Loss

I don't really follow MMA, but I will say I'm surprised we haven't seen guys go for a second career in WWE more regularly when their time is up, especially those who are said to have a knack for showmanship.

Out-of-the-box idea for Brock: Would Mayweather be willing to do another Wrestlemania?

The only options I see are Kevin Owens and Bray Wyatt and I admit neither of those is very compelling, in the case of Owens mainly because he hasn't been booked as an invincible force. Daniel Bryan returning would be the ideal, but I don't expect that either. So even realizing they have nowhere really to go after Wrestlemania, they may have to go with Reigns now for lack of better options.

I'll ask this. If Brock puts over Roman at WM32, what does he do after that? They still have him for a year (or maybe two, I don't remember).

I think he meant an HHH win over someone, not necessarily Reigns.

If the match can mean more in a year than it will this year, that would be the reason. Roman with a year of successful title defenses beating the most credible guy in the company at least seems like it would mean more than that match a few months from now.

So those people existing is enough reason to not even try anything? Is the goal of booking to do something good or just to make sure those types are happy? People who don't get that wrestling is supposed to be manipulative and filled with good booking, and are some how offended when it is? Let the train keep moving, I say. Sunday-Monday is Exhibit A that a lot of things people thought weren't possible anymore in the current landscape are still very much possible with the right performers, creative and attention to detail.

Complete wishful thinking that I don't expect, but I'd like to see some Sasha Banks conflict set up with The Authority fairly soon to lead to a match at Wrestlemania with Stephanie to get her over strong as the new face of the division. The other option would be Charlotte vs Sasha, with Sting in Sasha's corner to offset Ric Flair who can interfere for the next several months.

I actually wouldn't even mind them holding off Brock-Roman for WM33, provided they were able to get Roman Reigns so red hot by then that there wouldn't be resentment over him beating Brock. That would require him to have a suitable opponent in the meantime though, and HHH is not really that guy, at least not for Wrestlemania. The reason I am fine with them postponing Brock-Roman as long as possible is that after Brock does his first real job since ending the streak, I feel like he's going to take a hit in terms of his value. He'll still be valuable, but it will take something out of him. So the longer they can put that match off -- time also allows them to heat Roman Reigns up significantly -- the better.

With Cena-Reigns, I was thinking less 50/50 and more fans walking out during the main event or turning their backs, similar to what was threatened for Orton/Batista two years ago.

I think Reigns should face Cena for the most part, although the crowd reaction to such a match in front of a hardcore audience is good enough reason to save that for another time. Reigns-Brock II has more potential to not blow up, but they need to add something in the build to guarantee people that they'll get a winner and loser this time around.

Also, they flipped the script in 24 hours. I never want to hear anyone say they can't change how someone is perceived again.

No short memory at all. But I'll give them credit for fixing one of their biggest current problems since Sunday evening. They almost made it look easy, which makes it baffling that it took so long to fix. But yes. They still have a roster full of midcarders. They still have bad announcing. They still script their promos. It wasn't a cure-all. But they finally got the guy they've spent nearly two years trying to get over as their top babyface over the hump. That's an accomplishment worth talking about. The rest of the issues will still be there later for us to talk about.

Seriously, a little over 24 hours ago, a pay-per-view main event started between Roman Reigns and Sheamus with chants for John Cena. There's so much to learn about what they have pulled off since last night. I will also add that I think the ESPN plug was an intentional attempt to draw a good overrun number. They made the title change as obvious as possible to viewers at home so they'd stick with the show 'till the end. One thing Dave said at one point was that they were sticking with the Reigns push almost as a philosophical matter, because they had to be able to control (read: manipulate) their audience. The last day, where Reigns ended up winning the title to a huge pop in the same city where the backlash started, proves that wrestling fans can still be worked. And thank God for that.

Vince was tremendous at ringside getting all of those nearfalls over. He can largely be credited with the atypical heat, because he was selling the hell out of the consequences at ringside.

I like what I've seen of Dash and Dawson, but I don't hear too much talk of them, good or bad.

If he can still go, why does it matter unless you're planning to have sex with him?

If they are still trying to copy what they did with Daniel Bryan, I suspect they may be thinking they can manufacture some outrage by having him purposely left out of the Royal Rumble.

Only somewhat on topic, but do wrestlers realize how bad they look when their ponytail sort of loosens up but doesn't all the way during a match? Or someone like Jack Swagger, who usually looks electrocuted within two minutes of the bell?

This is in so many ways the most fascinating feud in wrestling to me. Silas would have been the clear babyface at one point in history, Dalton the clear heel. It's booked like an 80s feud, but the roles are reversed because we live in a different time.

Ok I do get on the back end how it comes across that way, and working so much comedy into the match went against the personal nature of the feud and makes it seem like less of a big deal in hindsight. But it was their first meeting in WCW and had been hyped for months, with Hogan getting a ridiculous amount of heat on poor Macho Man.

Jim Ross and Gene Okerlund I think were both technically better at what they were supposed to be doing, but I always appreciated how Tony Schiavone never really became a wrestling character the way those two did. I like David Crockett because he seemed so in tune with JCP fans. The stuff that excited him the most was the same stuff that seemed to excite fans the most. I remember watching some '84 Mid Atlantic and watching him get really primed because they had some updates coming on Starrcade '84, which if I was a local fan would be exactly the type of thing I'd be excited about.

Here's something I'd love to get a timeline on. At what point was it that Vince really fell in love with Mark Calloway and the Undertaker gimmick beyond just how he liked someone like Razor Ramon or whoever? Was there a turning point, I wonder? The easy answer is that Undertaker stuck around when so many of his top stars left for WCW, but it seems like he already saw him as special long before that.