Elimination Chamber

[JRGoldman]

Part of me thinks this finish was just so they can compare the number of tweets saying 'I won't watch ever again' to the number of people who get the network. It's like a focus group that's paying Vince to troll them repeatedly.

[Brian Fowler]

 

 

The EC match was better than I thought it would be.  Holy shit at Cesaro's suplex of Cena and Bryan during that AA attempt, shame he had be eliminated in such an undignified fashion.  I'm assuming they're going to build a program between he and Sheamus next and I won't mind seeing them bomb the fuck out of eachother for 10 minutes as they've had great chemistry so far.

 

Undignified?  Having an absolutely amazing exchange with the top star in the business is an undignified way to go out of a main event match?

[cubbymark]

The Minneapolis crowd was a little ADD in the opener. Swagger got a LOT of face pops with his "We The People" shtick against Big E, to the point that for some it was getting uncomfortable for some of the people on Twitter I was following. But it was a really good opener.

 

The Ice Age Outlaws bored me to tears in 1999, and in 2014 are even worse.

 

Shield/Wyatts was amazing. Seth Rollins landing on his feet off the top rope German attempt into the flurry leading up to the tope was amazing. The finish was a little bit flat/anti-climactic,as Bray still has work to do in-ring. But it's one of my top matches of the year so far.

 

The Divas match died the death it deserved to die.

 

ADR/Boo-tista was all about the crowd amusing themselves. But in contrast to Swagger/Big E, Minneapolis rallied behind a Mexican. ADR doing the beat-down was cool and he really tried his damndest to get something out of Batista.

 

The Chamber was pretty good, but you knew what the finish was going to be once Kane interjected. The crowd really let into Randy when he locked himself in the pod, and Sheamus' Brogue Kick through the plexiglass was awesome. Didn't care for the Wyatts interfering and eliminating Cena. 

 

At this point, either Bootista gets hurt before Mania or Bryan gets in to make it a triple threat. 

[cubbymark]

 

what the fuck is wrong with this company

 

 

It's same basic reason why Fox has been trotting Joe Buck out there for years despite him being almost universally loathed...what're you gonna do, not watch the World Series or Super Bowl?

 

 

I haven't, not only because Buck is awful but the match ups were of absolutely no interest to me.

[JohnnyJ]

So many great things in Wyatt's/Shield and the chamber. Need to watch those matches again. Really seems like they've put together a roster of super workers.

And then there's Batista. Unfortunately for the WWE, the fans have grown accustomed to a certain level of athleticism/action. Trotting out a muscled up guy who can barely work and telling the fans how great he is isn't going to cut it.

The chamber match booking was what it was. They kind of booked themselves into w corner. They were set on Orton/Batista for the title, bray/Cena and Bryan/Authority. It wasn't pretty or satisfying but they got where they wanted to go.

[Matt D]

How great was it that the obligatory live toy commercial turned into a slightly more dignified sketch from SABATO GIGANTE?

 

Dude, come on, this is the time for you to go on about Dean Ambrose's facial expressions first as Harper was stepping on his head and then when he was in the temple massage of doom from Rowan and he was doing the lizard tongue to sell it.

 

This is your stage. This is your spotlight. Have at it.

[Cobra Commander]

did you all really expect the Usos to win the belts after they went over the Outlaws 3-4 times in a row?

[Brian Fowler]

Oh, I didn't mention the great little bit early in the six man when the Shield were doing the quick tags all old school like.  Hit a move, tag, set up a move, get out for the next guy to hit a move.  It was a great small piece in a great match.

[piranesi]

I'm not sure what they think there is for us to root for about Dave?  Like, he was supposed to be slick and cool...but then he showed up dressed like Sporty Spice and was just kind of a generic shit-talker with no cleverness.

 

Without that, there's nothing.  He's not likable or anything.  And he's not actually scary enough to be like Brock. 

 

I look at him and see a skinnier Tensai personality.

[Hagan]

 

Also, for real, they're not doing Kane/Bryan at 'Mania. It's either Bryan in a three-way or he gets Helmsley and wins and then gets the belt a few months down the line, even if it's only for a few months. This really isn't bad booking. It's delayed gratification. They're basically acknowleding on TV he's the biggest babyface in the company. This is like RVD's quest to win the ECW title. However, it's very possible the end result will be similar.

I don't think WWE is going out of business in the next 12 months.

 

 

Very true. The issue is that delaying the payoff is a tricky thing. I mean, shit...they kept Sting away from the belt for over a year when th nWo were just destroying every babyface in the world. BTW - that is an example of a company dispiriting its fanbase. However, they got the huge payoff with Starrcade being their biggest event of all time. Now, they botched that, but everything up until the match was perfect.

 

I dunno, we live in a world where being a world champion really doesn't mean much. I mean, shit...Daniel Bryan is a 3 time heavyweight champion and fans still feel like he's being booked as a jobber. The company used to do a great job at building up to a title win. I mean, I would imagine boards like this would have flipped out when Austin was heating up, and they went with Sid and UT for the strap and put Bret and Austin in the undercard. Some people think Austin should have won it in the Fatal Fourway. Instead, they waited and built it up for an entire year and he got the belt and the company took off.

 

Shawn was clearly the best wrestler in the world in '95, but he had to wait a year before winning the belt.

 

Again, not saying that this'll turn out well but shit, what if they pull this out to SummerSlam and Bryan gets the belt there by beating Batista or Lesnar or whomever and they talk about the 'year-long Odyssey' and show the epic video package that makes it all look like a master narrative? Isn't there a very real chance that Bryan is never a over as he is now the second he gets an extended run? I mean, shit, everyone on the Internet kinda got over Punk's title run when it hit like the eighth month.

[cubbymark]

Oh, I didn't mention the great little bit early in the six man when the Shield were doing the quick tags all old school like.  Hit a move, tag, set up a move, get out for the next guy to hit a move.  It was a great small piece in a great match.

In part because they were doing it on Luke Harper. It felt oddly similar to Demolition vs Andre the Giant/Giant Baba from the Tokyo Dome, perhaps because I saw it last night it was fresh in my memory. The premise being that while Demolition/Shield are no slouches, they were facing a much bigger dude in Andre/Harper, thus anything he did to them was going to be that much more effective. 

[piranesi]

 

How great was it that the obligatory live toy commercial turned into a slightly more dignified sketch from SABATO GIGANTE?

 

Dude, come on, this is the time for you to go on about Dean Ambrose's facial expressions first as Harper was stepping on his head and then when he was in the temple massage of doom from Rowan and he was doing the lizard tongue to sell it.

 

This is your stage. This is your spotlight. Have at it.

 

 

I was too outraged the announcers failed to talk up the mechanics of the duel between Rowan's forearm strength and the structural integrity and malleability of Dean's forehead flesh.

 

JBL should have had to PSI numbers to throw out or something.

[Peck]

Guys, everything is fine.

 

Tonight we learned that Bad News Barrett's podium is slowly morphing into the final set from  $10,000 PYRAMID.  I think that's because Betty White touched it.

 

 

Damn. Now that theme song is in my head.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSPGe_vGcBM

[LooseCannon]

Can they salvage Batista if they treat Bo Dallas in NXT as template or is he just too limited in the ring to make that work?

[NintendoLogic]

Can they salvage Batista if they treat Bo Dallas in NXT as template or is he just too limited in the ring to make that work?

 

Isn't Bo Dallas even worse in the ring?

[Niners Fan in CT]

I hadn't seen a live crowd react to Del Rio in months. It's scary how over he was all because everyone wants Bootista to go away.

[SirSmUgly]

I also want to say that I like Big E's offense making sense. There were a lot of little things on this show that made my favorite matches work for me. First up was Big E's relentless targeting of Swagger's ribs with spears and shoulderblocks that led straight to the Big Ending.

 

Second was Seth Rollins surreptitiously pulling Luke Harper back into the corner by his shirt corner as Harper tried to fire out past Dean Ambrose. The ref never had a chance to see it.

 

Third was Christian wrestling logically with stick-and-move offense and trying to steal pinfalls at every opportunity, which fit in with his "desperate vet" persona quite nicely. 

[TheVileOne]

I told you, they're building Kane vs. Bryan for WrestleMania.

 

I look forward to the Batista/Orton disaster.

[Brian Fowler]

Thing is, Big Dave was fine to good in the ring before walking away years ago.

 

He's just in such terrible ring shape right now.  He needs a shit ton of ring time, maybe down at the performance center, so that he can make it through a 15 minute match without either blowing up, or needing a beat down with a crutch at the start to explain why he isn't doing anything.

[Matt D]

Look I like Bryan as much as the next guy and on some level I'm not even sure it's a bad move since he DOES have to look tough relative to his size, nor is it something that always happens every match, but really, does it bug anyone else that Bryan drops his limb selling as much as he does? It's not RVD level or anything, but it was definitely in effect tonight, which again, given the nature of the chamber wouldn't be a big deal EXCEPT for that a) he was taped up, which meant that it was really goofy when the tape was DANGLING under his arm and he was just hitting all his shit and b> Christian did such an amazing job of decimating his shoulder when he first entered out of the pod. 

[Casey]

what if they're giving away 'Mania for basically $10 because they know the card is going to blow a bag of dicks?

 

[thee Reverend Axl Future]

Barrett had the big crowd at the corporate sports bar I viewed the PPV at eating out of his hands by the third promo. It was a sight to see, and I dug it.

good news for once,

RAF

[Craig H]

I just figured out how Big Dave can salvage this return: he needs to play his character like Channing Tatum in 21 Jump Street.

Of fuck, Batista is the Channing Tatum of the WWE.

[piranesi]

Barrett had the big crowd at the corporate sports bar I viewed the PPV at eating out of his hands by the third promo. It was a sight to see, and I dug it.

good news for once,

RAF

 

 

He should have been back at the end:

 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I've got some BAD NE...wait...what just happened?  You know what, I think maybe I'll save this for another time.  Maybe give you a little space.  I mean, I do have bad news, and normally I gleefully deliver it but yeah I'm not an asshole and it's nothing that we can't get to in a few days.  Hmmm.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I've got a suggestion.  Go home and curl up with some Häagen-Dazs and just text me when you're feeling up to talking."

[Fallacy!]

The interesting thing about the WWE's current main event scene is that the answer to this fan apathy is right in front of them.

It's not a "this whole thing blows" heat, it's a "give us what we want" heat. WWE has teased us with all these young talented guys they have like Bryan/Shield/Wyatt's/Cesaro and plenty more that are being sparingly used, but they then seemingly expect people to be okay with the, for lack of a better term, "same old shit" like Batista/Orton/Cena in the main event.