Stiva

Wyatt/Bryan at the Rumble seems to suggest that too.

Wasn't there a news bit saying that's exactly what Vince wants? Whether that remains true over the next 3 months is another matter all together, I'll admit. It should be Bryan though. If Batista is staying for 12 months, there's plenty opportunity to get the belt on him in the future. Lesnar doesn't need it to have a hot match at Mania. The best way they could go with it is Cena/Bryan II IMO but there's bound to be a million shitty twists and turns from now to Mania.

Man, that final segment was incredible. If they don't have Bryan in the main at Mania now then they need their heads examined.

Watching the 2003 Rumble now and the Show/Lesnar opener is such a great little match. Lesnar is obviously a freak but everytime he gets Show up for a belly to belly suplex, it's impressive and Show bumps really well all the way through. Lesnar returns the favour in kind with a great bump over the top rope and Heyman is excellent at ringside (as always). Show's face when Lesnar kicks out of the chokeslam is kind of silly but the finish with Lesnar hitting the F5 is great. I may need to watch late 02/early 03 Show as I thought he was really great here.

Working through all the Rumbles before the next one and man, the 92 Rumble is just a masterclass IMO. Just about every sequence is enjoyable, Flair's performance is incredible and only matched by Heenan in the booth. The Flair/Davey Boy story running through the first 20 minutes or so is my personal highlight and I love whenever they replicate something similar nowadays. I watched the 2000 and 2008 Rumbles after that since they're both in MSG with hot crowds. Cactus/HHH still holds up as this crazy war after about 10 minutes and the Pedigree into the tacks is still a fucking crazy spot. Foley really does all he can to make HHH look a million bucks; Hunter bleeds, gets piledriven on a table, hit with barbed wire and still comes out of it looking more bad ass than he could ever accomplish on his own so it's a bit sad that he apparently won't acknowledge Foley's efforts now. The 2000 Rumble itself is the perfect example of time killing before the main eventers come out. The story early on with Rikishi eliminating everyone is fun as is the pop for Backlund but it sort of plods along. 2008 Rumble is an event I really like. MVP/Flair is a far more enjoyable match than Kennedy/Flair a month later(obviously) and they really did fuck up MVP in 2008. JBL/Jericho is kind of bland with the exception of Jericho bleeding all over the place. The crowd is really hot for Rey/Edge but Edge is pretty shitty so it's not too great but Orton/Hardy is such a good match. Orton takes a bump off a baseball slide that convinces you for a second that he could be dead and after that, it's great. Orton keeps leaving the ring to catch his breath but Hardy keeps flying out after him in increasingly nutty ways and Orton really gets over that he's in serious trouble here. This was right in the period where Hardy's inherent sloppiness actually contributed to his matches because he'd end up kicking guys square in the face when he was aiming for their chest so it really looks like Orton is in a fight to keep his title. The snap RKO is a good finish too and again, had Hardy not got suspended, he would have been a lock to win MITB at Mania. The Rumble match itself is one of my favourites for some reason. The story of Michaels and Taker taking shots at each other where they can is fun, it uses Hornswoggle effectively, it even plays into the Palumbo/Noble story in a way that they wouldn't even attempt now and the pop for Cena is great. I'm not sure if it was because it was my first Rumble since my interest in wrestling was reinvigorated but I really like this show.

I THINK the World Class logo was visible when they went over to the Home Video tab.

I knew the general professionalism of the first 30 minutes couldn't last forever. What a company.

If they chant "Suck it!" at the end of this shit, I'll laugh so very hard.

I'd guess tonight will have an angle that runs similar to the house shows with maybe Bryan showing little glimmers of snapping out of it before Wyatt knocks it out of him. But who will be the guy who gets him out of it? Punk?

John Cena vs Randy Orton Thought this was largely unremarkable. Cena is an expert at figuring out crazy spots that fit perfectly with corporate WWE main events. WWE fucking up the caption and making it say "WWE World Heavyweigh Champion" is kind of perfect. Oh, here's Vince

Miz is a guy who needs an extended break from the company at this point. Not sure a heel turn and a feud with the interchangeable midcard babyfaces is going to do anything for him.

Can we get a singles push somewhere in there, though? We could always hope for Cody turning heel so we can get a Southern arena brawl in there somewhere

Also, I forgot to add it to my previous post but I hope WWE never takes the focus off tag wrestling. Goldust needs to be working tag matches for the next 3 years.

Real Americans vs. Big Show and Rey Mysterio vs Ryback and Curtis Axel vs. Rhodes Brothers I really enjoyed Axel for the time that he was in since he had some fun stuff with Show. It's amazing how Dustin will have only been active for 4 months of the year and will probably end up on people's end of year lists because he's so, so great. Cesaro is the best worker in this company and I'd like him to swing someone out of the ring at the Rumble as ridiculous as that is. Big Show isn't far behind Cesaro and his hot tag was great and the spot leading to the pin with him and Cesaro was awesome. Cody Rhodes has never looked better than he has in this team. This match just made me want a 25 minute Rhodes Brothers vs. Rey/Show match at the Rumble.

Big. E. Langston vs. Damien Sandow Big E is really fun and pulling down the straps is a guaranteed way to make me like you. Sandow is a guy who is good to watch but has been floating around ever since he failed to cash in MITB. As a result, that match came off as meaningless but it was perfectly fine regardless.

EDIT: double post I really like these packages putting the World Title over

AJ vs. Nattie I've seen Nattie look a lot worse than this. All this talk of AJ being buried seems destined for her to lose a rematch on Raw in 30 seconds rather than tonight.

I was thinking that Cena wins tonight and we get Cena/Bryan II at the Rumble but that seems like a Mania match to me so I expect Orton to win through some sort of shenanigans.

There's an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch where Billy Gunn is wrestling for reasons I couldn't possibly remember.

That's what I was thinking. The Bryan/Kane exchange looks like something a 15 year old e-fed writer would rustle up.

CM Punk hasn't had the greatest year but every so often, there's little things that are awesome, like him laughing at Stephanie's introduction of HHH. The Daniel Bryan chanting at the end was awesome and it really seems at this point that he's got to win the Rumble or at least be heavily featured at Mania. They can try and force Orton/Cena all they want but nobody is listening.

Harper is so great that Rowan becomes watchable through osmosis but I did like him throwing the sheep mask at Punk to try and derail the hot tag. I enjoyed the powerbomb spot but agree that as a whole, it felt a bit flat. They've definitely kept a certain aura around Wyatt himself since there's been a few times now where they've teased him brawling with guys and the crowd has popped.

Roman Reigns is going to be huge. Cesaro won't be far behind when he inevitably turns babyface and giant swings Zeb.

Michael Cole is incapable of talking like an actual human being because he's so busy hitting all the bullet points that Vince is shouting at him. In between mentioning the App, Twitter, their dumb nicknames for guys, Lawler saying "Ow!" after everything and JBL trying desperately to get his shitty jokes in, I'm amazed it doesn't just completely fall apart more. Cole on NXT was actually pretty fun since he seemed a lot more natural and relaxed, even if he was shitting on the show and in the middle of his awful heel gimmick. He can't muster up convincing emotion in the same way that JR could in his Attitude Era prime but there must be a middle ground between that and robotically parroting whatever is coming from his ear piece. I agree that it's becoming unlistenable. JBL especially seems lost now that Cole has shifted from hapless Smackdown announcer to "Voice of the WWE". Their Smackdown chemistry was based on Cole saying stupid things or heavily favouring the babyfaces and JBL jumping on it. He doesn't seem to know what to do with Lawler there and a different Cole to bounce off.

I had no idea music this lame still existed but of course it's associated with WWE.