Russellmania

well fuck

Personally I think they need to drop the Stephanie stuff altogether. Let Sheamus turn heel and go after Bryan on his own...not because he's some schmuck hired gun but because he wants the title. That needs to be the story of Bryan's title reign. He overcame the odds and beat the Authority and got exactly what he wanted. He got his WM main event an now he's the champion. But be careful what you wish for because now everyone in WWE is gunning for him. Sheamus, Batista, Orton, whoever....his reign should be a gauntlet of title defenses until someone (presumably Brock) finally proves to be one obstacle too many.

awful show

so during this 3-way match the announce team totally had no idea this was an elimination match. They sold Cesaro breaking up a submission as him trying to keep the match from ending and then were completely bewildered when Swagger got pinned. How the hell does that even happen when someone is constantly in their ears?

I don't doubt that the match will be at least 'good', it's just that it's such an uninteresting matchup.

This is the fucking problem right here. The fact that they have failed to get anyone more over than 2014 Kane as a world title contender is a serious problem with this company.

Batista, Orton and Sheamus for starters would all be more interesting opponents than Kane. Also, Batista and Orton both actually have pretty good reason to want a rematch after WM. Guys like Cesaro, Barrett, Henry, and others could all be challengers on a PPV with a little build up, but of course WWE has done such a shitty job building up anybody that they have left themselves with very few options who actually have enough momentum to challenge. When Kane in 2014 is the strongest challenger for the world title despite having tons of talent on the roster, then obviously you suck at booking. And I just listed the guys who have been booked strong enough to potentially be challengers. There are loads of others...Ziggler, Sandow, Ryback and others who have been booked like shit but have the talent to be taken more seriously if they hadn't buried them. Part of the problem is that I think they're pulling the trigger on this Shield/Evolution match too soon. It kind of makes no sense for Batista and Orton to just stop caring about the title after WM. Especially Orton who has the ready-made "I was never pinned" motivation for demanding a title shot.

to anyone who would defend RVD, consider the fact that he was just responsible for Cesaro's first bad match in forever.

normally I'd agree with you. Lately they've had some crowds that just absolutely sucked despite some cool ass shit going on in the ring, but tonight it's no coincidence that they were hot for Sheamus/Barrett (which owned) and dead very everything else (which sucked).

the problem with this Kane program for Bryan is that there are so many possible opponents for Bryan that would be infinitely more interesting. When he won the title I was really excited at all the potential matchups and instead we get boring ass Kane. It's just really lame.

not having Bryan around is no excuse for absolute fucking garbage booking. Yes his absence hurts, but they have an incredibly deep roster that they could put to much better use than this.

wrestling is back to sucking again after a terrific wrestlemania

wow, just absolutely brutal timing. He tweeted that this had been the best 2 weeks of his life and now this happens.

Bryan Danielson's ROH title run, particularly throughout 2006 was pretty tremendous. Had terrific matches with all the big name indy guys he faced and carried a bunch of the less impressive indy guys to fun matches. He had something like 50+ title defenses (starting in late 2005) and he was able to work a lot of different styles depending on his opponent and the context. It's hard to sell and indy guy's best year as being more substantial than a big name like Austin's best year, but from a pure ring work standpoint that was a terrific year for Bryan.

what the FUCK is this toys r us commercial? jesus that was bad.

As crazy as Vince is I have to think that he didn't know. I'm sure the thought crossed his mind but like anyone close to the situation he was probably in denial about that possibility. I have to think if he knew there's no way he would have made himself and the company a target for that kind of criticism, and the way they've completely erased him from history in the aftermath seems to suggest that there's no way they'd have done a tribute show if Vince knew.

It has been a while since I watched them, but at the time I really loved the Bryan Danielson vs. Delirious matches during Bryan's ROH title run. I haven't heard anyone say anything bad about them, but they are some of my favorite matches and I've never heard them get the love that a lot of the bigger-name Danielson title matches get.

Ah this is my best response. Benoit/Sasuke was cool as an intro to puro in 1997 when I was a kid and hadn't seen anything like it at the time, but in hindsight it's a boring, emotionless match and even before Benoit-gate I had no desire to ever see it again. The Liger/Sasuke match from that show blows it out of the water and that's arguably not even the best Liger/Sasuke match from that year.

I don't know why but I just love the idea of Vince and Heyman having this pro wres bromance and mutual respect for each other.

he looked like his heart could burst at any minute tbh. the timing is insanely weird but he didn't look great IMO so not totally surprising. His family seems really beautiful and his daughters are adorable. that's the really heartbreaking part.

typical WWE. They bring him in and he's surprisingly eloquent and things wrapped up nicely with him so now they're going to have him overstay his welcome and ruin all the good will they've built up.

poor Kane, it looked like it killed him to have to be the guy to do that.

Yeah who takes a shit with a half dozen people sitting five feet away? someone who really needs to take a shit?

That's part of the reason I'm going to HATE it if Hogan is somehow involved in getting Bryan into the main event at WM. Sure on the surface it would just be the nostalgic legendary babyface helping the current top babyface, but historically speaking Bryan is not the kind of guy that Hulk Hogan would stick his neck out for either on TV or backstage.

Very serious. This isn't like The Rock vs Cena with a huge build. The only thing that is anything like a big, epic blow off to a long feud is Daniel Bryan vs HHH, a match that wasn't even meant to happen until a few weeks ago when the crowd and the loss of CM Punk forced them to change the plans. The show seems thrown together especially for a 30th Anniversary event where they should be pulling out all the stops and ending some long term feuds. Problem is, they don't have to end due to booking ineptitude. And Stephanie doesn't need to get physical comeuppance at all, although it would be a kind of shocking moment, given that she hasn't bumped on television in forever. Just HHH destroyed, a broken mess at ringside, Stephanie weeping by his side while Bryan holds the title aloft is enough for retribution. this is the epitome of letting smarkdom ruin the show for you. From a kayfabe standpoint, this HHH/Bryan feud goes all the way back to Summerslam. Their backstage plans are irrelevant. "Knowing" that the HHH/Bryan match was not always the plan does nothing to invalidate the fact that on TV those two have been on a collision course since August. Maybe the payoff is "by accident" but you can't argue that they've done a shitty job building it based on what's happened on TV over the last 6 months. Assuming Bryan ends up in the title match, that has also had a strong build by proxy since Bryan's title chase goes back to Summerslam as well. Now Brock/Taker and Cena/Wyatt definitely feel thrown together, but that's what you get these days with Taker working one night a year and I'd argue that Cena and Wyatt has been really well built in the short amount of time they've had.