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Cesaro and Sheamus are my top two dream opponents for Lesnar right now.

Pretty cool opening promo with the dual General Managers and the Purge. I dig the Hell in a Cell; at first glanced I thought the stip seemed forced but I figured it plays well to keep the Purge out. The Wolves beating the Usos was fine in the opener; Japan is this week? I'm excited for it! Nice call with Triple H banning the Wolves from ringside. Ryback beating Axel was cool. Big fan of the promo between Rhodes and Styles and I wait with bated breath for their encounter. Good call having Nattie face Paige in Japan; should be a quality match. Tong Po baby. Push him to the moon; he's money. Beating R-Truth was fine and I'm looking forward to his rematch with Ambrose. Surprised the team of Danielson and Neville knocked off the Wyatts but it's good considering Bryan has been getting his ass kicked by them for a few weeks. Cesaro/Reigns is shaping up to be quality. Good call with Barrett beating Mizdow. It'll cause the latter to question his position and leads to a detailed story. Highlight Reel on SD is good ish. Main event was solid, as expected. Smart to screw over the hometown boy, especially in the fashion you did it. Punk don't need no briefcase at this stage in the game anyway. Good show as always bud.

IF he comes back to television he should be a heel. He shines best and seems more comfortable in that role.

IF he comes back it should be at one of the Big Four PPVs in a marquee match (not necessarily main event) against a face Lesnar. Then he'd go on to work in hard-hitting matches against the likes of Ambrose, Reigns, Rollins (assuming he turns face at some point), Cesaro, etc. But that all depends on whether or not he comes back.

This makes no sense for me. If Rollins wins, then why did we spend 4 months investing into the United States Championship and building it up and adding prestige only to have it gone, either unified or tied to the WWE Title? If Cena wins, then why didn't he just drop the US Title when he had the chance and why do we need to see Cena win the title? Sheamus cashing in only further exacerbates the confusion long-term around the title. It should have been Rollins vs a masked Kane and Cena should be defending the belt against Cesaro and Owens.

G1 baby! I've watched a lot less Japanese wrestling than I should, but I understand the style of booking and who's who and whatnot. The one thing about New Japan is that all the matches are usually solid and all of these are well-written. Not much to comment on that field, so most of the comments deal with the booking. Also I like the layout of the diary. It's simple, direct and straightforward, which reflects the product. Pretty cool eight-man tag to kick off; can't really tell you the magnitude of who wins or loses but I know reDRagon and Jushin Thunder Liger so them winning sounds good to me. Suzukigun defeating CHAOS in another eight man was good stuff. Another solid match and Benjamin winning was sweet. Three for three on solid eight-man tags and I'm kinda glad the Bullet Club lost. Great Junior Tag Title match and the right team won. The Young Bucks are money. Solid Junior Heavyweight Title match. Hoping Ricochet sticks around a little longer to win a rematch but it's smart to not hotshot him the belt right now. Pretty cool advertising the US appearances but I'm not 100% sure if the Japanese crowd would go apesh*t over that. Cool finish in a well-written match between Okada and Adam Cole. Smart to have the champion of the world not lose to a foreigner too. I don't know too much about Shibata but him beating Roderick Strong is a solid decision. Suzuki defeating Honma was cool. JapaneseCenaWinsLOL. Nah but Tanahashi beating Ishii was p sweet. Ishii is the NEVER champ, no? I'd like to see that belt mean a little bit. And the G1 finals; fantastic match and I dig the Nakamura victory. Diggin' the prospect of Nakamura/Okada headlining the Tokyo Dome show. Solid start buds.

My first name + the first three letters of my last name, configured as a play on Tyler, the Creator.

apologies if this should be in classics. four years is on the brink I think.

So I'm watching Summerslam 2011 on the WWE Network and the Christian/Orton match is on. There was something about the video package that stuck with me--Christian did not look good at ALL despite being a 2x World Heavyweight Champion at the time. So to recap:

-- Edge announces his retirement due to injury eight days after Wrestlemania. He vacates the World Heavyweight Championship, which is won by Christian at Extreme Rules. Feel-good moment, the crowd loved it, great match, everything you want in a face's first (non ECW) World Title win, right? Well,

-- TWO DAYS LATER, on SmackDown (five days if tape delay doesn't exist), Christian allows Randy Orton to challenge for the title and Orton wins. Widely regarded around here as a bad booking decision, but in retrospect let's look at both sides of it. Sure Christian's first reign lasted less than a week, but maybe this means a development in Christian's character. Well,

--Randy Orton defeats Christian at Over the Limit to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. A good match, probably a smart booking decision because you don't want to keep hot-shotting the belt back and forth. Christian asks for one more match at Capitol Punishment, which, as a face, could mean he wins the belt and moves on to different things, right? Well,

--Randy Orton defeats Christian AGAIN at Capitol Punishment. Christian's foot was under the bottom rope while the pin was counted and disputed the match. Okay, one more match. He's got a reason for a rematch, the two have been doing well together, he's finally starting to show a little development in his character. This surely must be the time where Christian gets the belt back and moves on to bigger and better things, no? Well,

--Christian wins the World Title back at Money in the Bank...by disqualification. Hiding behind lawyers, Christian executed a clause in the match stating if Orton got disqualified, he'd lose the belt. This is where the decline is most noticeable. Yeah, he's champion again, but it's cheap. It feels tainted. Yes, he's a heel, yes heels could be cowardly and be champions. But it never felt right. It never felt genuine. Christian was being a whiny complainer and many fans, myself included, simply did not buy it as him and were not invested in this kind of character long-term. Not to mention he gets RKO'ed (twice) after the match, a start to a title reign that no one wants.

--Everything before the World Title match at Summerslam made Christian look bad. He jumped around and paraded the title like a nine-year-old, whined (and didn't even dine), and again, it wasn't genuine. Triple H said that he did not respect him anymore. He said the fans don't respect him anymore. Punk called him out on the microphone (the "and bitching" promo). Edge made an appearance at Summerslam to walk into the ring and call Christian a bitch. Orton wins the belt back.

So despite winning the World Heavyweight Championship twice and invigorating his character with a new persona, Christian came out of the summer of 2011 looking worse than he did going in. It was almost as if he wasn't meant to be in the main event. He looked pathetic, weak (in the sense that he couldn't win a match legitimately if his life depended on it), and EVERYONE from Triple H to Teddy Long outshone him on the microphone. It was a slap in the face for the people who were jumping up and down on May 1, 2011 when Christian unhooked the belt and originally won the title; the people who were saying "Yeah! I can't wait to see Christian as World Champion" quickly went "I can't wait until Christian is off my television screen!" which is terrible considering how consistently good of a performer Christian was and is. They coulda had him be the face that drops the belt to Mark Henry, fighting the likes of Sheamus and Barrett through the summer. They could have done a million different things with him after his first win, but a lot of the creativity was forced to stifle due to his loss two days later. His heel turn, sure was a throwback to whiny heel Christian of the early 2000s, but it was the early 2010s, a full decade later--the fans had a different opinion on Christian and we should've had a different bad guy persona. Even if you look at what Christian has done SINCE that No Holds Barred Match, he's been handled poorly.

--Losses to Sheamus at both Hell in a Cell and Vengeance. Gets hurt
--Is heel as part of Big Johnny's injured heel stable at Elimination Chamber, only to return as a face at Over the Limit and win the IC belt from Cody Rhodes. Does nothing with the belt and loses it to Miz on Raw 1000. Hurts himself again
--Comes back, has a few throwaway matches against the Shield. Loses Money in the Bank to Orton. By the graces of God becomes #1 Contender to Del Rio's belt but loses in a match no one expected him to win. Takes time off again
--Qualifies for Elimination Chamber. Second dude eliminated. Suddenly turns heel again on Sheamus. Wins a match to challenge Big E for the IC Title but never received it due to concussion. Hasn't wrestled since.

Now I'm not saying his post-2011 career is 100% thanks to his wonky 2011, nor am I saying he wouldn't have had a multitude of nagging injuries if he just held the belt for more than a week. But once Edge retired, everyone was clamoring for Christian to take his spot in the main event scene and stay there for good. He had worked too hard as a midcarder and proved himself beyond a shadow of a doubt since coming back from a monster TNA run for him to just be thrown away. The closest we got to main event Christian was the Summerslam 2013 match with Del Rio but again, NO ONE expected him to be in the match, let alone win. I know we here have a laundry list of guys who have been mishandled or underutilized (let's be honest, no one's been "buried" like ever. Buried is going from the main event to off TV because of backstage politicking)--with some on the list legitimate, others could be disputed--but one that resonates most notably for me is the case of Christian and his run as the World Heavyweight Champion.

Yes, Booker, I can dig that. Pretty cool opening tag match and the aftermath kills almost all the allegiances going into Night of Champions, which I like. Christian/Rollins is a match I wish we saw more of in real life and I'd be all for it here. Neville beating Ryback was solid, and with the losing streak I'm expecting a bigger year for Ryback in 2014. Fun backstage segment with the Awesome Entourage. I dig continuity both with Awesome Truth and how Miz can't get over Finn Balor. One of the things I most frequently lush over in this diary is all the music you introduce into it. Solid match with Rusev and Orton and it's good that AJ got an edge on him. Miz beating Truth was a fun little match. Oh boy, Paige is pissed. Unsanctioned match? Should be lit. Cool Reigns promo but I'm not expecting him to win diddly sh*t at Night of Champions. Steel Cage main event was balls to the wall. Awesome finish, an icing on the cake to a fun SmackDown.