El-P

I don't know about records broken, but Kane really is a broken record at this point.

Tells the whole story. The best match (the only good match) of the undercard actually happened during the pre-show. The undercard was a waste. Glad to see a NAO match in 2015 is exactly like one in 1999. People popping for the catchphrase then dying during the wrestling. The Ascension is terrible. Downright awful. The whole Mizdow has run its course yesterday. Makes the tag title matches a big joke. I'd argue that Nicky Bella was the best worker of this undercard actually. Then this triple threat match. Well, that was quite the epic spectacle. Brock is unique. I wasn't a fan of kicking out of a hundred AA (yeah, that finisher is kinda useless) but really, this was one of the best triple threat match I've ever seen (not a fan of the concept, especially without elimination). If they called an audible, then they did a terrific job. Maybe not MOTYC on rewatch, but as it is, yeah pretty terrific spectacle. Then. Well. I have no words. Yeah, Buh-buh was a nice surprise entrance, like DDP was. But then. Well, what can I add that hasn't been said. I dind't think they could be that dumb. But they are. The crowd non-stop booing is one of the most amazing thing I've seen on a wrestling show. The pop the "feel-good" entrance weren't half as strong as expected, and died immediately. Then when it couldn't get worse, the Big Show and freaking KANE in the final four. I dreaded Orton showing up, but this was even worse. And Rusev hiding out to be eliminated like nothing afterward ? Well. Poor Roman Reigns. When THE ROCK can't save the mess, you're in deep shit. These people are dumb as fuck. Vince blaming Philly is hilarious. Because if you know anything about your audience, you don't do this kind of shit in Philly to begin with ! What a pathetic whiny douchebag. So yeah. Amazing, amazing to witness. They learned jackshit from last year, and obviously don't want Daniel Bryan to be a top guy. Ok. Good luck then. Hope people are gonna get pumped up by that Roman Reigns push to the sky and by a 55 year old Sting. Reach for the future.

That would have made Rusev and the US title look meaningful. Can't have that on your PPV.

What an undercard…

The same.

I feel the RR JTS a long time ago. The back-to-back wins, the double eliminations, Vince winning the whole damn thing, number 1 having as many wins as number 30, etc. RR is fun- but every year I grow less excited as I can pretty much predict the final 4 and winner. I want the RR to be completely random and have someone like Xavier Woods or Kofi or Fandango win. The RR needs a reset. It's been a while. Overproduced, predictable, with the same cutesy spots every year. And the whole "Winner of the Rumble gets a shot at Mania" actually worked as a detriment after a while, since obviously there are very few guys that could get the spot anyway. The Rumble used to be my favourite PPV. In 98 it became predictable. In 99 it became stupid and cutesy. In 00 it became overproduced and way cutesy (with the dance routine in the middle of the match).

Hum, not really. Mero got the first ever garanteed contract from WWF. He was seen as main event material. He recieved a big push right away. But he just wasn't clicking. Mero said it himself, he had no idea what the "Wildman" was supposed to be. He got the IC title, then got into a feud with HHH, then fucked up his kneee really bad. That's when Sable got all those modeling gigs and with Vince Russo gaining power, boobs were more important than wrestling. When Mero came back he just wasn't the same (not that he ever was that good, and I'm a Mero defender) but did quite the good job job reinventing himself, although at this point it's obvious Sable was way more over than him. As long as it was Mero vs his wife, I thought Sable was pretty bearable, as Mero did a terrific job as a heel working with her. He said he didn't care about his own career at this point because the money was flowing into the same household anyway. But yeah, with the knee injury Mero couldn't work like he used to. It's quite surprising he never really showed up back in WCW apart from that one cameo in the crowd in 2000.

RVD is long-winded (yeah, I wasn't expected that) and certainly loves to talk about him wanting to "show-off". Still, after a while, it does gets interesting in how he portrays Heyman and some of the ECW crew (Candido for instance). His views on pro-wrestling totally explain why he works the way he does, and in a way it's kinda refreshing although I really can't stand his style at this point. He doesn't tell a lot of insighful stories, but I admit the bit about his "argument" with Tajiri in WWF is really funny, and the dry way RVD tells makes it all the better. As expected, he puts Sabu over big time, which is nice since Sabu puts over RVD all the time too, so you get the feel there's a deep friendship there. Decent episode overall.

The Hogan vs Wall shit happened that week : http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/19237-wcws-highway-to-hell/?p=5548594 Sullivan was sent home March 22 I believe.

No. Not even close. I went through this shit in 2013. Russo's two stints are the most godawful putrid shit ever (the second one just goes beyond imagination).

I think it cost you a year or two off your life. 9 months exactly.

By the promotion ? Ok. Yumi Fukawa then.

Hiromi Yagi. People who watched JWP in the mid 90's know...

Totally agree with this. The killing off of the top-of-the card managers and valets, replaced by the "heel authority figure", which is the dullest, laziest, most tired and boring cliché in pro-wrestling today, is a big detriment to the product, and Stephy has always been much better when she acted as an actual manager than when she's trying to be Mr. McMahon's daughter (well, she is, but you get my point).

Just re-read my WCW Highway to Hell thread of death instead. Plus, it's free.

"They call me Cage because I'm not a man, I'm a machiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine !" "Ok." Yeah, pretty funny in a WCW way.

It's less a matter of winning the award than the fact she seemed to be considered as this great promo these days. I just don't see it at all. As far as comparing with the winners of the other years, well, if you tell me that Stephy from 14 would have won against most of these names (Heyman excluded, I mean, for the post Mania promo alone, Heyman should be N°1), well, to me that does mean standarts have dropped. Or that she's wildly overrated. Or both. I did think she did a pretty terrific job as a valet at Mania though, paying her best hommage to Woman yet. Since being a valet is a lost art, I guess that counts for something.

I enjoyed this week's edition more than last week's, with a fun little oddity of a match as an opener. Liked the turn on Big Ryck, I guess now that Cage is officialy the new heel monster (damn, bring back Mil Muertes already), they have to do something else with Ryck. The short interview with Cage was well produced, and I actually enjoy Vampiro in this setting. Cage didn't show much character. I'm warming up to Sexy Star but the constant intergender stuff seems to go nowhere. Pentagon Jr. vs Superfly was a decent way to put Pentagon Jr. over. Superfly is squash material, he's not impressing me much. The main event was much more of my taste than last week's spotfu, and I enjoyed it quite a bit until the dumb as fuck finish. Ugh, who thought it was a good idea, it looks like a total cop-out way to end the feud. Again, too few backstage vignettes this week. Where is Konnan BTW ? The show has been losing steam with me for the last two weeks, but it's still fun to watch.

I think something got lost in translation here. Can you rephrase that question please, I'm not sure I understand (in case you don't know, English isn't my first language, sometimes it shows) ?

The fact Stephy is considered the best non-wrestler talker today baffles me. Says a lot about standarts dropping off a cliff in term of promo ability (well, can we still call this "promo ability" anyway, since it's actually only bad scripts and bad acting instead of simple "wrestling promos" ?)

Retrospectively, the end of the Streak really looks like a complete nothing, if you except the live reaction (which was shock over a total anticlimatic finish after a shitty and boring match). Especially if Taker comes back this year for yet another probably terrible match against Bray (that would make quite a bunch of awful Mania Taker matches if we're realistic).

With the Brock Lesnar face turn (?), right now I want a Brock vs Rusev match at Mania, with a "beast vs beast" dynamic (and no jingoist bullshit).

Weren't the girls who worked there a few years ago forced to have another dayjob because the pay was so shitty for them, despite getting the best ratings on TV ?

More like a shitty episode of Nitro from 2000, really.

The New Age Outlaws on PPV in 2015. Against two clowns looking like fourth rate indy parodies of DemoWarriors, from 30 years ago. How exciting. Anyway, another episode reminding everyone how stars of the past where so much bigger and better than stars of today. This company is so desperate. About Daniel Bryan jobbing on his first day back on the job… I dunno. I don't think it's *that* bad honestly. At this point there's absolutely nothing organic about the Roman Reigns push the the stars. He should work the "Chosen One" gimmick and turn heel. The Klik reunion was probably the highligh of this show. Mania looks as unexciting and uninteresting as it has looked in years right now. I have *zero* interest in Sting. Taker vs Wyatt, if it happens, will be horrible and ridiculous. I don't see how Bryan could get a storyline/match as good as last year's. Brock leaving makes his last match not intriguing at all. Hopefully Rusev will get something nice...