Strummer

According to Dave the plan is to just do Bryan and Hunter at the show. The company believes that the people booing Batista are the minority and that they aren't changing plans to include Bryan in the title match

I know people are saying Bryan will be added to the title match but with this company and how everything is neatly presented the fact that he never mentioned the title tonight (neither did the announcers) I highly doubt it. Yeah depressing

Yeah that was quite the depressing show at least in regards to where Mania is headed. For all the talk over the past month they basically made zero changes

Wade Keller is reporting that Batista injured his left arm on the show last night. Everything this company has been trying to do lately seemingly has been blowing up in their faces

Orton wins Chamber. HHH removes Bryan from match after he re-injures shoulder. Sets up HHH/Bryan for Mania Wyatts defeat Shield after Shield miscommunication and bickering Batista beats Del Rio Titus beats Young Outlaws retain over Usos. Maybe they have Usos win by DQ. Outlaws hold on to belts though Big E beats Swagger Goldust and Cody b Ryback and Axel pretty straight forward show that's rather easy to predict. Will be interesting to see if they are able to hold the crowd from turning on the show when they eliminate Bryan

I was re-watching that recently and I remembered Bret Hart talking about how Shawn doing all those flashy moves was going to turn him babyface and either he was doing it on purpose or just had no idea. Watching the match I just assumed that Shawn knew he was going babyface soon, due to how he worked the match. ​ Apparently he just doesn't understand wrestling. I don't know if it was so much doing "flashy moves" but him wrestling from underneath and being the clear underdog. I was pretty surprised that the babyface turn was not a long term plan apparently. Part of me thinks they wanted Shawn to take time off so the crowd wouldn't clamor for a rematch against Diesel and they could ease Sid into the spot

Uh, is he talking about the spot where he superkicks Diesel and gets a visual fall on him while the ref is out? Did he say why he took time off after WrestleMania, or did he just say that he didn't want to do it? Yes He said the company forced him to take time off. Didn't say why. Was against it

and to add a note after watching this entire DVD and how Shawn describes Vince I'm almost 100% certain the Bryan stuff is all his doing. Being small in the WWF is like leaning over a cliff with one of your shoelaces hooked to a shrub. Always near death and you need to keep fighting Vince to stay alive

Watched the new Shawn DVD. Some interesting backstage stuff I've never heard before. -The curly blonde haired girl who was often shown during Shawn's matches in the early/mid 90s was his first wife! I never knew he was married before Rebecca. In the timeframe he was talking about 1991 and she is still shown on camera till around 95. Had no idea. I actually mentioned her in the "Famous fans" thread on this board years ago. Funny I can remember her cheering Ric Flair at WM 8. -Shawn and Marty had a falling out over a cereal commercial where they would receive $5,000 total while the Road Warriors would receive $5,000 each. Shawn and Marty vowed to take a stand and walk out but Vince convinced Shawn to stay with the vague promise of a singles heel push. Shawn gave in and that caused the heat between him and Marty. -At WM 11 Vince insisted that Nash kick out at 1 after the superkick spot in order for him to look strong. Both Shawn and Nash complained incessantly but finally agreed. They told Vince the crowd would hate it and they did. Thought they rushed his babyface turn the next night on RAW and that Vince overreacted to him getting the cheers at Mania. Didn't want to take time off after Mania either. -Was worried that Hogan coming back at WM 9 meant bad things for the younger, unestablished guys such as himself. -at the WM 14 DX press conference he left after getting hit with a battery by a fan. He went in his limo and took a bunch of pills and booze. Came back out to do the kissing Austin spot because he knew it would get mainstream. Vince yelled at him for taking his pants off at the event and Shawn countered with the excuse that the security was shit at the event. So until WM 14 Shawn had "secret service" like security. Was so strung out that he barely remembers anything between Rumble 98 and WM 14. that's all I remember now. Real interesting stuff

has the company been reading this board? They gave Bryan a bunch of new non-embarrassing merchandise. Simple Maroon color with YES logo and a Che Guevara style one amongst others.

Another fantastic Smackdown tonight. Good six man and solid main event. Even the commentary is so much better on this show despite having two of the people who broadcast RAW. It's just so much better than RAW right now

Summer Rae also bases her current character on Missy Hyatt from the 80s. After Dusty encouraged her to do so

IIRC Dudley was used in a backstage vignette with Stephanie McMahon in very early 2002

why didn't the BSK have the power that the Clique had? there used to be a pic of the clique and BSK having a manfia style meeting in the back of a bus. Pretty awesome IIRC

Vince thinks Christian is hideous looking and wanted to put a blue dot over his face back in 2005. People online thought he was over enough to have a program with Cena and this was what Vince was coming up with for him. IIRC they did do the match on PPV but added Jericho because they didn't have faith in Christian as a draw

I haven't seen the match in years but his performance in the Sting/Luger v Hall/Nash match at Hog Wild 96 was particulary impressive. That was a pretty creative ending by american prowrestling standards in 1996. He was always good at stuff like that

Watching SD instead of RAW will certainly help lower your blood pressure. That was a tremendous 2 hours of pro wrestling. It's not ideal but Bryan and Kane's confrontation was pulled off quite well with all the backstory being drilled home. Looks like HHH/Bryan is a lock for Mania after I'm guessing Kane screws Bryan at the chamber.

Does anyone remember if Chris Benoit "moved numbers" before he got his push in late 03/early 04? Dave has mentioned Rey and Eddy spiking QH's before their pushes but I've never heard any of that about Benoit. All I remember was him wrestling guys like Albert and Rhyno and then all of a sudden was getting a push to the top. Yes this mostly occurred on SD but still

I can't believe they aren't making any changes to Mania. This company, this fucking company. Mania is going to be a trainwreck. An absolute trainwreck

Extreme Rules will now be at the IZOD center in New Jersey

well with Kane running in during the main event they were trying to tell the audience that Hunter and Stephanie still hate Bryan. Yes despite the first segment where they were mad at Orton again and praised Bryan. I think from the way they're booking Orton here he is definitely winning at the Chamber. Unless plans change again

From the way they presented Orton last night as having no chance at the Chamber, jobbing and being paranoid it certainly seems he is going over at the PPV. Kane being shoehorned in with Bryan seems like they are just starting back up the Punk program with Bryan in the place of Punk. I thought Harper gave a solid promo for his first effort

Well I was going by Dave theorizing that they were going to "build the show around Bryan" if it was held in Seattle

Apparently Extreme Rules is not taking place in Seattle after all. The Key Arena has released a statement saying that they have no WWE events scheduled in May. I hope they aren't stupid enough to have this alter any potential plans

this is still crowing at me. But I guess if they do the right thing in the end the path is insignificant. But yes clearly the plan was never to give Bryan the fairty tale story ending. With all that said I bet you they still believed they elevated him to a certain status even without the happy ending