he can do in front of a live audience. Looks like he'll be coming in as a heel?
Daaaazzzz - Daz still has the best entrance music in the fed, not even a contest. Other than "Diamond Eyes" it was my favorite in WCSF too. Daz just comes across as such a natural champion, and this promo really changed my mind to the point where I now think he'll be coming out of Escalation to the title. The way he works the mic, the naturally appealing face nature he has, he's everything that you want in a face of the company figure. I also love the narrative we're getting now of a beat up, aging Daz. We started to see that a bit in WCSF, but now you're really starting to get the feeling that this is a Daz who knows he's entered the back side of his career. Although I think it's a bit naive of Daz to think he won't have to change his strategy in an over the top rope battle royal... he's one of the smaller guys around, after all, and won't be able to rely on his ability to wear people down with submissions and holds quite as much. Now for the Kaiser stuff. That interruption was gold, and the "everyone gets treated equally except Kaiser Cavanah" line was classic heel stuff. It seems to me that I really don't know much about Haynes yet. I think he needs some more mic time. The announcers say he could be a threat, but I really don't see it.
A True Savior/Main Event - Yeah, totally called that Sean Knight thing
I still really wish that Omega would have just stuck to the handicap match thing. I think it would have suited his character to want to tough it out himself, and would have added another level of desperation to his storyline. Not that I don't like the idea of Omega and Knight teaming up, I just think the decision was a little strange to suddenly forgo that stipulation, and I'm not buying Hess and Barry's reason for letting Omega suddenly switch things up. NEVERTHELESS, on to the main event. You could definitely feel the intensity here, both from the stiffness of the moves to the commentary. I think the "ring rust" storyline was a bit underplayed here with Omega though. Considering he was basically retired before this match, that should probably have factored a lot more into the action of the match and there was barely a reference to it.
Knight screwing Omega, however, is a huge shock to me. I didn't see that coming at ALL. Why would Knight join the Disciples, especially given his history with Hess? Doesn't seem to make sense, but I'm sure there's an explanation that I'm looking forward to getting. This group has suddenly become more potent, to be sure. But definitely a weird moment, and a crazy way to end the final show heading into Escalation.
With Knight's turn and Enmascarado seemingly being a heel, it seems as though we've got a bit of a heel/face imbalance here. But given this nugget:
"The time has almost arrived. The exile, almost over. Soon… he returns."
It seems as though we're about to get someone return at Escalation, and I honestly don't know who it'll be. I'd personally love it to be Frazier, but I have my doubts that Taj would come back. And I'd be even more surprised if any of the other former writers around here (Aky, Steve, Tom) would come back. I could see Pete coming back, but with what character? Neither of his former characters really fit that phrase. Viazon doesn't fit that phrase at all either. I dunno, I have no clue, but hopefully whoever it is, they're a face
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My winners for the week:
1) Daz. I've got him winning the title now, and while I wouldn't be at all surprised if I'm completely wrong about that, I do feel pretty good about that pick.
2) Spencer Miller. The jury's out on this storyline still, but there's no doubt that the new attitude has done him some good.
3) ESCALATION. I'm really pumped for this. So many different possibilities for the winner and the fallout, it's going to be pretty great.