Jmare007

All of that fuckery just so they could do the same spot Rollins and Ambrose did years ago? Hey, Brock is here.

Braun and Roman have been dead for how long now?

What the fuck is going on?

Oh man, I've missed the monster truck madness matches these two have.

Mad Ronda is the new Hulking up.

This whole match building up to a Brie Bella hot tag is something else.

Miz and Maryse are fucking gold

He tapped! Nice angle going forward...maybe?

That tag was ridiculous and so much fun to watch. Why the hell can't AJ be the main match from his brand?

They uploaded a video on youtube of the cage I named the Punjabi match because it was also hard to watch what was going on in the ring with the hard camera shot, one would guess they wouldn't try to do that again.

The new HIAC is red, it seems it won't be easy to see what is going on in the ring. Seems they didn't learn much from the Punjabi Prison match.

It would've been a interesting scenario for sure. The Kane feud for Extreme Rules 2014 did hurt Bryan a bit in terms of crowd support, if he doesn't get injured who knows how long that program goes. I do believe Lesnar squashing him at Summerslam would've been the 18 seconds loss to Sheamus at Mania 28, Part II though.

I don't think he can retake that role for the fans, at least not by booking/kayfabe. WWE would have to do something in real life against Bryan that pisses the fandom off to the point they once again believe he's "their champion".

Meiko should have a KO-D Title defense at Evolution

I think that would've been the more interesting/fun scenario to watch, but I don't think Bryan's level of support after his return would've sustained either. I don't believe hardcore fans see him as "their wrestler" anymore, he's a legend/icon now, so there's no "us (with Bryan) vs WWE" feeling. I also don't think they see the company holding him down either - at least not nearly to the level of outrage of 2012 to 2014 - and those were the kind of things that made him teflon to WWE booking. As you said in another thread, he can still be "Shawn Michaels, the icon" level over if pushed right. But for him to transcend that again, he's gonna need a bunch of stuff to happen, and just like 5 years ago, luck is a big part of that. I do think he's gonna get more momentum eventually though, he's still the most popular male on his brand.

Here's a video of him at last weekend's Starrcast (got to 14:55 if the time video doesn't load there). To be honest, I have no clue why Dave taking any PED (if he did/does) would matter to anyone. If Bischoff said that on Twitter as an insult, that's a pretty lame attempt at one imo.

Not in that sense. They have been losing fans with their current system/booking. Last two years even RAW has suffered from really poor attendance. Ratings haven't gone up in looong ass time - in a significant and consistent way - and they will be more important than ever for the company. But I don't think the number of fans they lose (and will continue to lose) is significant enough to hurt them. For the last 15 years WWE has built a business model whose purpose is to not rely on 1 or 2 people and to make the quality of their product hurt them as little as possible no matter how bad it can get. And this year I think they finally "won" that battle. I think the majority of us thought that their inability to book a proper "Ace" after Cena, plus all the other problems their booking has, plus heavily relying (and spending) on part timers could bite them in the ass at least in some way. But nope, 2018 comes around and they land two monster TV deals - even if FOX "demotes" Smackdown to FS1, it's gonna be their most watched show (besides a big live game here or there) - and a big international deal with Saudi Arabia that has them pretty much set for the next 5-6 years at least, unless a catastrophe of epic proportions happens. And I don't think even the XFL can fuck them over again. In that sense, yes, "it doesn't matter" anymore. I actually joked in another board after the USA and FOX deals we were entering the "I doesn't matter, they got their money" Era. It's worthwhile because it can lead to interesting discussions, but I don't think arguing about WWE's future based on their product is relevant. Not until we see a crack in the business. Which hasn't happened in forever and it doesn't look likely it will happen anytime soon. As you stated, it's more about aesthetic value and quality. The "it doesn't matter" talking point is pointless,I agree, but it will happen anyway because it's still kinda true. If you are asking for a courtesy because it's annoying or something then that's just not how the internet works I mean, you get people using the same "well, they are making money" argument from New Japan fans all the time when people rightfully critique their booking. Gotta roll with the punches I guess.

The Passion of the Shawn part II

Pretty much. Braun was probably the strongest babyface in forever and he still looked like a chump against Lesnar last year and he eventually turned heel again

I feel like people are taking "cooling off" as something else. I mean, nobody has said Bryan is as over as when he returned.

Is anyone arguing against that though?

What' the backstory on this?

To be honest, I didn't think Bryan's comeback was as big of a deal as some people made it out to be. We were all super happy about it, but it was never a "YES movement" level of overness. His return speech was amazing, and of course the crowd ate it up, it was a special moment and WWE barely has those anymore. But even during Mania he didn't feel like this huge superstar coming back. I've loved almost every TV match he's had since he came back - and even the ones with Cass were decent/good enough - but we gotta realize that not a lot of what made him super over is there right now. Hardcore fans see his return more as a blessing than "our champion is back!", the funny stuff with Kane that made him over with every audience is past him, AND he doesn't fly around, goes 100% speed and kills himself every match, which was also a big part of his momentum swing as a babyface in 2013. Even if he was treated as a respected icon, I don't think he would be that much over than right now. His feud with Miz is dope, that's what matters to me tbh.

Overall a fun show. I always saw All In more as a celebration of indy wrestling than "show of the year" and I got what I expected. Some fun flippy shit, some ridiculous and funny fuckery, a shitty overbooked mess that had a very nice moment (Cody's win) and a lot of decent/good matches. I'm tired of these events running so fucking long though. After Omega/Pentagon I had forgotten we had Okada/Scrull left and they made that shit ran so damn long it fucked the main event over as they had to cut it short by a lot (at least it seemed like it, Knox was calling for them to go home like 2 minutes in).

Yes they did.