(BP)

I think Stephanie's initial onscreen run made her really insecure about her perception as an executive, and she feels the need to put herself above the roster on TV. That said, she's pretty great the 1-2 times a year where she has a meltdown.

I don't know if they're going to make hay of the Give Divas a Chance movement or not, but if they aren't going to give the women more time why not bite off of Rowdy Ronda? They could have a call up from NXT tear through the division with a series of wins in under a minute with a flash submission. Maybe a good intro for Sasha Banks.

That's a fair point. They were certainly at very different points in their career. I'll also say, work notwithstanding, that Rey couldn't be an effective heel like Shawn and Bret. They were great at being absolutely repugnant, and I don't think Rey could pull that off.

Without checking for dates, and the caveat that these might be classics only to me: Rey vs Punk - Over the Limit Rey vs Eddie - Wrestlemania Rey vs Jericho - The Bash Rey vs Angle - Summerslam Rey vs Chavo - No Mercy Rey/Kidman vs Haas/Benjamin - No Mercy Considering multi-mans and gimmicks, I'd add his Rumble win and pretty much every Elimination Chamber he was in. Again, totally subjective list, but he wasn't given 20-40 minutes every month. He also didn't have the WWE machine touting his matches as classics. Does he have an HBK/Mankind Mind Games on there, or a Bret/Owen Summerslam? No, but as a body of work I think he was consistently better show in and show out. I'm a huge Shawn mark and I like Bret a lot too, so it's not a knock.

Not a bad suit on Brock. He should've shown up with the world heavyweight title and called himself, "the real world champion."

I got mine on Tuesday. I think that was the actual birthday. I actually already got the shirt. I'd guess you can probably get the coupon just by calling and saying you didn't get one and you should have.

I figured it was blanket thing for most long-term subscribers, but I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else. I'm pissed at myself because I accidentally let my subscription expire and had to subscribe again, so I'll probably miss out the next time they do something like that.

Rey was definitely way more consistent than either of them. He shined through the cesspool of late 90s WCW booking in a way Bret never did. He also got to work the same pool of guys that Michaels did from 2002-2010 and had better matches with most of them. He was also rarely put in a position to have "epic" matches like Bret and Shawn were, and both of them were guilty of phoning in some of their TV matches; meanwhile, Rey was arguably the best TV match worker for a lot of his run and was throwing out classics on ppv without HBK or Bret's advantages.

Atlas trying to get into the ring with the head dress on is priceless. I'm surprised they didn't revive this when the Lion King came out.

They must be counting on putting a lengthy work-rate match or marquee Cena match directly before or after those Reigns vs Big Show/Kane matches to make the medicine go down easier.

They sent me a $25.00 coupon off Shopzone for being a subscriber since day one. Got a free Macho Man T-Shirt! Also, most of their t-shirts are awful.

Rey was a huge part of Smackdown's really wonderful 2009 where there were great matches every week while Raw had turned into a shitty variety show with the guest host gimmick. Watching him adapt his style as he aged and moved around the card was a treat. He's a major player in the last 20 years of American wrestling history, and I hope eventually he'll be recognized as such by WWE. Perhaps one day they'll stop trying to duplicate him and realize he's one of a kind.

Cena's matches were laid out in a very similar way at this point in his career. During that first title run he would eat a lot of offense and usually win with a flash FU. I think it's just easier for someone to lead Reigns through a match if they're in control for most of it.

The Big Show would at least make some sense if Reigns had a big power move that would be an impressive visual on a guy Show's size. No matter how many times Cena has faced Show the AA always looks incredible. That's about the extent of Show's usefulness in a top program in 2015.

I watched very little of the TV at the time, but the music during the ads promoting upcoming cards or tape collections really stood out to me. They'd run like a minute of low-rent graphics with Miserlou or the riff from The Phantom of the Opera theme over it.

Steph and HHH were both elected to the board of directors today, per the Torch.

Besides being a naturally laid back guy, I'd imagine Bryan's afraid of looking like a mark for himself. I'm sure he doesn't want to associate himself too closely with those guys throwing tantrums in arena parking lots, and that's who Vince wants to believe make up the majority of his fan base.

I'm not really surprised Stephanie had to be cajoled into a diplomatic response. She's a great heel, but sometimes a genuine nasty streak comes out on TV. Her promos when Heyman first returned and that Dusty/HHH promo come to mind.

One of the things that isn't mentioned much is how much of this has to do with Vince's bewildering belief that if someone gets hurt and refuses to work injured they've betrayed him and the company. Of course, even if Bryan hadn't gotten hurt they were well on their way to killing his heat.

Damn it, someone already made a Family Matters joke.

Damn. That makes me want to look up that awesome Madonna thread from Pro Wrestling Mostly.

I've never been one to get too up in arms about Bryan's position, but that makes me sad. I guess before you know it we'll be rehashing all of this with Zayn, or Owens, or Neville.

Yeah, but now Vince owes him one. 😄

To me, the twitter thing might be their way of trying to drag Punk into the angle in a roundabout way. They'd never address it on TV, but creating a buzz online because he responds to one of his wife's tweets would be a win for them.

I'd be fine with an IC title run for Bryan as long as he isn't trading non-title wins with Barrett, Ambrose, etc. every week. Actually, just stick him in a title unification program with Cena for the US title that'll keep them both away from Reigns while he runs through Authority guys until the summer.