Loss

There are a lot of leaps here. I don't know what's going on and the idea of a guaranteed title change for Saudi Arabians seems silly and my gut tells me it isn't true. That said, the idea of presenting Roman Reigns this way when they want(ed?) him to replace John Cena as top guy seems even sillier.

I am not sure even Alex Jones can explain what's going on with Roman. Roman Reigns as WWE's Harold Crick will make for a frustratingly wonderful angle in the most Russoific way. You see, wrestling is fake and Roman Reigns was supposed to win the match on Sunday. No one would look at him before the match happened, and then when they got in the ring, Brock Lesnar started shooting on him to keep the title. He was baffled at first, then saw WWE announcing that Brock has resigned. He thinks it was a quid pro quo. Don't be concerned, though. The same boss that ordered his part-time seven-figure wrestler to shoot on Roman Reigns to avoid going with the planned finish has booked him in a rematch in a few weeks where he'll book him to win, and Lesnar will cooperate then. Or something.

I don't think the Luger comparison is completely apt, given that Reigns has gone over both Triple H and The Undertaker clean in the previous two WM main events. He also had Lesnar beat at WM 31 before the Rollins cash in. Not being able to win the big one isn't the issue. I'll grant you that Roman has been made to look like shit during the build and during the match this time round though. That wasn't exactly the reason I compared them. This is what I said. "Reigns has been compared to Luger in a way that I never thought was fair to either of them. Now I see it. In WCW, Lex always came up short when facing the biggest star in the company, often had best match on PPVs and still had a rep of being overrated darling of those in power."

Despite being given chance after chance, Nakamura has not performed at the level he really needs to if he's going to be the champion. I don't think it matters that he can't really do promos since he has so much charisma, but I do think that since he can't, he needs to bring it in the ring in a way he just hasn't. He's coasted his way through WWE for the most part.

Would a screwjob have been better? No, but a pinfall would have. The time to do the countout or DQ is on TV with someone like Alexa or Carmela. My point was that they still had more fuel left in that tank before they emptied it.

If Lars Sullivan was on the main roster, there would be a pretty obvious direction there.

I would say Nia Jax if she hadn't just turned. I'm sure that will happen at some point, but now isn't the time. Becky would be a good choice just in that she's really good at carrying people and getting things over the right way. Yes, no one would expect her to win, but she'd make Rousey look great.

I think Braun could work short-term, but he's a tough one long-term because he can't really get over his challengers to hype matches. How do you convince people that he might lose?

If it was me, I'd have a talking segment involving the GMs and champions or something -- something to get Bryan and Brock in the same ring. Words get heated and Heyman overloads Brock with his mouth, setting up an impromptu match with both Bryan and Brock in street clothes that Bryan wins in about 3 minutes with a quick rollup. Give people their moment, then quickly get the belt to someone else. I don't think Bryan should be the guy they build around as champ for any length of time at this point (although I do think he should be in a great spot), but I think that's the best way to end the Brock run and buy them a little time.

I had this hilariously awful idea of WWE paying Holly Holm millions to do a clean job.

Luger was better than he was given credit for. I still agree Roman is better. However, my point was more about his positioning coming out of all of this.

To me, he's 1991 Lex Luger now. They might have had something had they seen the push through in the first place, but now it's too late to matter.

They have waited too long to just pull the trigger on Roman Reigns with a long run as champion. He's not The Guy anymore, if he ever was in the first place. He can't be. Reigns lost to the guy who has been booked as superior to him at every turn on the same show that another guy he has been pushed for the last year as "retiring" last year came back, a huge UFC draw had her first match to set up her place at the top of the company, and the beloved guy to whom he was unnecessarily compared returned after a long absence. Every single person in the opening match has beaten him cleanly in high profile matches, two of them on pay-per-view. He's done. Beating him hasn't made him sympathetic or won anyone over. Beating him has just beaten him, again and again.

I have no problems with Asuka losing. The bigger issue to me is that she submitted. A streak ending on a finish so decisive seems overdone.

Battle royals never are until maybe the last few minutes when only a few are left.

I could see some of his old standbys, like "All women secretly hate each other", not going so well.

I wish they'd go the Pentagon Jr. route and give Asuka subtitles because when she speaks Japanese, her delivery is awesome.

The good thing about turning Reigns is that if that's really what they're doing (and I'm suspicious) is that I can't see Shane turning on Bryan the same night.

The key is to continue to give WWE hundreds or thousands of dollars while doing this.

He didn't wrestle in small venues in Indiana in front of 25 people for IWA-MS for free because Ian didn't pay him nor did he do an extensive New Japan tour that consisted of him having Meltzer six star matches against Kenny Omega and Juice Robinson? They don't like that he was pushed to the top over Daniel Bryan, even though time has shown that Reigns was a better choice if nothing else for his health. I think WWE has finally learned that if you want your babyfaces to be over, you don't put the fans in a position to choose between that babyface and Daniel Bryan. Sheamus, Batista, and Reigns. They're idiots because they're booing Reigns instead of Vince and Hunter (yes, Hunter). It's symptomatic of a larger belief that Vince books solely based on his own personal tastes instead of what the audience wants. The truth is more complicated than I think either side wants to admit, though.

I'd probably go way higher on this than most just because I thought the psychology was so strong -- creative without being cute. Talk about a way to get a badass over as a badass by selling. ****1/4

Seeing a guys lips move and knowing he is calling a spot happens all the time in wrestling and nothing you can do about that with cameras around. But could you hear it on the tv ? It's a big reason why so many wrestlers used to have long hair. It helped disguise/hide their moving lips when they were communicating in the ring. Part of the reason it seems so much worse now than it used to is that WWE keeps making guys get haircuts. Sounds silly, but it's true. I always assumed it was because the visual of the hair flipping made everything look good.

This show kicked my ass. One of the greatest experiences I've ever had as a wrestling fan. Great stuff. If I was in New Orleans, I would feel the need to fly home now because how do you top that?

I figured Rollins would be the first opponent for Reigns after he had that marathon performance earlier in the year where he beat Reigns and Cena. But I know Reigns-Joe is on the house show lineup, for whatever that's worth.

It still makes my head spin a little that at the time they brought in Warrior to be the ambassador, they were bringing him into that role where he'd be replacing Mick Foley. Foley is far from perfect, but it's hard to see that as anything but a downgrade.