Personal Jesus

I can see why WWE would want to run Brock/Taker II from a buyrate standard, but I find it really hard to buy Taker as a threat to Brock and even more so as someone how can go toe to toe with him. I would have much rather seen an angle where Taker was a crazy old man who knows Brock is bigger, stronger, faster, but has just gone completely fuckin psycho and just does crazy shit to fuck with Brock. The "he still the biggest dog in the yard" shit just can't work after Brock broke the streak. Especially since he looks ever older than he did in the Bray Wyatt match. This is probably the worst summer angle the WWE has run in the past few years IMO. I mean, after Extreme Rules/MITB the company looked like it had so much momentum but now it's all just shot to hell. It's like Vince was in a coma for a while and then just woke up a few weeks ago. "Why is this fat guy feuding with and BEATING John Cena?" "Why is Sandman 2.0 Dean Ambrose main eventing PPVs?" "Why not more Randy Orton?" "Why are we actually trying to make Seth Rollins at least look semi-credible?" "Why isn't Bray in the main event?" "Why is Cena elevating youngsters with the US title instead of going for World Title?" Right now I'd rather if they'd just send at the young guys back to NXT and book WWE on some Hogan TNA shit. Anyone under 35 need not apply. The actual talent is just going back to being wasted now.

Wait: that garbage outside the ring during Rollins/Ambrose was Indy Wrestling 101. To claim one of those matches was "too indie" and the other wasn't is crazy. Big spot doesn't always mean indy wrestling. The difference is that they took 25+ minutes to build to "nothing else can take Ambrose out, time to kill this motherfucker" while Cena/Owens went a mile a minute from probably minute 3.

I really don't get the hate for Ambrose/Rollins and thought it was better than Owens/Cena II. When you think of it as the blowoff for a almost year long blood feud, the huge spots kinda makes sense. Rollins has faced Ambrose enough times to know that he's like a fucking zombie you can't put down. He tries to work over Ambrose's leg early, but that doesn't stop him whatsoever. Ambrose at certain points goes for some high spots instead of just climbing the ladder, but that's cause Ambrose takes joy in punishing his biggest enemy in Rollins. He's a fighter, all he knows is to fight. The ending is perfect, Rollins hits Ambrose with the pedigree, thinks he's got the match won, Ambrose can't even climb the ladder but he's just hanging on Rollins leg for dear life. Rollins just says fuck it and decides it's time to absolutely destroy Ambrose. Cue Powerbomb city and burying him under the ladder and chairs. But not even that can keep Ambrose down, and he gets back to ladder for the final spot. But the fact is, Ambrose is a fighter, but Rollins is a WINNER. So Rollins holds on for dear life, while Ambrose tries to tug the belt away and comes up totally empty. If he had just held it like Rollins they could had have another screwy ending, but Ambrose instincts to fight relentlessly costs him, the same way it has the entire feud with Rollins. Add in Ambrose's awesome selling, and I don't see how it's not a MOTYC.

Whether or not she passes the "Does your mom know her" test is honestly kinda irrelevant. She's big in the same demographics as wrestling fans, and big enough to get them mainstream coverage. Which throughout the history of pro wrestling has been something most major promotions aim for. That was the aim and it worked. The battle royal getting bumped to pre-show is a pretty low-risk side effect because a) it really is and has always been just a way to give loyal workers a Mania pay day (the AMRBAR stuff is just to at least give it some semblance of importance) and b) the type of fan that's going to have any interest in it is going to seek it out/watch the pre-show and the casuals who don't are just going look at it as what it is, which is a meaningless way to get the "rest of" on the show. It would have probably done more harm than good to put it on the main show and get a "ugh" reaction from viewers and ruin pacing. If it got cut I could get the issue, but if you really had a vested interest in it, you could see it

After last night, I'd prefer if after every major PPV (Rumble, Mania, MITB, Summerslam, Survivor Series) they just had a show of sit-down interviews like they did with the snow storm. The things that were good this week (Cena/Ambrose, DB/Ziggler, Brock CRUSH) would've still been good next week, and the stuff that wasn't smark-feed wouldn't have been totally ruined like they were this week. Give the crazy ones a week to calm their hormones a bit at least.

Is there an any real reason Steph has been go Mach 5 on her burials to make herself look super strong since 2015 started? Everybody was going on and on about how she'd ran down Bryan and cut his balls off last year, saying she'd never do that to "their guys" but now she's done it to Cena, Rock and Lesnar in this month alone. I guess she showed a LITTLE ass against Ronda last night, but even then that was really nothing, and obviously none of male superstar can put their hands on her and she won't put over the divas. I don't get the fuckin point of having her in this role if we live in a world where she literally CAN'T get her come-uppance as a heel (at least, unless the WWE wants an absolute shitstorm). It just comes off as the ultimate ego-stroke.

I agree with all this. I'm also thinking Lesnar/Reigns may be *****. Wouldn't be surprised if Meltzer gives it ***** either. The only thing keeping Reigns/Lesnar out of all time super classico 5 star range for me is the finish. I know WHY they did it but they didn't NEED to do it. There's no way you can go 5 stars on a match with no finish. No point in even having 5 stars then. I'm 99% sure Mind Games is a 5 star match and had no finish. There's a definite precedent.

According to Meltzer they still haven't sold out Levi's Stadium which is like half the size. I'm not saying Jerry-World will be empty, but I think if you put this year's card in there, you wouldn't get past probably 75% full. I think Vince and co will think that this year is a wash but next year's Mania has to be HUGE.

He was a heel though for atleast a lot of those Mankind/Dude Love losses. Can't speak on periods later than that. He only won like three matches that actually mattered as a face from '99 on (RAW and Halftime Heat vs Rock and SummerSlam triple threat with Austin and HHH). Outside of Rock-N-Sock and building up Cactus Jack for the HHH matches, he wasn't doing a whole lot of winning back then. As I said, I can't really speak on anything past his Mankind/Dude Love era stuff. Clearly, Foley losing all the time was the way to go though, right? Foley seemed at best #4-#5, not #2-#3 like Daniel Bryan. Dude, you're still totally on a different wavelength here. You're still trying to make a long winded case of "Bryan should THE GUY". All the people you compare him to were used as absolute Face of the Company/Face of the Brand guys. What I'm saying is that while he's not the guy, he's in an incredibly good spot and is clearly a priority to them. He's been a priority since the day they willing to risk corporate sponsorships on bringing him back after the Nexus incident. You complain about early DB stuff like they should have brought him up day 1 and said "hey, this is DB and he's the fucking man, he's gonna get Cena in his first man and woop his ass." He's been consistently pushed in a realistic fashion from day 1 and they're always made sure when any DB angle ends, he's either more over than before OR he's putting someone over who's really important to them. You're making it seem like dropping falls to Bray and Roman is being shit on. They just want to also get Bray and Roman over, and that's NOT a bad thing. He was originally supposed to get the guy who ended up facing THE BIGGEST DRAW IN THE COMPANY at Mania 30 and that would have been a burial apparently. They're invested in Bray, in Roman, and in Bryan. Probably more than in Bryan, but they're both younger and don't have 10 years of being in RoH and being dropped on their head by Morishima and Nigel on their bodies so it's a smarter investment. Just like Foley couldn't be the man after years of deathmatches and stupid bumps against Vader before he came. But Bryan is a spot where he always treated like a big deal works the longest match on the card most of the time, and only loses in situations made to genuinely elevate another star to the next level. If that really bothers you and you don't feel your getting your money's worth from that cause "WHY CAN'T BE WHERE ROMAN IS!?!?" then you really need to sit back for a moment and realize that DB is in a 0.00001% of the most high profile wrestlers in the world that you get to see on TV every single week and get 15+ minute matches from and based on where he came for and what he and we all thought his career was gonna be, that's fucking AMAZING. And I absolutely love Daniel Bryan. Trying to stay at least a little Mania centric, with the meh-ish booking of Reigns the past month (they haven't really spent anymore time trying to convince you he's worth anymore than you thought he did after Fastline), what's the odds Vince actually recognizes Roman is DOA, but is pushing through with the match just cause he needs it to build to Brock/Rock next year? I know I'm probably giving Vince way too credit here, but I think he may not so much be stubborn as much he sees the bigger picture and knows if he wants to sell out Jerry-World, Brock/Rock is just about the only match left that can do it.

I don't know if you want all WWE TV to be the "Daniel Bryan is the Greatest Wrestler in History Fan Club Show", but the things you're complaining about is pretty ridiculous. Being a main eventer doesn't mean always coming out on top, and losing to other top stars in competitive matches and getting dissed in promos doesn't means you're buried. BULL. This is honestly the biggest piece of selective memory I've seen on a wrestling board in some time. They've: - From the first day said he was nothing, pointed out that he has no charisma or mic skills and buried him with The Miz. He got the most high profile angle on the NXT TV show, came back as the special tag partner for Team Cena as a HUGE deal in his first PPV match, then was the only guy who got a big feud with an established guy in the Miz while the Nexus guys all got downsized. He was put down by heels, that's what heels do. I don't know if you want every feud with Daniel Bryan to be his opponent saying "you're the greatest, I'm not worthy". - Called him a geek, nerd, troll and goat for months on end. Heels and heel commentators say bad things about faces. It means he's important and the heels are jealous of him/dislike him because of the good he stands for. The unimportant ones either get nothing or get fake compliments for heels to show how full of shit the heels are. - When he got hot, they tried to turn him heel and make him yell NO, instead of YES. They did this for months on end for no real reason. He did turn heel. And it got him more over. His run with AJ was fantastic. YES was a face chant, NOs got him heel heat. No different than Angle and the "You suck" chants. A device to get heat - They pushed him as the weak link in a team with KANE. As part of a redemption angle that ended with him being the first worker to get a fall over the unstoppable Shield. - The whole Team Hell No storyline. Hugfests, seeing psychiatrists, getting in arguments at fast food restaurants then having Kane hunt him like he was Jason and have him run. Which all got super over and clearly had alot of time put into them. - Despite having multiple matches with main eventers like Orton and others, they said he wasn't in their league. And then he BEAT them. Heels said it, he proved them wrong. - They buried him for months against the Authority. DB got laid out and beaten down so many times that I thought I was watching reruns. He was the main protagonist to the biggest heel stable. He got outnumbered, that's the whole point of former stables, to outnumber people. Whenever he got any Authority member one of one fairly, he won. - They tried to turn him heel again with the Wyatt Family for no reason whatsoever. They did it for like two weeks. It was clearly planned to be a faux turn, and the ending got a ridiculous pop. It's an angle they run all the time, see Orton/Authority, Punk/New Breed, the face joins the heel group to gain their trust and secrets and then beats them up. Its the best way to get past a stable leader's lackeys. - They've produced some of the worst merchandise ever for him. They make terrible merch for everybody ever not named Punk or Edge. - They ruined two Royal Rumble's consecutively so he didn't win and did everything in their power to try to kill the heat. They put him over top heel Seth Rollins one week later in 2015, and he was selling a Sister Abigail to the guard-rail in 2014. Using DB to put over a guy they clearly see as future #1 heel in Bray isn't burying him, and if they wanted to kill his heat after, they'd make what he does unimportant or just keep him off tv. - They've ignored all of his popularity in his hometown and didn't even mention his various things with celebrities and the parade. They held the 2013 Slammy award in Washington just cause DB was winning Superstar of the Year - They have the easiest storyline ever in a face DB trying to get the belt back that he never lost against Brock and ignore it. They then have him lose to Big Daddy Cool Reigns and verbally suck him off. Cause they're building Reigns. Losing to Reigns in a 30 minute match isn't a burial, it's losing to your equal. They treated him as Reigns' equal throughout and after the feud, he just couldn't stop the man on a mission on that night. They did stuff like that with Hart and Foley all the time, when you're at that bulletproof level you can take a loss or two. - They then strap him in a WM ladder match with other people they aren't pushing, don't want to push, will never push and don't know what to do with. Those people are in the Andre the Giant Memorial match. The IC Title match is for "guys that are important that they stay over, but we can't all give one on one matches (and R-Truth)". And they've made DB the centre of the match and compared him going for the belt to guys like Savage and Steamboat and mentioned that winning would mean HE'S HELD EVERY BELT IN THE COMPANY IN UNDER 5 YEARS. Compare all this with way Roman Reigns has been booked in the last year and tell me he wasn't being buried. Bullshit. He's not Roman. Roman needs to be protected for his character's aura. DB's character is about overcoming odds. He can't overcome shit if he's never struggling or nevr being mistreated. Quite frankly, Roman needs more stuf to overcome if he wants to get over like Bryan. I've watched a lot of wrestling in my day and don't remember anyone else having to go through a fraction of what he's had to go through. You know the best part? He made almost all of it work, got more over no matter what crap they gave him and it's still not good enough! You don't remember because you've haven't seen a superstar come in and EVERY angle he's ever been in has been treated as important like Bryan for such an extended period since Taker or Brock. He's never once been a "we have nothing for you, you're gonna be off tv for a while guy" or "treading water on Superstars guy" or a "feud that's totally unimportant with no story behind it guy". Every thing they do with Bryan has a plan behind it and ends with him more over. That can happen once or twice for everybody, but with Bryan it's clear it's be design, otherwhile they'd Zack Ryder him and move on. He doesn't win every match and doesn't need to, his character development goes much deeper than "guy who wins all the time". But they've invested a shitload in him in terms of tv time and big moments/wins, and I don't what else you need to be a main eventer unless main eventer is only if you're THE MAN all the time ala Cena or Hogan.

I can ALMOST half get people's annoyance with DB fans when people say shit like "DB's not in the main event". Bryan is a main eventer. They've clearly always seen him as the guy for their Main Event Mechanic Spot. Company Ace and Main Eventer are not the same. They don't want him as the company ace, but they've NEVER buried him or tried to limit him. The WWE KNOWS how to kill heat, that it 100% not what they have ever tried to do with Bryan. He gets great moments as a face, he got big commupance as a heel. The most important thing is get someone over is not their win/lose record or title reigns, it's giving them big important moments. Nobody has gotten more big important moments than Bryan is the past 2 years, probably longer going back to his heel run. If they didn't want him over, they'd make his moments seem less important He's in the Bret Hart/Mick Foley/Chris Jericho spot, and to be honest, trying to force him into the company ace is a waste, cause where he is now is a GREAT spot to have, and a needed part of any promotion. Brock is special attraction of the generation, DB is the main event mechanic guy, they're transitioning Cena so they're trying to find a new company ace. Reigns is the company's choice, but the fans don't want Reigns. Before Bryan came back, the fans clearly wanted Ambrose for the ace role so it's not DB's fault. Life is a cycle, and we've seen this before. Vince will be stubborn for a while until it looks too silly and he'll have to cave on Reigns experiment just like Luger/Diesel/Sheamus etc and they'll probably hit on a guy like Ambrose or Rollins soon after because their rises will feel much more natural. Bryan's gonna have a wonderful career in the mechanic role, and if he really gets too injured for his face stuff, they'll make him work a heel style with his submission stuff. For now, the Reigns stuff isn't awful enough to boycott or change the channel for, so I just accept it, but him being in the main event isn't killing anyone. The WWE is just one big cycle, they're gonna hit on a guy in the next couple years after Reigns regardless, and I really just like wrestling so I'd rather not be that douchebag guy who only watches when the product is "hot".

He knows Cena's a dick who wants to attack him, but needs a "noble" excuse so he gave him one. Rusev knows Cena has that "I'm doing this for me, but I'll pretend I'm trying to help someone else" attitude that puny Americans specialize in, as Rusev has studied the American people to know how to best destroy them.

Can Vince actually hear crowd reactions from the gorilla position at this stage? He must really think the crowd is super into Brock/Roman as a Clash of the Titans to the point he thinks them coming to blows would "ruin the spectacle". I can't believe this is a go-home show for any PPV, much less Mania. At this point Mania feels so half-assed, I assume it's a matter of the WWE brass saying "Fuck it, it's on the network for same $9.99 as everything , why try to make it special?"

I'm not the biggest fan of Okada's deer in headlights facial expressions, but he's still really good and someone's gonna have to really stand out for me to vote against him. Galloway hasn't stood out enough to knock out a guy like Okada IMO.

All else being equal, Nakamura has the Boma Ye, while Ambrose has that sorry excuse for a finisher. Nak wins.

I'm pretty sure that Rusev's lawyer was doing that terrible accent on purpose. It was a good way to make sure that Rusev didn't draw any sympathy heat after Cena attacked him last week. People might feel sorry for beautiful bombshell, but no way they feel sorry for Rusev with that tool. I wouldn't mind him being with Rusev for a while.

If you hated that RAW you have no soul. Scanty match-wise, but really great angles. Rusev's lawyer was fantastic, I went into 2015 think Rusev was overpushed, now I'm convinced he's the best guy on the roster. And for a second or two, I couldn't help but think Randy was going to turn on Sting, just cause it's Sting. Sting looks like he's really been in the gym, I'm not dreading that match nearly as much as I was a couple weeks ago.

After DB lost at Fastlane I was dead-set that this would be the worst Mania ever. Now, I'm mildly excited. Rusev/Cena is the best non-main event feud on a Mania in a LONG time, I actually think Orton/Rollins is pretty fun even if the Authority stuff was pretty lame, the IC Title match is intriguing just in terms of who wins and all the guys will give 120%, Bray/Taker is interesting just for how much of a car-wreck Taker may or may not be at this stage, and Reigns/Lesnar and HHH/Sting are both huge spectacles even if not for the right reasons. It's not exciting in a "this is gonna be awesome!" way but in a "where the fuck are they gonna go with all of this" way. I really hope that the WWE doesn't look at the Network as an excuse to half-ass Mania just because "it's all the same $9.99!", and I'm assuming they have a plan to make it memorable even if we don't see it now.

The Rollins cash-in angle if they save for the summer is actually easy. Rollins keeps his briefcase till the 2015 MITB PPV, Ambrose wins the 2015 case, Rollins cashes in Reigns and wins the belt, and Ambrose cashes in on Rollins right after. Then you can finally get the Shield triple threat as the big summer angle/Summerslam match. As for Mania, WWE probably think they have a fool-proof way of ending the show. Reigns as WWE Champ, Bryan as IC champ and Cena as US Champ all celebrating with Reigns and "passing the torch". And if the crowd still boo, they can blame it on "Bryan in the ring when he's not on the same level as the other two stars".

I think making Rollins cash in on Reigns would only make the situation worse here. If you have Rollins "save" the main event, that'll basically be a double turn to a smark crowd, and unless that's really what they're going for, it just muddles the water even further. If they really wanted to make Reigns leave with a positive reaction in retrospect, they should have had Bryan win at Fastlane via interference by either Lesnar (cause Bryan was the "weaker opponent") or Rollins (as payback), then done a Yokozuna with Lesnar beating Bryan then Reigns saves the day. Or the reverse if they had just kept DB off the Mania card (which is what I was naively hoping for till they officially put him in the Ladder Match) Also, the last big cash-in (Orton on Bryan) was right after a huge title switch so going with the exact same angle here is very unlikely. Reigns has to leave with the belt, for better or worse. And beating Rollins would just kill him dead, cause all Rollins really have that makes him bulletproof through all the falls he takes is the briefcase. Maybe they have some big plan, but more than likely IMO, they've convinced themselves that if Reigns can have an epic with Lesnar at the same level as the DB match, that he'll win over the Mania crowd.

As someone who's always been very high on the fact that crowd participation is an important part of wrestling and fans should (for the most part) be able to cheer and boo however they want and have the right to show displeasure to workers being shoved down their throat, the Jersey crowd for Cena/Axel annoyed the living bejesus out of me. To the point I had the change the channel in disgust. It wasn't showing the WWE what they wanted, it was honestly just them being dicks for the sake of being dicks. I will still say though, to those saying "if you don't like WWE's booking, don't support, simple!", it really isn't that simple. At the end of the day, RAW is one show, but a show consisting of numerous totally different and often unrelated segments. So ultimately, a fan can like one angle (and be at a RAW for one angle or worker), but not be happy about and/or not give two shits about the other angle. As a fan at home watching tv, I can simply change the channel for shit I find bad or unimportant. But live, you can't. You can maybe leave get a snack for one segment, take a couple piss breaks, but you can't go for 3 hours and say "well, I'm gonna watch the Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins related stuff cause I like them/they're booked well, and then just be quiet with my displeasure for the other segments". If you cheer at things to like (accepted, important part of the show), you're also gonna show your displeasure to what you don't like. I mean, you can like the NFL, but still not want to watch the Jaguars/Raiders. And the NFL doesn't/shouldn't tell me "In order to watch the Super Bowl tonight, you're gonna have to sit thru Jags/Raiders, Bucs/Browns and Falcons/Vikings for the next 6 hours first". If you want people to react positively to every, make everything quality. Most fans are going for 1 or 2 angles and suffering through the rest. That doesn't make them stupid or mean they should give up their fandom, because they genuinely enjoy those one or two angles. It means the WWE should stop putting really bad filler all in between the good shit. It's not even like you can leave because the book RAW as -> Important Opener -> filler -> important hour 2 angle -> filler -> imporant hour 3 opener -> wrestlecrap segments just because -> main event. You're forcing live fans to suffer though filler to get to important shit for no real reason. Just make the fucking filler better, WWE, it's not that hard.

I think one of the main points people miss when talking about Reigns push is the fact that honestly in 2015, "cool athletic jock" types aren't liked in mainstream media AT ALL. Nowadays, nerds like Daniel Bryan ARE the new cool. Cool, good looking guy is basically now douche by default while nerds are lovable and easy to get behind. Breaking Bad, Big Bang, etc, have all led to this new geek chic revolution in society. Girls still want to fuck the douchebags, but that doesn't make them likable, it makes them bangable. No amount of improvement by Reigns is gonna make people like him much, unless you have that 1% charisma that a guy like Rock has, which Reigns clearly doesn't. Honestly, fantasy booking, I'd much rather Reigns turn heel and do a WWE Bullet Club redux with and Finn Balor maybe the Usos or something rather than be top face. I know some wrestling fans find it hard to accept change in terms of "what works" in the business, but DB and Sami Zayn type guys really are the type of company ace this generation needs, weird as it may seem to some.

The narrative is no one like Reigns and he's just getting shoved down everyone's throats. If you're winning Superstar of the Year, your first live appearance in months should blow the fucking roof off the place, not be "hey, they kinda seem to like him". Compared to Bryan two weeks ago or Ambrose on the same show, it was basically nothing. It felt like a "hey, this guy is back, that's kinda cool". But that's what New Day got. He's supposedly gonna be main eventing Mania.

I will maintain the biggest issue booking wise is that they are doing too much shit. If everyone is important (sans the champions) who the fuck is really important? It's not even they're important. They're all just... kinda interesting in a weird, wacky way. Nobody actually feels important, they all just feel like a bunch of crazy guys running around an asylum constantly doing the same tropes and catchphases every week.

I might be way off base here, but I believe Vince is actually sad that Punk is gone. I think he likes the guy. By all accounts, VInce is a man that LOVES confrontations. It's probably a an absolute minimum to gain his respect. From Punk's podcast, I actually think his biggest mistake was that he started to back down on stuff thinking that Vince's "I'll owe you one" meant a shit. If he faught tooth and nail for things like he used to or like Austin did, and just gave flat-out nos to stuff instead of doing them and throwing hissy fits to Cabana on the phone, he would have probably gotten more of what he wanted. Cena seems like more of a guy who just says no, I really dont care about anybody else's opinion on the matter (i.e the Nexus 7 on 7 finish). But unlike maybe in Austin's time, the lines of communication are way different. When Vince was around more, more guys could show their real personality to him and he could push them accordingly. In today's WWE, you go thru Hunter and Steph, and they probably aren't the same type of people Vince was, always looking for the next megastar, looking for a guy eager to fight for his spot and scream his way into it.That's not me trying to shit on HHH and Steph, Hunter clearly has an eye for talent and I don't think he's quite as bias as some claim. But does he have that Vince kinda promoter's mind of, "how am I gonna take this guy, and make him larger than life"? When you hear Punk talk about his run pre-MITB in other interview, he doesn't get an open line to Vince. He talks to Michael Hayes alot, Hunter alot and Heyman alot. Probably after MITB, Vince was like "hey, kid, holy shit, you're about to make me a whole lot of money, here's my personal line, call me any time". But how many guys get that? Punk, Cena, Orton, Brock, maybe Batista? The reason that Vince doesn't think Cesaro has enough charisma is the fact he probably doesn't interract with Cesaro beyond hi and bye. The problem with the WWE is the same problem as the music business right now. True consistent constant artist development is no longer done. You're either a star or you not, and very few are just born with that. Alot of guys can develop it when put in the right position, but it's 1 in billion to just wake up with it.