Fantastic

Fixed that for you. Honestly, it's easy to forget the first match they had at X-7, due to all the spectacle around the latter two. Back to Ref's, I'm kinda partial to Earl Hebner's woozy long slow nearfall count following recovery from an earlier attack.

Agreed, the streak is never ending. I personally believe they are aiming to take it to 25-0, so they can increase the mysticism of The Undertaker by having him retire undefeated at Wrestlemania, having defended a streak that totals a quarter of a century. Hypothetically, if he continues to wrestle only one or two times per year, only gets in the ring with reasonably safe workers (or rehearses matches for a number of weeks with the more physical wrestlers like Lesnar), limits his high spots, and keeps healthy outside of the ring, then they could pull this off quite easily.

Well I guess I was off. I can imagine them playing it incredibly safe and not really going for anything all that special. I'm just assuming a multi-man ladder match of some description, to get as many secondary players involved as possible.

- Assumes Punk IS returning: - Assumes Roman Reigns wins the Intercontinental Championship prior to Mania Pre Show: Goldust wins a Battle Royale, where the winner is given a chance to face anybody on the main card who isn't already booked, he chooses Cody (naturally) 1. Elimination Tag Team Match for the WWE Tag Team Championships: New Age Outlaws © vs. The Usos vs. Rowan & Harper vs. Goldust and Cody Rhodes 2. Cody Rhodes vs. Goldust 3. US and Intercontinental Championship Unification Match: Roman Reigns © vs. Dean Ambrose © (Rollins sides with and helps Ambrose win and thus Reigns turns face) 4. Wrestlemania XXX Anniversary Money In The Bank Ladder Match: Cesaro vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Big E. vs. Christian vs. Sheamus vs. Seth Rollins vs. Fandango vs. Ryback vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. Sin Cara 5. Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker 6. Winner Gets to Referee The Triple H vs. Daniel Bryan match: Kane vs. Big Show 7. Some Gimmick Match where No DQ is in play: John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt 8.Street Fight: Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H w/ Kane as Special Guest Referee (if Daniel Bryan wins, he'll get a future title shot, if he loses, he's gone for good) (Hogan appears, somehow convinces Kane to do the right thing when Daniel Bryan has Triple H's number, and Kane begins face turn #1929 and they all do the Yes! chant together afterwards) 9 . WWE World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk vs. Batista vs. Randy Orton ©

Given WWE's penchant for mononyms, dropping "Kazuchika" and going with Okada, which is a pretty simple and pronounceable name, could work quite well in WWE.

Doesn't Nakamura speak English also?

Simply put, no Japanese wrestler has ever become a headline attraction in WWE. There has never been a Japanese WWE champion (excluding Inoki, who wasn't part of the company - lets not go into this one!), nor have any of the Japanese wrestlers that WWE has employed throughout it's history been given any kind of gimmick that A. has main event potential, and/or B. isn't heavily focused on their ethnicity. There has to come a time where an ace in NJPW, AJPW or NOAH joins the WWE and really takes off. The names in the poll , in my opinion, are the most realistic candidates - in the scenario that one of them were to sign with WWE - at breaking the glass ceiling in WWE. Personally, I think Okada could be incredibly marketable in any wrestling company around the world. The guy oozes natural charisma and wrestling ability. I'm frankly bewildered that TNA did absolutely nothing with him.

Don't hide it. To be honest, it doesn't really come up among friends and family, and if it does, I don't go into loads of detail unless someone really digs pro wrestling as well.

Kinda sounds like a slightly more extreme version of Mil Mascaras. I'm still puzzled that Sasuke put over Justin Credible clean, back in 1997.

They brought Sable back and she's married to a top star now. Which does make me wonder why she hasn't been brought into any of the storylines with Brock as of yet. Presumably, she doesn't want to do anything, but I can't help thinking she could have created an interesting dynamic versus Stephanie during Brock's feud with Triple H in 2012/2013.

I was speaking from the longer term though, from say around the time the Wyatt's debuted and when Orton and H turned until now. Right at this moment, they maybe are being positioned above everybody as top heels, but they just haven't done enough yet to warrant that position. I don't think the audience will accept them as such, or treat them as credible.

I think it could work as the last match if they add some legends in Cena's corner like Austin, Warrior, etc. to counteract Rowan and Harper in Bray's corner. Then they can have a feel good moment with Cena and the legends celebrating at the end, which would be better than having Batista winning over Orton at the end. They've simply not made enough of an impact yet to warrant this kind of position on the card. There are heels above them on the pecking order that would be more suited opposing John Cena (the de facto top babyface). The order, in terms of those who have had the most investment as top heels, kind of looks like: 1. Randy Orton 2. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon 3. The Shield 4. Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman 5. Alberto Del Rio 6. Wyatt, Harper, and Rowan 7. Kane 8. AJ Lee 9. Ryback It's pretty sad when the top heel pecking order in the company looks like the above.

The trouble with Batista is that there was seemingly very little to no demand for a return from him, compared to the other "special contract returnees" of Chris Jericho, Brock Lesnar and The Rock. People had been crying out for The Rock to return since he appeared at the 2008 HOF ceremony and planted the seeds for a program with John Cena. There has been interest in seeing Brock return to WWE from the moment his NFL flirtation ended. In fact, wasn't he in talks with WWE following that? Didn't things fall apart when it came to contract details, thus Brock went to NJPW and WWE filed a lawsuit because of this? Batista's return itself was pretty anti-climatic. There were no surprises, WWE simply announced he was coming back and then pushed him to the moon with little or no hesitation. You can understand why there were ruminations of talent being pissed off - Batista agrees to come back on the proviso that they drop everything they have in place with full time talent and give him the Royal Rumble, the main event of Wrestlemania XXX and a title run, regardless of whether it's best for business or not. Brock came back and put over Cena in his first match. Jericho came back and put over Punk, The Rock came back with the sole goal, albeit a long term one, of putting over John Cena at Wrestlemania.

I think WWE is holding out for a Batista vs. Brock Lesnar match at some point this year. I was thinking the other night that following his loss to The Undertaker at Wrestlemania, that Lesnar might begin the path to a face turn. Assume that he and Taker simply shake hands in the post match or do something to tease it, they'd still not be doing enough to pull the trigger on a full face turn if they needed Brock to be face. Why Brock as the face? Well Brock doesn't work that well as a heel unless he's physically dominating and beating the crap out of people. Batista's "thing" is that he's "the animal" and he's never played the face in a sympathy angle where the crowd is rooting for him, because he keeps getting destroyed or manhandled at every turn by the mightier Lesnar. It's never been that way for Batista, not even against Taker. On the other hand, Batista has been an exceptional heel, particularly just prior to leaving the WWE in 2010. He ticked all the boxes, the arrogance, and the cowardice when faced with challenges from John Cena, not to mention this promo.

No, it's far too soon and if he were to work the main event of Wrestlemania, we all know that there is no fucking way that Cena isn't going over. Bray still has the potential to bomb in the coming months, so he needs a high profile win to keep climbing. Just not that high profile, however beating Cena in upper portion of the XXX card, would be more than acceptable. The last time a rising star beat Cena in the main event of Wrestlemania, his career rapidly spiralled downward (The Miz).

I can't see John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt headlining Wrestlemania XXX - that would be ridiculous. I mean sure, it's John Cena, he's optimal for headlining, but against Bray Wyatt? Far too early. It's a milestone Wrestlemania and all participants in the main event should be big name players. I would think that we're looking at: - Batista vs. Randy Orton - Batista vs. Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan - Batista vs. Daniel Bryan (if they capitalise on the crowd hatred and turn Batista, aligning him with Triple H) - Triple H vs. Daniel Bryan (maybe a bit wishful)

I could see Brock making an appearance tonight, not in any wrestling capacity, but perhaps one in which he shits all over his home crowd and demolishes a fan favourite up (Christian? Taking him out of the chamber and allowing one of Heyman's new/old guys to take his place) before calling out The Undertaker.

At the Lesnar vs. Cena Extreme Rules match in 2012, I legitimately thought following Cena being busted open that Lesnar had deviated from the match and roughed him up for real. I know, silly eh? Didn't Meltzer or somebody say that Cena and Lesnar had planned it for Brock to bust Cena hardway?

That's a really good point actually. I guess I'm looking at it from the perspective that AJPW isn't doing any serious business these days and that by bringing Kawada back in some capacity, whether it's to have a retirement ceremony or make a brief comeback tour, they may ignite some interest. Of course, Kenta Kobashi's re-association with AJPW hasn't improve their fortunes all that much. Kawada's comedic association with Hustle was surprisingly effective at rejuvenating him as a performer, although following this and the brief foray into Zero-1, he kind of frittered out. I'm with ohtani's jacket on this one, I think Misawa's death really hit him hard.

I think he rubbed several of his contemporaries the wrong way when he refused to walk away from AJPW with the rest of them back in 2000. However, you can understand why he chose to stay. Kawada was never going to have a shot at being "the ace" in the same company with either Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi. Whilst I prefer Kawada to Misawa, I can't deny that in terms of sheer athleticism and natural talent that Misawa was a better wrestler than Kawada. Kobashi meanwhile, was better looking than Kawada, had a better physique, and far more charisma. Misawa understood this better than anybody else, they were pretty close regardless of what might have been said about their rocky relationship, given that they went to the same school, trained together, travelled together and wrestled together. I think what riled people was that Kawada was publically supporting Motoko Baba, even though it was apparent to almost everybody that he didn't have any stock in her lunacy, and was staying because it was the best thing for his career. I get the impression from reading some of Kawada's autobiography that his hard personality was something mainly encountered by Gaijins. He had particular disdain for Westerners Americans and Canadians, presumably because he was treated like shit during his learning excursion to Canada for being Japanese.

Yeah, great point! But even still, something needs to be done. An AJPW card with a brief retirement ceremony attended by Kobashi, Taue, Akiyama and others, followed by a tribute match, where one of Kawada's proteges' takes on one of Misawa or Kobashi's proteges' in a "next generation" clash could be a decent draw.

Without a doubt, my favourite member of the AJPW "four corners of heaven". With the spate of Puro retirements from his era (Kobashi, Taue and now Sasaki, among some other names) in the past couple of years, I'm starting to wonder whether or not Kawada is ever going to return for one final match. Kobashi got the big fanfare he deserved, and both Taue and Sasaki went out on their own terms, with Sasaki essentially "passing the torch" to his protege - Nakajima, in an unadvertised retirement match. Granted, we have no idea what kind of shape Kawada is in physically, but there was never any indication that he left wrestling in 2010 due to injury(s). He could potentially get in ring shape for a retirement match. But if not, he's definitely in need of some kind of official retirement ceremony. Thoughts?

JBL: financial trader?

Quite possible. I do seem to recall the story behind his release in 2008 was weight related, in the sense he was instructed to lose weight.

How do you maintain that kind of weight in a physical profession like professional wrestling? The guy must have been eating 24/7! It is a shame, but I can't say I was surprised when I read about it. RIP Vis.