Slasher

Pure speculation on my part but I figure it was a real life version of the storyline where Triple H tells Vince the board voted no confidence on him. Only except it failed.

Or that the nature of their appearance doesn't necessarily have to be as The Authority.

I would laugh if the whole thing ends up like Tom Benson (owner of New Orleans Saints and Pelicans) basically scrubbed his granddaughter and grandson Rita and Ryan LeBlanc out of his will and successor plan. But I can't believe that they actually think Shane is a good leverage to use...it's already been said that Shane is just a performer to do them a solid by filling out the Mania card with another significant match that they did not have before because of the injuries. They have already invested too much time in grooming Stephanie as his successor and Triple H as a guy that he expects to move into a top 2 executive position. I know Vince is an unpredictable crazy old coot nowadays but who does all this drama really benefit in the end? Can't think of abyone as the winner besides Kevin Dunn who would presumably be still employed if Shane moved in instead of Stephanie...maybe.

The tin foil hat wearer in me has to wonder if this is another one of those worked attempts to get Triple H some goodwill or the benefit of doubt from people like us who believes he is just as much a problem for the WWE as an out of touch and yet stubborn Vince is. I mean all of this sounds like we are meant to believe Triple H is just a pawn for Vince to fuck around with. We know Vince's reputation of a guy who lovea internal discord and competition from people...most notable example being Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels before they decided to settle on Michaels as the guy and exiling Bret to WCW. I also wonder if this means Shane has expressed a desire or even just willingness to get involved with WWE again as an exec. Otherwise worrying about Shane would be wasting energy if Shane is only there as a performer for Mania and has every intention to leave again after.

The good news (for the company) is that I doubt people actually expect the McMahons (and Triple H) to actually honor the stipulation if they do choose to go down the Shane road. They have already established a precedent for it with them being back only a month after the stipulation demanded they go away. So it sucks if they do it again but I don't think it would surprise anyone if they end up back on TV shortly after.

It's not that he's terrified. The whole thing was his idea. He obviously thinks the authority character still serves as a key part in their philosophy/template. Vince was supposed to retire his character after the Bret match and he picked Stephanie abd Hunter to be his voice on the shows and in storylines. Vince is only heavily involved right now because regardless of people's intentions, Vince wants Reigns to get over so he got involved which could be argued as a significant thing because Vince doesn't show up to help just anybody. The people he is involved with are people that is supposed to be seen as big deals in WWE Universe.

In fact I am now thinking that it would be Undertaker who goes too far to sebd Vince a message and Vince realizes the whole thing had gotten out of hand and he tries to stop Taker but conveniently the cell prevents him from being able to stop Taker. Perhaps this sets up Vince for a babyface turn when Stephanie starts thinking he had gotten soft and not the ruthless man that she had always admired and respected. Since Stephanie has gained a lot of power in recent years it can no longer be a situation where Vince can teach her a lesson. The whole company becomes fractured and kind of split between Vince guys and Stephanie/Triple H guys and so brand split is their solution. Probably not gonna happen though.

I don't know. Didn't the Undertaker warn Vince that Shane's blood was on his hands and not Taker's? I think it has been botched badly so far but I think the idea is Taker destroying Shane is just as much a message to Vince than anything else. I don't know how they work that out but Taker has already addressed the issue so the fans would expect a definitive result and not a clusterfuck that ends with no resolution.

Yeah well what can you do about it? If Shane wasn't willing to stick around past Mania, you are limited in what you can do with the story. People here and most people out there does not really want to see Shane beat Taker at Mania in a Hell in the Cell match, regardless of how Shane has been welcomed back by the fans. And it's even worse if you have him win the match then take off again? Either you are stuck with Authority back in control despite their side losing that match or you have Shane as an absentee boss delegating responsibilities to people. I think the scenario I laid out was the best way to deal with all the problems they have created for themselves in booking the match on the fly when they realized they needed a Plan Z with guys like Cena who probably had Taker at Mania if not for his hiatus.

I think what they will do is have Shane lose in a valiant attempt to beat Taker, perhaps Shane hits Taker with a lucky shot, goes for the cover, we have a visible 3 count but no one around to count it. Then either Vince or Triple H or their henchmen comes down and knocks Shane out. Both Taker and ref comes to their senses and Taker finishes him off with the tombstone. Vince gloats about it the next night but someone like Linda points out that Shane only lost an opportunity to take over Raw. Nobody said anything about Smackdown. We find out Shane now officially has control of Smackdown and he installs someone as his day to day operations lieutenant who you have coming out on camera whenever needed and Shane only shows up for the major major major events/announcements...much like Linda used to do.

I am guessing those guys think Ambrose is being booked like a typical prankster babyface and assumes Jon Moxley would have that edge to really be a good main event character. Jon Moxley wouldn't lose because of a hologram or a television set. Dean Ambrose does.

Right, I know why they did it. I am saying I think JR hated it and preferred to be closer to the ring and closer to the action for him to do his job properly so they moved it back to ringside.

Oh yeah that's right, he did work for PWG too I think. But I don't think he was signed to the WWE with much fanfare as the others.

I do miss when they had the announcer table set up next to the sey and ramp. Wasn't it because JR complained about it that they moved it back? Maybe it is something to look into doing again. As for Dolph, he bumps too ridiculously much for them to take seriously as the champion. Also in the WWE they have been willing to let guys who got really over slip through their fingers without getting a world title reign. They gave it to RVD because of their plans with ECW but he was probably going to lose that thing in the very next PPV, drug bust or not, because he was never really their plan. Jeff Hardy got the belt only after a decade in the company when they realized they could book this guy as someone to take seriously and capitalizing on his popularity in the process. When he returned from TNA/hiatus, he was booked as a guy with more edge to his character than ever before. Chris Jericho apparently can only become the champion as a heel and not their top babyface. Booker T only as a joke heel who won it from a joke midget. And the list goes on and on. Dolph as presently constructed is a guy they would never put the belt on before and they're not going to start now.

I disagree. Ambrose doesn't have anywhere close to the same indy cred that the others did. Wasn't he essentially a garbage fed wrestler with CZW and their ilk? I think he started getting a buzz when he was already in NXT anf feuding with their nonwrestlers. But then they gave the Shield opportunities to stand out but Ambrose pretty much sank to #3 in the stable's hierarchy. He went from being the primary talker of the group and getting midcard belts that he wasn't defending. Reigns was the heavy hitter and they tried to portray Rollins as the brains behind the operation. Dean was forgotten about...until they turned Rollins on the other two. It was pretty clear they thought Reigns would be the guy who feuded with Rollins but he got hurt I think and they gave Ambrose the ball and he exceeded most expectations. That Ambrose is as close to WWE creation as it gets and he got over despite pullibg sophomoric pranks and childish with insults...a sure recipe for the fans to turn on but it's never happened. He made it work. So yes Ambrose counts as a guy people got behind for his WWE perskna.

Having the announcers remove the monitors would either telegraph the upcoming table spot (if done way too soon) or paint the announcers as bloodlusted who actively encourage that spot (if done as a spur of the moment right before). Is that really something you want the announcers to act that way?

I seriously doubt that for what is ending up one of their biggest matches for their biggest Mania ever the WWE sitting there giggling about trolling a guy who's been reduced to something little more valuable than Koko B. Ware. So...not happening. I could see that happening if it was any other two guys but not the boss's son and the boss's greatest creation/WWE manufactured icon.

Zero chance. I think the WWE has really moved away from the idea that you have to have big bumps and instead they have done a decent job making it more like a real slugfest that happened to take place inside a cell so no one can run away. Shane only took big bumps in certain parts of the arena set where they could put in something to break his fall more safely. That won't be possible to do at Wrestlemania where they want to maximize seating options. And Shane is obviously much older now than he was back then. He might not even be willing to take those anymore. But obviously they are going to utilize smoke and mirrors to create less of a match and more of a spectacle.

I think that happened after Batista and Booker got into a fight backstage because Batista ripped the Smackdown crew apart in interviews with Booker basically standing up for everyone in that locker room. Man that was such a morale booster, right?

Even if I forget about the storyline they used to build to their match and judged it strictly on the match itself alone, I am still walking away with the impression that Booker T was presented compared to Triple H the equivalent of TAKA in a throwaway television match where Triple H allowed him to get a few spots in to convince people that he is a team player and a guy willing to "put over" someone in a losing effort. It really looked like Booker T's push was hastily conceived with no real sincere intention to elevate him in any tangible way. Remember, Booker got the match at Mania by winning that battle royal like a month prior. They rushed through it as if they were just punting the match out of the way so the real main events (Angle/Lesnar and Vince/Hogan) and then they put themselves in the corner by doing a storyline that absolutely required a good ending but also knowing that Triple H had big matches on tap post-Mania like Goldberg as an example. So they completely sacrificed Booker T and sunk him and pushed out of the way. I don't think he was ever treated seriously ever again after that. Even his title reign a few years later was him being a complete clown and not at all taken seriously. By the way that title run? It happened after Rey Mysterio was booked really badly as well as champion. So they turned to Booker to end that miserable reign and keeping the belt warm for whoever the next guy they wanted to push.

I wonder how they get Foley involved. He's not the type of guy the heel Authority would want getting involved with something that has significant value to them. I could see why they want the guy who has only lost one Mania match in 20 years but Foley has always been the weirdo that they only tolerate because he's not affecting anything they care about. But at the same time Shane doesn't really have the power to override everyone's misgivings about Foley. So you kinda practically need Linda for this plothole. She should be getting involved anyways since it is three family members of hers feuding. She can't possibly be okay with the father of her son threatening to disown him.

Triple H vs Booker T at Wrestlemania XIX will always be the gold standard for worst booked main events in company history. Triple H getting super racist for no real reason against a super hot Booker T, then beating him clean in the middle, killing Booker's chances of ever being a real main eventer wasn't just bad booking, it was an extremely shitty thing to do. Triple H would have to start using every bad stereotypical Samoan trope in the book, like right out of Roddy Piper circa 1985, for this to come close. It's worse than just beating Booker T cleanly after building the match with the race issue, which practically required him to lose just to pay off the storyline correctly. He beat Booker T cleanly after laying around for like 15 minutes before covering Booker T and not even allowing him to kick out when pretty much every match ever booked in history has the guy kick out a delayed pin...especially such a long delayed one. So essentially Booker T is portrayed as such an overmatched midcarder who the pedigree absolutely killed. As for Triple H wanting to be a heel but doing crowd pleasing stuff, the sense I get is that Triple H understands that the babyface has a certain way of being booked in the WWE. He likes being able to do whatever the hell he wants and being positioned strongly (because "the money is in the chase!!!") and he doesn't have to worry so much about pleasing fans like a babyface is required to. If he gets cheers, cool. If he gets booed, he did his job correctly. He wins either way.

I don't know if it was 400 exactly, but yeah he claimed that on (IIRC) Stern once a few years ago. This could be just a Hogan thread: * He claimed he tore every muscle in his back when he bodyslammed Andre at WMIII. * He's told a couple different stories about becoming the spokesman for what became the George Foreman grill - one was that he invested in Pastamania instead, another (IIRC) was that he didn't return his agent's call about the grill. * He's repeatedly claimed that he was the first choice for the Mickey Rourke role in "The Wrestler". And every time he says this, Darren Aronofsky releases a statement saying that Hogan was never considered. Come on. You left the best part out, where he claimed that body slam led to Andre dying a few days later....which is true if you consider 6 years or so to be "few days".

It is true that Reigns needs to stand in his own two feet but they have already booked themselves into a mess. Fans are obviously not going to change their minds about him in a month. Even if his push suddenly started to click this Monday onward, it's too late. So I think it is fair to think of ways to send the fans home happier than they will if Reigns closed the show on his own. It isn't for Reigns's benefit. It's for the however many tens of thousands of fans attending the show. They can worry about Reigns on his own after Mania.

To be fair, nothing Triple H does is "good for business", so what does it matter what he does? Another thing is that he is recognized as the father and creator of NXT but he doesn't really take part in their storylines. It's not like who the champion of NXT really impacts the bottom line for the whole WWE. He is less inclined to care who represents NXT and furthermore, he's the one who hired each and every one of them so he must see something in them. On the main roster, it's akin to coaching a pro team compared to a collegiate team. More egos are involved with professional adults who only care about their personal achievements over whatever he might think is actually best for the company. Like Triple H never had any problems with Daniel Bryan until Bryan made it clear he wanted the belt, and after winning the title, he refused to accept their philosophy on who really should be the champion and keeps causing them problems and turning shows into some kind of protest against them. That is when Triple H slowly lost his professional attitude and started taking it personally with the handcuffed attack and everything. So I mean, it's not necessarily totally contradictory to have him portrayed both ways.