WingedEagle

He gets his win back vs Bryan. Would being brought off the shelf to protect Hunter's Mania match be a bigger win than 30?

Ha where's that one from?

Kobashi in NOAH?

youre dead to me good sir Hey, I love Andre as a worker, but the road stories about Andre present him as an alcoholic sociopath and a bully to whom the rules didn't apply.

Love this Triple H promo. Sets up a Reigns turn at SS or someone else going over on him. Very curious to see how the booking and matches are laid out tonight.

30 undoubtedly did lower PPV numbers than Mania was accustomed to -- partly because it was the first iteration after the three year Rock-Cena feud, and partly due to the Network. I don't believe there's any way to measure how it did based on his role, but don't find it unreasonable to think the numbers would've been significantly worse without his involvement at the top of the card. Do we think Orton-Batisata, Taker-Lesnar and HHH-Punk were pulling in north of 600K buys?

No, he really transformed his emotion at this stage. He wasn't stoic Misawa in any sense, but one could argue that he carried himself in a fashion closer to Misawa than young, emotional Kobashi (who I admittedly loved at every outing), even if it was more a blend.

I've rewatched a bunch of World Class for the first time in forever recently, and really enjoyed Kevin's work. Almost feels completely out of control and violent compared to the other brothers, just a very dangerous vibe to him. Best barefoot non-Samoan? No clue who makes that list but he's on it. Granted, most of what I've watched have been Freebird matches which with the heat and others involved are a rising tide that lifts all ships, but he really stands out more than most. Still waiting to see if has anything approaching Kerry's singles matches with Flair or Jumbo.

Why not go the "stale" route and replicate '98? Heel win via Authority help (Ambrose seems ideal but anyone can fit the bill), quick but hot match vs. Reigns (Austin) the following night and the big match at Mania?

Much like dogs, there's no such a thing as a bad briefcase. Just bad owners.

I actually LOVED the Deadly Game tournament. Such a fun PPV! Yep, that PPV was just about the perfect version of episodic, Attitude era TV.

They had that Big Show/JBL cage with wire supposedly on top. Don't even see that happening again.

They have to be pressing Cena & Brock to show up ASAP, because even if Reigns winning is the plan, the field for any kind of tourney -- hell, even a four way -- is incredibly thin. Only upside here is this should provide a great reset for Rollins upon his return and allow him to come back with some real juice. Hopefully its not wasted.

Apparently they broke it through Coachman / ESPN -- https://twitter.com/TheCoachESPN/status/662352814807629824 6-9 months. If a shoot, that throws a wrench in upcoming plans. Normally you'd think they have him gut out some kind of quick switch at Survivor Series, but they likely wouldn't release this in that case.

If I'm reading this correctly, Danielson didn't place in the to 30 as voted by current or former wrestlers. That is absolutely mind boggling.

If I'm reading this correctly, Danielson wasn't among the top 30 as voted by current or former wrestlers. That is absolutely mind boggling.

The Schiavone episode was a real blast with some fun stories, especially the Black Scorpion one noted above. Didn't love the Mooneyham one today. Felt like it never got below the surface.

I cannot imagine saying that, but wish I could. Or even wish I could say a segment is so 2009. Strongly believe you could simply reformat TV a bit today and create a much fresher product even without touching the matches, characters or booking. The delivery mechanism is a big issue.

The armdrags were great and I liked his chops to the body. My biggest gripe is his incredibly over the top selling as though he'd been shot. As in with a firearm. Outside of the Flair matches and certain Dangerous Alliance-era pairings, that really takes me out of a lot of his matches. Its why the Savage matches never rated as anything spectacular in my book. A great example of someone who could deliver when reigned in. Good, not great, because comic book offense doesn't do much for me.

The problem is, these types of thoughts and threads don't come up when the product is good. When Daniel Bryan was being built up for Mania 30, nobody was talking about the problems with the company. So if I search back from Summerslam '13, through the fall, into the Rumble and up until the Raw where it was made clear Bryan was headlining Mania there won't be complaining? Bitching about the product is the path of least resistance. Why can't there be any balance between fandom with blinders on or non-stop negativity?

Night and day with this guy when looking at his work before most of us were introduced to him. Last night I watched him against Hansen from 1979. This was nearly 2 years before their classic, but this was about as great a 7-8 minute frenzied brawl as you'll find and should absolutely be viewed before the more famous iteration. Andre absolute destroys himself with a headbutt to the post. Also features one of my all time favorite visuals of a crowd sprinting away from the wrestlers near the end. Its on New Japan World and should be seen by all.

Don't recall the push or use of Wyatt, as I've never been a fan past the videos leading to his debut and the Shield feud so prefer to see him gone sooner rather than later. On Bryan, if you weren't having him win it made sense to remove him early so that he wasn't the focus at the finish.

I think 2015 was worse, because they were stupid enough to do the same thing again.Big difference. They handled Reigns well enough in the WM build to where the fans were elated to see Reigns get destroyed by Brock. They screwed the pooch bad enough in 2014 to get the fans so riled up that a change in plans was 100% necessary. If we're strictly talking booking, I feel like something that actually killed a territory or promotion is going to win. 1/4/99 Nitro would be in the running but it was the lack of a proper follow up (Goldberg going house and doing what Sting couldn't by destroying the nWo for good) that makes it stand out as garbage. I'm going to pick XPW. Just all of it. Even if they did handle him better post Rumble (which I don't think they really did) that night was a horrible debacle. Think '15 was much more defensible given the health issues Bryan had the year before. Count me in line with those wanting a Bryan win, but this year I understood the decision.

1/4/99 Nitro. Austin heel turn at Mania 17. 2014 Rumble, which was world's worse than 2015.