Sean Liska

dp

Houston isn't going to have a crowd like Seattle, that was a unique deal. I'm sure the crowd will enthusiastically respond as they tease climbing the ladder and getting the belt.

Cena did the really smart thing. That crowd was ready to crap all over the segment and chant for Daniel Bryan to make a point. The "boring" chants for Orton weren't heel heat. Cena took that emotion and used it to get the crowd into everything he said and make the match feel like a hot issue. He saved the segment. It could have died a brutal Lesnar-Goldberg death.

Unrelated but I once had Flair sign my 89 Observer Yearbook and he loved flipping through it.

He's not even really in the midcard though - he's not having thrown together TV matches with Sandow and Fandango. Well, I'll shut up now.

When do Sulli and Wonderful get replaced by Joey Styles? I think that's my biggest problem right now. What in your guys' opinion is when ECW got really good? I loved ECW starting in early 94, but some of that stuff is harder to watch now. Early 95 for sure is fun, maybe late 94 with the Dreamer-Sandman angles and the build beginning for the original 3-way dance.

He's not even really in the midcard though - he's not having thrown together TV matches with Sandow and Fandango. He's in the second-most pushed issue right now, him and Punk feuding with the Wyatts and Shield. He's main evented numerous TV shows, including this last SD with Orton. The only thing getting more attention right now is Orton and Cena.

I'm not sure that Bryan got "buried" or is fated to never be in the main event anymore. Several RAWs since HITC have been headlined by Bryan, and the last two RAWs before Survivor Series ended with Bryan's music playing and him celebrating. Him and Punk are in the second biggest feud happening now. He hasn't exactly gotten the Ziggler treatment. I think Bryan's situation was similar to Ryback last October in that he was a victim of timing. The time wasn't right for Bryan to win the title and triumph over HHH because they're building the heat for the Vince-HHH thing at Mania. It sucks but it is what it is. But to say he's buried back to the midcard isn't really accurate either. He'll get more opportunities, as opposed to guys like Ziggler or Ryback who had their chance and now are legitimately done in that role.

I don't think that does her any favors considering she's supposed to be a heel right now. She's single-handedly carrying the Diva's division right now, so a passive aggressive rebuke is about the best they could do. Like I said, it just strikes me as very petty. What would AJ prefer? The usual treatment where she's part of a 3-minute jumbled divas match that nobody remembers, or a longer featured segment where she's getting one over on one of the most hated performers on the roster? She's been in kind of a weird tweener status since cutting that pipe bomb on the divas.

They really showed AJ by booking a segment where the fans would love her and she constantly out-thwarted the hated heel before delivering her comeuppance to the crowd's approval. That main event was awesome.

The crowd's at fault for being a bad imitation of an ECW audience. Chanting "you sold out" at a guy giving up seven-figure money to go pursue something with no guarantees? Screw that.

What else could he say? It was important that he emphasized that SummerSlam's drop was an isolated event and not an indicator of their overall performance. It did more buys than Cena-Punk two years ago and Punk headlined plenty of PPVs after that.

I think the main goal was to make tons of money and they did that with the three biggest money shows in wrestling history.

There is no company in the history of the world that would have declined giving Rock the belt if he wanted it, especially with his plan ending with him doing a clean job to their top star.

Is this an unfair statement - since Vince's expansion in 1984, the only time hardcore wrestling fans weren't complaining about the industry turning it's back on them was maybe 1996-1998.

If Punk were viewed as a joke, the Rumble wouldn't have done the biggest non-Mania PPV number in 6 years. It would have been more like Survivor Series 2011 with Miz and R-Truth headlining. Punk carried the company on his back from 8/12-1/13 with the amount of segments he was featured in and mic time he was given. They don't waste Lesnar paydays on guys they don't see as being big-time guys, his only other opponents have been Cena, HHH, and likely Taker coming up.

HHH's involvement has been ongoing for months, and it's all part of their planned Mania angle. Shawn's involvement was reported quite a while ago by Meltzer as being part of the angle. Cena always hurries back. If ending up like Punk is a disappointment, then people probably won't be happy. That's probably where the disconnect with me is because I view Punk's spot as being pretty good. He faced Rock in two PPV main events, faced Taker at Mania, faced Lesnar at SummerSlam, headlines house shows, gets lots of TV time, cover of last year's video game, best-selling DVD, etc. If Bryan ends up in that role, I'll be pretty content. Nobody's replacing Cena right now.

That's entirely fair. Three straight months of screwjob finishes at $55 a pop is a tough sell and they should have come up with something more creative. I'm more talking about the discussion of Bryan being buried, of WWE giving up on him and not being behind him anymore, of WWE being down on him due to ratings and attendance, etc.

Who ever thought they would blow off the storyline three weeks after they started it? No one should have thought he was going to win at NOC, much less a nothing B-show like Battleground. HITC is the first time I thought he had a chance. The biggest show of the fall is next month. And if he doesn't win then, what's to say he doesn't win the Rumble? The bottom line is we've heard nothing from Meltzer about WWE being unhappy with him or planning on scaling back his push, so there's a lot of panicking in this thread that is probably unnecessary. You guys would have hated pulling for Kawada or Kobashi back in the day if two months without the big win is this excruciating. I would also understand worrying if he lost relatively cleanly last night, or they did it in a decisive way that seemed to blow off the storyline. But he didn't get the RVD/Booker T vs. HHH treatment. Three of the biggest stars of the last decade had to conspire against him to screw him out of a win after he'd gotten a visual pinfall and knocked out Orton and HHH with the knee. They're still protecting him like a headline guy. And they're keeping Cena occupied with the WHC, leaving the path open for Bryan to continue his quest. They're kinda stuck being all in with this Daniel Bryan push. They killed Ziggler's face push. They turned Del Rio back heel. The Rock may not be coming back. Undertaker works once a year. The list of legit top babyfaces consists of Cena, Punk, and Bryan. There's no one close that can take one of their places.

I think there's a lot of overreacting in this thread. So they've stretched out the Bryan chase for another month to the big November show, it's not a big deal. Probably not the right call to do another screwjob, but I think far too much is being read into this. We've heard nothing about WWE being down on Bryan, nothing about them being unhappy with business indicators. Ratings are better than they were during football season last year. I think everyone is freaking out over something that isn't happening. Like how everyone spent so much time worried about WWE burying Punk due to the ratings last fall, and Punk then getting PPV matches with Rock, Taker, and Lesnar.

I haven't gotten that excited about a list of 6-mans since the Misawa-Jumbo days. Quite the special run they've been on.

I don't think HHH's Crockett digs have had anything more behind them than Edge saying HHH married his way into stardom. They just like coming up with shooty little things to make the situations seem a little more real. I bet HHH loved going face to face with Dusty due to his love of 80's NWA.

From this week's Observer -

I figure the face of the WWE in this plan will end up being HHH. It would be interesting if they had somebody else in mind.

I can sympathize with Dave making an argument for HBK or Angle given his tastes, but no way on Edge.