Russellmania

yeah these are really good points. They'd probably be way better off from a crowd reaction/heat standpoint if they turned Bray and went with Bray/HHH and Brock/Reigns at mania instead of the other way around. The Bray/HHH standoff at the Rumble got a great reaction.

I feel like it's too early to do Zayn/Owens at 'Mania, but I wouldn't complain either. Reigns/HHH still sucks, but I actually love the idea of Lesnar and Taker teaming up.

the star is just as synonymous with Texas...you know...the Lone Star State. Really think you're reading way too much into that.

What about Nakamura? will probably be working the NXT show that weekend, for better or worse

yeah this right here. If he was going to get eliminated anyway then why do the comeback at all? If they tossed him early the match would have had a lot more intrigue and then HHH would have come off as the heel coming in at 30 to take the title when it's easy pickins instead of coming off like the returning babyface coming to get revenge on the guy who disrespected his family

I don't have a problem with Roman and don't mind if they put the title back on him as soon as Fastlane... with that said I think the best thing they can do is swerve everyone by having Roman get eliminated early. The rest of the match would be so intense from that point on because the outcome really would become pretty unpredictable.

still think if Bryan comes back the best long-term option for him and the company is to turn him heel. he's such a good heel and is capable of making their babyfaces look awesome. it would help him b/c he could get away from the highspots and work a toned down style. as a heel he could just work guys over with catch wrestling or whatever to avoid getting unwanted cheers. obviously when he first returns he'll get that big babyface reaction but they are obviously not going to count on him to stay healthy as a top face so why not get as much mileage out of him as you can by letting him go heel?

also I see people say that WWE doesn't take any risks and doesn't make new stars but then they insist that Brock should only wrestle a guy who's already on his level. You can't have it both ways. I understand that it's important to protect Brock, but he's not going to be around forever and they need to use him to elevate their next generation of guys while they have him. I think Reigns got a ton of momentum out of that Wrestlemania match and Rollins got a lot out of last year's Rumble triple threat and WM cash-in. I know they see Wyatt as right around that tier of talent and IMO he's exactly the kind of "on the bubble" guy you want to hopefully use Brock to get him to the next level. Obviously they need to actually execute it well, but I can't complain about them at least trying.

I personally love Bray Wyatt as a worker and think his character work is fantastic. Most of my problems with him come down to booking. They did all of those guys a huge disservice by trying to shoehorn them into that Undertaker/Kane hocus pocus role. To me the Wyatts need to be more like psycho killers, not supernatural wizards. More texas chainsaw massacre, less poltergeist. I think as a band of psycho cultists who just want to fuck shit up then have a lot of mileage with that group. WWE fell into the trap of thinking that Undertaker got over because of all the stupid supernatural stuff but I'd argue he got over in spite of it. I mean to me the most memorable Undertaker moment as a kid was him trapping Warrior in a casket and that wasn't a magic trick it was just a really fucked up attempted murder. Bray and co need to be doing shit like that. They can't keep telling us how scary these guys and then never let them do anything scary. Fucking up Brock on RAW was the most scary thing they've done in forever.

man I really loved that main event segment last night. I even thought Jericho briefly getting super serious with Heyman was a nice touch as a catalyst for kicking off the whole brawl. If they book the Wyatts like that all the time they could be such a kick-ass stable for them and work as both heels and faces depending on where they take it. I'm kinda hoping for a non-finish at the Rumble leading to a fatal 4-way at Fastlane. Brock, Reigns, and Wyatt as 3 out of the 4 would be one hell of a foundation for a wild 4 way brawl. Maybe throw in AJ Styles as the 4th guy (by having him end up in the final 4 at the Rumble?) Stranger things have happened.

I would argue that it has slowly been "biting them" for the last couple of years by eating away at their growth potential. Their mentality for the last while has been that it's easier to pop a buy rate or whatever by throwing some part-timers out there, but they could have pulled in that crowd AND built up new guys in the process. It didn't have to be mutually exclusive. It's definitely catching up to them now that they actually need hot new acts though.

this is all probably more of a discussion for the divas thread, but what kills me is that they can't seem to run more than one women's program at a time. Like when's the last time you saw two unrelated women's singles matches on RAW?

i have absolutely zero desire to ever see HHH/Reigns. That ship has sailed. The time to do it was at the tail end of the Shield/Evolution feud, but they went for the Shield breakup instead. You're never going to have a better "HHH steps off the throne to answer for his crimes" scenario than what we got with him and Bryan. The heat between HHH and Reigns is a fraction of what it was between HHH and Bryan so why would anyone want to see a shittier version of what we already got? The only way they could heat it up enough for me to care would be if Reigns made it personal by hitting a Superman Punch on Stephanie or something. If they insist on a HHH/Reigns match then it needs to just be a stepping stone for Reigns on the way to fighting Brock and not a featured match at WM (and sure as hell not the main event). But I suspect they are trying to secure Rock or someone to wrestle Brock which in their mind is the biggest drawing option they have so once again they'll sacrifice their top current star in the name of a short term gain from a one off match with part-timers.

was going to post the exact same thing....Brock/Roman at Fastlane jives with the rumors that they want Fastlane to be a big deal. It would be so like this company to do Brock/Roman at the B show and the much less intriguing Roman/HHH at WM.

I think we won't know until after the Rumble. They might view the Rumble as the blowoff and have Reigns get over on him in the final 2 or something. Or they could have someone (Rock maybe? Owens?) cost Brock the Rumble win to set up a different opponent for Brock at WM. Or they might give us just enough of them at the Rumble to set up the match at WM. It's tough to say where they are going with it right now.

man I fucking *loved* their No Way Out '06 match but I can't imagine them having a good match in 2015. Would be nice to see Angle get a proper sendoff from WWE though.

According to the taping reports I'm seeing, the answer seems to be no. Colour me unsurprised lol And they're running Becky vs Charlotte which we just saw on Raw, and Ambrose vs Owens which we've seen dozens of times as their featured matches. They could have saved the Reigns vs Sheamus rematch for the first show to make it special. New channel, same old Smackdown. to be fair both of those Smackdown matches will be title matches

I think he was too "indy" for them back in the day. He was always a pretty generic flippy guy until his last couple years where he has developed more of an edge. I mean he was always a good worker, but that's not all they look for obviously.

I think: a. The fact that so many of their top guys were high profile indy/international signings who have done very well and b. The fact that HHH personally supports these guys makes your whole point pretty invalid. I mean come on. CM Punk, Bryan, Rollins, Ambrose, Owens, Cesaro, Balor, etc. It's not like they've brought all these guys in and buried them. Most of them have actually been treated way better than most of their "home grown" talent. Vince enjoys taking the top guys from others companies and thus damaging the competing brand.. He enjoys driving his competitors out of business. Remember Vince hates wrestling, he never any wrestling product but the WWE . . What he loves is money , control and power . I recall him taking the Dudleys and TAZ from ECW just before they started on TNN. He just wanted to take the ECW champions away before the TNN launch . It could have been Sandman and the IMpact Payers , he just wanted to hurt ECW . If they though Styles was so great , the WWE would have signed him 10 years ago. . My points are very valid. your points are not valid because it's the year 2016 and not 1999.

I think: a. The fact that so many of their top guys were high profile indy/international signings who have done very well and b. The fact that HHH personally supports these guys makes your whole point pretty invalid. I mean come on. CM Punk, Bryan, Rollins, Ambrose, Owens, Cesaro, Balor, etc. It's not like they've brought all these guys in and buried them. Most of them have actually been treated way better than most of their "home grown" talent.

would adding Gallows to the Wyatt Family be overkill?

i've actually thought for months that if Bryan were to ever return then having him return as a heel would be the best way to use him. If they don't think they can count on him as the babyface ace then he's still super capable of making the top faces look great as a top heel mechanic. He could basically be like 1997 Bret Hart. the most unlikely thing about that post btw is the idea that WWE would do a 3 way dance instead of a triple threat.

Jericho is pretty smart really. knows he can do his podcast and music stuff and have a pretty comfy lifestyle and then come back for wrestlemania season and get paid for a few months and leave whenever he wants. I don't know why more guys don't get wise to how much WWE treats people who leave and come back. I mean look at the deal Del Rio got. If I'm Sheamus then I take off after wrestlemania for 6 or 8 months and then wait for them to beg me to come back at the first major injury to a top guy.

even if they clear Bryan and bring him back, it's unlikely they'll ever have enough faith in his health to let him go with Brock. In their minds if Undertaker got injured working with Brock then Bryan will have no chance of surviving a match with him.

I thought they won a lot of the crowd over by the end actually