Matt D

I'm going to be disappointed if we don't get a midget. I'm already resigned that we're not getting Corey Graves.

I thought he was doing a pretty good job of selling after he did it though. That's really the main thing that I ask. You can hit a move (With effort) but then go back to the selling. Make it seem like it cost you something too.

He was not Batista first and foremost. I think you could have been surprised for the guys who would have been hugely over in that spot. Look at Del Rio at Chamber.

Remember, past Reigns at the very end which was a protest vote, the only other guy the crowd was really behind during the Rumble itself was Punk.

I am not sure if they want to annoy tv viewers with the rights up for bid right now.

Kane illegally eliminated him from the Rumble?

Could Piper manage to be a special ref?

Hostile Bryan fans are also generally Punk fans. They are pretty interchangable. The most hardcore fanbase that travels to Mania will consider Punk in the main a win.

I am on the phone here so complex arguments are tricky. Some fans just like chanting. On the other hand, some fans would shit on Batista vs Orton. I think those fans are also big CM Punk fans.

I feel like the Bryan fans are behind Punk in a lot of the same ways. He just doesn't have a fun chant.

Is it better or worse than them leaving it as Batista vs Orton? They really don't seem to want to add Bryan.

Why would inserting him be worse than running it heel vs heel?

i guess the big story of the year will be the tv deal and if it makes them bulletproof.

I could see them adding Punk for two reasons. 1.) It might be Punk's terms for coming back. 2.) It is a way for Vince to say "ultimately, I am not giving you (the crowd) what you want, but instead I'm giving you what I say you want, which is Punk, not Bryan." Basically, a nutty guy's illusion of control.

I think the medium is the key. It depends on how popular the network is on some level, but this does feel heavily above the curve and I think it's something casuals might jump on either for nostalgia reasons or because they got one PPV a year anyway, and it might get more steady eyes on the product, which, as you said, is pretty hot, in-ring, at least. It's also the sort of character training that's coming in to play with the training center though. I think for the the first time ever, WWE is really investing for the future.

I hate saying this because there's so much room for it to be wrong, but for the first time in ages, I kind of feel like we might be on the tipping point of a potential boom.

This is pretty spot on. If you're going to drop it, then either slowly pare down the selling, or never sell so much to begin with. I'm fine when a different body part is worked on and that part takes precedence in the selling. Bursts of adrenaline can be forgiven if they're worked into the match well or the selling comes back afterwards in a believable way. I'm generally fine with compelling early body part work as "control" so long as the selling isn't done to the point that I don't buy it going away all at once.

I thought the fans were responding to him huge for a while thre.

Would have they been better off if they didn't unify the belts?

At the time I had missed the go home segment and that had really thrown me.

I kind of wonder if the network won't lean towards this. We've seen it in other mediums. There are more shows now that are serialized thanks to on demand/netflix/dvds etc. That would have been almost impossible ten years ago when the big money was getting to syndication and having a show that fit well for that. WWE, over the summer last year, put the entirety of the pre-summerslam Orton vs Bryan matches on youtube, for instance.

And again, the 2/3 falls match built on what came before it and is a lot richer with that background.

This is a tricky point. Does audience matter? Also the general NXT audience is the one that's seen mostly all the episodes on Hulu. This, I'll admit, was aimed differently. That's why this was a bit of a weird match to start with, since it played so heavily on the past matches

In general, we, collectively, were more glad for you for all the really good matches you had ahead of you to watch.

I liked this too but it made it a little hard to buy into the end when both guys were down for an extended period of time. That was after Zayn hit the boot in the corner right, which should have made it more believable, but Cesaro was selling it more like the end of a lucha brawl than him taking one big stunning shot. It was a little thing but I was trying to think of why I liked it more or less than the 2/3 falls match.