Pro Grapplers

Wow! What a week! Raw was ... well, Raw was bad. SmackDown was ... I mean, Carmella and Truth had some fun, and Rusev Day are closer to being champs, but it wasn't great, either. At least the Mae Young Classic debuted with some awesome match-ups! Oh, and All In is in the books, and we officially need more dong druids in our lives. Also, Stephen Amell is shockingly good to pro wrestling, Cody Rhodes is emotional (and rightfully so), Jason was unimpressed with all the major dudes he was supposed to be impressed with, and Rey Mysterio was Wolverine. All In all (heh heh), not a bad week!

Will a WWE without KO really be that different than it was before? We'll find out! We talk about the fallout, our hopes/dreams, plus: where Strowman's allegiances truly lie, Regal steps up his investigatory game, Dunne/Ricochet promise amazing fireworks, King Booker helps ring in the five-time champs, The Bar has it easier than Rusev Day, please clap for The Tryhard Jeff Hardy, Tye contemplates his life, Almas/Vega make great foils for Bryan and ... someone else, Joe should offer to bring something to the BBQ, and Becky Lynch is the most over star in WWE right now, full stop.

SummerSlam weekend has come and gone and we have seen some amazing things in the last week! Roman is champ! Seth is champ! Braun wants to be champ so bad that the Shield had to return to stop him! Ricochet got kicked in the neck! Dream called out Vince on his butt! Gargano did something dumb! Joe is a friggin' maniac! Charlotte is a bad friend! Becky is truly hot fire! Rowan got injured and New Day are champs again! The Demon returned and freaked out the manager at TGIFriday's! Rousey is champ and Steph is mad (again)! And the guys on 205 Live are STILL killing it!

It's hot, it's August, so it must be time for SUMMERSLAM! And the fourth edition of TAKEOVER: BROOKLYN! Our predictions for the big weekend: We may finally Dispute the Era, EC3 and Dream are delightfully weird and wonderful, Shayna still has Kairi's number, Gargano will reluctantly take the strap, TOP GUYS WIN THE TOP PRIZE, Almas and Vega postpone Rusev Day, Charlotte probably keeps the division going as champ, Bryan/Miz is perfect and nothing can ruin it, Joe's gonna kill AJ, Owens has to win (right?), Lesnar/Reigns holds so much potential we don't care what happens, Hardy is broken (but not in the fun way) and Nak should retain amidst Randy's ... issues, even Steve is done with caring about the Bludgies, and Rousey's time is now.

Two weeks out from The Greatest Slam Of The Summer and we're focusing on Raw and NXT! Who won? Who lost? Who sang? Who's insane? Who's still reading magazines? Who's still bullying Jeff Hardy? Who got their own announcer's desk? (Who? Who? WHO!) Who looks silly with a jacket and no pants? And who taunted an old lady with their new championship? The answers might surprise you and can be found in this very episode!

We're in week two of the 57 week build-up for SummerSlam, so we thought we'd take a moment and recognize the work of the lesser-recognized superstars of WWE, the brave men and women who fill the rosters of 205 Live, NXT, and Main Event. Among our topics this week: Evolution will be rad and we're already tired of hearing about it, Joe is the best, The Miz is the worst (but best), please just do the damn Roman thing already, Lacey Evans isn't there yet, the Undisputed Era has been there for a while, Ciampa is the champ we deserve (and need), Tozawa's bound for a concussion, Gulak is next, and don't worry, you're completely, 100% safe to skip Main Event.

The rules, they were Extreme! And the week, it was ... ok? Little Jeff Hardy got treated like trash, Roman and Bob can't decide who is the bigger dog, Nak finally got his title, Sasha and Bayley love each other, Rusev is indeed the real deal, Becky's getting hers, Asuka is a dullard, the B-Team is legitimized, Team Hell No is ... done?, The Revival are doomed, NXT is still amazing, Sarah Logan is now a viking, and Miz and Mrs. starts this week!

This week, the Amazin' one put NXT and 205 Live at the top of the show because they wouldn't otherwise get mentioned in the Extreme Rules pre-breakdown. Who will amaze us? (Ziggler/Rollins and Team Hell No) Who will let us down? (Strowman/Owens, Asuka/Carmella, and Hardy/Nakamura) And who will be the worst? (Reigns/Lashley, says The Shinkicker, but Jason disagrees) Tune in Sunday and see if they're right! About anything!

WWE's UK tourney kicked off the week with hours of superb content, featuring lots of names Jason wasn't familiar with. Booked to Perfection this week includes the Deleters/B-Team beef, Bayley finally coming to her bottle-chucking senses, Todd the cheeseburger guy, and Team Hell No's comeback. Meanwhile, we decided to Grapple With KO and Braun's friendship and Nakamura wrestling a dog, featuring the return of Bob Barker to the WWE! Also, a new segment called Do We Care searches our feelings about Roman's dual program, AoP's return involving bullying, the Raw Women's title picture, Sanity's main roster run so far, and Asuka vs. Ellsworth.

TakeOver! Money in the Bank! Raw! SmackDown! It's all here in this episode, including our thoughts on the whole package, like: Will Gargano and Ciampa fight again? Is Dream the real deal? Can Rollins get over himself and win back his title? Will Ronda ever really be a badass? Can we stop putting Roman with other people we're tired of? Can we not say Mr. Monster in the Bank ever again? How great is Bo's Wyatt? GAUNTLET MATCHS RULE!!! And finally, we bid adieu to Big Cass' big ass, hope for the best for Sami, and get ready for ANOTHER WWE TOURNAMENT GOOD LORD STOP JUST STOP

It's TakeOver/MITB weekend and there's a lot of matches to talk about! For TakeOver, Cross/Baszler should be entertaining, Ricochet/Dream features two men who are currently bulletproof, Lars Sullivan will try to make us forget he sounds like a dweeb, and Gargano/Ciampa should be an ugly affair. On the MITB side: the tag titles are here to waste everyone's time, we hope Sami and Daniel get to move onto literally anything else, we can't be bothered to pick a favorite for Reigns/Mahal, Rollins should elevate Elias, Natalya should win MITB and cash-in on her BFF, Ellsworth could be around, do whatever it takes to finally get the title on Nakamura, and Balor or Miz should take the men's MITB. Tune in and enjoy!

We're nearly at Money in the Bank time, and we're spinning our wheels so fast the dust that's kicked up is choking our momentum! Or something. Raw disappointed with huge steps backwards for the Jax/Rousey beef, a largely unearned title shot for the B-Team, and Bobby Lashley wasting Sami's precious time. Good thing SmackDown brought it, with a good Nakamura goof, an MMC-inspired tag match, and another great New Day match (and jokes to boot). One more week until things matter again!

We're back! And we celebrate our return with a trip to Raw. That's right, Jason went to Raw, live, in Richmond, VA, and he's reporting on everything: Strowman's true status with the crowd (molten), Jason's failure to be one of Wyatt's fireflies, hating McIntyre's theme while not being a hater on bagpipes, the biggest pop of the night (Mickie James, hometown heroine), and why Rhyno was the true champion of the night. Decidedly less personally-live was SmackDown, which featured Bar-Miz-Vah being your new favorite team-up, Almas denying a bro in Sin Cara, and a dance-off with actual, good dancing. Still, we think the Bludgies could magic-hack better things and Karl "Abs" Anderson should find more fit-friendly buddies. Only 32 more weeks to Money In The Bank, everyone!

Welcome to our Backlash post-post show-show, Backwash! Why aren't both Nak and Styles wearing protection by now? And was Miz vs. Rollins the only highlight from the show? Who cares, we're moving on to that sweet, sweet greener pasture that is Money in the Bank! The qualifiers this week produced some memorable matches already, as well as plenty of things to grapple with. Steve books the next few years of Goldust's career as well as an addition to the next TLC PPV, while Jason doesn't have much more for Ryder to do and would love to see Lana and English fight over Rusev's MITB briefcase. All that, plus a recommendation to look up Buddy Murphy's latest 205 Live match with Ali that tore the house down. MATCH OF THE WEEK NO DOUBT

Steve is grappling with bringing Breezango vs. The Revival to Raw and improving Cass' next shot at greatness while Jason helps Titus slide into popularity and books the New Day vs. The Bar Mortal Kombat feud that everyone wants. Both guys agree that Joe remains the hottest thing going lately and want all future shows to consider Montreal for their location. All that, plus Backlash predictions like: Are Miz and Cass together? Will that affect his match with Rollins? Will Lashley turn on Strowman? Will we care about Orton or Hardy? Can we please let 'Mella keep her title? Will Roman stop moping and get to punching? And does the No DQ stip favor Nakamura?

We've seen the Greatest Royal Rumble and we're taking a cue from post-Mania WWE and shaking things up! Steve and Jason take turns Grappling With stuff they think could be better, while also calling out bits that are Booked To Perfection. This includes: repackaging the Deleter of Worlds, the reinvention of Drew Goulash (Gulag?), the perfection of Ziggler + McIntyre, the brilliance of the Sami and Kevin Show, Nakamura's obsession with balls (and Rapanese theme!), Cass' very very good rehab, Carmella is a shockingly good heel, a ladder match is awesome, and Braun's new green belt!

It's our fault for missing the week after WrestleMania! So here's everything we talked about (note: this is not, actually, everything we talked about): Cena and Bella call it quits, Nia and Ember are BFF (no, not THAT BFF), Paige is weird then sad then very happy, 'Mella is money, TNA is hiring, many people from NXT got a happy call from the main roster folks recently, Trump's favorite wrestler is back in WWE, Ziggler brought McIntyre to Raw, Ronda is killing it since Mania, and GRR just makes us angry. Stay tuned for way more wrestling than we need, coming very soon!

Did you know the Wrestlemania sign works like those contests where you have to keep your hand on a car to win it? If you stop pointing, you forfeit your shot on the main card. So keep those arms up, because we're nearly there! We ran down both TakeOver and Mania cards and came up with these questions: Do big boys bounce, or break? Does Roman think that's how sex is done? What would the Undisputed Era be like with Cole and Bill O'Reilly? Will Braun get a partner? Will it be Cena? Will Cena DO SOMETHING at the Showcase of the Immortals? Will Rusev bring his tank? Will Shane turn? WILL BRYAN TURN?!?

It's Wrestlemania time, and we've called on our friend, Big Frank Gibson, cartoonist/illustrator and co-host of the This Is Awesome? podcast to help us run it all down. Before he heads down to Nawlins for a week of wrastlin' fun, we run down the TakeOver and Mania cards, in addition to: chatting about Frank's previous Mania trips, NJPW (Frank was there, too), dueling Taker themes from Rock and Durst, and just how taxing it is to try and keep up with all the WWE content from week to week.

It's finally Wrestlemania week and we're starting things off right because Tyler Breeze had a match on TV! Anything can happen now! Also, NXT had an incredibly stacked episode, and TakeOver: Nawlins is officially now a must-see. All that, plus: why Steve plans on pulling a Ferris Bueller on his family, are Shane's tummy troubles legit, the Miz continues to be a highlight unto himself, envisioning more members for the Miztourage, Mojo goes to church, why Jason thinks he could beat Mike Tyson, Charlotte vs. Asuka BEFORE Wrestlemania, and 205 Live continues to build to things despite not having a title/challenger to go after yet. Lie to your loved ones and lock yourself in the closet: it's Wrestlemania time!