StretchMediatedHypertrophy

It's quite funny when you have people making criticisms of the WCW product on the Monday Night Wars that can so easily be levelled at current day WWE.

1. I thought you were done talking about this? 2.. What, I think, is being said was "I only got what I wanted because of circumstances beyond WWE's control, and I don't trust them to competently book in the absence of circumstances forcing their hand". The Ziggler push has probably been driven by injuries, and the Ambrose push too.

I'm done talking about Bryan's push or how it happened. Could have fooled me with the way your post didn't stop there.

They don't make money off people cancelling their Network subscriptions in disgust I would be *completely okay* with Rollins and Ambrose continuing into next year. When you have something good, you run with it. They could have been in a 'Traditional' Survivor Series match next PPV, some kind of laddery-tabley thing at TLC. Then it's The Rumble, Chamber, leading to something at Wrestlemania - which will likely feature The Rock, Brock Lesnar, probably Bryan, probably Sting, possibly Taker, By that time Roman Reigns is back too - so there's no really good reason to put Ambrose in a holding pattern.

Will they be paid extra? They are employees. I like the fact they're involved, especially Jamie. For people making the comparison between last night's ending and the appearance of Kane; it's not a good comparison. The Kane appearance was a logical storyline that had built over several months. Undertaker restarted shit with Paul Bearer, and ended up taking on too much at once. This caused him to lose the title and to lose the feud with Michaels. Wyatt and Ambrose have some history, but they had moved on from that and there was no storyline-driven reason for him to get involved. Plus Kane hadn't been punked by Cena 6 weeks back. Whoever said the HIAC match was contrived hit the nail on the head. I know it's faux-fisties and shit, and I really like Ambrose - but that was some hacky shit last night. Wrestling should not just be a chain of signifiers. And fuck you to whoever was involved in laying out that Cena-Orton match. It wasn't the main and that number of finisher kickouts just wasn't needed - and I don't think anyone bought one of the nearfalls. Ziggler vs Cesaro had some bombs, but there was some believable near falls too. More of this please.

Quite a few people have kicked out of it. It's not really been heavily protected since he started doing the KO punch; it's a nearfall on a PPV matchup.

I get the meta-aspect to it. Wyatt wasn't over as a heel, so let's have him fuck over somebody who people really like - then he can be a heel. The Wyatt character is fucking stupid though. He actually has super-powers. Talk about jumping the holographic shark.

I almost don't want to rise to this troll-booking, because I can imagine Trips reading this thread and lol-ing while eating his egg whites and small bowl of oatmeal. But fucking hell.

Ding-ding-ding folks.

For shits & giggles, I've put £5 on Ambrose at 11/4 - with a free £20 bet on The Usos at 9/2 (free stake not returned).

I think pretty moves are going to be enough to bring Neville to the dance. I think he shows a lot of potential, and he has a lot of very crisp movez in the bank - he can ride the Red Arrow for a year, but he has the Flaming Star Press and the 2nd Rope Phoenix Splash ready when he wants to change up. I actually think the latter may play better in main-events as a Lionsault-on-acid.

Probably doesn't mean that much, but there seems to have been some kind of move on The Miz, who has gone from a 6/1 outsider to 4/6 favourite. I'm thinking there must be rumblings of Sheamus moving towards the heel turn, but I'd still be really surprised to see Miz not get the Brogue here.

By having Orton rely on cheap local heat, the live fans booed him but everyone else just lolled - I think that was kinda the point.

In the era of 2 brands and 3 week title reigns, Titus might have been able to get a push. But not in this era.

I think the fact that anyone is saying Punk-Lesnar is anywhere close to as good as Cena-Lesnar I (let alone better) is part of the reason Punk gets a lot of hate around here. Which Cena-Lesnar match is Cena-Lesnar 1? I think comparing the CM Punk match with the Cena match at Extreme Rules 2012 and Summerslam 2014 is a bit unfair. The Cena matches are 15 minute "spectacles", qualitatively different from the usual WWE style match. Punk worked a more typical WWE main-event style match, and probably did a better job of that than HHH's Lesnar matches. It's apples and oranges.

So despite the lack of a WWE Title match, this card still has a lot of potential. 8 matches, including two HITC matches and 2/3 falls match, suggests that other matches may go short as a result - but that may actually play better. The only issue might be a lack of intrigue regarding results The betting has Cena, Ambrose, Ziggler, Sheamus, A.J., Rusev, Nikki and the Dust Bros. going over. I think the tag titles might revert to the Usos because I'm not entirely sure there's anyone else for Gold & Stardust to feud with. Although I don't really believe they'll do it, Lesnar vs Orton could be a really fun match and it's only Survivor Series so plenty of time to build to Cena vs Lesnar again. The Authority could screw Ambrose, setting up another big brawl at TLC - though I think they can have that match anyway as Ambrose will never be done with Rollins so a decisive babyface victory doesn't end the feud. I'd be very surprised to see any other upsets. Miz has been winning too much, Ziggler is too over, Paige is going to Total Divas-land, Rusev has an undefeated streak (plus Henry will likely turn), Brie has to be the bitch to further the storyline. So what do people think?

A Bo-Dog out of nowhere on Mark Henry is pretty stupid, if he's stunned then I can borderline buy it, but not how it was done.

Kinda bumping this, but I only just read about this. Damn. Yeah they're trying to plea it out but they don't have a lot of leverage, which is to say no leverage at all. He can probably avoid 'life without parole' but not much more than that.

I imagine Hero's waistline is pretty good at holding certain things up....42 inch pairs of trousers for example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLw6Dm2u2ZU

It actually worked for MVP, but they moved the US Title back on to him quite quickly afterwards. I think they dropped the ball on Cesaro, but I don't think he's being hurt going toe-to-toe with Ziggler - they have pretty good chemistry in the ring. Plus Dolph is pretty damn over, not quite on the Ambrose level but he gets the 'Benoit pop'. I think we should take a glass half-full attitude here - with Brock part-timing, Ziggler's title reign has become a lot more important and, let's face it, quite a lot of us were doubting we'd ever see a Ziggler repush - and I don't think Dolph thought he'd get one either. To say WWE deserve credit for pushing a guy who kept himself over no matter what is setting the bar pretty low, but it's nice that Barrett's injury hasn't been completely for naught.

http://www.wwe.com/classics/wherearetheynow/where-are-they-now-maria-26746966 Maria Kenellis (Bennett?) has received a WWE Talent Scholarship to help her finish up her degree in sports, event and entertainment management. Mike Bennett gets a mention and a photo too; probably stiil a matter of time before he's doing the HHHandshake,

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