Go2Sleep

I don't see a Shield reunion working right now. They're gonna have to do a ridiculous juggling act to keep Brock, Roman, and Rollins strong over the next few months as is, and the Shield reforming would only make that tougher with the latter two having to settle into some leader/follower dynamic. Plus Ambrose would be such a third wheel at this point. Rollins forming a "New Shield" with two different guys would be a better play if you wanna go that route, but even then only one of Brock or Roman can really chase down Rollins while the other gets left behind. I'll say this, for once, the writing team is actually in a pretty tough situation with no easy answers. I've been trying to come up with ways to keep all three guys strong through July (the expiration date on MITB) and I'm stumped.

These matches must have both gone last at the tapings, because that crowd was dead. The majority of Bliss/Sasha and the first half of Balor/Owens could have been empty-arena matches and you wouldn't have noticed. Both matches deserved a lot better. It's too bad they came up with that San Jose show so late, because a 5000 seat arena filled with Mania-weekend die-hards would've made a perfect live special venue for both of these matches plus the tag titles and Itami/Breeze 2/3 falls. I don't know if 6 matches is a big enough sample size, but I'm gonna throw it out there any way. Kevin Owens is the best wrestler in WWE right now.

He'll definitely compete for it again, and there's a decent chance he'll win it. I see him following the same booking path as Eddie. On the Mania/post-Mania front, what happens to Seth Rollins? The MITB case loses a lot of value if the champ is only tv a handful of times per year, both in kayfabe and real life, and they're running out of time to address this issue. I'm not really seeing a good scenario for him or the credibility of MITB if Lesnar retains.

There's still time to audible Rusev going over Cena, then having Reigns go after the US title and being the first to pin Rusev, which is what he should've been doing at Mania anyway.

Is that the same thing as the show at SJSU? I assume Itami wins to get some press in Japan.

I would highly recommend not watching that ladder match.

I will say the main event was probably the best Alex Riley match I've seen. Sure it was a middling Kevin Owens match, but it was exactly what it needed to be. When it comes to playing to the crowd, how about Owens saying "I'll stay here all day" while getting a "Rest Owens Rest" chant during his chinlock? Also, his stumbling stomp to Riley as he was fleeing from Balor shows he has a better understanding of his character than anyone on the roster. Something else that's totally refreshing is the announcers putting his character over 100% the right way. The mildly heelish Corey Graves takes the family stuff at face value, the strong face presence Albert calls total BS with valid examples. I'm pretty sure this is the only reason Rhyno is in NXT. He's the first big guy that stands up to the bully, but still loses to make the bully even stronger. This would actually be a good time to use the "WWE reject" booking and find some midcarder not doing anything to come do a program with Owens. Cesaro would be a great fit... Or [troll]Daniel Bryan[/troll]

Ironically, I'm super thankful for Carlito doing the job at WM 22 against Kane and Show, since the 8 or so people above me had staked their grand prize hopes on Carlito and Masters winning the tag titles. Definitely the only time I ever got excited for a Kane/Show tag match.

I honestly think the best shot at salvaging Roman (or getting him to the level they want more accurately) is an Austin/Bret style match where Roman comes up short, but looks like a tough bastard doing so. The "stand up in the kimura with bloody face, then pass out" spot is absolute money. Rollins cash-in on Lesnar afterwards is optional.

This is the "If you don't like America, go live somewhere else" of wrestling arguments. Oh sure, you wanna come here and take our Cesaro matches and NXT shows, but you don't wanna stand up and salute Roman Reigns... Fuckin' ingrates, go back to TNA!

It is more the implementation. Are they only going to run it on RAW and PPVs? How do people get points? Etc... Etc... Remember when wwe.com did their own weekly fantasy game for a couple years in the mid 2000s? It'll probably be like that. You get $X and pick a team of any number of wrestlers that fits the budget. Pick a new roster each week that gets locked in a couple hours before Raw, week runs Mon-Sun. Get points for appearances, matches, wins, finishers, gimmick matches, main events, foreign object shots, title wins, etc. Each "season" lasted about 3 months and they had weekly prizes for the top 10 weekly scores, and big prizes for the top 10 at the end. The overall winner got 2 front-row ppv tickets with airfare/hotel/limo. That was me for Summer Slam 06, btw (my Chris Jericho "first ever undisputed champion" moment in fantasy competitions).

I know it was tasteless as hell, but I can't pretend I didn't crack the fuck up when he'd have Vincent hand him his drink to take a swig while he had his opponent in a lazy abdominal stretch.

I just realized the IC angle would be 100x better if they were feuding over the hardcore title instead. Ambrose, Harper, and Stardust are natural fits for that division, Barrett's the supposed tough guy straight-man who thinks he can beat all the crazy people, Truth's there because he's a jobber, Bryan voluntarily steps down because it's different and something to prove not because he just doesn't care about the important belt anymore, and Ziggler's there because... I don't know, you can't have a ladder match without the show off or something, who cares? Clusterfuck booking was part of the soul of the hardcore division. The title stealing would make sense because anarchy rules, and you just need one quick segment where HHH says "fuck this shit, you're all in a ladder match at Mania, hope that settles it, I'm out" to tie it all together. The matches would be something different to mix it up on a 3-hour show and the entire division could have some character beyond "we don't want to push these guys even though they're doing the same things as the guys we are pushing." You could really accentuate their insanity and make them stand out while keeping them entirely separate from the main event.

The mid-90s. Not that the two qualities are mutually exclusive, mind you. You can have a good mix of over-the-top and down-to-earth on the same show, and even within the same character.

I'm genuinely excited to spend a few days in San Francisco, for the NXT show Friday, and Raw the night after which always has some cool surprises. I'm sure the atmosphere will be cool at Mania, but the show looks pretty uninspired. I can't say I really care about any match on that card.

Steve Austin should be in that discussion too. Edit: And Taker

It would look like the Fast Lane thread.

Did you expect a segment involving Vince Russo and Ric Flair's kids to be tasteful in any way?

The Nash/Steiner/Goldberg "improvised finish" match might have the most confusing and counter-productive commentary I've ever heard. Ignoring how ridiculous the angle itself was, if you're trying to do a worked shoot, isn't the best play to have the announcers no-sell what's going on in the ring try to act like nothing's wrong? I have no idea how them talking about "political stroke" and "who WCW wants to go over" helps the story in any way. The way Schiavone, Madden, and Hudson drifted in and out of kayfabe was trippy as shit.

Re: IC Title Is it just me, or does this feel like an angle WCW would've run in 2000?

Bryan/Lesnar has been a dream match for the last couple of years, so I think there'd be a little more anticipation for the show with that alone. It also would've eliminated the need for Heyman to talk about Samoan cannibals in his promos, so that would've been a plus. People still wouldn't care about the rest of the show, but I'm sure most people here would gladly pay 10 bucks to see Bryan/Lesnar.

This show might have set a record for "highest percentage watched in fast forward" for me. Of the little I did watch at regular speed, the most captivating segment was Rusev/Lana backstage, and that wasn't even in English.

I think the big thing missing for them is some type of character. There's not much reaction for them because we know basically nothing about them. They have no obvious face or heel qualities. They don't really play up their hard work climbing the ranks. They don't have any real backstory about how they know each other. All we know is that they're two dudes who randomly teamed up and just won the belts. A team name would also help, but a good team name is only likely to present itself when they have something that sticks out.

Watching Charlotte handcuff Vince Russo at the GAB 2000 might have been one of the retroactively weridest things I've ever seen in wrestling.

I was trying to find footage of Bill DeMott in WWE, and this was my first hit.