El-P Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 I must admit Steph & HHH have done a really good job in the last few weeks, to the point I actually (gasp) kinda look forward to the Bryan vs HHH match just to get more of HHH bumping around and Stephy throwing a fit at the end. Well, if all goes well of course, but at this point, with this ridiculous self-aware video, it can't go wrong, right ? RIGHT ? Anyway, I lost every bit of interest I could have had for Taker vs Lesnar on paper, the streak always bored me and Lesnar doesn't look special anymore. And Taker ain't losing. Still don't care one way or another about Cena vs Wyatt. The undercard is nothing with two useless matches after the opener which has too many names thrown in already. The Hogan moments will be embarrassing, as will the comedy and diva stuff, as usual. So, at this point, my interest has been reduced to basically a HHH match (holy shit, what I am saying ?) and the final moment with Bryan getting immerged into 70k people chanting YES at the end of Mania. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 The Cena/Wyatt match has the most potential to be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 I love how Bryan reminded me of Owen Hart at the end of the DX PPV in 1997. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badlittlekitten Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 Stephanie on commentary every week please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 With the talk of WWE contacting anyone and everyone to do cameos at Mania, I would assume everyone in that HHH video (except Angle) is at least an outside possibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cross Face Chicken Wing Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 I know most of this board hates HHH (I find him overrated but not THAT bad) but I'm amazed how little faith some of you guys have on his match against Bryan. The crowd will be red hot, D-Bry knows how to work as a face in peril and how to mount a comeback, and you can bet your ass he's gonna pull all the stops to have a Wrestlemania classic. Hunter might be mediocre in most long matches but he works way better as a heel and you can tell he wants to elevate Bryan. At the very least I think they'll have a very good match. Â HHH is the one of the main reasons I stopped watching wrestling. I give it a try every year around Wrestlemania again, and always end up throwing in the towel because the modern product is unwatchable. Â This year's I've stuck with it throughout the entire Mania build and am actually going to watch Mania. I can't believe I'm saying this, but HHH is a big reason why. He's been great in his role. Absolutely outstanding. Hopefully it carries through to a good match at Wrestlemania. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anarchistxx Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 Unsure if serious. Â Very serious. This isn't like The Rock vs Cena with a huge build. The only thing that is anything like a big, epic blow off to a long feud is Daniel Bryan vs HHH, a match that wasn't even meant to happen until a few weeks ago when the crowd and the loss of CM Punk forced them to change the plans. The show seems thrown together especially for a 30th Anniversary event where they should be pulling out all the stops and ending some long term feuds. Â Problem is, they don't have to end due to booking ineptitude. Â And Stephanie doesn't need to get physical comeuppance at all, although it would be a kind of shocking moment, given that she hasn't bumped on television in forever. Just HHH destroyed, a broken mess at ringside, Stephanie weeping by his side while Bryan holds the title aloft is enough for retribution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheGreatPuma Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 Where can I see the Bryan post Raw show promo at? Â Edit - I found it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russellmania Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 Â Unsure if serious. Â Very serious. This isn't like The Rock vs Cena with a huge build. The only thing that is anything like a big, epic blow off to a long feud is Daniel Bryan vs HHH, a match that wasn't even meant to happen until a few weeks ago when the crowd and the loss of CM Punk forced them to change the plans. The show seems thrown together especially for a 30th Anniversary event where they should be pulling out all the stops and ending some long term feuds. Â Problem is, they don't have to end due to booking ineptitude. Â And Stephanie doesn't need to get physical comeuppance at all, although it would be a kind of shocking moment, given that she hasn't bumped on television in forever. Just HHH destroyed, a broken mess at ringside, Stephanie weeping by his side while Bryan holds the title aloft is enough for retribution. Â this is the epitome of letting smarkdom ruin the show for you. From a kayfabe standpoint, this HHH/Bryan feud goes all the way back to Summerslam. Their backstage plans are irrelevant. "Knowing" that the HHH/Bryan match was not always the plan does nothing to invalidate the fact that on TV those two have been on a collision course since August. Maybe the payoff is "by accident" but you can't argue that they've done a shitty job building it based on what's happened on TV over the last 6 months. Assuming Bryan ends up in the title match, that has also had a strong build by proxy since Bryan's title chase goes back to Summerslam as well. Â Now Brock/Taker and Cena/Wyatt definitely feel thrown together, but that's what you get these days with Taker working one night a year and I'd argue that Cena and Wyatt has been really well built in the short amount of time they've had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 Agreed. They have course corrected and turned their own mistakes into a huge positive in a way that this is the best built match in a long, long, long time. While I love the network, I'd really love to see what type of numbers this Mania would do under the old format just out of curiosity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 Well, April's Fool, of course I don't look forward to a 20 minutes HHH match, who am I kidding ? But yeah, they did a good job turning their mistake into somewhat of a long-term storyline which adds way more intrigue than most past Manias. Although the issue is having to go through yet another HHH match, but most of all a main event involving Orton & Batista, who are two black holes at this point, so pretty much 100% of my interest lies in watching Bryan celebrate in the ring at the end and that's it. The entire card looks dull and thrown together. Two battle royal ? Really ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 the wrestlemania press conference is bizarre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 Batista was awesome at the press conference. I was cracking up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 Yes, Batista was hilarious. Everything else has been really odd. Daniel Bryan doesn't really seem comfortable with this level of stardom, which is endearing in a way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 they should have gone all the way with daniel bryan as the hippie stone cold, have him come out with his tom's shoes and dennis kucinich campaign shirt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 I work in retail and as you know I've talked about how my co-workers and some of our vendors who are my friends that watch wrestling and talk about wrestling but today something happened that very rarely happens and hasn't in a long time. Â Customers talking amongst themselves about what happened on RAW last night and how they think Mania will go down on Sunday, The main talking points were Bryan beating Trips' ass and the Cena/Bray stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 That show-closing angle combined with Daniel Bryan's post-game promo last night felt like 1983 Mid Atlantic, when babyface Ric Flair would return after a heel sneak attack, clean house and then cut a really hot promo right then and there. I really feel like last night was the best he's looked to date in terms of how a top babyface should act and carry himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014   Why does comeuppance have to be physical? A wife can suffer the indignities of a husband, her comeuppance can be being on the losing side, or maybe Vince comes out at some point and verbally berates her about who exactly owns this company. That's how retribution in wrestling works. Steph is basically the equivalent of a manager, and managers have to be able to bump. Plus, she's already involved herself physically. I've been watching this shit for nearly 35 years. The idea that Steph can only get hers is by getting beat up is ridiculous. the Grand Wizard never got beat up.  The Grand Wizard also never got involved physically. You really think that someone who laid a hand on Bruno or Backlund would've gotten off scot-free?  Steph isn't the equivalent of a manager, she is an authority figure. It is a well established, separate role from Manager. There have been plenty of authority figures who got their "comeuppance" without ever getting beat up. Vickie Guerrero has been humiliated numerous times, and they had a ball humiliating Eric Bischoff on his way out when he was Raw GM.  Plenty has been written about how the authority figure plays the same role today that the manager played in the old days. And I'm struggling to think of a heel authority figure who never received an ass-kicking. Even Vickie has taken plenty of tombstones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 yeah I was just going to pint out that Vickie got tombstoned and has been beat up before plenty of times by the other women on the show. Â even Linda McMahon took a (terrible) stunner back in 2005. So did Steph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 I realize Hulk is Hulk, but he looks so out of place since returning because he's too over the top and too married to his 80s gimmick. It seems like he could take it down a notch or two, still be Hogan and not seem like such an artificial self parody. Part of that is the insincere and constant network shilling, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 Yes, Batista was hilarious. Everything else has been really odd. Daniel Bryan doesn't really seem comfortable with this level of stardom, which is endearing in a way. Â It didn't help that you had all this "media" who is trying to be serious and then all of the fans way in the bank who are actually interested in the being there. Â also doesn't help that this is in New York of all places. Why should people in NY give a fuck about this years Wrestlemania. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bierschwale Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 even Linda McMahon took a (terrible) stunner back in 2005. Â Don't forget that even worse tombstone on the ramp during the Kane-Shane feud in the summer of '03. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russellmania Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 I realize Hulk is Hulk, but he looks so out of place since returning because he's too over the top and too married to his 80s gimmick. It seems like he could take it down a notch or two, still be Hogan and not seem like such an artificial self parody. Part of that is the insincere and constant network shilling, of course. That's part of the reason I'm going to HATE it if Hogan is somehow involved in getting Bryan into the main event at WM. Sure on the surface it would just be the nostalgic legendary babyface helping the current top babyface, but historically speaking Bryan is not the kind of guy that Hulk Hogan would stick his neck out for either on TV or backstage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJRogers Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 Yes, Batista was hilarious. Everything else has been really odd. Daniel Bryan doesn't really seem comfortable with this level of stardom, which is endearing in a way. Is it as bad as Punk's "What the fuck am I DOING here!?" attitude at 28? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts