Stiva

I guess HHH/Steph were supposed to be there to goad the crowd into making a similar reaction to last night but then for them to begin ragging on them not all chanting the same thing seemed really passive-aggressive and unhelpful. Nobody being able to gain any vocal victory over that pair in any exchange is beginning to get ridiculous now.

Yeah, they do. I think some kind of prop/glove/what have you for people to lift when chanting "YES!" is the way to go, rather than a fake beard. Some decent shirts would be a plus too; Punk always manages to have decent designs and the new Lesnar shirt is a nice simplistic design too. Bryan's have pictures of goats and the old "YES!" shirt is just that.

Meltzer explained in his podcast that after talking to people in the company, they know he's over as fuck with everybody but the people who cheer for him don't spend money on him compared to other top stars. How in the world Vince and company think the best course of action is not hearing the crowd instead of doing everything in their power to translate those chants and cheers to a bunch of money, I will never understand. It's beyond moronic. They don't know how to do it anymore.

I think the initial pop for Sheamus suggests they'd even be down for watching him on a regular basis. WWE continuing with their effort to convince us that older is better and now the crowd has guys that they want to get behind and want to see in the main, they've closed their eyes and continued on regardless. I actually enjoyed the Rumble but it was crying out for Bryan or even Taker at 30. Reigns looked awesome and he's almost at the point now where had he eliminated Batista to win, you'd actually buy it. I have no desire to see anything coming out of this show bar Lesnar/Taker.

They gave us a year of awesome Shield six-mans, Bryan caught on in a big way, Reigns is ready to break out, the crowd love both so what do they do? Put Batista in the main. The Orton/Batista match at Mania will have a similarly venomous reaction, you would think.

There's something oddly beautiful about how quickly the air got let out of that crowd. This is going to be the flattest final 4 ever.

Who is left? Batista, Langston and Rey? Is Henry confirmed? EDIT: forgot about Del Rio. Yep, this sucks.

How many "surprise" spots are left, two? Sheamus and Taker?

John Cena vs. Randy Orton Crowd doesn't want to see this anymore and they really tried but the finisher swapping at the end definitely seems like the only trick they had left in the bag, especially in matches with no stips. Wyatt/Cena starts rolling for Mania.

I often like Cena/Orton matches but man, it's the last thing "the Universe" wants at this point.

Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show I absolutely loved all of this from Lesnar's opening flurry, Show's selling, the KO punch, Lesnar bumping around big and then the F5 and beatdown with the chair to finish. It had a weird, shooty vibe to it but I really dug it

Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt Think that's the best I've seen Wyatt look on offense, especially his spots on the outside and his counters to Bryan's running charges. I guess a long Bryan match with a concussion angle is their attempt to stop the expectations of him entering the Rumble.

I don't envy the final two guys in the Rumble because they're going to be bombarded with "YES" and "Daniel Bryan" chants. Unless one of them is Bryan, of course.

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