Exposer

23 is a top five Mania of all time in my opinion. It has the best Mania MITB match, the Battle of the Billionaires, Taker-Batista, and Cena-HBK. All of those matches are either extremely entertaining or really great.

I expect Sting will be involved in some capacity on TV. I doubt he'll wrestle.

Orton will probably be what happens. I would personally be more interested in a Bryan-Sheamus feud. Bray won't get a title match until after Summerslam. Batista will be gone for a few months. That leaves Orton. They need to have a No DQ, Falls Count Anywhere, Last Chance match with Orton or something. That feud needs to have a definitive end so we won't have to see it for a long time again. Back to Bray, my guess is he beats Cena at ER. I don't really know what happens from there with him. I guess it's possible he could be transitioned into a program with Bryan. It's obvious they've been teasing a higher power angle with him and the Authority. He took out Kane during the build to Summerslam and transformed Bryan's best friend into a corporate puppet, mysteriously attacked Bryan and Punk on RAW, The Shield feud had that segment on Smackdown where HHH was telling them to not fight. The pieces are there for something like that. It could lead to a two month program with Bryan-Bray. I don't what they'd do with him if he didn't win the belt though. I'm not sure where he'd go next.

I agree with this. It will suck, because I never want to see HHH going over on the Shield, but I suspect it will happen. My guess is Shield loses and take out Batista the next night on RAW so he can go do his movie thing. It will leave Evolution to find a back-up to face the Shield at the next PPV. I wouldn't be shocked if it was Kane.

It really is up in the air though. There's a lot of guys who are up and comers. There's also a number of guys a lot of people don't want to see face Bryan again. I think they could turn Sheamus heel and build a two month program from that. Then transition to Bryan-Cesaro.

I'm pretty sure Battleground is at the end of July this year. That leaves Payback and Battleground without a Bryan opponent. Money in the Bank is at the end of June this time around.

I'm pretty sure they closed RAW with that match. That has to be one of the worst segments in years. I will echo the comments on the Smackdown spoilers. I invite all Zeb-Heyman confrontations.

I still can't forgive Zayn for the one count. His character may be better though.

I forgot how terrible Axel's debut was. They'd hyped up Heyman's new guy and when we got Axel it was the most anticlamactic thing ever. I remember watching his introduction segment and my Dad and I were baffled. Then he beat HHH in the worst concussion angle of all time, and then beat Cena by count-out which meant nothing.

It's pretty damn good. Titus looked real good in it too. They don't hold back on anything. It's a pretty physcial, brutal match.

I was a little harsh towards RAW last night, but Main Event was a very good show. All four matches were at least decent. Torito-Hornswoggle was legitimately good in my opinion. I loved that they did an opening mat exchange followed by a heat segment. Sheamus-Titus was boss with two guys beating the ever living fuck out of one another. Ryback-Jimmy Uso was also good. Both guys worked stiff and there were some good near falls mixed in. Plus, Barrett made an appearance during the Big E.-Del Rio post-match and hyped up a match between him and Big E. I think it's pretty clear he's going to get the strap. Overall, this was a well booked show with some good matches. I have to say it was much better than RAW last night too.

To be fair, I liked Sheamus-Barrett (although I thought it was tame compared to their other matches over the years), Torito-Hornswoggle is fun, Paige is fun, and I loved everything with Wyatt tonight minus the finish of the match which could have been done much better. The post-match was awesome though. The two things I was in between on were the Evolution segment and Cesaro-RVD. I thought Evolution wearing suits and showing that video was hilarious, but not necessarily good. Cesaro doing a double underhook powerbomb was awesome. I predicted he'd lose and face Swagger so I expected that. The match was terribly disappointing though. Everything else was either really disappointing to me or fell flat. And RVD was fucking terrible in that Cesaro match. Oh yeah, Kane-Bryan was a well executed angle. I just don't care about it at all. I almost forgot how great Ryback was on commentary. Why the fuck hasn't anyone given him the stick yet?

I don't want to be misunderstood here. Bryan left early tonight for good reason. I'm just trying to interpret why the crowds have been so poor lately.

I don't know what's wrong with these crowds as of late. I wonder if it's because Bryan's circumstances? Sheamus-Barrett had great heat and then the rest of the show just fell flat in comparison. They got into the main event well enough, but they were fucking terrible tonight. A bad crowd always sucks the life out of a show for me, and tonight's crowd did that.

I hope that it's weird, inaccurate news too. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. Cesaro still gets good reactions for the Giant Swing. That's part of what got him over as a quasi-face in the first place.

Yeah, it comes across as really try hardy.

I don't know how I feel about that. Most fans have no clue how to react to him now that he's a Heyman guy. At the house show in Chattanooga, he was announced as the newest Paul Heyman guy and was welcomed with a chorus of boos. Heyman is getting tremendous heat every show as he rubs in Taker's loss. How can most fans get behind a guy who's managed by Paul Heyman, the mastermind behind the conquering of Undertaker's Streak? And I'm never a fan of WWE telling fans what to do.

Yeah, which is kind of cool.

Damn, me too. Is it on the Warrior Special? We can always watch the replay.

Truthfully, I liked RAW tonight. The IC Title tournament is fresh, and they're building the mid-card nicely with it. Paige-Alicia Fox was legit good. I'm looking forward to more Paige matches. Rhodes Brothers-Rybaxel was a solid tag bout with a great finish. I even liked the closing of the show, but the lack of heat hurt it significantly for me. Bryan being programmed with Kane does make sense. However, they should have wrapped up that part of the storyline awhile ago. Bryan can get good matches out of Kane, but I don't think that many people want to see those two feud. The Cena-Wyatt segment was bad. Even if Cena's character is "guy who tells lame jokes to hide fear" is that really a good thing? A lot of fans will remember the silly pictures put up on the titan tron. They can't read Cena's mind. They just think he doesn't take the Wyatt's very seriously. No matter if he changed to serious in the promo or not. I don't think it buried the Wyatt's or anything that outrageous. I just think it's a poor way to further a feud that is intended to be very serious and hate filled. Intentional comedy for the sake of intentional comedy in a feud like that never works for me.

I almost forgot about the annual simmering of the Mania high. Bryan-Kane is such a terrible idea. Bryan's momentum will vanquish in this feud. I wouldn't be shocked if that took a back seat to Shield-Evolution at the PPV. Things are starting to look grim again.

Also, they had a minute long Warrior tribute video that played as the show started last night. It got a great reaction. It was pretty cool.

I went to a house show here in Chattanooga last night. The card went down like this. Sheamus beat Titus O'Neil - This was real physical and had some pretty brutal exchanges. Sheamus won with the Brogue kick. Goldust beat Fandango w/Layla - Goldust did some comedy spots with Layla. There were some good punching spots too. Goldust won with the Final Cut. Natalya beat Alicia Fox - This was fine. Nattie worked underneath for a few minutes, then put in the sharpshooter for the win. Cesaro beat Dolph Ziggler - This was very good and built nicely. The crowd was popping for every near fall by the end. We had great seats, and my brother Dustin and I signaled Cesaro for the swing. He saw us and nodded but Ziggler countered it into a small package for a near fall. He later got him in the swing and the crowd counted along. Cesaro hit the Neutralizer for the win right afterwards. The Usos beat Rybaxel (WWE Tag Title) - This was also very good. They all chopped the hell out of each other, and the Usos worked well underneath. The hot tag was fun, and the Usos won with a splash on Axel. Big E beat Jack Swagger w/Zeb Colter & Cody Rhodes (Triple Threat IC Title) - Zeb cut a great promo pre-match bashing Chattanooga. This was mostly spot trading, but it didn't last long. Big E pinned Cody (I think) with the Big Ending. Big Show beat Damien Sandow - Sandow had a pre-taped promo telling the fans to cheer him. He had insane heat for it. Brad Maddox showed up and called out the Big Show to face him. Big Show pinned him after the KO punch after Sandow pleaded on the mic for a few minutes. John Cena & The Shield beat Kane & The Wyatts - This had tremendous heat and was off the charts fun. Reigns and Cena have so much charisma it's disturbing. Ambrose worked FIP and was great. Cena's hot tag was the most spectacular hot tag of all time and we all were marking out when it happened. Reigns hit the Superman Punch followed by the AA from Cena for the win. This was an extremely fun show. There were four matches I'd call at least good. Every other match was either decent or fun. Most notably, every match had someone who was insanely over. Sheamus, Fandango, Goldust, Nattie, Ziggler, Cesaro, The Usos, Big E, Zeb, Cody, Big Show, The Wyatts, The Shield, and Cena all had tremendous reactions. The Wyatts had some face reactions. They also drew huge heat. They are way over. The most over were Sheamus, Nattie, The Usos, The Wyatts, The Shield, and Cena. They all had some insane pops. Cena had the loudest pop I've ever experienced. It was deafening, and the place was shaking. Reigns was the most over from the Shield. People love that guy. The pops for his offensive run and big spots were outstanding. I haven't heard crowd reactions like this for so many people since I was a kid in 2000-2001.

I've broken the Shield down before, but I guess I'll do it again here. Reigns has tremendous charisma. His presence is awesome, and he always carries himself well. I think he's a good bumper. His selling is average at best, but I don't think he was ever meant to sell as a heel. He was the powerhouse who roughed guys up with his offense. Moving forward, his selling will be more important in some ways, but I still don't think it will mean much in a trios setting. However, in singles it absolutely will. He needs to be plugged into more singles matches. His signature spots are great. I love the set-up for the Superman punch. Sometimes it looks great, other times it looks bad. I don't think it's awful every time. The running dropkick was awesome the first few times he added it to his repertoire. It now looks terrible almost every time which annoys the hell out of me. His spear is the best since Goldberg's. The rest of his offense is mostly pedestrian, but he times cut offs really well and can work stiff when he wants to. Additionally, I love the spot where he powers out of holds with his hands and makes that monster face. Overall, he's probably a very good worker at this stage. His presence and signature spots are enough to satisfy me. I think he eats offense well, has great timing, and can bump too. He's the least of the three at this stage though which is saying something since I marked out for him every match in the Fall. Rollins works a chaotic style both offensively and defensively. He's the workhorse of the team. I like his punches, his dive sequences are always fun, and his finisher is pretty nasty when executed right. The rest of his offense is the equivalent of a trapeze artist. Some of the stuff he does like the three or four variations of spinning kicks and the back flip neck breaker are stupid. Of course, he's a great bumper. Some of the bumps he's taken are totally unnecessary. They make for great fun and cringing though. He's great at selling. He's always selling on the apron which I love. Really, Jeff Hardy is a great comparison. Although, I like Rollins bumping more. Overall, he's pretty exciting to watch off the hot tag, and he bumps like a champion. Right now, he's my second favorite in the group. Ambrose has been on fire this year. Some dislike his tackle save with haymakers, but that's one of my favorite things he does. He's turned out to be a great FIP which is huge. I was concerned about this team turning face because of who would play that rule. He's embraced it and done a fantastic job with it so far. He works stiff as hell, takes a great beating, and sells his ass off. For the most part, he has good, unique offense. There's a few things he does that I don't particularly like, including his finisher when executed poorly, but I like it when he's on offense too. Really, I think he's been the star of this team from a work rate perspective so far this year. Rollins was right there with him for awhile, but has resorted to being overzealous on offense at times which results in poor execution. Ambrose is the best of the group today. I hope he remains the FIP going forward.

Also, the headliner for the house show in Chattanooga this weekend that I'm trying to go to is Kane/Wyatts vs. Cena/Shield. That's a helluva a match to be running around the horn.