ROYAL RUMBLE 2016 POST SHOW

[Craig H]

By the way, it was so clear that HHH would be #30, but deep down, what I wanted more than anything else for #30, was to be shocked and hear this...

 

 

Followed by Seth making a shocking return ala John Cena. No way would that be remotely possible considering his injury, but if there was a chance for him to be ready to go, him coming back would have been bigger than Ambrose winning the WWE Title.

[Brian Fowler]

If you read this thread, you might get the idea that Dean Ambrose is the second coming of Jackie Gayda.

Holy shit guys, he's not that bad.

No, not quite that bad.

But then nobody was calling for her to win the world title either.

Fuck Dean Ambrose

[Stoychers]

I really enjoyed the show until the Rumble itself drew to a dull anti-climatic end. So many better ways to book that scenario. People can say, "it was logical" but the fact that the company is booking that story to begin with, in the way it has, speaks volumes for its lack of creativity and its desire to bring about change.

This. There are two camps here- the ones saying this was the most logical choice, which I believe. The other- how do you get to this spot that this is the most logical choice? which I also believe to be true. Most of WWE's wrestlers are really, really good and they put on a great show with little help from the storylines. This rumble sets up another year of booking that goes like this:

Did we have any Daniel Bryan chants? No? Check.

How were the reactions for Roman? Well, tepid, but not too many boos and he got a decent pop when he first came out.

WE'RE MAKING PROGRESS!

I agree. The thing with Reigns/HHH is the tug-o-war between Reigns and the Authority is title related & that the Authority want their chosen champion. This in itself is a problem because everytime a babyface holds the title = Authority must end this~! So all we get month to month is Daniel Bryan/Roman Reigns style burying against perceived insurmountable odds. They need to pull away from that but they've been doing this heel authority schtick for so long in different forms. That's the major detraction imo.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

 

Total bullshit that Triple H wn though.How wants to see him as Champion? 

 

Well, there are cats here who will tell you all about how HHH winning is the logical progression in the storyline. Then they'll tell you all about how great HHH is in the ring and how we're sure to get a Mania classic. 

 

And to me that's all a moot point because fuck HHH. I don't care if everyone from Dave Meltzer to Krone Meltzer gives HHH-Reigns 5 stars, because fuck HHH. Since people keep talking football in here, I'll make a football analogy. HHH is the Patriots. I don't wanna see the Patriots go to Super Bowl and get their comeuppance; I want the Patriots to go 2-14 for the next decade. I want them to go the fuck away. I don't wanna marvel at HHH's technical brilliance as worker any more than I wanna marvel at the proficiency of a Tom Brady-led offense. He could be the greatest worker ever but he's a shit character. 

 

I blew through my likes, but this post deserves something more than a mere like anyway. 

 

 

[MonteCarl]

Something else to consider. After WrestleMania, Roman Reigns is likely to be a three time WWE Champion within the space of about 8 months. Him winning and losing and winning the title that many times in such a short span does nothing for his or the title's credibility and is very late WCW-esque booking of the company's top prize.

[The Natural]

Kevin Owens was the show's MVP followed by AJ Styles.

[The Nature Boy]

 

If you read this thread, you might get the idea that Dean Ambrose is the second coming of Jackie Gayda.

Holy shit guys, he's not that bad.

No, not quite that bad.

But then nobody was calling for her to win the world title either.

Fuck Dean Ambrose

 

 

Except that Dean routinely gets some of the loudest reactions of the show and people are into watching stuff. He's miles ahead of Roman Reigns in the "get fans to buy into you" department. 

 

Since the fans like watching his stuff, are entertained and routinely cheer for him then he is doing his job effectively. I was cheering for Dean to win last night because we need an over babyface champion, I've almost forgotten what that feels like. 

[Brian Fowler]

If you read this thread, you might get the idea that Dean Ambrose is the second coming of Jackie Gayda.

Holy shit guys, he's not that bad.

No, not quite that bad.

But then nobody was calling for her to win the world title either.

Fuck Dean Ambrose

Except that Dean routinely gets some of the loudest reactions of the show and people are into watching stuff. He's miles ahead of Roman Reigns in the "get fans to buy into you" department.

Since the fans like watching his stuff, are entertained and routinely cheer for him then he is doing his job effectively. I was cheering for Dean to win last night because we need an over babyface champion, I've almost forgotten what that feels like.

I'm well aware that he's over. Didn't change the fact that his matches and promos are fucking awful.

I'm much much happier with Triple H winning, personally, speaking only for myself, etc. Fuck Dean Ambrose.

[Mr Harms]

The things is though, where do they go from here? After all this screwing, why on earth would triple H give reigns a title shot? For a guy who's supposed to be hated by the authority, he sure does get a lot of title shots.

And we've had a couple of tournaments recently, they can't go that route again. Well, they can, but it'd be fairly boring/repetitive, especially if reigns overcomes the odds AGAIN. So, yeah, it'll happen.

[The Nature Boy]

 

 

 

If you read this thread, you might get the idea that Dean Ambrose is the second coming of Jackie Gayda.

Holy shit guys, he's not that bad.

No, not quite that bad.

But then nobody was calling for her to win the world title either.

Fuck Dean Ambrose

Except that Dean routinely gets some of the loudest reactions of the show and people are into watching stuff. He's miles ahead of Roman Reigns in the "get fans to buy into you" department.

Since the fans like watching his stuff, are entertained and routinely cheer for him then he is doing his job effectively. I was cheering for Dean to win last night because we need an over babyface champion, I've almost forgotten what that feels like.

I'm well aware that he's over. Didn't change the fact that his matches and promos are fucking awful.

I'm much much happier with Triple H winning, personally, speaking only for myself, etc. Fuck Dean Ambrose.

 

 

Triple H winning was second only to Roman Reigns in worst possible outcomes for the Rumble to me. 

 

I like Ambrose, I think he's effective in and out of the ring. Did he dumb his style down for WWE? Sure. But he knows his audience and tailors his style accordingly. He's over as a result of that. 

 

 

The things is though, where do they go from here? After all this screwing, why on earth would triple H give reigns a title shot? For a guy who's supposed to be hated by the authority, he sure does get a lot of title shots.

And we've had a couple of tournaments recently, they can't go that route again. Well, they can, but it'd be fairly boring/repetitive, especially if reigns overcomes the odds AGAIN. So, yeah, it'll happen.

 

This is a problem. The booking is just so repetitive. They had so many options last night that could've made things interesting. Even putting the belt on AJ Styles in his debut would've been more interesting than the garbage that we got.

 

I'm just so over this Roman Reigns love fest of a push. It's been a total bomb but they still want to shove it down our throat. If I were booking WWE, I'd swap Roman and Dean easily. Dean is actually an over face.

[Brian Fowler]

Contractually obligated rematch.

[Craig H]

The things is though, where do they go from here? After all this screwing, why on earth would triple H give reigns a title shot? For a guy who's supposed to be hated by the authority, he sure does get a lot of title shots.

And we've had a couple of tournaments recently, they can't go that route again. Well, they can, but it'd be fairly boring/repetitive, especially if reigns overcomes the odds AGAIN. So, yeah, it'll happen.

 

Well that's the problem with the Authority in general. As an idea, it makes no sense. They have the ability to just fire him and make him a curtain jerker, and yet, he's given tons of opportunities. They'll likely stack the deck against Roman at Fastlane and if Roman wins, he can challenge for the title. I wouldn't be at all shocked if it was Roman vs Brock or Roman vs Ambrose at Fastlane. Because why not give the guy you don't like at all, and don't want challenging for the title, even more opportunities to challenge for the title.

[Jrag]

Rumble was booked well, but yeah.. who cares?  

 

The AJ debut was great because of the placement.  I was preparing for 10 minutes of Reigns throwing out mid carders after the quick Rusev out and the BAM.  I liked the way they played that off.

 

So many giants in this match and only a few of them can work.  Strowman is so awful.  It's pretty clear he doesn't understand WHY he is no selling.  He tried to treat Brock's offense like he was your average mid carder while also landing the weakest offense of his own.  Paid a price for it, though.  Holy hell.  I wouldn't be surprised if Brock flat out refuses to continue on with this feud and they just completely do a 180 before WM.

[joseph2112]

RE: Holy shit guys, he's not that bad.

 

Don't spoil the "everything is either BEST or WORST of all times" gimmick, please.

[Burgundy LaRue]

While I doubt they go this route, they could have Ambrose take offense to HHH's machinations.  Hunter helped Rollins become champ, and is tangling it up with Reigns right now.  In other words, HHH sees something in the other two Shield members that's worth fighting/fighting for.  But Ambrose?  Nothing but a grease stain fit to be wiped off the table.  So if he's ignored so HHH and Roman can scrap, wouldn't that upset Ambrose?  He is this year's Rumble runner-up, after all.  That could be the catalyst to cause friction between Roman and Dean.

 

 

I don't dislike Ambrose.  I think when inspired, he's capable of being wildly entertaining.  I thought his work in the Shield was wonderful and it really did look like he was going to be the early break-out star of the three, though it was obvious they had bigger future plans for Reigns and Rollins.  I think the Owens feud has been good, but Owens can probably make a rock look legit.

 

But while Reigns has gotten much better in the ring and Rollins brings some good stuff to the table, Ambrose has regressed.  He was unpredictable and wild in the Shield, but never goofy-crazy.  The dude has jumped out of giant gift boxes, sprayed other guys with mustard, and nearly got fried by an exploding TV.  Just wacky garbage and while I don't blame him for the questionable booking, I don't feel that he tries to go beyond it.  With Reigns/Rollins, they seem to want to rise above the mess given to them and as such, they come off decently while in the ring.  Not so with Ambrose.

 

They really hurt Ambrose by not fully concluding either of his feuds with Rollins, IMO.  They had Ambrose go off to do the 12 Rounds movie, which lost him time.  All that has worked against him and again, it's not his fault.  But if he didn't go full-on wack-a-doo with it, he would come across better for me.  He could easily be the most terrifying guy on the roster, because you have NO idea what he'll do but he's really matter-of-fact in that off the cuff behavior.  Instead, he's the drug-addled-twitching neighbor you try to avoid when you see him scrounging through the dumpster.  That's great for Piranesi's booking, but not much else.

 

Again, I think it'd take about a month as champ for Ambrose supporters to realize that he's really not as good as they think he is.

[Patrick B.]

 

The things is though, where do they go from here? After all this screwing, why on earth would triple H give reigns a title shot? For a guy who's supposed to be hated by the authority, he sure does get a lot of title shots.

And we've had a couple of tournaments recently, they can't go that route again. Well, they can, but it'd be fairly boring/repetitive, especially if reigns overcomes the odds AGAIN. So, yeah, it'll happen.

 

Well that's the problem with the Authority in general. As an idea, it makes no sense. They have the ability to just fire him and make him a curtain jerker, and yet, he's given tons of opportunities. They'll likely stack the deck against Roman at Fastlane and if Roman wins, he can challenge for the title. I wouldn't be at all shocked if it was Roman vs Brock or Roman vs Ambrose at Fastlane. Because why not give the guy you don't like at all, and don't want challenging for the title, even more opportunities to challenge for the title.

 

 

The old standby explanations from the Austin days:  Vince didn't fire him(most of the time) because he made him money.  The opportunities were some level of evil manipulative control:  Dangling the carrot for false hope, only to yank it away.

 

Doesn't make it any more enjoyable, but that's pretty much it.

 

A friend of mine noticed that Kalisto was deliberately emulating Rey's spots on a few occasions tonight (the most noticable being the chest-first sliding bump out of the ring).

[Craig H]

That shit doesn't fly in 2016. It didn't fly in 2015, or 2014 or even 2013 either. 

[JCM]

They had the set up there to get Roman a face reaction. Have the League actually do their job and eliminate Roman after their attack. You go to pull the same shit on Ambrose at the end, and Roman comes down and wrecks shit helping Ambrose win. That furthers HHH vs Roman it gets Roman a face pop, and you can take the belt off Ambrose at Fastlane if you have to have HHH vs Roman be for the belt. Ambrose doesn't even have to win just have Roman comes out and fight off the League of Nations to give Ambrose a one on one shot with HHH.

 

I find it amusing that a big Cena mark dislikes someone for having shitty offense and goofy promos.

[stro]

 

If you read this thread, you might get the idea that Dean Ambrose is the second coming of Jackie Gayda.

Holy shit guys, he's not that bad.

No, not quite that bad.

But then nobody was calling for her to win the world title either.

Fuck Dean Ambrose

 

But he has such great psychology! 

 

[Craig H]

And Strowman is that bad. I hated nearly everything with him being involved in the Rumble. From how ridiculous he looks, how stiff he moves, and how he has no concept for selling, he's awful. It's like watching a more mobile Great Khali. Everything about Strowman is aggravating and I'm surprised people actually want to see him go 10 minutes with Brock unless people want to see Brock beat the shit out of Strowman for 10 minutes and make Strowman change his mind about being a wrestler because that's the only reason I would want to see that.

 

In fact, everything about Brock vs the Wyatts is the same old shit we've seen from the Wyatts in the past. Bray Wyatt is Dr. Claw adjace for how much he fucking fails at everything despite being an evil mega-villain. The Wyatts will once again bite off more than they can chew and Brock will wind up beating Bray. Not only that, but for all the people that complain about how ridiculous Brock vs Punk, Brock vs Daniel Bryan, Brock vs Ambrose, or Brock vs anyone that doesn't have the size Brock has, Bray is a more realistic person for Brock to face? This greasy fat man is more of a threat than anyone else? I await the comparisons to Roy Nelson with how Bray's gut and beard will absorb the damage from Brock.

[pipGofern]

But while Reigns has gotten much better in the ring and Rollins brings some good stuff to the table, Ambrose has regressed.  He was unpredictable and wild in the Shield, but never goofy-crazy.  The dude has jumped out of giant gift boxes, sprayed other guys with mustard, and nearly got fried by an exploding TV.  Just wacky garbage and while I don't blame him for the questionable booking, I don't feel that he tries to go beyond it.  With Reigns/Rollins, they seem to want to rise above the mess given to them and as such, they come off decently while in the ring.  Not so with Ambrose.

 

I pretty much echo your thought on Ambrose. I was out after he spent 10 minutes beating up a crash test dummy to utter silence. Pillman was Scary Insane goofy while (with apologies to Fowler) Ambrose is more Looney Tunes goofy. Until/Unless they let him be more Pillmanesque, he's closer to comedy midcarder than serious main eventer.

 

Besides, people are really being unfair to Roman. I dunno where this "Ambrose has all the talent/potential, Roman has very little" meme started but it's far too simplistic. A lot of folks disliking him now probably thought he was a cool badass in the Shield. If Roman was booked correctly, he might not be the next Rock/Cena but he'd definitely be a legit main event guy. There is *something* there.

 

Also, I'm not trying to be contrary but I just don't see these riotous reactions for Ambrose everybody keeps referring to. I say again, if I didn't watch every week, the reactions in the opener would've led me to think Owens was the face. Even Cole pointed out the repeated "Fight! Owens! Fight!" chants. I didn't hear any "Wacky Line! Wacky Line!" ones.

[JCM]

I think we're all missing the most hilarious/terrible part of the entire show: Dean's rebound lariat was officially named THE WACKY LINE.

That sounds like something Dean snorted before the show.

[Jrag]

The only way they could have set up a worse Mania feud for Brock was if the Big Show took him out.  Seriously.  Vince has wasted SOOO much of both of Brock's stints in the company having him fight big guys who have no realistic shot.  I don't understand it.

[Trocar Slush Weasel]

 

Am I the only one that thought that Brock wasn't supposed to get eliminated when he did?

Well having those 3 guys gang up on him would probably be the only way to get Brock out of the match against his will short of pulling a shotgun on him (although I'm pretty sure Brock would just pull a Bugs Bunny and tie the shotgun barrel in a knot)

 

 

I meant that it almost looked like Brock's hands slipped off the rope.  Like he was gonna save himself and go back in.  Which, btw, leads to the absolute worst thing about Battle Royals in general.  The ol' throw the opponent over the top rope and walk away while they just hang on and get back in the ring bit.  It's the "Bond Villain trying to kill Bond and it not working" of the WWE.

[Dog]

 

I find it amusing that a big Cena mark dislikes someone for having shitty offense and goofy promos.

 

The thing that gets me is that all the bad things said about Ambrose could be retroactively applied to early-rising "Stone Cold." He's regressed, offense is terrible, weird promos, he connects with the fans but I don't care ....

 

I mean, those were all things I was saying about Austin at the time. And yet it worked out pretty well for them.