JRGoldman

If you'll pardon the shill, I wrote a light-hearted attempt at fantasy booking a few of the matches at this year's Mania: http://wrestlingwithwords.com/brock-lesnar-and-other-magical-creatures-fantasy-booking-wrestlemania-part-1/ It's a bit bananas, but I hope you all enjoy.

As long as we get to hear about how Nick Young has a smaller penis than Swaggy P, I'm game.

Until proven otherwise, I'm just going to assume Kyuubi is Gregg's latest attempt to "go viral". Like his yelp novel.

Niners, I want to address the Daredevil comparison you keep making. Daredevil, as the result of his accident, has developed superpowers. While most focus on his heightened hearing and his sonar like ability that allows him to "see" all around him at all times, it has been documented that all of his other senses have become superhuman as well. This includes his sense of touch, which has caused him to develop unnatural balance and motor skills. Because of this, I am able to buy Daredevil avoiding killing people because he is able to kick/punch/toss them with just the correct amount of pressure to avoid inflicting fatal injury. I don't necessarily give Batman that same leeway, because his entire character is based in the fact that he is a very exceptional human with no powers beyond will power, smarts, fat stacks of cash and some karate lessons.

Why would you need to turn Ryback face to have a match against HHH, the most well booked and protected face in the company, who never backs down from a fight and is merely protecting the sanctity of a business that he loves more than anything?

I thought about this last night when Ryback came out and still got the entire crowd to chant "feed me more" despite doing nothing for the better part of a year: If they decided tomorrow to switch Roman and Ryback on the card, would Wrestlemania be a better or worse show, and would it get a better or worse reaction?

Roman has a step up on all of the NXT darlings in Vince's eyes: at least they care enough to boo. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens were actually given time and had a fun six man and the crowd would rather chant for RVD and jack each other off for 15 minutes. And those are the wrestlers everyone says are their favorites, who should be pushed more!

Niners, the difference is that Batman is a character who has a core value of "prevent murder at all costs and don't use guns because my entire life has been shaped by watching the murder of my parents and the subsequent PTSD I experienced". No one in the Marvel movies is that specifically limited. Sure, Tony Stark would rather not kill anyone, but preventing murder is not what drives him to be a hero. Captain America was a soldier. This is apples and oranges. Also, does Snyder really say in that quote above that the idea that Batman doesn't kill comes from the Tim Burton movies, or am I miss understanding that?

I remember a few years ago when Brodus Clay got over in FCW with his Fall of Man unstoppable ass kicker gimmick. I don't want to diminish Mil, but I think it's easy to be a stoic ass kicker who has magic powers that make him a total bad ass. Mil has brought nice flourishes to the role and he should be commended for that, but Bayley has unironically gotten over as a pure, good thing in a world where all people want to see is shades of grey. Also, not for nothing, I'll take Bayley's top five matches this year over the same for Mil, and I don't think it's all that close.

I'm not excited for RG3, I'm excited that this may mean they decide to wait a few rounds on a QB and pick up Cardale.

New England should have proposed a rule making the Ravens eat sour grapes whenever they lost a playoff game.

I think it really puts in perspective how insufferable the Warriors are when a Bulls fan is like "Yeah I'd really rather Lebron wins things".

It's so rare in wrestling for a performer to show self doubt, especially as a baby face. Even Daniel Bryan, who was a total underdog, always carried himself as someone who knew he could whip everyone's ass. He was a super human, just not built like one. Bayley has been able to get over her character by portraying herself as unbelievably human. People tell her she isn't good enough and some part of her will always believe them. I can't help but identify with that. When she wins, she's not only winning against her opponent, but against herself. I can't help but get caught up in it. I also understand that Bayley as currently constructed won't get over on Raw, which is program based around superhumans. But she's perfect for where she is at the moment, which is what's important to me right now.

The highlight of Raw was Terry Funk clearly never having seen a Dean Ambrose match, so he just cut a promo about himself and then handed him a chainsaw.

For the record, I would be shocked if Lebron left Cleveland again even if he wants to. He's pretty brand conscious if nothing else, and even if they all hate each other behind the scenes, there really isn't a better spot for him basketball wise. I think this is all pretty calculated to remind the Cavs that he can leave. He wants to make sure they don't get complacent, and he wants to make sure that he has his finger in the pie. There have been a lot of moves this season that have been perceived as "anti-Lebron" (trading AV, trading Cunningham, not hiring Marc Jackson), and this is Lebron giving management a not so subtle reminder that the ball is in his court. It's like your wife casually dropping that she's gonna go out for dinner with an ex boyfriend to catch up. The Cavs off season will be really interesting. Mozgov has basically played at a below replacement level, so who knows what his market will be. The Cavs will almost certainly look to trade Kevin Love, even though it undoubtedly makes them worse. The only question is whether they trade him and find a way to keep Lebron at SF, or do they trade him for a wing and Lebron actually plays a considerable amount of time at PF moving forward. I don't think he's gone, but I think they would be right to question Lue as the coach moving forward. They haven't found consistent rotations, the changes he said he'd make on offense haven't happened and the changes he made to the defensive schemes he ended up scraping and going back to what they were running under Blatt. His rotations have been truly baffling. Every good team in the NBA knows exactly who is playing and when. Lue can't even figure out who the first man off the bench is. Sometimes the 6 minute mark will come and I'll see people checking in and then I'll realize it's James Jones getting some run at PF. In the first quarter. I think this season would be viewed very differently if the Warriors weren't the Warriors. The Cavs are going to win 58-60 games. Toronto is playing out of their minds, but I don't think anyone in the east is a serious threat to the Cavs. And yet Cavs fans are screaming about the team under achieving and body language and whatever else. The whole thing is insane. It's like people have forgotten that they didn't really wow anyone for most of the regular season last year either. I'm not saying I think they are going to win, but I am saying anything can happen, and I'd rather have Lebron and all accompanying drama and a chance to win a title over scrapping with Detroit for an 8 seed. Also, for what its worth, Lebron followed the Cavs on twitter and instagram again this morning.

AJ is great at having great matches. Bayley is great at getting me to care about good matches. The latter is more important (and rarer) to me than the former.

I don't really want to vote Brock, and I think Muertes probably had the better year, but again I think it's worth mentioning the levels of difficulty. If Brock was on Lucha Underground and basically got to be a real life version of Thanos I'm pretty sure this entire board would be pants free ever Wednesday. If Muertes had to look like a gump on Raw a few times a month and go 50/50 with Bray Wyatt and company, no one would care at all.

I didn't want to have to break out the nuclear option, but voting for Becky is basically voting for rovert. Don't vote for rovert

Vic one time told me my dad was a dick in the general thread. His posts were still better than like 90% of people's attempts at humor.

I'll bet the dude who screamed 'sell a fucking move' at Eva would list Davey Richards and the Young Bucks among his favorite wrestlers.

It should be noted that it feels like all of those Baker and Van Fleet accomplishments should have an asterisk because they have been in school for approximately 13 years.

I voted Nakamura just to spite whomever said that Nakamura isn't charismatic, he's just Japanese. That post was garbage and you should feel bad about yourself.

Importantly, it was Vampiro. The only thing better would be if it was Konnan. If you're gonna light an announcer on fire and decide against torching Matt Striker, we've got a serious disconnect.

I'm fine with the criticisms of Brock that Matt D has made and now others have suddenly started to agree with. I don't feel like Brock had a truly great year, and he no longer feels totally fresh. Matt, you've often compared Stan Hansen to a tool for another wrestler to use as he sees fit, and I think Brock is firmly in that stage of his career as well, although I think it's clear that he is a much harder tool for people to use and actually advance or get over with. I don't think anyone looks tougher in victory or defeat against Lesnar. They look lucky or decimated. That being said, Brock's year had some decent matches. The Fastlane match was fun. The squashes were fun. He made random promos on Raw seem like an event. The pull apart stuff was awesome. All that being said, I voted for Brock. Nothing American Alpha has done thus far has made me think they are anything but tag team Tyler Breeze; an act tailor made to get over on a specific show in front of a specific crowd. They've done that and should be commended, but when other factors are close to being equal, I think degree of difficulty has to factor in. Being over on the main roster is leaps and bounds more impressive to me than getting Full Sail to like you. That probably won't be enough for Brock moving forward, but it's enough when I find the other stuff for American Alpha a bit lacking.

I have no doubt in my mind that if this match happened, I'd come away from it more impressed with what Mastiff brought to the table.