The Powerbombcast Episode 25: High Fliers and Lowliers

Great podcast! Loved hearing the folks talk so highly about the CWC - it really it one of the best things WWE has produced in recent years.

Outside of CWC, the only things I watch in full are PPVs and NXT. Raw and Smackdown have been recap/youtube fodder for a while - I can't imagine adding another 5 hours of wrestling to my life.

Man I totally missed that. Really cool though!

AJ Styles, the face that runs the place is champion and he was mentioned once.

Didn't realize Gallagher was a Duder, that's awesome. He was one of my favorite parts of the CWC.

@fram I'm with you, I don't think I've seen a full Raw or Smackdown since the Draft, and before that was probably longer. I'll throw it on in the background sometimes but it's just too much.

Raw has been disappointing since the brand split but I feel Smackdown has been awesome. Completely must see TV for a WWE fan and more deserving of being the flagship show than RAW currently

Listening now. Just a hit a spot where they think the brand-specific PPVs are only on the Network. Turns out they are not, so there would have been people that paid $55 to watch an Orton match they did not get.

I know one of the big talking points of this episode is too much wrestling (and I too watch too much wrestling, with ROH TV, Lucha Underground, EVOLVE, PWG, and PROGRESS on top of WWE's shows), but I just wanted to say that the most glossed over show talked about on this episode, Backlash, was much better than SummerSlam I thought. WWE World Champion AJ Styles. Think about if you could travel back five-to-ten years ago and tell everyone that the top title holders in WWE are him and Kevin Steen, or any of the other people that have held the title recently or have been in a WWE ring. It'd blow an ROH fan's mind.

He just happens to look like a smaller, mustachioed Conan O'Brien, like a version of his old-timey boxer character from the first time he hosted SNL.

Otherwise, just a dapper English gent who can do really cool things, and he's one of my new favorites.

You sure about that? I recall reading that he also gave the match they had with Sydal and Ricochet at All Star Weekend XII 5 stars as well. I get that Meltzer is a luminary in his chosen profession, but I find it hard to take him seriously when it comes to the Bucks because like me I'm sure he loses some objectivity due to what a big fan he is and that goes double for when he comes to PWG shows.

I lost it when Jeff used the phrase "smoke on the street" in a serious manner.

Another episode, another check in with how much less they like wrestling.

Savage, indeed.

I had the pleasure of seeing Ember Moon vs Asuka at a house show this weekend. It was a really good match and that feud will be just what that division needs after the mass exodus. Peyton Royce vs Daria was just OK, but I don't like Daria's generic mma fighter gimmick. Peyton is visually striking (see:hot) and I think the crowd would get behind her if she wasn't a vaguely bad poison ivy ripoff.

Another thing I noticed at the show: the nxt roster is pretty short. No Way Jose seemed like a giant at 6'3" plus fro.

I very much agree with the appreciation for the Jericho/Owens/Tom Phillips segments on Raw. They always make me genuinely laugh.

I completely agree with Jeff. I usually check the Youtube Page, IGN's wrap and then watch the Pay Per Views.

YES! Listening now!

Jeff's "fuck Brock Lesnar" argument was really sound, pretty much explained to me why I feel the way I do about him. The unstoppable beast thing was fun for a year, now it just feels tired.

With Paul Heyman, too. Didn't realize it but he has been sort of phoning it in lately. "I'm here to sell you, that you'll see Brock Lesnar fight!" Not verbatim, but that's been the gist of his latest promos.

I can not agree more. Omega/Naito is one of the standout matches of this year's G1. As an ingobernable while it pained me to see my boy Naito got swept under the rug by Omega, Omega was amazing and I hope New Japan has faith in him to hold the main event spot at WK11. He will deliver another incredible match.

I watched Omega/Naito recently and was blown away, one of the best matches I've seen in a while. It's always weird to me how the Powerbombcast guys bemoan the state of wrestling when they really mean WWE, which has been uneven at best for years now. Meanwhile NJPW and Lucha Underground continue to churn out amazing matches with skilled wrestlers playing engaging characters.

Furthermore, while I can see why @danryckert found the CWC hard to get into without the usual story build via promos and backstage segments, being able to convey engaging stories through the wrestling alone is an art in itself, and NJPW sets the benchmark. I was sceptical going in, but now I have much more respect for that than what I see as WWE's over-reliance on promos and vignettes to convey things that are lacking in the matches themselves.

Yeah, the funny thing about WWE is that it's the mainstream product even though it's the most impenetrable fucking brand available (outside of TNA arguably). Lucha Underground is a breeze to watch every week and all of the storylines/motivations are rock solid and consistent. I can understand not being into NJPW due to language barrier, but they're getting better about having english commentary at their bigger shows (also if you've watched wrestling for a period of time, you're able to fill in what's going on in the ring and the stories they are trying to tell). I'm sure ROH is a good alternative too these days, but I honestly don't have the time to watch.

The thing about samoa joe is HE'S FAT

I'm honestly considering just watching the PPVs now and just skip Raw and SmackDown. Both shows are fine, but that's a lot of time. And before each PPV, and even during, they do a great job with the video packages for each match. Plus, it's football season, so my Monday nights are spoken for.

I'm telling you guys, the absolute best way to watch (and save time watching) WWE wrestling is to just watch the Hulu versions. RAW is an hour and a half and Smackdown is around an hour and twenty minutes. There is absolutely no way on god's green earth that I would watch this stuff on live television.

You can skip the bullshit and trim even more of that down. I immediately skip things like The Old Day sketch or anytime I see that I'm getting a parade of wrestlers coming to the ring (like what happened this week with Jericho and all the tag teams). I'm watching a MAXIMUM of 3 or 4 hours of wrestling a week (w/ NXT). It's still more than I even want to watch, but I have no problem skipping to the breaks when the bullshit starts piling up.

Man, saying Natalya is the worst wrestler out of ALL the women is crazy talk!

Time to bring back The Powerbombcast.

God it's been too long we need another powerbombcast.