Coffey

I agree plus Batista is just more fun as a heel. To me at least. His "spotlight" character right before he left was great & judging by RAW, it seems they're going that direction again. Batista also, from what I read, signed a 2-year deal. So that's not just a promote a movie & leave contract. Also, Randy Orton was clamoring forever to turn heel again last time he was babyface, so I can't imagine he'd be OK with turning face again so soon.

You're a helluva lot more optimistic than I am. I think the show closes with Taker beating Brock with a Tombstone. Bryan loses to a Pedigree to get time off & Orton/Batista goes on after HHH/Bryan with Batista winning the title.

There's a good chance Bryan gets pressed between thighs too since he wants time off for his wedding after Wrestlemania.

Bryan/HHH, Orton/Batista & Cena/Wyatt is not a card I want to see. At all. Not even a little bit.

It also helped that she was really cute and there's not a huge roster in NXT, so they see the same familiar faces every week.

I bet that's what ROH thought too.

I always thought in WWE Hulk Hogan would be a great Jack Tunney style authority figure. He's still a great talker, even if he's a parody at this point. I mean, authority figures are apparently a staple in WWE that is never going away now & I would rather have one all-powerful match-maker than having Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Vince McMahon, Kane, Vickie Guerrero & Brad Maddox all doing it... Plus, I mean, it's fucking Hulk Hogan. The man is the reason I started watching professional wrestling. I would much rather see Hulk Hogan on WWE Monday Night RAW calling everyone, including the Divas, "brother" than see him doing Comedy Central Celebrity Roads of David Hasselhoff, Midget wrestling on the redneck channel, being in TNA, or doing Rent-A-Center commercials with Troy Aikman. This man was on Johnny Carson, on the cover of Sports Illustrated, etc.

I'm curious how different the TV will become once the WWE Network launches. I mean, they're not really selling Pay-Per-Views anymore, they'll be selling the network. So does RAW just become a 3-hour commercial for the WWE Network every week? Do you think they'll start doing things like starting a match, or a best-of-series & then telling you to see the rest on the network? Things like that. I know the network is mostly older stuff & RAW and Smackdown will still be on TV but I gotta imagine that the PPV shows won't just cease to matter at all. I'm sure they'll matter less because they're cheaper but that mean that RAW will matter more? It'll be interesting.

Didn't Comcast just buy Time Warner Cable too? Like $45 billion or something crazy. I think it still has to be approved by the Federal Government but I haven't been keeping close tabs. It's going to be a crazy time for television, that's for sure. I imagine my cable bill will go up even higher, WWE is going to be switching stations & a lot of their stuff, thanks to the network, won't even be on TV! If it wasn't for sports, I'm not sure I would pay for TV anymore. Maybe this year will be the year where I can't justify it anymore when I already pay for internet too.

RAW was so awesome & fun tonight. I loved the show. Usually not a big fan of the current product lately but so glad I didn't miss the show tonight. Cesaro is a super star. Wyatts/Shield is hype shit too.

That would most definitely 100% backfire because they would know that Punk was told to say that shit. That's exact opposite of what Punk, for the most part, stands for. If anything, I think that would draw more attention to it & make it worse.

I think this part is definitely true. There is a bias, especially online (maybe not here) against certain style. And no match ever starts with each guy having a clean slate to impress. Wrestlers are definitely judged on past work & sometimes to their detriment. Sometimes guys get a rep for being a lot better than they are too (Kurt Angle comes to mind) and that also follows them over the years. For example, a guy like Viscera has to go above and beyond to even get people to notice. Every match he's in is basically starting at -1 stars to anyone that rates matches or cares to do that. Meanwhile, for a long time, it felt like guys like Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit or Rey Mysterio, Jr. started with +3 stars. So they can just do nothing and it would still be rated "eh, 3-stars, nothing special but it didn't suck." Meanwhile Big Vis would go out & bust his ass and it'd be "dud." The bigger wrestlers, that aren't Big Van Vader or Terry Gordy, definitely have to do more to stand out. It wasn't until just recently where people started to give Mark Henry credit. That's actually one of my favorite parts about this forum is that people judge things independently. I mean, you can usually guess if a match will be good or bad based on who is in it but it's not a 100% exact science. Sometimes great wrestlers have a bad night & sometimes bad wrestlers have a good night. I think the posters around here call people out, regardless of their résumé .

I was always pretty much of the belief that a highspot was just something off the top rope. Springboard or otherwise. I see no reason to change my definition of this term. Until right now at this very moment, I've never heard otherwise & I've been posting on the internet since the end of 1998.

Everyone knows that I'm a wrestling fan. Even the women I've been with, it came up pretty early in the topics of conversation. One of my exes gave me a lot of shit for it but always did so in a joking way, she didn't really care. Honestly, I think she liked that I was so passionate about something. She was into her stuff & I was into mine. In high school, which seems like forever ago now, I was known as "the wrestling guy" & for a long time even thought I was going to become a wrestler as a profession. That was during the height of the Monday Night Wars so it actually made me pretty popular. I went to high school from 1996-2000 & pretty much wore a wrestling shirt, usually ECW shirts, everyday of the week. Steve Austin & the nWo blew up & they were selling wrestling shirts even in the damn mall. I never pursued that profession as I was scared off by horror stories of injuries, scumbags & low pay, but I'm still a big wrestling fan & everyone, for the most part, that I come into contact with finds out pretty early. I just don't think it's a big deal. Going to live shows is fun, even for non-fans. Just like people that don't watch baseball might still enjoy going to Wrigley Field on a nice day (in example). And when I watch it on TV, it's no different, to me, than someone else making time in their schedule to watch any other program. On Monday, 8-11, I'm watching RAW. I've watched pro-wrestling since I was like five or six years old. I'm in my thirties now, it's a part of my life. It's just who I am. I don't hide who I am, or what I'm into, from anyone. They either accept me for who I am, or they're not in my life, ya know? I'm not going to lie to myself & others to attempt to garner acceptance from someone. I watch wrestling, I read comic books, I play video games. I worked in a nerd hobby shop for a few years, played Magic: The Gathering for almost 20 years & even qualified for the Pro Tour. I have nerdy tendencies. So what? Everyone has something that they're into. I post that shit still on my Facebook & Twitter. If someone doesn't like it or isn't into it, they can ignore it or de-friend me. I'm a big dude with a lot of self-confidence & don't really fear confrontation, so maybe that's why I have a different outlook, I'm not sure. It's just not something that was ever embarrassing to me. Maybe it's because I'm a big sports guy too? I used to play football & baseball. I'm still a big sports fan & follow along with that as well. So wrestling is just one of the "sports" that I follow along with, in addition to MLB, NFL, Notre Dame & NBA. I also grew up & still live in the Midwest though, which has always kind of been a hot bed for pro-wrestling, so I generally think it's more accepted around here anyway but even if it wasn't, I'm not overly concerned with what the fuck other people think about me.

Lita as a hall of famer just made me shake my head.

Shawn Michaels turning on Marty Jannetty on the Barbershop always comes to mind. Also when Randy Savage snapped & turned on Hogan & his "lustful eyes" that he had for Elizabeth...pretty much the angle that turned me into a fan. The Mega-Powers EXPLODE~!

but...but...but... I thought the card was "set in stone." Like many of us already speculated, WWE doesn't know what the fuck they're doing for Wrestlemania yet, let alone is the card "set in stone." Sure Punk taking off changed things but the vocal crowd couldn't have hurt! I just don't understand their logic sometimes.

There are quite a few forums name-dropped already that I've been banned from.

I'm O.K. with the new forum look but I hope more people start using avatars now or it's going to get super confusing really quickly for me!

Gotta remember, not all fans are the same. A crowd that you might find annoying, someone else might find fun & hilarious. It's a different time to be a wrestling fan. Growing up during Hulkamania, I didn't have social media & whatnot to read varying pro-wrestling opinions & neither did anyone else. I also didn't see ECW until 1998. Nowadays, because of the crowd, the RAW after Wrestlemania is genuinely my favorite show of the year. At least it has been for the past couple of years. I think it's hilarious when the crowds go "into business for themselves" or whatever the fuck we're calling it this week. Everyone has access to shows & can talk to other fans & whatnot nowadays. It spreads like wildfire. If WWE presents a product that the majority of the fans don't like, they're going to dump on it. They're just having a good time. They bought a ticket they can do what they want. WWE going to Toronto, Chicago or New York are really the only times I get excited for shows anymore, as far as cities are concerned. It's because I know the fans are passionate & aren't just going to sit on their hands all damn night.

Considering it was just a throwaway match that didn't mean anything on free TV, without any build whatsoever, I liked the Sheamus Vs. Curtis Axel match. Axel worked the shoulder of Sheamus, the commentators put over Sheamus having previous shoulder problems then the guy that's more established won with his finish clean in the middle. Need more matches like that.

What shows are you watching? Dude is a jobber. Just because he tells us he's good doesn't mean that he is. A WWE.com backstage promo where he just yells a lot doesn't make him good. Flying around like Mr. Perfect with springs in his boots doesn't either. He just isn't very good. Not a great promo, not a great worker. Kind of boring to be honest. Hell of an athlete though. He's exactly where he should be on the card, in my opinion. He's more like a Billy Gunn than a Shawn Michaels. Why should WWE use Dolph over say, Cesaro? To me, Dolph is in that category with The Miz, Curtis Axel & Kofi Kingston. The "I don't give a fuck & wish I could fast-forward live TV" category. I would love to see Loss or someone else talk about his punches. Does he have a thread in the Microscope?

Oh man, Punk in NJPW would be so much fun. In order of my mouth watering: 1. C.M. Punk Vs. Katsuyori Shibata 2. C.M. Punk Vs. Minoru Suzuki 3. C.M. Punk Vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 4. C.M. Punk Vs. Kazuchika Okada 5. C.M. Punk Vs. Togi Makabe 6. C.M. Punk Vs. Tomohiro Ishii 7. C.M. Punk Vs. Hirooki Goto 8. C.M. Punk Vs. Tetsuya Naito All of those matches, to me, would be awesome. A Punk run in New Japan would be great.

I agree with this. Inside though, I can't help but feel like he's going to win the U.S. title from Ambrose & no one will give a shit while he takes a backseat to Brock, Batista, Cena, Orton, Undertaker, Triple H, etc. I mean, I don't think anyone really cares about Dean Ambrose in the WWE Universe. I don't think anyone really cares about the U.S. title. I don't think anyone really cares about this title run that Ambrose has had with the U.S. title. I had to actually look up who he even won the damn thing from. So will they care when a guy that doesn't matter with a belt that doesn't matter has his reign that didn't matter ended by a guy that should be Superman? It's not like the U.S. title in 2014 is on equal footing with the Intercontinental Title from 1985, you know? Of course, the same fans that I'm probably undervaluing went crazy when Alex Riley turned on The Miz. I've definitely been wrong before. I do think Ambrose is damn good, I just don't think anyone cares about him in The Shield or on WWE TV because they haven't presenting him as a great guy. Most people that like him, from what I've seen, have been people that liked him from the Indies before he ever even got called up. I actually think he's gotten worse while Reigns has done nothing but improve. A lot of that is booking though. When The Shield were first called up, I think most agreed that in order of good to bad, it was Ambrose, Rollins, Reigns. Now, to me, it feels like Reigns, Rollins, Ambrose. It's not like The Shield haven't had great matches, as they have. But how much do great matches matter to non-internet fans? Are people in the stands going crazy for Goldust's work like they do online? I don't think so... Maybe just have Reigns squash Ambrose to win the U.S. title then go into a unification program with Big E. for 'Mania? I have no idea at this point. I think Reigns needs the rocket strapped to him while Ambrose & Rollins will be fine doing anything else because they're good workers & Ambrose when they let him can be a damn good promo. I feel Reigns kind of needs the machine behind him. If he's not super-protected, he could just be the next Ryback instead of the next Batista.