Strummer

I assume the new plan is saving Braun/Brock for Mania with Braun finally getting the big win. quite a star making night for Finn. When wwe wants to they still can make people feel special. Wish they would do that more

According to the Observer Lars was supposed to debut in a dark match on Raw in Orlando but had an anxiety attack and it didn't happen. They worked things out and he was supposed to work the SD tapings in another dark match but apparently had another attack and flew back home. Pretty damn sad. also the plan is/was for him to wrestle Cena at Mania

It's quite alarming how less over Braun is than a year ago. If he loses again to Brock at the Rumble I think he's cooked as a top guy. What happened to the program they were teasing with Drew? I know a lot of the talk was that he was only so over because he was feuding with Roman but even post Roman he was getting gigantic reactions. The weird heel turn in September killed him and then he turns right back after the Shield program was over. Such strange booking

Listened to some of the Mean Gene Show. Have to admit the story of Tony, Jimmy Hart and Gene jamming out to N'SYNC in 1999 on a car ride got a legit LOL from me

the Bliss segment seemed underproduced as well with everyone talking over everybody else. Both were weird segments

On your 3rd point to think there were lots of people defending the booking of Bryan in 2013/2014. Yeah hindsight has not been kind to that. Ask Bayley

Question: Was this "new direction" forced on them by USA network or was it 100% Vince? I guess we won't be able to really tell till holidays are over but I'm starting to think this was a USA/NBC universal/Bonnie Hammer initiative

also several announcements made tonight for the Jan 7 Raw where the show starts to "count" again:

First reaction is this might be building to AJ v Hunter at Mania

Holy shit AJ lays out Vince! Are they writing Vince out already or is this building to something?! Interested here

Oh man D-Bry versus the entire 205 live roster is going to be freakin' great

I didn't buy the creative control stuff when Bryan re-signed this past summer but with this character and these promos I'm starting to believe it's valid. I can't believe this is something Vince would come up with or even green light if he had the option

man this is really turning into late 2013/early 2014 DB with Becky here. John Pollock says the original plan for Rumble was Becky v Asuka but plans changed due to Becky's rise presumably. Obviously the original plan was for Charlotte to win the Rumble and face Ronda at mania. Now they are having to re think things obviously

btw, now that she's a face I could totally see them doing a Stephanie v Alexa feud on Raw and maybe even a mania match. Remember how much they love Alexa

going further I think Bryan's mania opponent has to be Rey or Jeff Hardy. Unless they bring over another babyface from Raw or call someone else up