Fantastic

Dean Ambrose = money. It's amazing at just how over with the audience he is, in spite of the weird anti-wrestler character that he plays... Then again, Mick Foley....

Yes, Cena was probably quite foolish to take those brutal German suplexes with his neck history. That's what made this match work, though; they basically laid it out like a shoot fight, with some theatrics in the middle. And, in a shoot fight, why wouldn't Lesnar try to blow up Cena's bad neck with a dozen German suplexes? Yeah, it's just there comes a point where you start to get reminders of all those AJPW guys who can barely move thanks to the abundance of head drops and German Suplexes in the 1990's. Cena took far too many awkward bumps on those German's last night. Asides from that, that was probably Cena's best sell job in his entire career, he really fucking brought it last night and sold the hell out of Lesnar's beating. It's incredible just how good Cena can be when he wants to.

Yes, Cena was probably quite foolish to take those brutal German suplexes with his neck history.

There was some ruminations of maybe a tag match featuring Big Show and Mark Henry teaming tonight.

I'm also thinking a multi person match at NOC (or whenever they want to switch the title) where Brock doesn't have to lose to drop the title is the way forward. Hell, Brock could even lose at TLC and technically not "lose", if they want to keep the title on him until December. NOC though, Fatal Four Way perhaps.

If WWE books Cena to go over Lesnar tomorrow... Jesus Christ, no words. I'm in the mind that Lesnar is winning the title as the most likely scenario, how he does it though is a matter of personal dispute for me. See, the problem you have is that WWE likes to greatly protect Cena in spite of losing situations. He rarely loses completely clean (I believe Daniel Bryan at Summerslam last year was the first time in years) when he is booked to lose, and he hasn't fallen to submission since 2004. To put that into perspective, everybody who has worked at some point as the "top guy" since that time - Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, Batista, CM Punk, have all lost via submission on more than one occasion. The main reasons is the "never give up" aspect of Cena's gimmick and how WWE enforces it. Unfortunately, this works against the suspension of disbelief, because whenever Cena is booked in an I-Quit or Submission match, everybody knows he's coming out on top, in the absence of screwiness. Still, we knew the streak was never going to end... The whole purpose of Brock winning the title, seems to be part of a long term plan to put somebody over big and build them as the next top star. Whether that person is Roman Reigns or not doesn't particularly matter. What matters is WWE is laying the foundations for an astronomical pay off for "the one" who ends the reign of terror that Brock brings. It began with Brock ultimately getting the best of Triple H in their three match series, being booked as dominant throughout, in spite of one loss. It then progressed to Brock battling and coming out on top against CM Punk on Heyman's behalf. We then saw Brock destroy Mark Henry and Big Show, before he ended the Undertaker's streak. Now he's set to take the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.. With that in mind, here are some victory scenarios which would greatly enhance the Brock threat: - Brock makes Cena tap out to the Kimura. - Brock makes Cena pass out in the Kimura, forcing the referee to stop the match and award the victory to Lesnar. - Brock dominates Cena to the point he is unable to continue the match and the referee awards Lesnar the victory. - Brock wins the match via TKO, ground and pound style.

Yeah. I was pretty sure that the unification thing was going to be happening though, just not quite as soon (and at a throwaway PPV like TLC) as it did.

I left out El Terrible because pretty much every belt in CMLL is a world title and they change their minds regularly about which is the premier division. As for Texano, AAA seems to regard Rey de Reyes as the big prize over their heavyweight title. However, I will amend the OP to include them. I was mainly joking and using it as a chance to point out how CMLL and AAA misuse Terrible and Texano, Jr., respectively. Agreed that neither title is pushed by their respective promotion as major championships and they are fine to leave out. I know, but it nicely relates to my point about how lame the current roll call of champions actually is. Nobody really stands out all that much as a true world class star, with the exception of John Cena, who is definitely into the process of winding his career down.

I left out El Terrible because pretty much every belt in CMLL is a world title and they change their minds regularly about which is the premier division. As for Texano, AAA seems to regard Rey de Reyes as the big prize over their heavyweight title. However, I will amend the OP to include them.

This. They've done two reward reigns now with Omori and Doering sandwiched between a nothing reign for Suwama. Not exactly a great start for what has been promised as the rebirth of AJPW.

John Cena is my pick out of all of them. - Bobby Lashley isn't anything special, he's TNA's answer to ... Bobby Lashley. There are many other members of the TNA roster who would do more for the title and the company (which really needs something special at the moment) in place of him. - AJ is good, but he's no Okada, Tanahashi, or Nakamura who are far more successful draws with the NJPW audience, it feels with Styles that he's come out of no where and not really made the proverbial impact that he should have. What's more, there's Naito, Ishii, and Shibata all waiting in the wings, who would have been far better choices as champions, given their chemistry with the aforementioned aces. Hell, had NJPW managed to hold onto Devitt, he might have made an awesome champion. - Rob Conway is a journeyman, a guy who wants to be good, but cannot realistically be a world class level champion. - Marufuji was once pushed to be the natural successor to Misawa, he couldn't do it. Can he do it now, at the helm of a greatly diminished promotion? Probably not. - Joe Doering is just reaping the rewards for his service, the belt will be back on Suwama in no time, or Akiyama will book himself a run for old time's sake. AJPW has a lot of work that needs done. - Michael Elgin is a great wrestler, but not the total package. There is no way any case could be made to put him ahead of John Cena.

Could this be one of the lamest world champion roll calls in wrestling history? WWE World Heavyweight Champion - John Cena TNA World Heavyweight Champion - Bobby Lashley ROH World Champion - Michael Elgin IWGP Heavyweight Champion - AJ Styles AJPW Triple Crown Champion - Joe Doering GHC Heavyweight Champion - Naomichi Marufuji NWA World Heavyweight Champion - Rob Conway AAA World Heavyweight Champion - El Texano Jr. CMLL World Heavyweight Champion - El Terrible

If WWE ever decides to promote the Intercontinental Championship out of purgatory again, they could give Cena a run with it. It might actually work.

I love Akira Taue, his work alongside Kawada in THDA was phenomenal, but Taue had absolutely nothing in the way of upper body!

That's perfect but it can only work if Cena is ready to call it quits. You run that angle, then do a redemption angle for him and then retirement. That's true. I would say it would have to come in his last year/year and a half of being full time. Which doesn't seem like any time soon based on Cena's comments about how long he wants to keep going. The intention may be there, but the body might not.

Never! Baba's brand of wrestling must be honored! "American Strong Style" - That makes me feel dirty.

Rewatched a couple of Taker's recent WM matches. There seemed to be a lot of King's Road style influence in a few of them. The match against Triple H at Wrestlemania XXVII had a very 1990's AJPW feel to it. The most apparent to me was his match against CM Punk. The no sell of the GTS followed by a Tombstone just cried of King's Road, particularly rising stars facing off against legends (even though Punk wasn't a rising star) matches, wherein the legend or ace takes the rookie's big move, no sells it or kicks out at two and returns the favor, only for the rookie to kick out and shock the world in a display of fighting spirit! The finishing sequences too, it started at XXVI against Michaels, where HBK gave one final act of defiance in slapping Taker after surviving multiple Tombstone piledrivers, and then getting the "last resort" finisher (in AJPW, Misawa, Kobashi and Kawada all had these in the form of the Tiger Driver 91, the Burning Hammer and the Ganso Bomb, respectively) - the jumping Tombstone piledriver - to finally end the match. The final act of definance appeared again in the match with Triple H at WMXXVIII. The match with Punk ended with a finisher attempt/reversal sequence before one wrestler (Taker) was able to follow through. That was very reminiscent of Misawa/Kawada matches where they'd battle for the Powerbomb or the Tiger Driver, before one would eventually pull it off.

This feels like Austin part 2. Hopefully he'll stop using the diving headbutt and taking so many heavy bumps. He's literally playing the rag doll in matches against or featuring Kane, Triple H, and Batista who are all over 40, massive, and have their own rap sheets of injuries that prevents noticeable athleticism in their matches. Some of the chokeslam bumps Bryan took earlier this year from Kane looked nasty.

Not if it's done correctly. Having him go over popular babyfaces in drawn out, boring matches where Cena continually slaps on rest holds (see Randy Orton) and simply refrains from any high spots would be a great heat seeker.

Well, for me, the AA will always be a watered down version of the awesome Death Valley Driver, one that found it's way into conception as something of a parody of another wrestler's finishing move (the F5).

Both these things. I don't like WWE's signature comeback sequences that everyone seems to be doing, the whole "five moves of doom".

Well, it's probably going to happen, lest Rollins cashes in between now and then. On one hand, I'm very intrigued by the possibility of the WWE Championship being rarely defended or featured for the several months until WM. Such infrequency could lend a hell of a lot of prestige to a title that hasn't seen really been treated with "all that" acclaim on some occasions in recent years. Also, the man who finally defeats Brock for the title (Roman Reigns presumably) will recieve a huge rub which could potentially elevate them past Cena if all other factors are configured appropriately.

Talk of Cena dropping the belt tonight. Stirrings about them pulling the trigger on Reigns. I still don't think it's the right time for him. Put the title on Kane, it could work.

You don't think that the kids that cheer him now won't cheer for him when they are older. I am sure a lot of the people who boo him now cheered for Hogan and Warrior when they were kids. The difference is that everybody cheered for Hogan and Warrior back then. It's easily a 60/40% average split in terms of boos and cheers respectively from the audience, where John Cena is concerned. Exlcuding Hogan's pre-Hulkamania or nWo days, which don't obviously apply here (because he wasn't playing a heel), there wasn't even a vocal minority booing Hogan or Warrior at any point that I can think of at any point.

Who are they to underrate El Dandy?! Most Overrated Dream Match: The Undertaker vs. Sting Most Underrated Dream Match: The Rock vs. Triple H