Matt D

Yeah, it was 1.4 Million Global subscribers to be profitable.

This is 1 Million Global right? Just to break even, didn't they need well over 1 milion global? Wasn't the goal 1 million US? And wasn't that when the commitment was locked in. The number's going to ebb and flow during the year now.

Part of the problem in killing off Bryan is that they did the same thing they did with almost everyone in his spot before. They tossed Kane at him. It was looking like it'd be a lot like the Mysterio title reign until he got gobbled up by Lesnar. People had a year to dwell on that though, so I think he might be indestructible this time.

The best way to neuter him would be to put him in a tag team with Ziggler and put the belts on them.

There was a moment, a brief moment, maybe, where I thought there could be the throwing of things, in 2015. The reason why there wasn't, I think, was people everyone knew what was going to happen the second Bryan got eliminated. So in THAT regard, I guess it worked that everyone was a little burnt out on their anger by the end. I think everyone who was making that noise just really wanted to make sure that the company and anyone watching got the point. I'm not sure it was anger at that point so much as sending the message.

I'll agree. The chant wasn't ironic. It was just a crowd wanting desperately to be able to chant that at anyone and have a reason to be part of the show.

I'm up to the three way. I get the argument against the stretcher but that plays into the story Dylan was telling. The stretcher was a red flag that they were going to protect Brock in the loss in a way that him just being destroyed by a big elbow drop wouldn't have, not because of real logic so much of because of wrestling booking logic, if that makes sense. That match was all about playing with the fans' notions and expectations.

I thought Rusev would be way more over as a face in Philly but he drew a USA chant instead.

To be fair we've been getting those for decades.

Reigns already sort of did that:

I've tried to spell this out elsewhere, but I haven't worded it right yet, so I'll try again. There was a period after Bryan was gone where there were guys in the ring hitting each other, and the crowd just wasn't buying into it as being "real." It wasn't part of a movie anymore. It was just a script. I've never seen wrestling look quite so fake before, and that had nothing to do with the guys in the ring who were incredibly competent for the most part. The spell was just completely and utterly broken.

Bryan, to me, seems far more confident in interviews in online publications and what not than he did after he actually won the title. Stuff like "owning smackdown"

I will say that there's no worry of killing Philadelphia off. That crowd will want to come back to boo next time.

It's more like "Don't book the Rumble in Philly." I still think either Vince wanted to get revenge on the state for last year by using Rock to manipulate everyone or he honestly thought that last year was about the crowd being behind Reigns, not about it being "Anyone but Batista since he's not Bryan."

Wait, they're doing Cena vs Rusev at Fast Lane? Is there any good way that could end?

I still need to listen to this (and wish it had dropped a few hours earlier when I was on the bus back to MD and could have used it), and I may write up a road report for P2BN if I can get my head out of my ass and find a balance between anecdotal experience and talking about the actual show since I'm not DEAN or a Phil or Tom and can't make that sort of thing flow well, BUT... One thing I'll mention is just how thoroughly Mizdow hurts the tag team title matches. I don't think I saw one spot that entire match because we were all just staring at Mizdow the whole time. The entire crowd was. No one was watching the rest of the action and we were all trying to figure out what was going on just by watching MIzdow on the fear that if we looked away from him we'd miss something hilarious. I enjoyed watching it thoroughly but I didn't watch a tag team title match at all. At points in the last three years, the tag titles were actually a fairly big deal and here Mizdow was a fairly big deal and they were just a distraction from 10K plus all cheering wildly for him.

I could see them going three way with Wyatt vs Bryan vs Taker maybe?

Live NXT from the performance center?

The selling of one suplex is different than ten too.

So much fun. So much angst. There was a point In the rumble where the suspension of disbelief was gone. We weren't even watching a match anymore. It was so surreal.

Voice hurts.

Sitting in this crowd it's hugely pro Rollins amd massively anti-Reigns.

They ran a skit where Dean stole Fandango's great number

I'm taking the liberty (I get one every now and again) to bump this because I think it's a timely and interesting read one year later.

Brock didn't turn face. He just acted like Brock.