Russellmania

The most frustrating thing about this Batista/Orton situation is that Heel Batista vs. Bryan is right there and would accomplish everything they need to accomplish. And as a match/feud I think it could be quite good, almost like a modern Brock/Eddie.

At Mania? None. Going forward after that... depends how they book him. If they go with Batista/Orton, then a logical step in that process is Bryan losing tonight (and Orton winning). If they go ahead with that then what impact does that have on the launch of the Network?

At least him getting shit on in that case would work to their advantage. I never believed in X-Pac heat in the case of X-Pac, but Batista is getting complete X-Pac heat right now. yeah definitely but at least if you let him act as the heel foil for Bryan, the heat would work for them instead of against them. When a guy is actually working heel, then X-pac heat is harder to distinguish from genuine heel heat.

At least him getting shit on in that case would work to their advantage.

What are the chances they have a gimmicked rematch at Mania? That's what I'm hoping so much. That would be the right way to go with all this, but I have a feeling they'll fuck it up and split the Shield before Mania.

complaining that this match wasn't a wild, violent brawl from the start when you knew going into it that it was a straight 1 fall no-gimmick match seems kind of silly to me. It's valid to complain about the booking in this case because these two teams probably deserve a gimmick match, but the match itself given the constraints of the rules was absolutely perfect.

Seems like the same can be said of TV. Their mentality for a long time now has been to not give away too much on TV because they need to protect their PPV business, but TV is by far their biggest revenue stream so you'd think they'd run more big matches, title changes, and angles on TV than they currently do in order to strengthen their TV footing. Obviously times have changed a ton, but their current TV product is extremely predictable compared to their heydey during the Monday Night Wars, and it's very rare that they do anything on RAW to make the show feel like it's must-see TV.

Cool, thanks for posting that. Dave is funny sometimes...how much detail do we really need about the chants at various arenas? Do people really care? took him forever to get to the meat of the story which is where do things stand between Punk and WWE. I like the advice from Foley at the end, and if Punk does come back he'd be wise to heed it. Had Savage and Steambot just gone through the motions at WM 3, or had Bret and Shawn just given up hope and worked safe matches in the mid-card in the 80's and 90's then the business would be very different today so I hope if he comes back he at least goes out there and genuinely tries to have the best match every night.

anybody have Dave's latest update on punk?

If they were smart they'd just run with Bryan/Batista and it would be perfectly suitable as the last match. But real answer is that the former is easier to say than the latter and they also seem to downplay titles every chance they get. Plus they probably still aren't certain what the card looks like.

they really dropped the ball with Dolph months ago IMO. They should have kept Dolph with Big E and AJ all this time doing the HBK/Diesel routine. Give Dolph a long IC title reign and let him build heat bouncing around and cheating to keep the title. Then they could have had Big E turn on him and roll with the Dolph sympathy face push for a while. It felt like they had a lot of possibilities as a group and they abandoned it before it went anywhere.

Will be really interesting to see how the numbers for tonight's show compare, assuming they stick to the planned format of Orton/Cena in the main event. I expect the crowd to shit on that match, but if it manages to spike the ratings where Bryan/Orton had a drop then it will only lend more fuel to the fire. Do long main event singles matches usually have pretty steady ratings or even growth regardless of who is in them? I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the 3rd hour drops sem-frequently if only because it's so hard to watch 3 hours of wrestling at a time every week.

I thought I read somewhere that when the Network launches they will have all WWE/WCW/ECW PPV's and all their DVD releases available on demand.

yes, to the point that he literally said to Cena's face that he was bad at wrestling.

I think part of the problem is that Bray is the only one of the Wyatts who is over. The other two are kind of generic big men. With the Shield all 3 guys are so good and have distinct personas that are pretty well over at this point. It doesn't feel like the big clash of mega-factions that it should be because one of them is still kind of green.

regarding HHH, he has shown a willingness to job to guys like Cena, but it seems like he always gets his win back later. (Same goes for HBK)

Plus KENTA is not that young to begin with (he will turn 33 this March) and already had some serious injuries. Same can be said of Bryan though.

Wow, this is a bit under the radar b/c of the Rumble reaction but isn't this kind of a big deal? Would definitely be interesting to see how they use him.

I get that not everyone buys a Daniel Bryan t-shirt or whatever, but does buying tickets to shows and chanting your ass off not count or something?

Bray Wyatt is awesome, but there's no way he should be facing Cena at the 30th anniversary of wrestlemania. This card is shaping up to be an epic fail.

I love the 619 precisely b/c he always seems to be setting that spot up and it makes me feel like I'm watching a guy who has honed his flying headscissors and other moves to such an exact science that he can put guys exactly where he wants with them.

So what the hell is the card gonna be for this one? Has Meltzer released any new info on their plans? I like the idea of Cena/Rock 2, but I think it needs to have a purpose to it other than just having a rematch for the sake of it. Adding the title to the mix would definitely up the stakes but then everyone would know that Cena's winning it. Maybe if they use it to finally launch a Cena heel run it could be something special. Not that it wouldn't be special anyway, as a rematch would still be pretty hot, but it would just be cool if they could put a new twist on it (but please god no triple threat match).

I feel like Punk/Bryan is something they really want to do right at some point so I don't see them getting a WM match now without a title involved. I can see them having an Iron Man match at WM30 for one of the title, though. Also, waaaay too soon for Ambrose to be involved in something as big as challenging The Streak. I also wouldn't put Ryback anywhere near Brock b/c I think he'd look like shit compared to Brock and that's not what they want right now. So I guess what I'm saying is that I don't like any of those ideas, lol. I also hate the idea of a Rock/Cena/Punk triple threat. Triple threat matches can be fun, but I hate them for big shows like this. It just feels like a cop-out and takes some of the shine off of seeing certain guys face each other. Plus it would totally feel like when Jericho was thrown in with Austin and Rock and was clearly a step below those guys. I'm a big Cena fan so i'm all for seeing Cena/Rock II, but I think it needs to have a purpose other than just giving Cena back his win. Anyway, isn't there a WM prediction thread for this sort of thing already? I don't wanna derail this one.

Taker/Punk would probably have a pretty terrific dynamic to it as you have the guy who commands respect vs. the guy who demands respect. It wouldn't be any more pointless than Edge vs. Taker at WM24. I remember thinking that Edge came out of that looking like a million bucks even though he lost. With that said, I don't know that Punk can really afford to lose to the Rock and The Undertaker within the span of a few weeks. I have a feeling Punk only loses to the Rock due to some interference. Anyway, this show was awesome, but it seems like WWE has a tendency to have the worst shows on paper end up being the best ones in practice. I think when a card is kind of thin, guys tend to step up their game to compensate.

I'm just so passionate about inter-borough politics