anarchistxx

Watching right now, and Jake's speech moved me to tears. If parts of that were monologues in a movie he'd be up for an oscar, no doubt about it. Very redemptive and powerful.

Sting costing Undertaker the streak? Can't see what the 'surprise' would be other than Taker losing.

Maybe in the long run, but right now Wrestlemania is still going to do a few hundred thousand buys, and that isn't a negligible amount of money to the WWE. The Rock is exactly the type of guy who could have an effect impulse buys from casual fans who don't subscribe to the network.

Half of the WWE roster these days comes from the indies. They are practically a feeder club for workers to learn their trade. I'm sure CM Punk and Daniel Bryan have made a lot of money for WWE, so they can't really complain about ROH or Dragon Gate using them for a temporary revenue boost. You could argue that it helps them in the long run.

You would think they would advertise The Rock in advance to pop the buyrate, unless they were unsure whether he would make it. Or maybe with the Network they aren't worried about traditional buys so much.

What is Wrestlemania Today and where can I watch it? Presumably the network?

03/06/94. Obviously an outstanding match, but certainly nowhere near my favorite All Japan list. I much preferred the matches Misawa had with Jumbo, and the lauded tags were way better, as well as stuff like Kobashi/Kikuchi vs Can Ams, and a ton of joshi matches from the same period.

Surely there is no way WWE lets David Benoit anywhere near their product? Even if he turns out to be an incredible performer, the negative connotations are far too great. I dread to think what angles TNA could come up with for him. From the snippets of the interview I saw he seemed to be very proud of his dad, smiling when the awful interviewer went on for what seemed like hours about how he wasn't hoodwinked into supporting Batista when he started watching the product, and instead rooted for the 'amazingly talented' guys like Eddie and Benoit.

Yeah, he does look a bit strange in "The Reality EraTM" as HHH keeps trying to shill it as. Which is strange, because Hogan has spent a lot of the last decade making shitty reality television shows.

This will unfortunately happen, and the crowd will shit on it. Nobody called Alexander Rusev and debuting this way is going to get over in 2014. He will steamroll a load of jobbers every week on Raw to a deathly silence (Michael Cole: "the crowd are hushed, they don't know what to make of this"), wrestle Kofi Kingston about ten times, and then start jobbing when they realise he isn't popular and can't talk. By the end of 2014 he will be wrestling as merely 'Rusev', and by 2015 he'll be a comedy character. Why do they insist on terrible vignettes everytime they debut someone?

Very serious. This isn't like The Rock vs Cena with a huge build. The only thing that is anything like a big, epic blow off to a long feud is Daniel Bryan vs HHH, a match that wasn't even meant to happen until a few weeks ago when the crowd and the loss of CM Punk forced them to change the plans. The show seems thrown together especially for a 30th Anniversary event where they should be pulling out all the stops and ending some long term feuds. Problem is, they don't have to end due to booking ineptitude. And Stephanie doesn't need to get physical comeuppance at all, although it would be a kind of shocking moment, given that she hasn't bumped on television in forever. Just HHH destroyed, a broken mess at ringside, Stephanie weeping by his side while Bryan holds the title aloft is enough for retribution.

The ending to Raw is a bit damaging for Daniel Bryan's Wrestlemania chances, with him cleaning house and looking good for once. Hopefully that is just another way they are working the fans to believe he won't win, the whole feud has been booked backwards, partly for those reasons and partly because of all the fuck ups. But tonight made me realize what a mess this card is. They are wasting Mysterio, Ziggler, Big E, Sheamus, Goldust, Cody, Henry and others in some boring throwaway battle royal when they could have actually built some decent feuds, and had some Wrestlemania moments. There are seven fucking matches booked for this show, that shows the lack of effort and thought that has gone into planning it. The attitude seems to be 'throw on a big Lesnar match, an Undertaker match, John Cena and a title match and the show will sell'. In comparison Wrestlemania XX has twelve matches. The last nine shows: XX: 12 XXI: 8 XXII: 11 XXIII: 8 XXIV: 9 XXV: 8 XXVI: 10 XXVII: 8 XXIX: 8 The shows with eight matches tended to have big, epic matches that went thirty minutes with special entrances, build up packages etc. There is no match on this show that can conceivably go half an hour without sucking, there is no epic blow off to a feud that deserves a lot of time and focus, there is no 'dream match' to focus the show on. How the fuck are they going to fill all the time?

HHH video package was hilarious. Re: The Chris Benoit/Daniel Bryan thing, the difference is that Chris Benoit was seen as the hard working, deserving guy who deserved his Wrestlemania moment, but was getting sidelined to portray the HHH/HBK feud the WWE wanted you to care about it. HBK was still seen as a conniving, whining politician backstage at that time. in 2014 Daniel Bryan is the current hard working, deserving guy who deserves his Wrestlemania moment, and Orton/Batista are the HHH/HBK of the situation, corporate guys who aren't nearly as popular or interesting as the booking tries to make you believe. So really the two situations are completely equatable - the internet getting behind the person they feel deserves it on merit, ranting against those who don't. The complaints weren't particularly about plot holes in 2004, more about the plot even existing when it should be a definitive one on one victory for Benoit, so it isn't really double standards. The biggest difference is the self awareness this time round; if 2004 was 2014 we'd have HHH giving promos about how Benoit wasn't good enough on the mic to be the top guy, how he didn't shift merchandise and wasn't considered a major player by the office. Instead it was unsaid.

Nothing a decent booking team can't solve. He isn't that over anyway, especially if he is around every week and loses the rub of being a special attraction. Look at the New Age Outlaws - got crazy pops when they came back once a year and ran through their routine, but now the novelty has worn off they are pretty effective as heels. Anyway, WWE has 'personalities' now apparently, so he can always act heel and get a few cheers, depending who he is facing. His character is so uninteresting as a face that it makes any feuds worthless.

If they are bringing RVD back full time they need to turn him heel. Him as a Paul Heyman guy along with Brock Lesnar challenging Daniel Bryan would be a ton of fun. He can also work with The Shield. Lesnar/RVD/Ryback vs The Shield would be awesome. RVD is stale and generic as a face. his best on on the mic and in the ring was as an arrogant heel during his first few months with the company.

Never knew this, makes Heyman look like some kind of 90s Dixie Carter. A company that never made a dime, bankrolled byrelatives, where the figurehead was pumping in tons of family money and had a prominent position on television and the booking team - sound familiar? Was ECW just a vanity project? Do we fail to see it as such because it was an enjoyable, innovative product? One thing is for sure, if Heyman had connections enough to secure $3.5 million off his relatives, there is surely not a lot of legitimacy in the idea that he would need or bother to store a few grand in his mattress. You might have ended up like a slightly bigger version of ROH, but I am sceptical Heyman would have wanted that. He seemed far too egotistical and ambitious in his aims to settle for a small regional company, he wanted to go all the way and take the big boys on.

If it was in a big enough, well connected metropolis and the card was stacked, they could get close. They could definitely draw around that number if they did Wrestlemania in the UK, at least 80,000 anyway. If The Rock and Brock Lesnar were working in marquee, never seen before matches they could probably do it.

They shouldn't turn Cody. He is fairly effective in the midcard as a white meat babyface - perfect guy in fact for the 'competetive squash' matches where the face becomes so close to causing an upset before being cut off. You don't seem to get many of those anymore, they don't really like to keep guys that level. Him as a heel is ridiculously boring.

Has Brie's relationship with DB even been akknowledged on television? I usually skip the divas stuff.

I'm not sure it does, really. They've been running the feud for months, there is lots of hatred there and a lot at stake in the actual match.

Sounds good on paper, but might be too much of a clusterfuck for a show like Wrestlemania which has usually been about clean, decisive finishes. How often do you see a big WM match with loads of run ins and intertwined storylines? They are usually worked fairly straight.

How do Los Matadores get the Wrestlemania payday/rub instead of Goldust/Cody? Shame that they might just be tossed into the battle royal after the year they have had, deserved a major feud. They could easily have run a midcard angle with The Real Americans, built up a bit of hate and heat and had a ten minute blowoff at the big show, writers are so lazy.

All this 'magically appears in a casket' stuff is about twenty years out of date. This match would be way better if they sold it as a personal war, with a sense of hatred - sorry, 'intense dislike' - about it.

They should keep them all face for now, all are really over, no need to rush it. There is months and maybe years of mileage down the line if they hold off and do the break up properly. Ambrose/Ziggler could be a decent little midcard feud if he does turn I suppose, and Ambrose/Rollins. They should go all the way make him into a really nasty creep if he does turn, threatening families, sneak attacks, sleazing over women, Ambrose is perfect for that role. That Lesnar EAT SLEEP BREAK THE STREAK VEST is amazing, they need to start selling those in WWE shop. This Undertaker thing is boring, crowd are starting to get restless. Surely they can think of more interesting ways to build his matches? Every year it is endless, long segments of creepy music and caskets and 'mystical' goings on, it looks frankly ludicrous when he is in there with someone like Brock Lesnar who seems like he can't believe the ridiculousness of what he is having to do for his $4 million a year.

Best night of in ring action all year? Three great matches already with an hour to go.