Jmare007

The Mania match a few months ago was Taker and Trips vs Rock but Rock got movie bookings and couldn't put the time needed to do it That doesn't make any sense. Unless you meant Taker vs somebody and Trips vs Rock.

Very interesting that they taped matches for the Network from tonight's NXT show in Ohio. It came out of nowhere and there's a couple of matches I really wanna watch.

Night 1 upsets are almost mandatory in tournaments. I'm glad they kept the tradition and didn't go chalk with Tana and Okada though.

So PWInsider is saying they reached WWE for a statement regarding Rey - who is now in the alumni section - and they said he's officially no longer with the company.

Depressing indeed. I agree it's stupid it's just that he himself needs something different right now to get away from how he has been handled since he came back. They fucked it up royally just that simple. As much of an awesome visual seeing DB, Cena and Reigns/Brock as your title holders at the RAW post-Mania, I don't have any faith WWE would do anything significant with it. If Cena becomes champ he'll either lose it quickly via someone cheating him out of the belt. Or he wouldn't even defend it much to the point of making the belt seems like a secondary thing to his feuds. You know, like what they did with Ambrose when he was with The Shield. If D-Bry wins I doubt he'll be more protected than any other IC champ in the last decade. He's gonna do way more jobs as IC champ than in the last 2-3 years and people will complain about it. *Edited to remove the copy/paste of the WON write-up - Passages are okay, but let's try to avoid full articles. Thanks! - Loss, 2/26*

Pretty much. It has always seemed as if Bryan's fans care way more about his role than Bryan.

Things is they still gotta address Rollins before June. That's 2 only two PPVs before Seth's time for a cash in is up. So is it better to give Roman those 2 months before MITB or is it better to have him chase Seth after Mania? Or do they just sacrifice Rollins and have him lose his cash in? Another corner they've booked themselves against.

Going by WWE booking logic. The more Rollins jobs in the coming weeks, the more obvious it becomes he's cashing in at WM or RAW the next night. Has there ever been a MITB winner that was booked strong before opportunistically cashing-in?

Scramble match at Mania? Did that gimmick ever get passed that one PPV?

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to see Hunter winning given the WWE vs. WCW narrative being spun. Plus, what is Sting's future? All evidence suggests that at age 56, that this is likely his final match and that WWE have no real plans for him afterwards other than a Hall Of Fame induction next year. Honestly I think they might convince themselves that HHH "has to win" because he jobbed to Bryan and The Shield last year and if they want to keep making him return, he can't job all the time or some shit like that

Kinda interesting commentary pointed out Bryan doesn't have anything going into Mania.

The only thing I've really liked about this show has been sulking HHH.

Shuji Ishikawa vs Yuji Okabayashi - Big Japan 2/2/15 I'm too biased towards Yuji and Strong BJ in general so take this with a grain of salt: this is my MOTY at this point. Heard great things about Go vs Zeus so maybe this will change quickly.

http://www.wwe.com/videos/no-excuses-for-daniel-bryan-at-wwe-fastlane-wwecom-exclusive-february-22-2015-27138547 Yeah, WWE.com interviews barely mean anything because most of the time it's the wrestlers just winging it. I'm not confident they will do anything with Bryan's character but it does seems he's ready to move on and develop a new phase for it, which makes sense given all that has happened.

So we have Reigns/Lesnar HHH/Sting Rollins/Orton Ambrose/BNB Taker//Wyatt Cena/Rusev pretty much set in stone for Mania (well, Ambrose/BNB might get dropped if they need more space on the card) They kinda have to book Bryan/Ziggler unless one them is winning the Batte Royal.

Sheamus hasn't even returned yet, jeez. Really looking forward for the Bryan/Reigns program later in the year, those two have great chemistry.

I'ma be so sad when Rusvel loses at mania. Dude is fucking awesome. Really liked that match.

THAT'S the Cody we all want

I'm guessing the crowd is 70-30 in favor of Bryan. Really interested in seeing if their on screen chemistry translates to the ring as well. Rusev/Cena might be MOTY if they let them have it. Really like this card but I agree it can go south if booking fucks it up again.

MetsFan4Ever (the alleged former WWE employee that posts scoops on reddit from time to time) is doing an AMA and this came out. What is the best storyline you ever heard from a writer that never got used? [–]MetsFan4Ever[S] 210 points 16 hours ago The Vince McMahon funeral show. The day Benoit did his thing. Vince's brother was suppose to be there. He was there actually. First time hearing about this, was this ever reported at the time? No idea Vince had a brother.

Morales is so damn frustrating. He gives some awesome bits of backround from the wrestlers but then he'll switch his focus and talk about El Gran Davis ad nauseam (and it's always the same cliches and phrases, there's nothing fresh about it) or talk about stuff that adds nothing to the match, most of the time he'll call a move and then move on to talk about whatever. Showing real excitement is the most annoying though. Because when they do sound hyped or surprised, most of the time it comes off as phony or as if they are reading lines from a script - which I know it's not the case, but that's how they sound - there are exceptions, but man it's hard to find them. I'll love to zone out and just enjoy the work but unless it's a Casas match, I have a really hard time getting into matches and really investing emotionally because of commentary. edit: Another thing that adds to my frustration of lucha commentary is that it's completely different from other sports (in a bad way). Latino play by play guys are amazing when calling sports. Mexico specially is great at having outstanding people calling futbol, basketball and boxing (only argentinians are better at it). So watching such a watered down version when it comes to wrestling really puts me off the product. Hell, put Carlos Cabrera and Hugo Savinovich on commentary and things would be unquestionably better.

I've been watching a lot of Lucha lately for the GWE project and it's amazing how fucking atrocious the commentary is for at least 90% of matches I've seen (80's project and yearbook stuff, mostly). I can't seem to really enjoy most of the matches even though I appreciate the work that is being done and I can see how great the wrestlers are. The more I watch, the more it feels like a chore to sit through the same boring and unfocused play by play Luchas has, it kinda makes me want to not know Spanish when watching it. Although I've never seen a Lucha match called with the excitement good puro matches normally have. I wonder if knowing Japanese would affect my enjoyment of that style. Anyone else has troubles to really enjoy something when commentary is bad? I know a lot of us have had a hard time sitting through RAW when all we hear from the announcers is constant bickering and almost no real play by play.

I've done a 180° with the Mania situation. I thought no matter what happened Reigns was getting booed out of the building if he got a one on one match with Brock. Now? worse case scenario he gets a 60-40 or 70-30 split. It's amazing what good booking does to someone with potential and aura like Roman, he finally gets a definitive character that suits him and is paired with a guy like Bryan and good things happen. Now they have to deliver on Sunday though. But I think the only thing he needs is a good performance and a showing of respect by Bryan and he's set with the crowd.

I think people are afraid Rusev's undefeated streak goes to Cena, a guy who doesn't need it. But there's no doubt the match(es) will be very good-great. Right... I think everyone wants a Cena-Rusev program... that makes Rusev stronger. Totally true, but this idea that every unbeaten streak needs to be broken by some up and comer who "needs it" is flawed. If that happened every time it'd be predictable. Underdogs can't win in that scenario every time, then they wouldn't be underdogs. Sometimes the monster heel who's unbeaten needs to get beat by the top dog. But just not their first match. I agree with you that the top dog vs an unbeaten streak is money and should be won by the Ace from time to time. But when it comes to Cena, at point it really just a waste imo, there's much more to win from him not beating Rusev than him overcoming another challenge. Also, when was the last time an unbeaten streak was important in WWE and they gave it to an underdog? I don't see that scenario being predictable at all in today's WWE. Christian and the Usos beat the Shield and people shit all over it despite it making perfect sense. That match was after Bryan/Orton/Kane defeated The Shield for the first time and ended their streak. That series of matches on SD! and that win helped Bryan a lot to gain the momentum that made WWE decide to put him against Cena at Summerslam. The "weak link" won and it started a huge thing for the guy. I wasn't bothered by Christian/Usos winning that match on SD! though, it helped build their a title match at the next PPV.

I think people are afraid Rusev's undefeated streak goes to Cena, a guy who doesn't need it. But there's no doubt the match(es) will be very good-great. Right... I think everyone wants a Cena-Rusev program... that makes Rusev stronger. Totally true, but this idea that every unbeaten streak needs to be broken by some up and comer who "needs it" is flawed. If that happened every time it'd be predictable. Underdogs can't win in that scenario every time, then they wouldn't be underdogs. Sometimes the monster heel who's unbeaten needs to get beat by the top dog. But just not their first match. I agree with you that the top dog vs an unbeaten streak is money and should be won by the Ace from time to time. But when it comes to Cena, at point it really just a waste imo, there's much more to win from him not beating Rusev than him overcoming another challenge. Also, when was the last time an unbeaten streak was important in WWE and they gave it to an underdog? I don't see that scenario being predictable at all in today's WWE.