WingedEagle

Yep, if there's no appreciable impact on business then there's no reason to change course.

Basically sums up my thoughts as well, although you could argue it should've been more heated given the stakes. Perfect was taking some really exaggerated bumps here. Bartlett on commentary may have been a disaster, but this was a great example of Vince's unrelenting enthusiasm and ability to sell things as a big deal. He was in full Red Bull mode and was going to rise to the occasion even if no one else was. Perfect basically hulks up, Flair flips the turnnuckle, runs to the other and comes off to get nailed. Perfect hits the perfectplex on a backdrop attempt and wins. This was nowhere near as good as I remembered it. **3/4

Just wanted to echo 2 big points others brought up here -- 1) First time the Rumble directly leads to the Mania main event, and 2) Yoko's win felt like it came out of nowhere. When we join, there's no one you could even imagine winning other than Yoko until Savage joins as #30. Yoko looks much smaller than in later years. Owen's elimination looked nasty landing on his knee, but I don't remember any big injury coming from this so he must've gotten pretty lucky. The finish with Savage going for a pinfall was pretty weak, even if it was a nice toss by Yoko to send him out. We then get some some Vegas characters out to set the stage for Mania.

This. Might as well ding Magnum for his work at the Crockett Cup not living up to the I Quit standards.

Whoops, I missed that. Sounds like Misterio was catching hell no matter where he was slotted.

I think Rey gets a pass on that one. The crowd may have been willing to get behind Reigns a bit at the end, but I don't think it made a difference which of the 30 entrants came in at #30. If the name wasn't Daniel Bryan, they were catching hell.

He suffered a stroke and it was an extended make-good angle / moment. Anyone who views that as a "match" is missing the point.

I'm with you, but its time to make things official by bringing back the winged eagle belt.

Dolphins1925 with his picks up for those interested.

If they were going to give Bryan a win and push him that way, wouldn't they at least have the confidence in him as a draw to promote that he'd actually be in the Rumble itself?

To add onto what Loss said, if there's no bottom line support for him, why hotshot his face turn? Just to capitalize on a days old Sportscenter clip? That's buying a stock *after* it popped following great quarterly numbers and expecting you'll see the same jump the next day. That ship has sailed. Either you're in it for the long haul or you're not. If he's not moving numbers and there's no confidence he will, then plug him into his role and stick to the plan so that the big picture product is consistent and follows a logical long-term path.

That finish always troubled me. Can you imagine the uproar if WWF pulled that today?

Lesnar is signed through next year's Mania. No reason to hotshot that now.

Yeah, I have no doubt they could keep the crowd into it and both come out stronger.

Fair point. I know it would never, ever happen in WWE, but I'd be kind of interested to see them book a time limit draw in that kind of match. Cena's "protected", Bryan loses nothing and you build for a 3rd match when one of them (likely Bryan because Cena needs to get his win back) has title. Or you let Cena get the win at Mania with plans to put the title on Bryan shortly thereafter or over the summer. All fun to think and talk about.

Also, am I crazy to think that even a Cena/Bryan rematch without the title would mean more to the show from a business standpoint than the current plan? You can book that to go longer than either Bray or Sheamus match, find a few extra minutes for other deserving matches (Taker, Shield) and improve the show's bottom line and in-ring product.

Agreed, would like to have heard a bit more about it, but it may have been as simple as concerns whether Taker could withstand a Brock-style physical match and now those concerns have been put to rest. Or not -- in which case the answer becomes more interesting.

I'd like this if I could!

Exactly. If you gave me any of those matches on TV with ample time, I'd be pretty stoked. I expect more than a good match with sufficient time at Mania, whether it be a fresh match up or compelling angles setting the stakes and table. Last year's show didn't meet expectations in the ring, but if this is the lineup, I was a hell of a lot more stoked heading into that show than this one.

Plus that lineup leaves Reigns without a "big" match, though I'd probably hold off on splitting him off until after Mania. It should be a top of the card deal when it happens, not get lost in the shuffle.

If that's the top 5 its really, really underwhelming. Bray doesn't seem to have much once the lights go back on and the music stop, and certainly not enough to heat to make a Cena match interesting heading into the show or talent to give much hope for a great performance that night. Punk/HHH has been done before, HHH is a face on some days, heel on others and as a result not very compelling on any day. Loss hit the nail on the head with Bryan/Sheamus. If they want to give him back the 18 seconds, let's just acknowledge that Sheamus is at the ADR/Ziggler level, do it at NWO or on TV and give Bryan a legit moment at Mania that you can build upon. Taker/Lesnar will have Brock Lesnar and the Undertaker involved, so even if the set up is underwhelming (and it can't be as poor as Punk/Taker last year), it'll feel new, big and should deliver on that night.

I thought it was better than the Tokyo Dome, but enjoyed the G1 draw and October match this year much more. Problem with G1 is all of that blends together so much of what took place then was probably penalized for not standing out as much as big matches that occurred in isolation throughout the year.

Thanks for posting the list, saves me the trouble of skimming through to ID a couple to check out.

Didn't he go 5 on a clipped Kawada/Kobashi fromthe '93 CC? I though with clipping it was around 10-12 minutes and he touted it as a high end, modern Flair-Steamboat. A little heavy given how little of the match we got.