SirSmUgly

No, it really doesn't. What happens on message boards is that people actually become really big fans of a guy organically, and then there is always a crew of people who have to go the opposite direction whether they like the guy or not. The wonder of wrestling, especially for those of us who aren't kids anymore, is when wrestling kinda brings back that magic again where you actually care about what happens to your favorite wrestlers. People being invested in Bryan is the mark of really awesome pro wrestling, not cult-like behavior to be derided. Oddly for someone who chided others for being cynical about RAW, that's the most cynical thing said in this thread so far. EDIT: Ah, the "won't someone please think of THE CHIIIIILDREN BRYAN'S NECK!"argument. Yeah, they shouldn't have put the belt on Steve Austin right after he came back from his neck injury either. Trying to put the responsibility for Bryan's health not on his doctors, not on Vince McMahon and the company for letting him wrestle, not on Bryan himself, but on the fans is weird, too. Alright, I don't want to get banned here so I'll step out now, but you're improving, Raziel. I give you three FSW's out of five.

Oh my gosh, fans, errr I mean those CULTISTS, of a guy really want that guy to win! How whiny! I can't believe that a group of people, many of whom have been emotionally invested in Bryan and his career for years, are unhappy because the booker thought it was a great idea to bring Bryan (the clear #1 babyface if you listened to the fans over the past eighteen months) back off injury and cool him off in favor of a dude they were saying was lost in singles matches well before Bryan came back in the first place! How AWFUL!

NXT shows that if you book people properly and push them at a pace the audience prefers, you'll get the reactions you want for the most part. Gregg should know this since he watches NXT and saw a large part of those fans, who are more aware of the game than many other types of fan, go silent during the Sami Zayn/Kevin Owens knockout angle. That was traditional booking and it worked because it was well-executed. If Ryan Ward can execute traditional booking successfully, but Vince McMahon can't, blame the fans! Wonderful logic there, Gregg. I think Gregg is just screwing with everyone at this point and knows that the booking is as bad as we do. It can be fun to play devil's advocate. Someone tell Raziel that he's got a long way to go before he reaches even a level of expertise with his troll-fu FSW reached with his Punk-bashing. Hell, I was reading through the MM 2014 threads when FSW moved on to Shield-bashing, and his stuff about Reigns being exposed in singles actually ended up being prescient. Long way to go to troll that expertly, Raziel.

Also, in defense of myself, I wasn't "super-high" on Reigns. This is just polite praise of admittedly fun work: I also said this in the Reigns/Cesaro thread: I guess I feel that last way about Reigns in real life regarding his positioning for WM. Whoever said Bryan/Lesnar and Reigns/Rusev was the right combination of matches was absolutely correct.

I gave Reigns some props in that MM thread, but noted that I wasn't sure about Reigns's ability to put on a good main-event-level 1v1 match. Well, we have proof that he can do it against D-Bry, but so can Bray Wyatt, so that proves nothing in the end. I have a question because I think the similarities in their cases is somewhat alike: Is 2015-era Roman Reigns better than late-1994 Diesel right now? People will take that as spite toward Reigns, but it genuinely isn't. I just watched all of '94/'95 RAW and PPVs, and Nash was better with doing meaningful stuff in the middle of matches and with transitioning back from heel control to his finishing run. He was also a better traditional face promo at that point than Reigns is now.

Bryan/Rusev would be great. I get that they want to make Reigns seem like he can legit take Lesnar, but kicking out of a knee won't do it. If you're dead set on having a guy beat Lesnar, and you book Lesnar to beat 'Taker at WM and then destroy Cena twice, you'd better make sure that you have built up the guy that you want to beat Lesnar to seem unstoppable. I feel bad for Reigns. It's not his fault that he's not at that level yet, but he's getting put there anyway. I think this will go over like a worse version of Diesel in '94/'95, but maybe he'll pull it out.

I just saw IYH 6 the other day and HBK/Owen held up REALLY well, but Bret/Diesel cage did not. Roddy Piper was still somewhat early in his "annoying shitty rambling promo" days that got absurdly terrible when he went over to WCW and spent fifteen minutes at a time cutting the worst fucking promos in the world. That skit with he and Cornette/Mason was awful except for Mason spitting and wiping his mouth with his handkerchief after Piper put his hand over Mason's mouth.

Just watched Cena/Rusev. It was solid, but I thought the timing looked a bit off between the two. Rusev continues to be great in general, though. I hope he gets a WWE title run at some point this year.

Hey yo, survey says spoiler tag those leaks next time, please.

I didn't watch the show, but I'll check out Cena/Rusev at some point. I might watch WrestleMania just to see the crowd turn on the show for four hours. That might be perversely fun. When I read about how D-Bry's being booked, I feel like I'm looking into Sami Zayn's exact future.

Rollins pretty much has to walk out of WM with the belt because those smarks at the show aren't buying Reigns over Lesnar and will shit on everything vocally, which probably isn't what the company wants on tape. I for one am fine with it. Rollins still isn't that great as the ace heel and is still finding his way in that role, but he's about a million times better and more compelling than Reigns is right now.

I miss crowds that would appreciatively clap for really good wrestling instead of self-consciously chanting something or being bored by it because they're waiting for the easily-identifiable finishing run. I say this because the Baltimore crowd at GAB 1996 is really nice. They applaud after moves or sequences they appreciate and are into anything as long as the wrestling is strong. GAB 1996 is one of those PPVs that I don't know if people talk about it much, but it is a REALLY awesome show with tons of variety in-ring.

You probably should have spoiler-tagged this for people just to be careful. Edited to add: Usually, the Network runs with no hitches for me, but everyone watching Fast Lane is really lagging my streaming of GAB '96.

Finlay used to punch and forearm dudes like he hated their very essence of being, though. Sheamus does it, but there's no real sense of hate or violence. Like, I appreciate that he works stiff, but it's so mechanical in the end. I don't believe in his viciousness as a heel, much less as a face. It's hard to explain, but everything about Sheamus comes off phony as if he's just play-acting in there, really. Does that make sense? If you told me that Finlay was an angry street fighter, I'd believe it. Hell, if you told me Wade Barrett was a shit-talking, sardonic street fighter, I'd believe it. Sheamus just seems like a dude playing a part, even if he does forearm the hell out of his opponent sometimes.

Hey now, I've never really enjoyed Sheamus, and I've always been in the minority on that one. If I never saw him wrestle again, I'd be fine with that.

I actually forgot that Fast Lane was tonight. I think I'll probably skip it and see what you guys say in the post-PPV thread to see what I should go back and watch, if anything. I'm at the point where I really have no interest in the non-NXT current Tubers instead of Stove Top. HOWEVER, if Bryan wins, all bets are off and I'll watch the whole PPV after the fact even though there is like a 1% chance of that happening.

The Vaudevillains were over, but they changed their entrance theme. I honestly think the change in entrance theme hurt them. The crowd wants to cheer their silly gimmick and they're supposed to be heels, so I get the logic behind the change, but it really hurt them significantly, I think.

I didn't say that. I remember liking Batista's work in that triple threat. However, even on re-watch, most of the reason that I like that match so much personally is because of the anticipation for and emotional release from Bryan winning and celebrating.

Honestly, I forgot the Shield/Evolution six-man tags. I can take or leave the other stuff you mentioned (well, I like the WM triple threat, but not because of anything Orton was doing in it), but those two six-mans were really good. I retract my earlier statement regarding Orton.

Orton shouldn't get in because I can't remember a better-than-decent match that he had. Personally, if the part-timer in question did staggeringly awesome stuff, I'm all for that person getting in. Brock Lesnar had what might be the best triple threat match in company history and the best extended squash of anyone in company history this year. That's enough for me. Those matches will be talked about for years and years and years in large part because of him.

People are going to argue that Ambrose/Wyatt Lumberjack is a great match of that type (I personally hated it; it seems kinda polarizing as a match) and I've heard people say that Ambrose/Wyatt Ambulance match on RAW is really good (I didn't enjoy it, but I typically don't like that stipulation). I think when Bray gets in, those are the matches that any supporters will hang their hats on. Well, that and his sweet clothesline.

Re: Punk lawsuit, did anyone post this link from the WWE's own website? http://www.wwe.com/inside/wwe-addresses-cm-punk-allegations-27130843 I don't see how not having a record proves anything; nor do I see how the video is necessarily proof that Punk was lying (if the growth is lower on his back and under the trunks, it would be hidden from view).

I guess I'll nominate Chuck Taylor, one of the few indie guys that I actually kinda keep up with where I can. I liked his tag stuff in PWG this year, but I don't know if it's online anymore.

Just saw Cristobal's post. Nevermind about the women.

I like the "delusional pretty-boy gets a big smoldering bodyguard" gimmick. It's one of my favorite pro wrestling tropes. YMMV. (Note: I think he's REALLY good at portraying his gimmick, so as you watch more of him, he might bring you around a bit.)