(BP)

Things I'm looking forward to: - Rusev's entrance. - Rollins finding a new way to fly into an RKO outta nowhere. - Taker's presumable Johnny Cash entrance music, and the ill-fitting Katy Perry song that will replace it in the NBC special. - The "get the guillotine" response for the main.

I'll watch a terrible Mania without batting an eye. I am, however, a little concerned that I'm plying a bunch of lapsed fans to my place with the promise of food and beer and that they'll probably hate everything except for maybe Sting.

I believe he's only composing for WWE Films now.

I wish the best for every promotion, but I'm amused by the thought of a world where the second biggest wrestling company in America is Hoodslam.

If we end up with a developmental training team of Sara Del Rey, Joe, Cesaro, etc., they won't need the indies to poach from.

Jim Johnson would be a pretty easy choice for a Warrior award. I wish they'd honored Warrior's wish for his award but created a Crusher Award for Connor. Both are well-intentioned and sweet ideas. I just wish they'd seperated it.

Vince seems to compartmentalize. He might regret that personal relationships were damaged because of some decisions, but he justifies those same decisions as necessarry.

Based on the Smackdown spoilers it sounds like they're going to try to change the Yes chants to "turd" chants. I hope I'm completely misreading this.

Wow. I looked at the director's IMDB...man there's been a lot of Air Bud movies.

Right. Someone who is clearly not Sting, not cutting the promo in the first person would have been best. It was a kid, I was wrong. It was definitely the closest WCW got to tripping over the proprietary hurdle of the Crow franchise, as it was pretty much the voiceover from the movie.

I'll play devil's advocate: Sting's voice doesn't have a ton of gravitas and his promos only worked as surfer/joker Sting because of the inherent goofiness there. That said, they should've just had a creepy lady voice cut the promo like that one Clash of the Champions.

This is pretty great. Nikki has gotten so good, and Paige can work just as stiff and takes a couple of nasty bumps. The arm work is shockingly good, although it doesn't really lead anywhere. A little bit of an awkward finish, but this is a strong TV match and it's a bummer we don't get this stuff on Raw.

They must be counting on people like me saying, "Wow this is bad. Better watch Mania to see how badly everyone shits on it." I guess I have to live with being part of the problem.

Rollins cashes in on a shitty Brock body double backstage in grainy security footage. Book it!

I'm not sure about when the divas making harassment complaints and the conditioning coach that stood up for them were fired. Either it went through Hunter's office or it didn't, but it almost certainly would have gotten back to him. On another note, I'm sure Zack Ryder is really stoked that picture of Demott making Festus shove his ass in Ryder's face is out there. At least he'll probably always have a job.

HHH put Bryan over at Wrestlemania. I'm sure he didn't want to see him shuffled down to the IC title scene since I'm sure he sees that as a big deal. I'd also bet he sees money being left on the table. He seems very adament about distancing himself from the longheld perceptions about the kind of guys Vince wants on top. But he also has the responsibility, along with Stephanie, of being Vince's mouthpiece on TV, so there's mixed signals.

HGH aside, Vince is said to drink at least twice the recommended number of energy drinks every day at 70-years-old. Factoring in every substance he's historically been believed to put in his body, the dude better have a cardiologist on speed dial.

I can't imagine being in any sort of position to vote by ballot time, but I'm really enjoying catching some of the nominees I'm not familiar with and I always love match pimping since I never know where to start when watching someone's work. I'd only seen some Brisco tag team stuff, so Jack is a real revelation. Thanks guys.

HHH is making two sound moves here: he's insulating himself from another Bryan-like backlash in the future by having NXT be the "work rate" brand for the "vocal minority", and he's establishing a brand awareness so wrestler's transitions to the WWE roster won't be as awkward as Bo or Emma's.

The only extended in-person experience I have had with anyone related to wresting was Virgil. It was a comic con when I was in high school. His autograph table was next to a girl from Smallville. She had hundreds of people in line and he had no one. I felt bad, so I dragged my friend who had no idea who Virgil was over to his table ("The guy who always held Hogan's NWO belt.") He hustled me into paying $20 for a signed 8x10 while telling me to stay in school and join the wrestling team so I could become a wrestling superstar someday. Then he signed my friend's convention program for free. Fuck that guy.

Liz Hunter always annoyed me. It's weird, I couldn't find a picture of her.

Maybe my favorite Attitude Era moment, at least of that year. The story of the antihero putting aside his hate for his archenemy to do the right thing and save the man's loved one from true evil really captured my imagination. It was broad crash TV, but also a little nuanced, with Austin's reaction to Stephanie hugging him specifically being great. At a time when creative was getting lazy and crass, this angle managed to flesh out Austin's character a little, make him look like a great babyface without sacrificing his badass aura, and create a new dynamic between Austin and Vince that could have been explored. We ultimately got the Higher Power bullshit, but it doesn't color my admiration for how awesome this was.

Involving WCW is a good idea as a promotional tool for the network. I'm getting the sense with the "Vigilante" stuff that they're trying to portray Sting as a Batman figure kids can gravitate to, which would create interest in their library beyond the older demographics. Of course, they're doing it in a shitty way with Hunter's snarky promos. I do hope we get a reappropriated version of that awesome troll video package from last year with Steiner, Booker, etc.

I think this Mania is a "burn the house to save it" maneuver in their eyes. They'll stick to their booking and have everyone shit on the show so they can recondition the audience rather than appease everyone a second year in the row. Maybe they think they can take bigger risks like this because of the network and not relying on buys. I'm fascinated with this stuff. There's no other mainstream medium/art where there's an ideological passive aggressive war that plays out weekly between creator and audience. Like, it's terrible pro wrestling booking, but as an art installation, kudos.

Rey's contract expired. They apparently pulled some kind of maneuver to extend his contract without his approval last year, but that just kept him from going elsewhere immediately. There's nothing they could have done now, except maybe find him in breach for his Triplemania stunt. They probably had their hands full with Punk and couldn't be bothered.