Timbo Slice

Where did they lie about what matches were going to be on the card?

The matches you mentioned were matches fans wanted to see. This wasn't exactly a match fans were clamoring for. If during the build it was obvious people were excited for the match, that finish wouldn't have happened.

So if Orton isn't a good opponent and Reigns isn't a good opponent and Brock is a part-timer and blah, blah, blah...what do you do next?

Now you can legitimately have Reigns/Brock headline WrestleMania 32 with a year of build for Reigns and it might actually work this time.

Sticking to their guns. Roman Reigns being crowned the champion, taking advantage of the one mistake, the one weak moment/lucky strike to put Brock down. The spear was the perfect moment to do it. Seemed like they built a flawless match up to that moment where they had finally got Reigns over as a credible, deserving, authentic champion after an all out war where he proved himself, and then changed directions once again. The whole booking is fucking ADD, and has been for years. Too much chasing hashtags and not enough definitive, concrete angles with compelling stories and emphatic conclusions. Fans were TOTALLY buying Reigns after that spear. You're right. Totally. The boos spoke to that.

See, Parv's speaking my language.

Authority wasn't out to celebrate with Rollins. If anything, him doing it on his own means he's out on his own. Let's not assume Authority involvement here. And I'm curious as to what everyone thinks was the better alternative. Brock winning outright would have been fine, sure, but then you've definitely wasted Reigns and now the backlash is on wasting a guy who could definitely still be a top guy. With the way this was booked, because they were booked into a corner, it's the best possible scenario.

Correct.

This is all the stuff WWNLive is showing this weekend: http://wwnlive.com/upcoming.html I will be at Evolve 40 and the Mercury Rising shows.

Four Way: Usos Divas: Bellas Ladder: Bryan, and I would expect this to open the show and let the fans get it out of them because that seems to be the way they've tried to deal with Bryan's overness. Battle Royal: Sheamus returns and wins. US Title: Cena clean as a sheet, sadly. Orton/Rollins: Orton when the Authority screws over Rollins, leading to later in the night. Taker/Bray: Taker. Feel like this will be it for him. Bray's dead where he stands anyways. Sting/HHH: Sting, but only after a five-minute staredown. Brock/Reigns: Brock wins, but Reigns gives him a good run. Backstage, Rollins and Ambrose had been talking, leading to them coming down through the crowd. They jump Brock, OOOOAHHHH Triple Powerbomb, Rollins cashes in.

EricR and I were discussing the idea of Cobb and Thatcher having a rematch because that's what the tourney should build to based on the hype alone, but Thatcher does have a pretty heavy schedule that weekend. You'd hope they'd run that match as the final, but at the same time, the logistics might be a bit off.

I actually disagree on the Benoit point because I don't think Benoit was ever as over as much as Bryan had been for the year-plus leading into him winning the title at Mania. Benoit was booked strongly because he still had momentum after the Radicalz stuff and he did get over, but I don't think it was to the extent that Bryan was. I understand the comparison, but Bryan had legs whereas Benoit's impact I think was a bit inflated by the smart fans at the time.

I also still think the play is a turn by Rollins because if he cashes in after the Main Event, the only thing he could possibly be is a face. I still like the Authority messing things up for him with Orton, which leads to him going rogue and cashing in.

That really makes me cringe. That's now going to be four out of five years that you use a part-timer in a main event role.

If they actually let Sting cut logical promos, I'd be more interested in the match. He's gonna bring his working boots just because, but I don't have high hopes there. The main is going to be the best trainwreck ever. But Cena vs. Rusev could go down as Cena's best WM ever just because. I really hope they put Rusev over, but who knows with this company anymore. And that's not a good thing.

KrisZ actually brought up an awesome point where Rusev could retain, Brock could retain, but you build to Reigns/Rusev probably at SummerSlam where Reigns winning actually means something. Of course, Cena winning the belt is looking like what will happen because he'll still draw if they're trying to make the U.S. title mean something again. But what do you do with Rusev now?

I was one of the guys that was arguing for the touring brand, but I don't see them as a weekly touring brand. The max I said was the PPV weekends and the specials. Good points were raised, though. I don't know who thought them touring 52 weeks a year was a good idea, but specializing events or piggybacking PPVs is about as big as they could get without stretching the brand.

I don't see how Roman can win right now. They haven't done much at all in making him look like a legit threat to Brock and Brock is doing his normal negotiation tactics to ensure he gets the best possible contract for himself, which means all signs point to him retaining. The problem now becomes about what you do with Roman, and right now, hanging him with Big Show or Kane helps nobody. He's in a pretty bad spot.

Robert Rodriguez considering what Lucha Underground has looked like.

That's more how they were booked, though. At that time, being a part of a tag team was just something you did. It wasn't really specialized. It's a little bit less like that right now, obviously, but one of the reasons they booked the way they did was that you could do a lot more by having featured tag teams on top to build to the big singles matches.

The Kikuchi/Kobashi tag is a strong feather in their caps, but I'm not sure if they have enough to make a list like this in the end, and I LOVE both of these guys. The one thing they have going for them is that they're a really strong heel team in an era that wasn't big on native heel teams, which made them unique. They'll be on the edge, but I'll consider them.

They're gonna make my list without a doubt. The evolution of them from a spotty tag team to one of the best storytelling duos in wrestling is fun to watch. Not sure where, but they'll be on it for sure.

Damn, this has been a really good week for podcasts.

ECW had higher production costs, was running the same buildings the RAW and SmackDown! tours were, similarly priced talent, etc. Everything from a numbers standpoint shows that you can do a tour with NXT at a fraction of the cost and if done correctly, can be profitable. That's what they're trying to figure out now.

Sean, if people were paying $60 on the regular to see ROH shows, they wouldn't be going to Sinclair asking for budget increases. Maybe for PPVs they can charge that, and that's four times a year for 1k-2k houses. If WWE knows they can get that, NXT would be on tour the day after WrestleMania. As it stands right now, they don't even know what they're booking for next week's show outside of Bill Simmons on commentary and something with Snoop Dogg, so I doubt they're that far ahead.