Stiva

This match really needed a one and done Tombstone. This is such a strange thing; no need for it to be here, nobody really wants it, it helps neither man, hurts them both

So that's literally every person alive that Steph shows no fear toward.

We managed to wrangle a good deal on a 60" TV so that's coming into play tonight. Me and my friend are getting food, beer and staying up way too late (or early) to watch it, starting with all the pre-show business. I'm pulling for Lesnar, he's pulling for Reigns so by the time we're tipsy, it's going to be fun watching the main event.

The more I think about this show, with the way the build has went, the way his push has went, I think I can see Seth Rollins holding the World Title as Mania fades out. I think there's a possibility that this is the show that is remembered as Rollins' coronation, not Reigns' EDIT: I'll expand on this a bit further. Rollins has until July (?) to cash in MITB. If you look at your options out of Mania and you have Reigns as World Champ; If he turns heel, the money would be against babyface Brock at Summerslam, for the belt. Along the way, there's potentially a babyfaced Big Show and Randy Orton in his way, maybe Ryback. I think, if you're doing the turn, you have to keep the belt on Reigns past July so we can get Reigns/Lesnar 2 which leaves Rollins without a plan unless they're going to hotshot the belt around until Lesnar is back. If Reigns stays babyface, then you can have Rollins cash in whenever he likes and that's your summer title feud, I guess but, with Brock re-signing, the potential backlash against Reigns on these next two shows (and beyond), I don't see this show ending in your basic "Here's your guy getting the belt, power up the confetti" I think the variables are different, the situation is different and that briefcase needs to be used sooner rather than later. Even if it's as simple as Reigns pinning Brock and Rollins picking the bones, I think it's the most likely scenario if you look ahead to the next few months and the heel/face alignments. I'm rambling a bit there and, maybe I'm missing something really obvious (it's very likely) but I think this Mania ends with a heel on top with the CEO in his corner, thus completing Rollins' transformation into 2000 HHH.

Butch should be on TV every week. What a hilarious speech.

That Bryan speech, man. Is it dusty in here?

Alundra's never-ending stream of awesome name dropping was great.

Larry repeated things a little bit but once he got rolling toward the end of his speech, it was awesome.

First time watching one of these things live. Loved JBL dropping Otto Wanz references into a 2 minute interview.

I love the idea of HHH being self-referential after he's done the damage to everyone in his path but I feel that it should have been shut down with Bryan beating him. I'm not expecting HHH/Sting to be good but now is not the time to drag up decades old promotional grudges. If you look at it, the next Intercontinental Champion has beat HHH, why should we care if Sting beats him? I'm looking forward to Mania in the sense that I'll wait for that guy from Reddit to post his spoilers and put a large accumulator based off it but I have no interest in any match outside of Rusev/Cena.

Man, that ending to Raw was completely deflating. Like two guys on Black Friday fighting over a PS4 on sale.

I would love a manager who had that gimmick. Less smark and more shit-talking about babyfaces from a throne on the stage as he's protected by two big men.

to be fair, the level Bryan was at in mid-2013 to his injury eclipsed that and if WWE had actually pushed him like they should, nobody would be saying he'd be better off elsewhere. Now, just about every decent worker in that company would be better off elsewhere.

If those guys in the fancy dress had actually started working a match in the aisle, it would have been more compelling than Raw.

I loved the casket match this week. Muertes was fucking king-sized in just beating the shit out of Fenix, hitting him with straight rights on the stairs, launching him into anything he could find, throwing chairs at his head, biting and tearing the mask, just awesome. Fenix held his own too; I thought his selling was great, he took some nutty bumps and leaned into everything, making it look super painful. Lucha Underground rules.

I missed Raw last night and I'm in no real rush to go seek it out. Was the six man tag worth watching as a match?

I'll co-sign the love for Spud/EC3 and thought Spud was blowaway great. The selling, the timing, the desperate kicks looked great and I thought both men came out of it way better than before. It feels like Spud has got to be given a decent push off the back of this because, from what I've seen of this feud, he's been excellent at just about everything for a short while now.

I remember Bryan cutting a great promo around Mania time on the one of the post-shows last year. The adrenaline must have still been pumping through him because it was a great fiery babyface promo on HHH. So, there probably is truth to those post-shows being a bit looser and unscripted.

I think Dallas could have worked if they had him do his spiel and actually inspire someone on a losing streak to picking up victories. I'm not a fan of the losing streak gimmick but it could have worked as a midcard act, especially in the tag division, which needed teams around that time with Real Americans and Prime Time Players breaking up. Instead, I can't remember a single angle they ran with him. I agree on Rose though. That gimmick is an entrance, a dive spot with the Rosebuds and not a lot else. With better booking in the midcard and more care taken with them, they could have got some use out of both men though, even if it was throwing Rose with another guy who was hovering around doing nothing and making them a team.

I haven't watched Smackdown yet but this is, on a show full of terrible builds, the worst one. They're hyping a multi-man ladder match where guys are going to be killing themselves with endless comedy shit. This pathological need for comedy throughout the show, and terrible comedy at that, is unbearable.

I'm still laughing at that weird voice-pitched Sting promo. What a strange thing.

It's a minor touch but Rusev shouldn't have been "tapping" to that STF. I like how it takes an evil foreigner for the crowd to get 100% behind Cena though,

I can't be sure but was HHH cutting that Sting promo with some crazy vocal effects? It seemed to have a lot of the same emphasis that HHH promos do.

That terrible rock song that was soundtracking the network commercial was terrible. Double terrible. TerriTerrible

Shit, Kane and Show lost. It was wrapped up in an "Authority falls out" angle but at least they lost. Oh, here's Steph... Steph can heel it up all she likes but nobody cares about Kane and Show