This is one of the few PPVs I always order, glad tonight is the last time I pay $50 for it....

Tonight's Card

Pre Show Match - The New Age Outlaws vs. Cody Rhodes and Goldust for the WWE Tag Team Championships

Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt

The Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar

John Cena vs. Randy Orton for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

The 30 Man Royal Rumble Match




You gon' live forever
Whether you want to or not
Some of us gon' end up holy
Some of us gon' end up hot.....

i need to know when to tune in to see the whole thing. 9:30?

You gon' live forever
Whether you want to or not
Some of us gon' end up holy
Some of us gon' end up hot.....

"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

Batista was hired as Orton's hit doggy, will interfere with the title match, leading to Cena vs Batista and Orton vs Bryan (for the WWE championship) at Mania.

Puts Batista in his natural heel role and Bryan rightfully gets put into the main event picture.

I'm on board with this.

You gon' live forever
Whether you want to or not
Some of us gon' end up holy
Some of us gon' end up hot.....

BATISTA THE GETAWAY DRIVER

I've always said I'd get PPVs every month if they were $10-20 and not $50, now to get em at that price and all the other stuff too is a no brained....



You gon' live forever
Whether you want to or not
Some of us gon' end up holy
Some of us gon' end up hot.....

You gon' live forever
Whether you want to or not
Some of us gon' end up holy
Some of us gon' end up hot.....

smh.

someone please tell me bore-tista ain't winning this shit.

You gon' live forever
Whether you want to or not
Some of us gon' end up holy
Some of us gon' end up hot.....

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(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

Hell of a match.

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(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

bray biting d-bryan's hand to break the hold...and the sister abigail against the wall had dude playing the vicious heel to near-perfection.

>bray biting d-bryan's hand to break the hold...and the sister
>abigail against the wall had dude playing the vicious heel to
>near-perfection.

Bray has been needing to move him up a bit. Gotta appreciate the time he's gotten so far. It ain't like WWE doesn't put enough programming on during a week. They SHOULD be working on some folks..throwing some cats out there and allowing it to grow.

But Bray's dope too.

Show and Bryan showed a gang of ass tonight to make Brock and Bray look damn good. Gotta love that. Just another perk of having a slew of good workers on a roster and enough intelligent wrestling folks backstage to not fuck it up...at least not all the time.

Brock just running around wrecking shit is the best Brock.

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(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

Three separate chants now I believe, sitting on their hands the rest of the time.

.

Unless that turns out to be a title match, Vince, Hunter and co are fucking morons.

You don't want to get a month-plus of buildup that's just replaying their 18-second match from a few WrestleManias ago?

You gon' live forever
Whether you want to or not
Some of us gon' end up holy
Some of us gon' end up hot.....

both getting booed, both doing each other's finisher.

edit: whoa whoa whoa

http://boundless-expression.tumblr.com/

http://themichaeljacksonarchives.tumblr.com/

Don't think I've ever heard that one. Funny shit, Pittsburgh.

Also, Orton should just start using his opponents' finishers and signature moves in every match. If he did that and beat the shit out of people's dads on the regular, he'd be one of my favorite heels ever.

The Wyatt finish was well executed. I also love your idea for Orton. I still think he's a top notch heel and one of the very best the business has ever seen, but that would be a great way to refresh his character right now. His initial anti-hero run when he was beating the snot out of the entire NXT faction every week and dropping RKO's like rain drops was fantastic. IMO he's one of the most criminally under rated wrestlers by the IWC as far as I'm concerned. This Cena feud has been boring as fuck though.

>The Wyatt finish was well executed. I also love your idea for
>Orton. I still think he's a top notch heel and one of the
>very best the business has ever seen, but that would be a
>great way to refresh his character right now. His initial
>anti-hero run when he was beating the snot out of the entire
>NXT faction every week and dropping RKO's like rain drops was
>fantastic. IMO he's one of the most criminally under rated
>wrestlers by the IWC as far as I'm concerned. This Cena feud
>has been boring as fuck though.

And yeah, Randy's a great heel. He's really solid in the ring. He's had a ton of good matches during these last few months during his title reign. Him beating on the Miz's dad is one of my favorite things in recent memory, so I got pretty amped up when he did it to Cena's dad as well. That could be a hilarious "thing" for him to start doing.

But, agreed, this Cena feud hasn't done much for me. I don't know what they could do to make me excited for Cena matches, but I hope they figure it out. Cena can have really great matches too, but all his storylines are just so boring and similar to me.

match. Straight up WM2000 Nintendo 64 shit. Stealing finishers, finisher festival, top rope finisher attempts. Haha. They gotta do SOMETHING to make the match feel a lil new.

>Don't think I've ever heard that one. Funny shit, Pittsburgh.
>
>
>Also, Orton should just start using his opponents' finishers
>and signature moves in every match. If he did that and beat
>the shit out of people's dads on the regular, he'd be one of
>my favorite heels ever.

Give 'em to the Usos or Real Americans and let them run with them for a bit.

If we get some new tag champs soon and Cody vs. Goldust at Mania, that pre-show match will work for me.

But I enjoy watching them each year. Kofi's athleticism is just nuts.

like let him make it to last 6 or so.

Oh Shit Kevin Nash! He's looking legit for a dude with fucked knees who can't run.

CM Punk is damn near on some heel shit in this Rumble...like he's doing a grip of chilling.

all the way around as someone chases him.

REIGNS-ZIGGLER SPEAR!

Roman Reigns is a monster

I know a lot of folks don't like him but I've always had a soft spot for him....



You gon' live forever
Whether you want to or not
Some of us gon' end up holy
Some of us gon' end up hot.....

but couldn't care less about his character

is real. Beautiful, awesome, etc. It has been a while since a whole faction was legit awesome individually WHILE THEY WERE TOGETHER without just slapping together established main eventers.

There's Sheamus. Dude gets physical fo real. Instant hawse activity all the time.

Miz needs to go ahead and get eliminated.

I'm upset Fandango didn't stall. I need some shady stalling heel shit to jump off pretty soon here...and from somone other than CM Punk, who hasn't done shit in 10 minutes.

>This is one of the few PPVs I always order, glad tonight is
>the last time I pay $50 for it....
>
>Tonight's Card
>
>Pre Show Match - The New Age Outlaws vs. Cody Rhodes and
>Goldust for the WWE Tag Team Championships
>
>Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt
>
>The Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar
>
>John Cena vs. Randy Orton for the WWE World Heavyweight
>Championship
>
>The 30 Man Royal Rumble Match
>
>
>
>
>You gon' live forever
>Whether you want to or not
>Some of us gon' end up holy
>Some of us gon' end up hot.....

You know shit is real when your comedy/bullshit cats are wrestling ass mofos. I'm gonna be down when/if they take him seriously again.

Othewise, yeah...he'd be as good a champ as any TNA guy right now if he can stay active. I'd hate to see him become a sloppy worker though...it'll just be more injuries for Bad Ass Mister Perfect Michaels.

He's an obviously lesser hawse nowadays...that's fo sho. Really...there's like 5 guys who are somewhat clearly showing themselves as 'stronger' guys.

Batista and who else?

embarrassing.

getting the 'bitch, you're supposed to be Daniel Bryan' energy.

If boring ass Batista wins, even worse.

>If boring ass Batista wins, even worse.

I can live without Jericho. Roman Reigns is the one who needs to win this shit.

You gon' live forever
Whether you want to or not
Some of us gon' end up holy
Some of us gon' end up hot.....

he ends up not in a major spot on Mania. They've done this before and the 'screwed' guy ended up fine. It needs to be Reigns winning this shit.

>
>You gon' live forever
>Whether you want to or not
>Some of us gon' end up holy
>Some of us gon' end up hot.....

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

You gon' live forever
Whether you want to or not
Some of us gon' end up holy
Some of us gon' end up hot.....

But having him in the final three seems unnecessary. They could've given him a nice run for a while in his comeback but still had someone better left, right?

You gon' live forever
Whether you want to or not
Some of us gon' end up holy
Some of us gon' end up hot.....

I mean, I suppose a positive for them is that they got Reigns over, which was part of the plan

But, man

This shit backfirin'

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(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

Old, stale, and washed up. The crowd didnt really give a shit when he came back on Raw, and now they're downright pissed up off that this 45 year old "star" from the shittiest era in wrestling history is winning the Rumble.

the chorus of boo's was beautiful
shit was a travesty

I personally don't believe that this will affect the initial rush of network buys

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(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

so now that bryan's out of the picture they won't even just whoever's headlining

this is all shitty.

But I've gotta say, I enjoyed that ppv as much as any I've seen in a long time.

Who got jacked of the folks who were in it. The $ was on him winning...especially after he survived damn near getting thrown out by Ambrose. But you know WWE loves loving their guest appearance guys. I guess Reigns would've been looking at heel vs heel the way the title picture looks now.

And I guess the Batista thing would've come out better if they could've kept his appearance a surprise. Instead, he showed up early, did something close to nothing, and made folks expect to see him in it at the end..maybe at the expense of Bryan. And we saw the mad that errupted from the live crowd there.

>This is one of the few PPVs I always order, glad tonight is
>the last time I pay $50 for it....


>
>Tonight's Card
>
>Pre Show Match - The New Age Outlaws vs. Cody Rhodes and
>Goldust for the WWE Tag Team Championships
>
>Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt
>
>The Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar
>
>John Cena vs. Randy Orton for the WWE World Heavyweight
>Championship
>
>The 30 Man Royal Rumble Match
>
>
>
>
>You gon' live forever
>Whether you want to or not
>Some of us gon' end up holy
>Some of us gon' end up hot.....

I used the wrong phrase. I meant that the story of the match was 'Roman Reigns is crazy awesome, y'all..he's the best guy in this whole thing..yes, he's better than Punk too'. Then they finished it with 'forget about the best guy in this, no..Bryan isn't coming back out, CM Punk is set to get stuck with HHH at Mania, LOOK AT SHEAMUS and oh yeah..this dude who hasn't been around in 4 years is gonna win the whole thing'. It is like that time when HHH was winning matches when he had no business or Hogan was main-eventing WCW shows after the nWo had fallen off and folks were kinda done with lazy WCW Hogan matches vs what was available in 1998-2001 in the WWF...not to mention ECW and Japan.

I really don't get it.

The crowd echoed the feeling of nearly everyone watching. Which demographic is this catering to? The pro-men's belly button tattoo contingent?

It's been like a decade. Move on.

Otherwise fuck that match.

Mick Foley ‏@realmickfoley

Does @WWE actually hate their own audience? I've never been so disgusted with a PPV.

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(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

"As I mentioned on Twitter, I've never felt so disgusted at the conclusion of a WWE (or any) PPV. Like many of you out there, I just don't get it. The Daniel Bryan thing is a phenomenon. You get it. I get it. The fans in Pittsburgh (yes, I was thinking of writing "RIGHT TH...but I'm just not in a cheap pop mood) got it. But tonight, for the first time, I had to admit to myself that the powers that be are just not going to get it. And that makes me sad. I'm just honestly sad, just flat out fucking sad (yes, I dropped an F-bomb there to emphasize how Fucking sad I am for the guys who bust their butts night in and night out--Ziggler, Punk, Bryan, etc. with no hope of getting their shot at this year's Mania.

You know who else I'm sad for? Me. In my two years as an official WWE Ambassador, I never once had to lie about my enthusiasm for the company or the product. Now, although I am no lnger offically an Ambasaddor for WWE (believe it or not, my only offfical role in WWE is as GM for Saturday Morning Slam, a contract that ends in one month), I was still looking forward to being part of the biggest event of the year. I'll probably end up going anyway. but I'm about 1/6th as excited about it as I was just a few hours ago. I wanted so badly to hear 75,000 WWE fans chanting "Yes," and seeing fans walk away absolutely ecstatic about the outcojme of a PPV for the first time in a while...a long while. But when given the chance to make it happen (unless they've got something MAJOR up theri sleve), WWE's answer right now was a resounding "NO, NO, NO."

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(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

I'm guessing they'll do a chamber match for an IC title shot.

Does Orton defend the title?
Do you do a chamber match for his belt?

Idk, if Bryan's not getting the belt, he's gotta get Taker then. Not getting me interested for a match with Sheamus, even though the match itself would probably be great.

>I'm guessing they'll do a chamber match for an IC title shot.
>
>
>Does Orton defend the title?
>Do you do a chamber match for his belt?
>
>Idk, if Bryan's not getting the belt, he's gotta get Taker
>then. Not getting me interested for a match with Sheamus, even
>though the match itself would probably be great.

EC has to be Brock/Orton, then WM is Batista/Orton, so they can't do a #1 contender match, right?

>I'm guessing they'll do a chamber match for an IC title shot.
>
>
>Does Orton defend the title?
>Do you do a chamber match for his belt?
>
>Idk, if Bryan's not getting the belt, he's gotta get Taker
>then. Not getting me interested for a match with Sheamus, even
>though the match itself would probably be great.

That 'YES' flurry from the cage after he returned from a brief stint with the Wyatts a couple Raws ago should've made the backstage WWE folks say 'maaaaan...we seriously have to quit fucking around and get this man the belt..we've already turned him back..let's go'.

Elimination Chamber has to be the clusterfuck match. They can't do it there AND at Mania. Orton, Cena, Lesnar, Batista, Punk, *insert not Bryan person who won't win here*...that's enough for a Chamber, right?

They're probably gonna split the Shield for this Mania too. Tears. Maybe Reigns rolls out and Ambrose and Tyler Black stay together and add a different hawse.

And it is also time for the annual 'let's hope Taker doesn't look like shit' period when he shows up, walks slow, and gives someone new a WM death sentence. Hopefully it isn't Kane or someone lazily selected with an even less than normal chances. Wyatt isn't there yet either. Maybe Bryan is it for this. Then...after he damn near wins but loses in a 'damn...Taker barely won that shit' way, he can go on and get a title win.

if wwe doesn't listen now they'll never listen. this sheamus/bryan rumor is terrible, and it better not happen. rey didn't even get the pop he should have because everyone wanted it to be bryan.

That was crazy. Understandable, but crazy.

>That was crazy. Understandable, but crazy.

And refuse to audible.

Throw Shaemus and Big E in there as enforcers.

Their mission will be to beat the shit out of everyone on the roster. No title hunts or anything for like 6 months, just total anihilation of management, champions, refs, announcers..... just a massive backlash stemming from being held down. then they go after titles. I'm not even entirely sure i want this to be kayfabe either.

http://i.imgur.com/Fk73G4j.png

I just don't know if it's going to get us the end result we all want (DB going for the title at Mania)

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(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2014/0126/569615/batista-flips-out-on-fans-after-wwe-royal-rumble-ppv/

id hope this is a work

and then they have 2 heels scheduled to battle for the title as the headlining match on wm 30. even if it's not a work, people are probably gonna keep booing him because he's not bryan, which makes him a heel no matter what they do.

Telling fans to suck his balls on Twitter last week, now this.

Even though his book was never released (that I know of), I can truly believe he called his ex-wife lazy for not cleaning while she was fighting cancer.

This is all making me rethink subscribing to the NetWWErk. I can't see giving any more money to a company that so blatanly shits on such a large part of its audience. True, you can't please everyone, but I can't see who they're pleasing with this move, with the exception of Batista.


"I halfway hope people put "btw, rappers lie and shit" on CD covers, like a parental advisory sticker." - OKP Villain

www.twitter.com/lexlamont

Such a shame because it had been such a great show until we realized the last 3 entrants were Batista, Langston, and Mysterio.

The thought around us was, with him losing to Bray, "oh he's DEFINITELY coming back then!!!"

...

So so so disappointing.

all of this up on Twitter

Which came on the heels of that remarkable interview he gave earlier in the week where he talked openly about not being pushed and whatnot

Kinda makes me think there's more going on here than meets the eye

And would be right in line with Vince's mantra of giving the people what they want but not in the exact way they want it

This could get weird, and corny, or it could be dope

I'm hoping that it's the latter

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(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

although that would also be giving the WWE a LOT of credit.

>Which came on the heels of that remarkable interview he gave
>earlier in the week where he talked openly about not being
>pushed and whatnot

http://youtu.be/Z5YIcMXFTs8

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(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

It *appears* his current plans are to pair him with Sheamus at Mania, which would probably make for a great match but would be a terrible step for DB at this point. The fact that DB was left off the Rumble completely either means WWE really HATE Bryan - like really absolutely completely hates the dude, or this level of fan reaction is exactly what they wanted in order to build him even further to his WM title win with the swerve of all swerves.

Sadly, I think the former is less likely because Batista, I believe, wouldn't come back at this point just to make way for Bryan. Batista's kinda the wild card here as I don't think he'd clear that spot quietly - his reaction to the BOOOs is proof of that - he wants that glory all for himself.

As I say, this could be just a great WWE swerve here which is why he wasn't in the Rumble but if it isn't - why leave him off? At the very least, they have to realise he's popular so I don't get it?!

Had amazing seats in the 100 section which made the night great, but here were my takeaways

- Amazing crowd, from what I've read online the crowd came through loud and clear all night which was great. I was at the WM where Rock fought Hogan and I'm not sure which crowd was more hot. I lean to this one because it was smaller and lasted all night, not just that 1 match.

- It was not on TV, but the NAO got a huge pop. I know people probably are not pleased with them being champs again, but they provided some fun and you know they can work a crowd. They made the dark match exciting which is pretty rare, I'm ok with them getting a run.

- Daniel Bryan is over as fuck (everyone knows that) but I'm talking the bar I was at before the show couldn't go 5 minutes without a yes chant, the arena was full of them pre show. It's basically the new Woooo which used to fill the arena all night long.

- The title match chants were great and I'm glad they kind of ruined the match, I do feel like Orton and Cena actually put the best match they've had together on last night, but it was too late because they were boring for the first 5 minutes and lost the crowd. The "you both suck" chant pretty much sums up the problem with this feud.

- During the Rumble, everyone in the arena definitely thought Bryan was going to be #30. My friend and I personally didn't put it together that we were getting screwed until after Batista came in and we realized Batista, Big E and Rey were all left. (Really hard to keep track of this at the live show). I don't think most people in the arena really figured it out until Rey came in #30

- I felt kind of bad for Rey who became the 2nd biggest heel of the night after Batista, wasn't his fault, but at that point the crowd erupted and I hope that came through on TV. Was basically just boo's, No chants and bullshit chants for the final 10 minutes of the show. I was glad to see the crowd turn so hostile

- Everyone knows this already, but Reigns stole the show last night which was probably one of their goals. The crowd being so behind him was much more an anti Batista stance, but I'm glad that came through on TV too.

- They played Batista's music loud as hell when he won, definitely trying to drown out the boos.

Overall, this was almost the best rumble PPV in a really long time and they ruined it with the Rumble. The whole world got to see them refuse to give the crowd what they wanted, and I'm excited to see how they handle it tonight. Tonight's Raw crowd has a big responsibility to keep what happened last night up, if they just become a normal crowd then nothing will change. If they act like the crowd did the night after WM when Bryan lost to Sheamus and the Yes chant really took off and spilled into Raw then we may see something happen.

"Tonight's Raw crowd has a big responsibility to keep what happened last night up, if they just become a normal crowd then nothing will change. If they act like the crowd did the night after WM when Bryan lost to Sheamus and the Yes chant really took off and spilled into Raw then we may see something happen."

^^^Excellent point and I'm keen to see how it all works out but I fear the worst.

And yeah...the crowd tonight has a lot of weight on them. They have to boo Batista, drop random yes and DB chants when something is happening, and be sure to throw some 'NO's out there to coincide with anyone other than the Shield or Taker being thrown high into the card without Bryan's involvement.

My guess? They certainly get it. They just haven't honestly decided exactly when and how they're gonna get to DB as champ anytime soon since they've screwed themselves with Batista, Brock, etc. And they probably have too much pride to just hotshot the titles over to DB and say 'fuck it, here's your guy, he's the champ, and here he is wrestling awesome matches for the last 30 minutes of the show AS CHAMP. We'll do all of this Authority stuff a little bit down the card. Buy the fucking WWE Network! And we'll cancel our awesome plans to reunite Evolution with Reigns instead of Flair and give them all titles...just for you, damnit...just for you'.

Jimaveli

>Had amazing seats in the 100 section which made the night
>great, but here were my takeaways
>
>- Amazing crowd, from what I've read online the crowd came
>through loud and clear all night which was great. I was at the
>WM where Rock fought Hogan and I'm not sure which crowd was
>more hot. I lean to this one because it was smaller and lasted
>all night, not just that 1 match.
>
>- It was not on TV, but the NAO got a huge pop. I know people
>probably are not pleased with them being champs again, but
>they provided some fun and you know they can work a crowd.
>They made the dark match exciting which is pretty rare, I'm ok
>with them getting a run.
>
>- Daniel Bryan is over as fuck (everyone knows that) but I'm
>talking the bar I was at before the show couldn't go 5 minutes
>without a yes chant, the arena was full of them pre show. It's
>basically the new Woooo which used to fill the arena all night
>long.
>
>- The title match chants were great and I'm glad they kind of
>ruined the match, I do feel like Orton and Cena actually put
>the best match they've had together on last night, but it was
>too late because they were boring for the first 5 minutes and
>lost the crowd. The "you both suck" chant pretty much sums up
>the problem with this feud.
>
>- During the Rumble, everyone in the arena definitely thought
>Bryan was going to be #30. My friend and I personally didn't
>put it together that we were getting screwed until after
>Batista came in and we realized Batista, Big E and Rey were
>all left. (Really hard to keep track of this at the live
>show). I don't think most people in the arena really figured
>it out until Rey came in #30
>
>- I felt kind of bad for Rey who became the 2nd biggest heel
>of the night after Batista, wasn't his fault, but at that
>point the crowd erupted and I hope that came through on TV.
>Was basically just boo's, No chants and bullshit chants for
>the final 10 minutes of the show. I was glad to see the crowd
>turn so hostile
>
>- Everyone knows this already, but Reigns stole the show last
>night which was probably one of their goals. The crowd being
>so behind him was much more an anti Batista stance, but I'm
>glad that came through on TV too.
>
>- They played Batista's music loud as hell when he won,
>definitely trying to drown out the boos.
>
>Overall, this was almost the best rumble PPV in a really long
>time and they ruined it with the Rumble. The whole world got
>to see them refuse to give the crowd what they wanted, and I'm
>excited to see how they handle it tonight. Tonight's Raw crowd
>has a big responsibility to keep what happened last night up,
>if they just become a normal crowd then nothing will change.
>If they act like the crowd did the night after WM when Bryan
>lost to Sheamus and the Yes chant really took off and spilled
>into Raw then we may see something happen.

Sure, the fact that he was in the opening match and the fact that he lost could lead one to reasonably assume that he'd be in the match, but his name was never placed in the list of Rumble participants

And yes, one of their goals last night was to get Roman Reigns over huge

Thanks to you and Tiger for the reports

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(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

http://i.cubeupload.com/GCvVul.gif

*smh* haha

"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

The fact that they wound up acknowledging and responding to the crowd worked in their favor too.

though we've seen that match a million times it became enjoyable and the Wyatts arrival was a pleasant surprise.

their finishers ...like u saw it coming. i was like ok..he kicked out of the fu..here comes an RK..and there it is

technically rock-austin.


"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

Because that crowd did everything in their power to tell them just how much they didn't want to see that match

Orton in particular held it together remarkably well. Cena's used to it.

I even thought at one point during the "*clap clap clap-clap-clap Dan-iel Bry-an" chants, Randy should have hit a move, then did a mock clap followed by "Ran-dy Or-ton"

That would have been funny and dope

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

whether it's a work or not, y'all have the world paying attention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrS22HYW74Q

http://youtu.be/dvXRoe3vui0

"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

bad news is WWE will probably blow it

dude hit the floor pretty hard.

http://i.4cdn.org/sp/src/1390871954454.gif

Brock is fucking great.

Yes. Brock and Bryan in the ring together would be awesome. There's a few others I think would be awesome with Brock, but can't see anyway they would happen. But I think Big E and Brock would be nuts. Roman Reigns too, but if they keep pushing Reigns, they could possibly meet at some point.

He's great when not speaking.

Cena aint get a bigger pop than him.

"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

I can't be the only one who feels like those cats are basically his kids.

remember Dan Spivey in the WWE?

They've tried monster giants so many times that fall flat on their face. He works about 2 months a year. He can't talk.

And yet still, Brock Lesnar is the most consistently credible character they have at their disposal. Let's discuss...why is this the case?

Is it the real world credentials of having been the UFC Heavyweight champion? Surely that's part of it, he's the only legitimately proven badass in the locker room.

Is it because he came from a time where he was able to get over on all time greats like The Rock, The Undertaker, Eddie Guerrero, and Triple H, henceforth legitimizing his reputation early? That probably contributes to it as well.

Is it a natural charisma? I'm not sure. He definitely has a distinct look, but he also lacks the explicitly visible "IT" that you see in John Cena or CM Punk.

No matter what his formula is, it's a proven one that works every single time he shows up. As a fan, he's the only guy whose opponents I'm fearful of. Why does Brock Lesnar still work so damn well guys?

I mean all wrestlers could beat me up so I'm not trying to say some aren't tough, but you look at Brock and you legit feel fear that he may just snap and murder you.

It's a combination of the things you mentioned: you know how tough he is in real life, he has an impressive resume, he does things in the ring very few people can do and he does it with ease and charisma.

He can carry the Big show easily over his head, and do a shooting star press (well he could at one point, botch at WM excluded). He delivers and takes very stiff shots (remember that fight with Cena?)

He is not your typical giant monster character who just looks big but doesn't do much, he really does do it all in terms of fighting. He is just exciting to see do his thing, part of it is all of the reasons we mentioned, and part of it is just an intangible thing you can't put your finger on for why some guys just have it.

His inability to speak is a huge detriment on the surface, but having Heyman as his "agent" and mouthpiece makes for one of the GOAT wrestler/manager pairings. In some ways, it makes him more menacing. He's basically a psychotic goon. Imagine if Mr. Hughes had Batista's size and Kurt Angle's wrestling ability. It's kind of a terrifying persona, and the fact that Paul is so money on the mic is what makes it work. Paul talks while Brock looks like he's fantasizing about how he's going to murder the guy Paul is talking to. If Paul spoke to these guys the way he does by himself, he'd (kayfabe,of course) spend his entire career in a wheel chair. Since Brock is either at his side or a threat to retaliate, Paul gets away with it. It's really a perfect dynamic that can really only work with these two.

Add that to the fact that he's genuinely exciting to watch work. Guys like Cena can pull out some technical moves when it's called for, but he could never put on a breathtaking ground display like Brock can. He's huge, athletic, explosive, but he can flat out GO right alongside cats who can flat out GO. He's basically in that same class as guys like Angle or Hennig or Hart or HBK in that department, except he's got size and brute force behind him.

Basically, he's Vince's wet dream and if Brock actually loved the wrestling business and didn't mind the miserable existence of pro wrestler, he'd have been an easy pick for GOAT by now. He's a guy who literally has it all in the ring and has the perfect mouth piece to turn his weakness (speaking, obviously) into a monster strength.

Because he was easily the biggest influence on Brock's career outlook, according to Brock. He told Brock to get into the business so he can get out, and Brock took that to heart. Chances our his lack of passion for the business would have still won out, but in his bio he cites Hennig's words so often it's clear they weighed heavily in his decision making.

The only other guys I see in his category are Austin and Savage. We saw Savage at his best for a long time though, and IMO he was criminally overlooked/under promoted in favor of Hogan, though with fair reason. There's no wondering about his career, and the more I think about it, the further up the ladder he goes and I'm kind of realizing he's standing just a shade outside that Rock/Hogan/Austin trinity.

Anyhow, Brock and Austin are the two biggest "what ifs" I can think of, because for all of Austin's greatness, his big money prime came after he broke his neck. If he never breaks his neck, he never loses his ability to work like an animal, and he's the unquestioned GOAT because he'd have been the only guy to embody every conceivable element that makes a great pro wrestler. He'd be marketable and money on the mic like Hogan and Rock, yet able to go toe to toe with the best technical wrestlers while having just enough size to believably brawl with the hulking monsters of the business.

Savage and Austin are the only other guys I can think of with that unique type of blend. The difference is Brock has the kind of intimidating presence that Vince cums over.

But we'll get Reigns vs Ambrose more than likely in what will probably also be a good match.

I mean when was the last time we saw an actual STABLE that thrived as well as this, lasted as long as this, and was built of guys so dramatically different but so complementary of each other at the same time?

Honestly, the answer is probably Evolution, no?

They're basiclaly batting 1.000 after all this time. I can't recall a single bad match or angle with them. I kind of wish they would push Reigns to the forefront without breaking them up though. Give them a chance to dominate the title scenes together. Give Rollins the IC strap, let Ambrose keep the US strap, and the give them the Tag straps under Demolition rules.

I was hoping they'd bring up Hero as a 4th member. I'd like to see them become something more than hired goons and I think now is the time to do that.

there'd be an underwritten tension between a female Shield member and Stephanie, and a female being in the group would actually lend legitimate wrestling credibility to the Divas division. I have to admit, I actually somewhat enjoyed last night's womens match and I've especially noticed how good the Bellas have gotten. Now imagine if there was a girl bully to torment all of them!

And think of the possibilities of Bryan and his Bella, and Cena and his Bella, and Punk and AJ all now having to pay attention to the Shield in tandem and not just on the male side of things.

I mean you had HHH and Flair anchoring

What makes the Shield the most impressive is that it was 3 young guys who got over on their own, not by tagging along with a big name leader like a lot of stables.

It's a shame to break them up, but it eventually does have to happen, just was nice to see them last a long time and make all 3 members relevant.

ambrose is my favorite because his character is so well-defined. his mannerisms kill me every time, and the fact that he goes nuts and has to be reigned in (no pun intended) entertains me to no end. my roommate noted that if you had a faceless video game character doing those mannerisms you'd still know it was ambrose. reigns is a monster, and while i'm not crazy about a spear being used as a finisher since it's been used before, he does it well and the superman punch looks devastating. rollins has the best moveset and is the best athlete imo. they've really only let him shine recently, but i'm glad they have. his finisher might be my favorite today.

I remember when they debuted Twitter was going buts, specifically the IWC smarks who were freaking out about Rollins and Ambrose being called to the main roster. One tweet I remember specifically was:

"OMG! Seth Rollins! Dean Ambrose! Some other guy!"

And now that "some guy" is on the fast track to the main event and will undoubtedly be the first of the group to hold the WWE title.

"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

i wasnt watching when they debuted so when i started back i thought Reigns waw the leader of the group. he stood out the most to me. i wasn't expecting Ambrose to get all the mic time.

Cesaro is IN THE CHAMBER...and Christian is too.
Shield vs Wyatts is going down.

We need one for the IC strap though.

an IC title one will leave you with, like, one of the Primetime Players and Jack Swagger and the Miz and shit.

If the Rhodes boys were going to drop the straps anyway they should've dropped them to the Wyatts. Say the Wyatts are tag champs and they face the Shield in the Chamber, you could have a "winner take all" titles match for the tag straps and US strap.

Weird though, once I finished writing that I said "actually tho all those belts are beneath Reigns..."

>an IC title one will leave you with, like, one of the
>Primetime Players and Jack Swagger and the Miz and shit.

Honestly I'd love a massive IC push for Ziggler. He's the perfect guy to restore the luster to the belt that was restored by Jericho a few years back before it became worthless again. Ziggler, Kofi, Miz, Big E, Fandango, and Xavier could pull off a show stopper. I'd end it with Dolph vs Fandango, who's a hell of a worker and persona IMO.

>If the Rhodes boys were going to drop the straps anyway they
>should've dropped them to the Wyatts. Say the Wyatts are tag
>champs and they face the Shield in the Chamber, you could have
>a "winner take all" titles match for the tag straps and US
>strap.
>
>Weird though, once I finished writing that I said "actually
>tho all those belts are beneath Reigns..."

Yeah. I personally don't want titles anywhere near that feud, because it's not really an interesting reason for the match IMO. Domination of the WWE and sheer animosity between the two factions is enough to fuel that one. Personally I want to see Reigns erm.... Reign over every man, woman, and child-sized man in the WWE right now, and after Sunday and last night he kind of presents himself as such a force that anything less than Brock, Sheamus, Orton, and Cena is beneath him.

>Cesaro is IN THE CHAMBER...and Christian is too.
>Shield vs Wyatts is going down.

I know he'll probably get pinned first, but it'll be great to see Cesaro get a chance to shine with those guys.

>Cesaro is IN THE CHAMBER...and Christian is too.
>Shield vs Wyatts is going down.

I hope he gets to wreck a few guys before getting knocked out. I like him and Swagger together, but Cesaro getting some individual spotlight is a fantastic idea. He's amazing.

http://youtu.be/dvXRoe3vui0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=554l-4hSbyA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNOz_pKBEbI

I mean he is uploading the videos himself and naming them "Fat kid...."

He's just looking for that internet fame now I have to figure which makes this kind of sad, I want to believe it's real

Him walking into one room with the toy wrestling ring, then the other with hundreds of wrestling DVDs scattered all along the floor... they're genius touches for comedic effect but can't genuinelly be how he's living, right?

Get a bookshelf dude!

Is he a squatter?

I keep waiting for there to be some reference to the fact that they just moved in or something.
If it isn't fake, I think his girlfriend is like the coolest chick in the world!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI-y0ZDcntE

I love how his girlfriend just randomly records him watching wrestling waiting for the payoff.

Meltzer:

"C.M. Punk reportedly told Vince McMahon last night that he was going home, and did so. That's where things stand right now. At this point, he's off everything going forward."

wat

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

Cot damn.

Thanks Batista.

http://pwinsider.com/article/83178/top-star-pulled-from-all-wwe-dates-going-forward-following-raw-meeting.html?p=1

TOP STAR PULLED FROM ALL WWE DATES GOING FORWARD FOLLOWING RAW MEETING
By Mike Johnson on 2014-01-29 02:10:09 Former WWE and World champion CM Punk has been pulled from all advertising of WWE live events going forward after a meeting with WWE management yesterday at the Raw taping in Cleveland, Ohio.
We have been working on details for the last 24 hours (as Dave Scherer and I noted on our respective Elite audios earlier today), but the belief among those who are willing to talk about the situation is that Punk is no longer factored into company plans. Punk is under contract to WWE through July.

Punk was slated to face Triple H at Wrestlemania 30. This past Monday's Raw instead began teasing Daniel Bryan vs. HHH down the line, possibly for Wrestlemania.

We have heard from several sources that the original script for yesterday's Raw called for Punk to wrestle Antonio Cesaro and lose after Kane interfered, allowing Cesaro to qualify for the Elimination Chamber. It should be noted that another source has denied that and claimed that Punk was never booked to wrestle last night and was only booked to do a promo that would follow up on Kane causing Punk's elimination from the Rumble. But, Punk was originally slated to be on Raw and those segments were yanked. He was not backstage during the taping and was not backstage at Smackdown.

It is believed that when Vince McMahon had the writers re-write Raw late yesterday (6 PM for a taping that was scheduled to start at 7:45 PM), it was because Punk had informed the company he was going home and wouldn't be back.

While we cannot 100% confirm why, the belief among wrestlers backstage is that Punk leaving was not an injury issue. It was described to us as more likely a case of burnout and unhappiness with the overall direction of the company. Punk had been very vocal in the past about the usage of returning and "part time" stars being pushed beyond wrestlers who were working full-time for the company.

In his interview with Ariel Helwani last week, Punk talked about the crazy schedule he's held up working for the company over the last decade. Punk said that he's been doing it ten years and doesn't know anyone else who can say that. He said that he's only taken time off for injuries and that when he took two months off in 2013, it may not have been long enough.

Punk, who worked about 50 minutes in the Royal Rumble match was described as "pissy" after the PPV, although that wouldn't be an unusual description of Punk's demeanor backstage.

One source believed that since Punk's last goal was to work a Wrestlemania main event, it may also be a situation where Punk realized it wasn't going to happen this year and with his WWE deal expiring in July, that may have weighed down upon him because he was so goal driven and this was one he couldn't accomplish because of elements that were outside of his control.

In the interview with Helwani, Punk was asked about WWE killing his momentum at times and why such things happen. Punk responded that he'd like to think they don't make those decisions on purpose and it's more they wanted to go in another decision. He claimed it's a different era and different time and it can't be looked at the same way he did when he was a kid.

Yesterday, Punk wrote on Twitter, "Thanks for all the support. Keep being you guys, it's pretty cool."

Depending on how you read the statement, it could be taken as a cryptic farewell.

We'll obviously update more as we confirm additional details.

I'm not sure if I'm surprised by this at all but it's still such a shame it's happened.

There have been small bits of news to say he's been unhappy for a little while (be it burnout or storywise) but I would have thought he's still considered to be one of the company's top stars. A win against HHH at Mania may not be headlining per se but it's nothing to turn your nose up at.

Such a tough time for WWE right now - I can't think of a time where that title has been more coveted and meant so much: if Bryan's now being considered for HHH at Mania, then there were clearly no plans of him winning it, Punk's not been in the title picture for over a year, Batista's been handed it despite the frustrations of the Punk's, Ziggler's, etc. This is why I was surprised they unified the belts.

he's recognized by everyone as one of the best hands in the company,

he's been involved in main event or near main event programs consistently for 3 years (Cena,Jericho,Rock,Taker,Lesnar...)

he had the title for 400 days

he travels in a bus, he has to be the 2nd best merchandise mover, and he appears to have a great deal of creative freedom...

what gives with this guy?


EDIT: I'm probably a little unfair. What the guy truly needs is some time off.

He never wants to become Hogan.

Also he never really was a big WWE guy. He's an indy guy who has always been anti WWE but made the move everyone has to make. Even when he is in important storylines he still hates the direction they are going in.

He doesn't need the money enough to deal with the schedule, the physical damage and being a part of something he finds bad.

he should finish out his contract, but that's him.

and this would definitely be the time... And have him comeback at WM XXX... This is all wishful thinking... But it would be great...

Not when it either costs $70 or you have to pay $60 to get the WWE network to see it this year.

You lay your cards out and tell people everyone they are going to see.

hotel...car rental...it looks like I am going to enjoy the other things more than the actual event...

I wish it was a work...but I don't think it is...

So basically the card is going to be...

Orton vs. Batista (Fail)
Cena vs. Wyatt (Interesting)
Daniel Bryan vs. HHH (Interesting I guess...DB has to win this match)
Brock vs. Taker (I feel iffy about this match...this could fall on their face)

Hogan appearance...

Eh...we shall see how this goes...

I went to the one in Toronto with Hogan vs Rock and am going to this one too.

It's just a giant party, and it's not just WWE. There are at on of indy events that happen the whole weekend too. Plus the entire city is full of wrestling fans, it's just a great time.

We're doing the Raw the day after too which is always great.

Plus it's New Orleans.

Goldberg, Bret Hart, and Piper is going to be there...

I want the photo op with Taker...but i'm on the fence giving WWE $175 bucks for it...

I've thought this for a while, but the Rumble should be for a MITB type title shot rather than main event at WM.

I get why they are connected and it makes it like a 3 month season of wrestling, but the Rumble has been way too predictable for years now, mainly because we always know who the guy is that will be main eventing WM.

If winning the rumble gets you a title shot within the year it opens up the floor to anyone. Your WM main event guy can still win, or if he loses he can still fight at WM for the belt, but now all kinds of people have the chance to win. It would definitely make it more exciting from a fan perspective knowing that an upper midcard or even midcard guy has a chance. I hate watching the rumble and knowing guys like Rhodes, Ziggler, Punk, Reigns etc... have 0 chance because Batista is headlining WM already.

Would really make the event so much better but won't ever happen.

The problem is this is the third straight year they've had some dinosaur from the past headline the event with a guy who is already a little long in the tooth in that department.

The problem is that they guys like Bryan and Dolph and Rhodes aren't being given the opportunity to RUN with the ball. Punk held the strap for 400+ days, and now he gets HHH as his Mania partner? Good match, especially if Vince is involved, but really? Changing the Rumble to a MITB style title shot isn't a bad idea, but it doesn't fix the constant hotshotting and complete resistance to give the young guys time to prove they can develop into main event stars. Guys like Dolph and Bryan have had brief moments, seemingly just to shut up guys like us for a minute, only to push them down again.

That's the problem and that's what needs to change.

Would Batista have won? Maybe, this year since he was returning maybe it's a little different, but he could headline WM without winning it is the point.

Last year for example when we all knew Rock was beating Punk and Cena was winning the Rumble to set up the rematch. Imagine if Cena didn't "have" to win the Rumble for that match (I know he doesn't technically have to). You could have that match happen and then have anyone win the Rumble. Maybe Cena just fights a 1 on 1 match with winner getting a title shot at WM instead.

You could have 10 guys every year win the Rumble if it just meant a title shot in the future, when it means a title shot in 2 months you pretty much know exactly who is winning it every year. It wouldn't fix any bad storylines, it would just make your funnest match of the year less predictable.

Reigns isn't enough to keep me watching so I'll bounce with them.

because if in fact you're pegged to face your employer in a fight in about 2 months, quitting on said employer abruptly might boost the intrigue for said fight if it's being watched by an audience.

I feel like if it was, Punk would send more tweets about it (like Bryan after the Rumble). WWE will want to try to make it into one obviously, but Punk has always been pretty vocal about not wanting to be around forever and probably not coming back after his contract was up.

I also want Bryan and Dolph to leave.

I'm pretty patient in giving them the benefit of the doubt, but my faith has been eroded completely with this idiotic Brotista business.

On Raw they tease Brock vs either Orton or Brotista Jenner... only to see Brock "send a message" to HHH and Stef by laying out.... The Brotherhood? Instead of NAO?

Ok.

I LOVE HHH and always have, but him inserting himself into every white hot wrestlers storyline for his 2-3 matches a year over the last three years or so has worn thin. They haven't built anyone in a decade. Punk built himself. Bryan built himself. Dolph built himself. WWE gave those guys tick because they've earned it.



Still... There’s continued resistance to go all the way with these young guys so they can hotshot more stars of yesteryear to inflate buy rates instead of giving the fans a reason to care about the young guys so they can actually carry the company without the need to bring back 45 year old retirees to main event things.

They built Ryback into a made man. They could have put him in with Brock at Mania (again, my Rocky III idea for that would have been gold, but I digress) to solidify him for the future… But instead, we get Paul v Brock 2. Or was it 3? Either way, we get Paul inserted into a match with an old guy who’s already massively over. Meanwhile, Ryback loses to Henry yet STILL comes out looking great after a Shell Shock. Then…. Nothing. Now we get…….. Rybaxel. He hurts a lot of people though, so it looks like pushing him to the moon may not have been the best idea.

Dolph cashes in, gets one of the biggest pops in recent memory, and unfortunately gets a concussion. He doesn’t sniff the title picture again. They had a nice little stable with Dolph, Big E, and AJ for about five minutes.

With so much tremendous young talent right now between Punk, Bryan, The Shield, The Wyatt Family, Shaemus, The Brotherhood, The Usos, Big E, Ryback (who can still be salvaged despite acting and looking like shit the last year) Fandango, Kofi, etc that have potential to be built, along with excellent veterans to keep things stable in Orton and Cena, guys like Christian not to mention Brock, whose character actually works perfectly with his part time status, Takers’ Streak STILL being THEE marquee attraction of Mania no matter who goes for the title….WHY the fuck do we still need Hunter hogging the story lines with the hot stars of the moment, Rock overshadowing 3 straight Manias, and Brotista’s sham of ”headlining” Mania?

I’m betting Punk would echo most, if not all, of what I just said, without qualification. That’s why I doubt this is a work, and why I hope it’s not, and why I wouldn’t mind a few others telling Vince to fuck off and bounce.

Was texting with what he called a "very reliable source" during the podcast and said it is 100% legit.

@CaseyKulas
Punk was heard arguing with staff saying "I passed all your damn concussion test" and "I'm not going out and telling fans that BS"

https://twitter.com/CaseyKulas/status/428558805681836032

That should be fun

http://www.sescoops.com/wwe-holding-day-creative-meetings-thursday-friday/

A source says that “nothing is sacred” in terms of long-standing booking plans plans and “everything will be reevaluated.”

Where is Laurinitis, because this is some real people power

-There were initial rumors of some sort of argument regarding a concussion. This has been debunked.

-Punk has needed time off to deal with nagging injuries. He previously took two months off, last year.

-They played out a similar angle during the infamous “Summer of Punk” run. Punk had the title at that point, so it was a bit more obvious it was a work.

-There’s a rumor of a text that Punk sent yesterday to one of the Gracie cats in Cali about being in town in a few weeks. Raw is in L.A. in two weeks.

-The backlash from the Rumble was HUGE.

That said, Punk is their best promo guy. He’s an internet darling and thus the best guy to use if WWE wants to go “viral”, so to speak. He needs time off anyways. Simply quitting doesn’t really seem to be in Phil’s (Phil, the person, not Punk, the ) character. He’s only got 6 months left on his contact, so why would he leave now? The recent rumor is that Vince wants Punk back while HHH thinks Punk was being disrespectful.

There’s a lot of small details that lead me to believe this is a work being played extremely close to the vest. Though it’s mostly negative press, it’s press that’s gone mainstream at this point. People are interested in the story of Punk leaving, which means people will be interested in Punk’s return. This also takes some of the negative spotlight away from the Bryan situation.

I wouldn’t bet my house, but I have a sneaking suspicion this is a work to lead up to Punk’s match with HHH at Mania. Remember, it was rumored last year that a Vince/HHH power struggle would play out through Mania. At one point it was rumored that Punk would serve as Vince’s representative, ala Lashley during the Trump fued. It’s now reported that Vince and HHH have differing views on the situation.
So, Punk gets time off and Vince/HHH get to get one over on the smart marks of the IWC.

It’s a bit of a reach… but I can see this all playing out. It’s just a theory, not a fact, nothing I’m adamant about, but I am leaning toward Kayfabe at the moment.

I also fully expect Punk to be back, so when he does come back they will for sure make it like the entire thing was a work.

But my feeling on this is he just left out of anger and it was not part of a plan, it will become one though.

Think it's even odds work/shoot.

I mean, Triple H's best friends were all total dickheads, no? Is he really this blown?

>Is he really this blown?

It's been reported that Punk wanted to headline WM and doesn't believe a match with HHH is prestigious enough so felt no reason to stick around. HHH, the wrestler, can only take that as disrespect.

He probably didn't hate the idea of working Triple H as much as he hated not being the main event.

"I halfway hope people put "btw, rappers lie and shit" on CD covers, like a parental advisory sticker." - OKP Villain

www.twitter.com/lexlamont

http://nationalprowrestlingday.com/watch/

Apparently something big happens starting around the 1:57 mark

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(everybody) Who gets mad at knowledge? OK NIGGAS DO!

I am now re-watching it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haU-BfRKnLc

Some minor spoilers:
Eddie Kingston picks a fight with some kids, who decide to fight back with karate kicks.
The feed crashed during a brief interlude when Maria Kanellis was talking and the last image on the screen for some time was of her from behind. It was the nicest stream crash you could ask for.

The Baltic Siege vs. The Bloc Party had six of the most based gimmicks I've ever seen, seven if you count the Bloc Party's manager. It's the second match and it ruled for absurd fun alone.


It wasn't the greatest show I've ever seen but it was a real feel-good show and LORD knows fans need that after what we've seen in sports entertainment the last month.

Glad I stuck around, had a blast.

we'll see if dbry actually wins tonight...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wHwgkCpQoM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vExv6A0ulsQ

austin's podcast show is pretty good too.

they still trying w/ this guest host crap.

Cody's flip wasn't perfect, but damn. Slide over and help the guy out.

This that bullshit.


"I halfway hope people put "btw, rappers lie and shit" on CD covers, like a parental advisory sticker." - OKP Villain

www.twitter.com/lexlamont

I think they'll be an extremely charismatic, exciting team with this gimmick. Hopefully they get a solid Mania match with Rollins and Reigns, ideally in a three-way tag match involving the Uso's. Make that shit a TLC and BOOM!

According to F4WOnline.com, the reason why WWE had The Miz come out during the Titus O'Neil match on Raw this week and cut a quick, "angry" promo is because it will likely be setting The Miz up for a tag team with Dolph Ziggler.

WWE planted the seeds for the team with Ziggler as well, when he cut a backstage promo for the WWE App during which he vented about not being used properly in WWE. The idea behind the Miz/Ziggler tag team is they will be "disgruntled angry man" wrestlers who are upset with not getting the push they deserve.

Makes me never want to take another monday off.


"I halfway hope people put "btw, rappers lie and shit" on CD covers, like a parental advisory sticker." - OKP Villain

www.twitter.com/lexlamont

That'll work

so orton goes to the OTHER corner to get his belts


"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

His promos have been money for months, and let's be honest, he's still a hell of a worker. Lately his promos have been excellent. My only misgiving is they had him looking like a whiny bitch last week when Dave and Brock showed up, though Dave didn't do himself any favors looking like he'd seen a ghost when Brock popped his head in.

Orton's definitely holding up his end of the deal. I need him to win clean though. He's had more than enough 'skin-of-his-teeth-, cowardly heel wins as of late. He's filled that quota, so let's see some of that ruthlessness return while we build up to Mania. No more bitching about when, where, or when he faces his challengers. Let's see some punts to some faces.

Nice start to this show, halfway through this Shield match, but folks above don't seem thrilled. We'll see where this goes

So ok, he lost to Bryan. That makes sense and is a great way to get a pop, but where is this storyline going?

Is he going to lose to all 5 guys and look terrible heading into the PPV and WM?

Are they actually using this to determine who should headling WM based on crowd reaction?

This is a story a face would get, overcome all odds, fight 5 tough wrestlers before what is probably the hardest PPV to come in and out of as champion kayfabe wise. So your top heel gets an overcome all odds storyline? Either that or they are just trying to make him look bad.

Neither of those makes sense to me.

>This is a story a face would get, overcome all odds, fight 5
>tough wrestlers before what is probably the hardest PPV to
>come in and out of as champion kayfabe wise. So your top heel
>gets an overcome all odds storyline? Either that or they are
>just trying to make him look bad.
>
>Neither of those makes sense to me.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2-28? SLAVERY.

The Authority should be a legit faction, with HHH, Stef, Orton, and Korporate Kane, not this wierd, disjointed relationship between Orton and Hunter/Stef. Orton's definitely doing his part but Hunter/Stef are playing this wierd tweener thing with him.

The only time I liked that element was during the angle with Punk and Heyman.

As it stands, they're missing out on a top notch story arc by staying at odds with Orton.

>The Authority should be a legit faction, with HHH, Stef,
>Orton, and Korporate Kane, not this wierd, disjointed
>relationship between Orton and Hunter/Stef. Orton's definitely
>doing his part but Hunter/Stef are playing this wierd tweener
>thing with him.

i wouldn't necessarily have a problem with their relationship with orton if they were stronger, but they do a wishy-washy tweener thing in general. mostly they've been heels (and i was a big fan of HHH's character initially) but sometimes they do weird cheap pop stuff that kinda sorta works. it's really puzzling. they seem to be making it up as they go along. obviously they've been doing the same for the storylines, but for characters it's super annoying. pick something and stick with it.

my guess is bryan will be the only one who beats orton in the gauntlet though. i can't imagine team letting orton lose to christian, cesaro or sheamus. maybe cena, but that wouldn't affect much since he's already beat him twice.

It could be argued that Orton's actually playing the face here - he's going through every challenge and obstacle that they've placed in front of him (which they seem to make him do on a weekly basis) and haven't really attempted to "protect" him at all.

Thinking about it, we should be cheering Orton! Yes, I will do this from now on.

These two dudes are great. I was waiting that whole tag match for them to at least get a few minutes in the ring together, and they brought it. Can't we just give one of them the belt and make that the 'Mania main event?

I guess we have some time, but both appear to be heading to that level, although Big E hasn't had much to do since winning the IC belt. I don't know if he really needs it at this point anyway. Also, when's the last time Ambrose defended the US title? It was cool when all Shield dudes had belts, but now I completely forget he's the US champ even while looking at him with the belt on.

On the ladies side, it was cool to see Emma in the ring and AJ might be the the best guest commentator in the whole company right now. She's always great with them.

basically makes the US title pointless now

I've never seen anyone use running as such a major part of their offense. Maybe Shawn in his heyday.... but I don't really recall him running this much. It seems like every move E has requires him to run the ropes or charge his opponent. If he were white he'd be getting a Lesnar push right now. He's genuinely exciting to watch in the ring. I still hate the Big Ending but damn if the rest of his repertoire isn't exciting as hell.

Also, are we in a golden era of big men or what?

Orton, Reigns, E, Sheamus are all exciting big men to watch. Reigns and E still need some polish, Big E particularly in the psychology dept, while Orton and Sheamus are legitimately on par with their smaller counterpart workers (Punk, Bryan, Ziggler, etc). Hell, even Ryback has his moments, though he's still a Goldberg clone.

Anyhow, I need one of these guys to go head up with Lesnar, stat. Preferably Sheamus, because he's the one guy I can watch and believe he'd give Lesnar a legit beating.

Soo... am I the only one who marks out for these guys almost as much as Punk and Bryan?

if he pandered to the kids a little less and was pushed for a steady year as a credible title contender I'd really come to love his character even more I think.

and his jokey-joke image of recent years, but man is he fantastic in the ring. He's already sitting in that Top 5 list of my favorite big men ever.

I agree that we need to see that edge in his personality return. I don’t buy this notion (not from you, but I’ve read and heard it said many times) that he needs to be a heel.

WWE has shown they can get the anti-hero archetype over pretty damn well from what I’ve seen. IMO, Sheamus should be depicted as a good-natured guy (i.e, jovial, even nice, just not a Cena style ass kissing boy scout) who LOVES to fight. Better yet, use him as a poster child for the anti-bullying campaign.

Give him a year of taking on the “bullies” of WWE. Instead of wrestling Bryan at Mania, he should be trying to protect him from the corporation. Sell it as a bond that was forged out of mutual respect stemming from their previous feud, and make him Bryan’s Diesel/Sid. Have him go through HHH, Kane, Ryback, The Shield, The Wyatts, culminating in a match with Brock at the Rumble.

HHH decides to screw Sheamus by entering him #1 at the Rumble AFTER the match with Lesnar on the same night… except Sheamus wins the rumble. This way, he still shows off that monster edge but shows a different angle on the big man as a face. Make sure Bryan has the title during this time and BAM! You’ve got Sheamus/Bryan III at Mania for the title. Play it face vs face, ala Warrior/Hogan, Bret/Shawn, etc, where it’s just business, just competitive spirit without malice, and you’ve cemented them both as top level stars that can be the backbone of the company for the next decade. We all know they’d turn in a 5 star match (think a crazier version of Brock/Angle) so everyone wins in that scenario.

At any rate, all things considered I’d put him in with Taker at Mania at this point.

Nope, right there with you. He explodes off the ropes, and it's great. They really do need to get him a new finisher. Since he's been called up, he's made it look slightly better, but it's still nowhere near as awesome a finisher as he should have. I'm wondering when, or I guess if, they're going to let Big E speak a bit more. He seems incredibly likeable and genuinely funny based off his Twitter and Instagram videos. Between that and his in-ring ability, it feels like he could be huge for a long time. Or, rather, I hope he's a huge part of the WWE for a long time.

As for Sheamus, he's probably one of my favorites to watch fight. I don't think they've really let him talk since coming back in the Rumble, which seems like the perfect way to have him around. Maybe he's talked on Smackdown or the app, but if so, I haven't seen it. Him not talking on Raw works for me.

In terms of the other big men, Orton has been fantastic during his current run. He's having wonderful matches pretty much weekly. I don't know if this guy really counts with this current crop of guys, but if we're talking exciting big men, I'm always on board for some Mark Henry as well. He probably won't be around too much longer at this point, but Mark Henry as the heel champ was one of my favorite recent storylines.

Basically no one gives a shit about Batista. We might really be in another golden era for bigs.

Ring work is hella important to the WWE right now. I want to believe that's why Cesaro is FINALLY sneak moving up the card. He's BEEN being awesome in WWE for a good while...

Back to Batista...he's like one of the weakest 'hosses' on the roster right now. His shit lacks impact and it seems pretty clear that he can't really move.

Let's see...Cesaro, Dark Hair Wyatt, Bray Wyatt, Sheamus, Big E, etc, etc. Being a calendar big man doesn't work right now in the WWE. There's enough bigs who can go. And the smaller guys are having matches and bumping like crazy to help them even more. So Big Dave shows up moving slow and doing worse than The Rock clotheslines and it is a lot harder to buy into when we see big dudes working a better pace with better impact all over the card. And he doesn't have Funkasaurus around to make him look better.

They damn near should've given Sheamus the push they're giving Batista. His shit has impact, he can go in the ring with everyone AND SELL, and he didn't disappear 4 years ago.

Jimaveli

>I've never seen anyone use running as such a major part of
>their offense. Maybe Shawn in his heyday.... but I don't
>really recall him running this much. It seems like every move
>E has requires him to run the ropes or charge his opponent. If
>he were white he'd be getting a Lesnar push right now. He's
>genuinely exciting to watch in the ring. I still hate the Big
>Ending but damn if the rest of his repertoire isn't exciting
>as hell.
>
>Also, are we in a golden era of big men or what?
>
>Orton, Reigns, E, Sheamus are all exciting big men to watch.
>Reigns and E still need some polish, Big E particularly in the
>psychology dept, while Orton and Sheamus are legitimately on
>par with their smaller counterpart workers (Punk, Bryan,
>Ziggler, etc). Hell, even Ryback has his moments, though he's
>still a Goldberg clone.
>
>Anyhow, I need one of these guys to go head up with Lesnar,
>stat. Preferably Sheamus, because he's the one guy I can watch
>and believe he'd give Lesnar a legit beating.
>
>Soo... am I the only one who marks out for these guys almost
>as much as Punk and Bryan?

"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

http://bit.ly/1kQcLXp

i've been going back and forth on how i feel about this punk situation, but this makes sense:

http://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe-raw/2014/2/4/5376720/wwe-raw-results-recap-reactions-feb-3-2014-its-never-enough-daniel-bryan-cm-punk

"Plus, let's be real: You can chant for Daniel Bryan and feel good about it because the machine is really and truly holding him back because they don't believe in him. CM Punk, meanwhile, threw a hissy fit and went home because he wasn't happy about the prospect of working with Triple H at WrestleMania, a match that ALWAYS should have gone to Bryan. This is a man who had a title reign of 434 consecutive days, defending that title in a classic with Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 28. Then, after he lost that title -- to THE FUCKING ROCK, mind you -- his next feud was with UNDERTAKER. He got to be a part of The Streak, and they easily had the best match on that card. Now we get to WrestleMania 30 and Triple H isn't good enough? He's not the main event so he's done and going home six months before his contract is over? And he's been phoning it in for months now while Bryan has been tearing down the house left and right and still getting passed over BY WRESTLERS LIKE PUNK? Why the hell are we chanting for this guy again?"

If the Wrestlemania thing is his real gripe (there are conflicting reports) it might have been legitimate in previous years, but not this one. Punk has been going through the motions for months now. I don't blame him, because he's seriously banged up, but you don't really get to act entitled in his current situation. He's still more entertaining than most of the roster and deserves a good spot, but Bryan is better, more over, and working with intensity every night. He's the only one with a legitimate gripe if he's not in the WM main event.

Seriously... I think this might have just been a huge wake up call to the WWE...

And losing to The Rock in 2013 wouldn't make me feel good... The Rock is a part time wrestler...just like Lesnar...just like Batista...Just like Triple H... it's bullshit... The WWE is fucking up and Punk is tired of it...

obviously that remains to be seen, but I don't think the rumble was enough to make creative rethink some things.

Punk's overall gripes about the company still hold true. Anything he says about "change" still hasn't really happened - DB is getting completely passed over, Ziggler and Del Rio are now bottom-of-the-barrel buried, the title picture continues to revolve around Cena, Orton and Batista, sooooo much attention is placed on part-timers who are given the spotlight, etc. Punk had a mammoth title run which was a GREAT run, but looking at the picture now (taking his contract expiring in a few months out of the equation), when could you really see him occupying that main event slot again?

I do think he's deemed one of the company's top faces but he's spent the last year feuding with Heyman (which went waaaay longer than it should've), Wyatts, Shield and what-would-have-been HHH. I don't think he would have seen that title again certainly not this year.

http://i.imgur.com/roJCJRn.jpg

Zack Ryder was fun for a bit, but you can't tell me he is better than Ambrose.

I love Cody but he can't be IC champ forever, Big E is a good IC champ

Problem with those belts is they do nothing with them and serve no real purpose, but they also didn't really when that photo was taken either.

NAO as tag champs is kind of dumb, but it's a fun throwback thing that won't last long I'd imagine. Tag division was on a roll for a while and still is for the most part.

AJ Lee longest divas champ in history

Really, just the world title is fucked up among the belts. This picture keeps getting spread around as the good days, but I don't think we're all that far from it. The main event picture is just crazy fucked up.

but rather the fact that, at one point in time, every title holder felt like the merit-driven "new guard" taking over the company rather than some antiquated notion of what's "best for business".

Look how may bonafide future stars have been introduced in the last year

- Shield
-Big E
- Wyatts



Plus the tag team division is back in full force. Plus the women actually have competitive matches. Plus for the first time in about7 years you can expect quality 20+ minute matches to close Raw.

Look shit ain't perfect. But there's a lot to like, a lot more than most smarks want to admit too.

Which is surely the point (although in fairness I think it would clearly be too soon for some of them anyway).

You're right though, the mid-card is excellent and I do think Reigns is going to be propelled to the moon, but who other than him? The title situation over the last few months has been Orton/Cena/Big Show and now it'll go to Batista for what I imagine will be several months, which is what I (and I imagine Punk) is talking about. Brock may get himself within that title picture in a few months going against Batista which furthers the point.

The midcard IS fantastic, but Vince is Bob Arum-ing this shit... all he cares about is the top of card.

if the storyline is good and they make him a monster. actually I'm more confident he can carry a match than reigns. and if reigns and ambrose/rollins have already established a feud i bet that helps elevate all of them to the main event once reigns gets there.

Also known as the pay per view where Owen Hart died.

I remember when it happened, very tough to watch.

Not sure they should put it up.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2-28? SLAVERY.

To edit out any reference to the Blazer/Godfather match, removing the segment where they were showing the hype video for the match (as the tragedy was taking place) and then any sort of commentary referencing the accident as well as JR's official announcement.

Same will likely be said regarding the PPV where Benoit was "missing". They'll prob take out the ECW Title match there as well as any commentary regarding Benoit.

The only things that may be edited are some of the entrance themes due to rights issues, but everything else is reportedly going to remain intact, including voice work by Jesse Ventura, Michael Buffer, and Gary Michael Cappetta, all of whom had their work removed from WWE DVD releases.

And all Chris Benoit matches will reportedly be aired as broadcast.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2-28? SLAVERY.

the saturday night main events on youtube with Jesse are all classics

There is a difference between editing out awkward camera shots of the crowd and an announcement of someone's accidental death and editing out tons of PPV matches (Benoit) and hours upon hours of commentary vital to the match being wrestled that would surely be missed and very noticeable.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/02/07/wwe-faces-difficult-decisions-on-network-content/

>Latest Sports

WWE Faces Difficult Decisions On Network Content
February 7, 2014 9:51 PM

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — When World Wrestling Entertainment launches its WWE Network, subscribers will have on-demand access to more than 400 pay-per-view events from the past.
WWE published a list on its website Tuesday.

Included on the list is the 1999 Over The Edge pay-per-view. During that event, wrestler Owen Hart died after falling 70 feet when the harness that was being used to lower him to the ring malfunctioned. The incident and its aftermath were not shown during the broadcast. The show continued afterward.

Encore showings and replays of the event were canceled following Hart’s death, and it was never released on home video.

Late Friday, WWE confirmed its decision in a statement to KDKA-TV: “WWE Network will be airing the 1999 Over The Edge pay-per-view. However, portions of the event will be edited out of respect for Owen Hart.”

WWE’s decision to include the 1999 Over The Edge pay-per-view in its network content was made within the past two weeks.

During an exclusive interview with KDKA-TV before WWE’s Royal Rumble event in Pittsburgh on Jan. 26, WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon said the decision had not yet been made.

McMahon did confirm that matches involving Chris Benoit would be available. In 2007, Benoit killed his wife and 7-year-old son before taking his own life.

“They are incredible challenging decisions to make,” McMahon said. “At the end of the day, we try to do what’s right for our fans and we try to give them exactly what they want to see.”

The WWE Network is a 24/7 streaming network delivered through over-the-top digital distribution.

Subscribers will have access to past pay-per-view events via a video-on-demand library that will contain more than 1,500 hours of content at launch. The $9.99 monthly subscription also includes all WWE live pay-per-view events. The WWE Network will launch on Feb. 24.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2-28? SLAVERY.

for WrestleMania, right?? No one wants to see that shit... Hell, does anyone even want to see Batista at WrestleMania at all??

There is nobody you can put against Batista in that title match that is exciting. Lesnar is probably most exciting but that is still a waste of Lesnar and the main event.

As long as Batista is staying in the main event there is pretty much no fixing it if it remains a singles match.

They'll put him in the main event just to make sure the crowd doesn't completely take over the main event of a WrestleMania. Could you imagine those chants during the Orton/Cena Rumble match taking place at the 30th anniversary of the biggest event in wrestling? If the main event is Orton/Batista, this crowd will be 10X worse than they were at the Rumble.

Now, will HHH stick it to the audience and kill the vibe with a Bryan loss? That remains to be seen.

They have their WrestleMania "moment" gift wrapped for them. Bryan winning the title and leading the crowd in an epic "YES!" chant to close the show would be legendary and visually an instant top 10 moment in their video library. They've KNOWN this too. But it's as if Trips and them want to stay ahead of the fans for some reason and be unpredictable just for the sake of being unpredictable. It's sad. We all knew Austin was going over at 14. But it didn't matter. We were there to just finally see OUR guy become THE guy.

Bryan is OUR guy. Don't worry about storylines, promos, etc. The fans have decided for the WWE. Bryan is who we want in the main event. Bryan is who we want in the top slot. Let him run with it and give the fans what they will continue to pay for. It's obvious there are audience members who could write better storylines than the majority of people in Creative anyway.

if HHH is doing this to stay 1 ahead and keep things unpredictable then why did the whole world know Batista was winning the rumble? He would have been more surprising by giving us what should have happened.

to a Batista/Orton main event than I am to a Bryan win followed by a "Yes!" chant. Obviously I want Bryan to win and for that to happen, but I can't help but be interested in just how bad the crowd would shit on a Batista/Orton main event.

You gotta imagine a "We want divas!" chant would be just the warm-up.

My boys and I were at the Rumble, and we agreed that had we been closer we would definitely have thrown trash. Trash throwing is the hallmark cherry on top of a "FUCK THAT" crowd.

no one...or only a VERY small number won't go to a WM simply cause of that main event match. you could have that match and turn it into a clusterfuck of guest start and interference.

example. the rock and mankind when foley won the title for the 1st time. the co-stars made that shit POP.
dx, corporation, stone cold.

u could spice that match up

"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

led to a 4 way match with multiple co stars

"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

And almost all will boo...

http://24.media.tumblr.com/4ade904d5624f640b193d4c8aa5d49ed/tumblr_n0t5s7tGIU1srbyoyo1_400.gif

Fits right into his "there are no heroes" shtick.


"I halfway hope people put "btw, rappers lie and shit" on CD covers, like a parental advisory sticker." - OKP Villain

www.twitter.com/lexlamont

Win or lose vs Cena at WM the next stop for Bray has to be some type of main event or at least high card story. Fighting Rey is just a midcard squash angle that he should have done months ago if it was gonna happen.

But I'm sure they'll find another angle for him to come at folks after Cena so it'll be a moot point.



"I halfway hope people put "btw, rappers lie and shit" on CD covers, like a parental advisory sticker." - OKP Villain

www.twitter.com/lexlamont

Triple H fuckin sucks...

It's like Hunter is trying to take out the last remnants of the Spirit Squad or some shit. If they had him bubbling right now along with Bryan, Shield, and the Wyatts, they'd be in the middle of something truly special.

That will be the real thing I guess, he has been kind of vocal about not liking his role so you may be right that they get rid of him, but if he is willing to stick around and follow the rules they will always have use for someone who can sell moves and make any wrestler look good.

Hell Scotty 2 Hotty stayed employed for like 94 years.

I'd rather see him go be a big fish in the TNA pond at this point. I'd definitely watch.

it better be Edge.

I heard Daniel Bryan wasn't even there... No Punk, and no Bryan... Not good for business...

this shit always sucks.

In terms of longevity and continued time at the top.

Other like Edge have had runs, but for 10 years those are the 2 most decorated and main stars of the last 10 years.

It's supposed to be a big deal. It's supposed to be Rock vs Austin or Savage vs Hogan when they fight. Obviously it's not, and what really hurts is that an entire (large) segment of the audience has basically soured on both of them. Even when Hogan fought Savage if you got older and were sick of Hogan's act you probably liked Savage. Rock vs Austin always had you pulling for 1 of them no matter the situation. Now their biggest icon vs icon feud they have just angers people. The kids still love Cena, but everyone else hates them both.

There is no way to avoid doing that match now and then, because occasionally you need this clash of the titans type story, they just don't have the right people in that place. If Edge had stayed healthy and you could replace Orton with Edge there it is a whole new story.

That is, of course, until the Super Cena comeback finish. Still, Orton played to the crowd like a seasoned pro and continually drew heat throughout the match. In fact, it was a match worthy of closing out a PPV.

The odd thing is that Cena still gets a MASSIVE pop when he comes in- even bigger than Bryan, and don’t believe the fan report that said Lita got the biggest pop of the night, because Cena did, by a good measure. Orton still draws insane levels of heat and plays the crowd like violins. They consistently put on excellent matches, and despite the slow start to their Rumble match, still wound up working a high level match half way through.

I was puzzled because everyone broke out in a “boring” chant, but I’m sitting there watching an excellent match. People are tired of the pairing, as is their right, but the truth is that they’ve almost always delivered quality work together. Right now, I think the issue is more the fact that people are ready for guys like Bryan, Reigns, Dolph, and perhaps even Bray and Cody to get more of that main event shine. Cena and Orton should be working with those guys in the title picture in order to elevate them right now, not simply showing that they can put on a great match together.

I saw Jay-Z last month, the 8th time I've seen him. While it was still impressive, I concluded that was probably the last time I'll see him for many years. He played the hits, they were well received, and he was charismatic as ever BUT I'VE JUST SEEN IT BEFORE AND IT'S TIME FOR SOMETHING ELSE.

And I've got to say, it's not bad at all.

http://bit.ly/1bpBXn7

MAKE THAT CARD....ITS UP TO YOU

Them calling it a fantasy card like it can't happen (for the most part)

The rest of that is WELL within their prerogative. And I'd REALLY like to see every one of those matches happen (plus Punk taking part somehow. . . he HAS been awful quiet on the ol' Twitter machine).

http://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1xpi7b/ama_announcement_the_million_dollar_man_ted/

I'm really looking forward to 500 questions about Virgil

i wasn't a fan of all the revisionist history *cough*bullshit*cough* they tried to peddle about his greatness. some of that shit had my eyes damn near roll out of my head.

i really enjoyed when they got to the Vegas Wedding and all the Steph/HHH real-life and and on-screen stuff. then again i always liked them as an on-screen duo even if i'm not a HHH fan.
i also liked the parts about his transition to the business side of it.

and i learned how to pronounce Levesque.

overall it's probably the best made of the individual feature DVDs. they really put a lot of effort into it.

>and i learned how to pronounce Levesque.
>

I also didn't realize he was a non-drinker, non-drug user (recreationally speaking). I actually gained a lot of respect for him. I always knew he was a "best for business" guy to use a current-appropriate term, but this DVD really put an emphasis on that which I liked.

I'd love to see an Evolution compilation. I wasn't watching during this team (I was out of it by end of 2002 until about 2007), but it looks like a great stable.

and this is back from when i still watched wrestling regularly.

i'm not sure why i don't remember anything about their time together.

News to me.

its far less insufferable than the Cena glorification though.

Behind two of the three biggest stars the business has ever had.

-He was an integral part of the first iteration of DX

-He helped bring DX to exceptional heights when he became their leader, elevating the three other men in the group to a status they'd never had before.

-He was a top singles star thereafter, and was a better performer than Rock and Austin despite their superior marketability. After Rock and Austin, he was their best draw and Hunter/DX were instrumental players in the Monday Night wars by providing a credible answer the NWO.

-He helmed Evolution, which reinvigorated the corpse of Ric Flair and ignited the careers of Batista and Orton. Orton went on to become the best heel in the business until Punk ascended and still stands as one of the best the industry has ever seen. Batista.... is Batista. HHH was critical to their careers.

-He was also part of a successful, if unappreciated third iteration of DX as a tag team with HBK.

He was the youngster of The Kliq, arguably the single most influential entity of the 90's. Shawn and Hunter jump started the Attitide Era. Like it or not, Austin wasn't *quite* there until WM 14 and Rock was still about year away. Hall, Nash, and Pac went and did the NWO, though Pac did his best and most significant work with DX.

He's got major contributions under his belt, several high profile feuds, classic matches, and was the third biggest star in the company during the height of it's mainstream popularity.

I'm not sure what you mean by "overdone". He's got an insanely impressive resume under his belt.

And over glorification of Cena? Are you serious? He's one of the single most popular stars they've ever had, easily in the top ten and arguably in the top five and is unchallenged in his status as the biggest star of his era. I'm not sure how they over glorify him.

Honestly I'm flabbergasted at your statements.

Both HHH and Cena have amazing resumes and accomplished a ton

Both also were put over time and time again at the expense of building a bigger list of superstars and main eventers which led to them both having to be thrown out time and time again as the only top person available in a situation

The context of my statements are as a response to his. He said they're overly glorified by WWE, and that's what I was responding to.

I agree completely with what you're saying. Vince has turned Cena into the modern NWO. They took something special and ran it into the ground with very few changes to his character over the years.

HHH, conversely, actually reinvented himself several times and has always had a fresh angle on his character. Cena has been the same dude with zero reboots, refreshers, additions, alterations, etc.

I'm a HHH guy, but even a huge fan like me is sick of him now. His wrestling days should have ended with the second Taker match, as that was an incredible story. Since then he's seemingly inserted himself into the story line of every hot character. I actually liked the Lesnar match last year, but that spot would have been better used to build someone younger with Lesnar (Ryback, for example).

The History of WWE one is on there now too. Didn't like that one as much. There's just too much to cover for it to only be a two hour doc. It was nice to see Bruno talking about his run though.

That was glorious, probably haven't marked out that hard since Ziggler won the belt.

They're ass fucking what should have been another stellar heel run for him into an absolute mess. He needs to be on beast mode for runs like this and The Authority needs to be a full blown heel faction. They can do the Tweener gimmick with guys like Dolph and Sheamus and Reigns, but it's the wrong move for The Authority.

I usually enjoy the elimination chamber matches, and I like the six people they've got in this year's, but I'm pretty much buying this PPV specifically to watch Shield-Wyatts. I can't fucking wait for that one.

Zeb should have a microphone and be allowed to announce in the arena for every match at every show.

...it takes a great opponent, he can't elevate a bad worker, but when he is in the ring with a good worker he really raises his game too.

That swing counter into a DDT was pretty great, even if the DDT itself didn't look so good.

The Cena fatigue, at least for me, is all about his character and constant "how will he overcome the odds yet again" bullshit. That is not at all interesting to me. It's the same fucking thing over and over.

The GOAT wrestlers look great vs anyone, but when Cena is in the ring with a boring or average wrestler the match is always average or boring.

When he is in the ring with a Punk, Bryan, Cesaro he rises to their ability.

It's a combo of a stale character and the fact that you know what you are getting in most of his matches unless it is someone special in the ring with him.

>...it takes a great opponent, he can't elevate a bad worker,
>but when he is in the ring with a good worker he really raises
>his game too.

and as much as everyone hates cena being shoved down our throats, when someone does beat his supercena routine it's that much bigger. punk @ mitb. bryan @ summerslam. those moments don't exist w/o cena.

>
>and as much as everyone hates cena being shoved down our
>throats, when someone does beat his supercena routine it's
>that much bigger. punk @ mitb. bryan @ summerslam. those
>moments don't exist w/o cena.

Guys who were built to be big things, lost to Cena and went back to midcard or worse immediately.

>Guys who were built to be big things, lost to Cena and went
>back to midcard or worse immediately.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why niggas be trying to prove Internet hypotheses?

Umaga, Nexus, Ryback, Del Rio, Ziggler

Some of these are more severe than others, some can not soley be attributed to Cena, but these are all wrestlers who were built up and then hit the Cena wall and never recovered.

Umaga really comes to mind, even if you thought the push was dumb, to push him as an unstoppalbe monster, have him lose to Cena then become a jobber immediately.

Del Rio wins the belt and loses it a month later to Cena and has been floundering since

Nexus is a pretty obvious one, especially Wade

Ziggler is constantly getting buried, but at the height of what should have been his push to lose to Cena multiple weeks in a row does not help.

Ryback was hurt by losing to Punk over and over again, but a win over Cena in a meaningless non title feud would have done him wonders.

>Some of these are more severe than others, some can not soley
>be attributed to Cena, but these are all wrestlers who were
>built up and then hit the Cena wall and never recovered.

Is that on Cena or Vince/Hunter? Do we have it on good authority that Cena is on that Kevin Sullivan now?

>Umaga really comes to mind, even if you thought the push was
>dumb, to push him as an unstoppalbe monster, have him lose to
>Cena then become a jobber immediately.

How is that Cena's fault? Eventually, the monster gets cut down to size and that's always been true. Typically, it's the companies top guy who saves the day. Hogan's entire career was built off stopping monsters dead in their tracks.

How their booked afterward is on those doing the booking, not the guy the bookers put over.

>Del Rio wins the belt and loses it a month later to Cena and
>has been floundering since

Why is that Cena's fault?

>Nexus is a pretty obvious one, especially Wade

Cena's fault how, exactly?

>Ziggler is constantly getting buried, but at the height of
>what should have been his push to lose to Cena multiple weeks
>in a row does not help.

Immaterial. They gave Dolph a win at TLC and gave him one of the single greatest title win moments we've ever seen the day after Mania. He got a concussion and they've buried him since. They've screwed the pooch with him big time IMO, but you can't pin that on Cena.

>Ryback was hurt by losing to Punk over and over again

This would be true if he were a heel and the Shield had no involvement, but that's not the case. The big fuckup here is not giving him the obvious Mania match with Lesnar. He managed to lose Mania and STILL walk out hot by putting the Shellshock on Henry anyways. Vince and co fucked that up by turning him heel instead of Cena. At a minimum they had a chance to pull a Hogan/Warrior out of it and didn't do that either.

Ryback was still hot after the Punk fued. It's been terrible booking since then that's ruined him.

>win over Cena in a meaningless non title feud would have done
>him wonders.

Agreed. As it stands, Punk and Bryan cemented their positions after wins over Cena, though whether or not Bryan gets a chance to run with the ball as Champ remains to be seen.

I'm not casting blame or saying nobody else has anything to do with it, but we were discussing how Cena fatigue has really grown and I attributed it to the lack of a character change for a decade along with constantly beating people that many folks out there would have liked to see go over which often led to the end of their push.

Booking of Cena fatigue doesn't have the same ring to it

the problem is they rarely ask him to lose to anyone.

I agree with you for the most part Cena is by no means Hogan in that regard, but it still leads to the fatigue.

The nexus example seems rare for him but it appears to have happened.

His match with Cena tonight was fantastic. They're both crazy strong. I'd be shocked if Cesaro wins on Sunday, but hopefully he stays in the main event picture after the PPV. He deserves to be there.

Damn. I enjoy an episode that ends with some chaos in the ring.

it grew organically and now they're trying way too hard to push it when it doesn't need any pushing. there shouldn't be official "YES! movement" t-shirts. the authority shouldn't be on TV saying "maybe bryan should be the face of the WWE". Stephanie shouldn't be making statements like "WWE is all about having fun, bringing people together and making them smile, and the Yes! Movement accomplishes all of this at WWE events and beyond" even in a non-kayfabe interview. they're also creaming themselves over the idea of everyone at WM 30 chanting "Yes!", yet they still won't give him the title. it's all awful, and they're gonna kill this shit.

It will be fandangoing but on a way bigger level.

I'm still waiting for Lawler to get in the ring, explain the yes movement and try to get the world's largest yes chant going at WM.

>It will be fandangoing but on a way bigger level.
>
>I'm still waiting for Lawler to get in the ring, explain the
>yes movement and try to get the world's largest yes chant
>going at WM.

honestly, that might not be an exaggeration.

Also thought about it a couple weeks ago when HHH started doing the Yes! (arm movement only) with the crowd... Having Bryan talk about it is lame... The "Yes! Movement" is just stupid... They're really lucky that Bryan is so over that the majority of the crowd is still eating it up....

"I just have one word for that... YES!"

>Also thought about it a couple weeks ago when HHH started
>doing the Yes! (arm movement only) with the crowd

I already complained about the tweener thing the authority is doing, but yeah, wtf?

But I think they're only doing that right now because they have to back away from Orton... I think they'll go heel after this PPV when they back Batista... The crowd doesn't like Batista... And him going against Del Rio is so pointless... It almost feels like a jobber going against the new guy they're building up...

https://twitter.com/THETOMMYDREAMER/status/435998220909830145

Pretty good interview. A lot of the conversation is focused around Cena's role in the company. It actually made me respect John Cena more as a talent.

http://www.podcastone.com/pg/jsp/program/episode.jsp?programID=542&pid=387958

I wish Stone Cold had pressed him more on why Cena thinks guys get pushed to the moon then swatted down right after so often.

Why no heel turn? Cena seems to have this perception that what you see in the ring is who he really is but, if that's true, why doesn't he look at the guy in the ring as a 'character' like everyone else does? Everyone's done it, even guys at the height of their popularity (Hogan, Bret, Austin, Rock) so why not go with it? I think he missed out on an incredible run as a heel.

>Why no heel turn? Cena seems to have this perception that
>what you see in the ring is who he really is but, if that's
>true, why doesn't he look at the guy in the ring as a
>'character' like everyone else does? Everyone's done it, even
>guys at the height of their popularity (Hogan, Bret, Austin,
>Rock) so why not go with it? I think he missed out on an
>incredible run as a heel.

The main reason being as a babyface he's done more Make-A-Wishes than anyone else in the World. He doesn't want to destroy that in the name of creativity, especially when he's a heel for 50% of the crowd already.

Other than to please the older smarter fans.

Like you said, he is pretty much 50/50 in most arenas and even less babyface at big events like PPVs. I bet at WM it will be like 20/80 and maybe even worse if he fights Wyatt.

Turning him heel will keep him 50/50 at a normal show, the only difference is kids will like him less and adults will like him more. Adults also buy less merch and give you less of that good publicity for the company that kids liking you will get you.

Plus at a show like WM he would just be over if he turned heel and it would defeat the whole purpose from a crowd reaction standpoint.

That's really noble but I guess I'm just saying this from a creative standpoint.

That's really noble but I guess I'm just saying this from a creative standpoint.

>That's really noble but I guess I'm just saying this from a
>creative standpoint.

he likes being himself (or at least a version of himself) on tv, doesn't really want to be a character. maybe that'll change when he's retired and making sporadic appearances, cause a heel turn would still be huge no matter when he did it.

wrasslin-based or otherwise.

bret hart, piper, zeb/dutch mantel. all great interviews. really some good stories about the business and being on the road.

austin really goes in on the "unleashed" version.

"As far as CM Punk is concerned, one of our performers is taking a sabbatical, let's just put it that way."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why niggas be trying to prove Internet hypotheses?

I keep telling myself I'm not gonna watch/buy it, but I know I will... AND PUNK BETTER FUCKIN BE THERE!

That spear outside of the ring and enziguri, or whatever you call it, out of the Patriot Lock were fun spots.

It'll depend on what happens in the main event with Cesaro, but I've really liked what they're doing with the Real Americans, both individually and as a team, recently. If they don't push Cesaro into something bigger for 'Mania, I'd be totally down for those dudes to get a tag title shot.

i still think swagger sucks, though.

glad the bookers didn't force feed us another push.

cesario, on the other hand...

i mean there's a whole lot of Bad News to talk about in the WWE right now.

Sold!

.

Del Rio-Batista gets to be the calm down match before the chamber.

>Del Rio-Batista gets to be the calm down match before the
>chamber.

PUTO! PUTO! PUTO!


Now THAT was ugly. It was from all the Mexicans too.

Or they'd better have huge spot early on. Otherwise it could get ugly.

these cats are working their asses off.

Loving this too much, man

.

Next thing I remember is I see Wyatt come back but not Ambrose. Forget if they showed any particular move in the crowd that kept Ambrose out of the rest of the match.

after him and Bray went up in the crowd.

that's if they want to roll w/ the Shield breakup now.

If this is the end of The Shield, that's a helluva way to go out.



"I halfway hope people put "btw, rappers lie and shit" on CD covers, like a parental advisory sticker." - OKP Villain

www.twitter.com/lexlamont

I don't remember the last time I watched a match that long with a smile on my face on the entire time. If they wanna run that again at 'Mania, I'm all for it. All six of those dudes brought it. So great.

I'd love to see more Bray in the ring, but the way they've done it so far, I get so pumped up when he actually does wrestle. Pretty great way to build him up. And for the Shield, they're all so fucking good it's insane. I think Rollins might've stolen that one for the Shield, as awesome as Reigns was, and always is.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why niggas be trying to prove Internet hypotheses?

.

Though, to be fair, Bryan's not really a meter-mover when it comes to the things Vince looks at, like ratings and attendance numbers and PPV buys

Because of that, Vince panicked and called Dave Bautista and sold him on being the top guy who could come back and save Mania this year

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why niggas be trying to prove Internet hypotheses?

If so, well done, crowd!

They're shitting on Batista so much, and I love it. I wish they'd just cheer for Del Rio opposed to chant for Punk and Jericho as well, but whatever.

but they hate Batista lmao.

That's mostly what I enjoyed about the pro-Del Rio cheers. When's the last time that dude was involved with something the crowd really cared about?

people just don't care about him regardless if he's working as a face or a heel.

woulda been even worse if they put that match between the chamber matches.

bore-tista absolutely cannot be in the main event.

"I halfway hope people put "btw, rappers lie and shit" on CD covers, like a parental advisory sticker." - OKP Villain

www.twitter.com/lexlamont

That'll work.

Those two dudes are about the beat the living shit out of each other.

Right?! I sat there and watched it 3 times like, "What the fuck?! haha..."

of course its not gonna happen but i can dream right?

curious to see the shenanigans Orton pulls to win this one.

Love it

he's put in the most work so far.

Now someone please eliminate Christian so both people I couldn't give less of a fuck about are gone.

at least it was a pretty decent looking one

at Mania?

They made an awful big deal about him coming up short yet again, and how "unfair" it was (though, technically, JBL was right, Daniel Bryan started it with Kane)

I'm thinking Bryan's put into the match on a technicality, most likely through a loophole that someone, like, say, Hulk Hogan, exploits to get Bryan into the title match

Or The Authority makes him run some sort of gauntlet or something

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why niggas be trying to prove Internet hypotheses?

Maybe it's a triple threat match (likely the answer) or maybe something else happens.

But there is no way they let their WM main event get the kind of crowd reaction Batista has gotten for the last 2 PPVs.

>Maybe it's a triple threat match (likely the answer) or maybe
>something else happens.
>
>But there is no way they let their WM main event get the kind
>of crowd reaction Batista has gotten for the last 2 PPVs.

sure, they told batista he'd get a run with the title, but you gotta go back on your word or do it sometime else. you can't let WM 30 end with a chorus of genuine boos. it looks bad in the archives.

To him, and Cena said it in his Austin interview, the only bad reaction is no reaction.

Those genuine boos will seem bad, but Vince will have no issue selling this as the Wrestlemania where evil Batista and the corporation squashed the hopes of Daniel Bryan and his fans.

The boos will not be for Batista himself as much as for the actual product and results, but Vince won't care.

I personally think WM is ending with Bryan as champ, even if it is some Hogan coming out of nowhere to beat Yokozuna type stuff, but I would not put anything past Vince.

But, yeah, they can't go into WM30 with Orton-Batista as the main event the way the crowd's already shitting on Batista and anything non-Bryan related in the title picture. They boo'd the fuck out of Mysterio at the Rumble because he wasn't Bryan. A whole match of just Orton and Batista? It'd be crazy. It'd be kind of amazing to see for the crowd reaction, but I certainly hope it doesn't happen.

No way he doesn't get in there with someone, right?

Edit: And I'm all for Bryan getting in the title match btw. That New Orleans crowd would eat Orton and Batista alive without him.

I just don't see Punk coming back, and Bryan-HHH seems easy enough to make given where we are.

the fans will accept nothing less and the Vince/HHH just need to realize that and roll with it.

And it will be deemed that before the match even happens...

Hope I'm wrong but it seems that they're building to DB vs Kane at Mania. I actually don't think they can change that main event - Batista came back for that main event slot so I just don't see him being happy about being passed up. He'll have to agree to walk away from Mania empty-handed and I just don't see it.
Conversely, WWE may look at it as a big enough pacifier to simply put DB in the main event even though he won't win it?

It was exactly what everyone predicted... A lot of people are calling it the worst chamber match ever... Others are begging for this Kane vs Bryan feud to stop before WM... Sounds like a pretty shitty ending, but from what I read, quite an entertaining match...

>It was exactly what everyone predicted... A lot of people are
>calling it the worst chamber match ever... Others are begging
>for this Kane vs Bryan feud to stop before WM... Sounds like a
>pretty shitty ending, but from what I read, quite an
>entertaining match...

- Cesaro vs Sheamus: HOSS FIGHT OPENER!
- Big E vs the guy he used to bodyguard that the WWE totally hates for some reason..to the point that I legit can't remember his name RIGHT NOW.
- The 'get folks on the show' clusterfrick match: featuring Swagger, Mark Henry, Kofi, maybe Miz, etc.
- Bray Wyatt vs Cena (good match alert)
- AJ Lee vs Tamina (wrestling nerd hot chick vs random 'strong' chick...leggo)
- Shield Implosion Match (DAMN! (c) Ron Simmons)
- Taker vs Brock (I guess)
- Comedy shit...Dancing Black folks (I see you, Apollo) vs Matadores.
- Bryan vs HHH (this will change)
- Boo-tista vs Orton (go ahead...throw Bryan in this unless WWE wants another Goldberg vs Brock thing to go down)

CM Punk won't be back by Mania...I just don't see it. And if not, HHH is 'wrestling' Hogan or something. Even the WWE is smart enough to know we can't have a dead in the water main event like Dave vs Randy...right? Right?

WWE Network tmrw. Its on.

Jimaveli

I figured that would open the door for Kane to interfere with Bryan yet again.

Worst Chamber match though? This was my first, and I loved every second of it. If this was the worst Chamber match ever, the rest must be brilliant.

But I think the very predictable ending ruined it for many fans...

Saw a Chamber Match yesterday that had Khali, Big Daddy V (RIP) and Batista all in there. So, no, not the worst ever.

-Big E is exciting as all hell. Very kinetic. It's rare to see a big man who is constantly moving like he is. IMO they need to give him something/someone to care about, either a mentor (Ron Simmons could take a shine to him and make it his mission to help Big E follow in his footsteps as a world champ.) or relationship (A diva of some kind. JoJo could use something to do). Someone comes along and beats the shit out of his mentor, valet, or girl, and Big E goes for vengeance at Mania. Either way, this kid is a player.

-The Wyatts are money, and Harper will work out just fine whenever he hits the singles scene. Bray is an absolute revelation who will wind up being the closest thing to a great gimmick character we've had since Kane.

-All three members of Shield have Main Event Star written all over them for various reasons, but all three of those guys have a major presence that will serve them well as singles stars when the time comes. Ambrose has the domineering personality, Rollins works like an IC era HBK bumping his ass off, and Reigns has the moveset, look, and let's face it, the lineage, that all adds up that proverbial "it" factor.

-Sheamus, despite a few people still not liking him, is the best Hoss they've had since Brock. In fact, him and Cesaro need a Mania match. Book that shit NOW, Vinnie. Anyhow, Sheamus is a beast in the ring and if they can get back to a more no-nonsense approach to his mic work, he's a star. There are a ton of guys for him to work with.

-Cesaro is a Made Guy. Seriously, We The People is over now because of him. He's like Bryan, Sheamus and Reigns, everything he does gets a reaction. The crowd eats him up. His ring style is tailor made for the WWE brand.

-We all know the deal with Bryan.

-Orton is still fantastic, but he now gets 'go away' heat due to the way they've booked him and Bryan, and that won't change until they pull the trigger on Bryan.

-Dolph is still largely untapped. He's a main event talent who we may never get to see break that glass ceiling, but the tools are there if/when Vince/Paul/Whoever the fuck gets over this weird ass grudge or whatever the fuck it is that has buried him this bad. We still have guys like Cody floating around. Sandow is still untapped.

So, I mean, run with these guys. Give them a spotlight that doesn't compete with guys who haven't wrestled for years. They're doing the right thing with Bray by putting him in with Cena, but other than that they're fucking up here. They've got a great pool of talent right now and we don't need the old guys anymore. Let this group run with the ball. They keep looking for guys to increase ratings and buys and whatnot, but the ratings are the ratings no matter what they do and Network buys won't hinge on whoever the 'face' of WWE is. Let these kids build their identities and cement themselves as today's Superstars.

From the WWE's perspective, what's the advantage in making Daniel Bryan WWE Champion? If he can maintain this extreme popularity and they milk it from July to March, all without the championship...then why wouldn't they keep doing what they're doing? Shafting him every month all while building you up up up for his next title bout. FROM THEIR VANTAGE POINT, there's really no reason for them go through with making him the champion. It's Cena and him. That's IT.

Wrestlemania will be the real test. I REFUSE to believe the show doesn't end with 80 thousand plus people doing "YES!" in unison...and I'm still cautiously optimistic that's what we'll get.

The startling part is that if it happens, I don't think it will have been by design. They really truly thought the best plan was to bring Batista in to win the WWE Title after 4 years away and no interesting warm up program. That's really strange to me. It's also extremely strange that they didn't leverage Bryan's popularity at the Rumble to get some other heel over by eliminating him. Why wouldn't you throw Bryan out there then give someone else a major heel rub by cheating to eliminate the people's champ? The last month has just been so perplexing.

I know they value Bryan. They have to right? They crave mainstream attention and the Yes chant has garnered that. He's also a major player on "Total Divas", going so far as to propose on the show. He's IMPORTANT to their operation...

But, the last six weeks says otherwise and that's really what I don't get. As a mark, the joke's on me. I keep watching, I keep getting higher and higher in my hopes that he'll eventually prevail and that all will be well. That's pro wrestling psychology 101.

But looking internally, there's the very apparent truth that they didn't have a marquee match in the pipeline for him at Wrestlemania. I simply cannot fathom how that's possible.

I think - what appears to be - WWE's refusal to take DB seriously is massively hurting their current main-events: the last 10 minutes of the Rumble ending in boos, the hate towards Batista, Orton, Cena - it must be really embarrassing for WWE all round. Their master plan of Batista vs Orton at Mania WILL result in a disaster if it goes ahead as planned so I think WWE will have to acknowledge this (...or not as appears to be the case).

In a way this is all very exciting - I can't think of a time when someone was championed like this. Their Mania has been written since last summer - it's so rare that stars align themselves so perfectly like this - but they ran from it for reasons I can't begin to understand.

I also agree that it's amazing DB hasn't had a clear story going in to Mania unless they're gearing for him vs Kane? There's been no direct issue with Hunter yet for them to even proceed with that. Even if he does face HHH - so what?! If he wins, and still doesn't get promoted, then what was that for? If he wins, then gets a title shot - so what? They just blew the moment of the year by passing him up at Mania.

>From the WWE's perspective, what's the advantage in making
>Daniel Bryan WWE Champion? If he can maintain this extreme
>popularity and they milk it from July to March, all without
>the championship...then why wouldn't they keep doing what
>they're doing? Shafting him every month all while building you
>up up up for his next title bout. FROM THEIR VANTAGE POINT,
>there's really no reason for them go through with making him
>the champion. It's Cena and him. That's IT.

Sure. You can push him further. You can do an entire year of screw jobs where he continues to beat the screw jobs and retain the title, and that can arguably push his popularity higher.

>Wrestlemania will be the real test. I REFUSE to believe the
>show doesn't end with 80 thousand plus people doing "YES!" in
>unison...and I'm still cautiously optimistic that's what we'll
>get.


Well, I'd love for that to happen. Part of me hopes for it, but I'm not terribly optimistic. If anything they'll pull a Ziggler and do it the next night on Raw. They keep showing how out of touch they are because they are so far down the ratings rabbit hole nobody gets a chance to, you know, actually build to the point where they start to move that needle.


>But looking internally, there's the very apparent truth that
>they didn't have a marquee match in the pipeline for him at
>Wrestlemania. I simply cannot fathom how that's possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig0NVMVdmoA&feature=kp

I did the 1 week preview for now, awesome format, really easy to find things, but it's been choppy as hell so far. Hopefully they fix that.

Best feature is you can skip through things to next events, so like R1 to next match, R1 to end of the match

They have best ofs and certain ones, but not the entire collection

isn't enough.

It seems like the ability to go through the entire run of Raw and Nitro would be the absolute best content they can provide, as that gives context to the PPV's.

At least for RAW, Smackdown, etc.

I'm looking for their 80s programming - prime time, saturday night main event, and so on.

Of this, I am certain, and last night all but sealed the deal for that. They're not using last night's screw job to push Bryan into the title match, they're using it to give him a match with Kane.

We'll most likely get Sheamus vs Christian in a singles bout, which will be fine, but Sheamus vs Cesaro is the money match.

Big E will have a pre-show IC match for no good reason whatsoever.

I have no interest in Brock/Taker.

I have no interest in Orton/Batista.

Cena/Bray and whatever they do with The Shield are going to be excellent, but that's not enough IMO.

This might be the least amped I've ever been for Mania. I could be wrong, and hope I'm wrong, but I think this has a good shot of turning out the way I suspect.

And this whole thread is way too long.. whathappened to the new thread?

for DB to end WM30 with the most massive Yes chant imaginable. They could fuck it up but I'm pretty confident that's what's going to happen.

I hope Batista got a nice payday out of this.

then he'll either be thrown into the championship match at WM or he'll fight HHH.

(jacked from reddit)

This is everything Batista did in his match last night:

3 punches
3 elbows
Move out of the way
Shoulder tackle
Spear
2 clotheslines
Move out of the way
Spinebuster
Push del rio into exposed turnbuckle
Batista bomb

In an 8 minute match, Batista had 1:35 of combined offence, a lot of which was spent on the mat catching his breath.

Can't wait for WM.

Just for the epic crowd reaction alone.

I mean a great ending will be great too, but to be a part of the crowd that revolts and starts a riot at WM? That's once in a lifetime

This was a good crowd, really made the show more enjoyable. The Boo-tista chants were clever.

It's a shame Golddust/Cody are relegated to the pre-show, though I'm sure that's partialy because they're so good WWE wants to show them off so people will buy the PPV.

Nothing really memorable about the Big E/Swagger match. Glad Big E won, but he needs a memorable feud to happen badly.

Is Road Dogg gonna break anyone's fall? It's been fun, but they need to get rid of NAO.

I can't care about anything that Titus and Darren do. They're such bad actors. I guess it was an alright match, but kind of a bad look to make the first reference to DY's sexuality and then have him lose.

Shield/Wyatts was somehow better than I expected. Definitely gonna rewatch it. Hope they keep this feud going.

Glad there's a Tamina/AJ feud starting up.

Yikes at that Batista match. This is really bad for them. No way they can let him win at WM with this reception.

The chamber match was really great and had everything I was hoping for except the end result. Also I wish Cesaro had gotten an elimination or two. They're not just gonna bury him now, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S9ODZCk0H4