FMKK

WWE is far more entertaining an absurd insight into the brain of a mentally declining lunatic than it is as a TV narrative in it's own right.

EDIT: I'm new here, so of course I screwed up the dates in my first ever thread on the board.... No idea how to edit the title so please ignore/delete this.

WWE have already shot the angle to kick off Ambrose vs Lesnar for Mania and are using it to hype Raw. Seems like one of the first worthwhile uses of social media since they've become obsessed with promoting it. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10153549018671443&id=7175346442

It's the disconnect, I think, between the commentators talking about him as a home-town hero (saying that his "friends and family" are there live) and him then being introduced as residing in Florida. It seems like the kind of thing a heel would do. At the last PPV they had in Cleveland (TLC 2014) they announced Ziggler as being from his hometown prior to the ladder match vs Harper. He was a lot more over then.

These two don't construct matches as much as they just autopilot their way into trading spots.

This is a pertinent point because, political hit theory aside, if WWE actually want Reigns to be a success as champion then he needs credible heel challengers. That means that WWE are going to have to take the breaks off of the 50/50 booking and actually establish some heels. Owens would have been a good contender for a title feud just a few weeks ago but now he's trading wins with Ziggler on TV and that would tarnish anyone's credibility. If this Wrestlemania is to be a success beyond simply being a big-ass show in a big-ass stadium, then the goal should be to kick off serious pushes for two or three heels with the aim of having them as Roman's main challengers over the next 4-6 months.

Apparently Bad News Barrett (if that's what he's called still) is set to leave WWE when his contract expires this summer. I've never been hugely high on the guy but he's yet another case of them wasting opportunity. If they didn't screw up Nexus so badly, he could have had a few years as a main event heel with a title run or two under his belt. But after that initial build, he's just been floating around the midcard abyss for years. They even pulled the rug out from under his initial Bad News gimmick.

This is the reality era mate no need. THE AUTHORITY ALWAYS WINS

When does the babyface make a comeback and kick his ass?

This is already that show where they're sacrificing big matches to build guys up, though. HHH/Reigns is obvious, but Brock/Bray is what Bray needs to stay relevant and Taker/Strowman has the potential to be a star making battle of giants in a way that Taker/Miz or Sheamus couldn't possibly be. You'll also likely have the women positioned in the most prominent spot in Wrestlemania history. I'd say, though, that if there was a place where they needed part-timers it would be here. To fill up 100k seats you need the massive dream matches people have been years for like Taker/Cena, Brock/Austin, and Steph/Rousey, and there's really no combination on their current roster that could match the business of a card with those matches. Hence, the projected card strikes me as them giving up on the dream match model and just trying to build up who they can given the bad circumstances. Jobbing Bray to a bigger star is hardly star building. It hasn't exactly worked for him the last two years. Strowman has barely even worked singles yet and hasn't had much of a push so feeding him to Taker this early on once again can hardly considered to be star building. I can see that match being played mainly to groans from the crowd. And Reigns beating HHH isn't exactly going to solve the myriad of issues with his push, though I will agree that this is the most logical direction currently. They would almost have been better served throwing money at one part-time star to work HHH, Taker or Brock as a tentpole match and put over new stars definitively across the rest of the show.

Sadly, these things require a level of thought that WWE absolutely don't want to put into their shows. I recall seeing quite a few people, including myself on other sites, saying that the WWE part-timer model is unsustainable and they they would need to sacrifice one Wrestlemania to establish new stars. It's funny that circumstances, namely injuries, have basically presented them with a chance to do that and they aren't going to take it.

They have a huge roster of undercard guys that basically never interact with anyone above their station. Use them for squashes. I see no reason why Ambrose couldn't squash Adam Rose, Bo Dallas, Heath Slater etc. rather than work against another star for example. Or one week have him a do a promo and no match. Heat up feuds with injury angles that actually take guys off TV for a week or two and play them up as significant. There are ways around overexposing guys if they used a bit of imagination rather than booking by rote.

I think that would be an entertaining match but Sheamus, like the rest of the WWE midcard, has been booked into oblivion to the extent that I don't think the general audience would buy him as a viable opponent against Taker.

Dolph Ziggler, who has been dead in the water for over a year, gets a clean win over someone who they should be protecting. These people really have no idea what they're doing, do they?

Yeah, the crowd were chanting for these guys (dressed as Savage, Hogan, Taker and Rock I believe) so WWE moved them off the hard camera side of the arena. When the chants persisted during Rock's promo, he said that he was going off script and went out and bantered with them a bit before getting back in the ring and continuing where he left off. It would be no big deal other than for the fact that the company are complete control freaks who hate entertainment.

Xavier is a great personality. It comes across in his video game channel on YouTube too. He would be perfect as a corner man for Big E if he gets a singles push and/or a Heenan type where babyfaces fight through his goons to get to him. In fact, there's about two years of angles there with him being Big E's manager and then turning on him to do the heel manager routine against him. I wonder if this segment actual leads to them doing something with Rock at Mania. That would be a hell of a sign of faith from the company that they actually see them as serious stars.

As always, Rock came back for a week and looked like a bigger star than anyone on the roster thanks to his charisma. Part of that comes from being able to ad lib and have his own distinctive voice. I can understand why, in WWE logic, they wouldn't want him to encourage fans to draw attention to themselves to the detriment of the show but how many other people on the roster would be able to even handle that situation comfortably? John Cena probably but that's about it. Obviously they aren't going to learn any lessons from this but I thought Rock acknowledging those guys was a nice touch and another small reminder of how much more fun it can be when everything isn't so damn regimented.

I partially agree with this, but there's other guys who've never been portrayed as shooters and they pull this off really well. DBryan is one of the best I've seen incorporating real grappling skills into the wrestling world. The Gracies for example did horribly the couple of times I saw them in New Japan. Back to Lucha Underground, Jim Cornette seemed to be overly critical of it: Isn't everyone bored of the histrionic Cornette routine at this point? Lucha Underground is great because it's not afraid to do something different and completely own it's silliness. That's what makes it refreshing. Talk about just not getting it.

Oh really? I usually find him quite funny on there and thought it chimed well with his on screen sense of humour. Quite odd if true.

https://twitter.com/rusevbul/status/692525733135192064 https://twitter.com/rusevbul/status/692825255052709888 Rusev's Twitter responses to this are a bit...petulant. But basically denying the heat, even though Lana has strongly implied that it's real.

Rusev or Del Rio could be options for that role too. It would make sense to have one on the heel side and one babyface too so Cesaro could play the role as well. The problem is that someone in that role requires at least a modicum of protection but WWE doesn't seem to want to provide any protection whatsoever for the vast majority of the roster. Even those they are trying to protect (e.g, Reigns) are being damaged by the booking. Rusev would be really good as an upper midcard gatekeeper for babyfaces on the rise too, slotting in for B PPV main events when required too, but I think he's been treated too weakly recently.

As entertaining as New Day are, Big E really could and should be a lot further up the card. Him having a run akin to Rusev's 2014-15 with Woods as his cornerman/manager would be great.

First time posting on the board but I'm just considering how well tonight's potential booking fits into the Reigns Political Hit theory. Roman gets booed to the high heavens tonight, HHH comes out to win the title and is cheered to the rafters in Orlando of all places so he can fully become the smark saviour before going on to 'save' Wrestlemania by being in the main event, covering for all in injuries and putting Roman over, thus getting credit as the man who 'makes' him at main event level. I know I shouldn't be surprised that HHH is going to be the one who comes out of the next three months looking better than everyone, but this really would take the cake if it turns out that way.