Shining Wiz

The big difference is that, this time, Brock won't be seen as 'abandoning' wrestling, but rather getting fed up with WWE bs and moving on. It might end up making him the biggest face on the card.

If wrestling couldn't tell great stories, why would you watch it?

This is a close second for me behind someone referring to Cena's double legs as awesome.

I'm hoping against hope that they use this "PPV" the way they used to use The Main Event. Basic card, with an important main event, but it gives you a lot of eyes to put your 'Manis set up plans in front of. So, in that vein, I'm looking for some big angles - Rusev destroying Cena, maybe covering him in the Russian flag; orton returning to set up a match with Rollins; Taker showing up to answer Bray; and something big in the main event. wWE being WWE though - Cena beats Rusev clean, no Orton, Taker on tape if at all and Reigns dominates bryan in winning clean.

ROH hopefully. The Japanese fans never really took to him. Or lucha underground....that'd be fun.

Not even sure I know what that means.

I did know Ishii won, though that sort of thing rarely effects how I look at matches I'm sure it doesn't change it analytically, but it's got to change the way you feel about the near falls, since you know they're near falls and not a fall. I'm sure you can still appreciate aspects of the build up, but you can't really get lost in it if you know how it ends. It's like knowing the butler did it before the murder happens.

Why in the name of God are they booking both reigns and Bryan as heels? How this company is able to do such dumb things is beyond me.

Did you know Ishii was going to win? Nine quarters of the fun was that even though you KNEW he wasn't, they sure made it feel like he would. Knowing the outcome would really kill that.

Is he in fact earning a paycheck from anything wrestling related? You and I both know some morons are paying for access to his website. I know no such thing, never been to his site or that it charges for membership/access. If he can generate a few bucks through advertising that's one thing, but can't imagine he's paying the mortgage from it. I think we need a sarcasm font. That being said, I'd bet there's a few hundred idiots out there paying him whatever he charges. He's done an annoyingly marvellous job of hyping himself since opening that site.

Is he in fact earning a paycheck from anything wrestling related? You and I both know some morons are paying for access to his website.

You have to give Russo credit in the fact that, in spite of having absolutely no discernible skill at any aspect of wrestling whatsoever, he's still somehow making some semblance of a living at it going on 20 years. He's a self obsessed moron who is more responsible for making it insanely difficult for me to enjoy my favourite mindless pass time for the better part of my adult life than every other person on earth combined. Now, on an important topic, the ending of Zayne/Owens was FANTASTIC. When was the last time we saw a big match end like that? And how else could you have such a decisive finish, yet have it leave open so many possibilities for the next step in the feud? The worst you could say is that the final execution of the idea could have been better, but that's nitpicking. One final point about Russo - the mere fact that he thinks that ending sucked says all you need to know about his opinions on things.

Sweet!

I can only speak for myself... I wrote my comments before I read most of the thread. I actually do like Balor, and Neville has grown on me (I didn't like him at first). Their match was okay to me, but it's not the type of style I tend to enjoy. The main event also underwhelmed me somewhat, and I love both of those guys. My favorite was the women's match. And that's totally cool. And again, I'm not saying it's a group think thing....I just found it funny that someone said "X", and when I looked, there was "X". As for Neville, my enjoyment of him seems to be based on his opponents. He's a guy who can be a part of a great match, but not a guy who makes a match great.

Maybe you didn't hear the reaction show but Kris and I defended the match and gave it a thumbs up. I didn't like the match as much as you and KrisZ did. I still gave it 3 1/4*. I thought the reaction show we were all high on Balor's charisma except Phil. So to say PWO doesn't like Balor is really weird to me. It was one of the 4 matches I thought was good on the show. I just didn't find it at an elite level . This wasn't me saying PWO doesn't like Balor, rather the curious timing of reading such a comment, followed by reading 4 or 5 straight comments pointing out how the match 'indy' or being otherwise dismissive/snarky of it and/or Balor about it: Do you really think Balor is anywhere near as good as Bryan? Or has ever been at any point in his career? Do you think he's ever going to sniff winning the title in the main event of a Wrestlemania? I like the guy well enough, but he's just not that outstanding of a performer to me I am interested to see once he gets called up eventually how he looks against the bigger guys on the roster and how he adapts to work against them on a regular basis. Not in Bryan's league.....so that will be interesting. Same with Pac. Zayn will be fine most likely That generally struck me as funny. Obviously there's too many people here to say everyone is going to think one way, but that it got called that it would be poo poo'd was amusing to me. By no means am I that worked up about it or upset that others don't share my opinion, I just thought it was a good match and thought I'd engage in a little discussion about it regarding why I not only liked it, but saying that it was 'indy' or a spot fest was an inaccurate comment. Didn't expect that to result in anyone getting all bent of shape, but such is life and the interwebs. I will have to go check out the reaction show now though.

I'll just say you seem to be reading a lot into my comment that's not there, and be on about my day.

Matt, more of a general comment than aimed at you specifically. Perfectly cool with people not liking it, but I found the dismissals of it as 'indy' and a 'spot fest' funny. Right after the match, I read a Twitter comment saying PWO doesn't like Balor, and would dismiss the match. I popped into this thread, and lo and behold, so many posters did.

No problems with the main. Solid match, maybe slightly hurt by the fact that the crowd in no way gave Nagata any chance of winning.

Honma/Ishii was all kinds of goodness. THAT is now the best match I've watched all week.

I can't judge. Of course since I tried watching in bed on my iPad, I probably should have seen that coming.

Re: The Neville/Balor "spot fest" The match starts with the announcers talking about how Balor uses his entrance to intimidate and, most importantly, that before the match starts he's already in control of the pace. He runs at Neville full speed and.....gets grounded. Neville takes control of the pace. Neville stymies Balor each time he tries to take over by knowing what's coming and countering/avoiding. But always trying to keep the pace slower. In order to finally take control, Balor has to damn near break a hip doing his flip dive. Instead of the rest of the match being a pointless your turn/my turn fest, they each have to keep upping the ante against a tough foe who either knows to avoid what's coming, or is too good to be finished without being nearly dead. The match has a good flow and a nice little logical story built in, especially for a good guy/good guy match. Do they pick a limb and spend all their time on it? No, but who says that's the only way 'psychology' works? If anything, that's an outdated concept to a large degree. Balor and Neville had a great, WWE big match style match. If that's a spot fest, then I guess I like spot feats.

Still making way through as I fell asleep watching live, but I have to say that I can't decide if the Bullet Club painting their faces like KISS is hilarious or hilariously stupid.

His stomach is the result of used to weighing about 350 or so pounds when he was in the NFL. The guy is athletic, and showed he could sell a bit last night. The monster thing he had going was only going to last so long, and I think they've done a good job starting the transition away from that. By no means is the guy great, but it is a developmental league, and he's bringning a little something different to the show which is needed.

We should all hope to be tricked into believing as much as possible.

Do you really think Balor is anywhere near as good as Bryan? Or has ever been at any point in his career? Do you think he's ever going to sniff winning the title in the main event of a Wrestlemania? I like the guy well enough, but he's just not that outstanding of a performer to me I am interested to see once he gets called up eventually how he looks against the bigger guys on the roster and how he adapts to work against them on a regular basis. Not in Bryan's league.....so that will be interesting. Same with Pac. Zayn will be fine most likely You don't have to be in Bryan's league to get a better shake than he's gotten. Balor ticks a lot of the same boxes though, plus adds in a muscular look and the type of personality they seem to enjoy. Time will tell how he filters out, but if you told me he main events Wrestlemania 34, I wouldn't be shocked.