rolling Jericho calls The New Day trap queens 2016

I wouldn't read much into Shane's semi-shoot comments. If they were so self-aware about the problems with their product then they wouldn't have Reigns fighting for the belt.

Reigns doesn't need a heel turn he needs a personality beyond "big guy who used to be in the Shield".

I'm kind of dreading Bayley getting called up to the main roster, she'll be jobbing to Eva Marie in three minute matches on RAW before you can blink. I still think she's winning today and staying in NXT for a few more months.

disagree with Mordy's point here - i think Shane's return has got "OH SHIT EVERYONE] IS INJURED ALL HANDS ON DECK" written all over it.

Totally agree. Six months ago the top matches were set to be Rock vs HHH, Lesnar vs Taker, Reigns vs Cena or Rollins. Then it was supposed to be Rollins vs HHH, Taker vs Cena. They had to rebook a bunch of times because of the injuries, I can't see them suddenly deciding "well, our top guys are injured, so I guess we'll change the direction of the company".

4. See #2. They have been steadily losing viewers and hearing resentment from their remaining fans for a while now. To have roman win clean&babyface and not hear the boos and then taker win so theyve really admitted they know they have problems and dont gaf, could really stop a lot more people watching/subscribing.

What suicide commando said. They've legit sold 85 000 tickets to Mania plus 20 000 more for NXT and Raw, Vince is laughing too hard on the way to the bank to take the "problems" they half-assedly admit to on TV seriously.

I guess so. And i guess i could have worded that less dramatically. But mania will always sell out. Raws, smackdowns, house shows have all been on the downslide though, iirc, in tickets and ratings. And the fingerpoke of doom example i used, well it didnt kill wcw; but it sure as hell made a lot of people feel like turning the channel.

I also dont think shane winning will change anything, maybe some call-ups happen in his name like steph and the #divasrevolution but it'll still be presented as a big "we fucked up look we can be betterz"

As if there wasn't enough wrestling on this weekend, i've decided to make myself a little custom PPV made up of past WM matches to watch on my afternoon off and get myself in the right mood. Using this format, wrestlers can only be used once -

Opener
Tag Title match
Misc. grudge / spectacle match
IC title match
Undertaker/Streak match
World title match

Right now I think I've settled on:

Bret Hart vs Owen Hart WM X
TLC II WM X7
Edge vs Mick Foley WM 22
Macho Man vs Ricky Steamboat WM 3
Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels WM 25
Stone Cold vs The Rock WM X7

But it took me ages to whittle it down, there were so many permutations of this that would've worked. No Bryan / HHH, HBK / Razor, Savage / Flair, Austin / Bret, Rock / Hogan etc.

If i watch all that lot I might do it again using different matches. it's a fun game to play!

Cos im bored at work im gonna try and figure out how to do an awesome version of that using none of the wrestlers you're already watching. Well except Taker has to be in a taker match. Also you'll see Edge twice... sorry.

Opener - Bryan/hhh wm30
Tag title - The British Bulldogs/Dream Team wm2 (ewwww how many TEEEEEEERRRRRRRIBLEEE tag title matches have their been? I had to do some hardcore wiki-ing and even then this is wm2 which is the worst mania
Grudge/spectacle - money in the bank wm24
IC - Chris Jericho/william regal wm17
Streak - Taker/flair wm18
Title - Hogan/Andre wm3

Aw shit shoulda have gone brock-kurt as my main event and demolition v. Andre and haku, meaning you could do 2 rounds of this without hogan

Ok second go-

Opener - hhh-bryan wm30
Tag title - andre/haku-demolition wm6
Grudge/spectacle - mitb wm24
IC - warrior/rude wm5
Taker streak - taker/batista wm22
Title - hogan/warrior wm6

Lol i cocked up again, no warrior-hogan, def kurt v. Brock

Doing that really made me appreciate wm30/31 and even sunday. There have been soooo many bad manias, or ones saved by like one or two matches.

For example, wm12 doesnt get shit on enough. What a fucking stinker, only goldust-piper was any fun and the iron man was not only awful but half the fucking card.

(Taker-diesel is also alright.)

Another version, trying to pick completely new matches:

Opener - Shield vs Big Show, Orton, Sheamus (WM29)
Tag title - TLC II, E&C vs Dudleys vs Hardys (WM17)
Grudge/spectacle - Adrian Adonis vs Roddy Piper (WM3)
IC - HBK vs Razor Ramon (Ladder Match) (WM10)
Taker streak - vs HHH (WM28)
Title - Hogan vs Savage (WM5)

The opener wasn't a great match, but I wanted it for the star power.

Wrestlemania title matches (no tlc edition)

Im doing shit today, can a mod change that title to be tag title matches

Ive always wanted to go to mania but fuck me, whats the point when its in a stadium this big to be in the cheap seats? The hell in a cell cage looks fucking tihy

Wm32 set spoiler -https://m.imgur.com/a/JPgDD

Roman Reigns entrance is gonna last about fifty minutes.

My NXT predictions:

Aires/Corbin - Aires with a DQ win, so they can keep it hot for a regular show rematch
Revival/AA - American Alpha get the titles, but they'll have a rematch soon (maybe 2/3 falls?)
Sami/Shinsuke - Nakamura, it HAS to be
Bayley/Asuka - I think this one might go to a draw, a double countout maybe
Apollo/Drifter - I feel like they're gonna sacrifice Crews here; I didn't feel that way when he lost to Corbin in London
Finn/Joe - Balor wins, again; I kinda don't want this one to go on last, there's more anticipation for the rest of the card

And my WrestleMania guesses:

Kalisto/Ryback - Kalisto gets the pin after The Ryback does something stupid to himself
10-Divas tag - Brie gets the feel-good pin for her team, but Lana does something mean after
Usos/Dudleys - I think the Dudleys might get this one, if they're going to stick around
Battle Royal - If Beef Stroganoff's in it, he'll win it
New Day/The Lads - The Rock will team with New Day, People's Elbow with a Francesca 2 serenade
Styles/Jericho - Styles, but not with the Styles Clash
IC ladder match - The heart says Sami Zayn, but the head says KO
Divas triple threat - Charlotte keeps the belt; I hope this is a good match and I hope they give it 10+ minutes
Ambrose/Lesnar - Lesnar, but it'll be close; the look on Brock's face on Raw last week tells me he likes working with Dean
Shane/Taker - Shane, after a whole slew of shenanigans
Triple H/Roman - Trips keeps the title after Seth Rollins interferes on his behalf b/c it's 'best for business'

(Im actually super excited to properly see the set up and entrances and yes im just using this to hope reigns is not man of the people shield guy. And maybe even gets new gear.)

Combined ages of the likely main eventers at Mania this year (51 + 46 = 97) is not much less than Vince and Hogan at the time of their WM 19 match (which was promoted as if it was the main event, even though it wasn't on last) (57 + 49 = 106).

Thinking back over it, I wouldn't be surprised to see Nakamura/Zayn go to some kind of interference-based non-finish, to keep Zayn strong-ish for his move up to the main roster while setting up Nakamura's first (and possibly only) NXT feud.

nahh they've gotta put Shinsuke over here I think. it doesn't hurt Zayn at all to do the job here if they book him strong coming out of it, just like it didn't hurt Owens to lose to Balor (on a show that was way more main roster than NXT in fact) when he was on his way out of NXT.

Also, speaking of Nakamura..... MAJOR FUCKING SPOILERS FOR LATER TONIGHT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik8072ewnfY&app=desktop

so this sounds like a pretty dope theme! i am sooooooo ready for this

this thread has so many words in it aaaaahhhhh

FPing anyone who does that "ARMBAR" thing keep that sad reddit shit out of here

anyway i'm going all in on shane winning if i'm right everyone owes me a beer

nahh they've gotta put Shinsuke over here I think. it doesn't hurt Zayn at all to do the job here if they book him strong coming out of it, just like it didn't hurt Owens to lose to Balor (on a show that was way more main roster than NXT in fact) when he was on his way out of NXT.

Kevin Owens only lost two singles matches in his NXT run, and the other one was a DQ. By the time he lost that ladder match, he'd crushed Sami Zayn, racked up a bunch of title defenses, and beaten John Cena clean on Raw. He had a lot of momentum.

Zayn, on the other hand, is coming off of a major loss, and hasn't beaten anyone on TV other than Adam Rose and Tye Dillinger since he came back. So they might want to protect him a bit more here.

But you could be right. It may not matter, since most of the main roster audience doesn't care about this stuff and the NXT fans will love him regardless. That seems to be their thinking with Enzo and Cass.

network is shit for me right now but pretty good start so far

i am very pumped !!

i love that i have no idea how the rest of the show is gonna go !

ibushi in the takeover crowd!

fantastic tag match i thought

That tag team match was Rockers vs Brainbusters to a tee. Loved it.

JR and Kota Ibushi in attendance! !!

That was incredible. Jordan & Gable are possibly the guys in nxt i'm the most excited aboutfor the future.

Ibushi!

Corbin's gear is actually badass.

Baron Corbin's jacket is badass

xpost!

lol there is a guy in the crowd with one of those jericho light up arms jackets. he had to get that custom made.

well there you go. this weekend just peaked. that was brutal.

That was everything I could have expected. At times it felt like Nak was a bit too preoccupied with getting his signature stuff in, but the finishing stretch was awesome and he already came off looking like the biggest star in NXT.

that was a very pleasant blend of wwe/njpw. that was so good. i honestly saw more in nak there than i have in njpw (but maybe i'm just conditioned). for a match with 0 build that was perfect.

You could feel at the start of the women's title match that the crowd was burned out from Zayn and Nak. The submission counters were awesome. I smell a rematch.

Balor is infringing on Dean Ambrose's gimmick!

demon entrances getting worse and worse imo

can the dreads at least

amazing wrestlemania guys. i doubt the rookies will be able to top it on sunday.

Odd match. The first ten minutes were a chaotic war, it was exactly what was missing from their previous match. The finish was out of nowhere. No clue what they do with Joe now.

On second thought, they'll probably have a Nakamura vs Joe #1 contenders match, with Nak going on to face Balor. I'm there for all of that.

what's joe done to deserve another #1 contenders match?

http://s10.postimg.org/dla236p7d/finn.jpg

officially starting the "finn pooped" rumor you heard it here first

Really fun show. Zayn/Nakamura was match of the night.

I'm a little deflated by the finish to the main event. I'm not much of a Finn Balor fan, whereas I think Samoa Joe may be the best wrestler in the world right now, and winning the title here seemed like such a natural arc for him. I was having visions of a Joe/Nakamura title match, and then mall goth Balor won with a flash pin. Bummer.

One other thing that struck me during the show was that Zayn/Nakamura and Bayley/Asuka were both cases of a humble hometown hero against an eccentric killer from Japan, and in both matches the latter wrestler won. And they were back to back!

i'm guessing they didn't want all three belts changing hands. i think joe's face getting busted might've made that match weirder than it was supposed to be. would've been a great time for bullet club to show up for a double turn, joe was already basically a babyface for the first 10 minutes and finn was MIA

asuka/bayley was good but i hate how often they do face-passes-out-slowly finishes. that should be rare. fast passouts are fine. but bayley passing out wasn't the right move.

I'm inclined to agree, especially since they just did that finish with the Joe vs. Zayn 2/3 falls match. Also, the Asuka Lock doesn't look like it should make anyone pass out. And I wish she would stop crossing her feet when she does it, that's a rookie grappler's mistake. (It was a good match, though!)

Watching it live, I thought the dueling submissions in Bayley vs Asuka was the setup to the finishing stretch of the match. That's why I think they're doing a rematch. If so I'm fine with Bayley passing out -- it gets the submissions over more as viable finishers and the story leading into the rematch writes itself.

what's joe done to deserve another #1 contenders match?

Nothing, but beating him still means something and they might as well use that to build someone else to challenge Balor.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDrmmL_gFCh/

i agree there'll be a rematch, but doesn't bayley tapping out also get the submission over? not every babyface needs to be a mini-cena NGUer

WWE's fault for always equating tapping out with yellowbelliedness, but still. bayley doesn't need "never taps out" to be a part of her character right now and she doesn't need to be protected from looking like the loser of a match after losing (same with sami). save it for dean on sunday.

I meant that they helped get over submissions as holds that could end the match at any time. They're mostly treated like crowd participation spots in WWE -- you see a babyface in a sleeper hold and you know it's not the finish, you know you'll see the arm drop twice and on the third time the babyface starts a comeback and gets the crowd charged up.

Basically no submission gets taken seriously in WWE unless they've already done a hot stretch with trading finishers and a bunch of near falls. I guess that's why the crowd was in shock at the finish to Bayley vs Asuka, they were expecting a comeback and another five minutes of the match (and so was I).