Matt D

WE WANT STING!

This all stems from this incident. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxNkmR2GAuc

ALL BUZZARDS LEAD TO STING

I am stupidly excited for Sting.

Mickey Rooney, John Pinette, and Peaches Geldof is such a weird trio.

I think that's Hunter's best match ever, maybe. I'd have to rewatch the Taka match. I have rewatched a good amount of his 00 and most of what I saw didn't come close because he always ends up with a bloated mess of a third act and last night didn't have that at all. It was really weird to me that we had two matches with double german suplexes.

He used the chinlock! I loved the story. People have touched on this already, but what was missing was some kind of... transition point for Cena, or something. We know Bray is trying to bring out the crazy side of Cena through intimidation - so Bray can win by traditional means, or he can "win" by making Cena do something that alienates his fanbase to win the match. At the start, Cena can only go on offense when he goes crazy heelish. And (I think) he initially attacks Rowan and Harper not because they actually did something to him, but because he's afraid of them. But at the end, he wins with his usual offense. Which is fine, but how did we get from point A to point B there? Was it supposed to be when he put down the stairs or refused to use the chair? Whatever that moment was, it needed to stand out more. Also, they talk about Mania having "something for everyone". I think you're on point with the Taker match comparison. This was supposed to be the "epic story match" that the Taker match has filled for the last few years. Bryan vs. HHH was the workrate match. He used the chinlock! Ultimate heel hubris.

You know how Vince sort of does crazy stuff? Just on a whim? Maybe we could have Raw start and Warrior could be in Lawler's seat.

I think part of why Cena/Wyatt worked vs let's say HHH vs Taker with Shawn as the ref is that it didn't take itself nearly as seriously as the latter match.

Even I have no idea what this is, but Jarrett shouldn't book that giant robot dude.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9a8ci_shinya-hashimoto-vs-lord-steven-reg_sport

Bryan won due to the Armstrong curse.

Another thing I loved was heyman's pep talk to Brock. "Don't let him take this from you!" His promo tonight will be great.

I get what you're saying, but it took 3 F5s, and the first was mainly used as a transition and the second as just a babyface hope spot cut off. I'm not sure if I'd call that "protecting," even by weird WWE Main Event logic.

The streak is one of the most iconic things in wrestling history, though. It's also broken through into non-wrestling fan pop-culture. It was definitely an "oh, damn" moment for me and I'm not a huge Taker or Brock fan. (I get why everyone else loves them, just not my cup of tea.) I get the why. I just didn't feel it. It felt sort of hollow to me, especially after the match they worked. To me, the biggest thing was the fact that they killed the crowd so dead. I wasn't sure anything could bring them back to life and I think it honestly and truly might be Hunter's finest moment in wrestling when he came out and woke them back up. Re: Brock/Bryan, the key thing is to keep them apart until Summerslam. I'd do Henry vs Brock next month if they want to give him another PPV match. Do Bryan vs Batista or Orton in a gimmick match. Do Bryan vs Hunter again in a submission match. Toss Kane at him in an inferno match. Just keep Brock away until it's time. To me, this doesn't feel like it's going to be a Rey run. There's just too much momentum and there was nothing fluky about last night. It was definitive. Bryan was presented as a worldbeater.

One of my favorite parts was when Batista and Orton just stopped. They stopped everything. They looked at each other. Then at the fallen Bryan, and there was this implied moment of "We are Evolution. He's some little jerk. They care about him more than us. This was supposed to be our night. We're going to end this, together." Then Orton kills himself on a video monitor.

It's interesting that so many of you were so moved by the streak ending. Maybe it was due to the really flat build but it felt like such an after thought to me last night in the face of all the Bryan stuff. It feels to me like the main point to it being broken was to set up Brock as a challenge for Bryan.

I am not touching the dropping of the shoulder sell.

I think it's hard to judge it as a match because most everyone went into it thinking that Brock wasn't going to win, this not really giving it a chance. That's the problem with the Streak, it's been built up so much that you really couldn't believe he was going to lose, this making the result of the match a forgone conclusion. Seriously. When you have an F5 that is strictly a transition and another one that was really just a hope spot cutoff, you know you're in a Taker streak match.

I love that it kind of looks like Goldust and Cesaro are dancing.

Ugh, I HATE that crab walk. The more reason you kick him in his fucking face because he's defenseless. Or JYD to headbutt him from that spot. That's what he WANTS you to do!

It actually feels like we're on the verge of something special. That's the difference between now and X and XX. A lot of that is the network since it means we're inundated with WWE right now. The rest is Bryan/Cesaro/Shield as the guys they put over tonight and the Wyatts still being a hot act despite the loss.

Orton's landing was one of the worst things I've ever seen in wrestling. Obviously he wasn't supposed to land on the monitor. I thought he was crippled. He was cut up from that but they did a good job not showing it. Brock sort of feels like a King of the Ring winner to me now. I just hope they keep him away from Bryan until Summerslam.

Up until Cena winning, that might have been the most feel good Mania ever. Cena winning was fine but it was a little flat. I liked the match though, because Wyatt sort of had his number so long as Cena was losing it and not rising above hate, but he made the mistake of going to the ultimate traditional WWE heel move, the chinlock, and by doing so, Cena's innate babyface power reawoken in him and he hulked up.