cm funk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlMwc1c0HRQ

Ok, Rusev (who's only been in the company for a year and is a relative newcomer) elevates who with his first loss? Kevin Owens (which actually would be awesome, but I digress), Samoa Joe? Sami Zayn? Rusev's undefeated streak has been limping along for a while now IMO. I honestly think it was time to just end it. Nobody was going to be elevated by being the first guy to tap or pin him unless we're talking someone like a Samoa Joe. Nobody on the current roster works in that role. If you have a great idea of who it should be pitch it to me, I'd love to hear it And Parv is 100% right, Cena is still the #1 dude and he certainly couldn't lose to Rusev at WM here......not after all the jobs he's been doing.......and not with the USA v. Russia buildup. WWE still wants to make money ya know, and Cena is the cash cow

I'm not. This is what pro rasslin has always done NWA title matches ended in time limit draws. WWWF matches ended in countouts or DQs? Why? Because the people wanted to see the finish........and you string them along to get them to the next show THIS IS HOW PRO WRESTLING HAS ALWAYS DONE THIS Roman Reigns v. Brock Lesnar pt. II is now THAT MUCH BIGGER MORE EYEBALLS. MORE MONEY

Well, Meltz actually says that this was maybe the best WrestleMania of all time… I think it might be my favorite, at least of the last 20 years.......and I am rarely in agreement with Meltzer on these things........but I thought that was a fantastic show beginning to end and booked beautifully (and as some have noted, I expect Pat Patterson and Paul Heyman had big influence on it) whether or not WWE can take what they did at that show and build and sustain from it.......eh........we'll see.......that's why we keep watching

I always enjoy EL-P's takes on things (never change bro) but seriously......if you can't understand how huge that Rock/Rousey deal was and can't recognize how crazy hot the crowd was for it (it got so loud it literally seemed like the arena was shaking at one point).........you're way out of touch man. You live in France or something, and you're not an MMA fan, I get it. Ronda Rousey is a HUGE MMA superstar......the biggest right now. The Rock is the biggest "BLOCKBUSTER" action movie star. American media is all over this shit. This is big time stuff. You like Brock tho, do you even understand why Brock is so hot right now? And why the "will he or won't he" and showing up at the last UFC show with Dana White and showing up on ESPN and announcing he wasn't going back to UFC was such a big f'n deal? And how much ESPN coverage WWE has been getting? I suppose living in Europe and not being an MMA (or WWE for that matter) fan you wouldn't get it, but trust me, this was big time

*pshwww* nobody here actually pays attention to RAW

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. I suggest you rewatch the match....the crowd was digging Reigns when he was getting beat down but not staying down.....but when he went on big offense the majority were booing him.....and cheering when Lesnar kicked out of his stuff Crowd would have shit on Reigns winning.....no matter how much respect Reigns earned being standing toe to toe with Brock in the match.....Reigns actually beating him would have sent it down the crapper........and if you don't see that then you just aren't in tune with the WWE audience my friend. It's a process to get Reigns where he needs to be right now. WWE wizened up and have been booking accordingly (it's my feeling Heyman has a LOT to do with the change in Reigns' booking of late). Tonight was a great step in advancing Roman Reigns. Putting the belt on him would have taken all the work they've done to rehab him from the negative reactions and utterly ruined it

Really? I thought it was a masterclass. Maybe Pat Patterson was in town for more than just a shout out. Think about it. 1. Outcome 1, Reigns wins. Fans say: the company are pushing their man, Bryan, Bryan, wah, wah. 2. Outcome 2, Lesnar wins. Fans say: the title is on a guy who only works three dates a year, wah, wah. 3. Outcome 3, Rollins wins after Lesnar and Reigns have a great match, sense of injustice for Reigns who is now a "great worker" in the fans eyes, sense of injustice for Brock (now a face too) after he lost the title without getting pinned. Plus Orton is another challenger. "Lazy"? I don't think so. The lazy thing to do would have been to give the strap back to Bryan. THANK YOU

Ok, I had to stop here because I've been reading enough of this thread and it's driving me crazy This was the perfect finish and perfect booking Reigns and Brock will have another match at some point, with a "real finish" but Reigns going over and being champ wasn't the right finish right now, and we all know it. He looked great in that match and it did wonders for him, he earned respect and will be infinitely more over and accepted now......but beating Brock for the belt.....no. With Brock around on limited dates for 3 more years.....the way he's been built up? NO. Wrong place wrong time (as Heyman said in a promo during the build) Brock winning? Then what? This way.......Reigns is chasing Rollins and the title.....his old Shield buddy who stole his moment of glory. And Randy Orton....who hates Seth and beat him earlier in the show and never got his title rematch after losing at WM last year (where Batista tapped, which was brought up in promos)......he should be first in line for a title shot. And then there's Brock...........who already had issues with Seth......who probably earned a bit of respect for Roman but still wants to f'n murder him.......and Orton who he's never crossed paths with in WWE So that's 4 guys in the title picture and a bunch of fresh matchups......with the awesome opportunistic sleazy heel champ and 3 great challengers. I think all 4 of them got more over via the booking of this......Lesnar is gonna be a bigger face than he already was......Reigns earned his stripes.....and Orton (love him or hate him) is Orton and he's always over and great in these roles (though not according to the PWO experts) Also, anyone who thinks Rusev should have beat Cena......wtf are you smoking?!? This loss doesn't hurt Rusev at all. Saving his win streak for Roman Reigns at SS when Reigns wasn't even that over and Rusev/Lana were already getting cheered for being awesome........I seriously don't get where the fuck some of you come up with these failures of booking ideas. Cena as US champ is great, it's a perfect role for him at this point, and they can move on with some Rusev/Lana drama or have Rusev go on a rampage and just kill a bunch of people and he'll be fine. The undefeated streak lost it's luster already a long time ago And Taker/Wyatt.......Wyatt's character has been dead in the water for quite some time.....the idea of putting him over Taker because "elevate the new guyz" is just dumb. I like Wyatt a lot as a performer.......but a) his character sucks right now, he's not that over, c) it's retarded to bring Taker back to lose again when the whole idea is to show he's still got a bit left in his tank to build to his last match at WM in Texas Also, I thought Taker looked pretty darn good for a guy his age as banged up as he is who hasn't wrestled in a year. He did 'Old School', he did the apron legdrop.......he didn't look great but do any of these old dogs look vintage? His performance was perfect for the story and the crowd was digging it....and I think the crowd is a better barometer than some super critical hyper wrestling fans on the internet, no offense Anyway, I've got stuff to say about the rest of the show (almost all positive, because the show was great), but the criticism of the booking of those 3 matches was sticking in my craw.

Nash seemed pretty wino'd up there, but coherent HBK's "3 down, 2 to go" right at the end was pretty funny. I wonder when Waltman goes in, he deserves it.

Shawn giving the best introduction speech, lol

I'm so glad now that it's on the network they're back to letting everyone talk and ramble like the old ones. The micro-managed ones with great talkers cut short sucked

Larry really lost his train of thought and kept repeating himself, but he finished strong. Great end to that speech! Him and Rikishi both went really long, this thing is going to go 4+ hours

No way, that was f'n awesome

from Meltzer's daily update:

They're launching the Network in Japan, so something like this should help it somewhat

And he'll be inducted by Bruno. http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/larry-zbyszko-wrestlings-living-legend-to-enter-wwe-hall-of-fame-20150316 This is cool, but it doesn't really make sense. Bruno doesn't like to travel much, and he was never a big star in the bay area. I think it's ridiculous that Ray Stevens isn't going in......because if not this year then when? The guy is a legend in that part of the country, and his induction would get WWE all sorts of legit mainstream press. It would be in newspapers. It would be on tv. They should want that. I don't get it.

Powers of Pain should have had a run with the belts I also wouldn't have complained about Power & Glory getting them for a bit The Rockers are the obv one where it's kind of incredible they never got the titles. Around 90-91 they would have been super over as the underdog champs against some of the monster tag teams that were around

The obvious money programs with Reigns are a 3 way feud with Rollins and Ambrose, a Bryan rematch, Rusev, Cena and HHH himself But obviously they are going to put him with Show and Kane early on, because that's what they do

Heyman has been very open about the fact that he loves his current role and thinks he's having the best run of his career. He's said this on multiple podcasts. He has creative freedom and he doesn't have to stress about anything but his own stuff, and he's said repeatedly that he thinks about what he wants to say in a promo, presents it to them, and is very rarely told "you can't do/say that" and only gets minor tweaks in verbiage sometimes Also, he's also said repeatedly that if it wasn't for Brock he wouldn't have come back, and he's grateful for it, with not a hint of being dragged kicking or screaming. He seems very, very happy. And I also think he's in Brock's ear when it comes to everything, and whether or not he stays or goes Like others have said, this is a bizarre criticism on Brock and Heyman and looking for something that isn't there

I still enjoy 9. Part of that is that I had it on video as a kid taped from the PPV feed and watched it over and over and over I like the outdoor/Ceasar's Palace aspect. I think HBK/Tatanka and Steiners/Headshrinkers were really solid matches. I like the commentary on the show. I even like the Doink/Crush match. I've got to go with 99 or 00 which were enjoyable at the time but don't hold up at all to me. Some of the recent ones I'm not terribly high on either, and aside from certain matches and stuff a lot of them blend together to me

I think a big (and valid) reason for the 'de-push' of Bryan is the injury risk. And I can't blame WWE for not being confident that he's a guy they can run with longterm on top. That said, I've been slightly appalled and bothered by some of the stuff Bryan has been doing since he came back, coming off a potentially career ending neck/nerve injury. I was bothered before the injury how reckless he was with the dives and the flying headbutts.....and I really thought he'd wrestle differently when he came back. He's slightly modified his bumping and isn't as crazy reckless on his dives.....but he's still doing all those spots that led to the injury. And if WWE is more concerned with his health and longevity they should be stepping in and telling him not to do this stuff, because Bryan seems like his own worst enemy in that regard....

On the 2nd point, Vince was amazing at taking older guys and repackaging with cartoonish gimmicks and turning them into bigger stars and making more money for them and him than they ever did before. I feel like if he'd gotten his hands on Bruiser and Crusher in the mid 80's he would have done huge business with them by turning them into exaggerated over the top cartoon characters. Verne never had that kind of vision of stuff that could get over nationally, and to kids, and to people who didn't necessarily like wrestling As far as the westward rather than midwest expansion, I think KrisZ put it pretty well, that Verne had respect for the old territory system and didn't want to step on toes. He was a bit of a 'lone wolf' as someone said, as Vince Sr. was, but he still respected the territorial boundaries. He went into Denver, Salt Lake, Arizona etc. because nobody was really promoting in those places. He went into Cali because he'd already had a foothold in that area and saw LA and San Fran collapse and Shire and LeBell getting out of the business entirely, and probably had their blessing to step into the void that was there. Part of Verne's problem is that he just wasn't as cutthroat and ruthless as Vince was when it came to going national, because he had a lot of respect for the territorial system and the individual promoters involved. He was older, and had personal relationships with a lot of these promoters. Vince Jr. did not have that

Yeah, I would say that up to that point the Mountie was the weakest IC champ in history. I totally get why and how they did it, and I actually liked it (Bret has 105 degree fever, shouldn't be wrestling, but he's a fighting champ and refuses to not compete. Mountie loses belt to Piper in first defense, Piper wins first WWF belt, immediately offers Bret his rematch). It was a really great angle and a great WM match, and very different because titles didn't often change hands on house shows and babyface v babyface matches were rare. Mountie was just there in his role to further a bigger picture story And the stuff with Shawn and Marty was so great at the time, and arguably the hottest thing in the company, so it's hard to point to that IMO. In the new generation and attitude era days is when the belt really got devalued by how many title changes there were, how many chickenshit heel champs they'd have, and how little importance was placed on title compared to how it was treated in the 80's and early 90's. I liked Jeff Jarrett, but he never beat anyone clean, and they did false/disputed finishes with midcard babyfaces to set up rematches where he'd cheat to retain or re-win the title.....and it was around that time that the prestige of the belt really went in the crapper and it felt like a TV title, midcard title and not the almost on par with the WHC that it used to be

Well, they teamed for a while in WWE and had some pretty good chemistry......had some good matches.....so the comfort factor is there for Rey in his first match in what seems like 2 years. He's also worked with Perro Jr. before