The Teacher's Lounge: Why You Should be Searching through WWE Network's archives.

My name may be DC Matthews, friends, but I'll always be The Teacher.

It's been quite a long time since I've written something for this particular blog... Even longer since my good friend Doc Manson and I have written something together, which is really what brought me to the "writing about wrestling" dance in the first place.

You hear that, Doc?  I'm calling you out.  Let's do this.

Anywho, onto the column proper.

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Ever since WWE Network became, in many ways, the key to my second (albeit unpaid) career, I've been fighting with the proper way to go about viewing the massive archive of content.  Do I just hunt for the things I know I want to see?  Do I throw it all into a spreadsheet, assign each piece a number then randomly pick a number, thereby deciding what I'm watching?

(Note: I've done that.  Multiple times, in fact.)

Over the last couple months, I decided on a challenge that has, for the moment, given me purpose.  I set out to watch the entirety of the WCW PPV catalog (including Clash of the Champions, which were "special events" and thereby, in my opinion, qualified).

At the moment I write this, I am currently in September of 1990, watching Clash of the Champions 12, aka "Fall Brawl '90".  To be even more specific, Michael "PS" Hayes, with his Confederate Flag war-paint and all, has Tracey Smothers in a reverse chinlock.  That is the image paused on my office television right now, one which, were my wife to see it, would almost certainly require her to roll her eyes and again ask me "Why do you watch these crazy men in diapers?"

As silly as we members of the #NAIWC (the New Age Insider Wrestling Community, in case you are not familiar with the latest lingo) may find that query, its really quite the good question.

Why do many of us feel the need to watch wrestling that may have occurred 20+ years ago, especially when there is so much current content to view?

I've seen a few episodes of Lucha Underground, but in no way am caught up, and I've never. . . EEEVVVEEERRR. . . seen a ROH TV episode, despite assurances that its right up my particular alley of wrestling fandom.  I could be spending my time watching wrestling from 2015, yet here I am watching the Freebirds vs. The (Wild Eyed) Southern Boys.   Why is that?

My answer, as you would expect if you're a fan of my work, is multi-faceted and likely long-winded.  Such is life.

1.  We are drawn to the wrestling we grew up with.

Now this specific answer doesn't work for my current quest, but it does explain why I'm only paying for WWE Network instead of New Japan Pro World or the Ring of Honor membership.  As I've explained many times here on the Interwebz, I'm a child of the WWF, and more broadly, of the PPV era.  I am the same age as Wrestlemania (though since they will no longer be divulging their ages, I guess I won't either) and was born just a few short months before the very first wrestling pay-per-view (that I am aware of), NWA's Starrcade 1983.

This is the world I know, the world I was raised in and the world I choose to remain a part of, at least until I can safely say I've seen everything.  When I can safely say I've seen all the NWA / WCW, ECW and WWE content, then I might consider other sources of wrestling.  Though by then, I hope there's AWA, UWF and other promotions for me to sink my teeth into.

Note:  I'm not saying that I won't be watching other wrestling as it catches my interest, I just likely won't be paying for the privilege to do so.  The $9.99 I fork over to Vince McMahon a month is all you'll get from me.  Now, if someone else wants to pay for my subscriptions. . .

2.  History offers myriad lessons for wrestling fans to learn.

There's a reason one of the many attempts I've had to document these Network journeys was called "Lessons from the Network" - I truly believe that the more wrestling you watch, especially the "old stuff", the deeper appreciation you'll have for the current content.

Case in point - Let's look at the WWE tag division.  I think we can all safely agree that up to the point that Cesaro and Tyson Kidd started revolutionizing things again, tandem wrestling in WWE was abysmal for quite a while.  There's only so many ways we can see the Usos wrestle the Dust Brothers, and I say this as an unabashed uber-fan of Goldust.

Without going too far off on this tangent, here are a couple things the NWA / WCW PPV's have taught me regarding tag team wrestling.

- The deeper the division, the better.   For a long time in the late 80's, there were 2 tag team titles in the NWA.  Yes, that's right, I said 2.   There were the World Tag Team Champions and then you had the United States Champions.  That means the roster was deep enough, duo wise, for there to be multiple contenders for 2 titles.

I'm not saying that's something WWE should do - far from it.  But it pays to have decent depth.  Sorry, Los Matadores, but you don't count.

-  High quality, well-thought out tag team wrestling is a thing of beauty.  Whether it was the Minnesota Wrecking Crew (Arn and Ole Anderson), the aforementioned Freebirds or my good friend MagnumNAI's favorite the Midnight Express, there's nothing quite like watching a well-oiled (don't make it dirty, folks) pair in the ring.

Tag team wrestling can be formulaic at times, but it sure is fun.  Cutting the ring in half so the opponent can't tag their partner, the huge variety of double team moves possible, both legally and illegally, the hot (or sometimes lukewarm) tag to the fresh man on the face team...  When all four men know what they're doing between the ropes, its a sight to see as a wrestling fan.

- Too much of anything is no good.  I've written about BattleBowl before and won't do so again, other than this. . .  We might resent WWE for its lack of tag team development, but at least we're not seeing it shoved down our throats.  Any more than 3 tag matches in a card and I start getting bored, no matter how good the talents are.

Speaking of talents, lets get back to the list.

3.  Discovering (or re-discovering) the talented. . . And the un-talented.

Again, let's use an example from my journey; more specifically, let's look at some of the last cards I've watched, stretching through the summer of 1990.

Tracey Smothers (that guy in the reverse chinlock on my TV screen) is probably best known by. . . Actually, I can't even say that.  I imagine he's essentially unknown to the majority of wrestling fans.  Maybe some guys will remember him as Freddie Joe Floyd from the "Horrible Gimmick Era" of WWF in the early-to-mid 90's, and the ECW faithful will remember him as a Full Blooded Italian for some reason, but Smothers, I've discovered, was an incredibly good wrestling talent.  He and his partner Steve Armstrong, those Southern Boys, have been one of the more exciting teams (or talents, really), I've seen during this expedition.  Armstrong could flat-out fly (I don't know if I've seen a flying bodypress get quite THAT high in the air) and Smothers pretty much had it all.  Seriously, he's a guy that could have been a singles champion in either WCW or WWF, if the gimmick and the stars were aligned just right.

Moving to the other side of the spectrum, let's look at El Gigante, better known as the half-naked Bigfoot, Giant Gonzalez.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how charismatic he was, especially since he seemingly didn't speak English in the few WCW days I've seen, and because his gimmick in WWF was so blatantly terrible.  Now look, he still can't wrestle. . . I mean he REALLY can't wrestle. . . But seeing him smiling and interacting with fans was fun to see.

Brian Pillman in his "Flying Brian" days. . . 'The Z-Man' Tom Zenk. . .Even just enjoying Barry Windham and Tully Blanchard in their primes is worth going back through the archives.  Most of us know the Triple H high knee that is often attributed to Harley Race - You can watch the Great American Bash from 1990 and see a 47 year old Harley Race hit it, and it looks just as good (if not better) than Triple H did in his prime.  Awesome stuff.

OK, last one. . .

4.  Seeing the stars before they were stars.

There was a Clash of Champions. . .Probably number 10. . . That featured the PPV debut of both Cactus Jack and "Mean" Mark Callous, soon to be known as the Undertaker.  25 years ago, yet I still marked out. I just know Steve Austin is going to show up one of these days, and I've been told that this Clash I'm watching will feature the Master Blasters, which will be the debut of Kevin Nash.  I'm literally giddy with anticipation.

Don't even get me started on when Vinnie Vegas shows up.

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OK, so maybe you need to have a certain level of wrestling nerd-dom in order to properly appreciate the WWE Network archive, but I don't care.   If you really and truly are a wrestling fan, there is something for you in the previous PPV's and video vault.

Just explore; you don't have to be as OCD as I am and have a specific mission in mind.  Just close your eyes and click on something - I guarantee something in that show you randomly watch will catch your eye.

Class dismissed.

The Mad Scientist: Daniel Bryan v. Roman Reigns

There can be no surer sign that Daniel Bryan is truly considered a B+ player than his treatment since his return from injury. Although his return to the ring was announced and advertised, the match was scheduled for Smackdown. This begs the question; why would the return of Daniel Bryan, the former World Heavyweight Champion, the champion that never lost his title, the champion that won that honor after beating Triple H, Batista, and Randy Orton all in one night at Wrestlemania XXX - why would the return of the crowd favorite be relegated to the B-show?

Math Lesson: When it comes to RAW, it's all about Time. . .

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

Photo from wwe.com

That famous literary phrase does a good job of describing the last two weeks of RAW, doesn’t it? While the October 6th edition of the longest running episodic . . . whatever Michael Cole keeps calling it. . . will likely be remembered for the time Kathie Lee and Hoda made a mockery of our beloved sport, last night’s RAW seemed to make up for it in spades.

In fact, it was easily one of the most popular RAW’s in recent memory . . . If not THE best. . .

So why is that?  What made last night’s show so good?  What, besides the obvious, made the week before’s so bad?  Well, I think I know the answer, and its as simple as 1, 2. . . a 1, 2, 3 ,4!

Last night’s RAW was special for 4 basic and mathematically driven reasons.

I did a little research thanks to the good folks at profightdb.com. I looked at the match times for RAWs for the past 3 months. (before that, some match times are missing. . . Plus, I got tired.)  Here’s what I found...

The Teacher plays a game. "Heel or Not Heel?"

 www.barbershopwindow.com

Gather ‘round, children.  I want to tell you a story.

You see, back in my day, which was called “the early 90’s” by us crazy chilluns, things were different.  I’m not saying they were better. . . I’m just saying they were different.  It was a time before you had all these new-fangled “smart phones”, back when a “tweet” was only a sound that a bird made, you see?   

This was a time where you could buy a gallon of gas for less than two dollars and could go to the movies for $4 or $5, and I’m talking about an evening show!  These were the days when Family Matters, you walked Step by Step to a Full House, and other random 90’s television show references as well!

This was a time when you knew the difference between a face and a heel.

And here you thought we weren’t going to be talking about wrestling.

When I began watching the then-WWF in 1993, you could draw a definite line between the good guys and the bad guys.  It was plain as day.  Bret Hart? The ultimate good guy, always battling the odds and fighting for what was right.  Jerry Lawler?  Totally a villain, what with his insults to the crowd and his demeaning looks.   Now, maybe it was because I was a kid and believe what my elders told me (even if my elders were Bobby Heenan and Randy Savage), but I never had a question in my mind as to who the faces and the heels were.

Flash forward to today.  Look around the WWE - can you really tell the difference anymore?

The Teacher's Lounge: Why WWE really needs Brock Lesnar.

Brock Lesnar is most likely not going to wrestle again until January’s Royal Rumble. In fact, from all reports, he and his advocate Paul Heyman might not even appear on WWE programming until around the holiday season.  Now, depending on who you ask and what time you ask them, this is viewed as both a positive and a negative for the company.  I can see both sides of the argument here, but I lean more towards the Barrett side (Bad News, get it?), though it’s not for the same reason everyone else does.

Truth be told, I don’t think Brock Lesnar is as big of a sales pitch as many other people do.  I don’t think people are tuning into RAW or watching PPV’s to see Lesnar compete.  Right now there are only two reasons people are really watching WWE these days.

But that’s another column.

The #NXT Day: October 9

NXT is in the books for October 9th, and here on The #NXT Day, we have our usual 3 big topics to talk about, which for this week, we’ve made as memes, since let’s face it, memes are in right now, gang.  Let’s get to it.

Oh, Lance Storm, how little we appreciated you when you were on television each week, and how much we miss you now that you’re not.  You have, however, trained some quality wrestlers, and the biggest star of them all (so far) seems to be taking your favorite tag line to heart.

In fact, if last night’s show had a theme, it would be seriousness - we saw a number of top talents competing with a bit more intensity and a bit less frivolity.  

UnInformed Predictions: Looking Ahead at Possible Royal Rumble Participants

For my money, there is no better single PPV concept than the Royal Rumble.  It’s the perfect event for a culture with short attention spans.  Every 60-120 seconds (depending on the year) another superstar enters the mix, leaving a seemingly endless number of possibilities.  There’s always some surprise returns (at least there have been these last few years), some feuds continue while others begin and inevitably Kofi Kingston does something ridiculous, thereby leaving him free to languish in glorified jobber squalor for the next 364 days. . .

Sorry, was I really bitter just then?

Recently it was “officially” announced that this year’s Rumble would feature 40 participants, which I believe is only the second time in history that has happened.  This has only added to the Twit-splosion of predictions, conjectures and fantasy booking as to what’s going to happen, even though we have 3 more PPV’s to go before we get to the ‘start of Wrestlemania season’.

This decision, along with some other nuggets of info I’ve gleaned in the past 24 hours or so, has set my own creative juices flowing.  Therefore, let’s take a look into our collective Crystal Ballz Mahoney and see what the future may hold for our Rumble experience.

By my calculations and creations, there are about 75 possible wrestlers who could be a part of the Royal Rumble.  Let’s break them into groups for easier viewing.

Current WWE Superstars

Musing on the Guy we all Love to Hate. . .

I’m about to type the most polarizing sentence ever. . .

This sentence is going to cause a primal response in a lot of people, and that response is more than likely going to be a negative one.  Now, if you’ve been a follower of my work in the past, this is not necessarily a new thing.  I’ve defended The Miz and Bo Dallas before, and I might just be the biggest Bull Dempsey fan who isn’t a blood relative, so I’m used to people disagreeing with me.  Violently.

However, this sentence is about to take the proverbial cake.

I respect John Cena, and you should, too.

Guest blog: What You're Missing on Thursday Nights.

The Number Two Contenders called, and Josh Petrie answered.  Josh, the owner of a separate and arguably far superior blog in his own right (realworldchamp.com) engages in some cross-promotion, cluing you in on 15 of the most entertaining minutes of wrestling you're likely not watching each week. 

Thanks for joining us, Josh.  Everybody go check out his amazing work.

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Let me guess: RAW has you down. Cena nuff of this, Cena nuff of that. Seen enough of the

Bellas bickering. Heard enough CM Punk chants to just hit mute — if Michael Cole and JBL

weren’t the last straw already. Not to mention the fact that SmackDown’s even worse most of

the time.

Well, here with Number 2 Contenders, it’s all about #PromotingPositivity. So let’s eliminate the

negative and find a way to accentuate the positive. So how do we do that?

By encouraging you to watch WWE Superstars with me.

*crickets*

“You mean the show with all the RAW replays?”

The NXT Day: Championship Week Edition!

It was Championship Week on NXT, despite only 2 of their titles being up for grabs.  Still, a solid NXT from top to bottom, though as with WWE, I always seem to enjoy the undercard more than the main event.

On with the show!

Walk Away On Top: What has to happen with Charlotte

There is no question that Charlotte is the best women’s wrestler in NXT, and in my mind, very little question that she’s actually the best in the entire WWE.  Every week, I see something I’ve never seen before - this week it was the Figure 4 that she then bridged - I had a ‘mark out’ moments the likes of which I haven’t seen since I was 10 or 11.

In fact, every time I watch a match of hers, I can’t help thinking 2 things, the latter being much more scandalous than the former.

1. Charlotte could very well be the best women’s wrestler in history by the time she’s done.
2. Charlotte might be the best wrestler with the last name of Flair in history.

When It's Not Quite Hell in a Cell...

If you were to take 100 average WWE fans and ask them about Hell in a Cell, the vast majority of them would immediately talk about Foley’s brush with death during his seminal Cell match with Undertaker.  Some might also mention the bloodbath that was Michaels vs. HHH, back in the day.

Last year’s CM Punk vs. Ryback match is likely not going to be on the top of many wrestling fan’s minds when HIAC is brought up, and after watching it last night, I can totally understand why.  It was a boring, boring match.  No blood.  Very few high spots, save for Punk’s beatdown of Heyman after defeating Ryback and some quite creative suplexes Mr. “Feed Me More” gave to the future GFW World Champion...

See what I did there?  Got your attention, didn’t I?

The NXT Day: Thoughts on Last Night's Episode (9/25/14)

Welcome to the first installment of “The NXT Day”, where we take a look back at last night’s episode of NXT, aka the best wrestling show you can find on the WWE Network.  Here on The NXT Day, I’ll share some thoughts on what we all witnessed, both in longer and “quick quips” form as well as pose some ‘discussion questions’ that we can tackle over there on, as Y2J puts it, The Twit-ahh!  I won’t cover everything, since NXT seems to have found the secret to fitting a whole lot of action into a 60 minute show, but we’ll get to the good stuff, at least.

And Here. We. Go.

The Way It Should Have Been

On a recent major event, two wrestlers met in the middle of that very ring.  On paper, it seemed like these two were a fairly equal match, although one seemed to be much more vicious than the other.  Despite this, however, the match was, for all intents and purposes, and squash.  It was brutal.  Moves were repeated.  In the end, one person very simply conquered the other.

Why am I talking about Lesnar and Cena on an NXT blog, you ask? I’m not.  

I’m talking about Mojo Rawley and Bull Dempsey.

Time for a Lesson: Why Whining is No Good.

As a teacher of youngsters (yes, friends, I am trusted with the future leaders of the world - be very, very afraid), I have to deal with a lot of childish behavior.  An inability to share, peeking at neighbor’s papers, trying to fool me with seven-year-old stealth, all of it.

Yet there is no single behavior that boils my (and honestly, most people’s) blood than whining.

Every year, right around mid-September, I spend part of each and every work day discussing whining behaviors, and how people hardly ever get what they want from it.  “You need to express your opinions like grown-ups do,” I say, “because when you whine, people immediately stop listening to you.”

And they get it. . . Well, most of them do.  Over the school year, most of my students (who, I remind you, are 6 and 7 years old) will slowly begin expressing themselves in a more adult manner.  The tone of their voice changes, they use better descriptions to express their current emotional state, and best of all, they come up with (in some cases) compelling pieces of evidence to argue their case.

“I don’t want to do this” becomes “Can I please have a bit of a break before I finish my work?”  “This is sooo harddd” becomes “I’m not sure what to do here.  Can you help me?”

I mention this simply because these students of mine. . . Once more, 6 and 7 year old children. . . Seem to have a better grip on this fairly simple life lesson than the vast majority of wrestling fans I’ve seen on Twitter these last few weeks.

Substitute Contender: Try Some Positivity for a Change!

From time to time, The Teacher is absent, Doc Manson's lab is empty, and a substitute takes center stage.  Today, Shannon Scott (@Love2HulkSmash) discusses the Twitter-verse reaction to the Roman Reigns injury.

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I have been a wrestling fan as long as I can remember. Literally at least two-thirds of my life. It's the only thing I'm truly passionate about. Some of my earliest memories of life involve wrestling, watching it on Saturday nights on TBS with my mom. Yep, I started off as a WCW fan sometime in 1990. It took a few years before I finally found World Wrestling Entertainment, but I knew from the moment I saw Undertaker in 1994 where my heart was destined to stay. Now, 20-plus years later, I am a firm and unashamed WWE loyalist and WWE apologist. At the end of the day, I stand by this company, come what may happen. They have given me memories to last literally a lifetime. I’ve been to lots of house shows, Wrestlemania X-8 in Toronto, a couple Smackdown shows, and just this past summer, I went to my very first RAW broadcast. I’m kind of addicted to them.

NXT Top Ten: Edition 4

Welcome to the NXT Top Ten, edition 4.  It’s been a little while since our last rankings, and a whole lot has happened.  We had arguably the event of the year, Takeover: Fatal 4 Way.  We’ve had some debuts, both of new NXT talents and of some top tier developmental guys on RAW.  Actually, that has required some tweaking, since at the onset of this rankings, I said I wouldn’t include any NXT guys with WWE experience.  Since that would mean getting rid of three rankings stalwarts, we’ll now adjust that to say I won’t include any NXT talent who has had a significant WWE run.

Which brings us to Tyson Kidd.  I haven’t been including him in my rankings as of yet, and I haven’t had a big problem with that up until now.  He wasn’t getting anything resembling a decent push, I thought, so why bother?  Well, now he had arguably the strongest showing of the men involved in the Fatal 4 Way, and this whole “fact” thing seems like it is taking off.  Should I start ranking him?  Help me, #WWEFamily, you’re my only hope!  If you want him ranked, then rank him I shall.  

(Note: If you’re curious, he’d likely be in the top 5 somewhere this week.)

OK, let’s do some rankings.

Number 10: Hid. . . Nope, I won’t do it.   His name is Kenta!

NXT Takeover: Fatal 4 Way - Event of the Year!

I’ve always hated how wrestling announcers always seem to say “We are witnessing history in the making!”  Tony Schiavone was famous for this kind of thing.  Every WCW Monday Nitro (Now available on the WWE Network!) was the biggest one of all, or we just witnessed the most amazing match of our entire lives, and even as a 15-16 year old kid, I knew that was horse manure.

Plus (and this is me just being a pain), EVERYTHING is history.  I went out this morning to pick up breakfast for my family, which was, technically, history in the making.  It’s just not a history anyone would want to read.

So I usually get my Teacher’s knickers in a twist about that kind of thing. . .

However. . .

On Thursday night, we saw history in the making.

NXT Takeover: Fatal 4 Way was, in my opinion, the best WWE event of 2014, and I dare say we could go back even further.  On Thursday night, we saw a group of relatively unknown talents show Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, and yes, even Mr. #KidsAndTroops himself, John Cena, exactly how a wrestling card should be done.

From top to bottom, there wasn’t a weak link.  I know this because even the part I liked the least held my interest.  As evidenced by the bruising on my remote’s “fast forward” button, the same can not be said for the last few months’ of Monday Night RAW.

What does this mean, exactly, for the future of NXT and WWE? I’m not really sure.  All I know is I’m as excited to be a wrestling fan as I’ve been since WCW and ECW were actually on television.

As I sat and watched the event in the wee hours of Friday morning, I jotted down some notes.  As I sit here and re-watch it today (a phrase I have not uttered in quite some time), I’ll jot down some more.  I submit to you, dear students, some idle musings and comments on “history in the making”, NXT Takeover: Fatal 4 Way.

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The Teacher's Book: NXT Takeover and Thoughts on Improving WWE's Best Product

What began as a simple fantasy booking session turned into a rant about the best product WWE has to offer.

It all started so simply. . .

The Scene: NXT Takeover 2 - The Main Event

After 20-30 minutes of some of the most amazing wrestling you’ve ever seen (seriously folks, this match is going to be tremendous), each wrestler has hit their finisher and kicked out of someone else’s.  All four men stagger to their feet, facing each other, exhausted, the crowd going crazy.

And the lights go out.

They come back on, and Tyler Breeze is on the mat, unconscious.  The three remaining competitors look around and at each other.

Lights go out again.

Kidd is also out cold.  Zayn and Neville point at each other, obviously blaming their opponent for some sort of chicanery.

Darkness once more.

When the lights come on, Neville is out.  Zayn is standing in the ring all alone, looking very, very confused.

For a final time, we are unable to see.

Lessons from the Network: RAW and PPV's from early 1993

It’s hard to be a wrestling fan.  

It’s even harder to be a wrestling fan who then has to produce original content about said wrestling.

On behalf of Doc Manson, I apologize to our fans for being absent these last weeks.  I wish I had a hell of an excuse, but I think it just comes down to fatigue.  Tired of writing, tired of editing, tired of having to watch RAW week after week and think of a new angle to blog about.

WWE just isn’t that exciting these days.

Sure, when Brock beat the snot out of Cena, we were jazzed.  This was the beginning of a new era, we thought.  This was going to be special.

What’s happened since?  The Bellas spend each week yelling at each other and crying. . . Dean Ambrose is running around the countryside like Mick Foley after one too many Vaderbombs. . . What’s the main event for Night of Champions?  Cena and Lesnar. . .Again.

So I’ve soured a bit on the current product.  Thankfully, the WWE Network has saved me.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been watching the first year of Monday Night RAW, and the PPV’s to go with it.  Here are, in no particular order, some musings and thoughts on that crazy time in pro wrestling, and if we can take anything from it today.

Substitute Contender: Is It a New Day?

From time to time, The Teacher is absent, the lab is empty, and a substitute takes center stage.  Today, Kyle (@RasslinWithLife) discusses the main event scene.

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"The more things change, the more they stay the same." 

Thats how the old cliche goes and within WWE, it couldn't be more apparent. My hope is to shed light on what is vital to success going forward. One hot-button issue in the company is their inability or flat-out ignorance to build around their top star, John Cena. 

It wasn't that long ago at one of their biggest pay per-views, SummerSlam, we saw resident conqueror and the Cenation patriarch go 1-on-1. Or at least that is what it was advertised as. What we all got at the biggest "Blockbuster of the Summer" was anything but a battle. I think to some degree we all expected a back and forth battle. Instead we witnessed an absolute mauling from the former UFC champ to the walking, talking merchandise king. Now, please don't mistake my playful banter for disrespect. John Cena is a 15-time world champion and has earned his stripes. Sadly for the champion his credentials meant zilch when the bell rang at 'Slam.

Class is in Session: The best 60 seconds you're likely not watching.

I want to let you in on a little secret.

There’s a good to great chance you’re not watching arguably the best sixty seconds of WWE programming each week.

It’s not NXT, as much as I like that ‘brand’.  It’s not Cesaro’s matches, though they are always excellent.  It’s not even Dean Ambrose, even though he might be the perfect blend of Steve Austin and Roddy Piper.

In fact, you won’t find this marvelous minute on WWE television.  Yet.

I’m talking about Sandow’s Sixty, which can be found on WWE.com and on the WWE App.