Matt D

The most interesting aspect of that to me was that they had hit a point where I think the fans were actually more than okay with a Reigns win. if he had won that match, it would have felt satisfying. People would have cheered. People would have smiled. So it does feel on some level that they made the fans want something, or at least accept something, and then gave them something that they "needed" instead. It's the sort of real heel heat generation that you don't often get in the modern product. In fact, I'd like to see Loss (who has spoken up strongly about the lack of heels being allowed to garner that heat, if I remember correctly) speak on that. He was so focused on the bait and switch element, the sort of out of character promotional element, that I haven't seen him say too much about the in character element.

Hey, I can't be blamed for the fact that it seemed like Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard were going to be there and Paul Roma and Mongo's dog showed up instead.

Andre/Hogan kind of rules, yeah.

Experience was key here. There were moments of people freezing or jumping the gun. It's going to make it hard to unseat the champ.

I love the 5 minutes of Pedro vs Fuji we have. I fully expect Fuji in the 70s to be awesome. Screw April 1.

I thought we marked out like crazy for him?

I know this is a surprise to nobody that commentary sucked but it really does explain why there are so many different spectrum of opinion on this match. One of the great advantages of being at WM live is not having to deal with that shit. I sure if I watched the Daniel Bryan WM matches last year I wouldn't like it as much. As far the Rousey thing, this is a guy who lives mixing his pro wrestling with MMA and MMA with his pro wrestling. Why wouldn't he be giddy about Rousey showing up at Wrestlemania. Short of having the Diaz brothers or Paige Vanzant working with Steph and Triple H it doesn't get any better. That's fair. I suppose I'd enjoy Brock Lesnar fighting the Incredible Hulk too.

I'm stereotyping. Work with me. But also, doesn't that sort of fit what a Group #2 audience would want? Stars that feel like stars and are protected as such even though Sting isn't about to have a great match and Orton is fairly problematic?

What's the world coming to? There's just too much MMA in the BIX these days.

This could have gone in one of the preexisting notes but the Extreme Rules one has turned into Brock F5ing people off ladders and the other one is in the midst of an Ambrose/Reigns tag team title run. I think it's big enough that we should break it out. I think that WWE currently has two major fanbases. 1.) The smarky, ironic, insider crowd that lives and breathes this stuff, that travels to the big shows, that are situated in the Northeast and Chicago and a few other big cities (and the UK), that want to hijack events, that want what they consider to be high workrate matches, that love NXT, etc. and 2.) Middle america, the kids, the ones who buy merchandise, who will freely boo Rusev because he's unamerican, who go to house shows and that follow wrestling heavily but not necessarily in a backstage sort of way. It's not a casual/hardcore split. It's not even necessarily a smark/mark split since it's not like group 2 thinks it's real or anything. I think a lot of is urban/rural or geographically centered. I think there's some age component to it. The crowd for the Royal Rumble or the post-Raw is very different than a crowd for a Raw in Nebraska or Iowa or whatever. They're different crowds with different needs. That's not to say there aren't elements of both groups in any crowd but the balance shifts from show to show. Group #1 is more vocal online and their presence can strongly be felt in a show where they're a big part of but I don't know if, in total, Group 1 is bigger than Group 2. I think part of the WWE's problem is that they have to appeal to both groups in order to achieve what they're trying to achieving. One reason why Daniel Bryan was such a big deal was that he appealed to both groups. Maybe it's just that everyone loves chanting yes or that kids could get behind the bearded look and the explosiveness and the fact that they were small, so they could relate instead of just idol worshiping like they might have with Hogan or Warrior in years past. Maybe it's because everyone's felt held down at one point or another and that was very much the story that they were telling with Bryan. But he blew up as big as he did because he appealed to both groups. Even then, in front of certain crowds, he wasn't quite as over. These were Group 2 crowds. I think group #2 not only buys what WWE is selling a lot of the time, but are, in fact, the audience for what they're selling. Their preference matches up with the sort of things WWE traditionally offers in the first place. To offer something else would be to leave them behind. For years and years, wrestlers and creative team members and executives would publicly dismiss group #1 because they were just a vocal minority. I'm not entirely sure that's the case anymore, but I also don't think that group #2 can be wholly left behind either. I think Group #2 is affected a lot more by whether or not someone is booked strong, as a winner. I don't really think that group #1 cares. They're going to like who they like no matter what's presented on screen. Matches and outcomes can be booked to make them happy but if that's done without presenting a product that group #2 can get behind, they'll end up with apathy in front of certain crowds instead of boos. So yeah, maybe I think that putting Reigns superstrong over Kane (in a near squash) after a month of Kane not getting a hell of a lot of heat on him and then pretty strong over Big Show after a month of Show not getting all that much heat on him (and Show is one of the most protected guys in the company over the last six months or so) is at least equally as important of having Reigns work long, more even matches with guys like Harper and Cesaro/Kidd. Now, if those latter guys were built up in a way that would make them seem more important to Group #2, then that'd be a more ideal solution, but the booking hasn't been there for that. On the other hand, no amount of booking is going to matter for Group #1 when it comes to someone they don't want to see. Show's the most protected guy in the company and he's the one who draws "Please Retire" chants from these guys. I think there has to be something of a balance, but that's because I think a boring, dead crowd in Des Moines is as damaging as a completely hostile crowd in Philadelphia, maybe even more so. I just don't know where the balance is and what's most important. I do think that pandering to Group #1 and leaving Group #2 entirely behind isn't the answer.

I had three things wrong. 1.) The identity of Brock Lesnar. 2.) The setting. It was the Post Mania Raw 3.) The identity of the other two people: One's the camera man. The other was Michael Cole. That was a squash. The biggest change that should happen with the show is this: the person with the LEAST amount of points should have to read the BS that Johnny wrote, not the winner.

Henry's actually a good choice in some ways because so many smart fans think he's a terrible worker, so when he would have undoubtedly good matches with Reigns, they'd give Reigns a good chunk of the credit.

Then they should put Harper over Ambrose to build him up so he can be fed to Reigns and make him look good? Man, WWE's a mess when it comes to this. If Henry hadn't come back as a quasi-face, they could feed him to Reigns and that'd probably be good.

I still argue that Reigns going over Show one month and then Kane the next is better than him having no-contests and bs losses against Rollins for a few months.

The tournament to decide the US champion after Johnny Valentine's plane crash.

We've got too many bald guys. One thing they should be doing if they really want to increase the prestige of the IC/US titles is to have #1 contenders matches on PPVs. They could do that for the tag title too. The problem then is how to fill the month afterwards.

If I could be at one show ever, this is up there:

Is there any real difference between this PPV and TLC? Maybe they can do a cage match and they don't have to do a Stairs match. WWE would be better off if they ran more hair vs hair matches and built that up as something important. I can't imagine Rollins vs Orton main eventing this.

I liked Parker's theme, but not necessarily for Parker. I would have liked it for Zayn. The best stuff he did was backstage with Dusty (or was it Regal?) and Breeze

La Résistance probably wore out their welcome but they were pretty over for a while. I think the heel to compare Rusev to is Umaga though.

On paper, this is pretty much like the Royal Rumble 3-way if Rollins came in with the belt.

Power of the Brass Ring? Wrestlemania adrenaline. He made Brock bleed?

Bubba Dudley?

I really think it's intentional though. Austin called him on it on his podcast and the response indicated that Cena is aware of what he's doing and is doing it on purpose, whether for the safety of kids at home who might try it or for the same reason that Bryan got fired for the tie-choke or whatever.