Timbo Slice

Yeah, I think I was a bit to gung ho about thinking they could run every month. I do think they should take the specials on the road, though.

Per Enzo Amore's Instagram, it looks like CJ Parker has left the company.

Also, that crowd was terrible.

Yeah, Trips truly booked the show to make a lot of "his guys" look great. Lucha Dragons, Neville, Rollins. Then bury guys like Reigns, Saxton, Sting on the post-show, etc. It's definitely within the realm of possibility. EDIT: That almost reads sarcastic, but it's not. This was almost a throwaway show from a booking perspective outside of catering to the "Smart" fans wants.

What the hell is happening in the final hour with all those audio drop ins?

Also, quite possibly the only time in the podcast's history that a moose was mentioned that many times.

45 minutes in and Kris is winning, especially with the whole "Starts with an A" jump-in.

I was totally impressed with Reigns tonight. I was dreading the booking throughout until Rollins came out, and then it was like all was forgiven and it made what I had seen that much more appealing. He never really had to win me over, per se, but the booking made it hard to be 100% behind him. I hope it changes, as it looks like Rollins/Reigns should be their main at WM 32, if not there, at SummerSlam. All the matches delivered in some way, which is all I really ask. Between this, Evolve 40 and WWNLive, I saw three pretty dang good shows this weekend, two of them live. Even though all three had flaws, none of the flaws were so bad that the show wasn't enjoyable overall.

Eh, Monty Python was a bunch of surrealists. You had to be prepared for anything.

I totally understand the question Loss is presenting and I'm not trying to patronize him. You build to the match for two months, gotta have a winner, and neither guy wins. Considering how every other major show has been booked, there's plenty of precedent for this backfiring. Problem was that in the specific instances that were mentioned, the fact that the third guy got involved or it got changed the way it did was receive poorly was the main reason why people were down on it. It's a causation/correlation thing. One doesn't necessarily lead to the other, but when one happens, it's normally similarly received akin to the decision being good or bad. The ethics in the decisions made were WAY more poor than the ones used to make this decision. If anything, the decision was made only when Brock re-signed, which would make plenty of sense. The switcheroo with Goldberg was completely unethical. The decision on Bryan/Orton was short-sighted and questionable in its ethics, as well. This, however, was a main event that was dying on the vine coming in, and I think it was almost necessitated by what happened coming in. The reason why people look to the two you mentioned was because there was money in a Goldberg rematch and it was thrown away due to ego. The reason people hated the Bryan thing was because people thought Bryan deserved a run and it would have been worth money to see him as champ. Yet when he was thrown in the main event picture at WM, that money definitely came in to see it happen, so I'd even say that specific PPV wasn't nearly as egregious as the Fingerpoke of Doom. I'd be in total agreement with Loss if more people were clamoring for a Brock/Lesnar straight-up match. But fans were turning on this and were expecting for it to be a complete dud. It's the opposite scenario of the others that have been mentioned. Ethically, this was actually the right move considering what people thought of the match coming in.

I think you're overestimating the amount of fans who wanted to see that. The majority of fans wanted to see Brock eviscerate Roman, didn't want to see a competitive match, etc. Considering the options, Reigns going over like he did would have killed a lot of what Brock did dead where he stood considering how that match was laid out.

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.