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I think it is intentional. My guess is that we are getting Owens v Zayn at Mania and Zayn is playing heel. To me Owens has has always played the middle ground (be he "heel" or "face"). While he is naturally a better heel, the "tweener" position is generally comes off better from the position of face (particularly in the wwe). My feeling is that they are going to turn Owens - or more accurately have Zayn turn on Owens - and use the feud to elevate Zayn more securely into the main event. Owens wont be hard to sell as a face, but he couldn't have come in that way. Dude has a punch you in the mouth swagger and a chip on his shoulder. He just looks like the kind of guy you probably don't like all that much at first, but he weirdly grows on you because you eventually respect that he works hard and he honestly cares about his family, even if he can be kind of a dick about it. Slow burning his career to reflect that is exactly the right move (intentional or not). I think - despite the hate for him in some internet wrestling circles, that his wwe career has more or less followed that. Generally, the fans seem to like Owens and want him on their TV. He has to work harder and harder to get boos. Fans will be more than ready to errupt for pissed off face Owens going after slimy annoying heel Zayn (if they go that direction).

Yeah, this isn't about putting on some traditional five star classic. This is about crazy people doing absolutely crazy things. There will be a work rate match or two on there, but this is going to be the ultimate variety show. Any sleep I get between he two progress shows is a bonus.

Womens rumble is a top 5 match of the year right now for me and the men's as top 10. I actually don't have anything negative to say about either really, especially the women's rumble. I thought it was so much bigger and better than the sum of its parts that I really don't care if it wasn't "perfect" or if it was "sloppy" in places. What they accomplished on the whole exceeded that.

That Janela vs Sasuke match is going to be so bonkers. Aside from (probably) Mania itself, Spring Break is the show I am looking most forward to. Janela is talking about how every event could be a main event and while that is classic promotion... i also believe that dude when he say something.

That will depend on the show really. My guess is you could probably find scalpers at all the major ones, but if there is anything you KNOW you want to see I would get tickets in advance. I was in New Orleans for 30 and Dragon Gate was the only show I tried to go to last minute and it was fine. My sense is that the indie shows have become increasingly popular since then and this year they seem to have taken a decent jump in terms of promoting them and int he quality of the cards (my impression), so it wouldn't surprise me if there were more sellouts, at least for the bigger shows. Someone who was at mania last year and went to indie shows might have a better sense of this though.

I wish I was going to be there in time for Riddle's shoot style show. I don't get in till somewhat later on Thursday. I may try to make the Thursday Evolve show. The Sat CZW show sounds pretty good too. Ugh... too much wrestling. What a time to be alive

So I thought with news starting to come in on matches and cards I would just start a thread for discussion of all the weekends events. Who all is going? My wife and I are going. I am doing all the WWN stuff Friday (progress, Evolve, supershow, Janela), Progress on Sat. and mania on Sunday. I MAY splurge on second hand tickets for NXT depending on what else I am getting into sat, if I am alive after Friday, and what the card looks like. Some Cool Stuff Already Announced. EVOLVE 102 – Thursday, April 5th – 8pm – New Orleans, LA Daisuke Sekimoto & Munenori Sawa vs. Timothy Thatcher & WALTER AR Fox vs. Will Ospreay EVOLVE 103 – Friday, April 6th – 4pm – New Orleans, LA Matt Riddle vs. Daisuke Sekimoto WALTER vs. Darby Allin WWN Supershow – Friday, April 6th – 8pm – New Orleans, LA Main Event #1 – WWN Championship Match (if Lee is still champion) Keith Lee defends vs. Daisuke Sekimoto Main Event #2 – EVOLVE Championship Match (if ZSJ is still champion) Zack Sabre Jr. defends vs. Munenori Sawa EVOLVE Tag Team Championship Match (if Catch Point are still champions) Chris Dickinson & Jaka defend vs. WALTER & Timothy Thatcher Joey Janela’s Spring Break 2 –Friday, April 6th – Midnight – New Orleans, LA Joey Janela vs The Great Sasuke Style Battle S1:Finale – Saturday, April 7th – 8pm – New Orleans, LA Non-Tournament Match WWN Champion Keith Lee vs. Nick Gage Man... already some stuff to get excited about in there. I am sure there are other shows that have announcements out already too. Get at me here or shoot me a message if you are interested in meeting up at a show or maybe even knockin back a drink sometime that weekend. I am so excited for this.

Perhaps at some point there should be a Mania Weekend Thread... maybe I will just start it, but Joey Janela announced last night that he is facing The Great Sasuke at Joey Janela's Spring Break 2.... which is INSANE. That match is going to be next-level bonkers. I honestly can't wait for that show.

Yep. I am going with the 4 star crew on this one. This started sort of eh, but man when Suicide Sasha came out they turned it up. I am almost sorry we got this on Raw because it kind of felt like one of the last first time matches that had a punch to it. There was a little part of me that was hoping maybe we would get it at mania. Ohh well, i want to see them go at it again, for sure.

Damn... that really was an incredible show, best WWE ppv in some time. There wasn't much that really shocked me, but everything just delivered in such a satisfying way. The men's rumble was booked to perfection, told a great story, and built Nakamura up perfectly. Lots of people came out of that rumble better for being in it. Plus we got a winner that was elevated by way of the rumble. It was still a safe pick, but it wasn't a boring one. I know some people don't like Nak for the lack of effort and all that, but man it is hard for me imagine he and Styles not tearing the house down. The women's rumble was something special. I love that they gave all the women who worked through the time periods where women's wrestling wasn't as respected a chance to be a part of this. It was also so wonderfully put together. WWE really delivered this weekend in a big way. It doesn't always happen, but when it does its so fantastic.

Much better than it should have been. Even Kane played his part well. Looked like Braun just got a little carried away with that knee and Brock let him know non-verbally that it wasn't ok. After that they went about the business of wrecking each other the old fashion way. I enjoyed it. They helped bring the crowd back to life a bit too and really primed the building for that excellent rumble match.

I am going to take a week or two off. Lots of other stuff piling up. I'll be back on soon.

The first match was really quite good and the main was next level. Everything in the middle felt like it under-delivered a bit (esp Dream and Ohno). Black and Cole wound up being pretty good. They were able to turn it on at the end, but even that match just felt like it could have been more. The story of the night is - of course Gargano vs Almas. They put on a damned show here. I am really looking forward to watching it again. This was just top level stuff.

This was a miss for me also. I was really excited for it because I am a big fan of both men, and I think they had a good idea, but ultimately it was just eh. Dream's control segment was just ok. It felt flat to me in places. There were some obvious misses where the two were just not on the same page. Sometimes it just happens I suppose. I think these two have a better match in them, but this one didn't do much for me.

This was good, but it felt like it could have been better. The timing didn't feel spot on to me. It felt like two great performers putting on great performances, but not necessarily together. I still think it was good stuff and I hope to see them go at it again sooner rather than later. ***1/4

yep... this is just incredible. I think it is more incredible because the middle of this show did very little for me and it felt like there was sort of a funk going on after the tag match, despite everyone's efforts. Almas and Gargano took very little time establishing their own ethos though. Gargano deserves a lot of credit for this, but I think Almas has been a standout performer for some time now. This was everything you want from wrestling. High drama, great timing, innovative, well executed.... I can't say much more about it. I am going to watch it again before I tack snowflakes, but this is in the ****3/4 or ***** convo.

Just a quick update.... I have spent a good bit of time transferring nominees today. It isn't all caught up, but its a little closer. I will post this over there too, but please remember if you are nominating a match for the first time please include the participants, any stips, any tittles, the promotion, and the date at the top of the nomination in addition to the title. The titles have a small character limit. This helps us sort matches quicker. I am going to be adding some discussion sections soon as well.

On paper this seems like such an objectively bad idea.

Yeah, there is a 0% chance that match headlines mania. I am very much a supporter of the rise of women's wrestling, but I don't think the company is ANYWHERE near putting a women's match on last at Mania, no matter who is in it.

I have been catching up with 205 live in the background this morning. I know its been said 100 times, this is a fairly underrated show. So many performers going out and putting on some really fun TV. Its unfortunate that they typically perform to crickets.

I do wonder if the whole reason Vince created a Womans 30 Rumble just so Stephanie can win the thing. There is 0% chance she is in the Rumble, let alone winning it. Why would you wonder that at all? That is my favorite spoiler click ever.

I am much more for this than I am the original rumor in the spoiler you quoted.

You go to that third icon over on the top tool bar. It looks like a horizontal bar graph and when you hover it says "Special BBCode" Once you click that use the pulldown menu to select spoiler and type or copy/paste what you want into the box. It took me entirely too long to figure that out when I was first trying.

I have not seen it (or at least I don't remember it). I'll take a look soon. Thanks

I am not really on the Elias bandwagon as an in ring worker, but I really enjoy his character a lot and it makes me want to see more of him. For me it is just a matter of how much better he is in terms of his timing and getting the most out of the littlest look or gesture. For me, that is something much harder to teach than skill in the ring. I don't think he is actively bad an certainly see improvements since his time in NXT. I am just a big fan of the character because I saw him go from pretty cringy with it to actively embracing it and making it work for him and the changes were pretty subtle.