Fantastic

Sting looks in much, much, better shape than he was towards the end of his TNA run.

Man, that RKO was awesome!

Thinking it's going to go Cena/Rusev next, followed by Taker/Wyatt, Sting/Trips, breather with Bellas/AJ&Paige, then the main event.

DB = IC

Jeez... That was a sick bump from Ambrose.

Wow, that superplex was risky.

Barrett is looking mighty ripped.

Ladder match officially opening the show. D-Bry holds the distinction of being the only man in history to open and close a Wrestlemania and then open a Mania the following year. Outside of that pointless trivia, talk about a decline. Going from main eventing to opening in the space of a year? It's happened a few times before though.

Just read this... What a colossal fail if it turns out he's unable to actually perform tonight.... That would be the nail in the coffin of Windham Rotunda's WWE career aspirations. They'd never book him in a high profile match at Wrestlemania again.

Anybody have any thoughts on what look Taker will be going with at Mania? Photos from this week would suggest he's going in with short hair (and not the bald look in recent years) and a goatee: But more to the point, I have an odd feeling he won't be wrestling in traditional "Deadman" garb, rather he'll be closer to the "Big Evil" 2002 look, perhaps suggesting a more "human" dimension to Taker now that the streak is over? As long as he doesn't wrestle in one of those awful Boxing tees he likes to wear...

I wish there was some actual boon available for winning the Andre battle royal. Hell ,I dunno, let's say the winner gets a title shot at the Payback PPV (which coincides with the week in which Andre was born in 1946) on May 17th. That gives a decent two month build for something relevant at a throwaway PPV. I definitely think Hideo Itami has a real shot at winning, going with him reather than somebody who has been earmarked to join the main roster at any time now (Neville), shows that they have incredible interest in making him a star. But, it's likely going to be Mizdow and they will probably do nothing of note with him following the victory, just like last year with Cesaro. Also, how amazingly shit (albeit hilarious) would it be if Truth goes over in the IC title ladder match? The complete rank outsider?

Going to go with OP's format: Cesaro & Kidd vs. Usos vs. Matadores vs. New Day Prediction: Cesaro & Kidd Wishful Thinking: Brock then appears appears and destroys the Uso's, Matadores, and New Day (the losers of the match) AJ Lee & Paige vs. The Bella Twins Prediction: Bella Twins Wishful Thinking: AJ Lee & Paige Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Luke Harper vs. Wade Barrett vs. Stardust vs. R-Truth vs. Dean Ambrose Prediction: Daniel Bryan Wishful Thinking: Daniel Bryan Andre The Giant Battle Royal Prediction: Damien Mizdow Wishful Thinking: The NXT Wrestlemania spot winner John Cena vs. Rusev Prediction: John Cena via Submission Wishful Thinking: Rusev via Submission Seth Rollins vs. Randy Orton Prediction: Randy Orton Wishful Thinking: Seth Rollins Undertaker vs. Bray Wyatt Prediction: Undertaker Wishful Thinking: No Contest, neither man is able to put the other away. Triple H vs. Sting Prediction: Sting Wishful Thinking: Triple H via interference from Undertaker (Taker, acting as the WWE loyalist, and stopping the WCW loyalist from running wild, thus setting up the Mania XXXII main event a year in advance) Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns Prediction: Roman Reigns Wishful Thinking: Brock Lesnar via annihilation Wishful Thinking II: Roman Reigns via Heyman turning on Lesnar and siding with Reigns. Wishful Thinking III: Seth Rollins, inserting himself into the match via MITB and pinning Reigns to win.

I can't believe that some fans (possibly other wrestlers too) actually are sending Rey Mysterio death threats... Classy, and totally ignoring the fact that Mysterio has a reputation for being one of the safest workers around. Accidents can, and do happen. It's the nature of any sport of form of entertainment with incredibly physical elements. I remember when Misawa died and fans were actually sympathetic towards Akitoshi Saito, indeed, it was Saito himself who took it hardest, he felt enormous guilt and grief over the accident and even had to be talked out of retiring by his fellow wrestlers.

Minoru Suzuki defeated Naomichi Marufuji to raise the GHC Heavyweight Championship. Given the fact that Suzuki has been in contention for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship previously, and could be again, it's certainly a possibility that he may become one of three men to have held all three of Japan's top heavyweight titles.

I wonder what he specifically regrets about that, the fact Owen died? The fact he was the one who made the decision to book the stunt, in spite of some reservations people had about it? Or the fact that he chose to continue with the show in spite of the death of one his performers and everybody in the building bearing witness to it? i would say it's more so the fact that the WWF outright ignored safety concerns with that. i think they had a hollywood stunt company look at the harness - they said it wouldn't pass their own safety tests, and the WWF blew them off. at least, that's the story i heard way back when! I can imagine that being the deciding factor in the wrongful death lawsuit that Martha filed against WWE (and won). I wonder if Vince regrets not listening to Shane's suggestion to get into the MMA market? Probably not, but let's assume that UFC is always going to be the number one fight promotion in the world under any circumstances, could WWE potentially offered the number two promotion, had Vince decided to take a leap of faith and try his hand at promoting fights as well as wrestling?

I'd guess a portion of it has to do with the fact he doesn't look particularly impressive. His physique isn't bad, but it's not anywhere near the kind of size that keeps Vince and his cronies happy. To me though, it's Ambrose's facial features that absolutely don't stand out. He could pass as a regular guy when he's not doing his crazed lunatic expressions, he doesn't have that kind of facial presence that says "I am a big deal". Don't get me wrong, these aren't issues for me as a fan, I think Ambrose is great, but it's certainly the kind of thing WWE takes exception to, and that's what I'm driving at. The other side of the equation is that Ambrose came from a garbage wrestling background. Even though he's very well refined as a WWE worker, there's still a kind of stigma attached to "hardcore" wrestlers. This goes back years, Terry Funk wasn't taken particularly seriously by the WWF, even though he had a rich background in traditional "rasslin" prior to his stint in Japanese death matches. Mick Foley even suffered from some of the stigma of his wrestling background, the Hardcore title was designed to get heel heat on the McMahon, whilst simultaneously being a behind the scenes rib on Foley's reputation within the Hardcore wrestling scene. If it wasn't for the crowd falling in love with Foley and forcing the WWF to push him, he probably would never have moved past being an upper card journeyman and tag team wrestler in the promotion.

Also, WWE totally missed the point of what Warrior wanted from putting his name to an award... I don't deny though that it's cool what they are doing with it though, especially given how many lives Connor Michalek touched (and just how brave must that little boy have really been right?!), it's just that they completely missed the point, deliberately or not, of what Warrior had in mind! Actually, can anybody think of any names in the business itself that might be worthy of consideration for future "Warrior awards"?

I wonder what he specifically regrets about that, the fact Owen died? The fact he was the one who made the decision to book the stunt, in spite of some reservations people had about it? Or the fact that he chose to continue with the show in spite of the death of one his performers and everybody in the building bearing witness to it?

I'm glad I didn't watch it. In fact, I rarely watch Raw nowadays. It's just not worth it, that being said, I do always thoroughly enjoy the post-Mania Raw.

So thinking about how history could repeat itself with Brock walking away from WWE in spite of being given a massive salary, numerous benefits not afforded to others, and a long term plan that has him firmly working on top, I've been wondering... Does anybody think that Vince and the upper echelons of WWE have ever regretted anything over the years? Specifically stuff like "we should have signed this guy" or "that was a big missed opportunity"? They always take the high road publicly, assuming the position of "it was best for business", but there's got to regrets floating around there. Getting back to my first point, surely they must be regretting ending the streak and all that monster booking afforded to Lesnar last year, given that it's a very real possibility that he isn't sticking around?

Are they actually considering having Taker come out to Cash's "When the man comes around" at Mania?! It's a great song, but totally inappropriate for the character.

Imagine if Brock storms out again tonight?! That would 100% put the Mania match in jeopardy. Does anybody think it possible in this day and age that Vince would crap his pants and screw Brock over to get the title off him? Presumably, WWE contracts have clauses written into them, to ensure that departing employees or those in contract disputes cannot keep WWE property like title belts, nor can they make unauthorised public appearances with the title. That might be one of the many reasons why Brock didn't turn up at the UFC event with the WWE title, not that he would anyway.

He also denied the allegations and claimed that this was an act designed to prevent further damage to the reputation of WWE, or something. Clearly, he's resigning because should an investigation probe be launched, it's likely they'll turn up something big in favor of the allegations, which would not only publicize the truth about Demott, but also make WWE look incredibly bad. I'm also getting the "re-sign and we'll take care of you, maybe bring you back when it blows over" vibe from WWE here.

I thought Demott was a cool guy once, I really enjoyed WCW's MIA stuff, and the segment where Demott won the US title and everybody came out the next night and celebrated with him, throwing compliments and the like, seemed as if he was really respected and a pretty cool guy.

Even though it might pose issues with some of the veteran guys, namely the whole "how come they are getting a spot on the biggest card of the year and I'm not?" kind of issue, I think it would be cool to have some kind of NXT showcase at Mania. Perhaps a big tag team match (4v4?) where some of NXT's top prospects take on members of the regular roster. It could be the Mania dark match opener, and would serve to not only introduce a massive audience to NXT, but also the provide the NXT talent the opportunity of working in front of a colossal crowd.