Fastlane III

[JohnnyJ]

That main event really brought back memories of WCW for me. What is the logic of Jericho trying to distract Owens into losing? Owens and Jericho are facing each other at mania. Wouldn't Jericho want it to be for the title?

 

[Sublime]

This was the first full main-roster show, ppv or tv, I've watched since TLC, and wow did I pick the wrong one. Neville/Gentleman Jack was wonderful, and Joe/Sami was decent but what the hell was the rest of this. The whole booking of the Women is head scratching and makes Bayley look terrible and not at all what her character is supposed to be, she is the 100% do the right thing babyface but this is how they book her title reign? And for what to help keep Charlotte strong? Charlotte has become the female Roman at this point. 

And Roman shrugging off Braun's beatdown to win with a spear. all that build up to make a multi-time world champ look better and the crowd reacted with........silence. That's a good sign going into Wrestlemania.

The show was so frustrating and poorly booked that the New Day segment was probably the third best thing on the show which is a terrible sign of quality.

[Firebreaker Chip]

Did the crowd pop for Goldberg winning? I feel like even if I was favourably disposed to him I'd smell a bit of a rat at another ~1 minute main event that people paid money for

[Spritenaut 32]

I feel dumb for thinking the WWE could maybe figure out how to book Bayley properly.  

I feel like you could give a monkey the book and he'd figure out how to make fistfuls of money off Bayley.  So i should have known creative would have no idea what to do with her.  

Monkey > creative.  Yeah....

[MarcosLoura]

39 minutes ago, Firebreaker Chip said:

Did the crowd pop for Goldberg winning? I feel like even if I was favourably disposed to him I'd smell a bit of a rat at another ~1 minute main event that people paid money for

I personally don't a give a flying fuck about Goldberg, I didn't grow up watching the Attitude Era/Monday Night Wars and Goldberg was never a dude that was good enough in the ring to make go back watch his stuff like I did with Austin, Rock, etc, but the dude is OVER.

He's over with "Oh man that's Goldberg from 1999 when wrestling was awesome and not this PG crap!" dudes and with little 11 year old Timmy that loves big muscly dudes who look like bad asses and are booked like bad asses.

And yeah if I was running a promotion I would never have a 50 year old has-been part-timer going to my biggest show of the year as a World Champion™ because that's a terrible idea in the long run, but clearly Vince doesn't care about long term stuff so he's gonna run said 50 year old Goldberg until the wheels come off.

[Casey]

52 minutes ago, JohnnyJ said:

That main event really brought back memories of WCW for me. What is the logic of Jericho trying to distract Owens into losing? Owens and Jericho are facing each other at mania. Wouldn't Jericho want it to be for the title?

 

It's not a confirmed match like Goldberg/Lesnar is. They could easily be placed into a six man ladder match for the US title instead of a singles match.

[MonteCarl]

Here's something I found interesting. I watched the show until 9 and then my wife and kid made me turn on The Walking Dead. While The Walking Dead was on I had the show playing on my phone, and here's what I noticed. Sasha and Nia ended right before The Walking Dead started. Then we get to the dead zone of Jinder Mahal and then the squash with Big Show and Rusev. Then the Cruiserweight match. Follow that up with that ridiculous New Day promo. And then Braun and Roman's match started right when The Walking Dead ended. I'm not saying that it was booked specifically with all that needless filler (outside of the Cruiserweight match, but we know how they feel about them) exactly when The Walking Dead was on, but it was kind of interesting that's how the timing of the show panned out.

[Raziel]

This show, and the Mania card, highlights the glaring problem with WWE today.

 

At no point, are we to believe anyone on the full time roster not named John Cena is an actual star, and the only people that matter are guys that were top of the card 15 years ago.

 

Eventually these big guys aren't going to be able to go, or Goldberg will have to work longer than 90 seconds, and Vince is going to be SOL because no one on the roster really matters.  If they did, they wouldn't be pushed down in favor of Attitude Era guys come WrestleMania season.

[Ace]

5 hours ago, CreativeControl said:

I popped for the whacky inflatable Roman's

I thought that was the peak until the finish came outta nowhere.

 

[Dolfan in NYC]

Also, what the fuck was the point of Foley dressing down Samoa Joe before the women's match.  

Why are you putting the gun on the table if you're not going to shoot someone with it?  Jesus, people, storytelling isn't this hard. 

[JonnyLaw]

3 hours ago, steve said:

I can't imagine how people watched Goldberg smash Lesnar and even entertained the thought KO would get more than that.

There was a report from Meltzer about a month back posted either here or on Twitter that said the plan was for KO to get squashed.  With that as the given, the KO/Goldberg match was booked perfectly.

1 hour ago, JohnnyJ said:

That main event really brought back memories of WCW for me. What is the logic of Jericho trying to distract Owens into losing? Owens and Jericho are facing each other at mania. Wouldn't Jericho want it to be for the title?

 

Aside from the previously mentioned fact that the match hasn't been announced, I get your point.  I mean when has revenge for the sake of revenge ever been sound logic in professional wrestling?

[Victator]

7 hours ago, Go2Sleep said:

and the screwjob is way more associated with the Survivor Series name than Sid's title win.

Well no shit.

Survivor Series was still treated like one of the biggest shows of the year before 97, it only became marginalized in the early 00's.

[bink_winkleman]

33 minutes ago, Raziel403 said:

This show, and the Mania card, highlights the glaring problem with WWE today.

 

At no point, are we to believe anyone on the full time roster not named John Cena is an actual star, and the only people that matter are guys that were top of the card 15 years ago.

 

Eventually these big guys aren't going to be able to go, or Goldberg will have to work longer than 90 seconds, and Vince is going to be SOL because no one on the roster really matters.  If they did, they wouldn't be pushed down in favor of Attitude Era guys come WrestleMania season.

In Vince's head, though, he won't be SOL because Roman will be so huge.

I was grateful for at least the slight bit of interference from Jericho in the main. You had to know what was gonna happen, assuming you were in denial, when it was nearly end time and the main hadn't started yet.

I'm more dreading Roman/Lesnar than anything to do with Mania. Besides, Goldberg is so thin skinned that if any crowd turns on him, it should lead to some pretty funny drama.

[RIPPA]

3 minutes ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Also, what the fuck was the point of Foley dressing down Samoa Joe before the women's match.  

Why are you putting the gun on the table if you're not going to shoot someone with it?  Jesus, people, storytelling isn't this hard. 

Because the story was that Foley took away the McMahon approved reason to fuck up the Main Event but didn't take care of Jericho so it gets to be the thing that Steph yells at him about tomorrow.

I mean - she doesn't really need the ammunition since all she has to do is look at his match-making ability

[Victator]

1 hour ago, Firebreaker Chip said:

Did the crowd pop for Goldberg winning? I feel like even if I was favourably disposed to him I'd smell a bit of a rat at another ~1 minute main event that people paid money for

Bruce Pritchard told a story about when Warrior was pinning Andre at house shows in seconds. Big pop at first and then they slowly got angry at the main event being stolen. 

[RIPPA]

Booked for RAW - Neville vs. Rich Swann for the title

[Charlie M.]

I think they're trying to do a bit of a Sting/Luger thing with Bayley and Sasha but neither are good enough actors to pull it off as effectively.

[Dolfan in NYC]

26 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Because the story was that Foley took away the McMahon approved reason to fuck up the Main Event but didn't take care of Jericho so it gets to be the thing that Steph yells at him about tomorrow.

I mean - she doesn't really need the ammunition since all she has to do is look at his match-making ability

Funny how the two matches she specifically told him to have go 'without a hitch' are the two that had interference in them.  

He's basically dead tonight.   My only question is if she fires him outright or makes him fight Strowman first. 

[Craig H]

I can't even think much about the matches I did like because the booking was fucking horrendous. I think back to WrestleMania last year, which at the time was probably the most poorly booked show I could think, and last night topped that. I wish I knew what their thought process was for throwing the following out of the fucking window:

• Nia Jax's unbeaten streak thingy
• Braun never being pinned or submitted
• Charlotte never losing on PPV
• Undertaker causing Roman to lose or Braun to win

And then there's all of the bizarre decisions that happened, like Braun going for a splash or diving headbutt, Bayley being cool about Sasha interfering on her behalf, etc.

I think the three things that bothered me the most is that Braun lost and lost clean. THEY DIDN'T EVEN LET THE MOTHERFUCKER GET ANY HEAT BACK! WHAT THE FUCK! Following that would be looking at Goldberg looking OLD AS FUUUUUUCK. HOLY SHIT! He looks so fucking old and tired. I saw elderly people look less tired doing their morning mall walks when I used to work at the mall. Don't get me wrong, I wish I could look like his body, but his face says "I just want a cup of earl grey tea, hot, and my second nap of the day."

What bothered me the absolute most was how they've turned Bayley into a heel. She's a heel. She's more of a heel than Charlotte is. AND THIS FUCKING SHIT HAPPENS CONSTANTLY ON THE MAIN ROSTER, but it should NEVER happen with Bayley. Twice now, Sasha has interfered to help Bayley win and twice Bayley has been fucking cool about it. What the fuck is going on here? I can't even fucking comprehend the booking of Bayley and this match. They've killed Bayley. Dead. Everything that made her unique and charming is dead. I don't give a flying fuck if it was explained that Bayley wasn't aware. How could she not be aware?!? Sasha was dumped on the outside 8 to 10 feet away from where Bayley was on the floor. And she sure as shit was aware by the time Raw Talk happened.

I just...I just don't fucking get it. This company can't help itself from killing the golden goose. Hell, they have an entire cemetery filled with golden geese and Katie Vick's body.

[Victator]

7 minutes ago, Craig H said:

• Nia Jax's unbeaten streak thingy
• Braun never being pinned or submitted
• Charlotte never losing on PPV
• Undertaker causing Roman to lose or Braun to win

Nia has lost on TV, multile times if NXT counts. Nobody cared about Charlotte's ppv streak. 

Having Braun lose at this stage to a guy like Reigns is unforgivable, this company is hopeless. They are lucky they saved their money from the boom, because if they had to survive on their current merits they would be TNA.

[nofuture]

16 minutes ago, Charlie M. said:

I think they're trying to do a bit of a Sting/Luger thing with Bayley and Sasha but neither are good enough actors to pull it off as effectively.

Sasha should be slowly corrupting Bayley but I don't think the WWE/the writers/etc are nuanced enough to pull it off.

[sydneybrown]

40 minutes ago, Victator said:

Bruce Pritchard told a story about when Warrior was pinning Andre at house shows in seconds. Big pop at first and then they slowly got angry at the main event being stolen. 

I've seen 10 minute Warrior/Andre matches.  Those two were doing the crowds a favor by ending their matches as soon as possible.

[Craig H]

Just now, Victator said:

Nia has lost on TV, multile times if NXT counts. Nobody cared about Charlotte's ppv streak. 

Having Braun lose at this stage to a guy like Reigns is unforgivable, this company is hopeless. They are lucky they saved their money from the boom, because if they had to survive on their current merits they would be TNA.

Not on PPV, apparently because they couldn't help themselves from pointing that out. And if no one cared about Charlotte's PPV streak then they wouldn't have constantly brought that up too and fans wouldn't look to Bayley ending Charlotte's streak at WrestleMania since Bayley won the title on a nothing Raw. Hell, it's a main part of Charlotte's gimmick that she doesn't lose on PPV.

The Braun shit is just...Fuck. What the fuck! A couple weeks ago I pointed out how eerily similar Braun's trajectory was to Ryback's, and then Ryback lost that first match and never recovered. I simply can't fucking trust this company that they'll be able to push Braun forward after the loss and that Braun will be fine. I just can't. There's simply far more evidence that they'll just see that they guy can suffer a loss and look ok, so they make him lose again and see that he still looks kinda ok, so then they have his lose again and by this point he's a fucking loser so no sweat of their back if they have him job again. It's like a fucking addiction to these assholes. They take that first hit and they're ok so they go back again, and again, and again.

[Kyuubi]

So that Adrian Nelville vs Gallagher was awesome if nothing else.

Also Samoa Joe and Sami was great.

So yeah, fuck the Wrestlemania this year.

[Craig H]

3 minutes ago, nofuture said:

Sasha should be slowly corrupting Bayley but I don't think the WWE/the writers/etc are nuanced enough to pull it off.

That's almost how I looked at it. From a different perspective, you can look at this as Bayley already being corrupted. For that character, it's like she didn't want to go through the same struggles she did in NXT, so she was ok with Sasha helping her win the title. Now she's champion and she's forgotten all about who she really is and she just wants to cling so hard to being champion and being cool, so much so she is fine with Sasha helping her retain the title. Sure, she celebrates like a face and doesn't talk shit, but she prances around with that fucking title ignoring that she didn't win it clean and that she didn't retain it clean.

Troma pointed out that Bayley is female Eugene. No. She's female Bo Dallas.