Holy shiiit, Givet starts?!?!?

I think the Brits were behind a number of the chants on Raw! Cole even mentioned expecting to hear very similar in London in a couple of weeks, so I guess WWE knew that as well.

Nonsense. Replace that crowd with a normal Raw crowd and you have a very standard show. What about this Raw - crowd aside - was so amazing or different? The crowd made this show, the writing didn't, and next week it simply won't be the same. Dolph cashing in was the only notable high point but now that's done, he'll move into a standard fairly boring feud of some sort. Welcome to the modern WWE. They haven't created a star since John Cena and aren't trying to. The characters are mostly boring and the matches are usually pretty lacklustre too.

My sincere condolences, I always had time for his posts and found him a thoroughly likeable poster.

Looks like WM was pretty disappointing. Taker/Punk looked good, HHH/Lesnar decent. The rest...not so much. The ending of Cena/Rock looks cringeworthy, and Cena yelling "THE CHAMP IS HERE" to end the biggest PPV in 2013 the same way WWE ended most PPVs in 2007 is just sad. About time people turned away from WWE and started watching the alternative - TNA. Then maybe Vince would get the kick up the arse required to shake the company out of its decline.

As someone said in the March review thread, if Toogs had scored some of those goals for a team like United, Chelsea or Arsenal we'd still be hearing about them today. We were privileged to have had him at the club for so long.

When was the last time you watched it?

Yeah, he's not old enough yet to be without any physical power, but you wouldn't want to see him wrestle any more. He's always been charismatic on the mic, and Sting bounces well off him in a similar kind of role, but with a bit more active participation. Sting still looks decent in the ring though so it's fine. I can't recommend TNA enough at the moment. It's light-years ahead of WWE in terms of entertainment for me. I genuinely think if more people knew about TNA it would be a proper competitor. Hopefully going on the road will give them the boost they need.

Hulk's steroid trial was in the early 90's. He's had back problems recently but surgery seems to have healed him up pretty well. There's no way he should be wrestling at his age, but nothing wrong with him contributing as a GM or manager.

Hogan looked old when he was in his prime to be fair

Hulk's into his sixties now. He's just a GM these days, hasn't wrestled in some time. Hopefully it stays that way. Sting still wrestles semi-regularly though.

TNA are really on a roll at the moment. I loved this week's Impact, it was very well done. They're miles ahead of WWE at the moment IMO, it's a shame they aren't on a bigger network with more exposure. They could be legitimate competition for WWE at this point, the product is at that level. Moving out of the Impact Zone has done wonders for them as well. The crowd is just so much better, the arena looks and feels bigger. I know Sting and Hogan are old these days, but this promo was superb. These guys can still go on the mic.

Have read that he was intoxicated, said he was going to "knock the hepititus out of Nigel" - or words to that effect. Called Kevin Kelly a "fat idiot" or something similar. Pretty classless tbh. I'm guessing there are underlying issues there that we're not privy to.

If only he was true to his word and stuck to his rambling blog. Anyhow, I came across Charlie Haas' bizarre ROH retirement the other day. Basically went a bit crazy, having a go at various people on and off the mic. Completely unexpected, impromptu retirement. Obviously in wrestling retirements are rarely permanent but I think in this case it might well be. The fella had a serious breakdown by the looks of things.

Thought the go-home Raw last night was really really weak. Ending segment with Taker/Punk was just sad. Has made me decide against ordering WM this year. It's been so poorly built up to that I don't feel WWE deserves my money. I'll check the results afterwards and see if it's worth catching a replay of at some point - though still highly unlikely I'll pay to watch any of it.

Very sad. Reid has had some serious heroin issues... have to assume drugs are the cause.

According to Powell @ prowrestling.net X-Pac DID go to the after party, despite having quite literally torn his anus to shreds. I'd believe him on the basis he speaks with Waltman fairly regularly.

IMO it's a pretty weak WrestleMania this year. It'll only be saved if Cena turns heel at the end. If he wins clean and doesn't turn it'll be the crappiest end to a WrestleMania... possibly ever. Also, X-Pac tore his anus open at the weekend doing a bronco buster

Which is pretty much why he did the smart thing and quit rather than get repeatedly humiliated by superior opponents.

It also ruined one of the greatest WrestleMania moments of all time - when he and Eddie hugged in tears after winning their respective world titles.

Aye, that was pretty bad too. I just remembered in '97 they also interviewed Pillman's wife after he died and really went into tasteless territory there too. They do have a history of it, and for all WCW's faults the one thing I never remember them doing is mocking or exploiting the death of a wrestler. Though they did make a storyline out of Scott Hall's descent into serious alcoholism and substance abuse, and mocked JR's bells palsy, so... suffice to say wrestling in general is rarely a classy business.

Put me off Smackdown entirely to be honest, I never really watched it again after that.

JR mentioned earlier this week that he was uncomfortable with the direction the feud had taken and I agree with him tbh. HOWEVER, it's nowhere near as bad as how WWE horrendously exploited Eddie Guerrero's death. That was sickening, and a real low point for the company as a whole.

It's made the match redundant. There's no way Taker is going to lose now, so why bother watching it? I was fine with Punk doing it in the first week to get some heat, but there's no need to keep doing it. It's cheap and lazy. What would they have done if Bearer hadn't died?