rolling (non-millenials) grabbing the brass ring 2015

at this point would not be averse to the theory people had online about brock retaining/defending every couple months while bryan/cena held the ic/us titles and were the focal points

I'm also intrigued by the idea that the secondary belts could mean something again. But they couldn't even keep the two world championships strong for most of the years they were in existence, so I don't have much faith in them keeping track of three championships (even if one is held by a part timer).

The Shield reunion wouldn't make much sense, but most of their storylines don't make sense anyway. It might be the only thing that can salvage Reigns' main event career though.

Cena with the US title would be interesting but maybe kind of unnecessary? I just don't really see it restoring much prestige to the title, it'll be a prop and nothing more. Even if he goes out and defends it in the main-events, we'll still be talking about the Cena match, not the US title match. If this were to happen it'd no doubt slide right back down the card as soon as he loses it, so why bother?

Predictions for Mania?

Lesnar
Sting
Taker
Cena
Bryan
Bellas
Orton

Taker should be putting Wyatt over here but it's Taker so what are the chances really. Agree with your predictions mostly, though maybe Rollins gets a dodgy win against Orton? This one is a bit difficult, they could do without damaging the momentum of either guy but yeah I suppose Orton is coming in off the back of the turn so he probably goes over here.

I don't think you can have a basically straight babyface win down the whole card. I know Wrestlemania is where the babyfaces historically triumph, but not across the board.

Yeah, I can't see it happening either. Orton/Rollins is a toss up, but by WWE logic Rollins has the briefcase which means he can lose over and over again until he cashes in, and Orton is a Big Star so he should win. I can see Rusev winning too.

I think everyone will get cheered in the ladder match, but Bryan is super over on the west coast and the SF Giants used the YES chant all season long on their way to winning the World Series (baseball) this year, so if they don't put Bryan over they're morons but it turns out that they are morons so who knows what will happen.

I've got some time to kill so I may as well tldr. Also Balor v. Owens was dope and you should all go watch this weeks nxt.

Tyson Kidd and Cesaro (c) (with Natalya) vs. The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) (with Xavier Woods) vs. Los Matadores (Diego and Fernando) (with El Torito) vs. The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso) (with Naomi) Fatal 4-Way tag team match for the WWE Tag Team Championship[40]

What I think happens: If the injured Uso can go, they win and dance with Rikishi. Or maybe if he can't, Rikishi tags? I see it being a 'WM Moment' in a night where there is a need for love of Somoa.

What I want to happen: Cesaro does 100 swings of El Torito before the Usos win and dance with Rikishi.

André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal[Note 1] Battle royal for the André the Giant Memorial Trophy[41]

What I think happens: Mizdow wins and really ignites that feud and babyface return of Damien Sandow. Kofi does something impressive.

What I want to happen: Kofi has like 7 tricks in his arsenal and genuinely can't be thrown out, so he wins it. Or Hideo Itami does and gets put straight in a feud with the IC champ.

Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) vs. Roman Reigns Singles match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship[42]

What I think happens: Reigns wins, all Shield members, Heyman and the Authority and maybe the Rock make it a clusterfuck. Unsuccessful attempt at a cash in, so it can maybe done on Raw? Brock is still comes out the baddest motherfucker on the planet, but the clusterfuckery kinda negates the potential boos cos the crowd is just confused and a bit sleepy by the end of the night, while Reigns fans will still cheer.

What I want to happen: Brock win obv, but more importantly I want Reigns to go strongman like he did with Bryan and to have two hard hitting motherfuckers try and beat the fuck out of each other. I think in all the talk about Reigns, everyone's kinda forgot that when he plays tough guy, it can be really good viewing and why Vince saw what he saw.

Sting vs. Triple H Singles match[43]

What I think happens: Sting wins, maybe a UT WM32 tease.

What I want to happen: See above.

Bad News Barrett (c) vs. R-Truth vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Luke Harper vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Stardust vs. Daniel Bryan Ladder match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship[44]

What I think happens: Bryan as Smackdown champ, Dolph bumps like crazy.

What I want to happen: See above, or alternatively Ambrose as Smackdown champ so they can try and rebuild him as something credible, whereas Bryan is like Foley and can bounce back easily.

The Undertaker vs. Bray Wyatt Singles match[45]

What I think happens: UT wins, next night on Raw they try and set up UT-Sting at WM32, Bray tries to say he's learnt from the master to be even more of a boogeyman or something.

What I want to happen: Some clusterfuck where UT ends up giving his powers to Luke Harper to become the scary demon of the next 10 years.

AJ Lee and Paige vs. The Bella Twins (Brie and Nikki Bella) Tag team match[46]

What I think happens: idk, don't really know the storyline. I've heard the womens division is p much the best part of Raw these days so hopefully they do something interesting. Unfortunately the only Raw related thing I've watched in the past year is Heyman promos.

What I want to happen: Kharma comes back and lays them all to waste, idk.

Rusev (c) vs. John Cena Singles match for the WWE United States Championship[47]

What I think happens: Cena wins in a screwy finish (Lana distraction?) to keep Rusev strong and put the belt on Cena.

What I want to happen: Brock-Cena from NoC, but with Rusev instead. Cena doesn't need the belt or to beat Rusev's streak but they can have a strong hard match and have him admirably lose.

Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins Singles match[48]

What I think happens: Orton wins, Rollins has bigger things on his mind and they need babyface pops. Also iirc every Orton WM match ends with him rko-ing someone doing something they never usually do from the top rope.

What I want to happen: Rollins to beat Orton, cos Orton sucks and Rollins is dope.

----------

Despite not watching Raw, agreeing with everyone about Reigns being too much of a rookie, not really caring or understanding the storylines - I've got excited over the past couple days and think it will be a really fun show. Any match featuring Brock could end up a classic, same with Cena, Rollins, Triple H, Taker, Bryan etc. And fuck it, for what seems like hundreds of years people have been calling for a new card - well this is the making of it - potentially Taker/Sting/Triple H's last WM, Cena has been out of the title match 2 years in a row, potentially 2 new stars have been crowned (DBry last year, Reigns this year) etc. or even 3 if Rollins cashes in. Every match bar HHH-Sting has a nXt alum in it too, and you can't really fault them for Sting's first WWE match. I think it's going to be an underrated show. I'm excited about the entrances and stuff too.

People who pretend to not care about Mania are basically liars.

Yeah man the pageantry is probably the bit I'm most looking forward to this year. Triple H has got some work on to best his entrance from last year though. I've let my Network subscription expire so I think I'm probably gonna give it a miss tomorrow night and download it on Monday instead.

Taker should be putting Wyatt over here but it's Taker so what are the chances really.

Wyatt kinda yawnful right now so why even bother putting him over? Why not instead have taker go 22-1 and have paul heyman yell about how brock lesnar is going to be the 2 in 22-2 for 4 months leading up to wm32? ok maybe not. actually i hope not. i like a hoy hoy's wm32 booknig better anyway.

I'm yet to really love Wyatt in anything outside of his matches with Bryan / the six-man tags with the Shield, but I don't see what putting The Undertaker over here is going to achieve. Dude doesn't need the win at all, but for Wyatt this could be a pretty big deal. One guy is basically finished, the other might turn out to be a big thing for the company for years to come. And after so many years of his bullshit it's about time Taker started putting over a guy or two if they are gonna keep dragging him back. Kozlov doesn't count.

I hope this is the last hurrah tbh, they've been teasing it for years what with all the "End of an Era" stuff (lo and behold 2 years later HHH and Taker are still occupying two of the three top spots on the card). Enough already. The idea of Taker main-eventing next years' WM is just ghastly to contemplate, so it's a good job that it won't happen in a million years

I expect Taker will retire next year in Texas unless he literally can't go.

yeah was just reading that apparently the venue for next year's WM is this uber-super-gigantic capaity stadium in Texas, Taker's retirement match would be a big drawing point if they're intending to put together a really loaded card to try and get a big gate

Yeah. I kind of want to go to the fan access stuff next year but I'd have to be paid to go to Wrestlemania itself.

so i just listened to this fantastic new aerosmith album about wrestling. really enjoyed it.

goldust in the battle royal is the most depressing thing ever

can't find a decent stream and honestly considering signing up for the network :/

If bray is fucked this could be lolz but also we can get closer to my hope of luke harper new zombie spirit god genie

Unless they have to amputate I assume Bray is going to be out there.

god Rusev is just the fuckin best

surely the Rusev-Lana act must be getting monster babyface reactions in every non-Poland-or-Ukraine country they go to

Lots of good storytelling so far. Give me good ring psychology over high spots every day.

surely the Rusev-Lana act must be getting monster babyface reactions in every non-Poland-or-Ukraine country they go to

:(

sounded like big reigns boos to me

omg

that was perfectly done imo

^^ so great

holy shit

And so ends the Roman Reigns experiment.

when brock was dazed and bleeding i was into the idea of reigns winning, obviously i am a much bigger mark than the 77k in the stadium

Well that main event was fucking dope.

Overall that was a really entertaining show. Nothing was bad, and nobody got stiffed for time unlike pretty much every other WM. The pacing was a bit off, the crowd seemed to peak for the Sting-HHH match but they followed it up with an hour worth of commercials/HOF stuff/divas match and lulled people to sleep somewhat. It must have been tough to be out there in the sun for five hours too.

The ladder match was kind of paint by numbers, but the right guy won and the backstage segment to put over Bryan and the title was great.

The finish to Orton-Rollins was insane.

The ending to HHH-Sting was telegraphed once it turned into WWE vs WCW. I still don't get the build up for this feud, first it was vigilante Sting vs the Authority, then it was WWE vs WCW with exactly opposite heel/face roles, why couldn't they just make up their damn minds about what they were fighting for. For me it hurt the match a lot and I didn't like this as much as most people seem to, but the spectacle was definitely something you'd only expect to see at Mania, and that justifies the match by itself. The post-match handshake was BS by any measure though. Sting's entrance was great.

The divas match was good time filler, but nothing was on the line and I still can't figure out who is supposed to hate who in this feud.

Rusev rode out in a Russian tank to the Russian national anthem waving the Russian flag and they STILL BOOED CENA!$@! I had no problem with Cena winning, but the finish didn't do anything for Rusev. The guy goes undefeated for a year and crushes everyone he gets in the ring with, and in the end he eats one AA and gets pinned just like any other jabroni.

I loved the Attitude era HHH-Rock feud, but they were staring each other down in the ring and I realized I didn't really care if I ever saw this match again, even though it would probably be really good. Then it turned into Rock and Rousey vs HHH and Steph and suddenly I was all like HELL YES GIVE ME THIS MATCH.

Taker vs Wyatt was about what I expected. Taker was jacked. I guess they'll do Taker vs Sting next year but Sting got buried against HHH and they definitively established that WCW has no chance against the WWE, so does anyone think Sting has a snowball's chance in hell against Taker in Texas?

Lesnar's performance in the main event might have been the best of his WWE career, he single handedly made it into a semi-legendary match. I think WWE thought that Reigns would get sympathy cheers, but that plan backfired because Brock throwing him around like he weighs 150 pounds was beyond awesome. I even bought into Reigns' comeback once Brock started bleeding and was sure he was going to win.

i did love that john cena was here representing and defending everything that is great about america, but eh fuck it, BOOOOOOOOOO.

it would be great if lesnar has more dates on his new contract and we get to see him spend a few months trying to catch rollins so he can murder him while cowardly slimebag rollins evades him

Only Sting could give a handshake to the guy who just hit him with a sledgehammer. It would have only been a better Sting performance if Flair came out to turn on him. And Luger too. And the nwo again.

Im over multi man ladder matches with no story but i love the bullhammer party and them taking ambrose out so he couldnt stop rollins for once.

Orton is so dull.

Cena Rusev was dope. Boo the guy with reagan and bush in his video! Cheer the guy in the tank with the hot chick! That stunner was fun too, i love cena. I love rusev.

Flair chopped Steamboat!

Rousey held Steph arm in arm so they could skip around together? Steph has been in matches before, was she really scared of 1 worked punch in the face?

Taker is so old and i kinda fell asleep during it.

Brock Lesnar is tge greatest professional wrestler of all time. Rollins and Reigns are both acceptable and enjoyable parts of the main event now but... fuck Brock is the greatest ever. Better than flair, savage, austin, funk, whoever. Still wish i had a time machine and could get him vs big poppa pump in his prime though.

I'm interested in who Cena feuds with and who he puts over at Like SummerSlam. Bryan as Smackdown champ could actually make me watch SD again. Lesnar has a new fucking deal and will be chasing motherfuckers down. WM did the best thing ever, which is make me care again about what happens.

rousey murders people with armbars so a tiny little armbar-ish type thing should be expected

Yeah but that wasnt what took out cat zingano, that was best friends foreverz

Just finished watching this, bit too drained for coherent impressions right now, but that main event was basically as good as it could possibly have been

what are some sites with good thoughtful writing on wrestling? whenever i want to catch up on stuff i check 411mania (only coz it was the only one i remembered from years back), but their level of critical insight is sub-sub-av club

http://uproxx.com/author/brandon-stroud/
http://grantland.com/contributors/the-masked-man/
http://aubreysitterson.com

i stopped watching raw and started reading stroud's recaps instead because A) life's too short for 3h of raw per week and B) they are entertaining as hell

i knew brandon back when he was just B, i randomly decided to click on his fbook link to his survivor series recap which is 90% of the reason i got back into wrestling

we mostly argued

in case anyone is missing raw right now, brock lesnar just burst out laughing at the crowd's SUPLEX CITY chant, confirming he had no idea the mics even picked it up last night

kalisto just destroyed in front of a smarky af crowd

if yesterday hadn't happened in a huge outdoor park it would've been the best mania ever

ADRIAN NEVILLE PROMO

lol at JBL and Booker being completely taken out by the announce table being pushed on them but it taking another F5 to put Cole away

those things are really getting devalued

it really made the announce tables look weak

was hoping the rest of raw would be arty and completely announcer-less

NEVILLE IS BILLED AS NEVILLE AND HAS A CAPE

FUCK

still using his shit theme

that is...the stupidest arbitrary forename cull yet

IF ONLY AS ORIGINALLY PROPOSED HE'D IN FACT BEEN CALLED RIPLEY BISHOP ALL ALONG, HE WOULD'VE SOUNDED KIND OF BADASS WHEN HE DEBUTED ON THE MAIN ROSTER, BEING GUARANTEED TO HAVE THE NAME OF A CHARACTER FROM ALIEN WHICHEVER WAY VINCE'S WHIM WENT

The Neville Brother