Matt D

Wrestlemania is wide open right now. They could do Taker vs Sting or Taker vs Bray or Taker vs Brock or Taker in a tag match with Sting to protect him or he could not be on the show at all. Brock could defend against Reigns or Rollins could defend against Reigns or Rollins could defend against Cena or the Shield could have a three way or Rollins might be up against Orton. I sort of slot it all out in my head and then I think "Oops, forgot Cena." It's wide open but none of the possibilities seem all that great.

We're in 2014. I think the crowd will revolt because, frankly, they can, and because it seemed to work last year. This is the Rumble which has people travelling to it to begin with. It's also in the Northeast, which will make it easier. They'll want to make the show about them and if rebelling against Reigns is easiest, that's how they'll do it.

Fire for Bock is too low. Watch the sprint vs Larry Z. There were very few matches in his career where he was called upon to do that, but when he was, holy hell.

Counterpoint:

In defense of Parv, I do this sometimes, but in a qualitative way and not a quantitative one.

It's a good question. Based on who they had on the roster, there are really only three choices. Earthquake is one and they needed him for Hogan and had just done Bravo vs Warrior to start the year. I don't think they could cycle Dibiase or Savage back in yet. After that, you've got Barbarian and Warlord. Of the two Barbarian was the better choice (win at Mania vs Tito, Heenan, the better wrestler) but neither are great. You know, maybe I'd have them turn Duggan. Really, the best choice is to not let Windham leave before Survivor Series 89, no matter what. Last thought, have Ax debut Crush as part of a heel turn as his weapon to destroy Warrior and take over the WWF. Something like that. The match would be absolutely terrible but it'd be two giant face-painted guys clashing and Demolition was still pretty over in early 90 and it'd work into the LOD debuting and all of the six mans that they ran anyway. I think it could have worked as well as Rude, actually. The more I think about this the more I love this idea.

He could have a Heathcliff the cat themed character.

Basically, the only upside Neville has at all is to be the guy who jumps on people for Wade Barrett in flashy beatdowns.

What are the specific performances for those four?

No, no. That's good. I'd take Neville as an Elvis impersonator too.

Yeah, so I'd be a million times more excited if Mighty Mouse comes out at the Rumble than Adrian freaking Neville.

This one's from 95, but it makes me want to track down the initial report:

As a Christmas gift to all of you, I will go out of my way not to further reply to this thread.

I think more than any of that, Shawn KNEW (as well as most wrestlers ever) how to make himself look good (sometimes for the sake of the match and others to the detriment of his opponent). As a babyface, he'd use the kip up/hulk up comeback. He'd sell big but he'd also fight back frequently only to get cut off and as a heel he was a lot better of taking the match in a more compelling and imposing way than Miz is capable of. Winning helped but it's a bit like what Austin always gets on Ziggler's case about when it comes to being a force in exchanges.

It's ok, Loss. I wasn't ever into the Real World. As someone who was, were you excited about Miz when he started to do pro wrestling?

What's a Coral? As for Bray, I think a lot of the problem is that the message is off. He's not the sort of guy that can just try to win matches for the sake of it. He has to have a compelling purpose. With Bryan, it was about subverting the Yes Movement. With Cena (which really should have probably been built to over another year before it happened) it was about destroying the hypocrisy involved in "Rise Above Hate" and showing Cena that he was really no better than anyone else, a false idol. With Jericho, I have no idea. Ambrose isn't much better. Maybe he's trying to channel the primal chaos that Ambrose is tapping into or something? I don't know. That's a problem though. Also, while he wins matches, and even feuds, he doesn't actually accomplish what he set out to do most of the time. Alternatively, part of why Rusev is so successful is that the message is real clear. He is the Superior Athlete and he will prove it again and again.

From memory as havent seen it since SV released it possibly 93 time I thought Savage/Valentine was a pretty good wrestling match. The Iron man match from this show is probably the best Iron man match WWE have done. Fans generally I guess dont like it because they went a hour without one fall which is something ive always detested with the HHH/Rock one because of regular moves getting a 3 count. Have you seen Bret vs Flair from Boston in January 93?

Even if that's NOT what's going on, I kind of hope people spread it around like it is so that the Philly crowd can revolt over it.

I'm an admitted sucker for inventive counters to Cena's routine stuff.

I will reluctantly admit that the one element I didn't touch on was the idea of continuity in sports and I think it's because usually people don't think of investing in a team that way, but it is there from year to year, a narrative that builds on what comes before. I don't think it's mutually exclusive from what I was going for as that fit my youth a bit better (I didn't really get into sports in the "I need to watch Sportscenter every day" sense until 92 and I was more or less done with them on that level by 94). In some ways, a MLB or NFL team is sort of a story within a shared universe too.

Thanks to Bill for doing a preliminary read on this one. I like for SOMEONE to take a look at it early on and usually I go to Chad for that but there was a lot going on this month.

Nostalgia wise: nothing hits the spot quite like Survivor Series 90, though Summerslam 91 comes close, as does basically the entire of Summer/Fall 1991 WCW (my essay for Starrcade 91 will be sort of a love letter to shared universe trappings in early 90s wrestling). And the Patriot/Dark Patriot feud from GWF. I do sort of apologize for a lot of that by saying "it's nostalgia" though.

Is there confirmation anywhere that 100k people really bought Survivor Series on PPV?

Criteria seems important here and I don't have good answers. I just watched Lynch vs Bailey and that match, to me, felt very well produced and pretty well executed. And frankly, that's good enough for what they're trying to do. I'm not sure what the criteria is. Do we have to see how well they do on a five minute nothing match on Raw? Do we have to see how well they do in a 8 minute PPV concession stand match? On a Superstars match with less production eyes on it? I thought Emma and Paige were better a year ago than I do now? I'm not sure why that is? Is it just opportunity?