Bierschwale

It'd be a pretty incredible way to personally shit on the upper mid-card guys who would be in that match, who could range from Ambrose, Barrett, Bryan, Harper, Orton, Reigns, Rusev, Sheamus, Wyatt, Ziggler... "Yeah, we put you in the title match of the PPV where the winner gets a title shot that you get to carry around in physical form and use to get yourself over, and we're going to need you to spend 10-15 minutes or so taking insane bumps, and it's all just the setup for an angle to get the part-timer who's already the most over guy in the company even more over."

I think that non-retrieval singles TLC is one of the dumbest gimmick matches that they can book, though. It's just so inorganic because it demands the most obvious spots. If they weren't doing... whatever with Reigns, I don't know, I am buying into them putting a hit out on him at this point, I'd say that running Ambrose/Reigns/Ryback-Harper/Show/Anyone But Kane isn't a bad idea. If we're working under the idea that he needs, more than anything, GOOD MATCHES where he goes over, you might as well go for broke and repeat TLC 2012 & Extreme Rules/Payback from last year.

I don't get this at all. Cena-Lesnar was the extended squash of extended squashes-- when was Cena ever in control of that match? Reigns absolutely had control, or least the dominant momentum, during this match. Reigns winning was presented as a possibility at the apex of the match, which was never the case at SummerSlam. Night of Champions is a much more apt comparison, but that didn't have a quarter of the drama of Lesnar-Reigns.

Most of those guys shouldn't be losing, though. I think that this is as big of an indictment against destroying the tag division as there can be. Rusev is kind of in a limbo state. Harper has nothing going on. We've seen them as a two-man team in one match, a friggin' house show fancam, and they were excellent together. Why in a sane world would them as a tag team be a bad thing? Except that it'd be seen as a demotion on the card when it absolutely shouldn't be.

I wonder how much they could change the gimmick. I can immediately think of him working as an oligarch-type... except that they tried that with Del Rio and failed. As entertaining as the "super-patriotic evil Russian" stuff might have been, it really narrowed the character. I've always thought that the most interesting aspect was that he's a native Bulgarian and that he's still referred to as such on occasion, they just don't elaborate on it. So why can't we think of him as not the "super-patriotic evil Russian" but "completely unprincipled dude who abandoned his home country to score with a hot girl"? He can be a real craven bastard, there's definitely something there. But his card positioning is now a total mess. Orton IS the only guy he can work with right now.

I agree, but I don't think that it'll be an oversaturation issue as much as that it'll make it harder to book the tapings.

That's a nice idea.......but that plotline was ditched a while back. Seth has teased cashing in several times and Dean was nowhere to be seen. I don't disagree, though the last time that I remember it being a case where Rollins actually attempted it in the ring was NoC and Ambrose had been thrown out of the building after he had the great return. I can't remember Rollins handing the briefcase over or anything since then, and the last legitimate chance that he had had before last night was on the RAW ep with the contract signing for the Rumble match when he curbstomped Brock but he didn't attempt a cash-in. So Ambrose HASN'T ever let him go ahead with it, even if Seth has yammered about doing it. It probably is just serendipitous for the story, but it does work out. Yeah, he was the one who first brought it up on the snow day RAW after the Rumble, about wanting to get his picture on the "Wall of Champions" with all the greats, which makes the segment that Bryan had with the legendary champs kind of ironic. He now is the most logical choice to win MITB this year, though, and to use it to make a Shield triple threat as the SummerSlam main.

Not really. Bryan, Ambrose and Cesaro were working in multi-man garbage matches so they didn't really get a chance to shine. Brock Lesnar is possibly the best worker in the world in terms of overall package. Roman Reigns has been unfairly maligned and has an aura, so the match was always going to be solid. Rusev is pretty well regarded in smark circles as a very good worker.. It WAS phrased as "a year ago". Reigns was the least skilled/most raw Shield member and kind of awful in his June-September singles run last year, and Rusev had only one main roster appearance as the NXT guy in the Rumble and had no buzz as a worker on his debut, and was still obviously incredibly green in his first couple of months. It was a rapid, rapid improvement for him into his hossoff feuds. So from the perspective of the day after WM XXX, it can't help but be nuts.

I thought that he had amazing reactions for the times that he actually hurt Lesnar, that even he couldn't believe that he had just done it. He made everything that he got into a victory.

Rollins is Triple H's personal Scott Thorson.

When people were arguing for this outcome over the last few months, I made the comparison to it as a reverse version of WM IX. It's an ego stroke before it's anything else.

Outcome 4: Reigns beats Lesnar. Rollins attempts the cash-in with the help of The Authority... who all immediately abandon him for Reigns. He gets killed after one spear, we get a double turn putting guys into their natural roles, and I don't have to watch the guy who wrestles every match like he's Ultimo Dragon against Big Show as the New Cerebral Assassin.

I think that he now HAS to have a reign of doom to justify this. Whether you liked it or not, you know that you can't break that far and not have to back it up with long-term results. It's like Lesnar last year.

I dropped the biggest "ugh" possible when his music hit. So many Brandon Stroud readers are going to be masturbating for days after this.

I just don't care about Rollins as Triple H in 2000 at all. Just a big "meh" after they had just completely sucked me in with the original main.

I think that they realized that they'd booked the first few matches too short and needed something to go long so they could have darker skies for the last two matches.

What we really need is another match that won't get anyone over between two guys who still could put guys over with a loss.

It definitely seemed deliberately underdone to me, and I was perfectly happy with that. I enjoyed it a lot, but it was kind of a cold finish.

Cena with the Aja elbow!

RUSEV IS IN A FUCKING TANK OH MY GOD YES

That's the Wellness Policy Violation bump. Jesus CHRIST.

Yeah, that was awful. I know that they must have thought that the Mizdow turn would be enough, but that was just lame. Also, JBL said that Show hadn't won WW3, which is false, he won it in '96.

Yeah, because I'd say that this is unanimous as it gets, I'll say that obviously how you win and lose is a good way to distract from your actual record. Case study: If you lose via TKO after getting your head stomped through cinder blocks, you'll still look good. That's what it took to beat you; attempted murder. But if you lose because the hologram of a men's rights advocate distracted you, or because a tablet monitor inexplicably exploded in your face, you'll look like shit, because people will lose hope in your ability to ever actually win since your kayfabe agency has been taken away too often. You can lose "more than you should" and still make something of it. But if you seem cursed or doomed to fail, that's when you're fucked. Same with squashes and flukes.

First name that comes to mind for me is always Bret.

A very good "RAW standard" handicap match (and I actually liked the Cena-Real Americans one from earlier in the night a lot as well), but this is all about that end angle and the first Shield-Wyatt Family showdown. In a stretch where they really seemed like that it was their goal when they gave a lousy finish to a RAW episode, this one will always stand out.