Strummer

Beth Phoenix is being inducted according to PWI

Angle is being inducted! just announced . A legit holy shit moment. Wonder if he will work mania

Hunter is returning to Raw tomorrow. First show with no football competition. All hail

Roman is the only one that makes sense. I guess the thought is that working with and presumably going over Taker is worth more than him being in the title match again

seen a lot of people online getting on Dave for his reporting on the mania card this week. That he's being worked, just speculating, etc. No problem with that but keep in mind three years ago for WM 30 when he released the planned line up people were saying the same exact things (basically he was being worked by WWE) and he turned out to be exactly right

I could *swear* reading at the time that Chyna requested to continue to work with Jericho because she thought he was "cute" and liked working with him. Which is kind of funny considering the behind the scenes maneuvering going on at the time. But you're right that she was never the same after this program even though she got one more IC title run and the pairing with Eddy. The fans clearly saw her a level beneath the Eddy, Jericho, Benoit, Val Venis types even if it took wwe a while to realize that. And yep this is a rare political swing and a miss by HHH at the time. This was done to hurt Jericho but it ended up backfiring. Even 17 years ago the fans were rejecting stuff and getting behind the wrestler that wasn't scheduled to get pushed or look good I guess

Lemmy, you say?

According to his facebook Ottman has been hospitalized the last several days

Vince was on crutches today at the WM press conference. Damn, how long ago did he tear his quads?

Shane has been on the show a handful of times since the summer and Bryan is barely on unless he's doing something with Miz

I know Balor is not good on the mic but I think he could bring some freshness to the main event scene on Raw for a little while. Almost certain they will go back to Roman/Finn as there is no way they are going to let Balor have that win hanging over Roman. I would expect that to be the Spring feud post mania this year

Roman v Jericho and Owens for the US title announced for Raw. Well that's how they are going to get that belt off him. I guess Stephanie is back to full fledged heel now

Dave says Goldberg is going to be wrestling at the February PPV. Him wrestling for the title (most likely Reigns) and then getting screwed by Brock makes the most sense. It's funny how this feud is almost exactly mirroring the 2004 version

it doesn't just apply to wrestling for me. I watch TV shows and movies that people say are great and I just don't get it at all. In my mind they will never be as good as Family Ties, Larry Sanders or all the comedies I grew up on. It's the frightening realization that I'm getting old. It's funny when I was a kid my parents would tell me how terrible and stupid the TV and movies I watched were and I thought they were clearly out of their mind. Now I know what they were talking about. It's depressing and scary but it's just part of life I guess

Renee's run in during the main event is going to get a huge pop. I'm not kidding when I say they should do that mixed tag at mania

Another incredible promo by Cena. AJ wasn't far behind

To me it looks like she got some sort of plastic surgery. At the very least Botox And a much needed Dolph heel turn. And Smackdown is running 1990 wcw angles and it's great

so Dave thinks the idea is to recreate the Bryan storyline from 2014 with Bayley and Charlotte/Stephanie

Wow Cass pinned clean. Wasn't expecting that

That opening segment was something else. Foley saying Jericho should be banned from ringside in a match Jericho is in, Owens and Jericho talking over each other and then Steph briefly breaking character and laughing at all of it. Then she makes matches we've seen countless times. Raw is a mess right now after being pretty decent post split. And now Im back to thinking Reigns is winning at the Rumble. Especially if he loses the US title tonight

I can remember Dave always pointing to this match to put over HHH's talent and deserved position on the card. Rikishi was over to a good degree here but the people believed he had a shot at winning which was due to Hunter making him look good and the well timed near falls. IIRC these two had a brief house show run around this time that drew surprisingly well. In fact it might have been one of the shows Dave attended and made this conclusion about HHH

Maybe it's misdirected optimism but Shane has barely been on TV since Summerslam so I don't think they have anything big planned with him. I honestly don't even think his heart is in it that much anymore. But it's going to be tough to get him pushing ticket sales to such a large degree last year out of Vince's head

As an aside what the hell happened with all the movies Ronda was scheduled to shoot? There was one with Mark Wahlberg, with Tina Fey and the Roadhouse remake. It seems none of them have even entered production yet

I don't know if they have time to start it up for WM 33 but I could definitely see it happening in 2018 at 34. also there is a local ad advertising Shawn and Undertaker for the January 9 Raw in New Orleans. Shawn has a new Christian apologetic movie coming out so it's probably him promoting it. I could have sworn Taker said he was team blue for life just like a month ago but I guess it doesn't matter. Probably just to announce he's in the Rumble

Smackdown beat Raw in the ratings this week.