Sheamus has serious limitations. Average in ring ability, poor Mic skills. Luke Harper? Zero mic skills. Kofi Kingston is used purely for his athletic ability. I think you are missing my point. I did forget Bray Wyatt, so you win that one. But as far as depth goes, even rusev who is phenomenal in the ring will never be top shelf because he can't communicate.

And they pushed Daniel Bryan, and hey, I'm a Bryan guy. But as they feared, his body failed him. Dolph as well. He is his own worst enemy. Probably the best in ring performer since HBK. But he sells too well.

Wouldn't be a horrible idea, but against who?

I mean their wrestlemania card is so thin now, that they are having to force Daniel Bryan Sheamus just to fill the card.

This is shaping up to be a pretty lousy wrestlemania. Lesnar Reigns is looking lousy. The only match I'm truly excited for is sting hhh. My two faves of all time.

Dolph is amazing

The problem isn't the performers, the problem is Vince still married to the idea that only big guys are worth putting over, which is why no talent turds like ryback are given long pushes that never pan out, and his weird infatuation with giving his best workers long losing streaks. Which is I think an attempt to kill their popularity. Which really kills those guys when he finally gives in to public pressure and puts them on top.

And the fascination with entertainment over wrestling. That's why Brock is so over. Heyman cuts the best promos, which are all about how Brock is going to beat a guy, and then Brock goes out and kills them in a violently believable way. There's no cartoony shit, there's no weirdness, it's just one guy beating another. It would not have been hard to set up Danielson like that, albeit in a different way because of his size. They did it with Chris Benoit for years. Make him the best technical wrestler in the company, give him a long winning streak, don't tear him down on the Mic for years, and you don't need a gimmick beard or yes chants.

But belts don't matter, skills don't matter, mic work barely even matters because it's all scripted. All that matters is being 6'4 with a physique. Vince is in love with bodybuilders.

If you look at how Bryan was booked in ROH, that's how it could have worked. He was a technical badass that had about 100 different finishers that he could pull out of nowhere on you. But in WWE-land every "superstar" needs to be a video game character with 1 signature move and 1 finisher.

I'd also like to point out that Wrestlemania will be Reigns' first PPV main event. And his 2nd (SECOND!!) one-on-one PPV match. Ever.

Not only is he awful at everything (except looking like a shampoo salesman), he's in a spot that A) he did nothing to earn and B) he's never even approached before.

I'm curious as to what happens to the guy long-term. If he beats Lesnar (that hurts to type) and the crowd shits all over it, can he ever recover from it? Far be it from me to defend Cena, but he's at least shown the ability to roll with the punches of a crowd (and put on some watchable matches in the process). Reigns looked like a freaking deer in the headlights, pointing to the Mania sign like a dumbass while the whole place was booing his ass on Sunday.

Ugh. I thought about cancelling my subscription to the Network after Sunday. Decided not to because I want to see Mania. But if that show ends without a big change to the main event (or at least Rollins coming out to ruin the whole damn thing), I don't know how much longer I'll be subscribing.

So they're doing the same thing as last year, beating Bryan badly in the Rumble for whatever stupid reason, then putting him right back in the main event picture for mania?

I have my doubts that they actually will. I think this is their way of trolling the fans. They can say "Well, we gave him 2 shots to be in the main event & he couldn't win either time." Or "Look, Reigns earned it! He won the Rumble AND beat Bryan!"

It's stupid. But unless every crowd pulls a Philly & is boourns'ing Reigns out of the building between now & then, I think Reigns-Lesnar is a go. I sincerely hope I'm wrong, though.

If they do go with Reigns-Lesnar, Rollins needs to ruin the whole thing. Cash in the MITB as confetti meant for another guy rains (no pun intended) down. Then again, they might cheer him for that...

No way they put Reigns in the WM main event right now.

Is mania Brock's last date? I could actually see them putting Bryan over if that's the case.

If he beats Reigns and then starts tapping people, that's where they're headed. And I think that could be a fantastic match. Better than Brock and Reigns.

my bet is a double DQ at fast lane, then they put both Bryan and Reigns in the WM main event against Brock

Bryan is going to make Reigns look like a million bucks at Fast Lane & put him over. That's his role.

Push Ziggler

Kind of backfires if the crowd shits on it though.

Ziggler v Bryan is what Meltzer had been told prior to yesterday's Raw.

What about the old double turn with Brock and Reigns?

Fast Lane is in the same place they did Occupy Raw last year with Bryan. I'm not entirely sure they won't shit all over Reigns when he beats Bryan.

And Bryan's a wrestler, not a miracle worker. I'm on the bandwagon of him being the best worker on the planet, but Reigns is on another level of suck.

Except I think the idea behind all this crap is that Reigns is the new Cena. The face of the company who they can shove down our throats for the next 15 years because the kids love him and buy all his stupid merchandise. If he's a heel, that doesn't work.

Not to mention that it may be Brock's last match. I don't think I have to remind anyone what happened the last time his contract was up.

NXT...so good. Next week will be so much better than Fast Lane.

Don't know if anyone else caught the NXT special on Wednesday but if not, watch it NOW....JESUS CHRIST what a show.

NXT is easily the best American wrestling going right now and shits all over RAW and SD. I wish they'd keep NXT separate at this point and keeps all these wonderful performers there...hell move Bryan, Cesaro, Kidd, Ziggler, etc. there full time while we're are it lol.

Best brawl I can remember seeing for a while.

Or turn Smackdown into NXT. Give the NXT performers the chance to make money on the road.

What's everyone's thoughts going into Wrestlemania tomorrow? Weak build honestly not that excited, Sting/HHH should be good and the ladder match, I'm waiting to see if this main event will bomb and how the crowd will react to it

Brock just resigned a 3 year deal so there's real talk of having him retain the title tomorrow night. There's going to be a lot of anti-reigns people in the crowd tomorrow so having him win would be a real chance of the closing shot of wrestlemania ending to chorus of boos. I don't think the WWE wants that.

The RAW after would be even worse. The guys who fly around the world to attend Wrestlemania generally buy a ticket to RAW the night after. They're generally the most smarky and the most vocal. If Reigns wins, they're going to peel the paint off the roof booing the shit out of him.

Love the post WM Raws, remember a year ago I think the crowd just shit all over Sheamus/Orton chanting everything from Savage to X-PAC lol

Apparently the NXT show last night in San Jose was mind-blowing. But it also wasn't taped. Guuuuhhhhh.

Triple H can't take over the WWE soon enough.

Yea heard they had over 5,000 in attendance, Balor and Neville sounds like it was off the charts

Pretty sure it was recorded...

Itami finally busted out the GTS too, the pop was ridiculously loud.

Regins heel turn incoming. Guessing that Heyman goes with him too.

I just want to see Bray beat Taker. He's had to carry the entire thing, and then to saddle him with a loss would be super shitty.

Sting/ HHH will be awful I'm sure. Taker and Wyatt won't be much better. (From a wrestling standpoint I mean)

There weren't any hard cams there. There were some handheld cameras, but it seems unlikely they can pull an episode out of that footage.

It's a shame, because the buzz on the Sasha Banks vs Charlotte match is that it rivals the Natalya vs Charlotte match from last year.

If Reigns wins they'll just say he's too hurt to show up on Raw because of Lesnar. Easy angle to avoid the negative backlash.

Reigns won't win. They just resigned Brock. Only way Brock was to lose that title smartly is to have him be the ultimate obstacle. A very very rare event of him losing. He faces many different types of competitors to overcome their odds until finally someone is ready for that push to become the next big WWE Face.

Anyone watch the HOF speeches last night? Anything worth watching?

I agree, but I can also see both of those being in the vein of Rock-Hogan from WM 18 where the crowd is super into both of them. Guess we'll find out.

If Reigns wins, I don't think there's much they can do to avoid negative backlash, short of playing into it & turning him heel. Tomorrow's Raw will be the smarky-est crowd of the year and he didn't get a good reaction earlier this week with the belt. Lesnar has to win or Rollins has to cash in. If the show ends with REIGNSWINSLOL and they try to keep him as a face, it could ruin the guy's career.

As an aside, I can't be the only one who's really not that excited for Mania tonight. I thought as it got closer, I'd get more into it, but that hasn't happened. I'll still watch the show and will probably watch tomorrow, but if this show bombs, I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep the network. Lesnar re-signing ups my interest a bit, but I'm still not convinced that Reigns won't begin a Cena-esque reign of terror (no pun intended) tonight.

Going back to after last Wrestlemania you actually had a decent storyline set up for this. You have Cesaro with Heyman. You keep Cesaro dominate and let him bring in more of his indy offense (UFO and Ricola Bomb) . Through out this Heyman keeps hyping Brock but doesn't say much about Cesaro. This continues for a couple months as Cesaro's annoyance at his hype man not hyping him builds.

In a Number 1 contenders match Paul interferes costing Cesaro the match. Cesaro finally has had enough and Heyman gets a giant swing for his trouble. This turns Cesaro all the way face. Build to Wrestlemania from there.

Nah, he can't get over because he's too European.
/Vincelogic

Great idea to put The Bushwackers after the Warrior award. Daniel Bryan did an awesome job with his speech.

With the way Heyman is kissing Reigns ass in all promos, I think he's going to flip on Brock and help Reigns win the belt.

Then Rollins cashes in.

There's no way I can see Bray losing to Taker. You have to start putting Bray over - I think this is the way they do it.

This IS Vince we're talking about. There's not a lot (short of good booking) that would surprise me at this point with this company.

Mostly excited for the IC title ladder match other than that the only thing peaking my interest is the main event and it's only cause I wanna see the crowd reaction to it

Can't wait for Rick "The Model" Martel vs Tito Santanna

I don't like having matches in the preshow. Still thousands of empty seats.

Especially for the tag titles, they couldn't fit this in really?

Especially when Cesaro is way over with the WrestleMania crowd.

Welcome back to relevance, IC Title.

JFC that RKO.

Yeah...huge pop from me.

Is Sting Asian?

Man all I caught was the tag match on the preshow had to go to work, how's the show so far?

The NWO looked HAGGARD and old.

well they are all 50 plus and some in their 60's lol that with partying during their heyday. ughh yeah they are goign to look old. lol

I was impressed with the bump Hall took. Especially after he had hip surgery. I may have to get started on DDP Yoga.

I know it was his heart wasnt doing well, but dude is sober and clean now and his health has improved alot though. DDP is the man for helping people.

2 hours for 3 more matches. Taker's entrance must be 15 minutes.

They brought in Sting.... to job to Triple H. How the hell did Vince beat out all his competitors?

Nice Royals shirt when the ref was showing the US Title.

DDP has helped Hall and Jake Roberts. Even made a movie about Jake's story. I have the DDP workout. Its no joke. I would recommend it highly.

Hasn't been as bad as I thought. Apparently, Wyatt is hurt though and who knows how bad the crowd will shit on Reigns.

LMAO Ronda Rousey wearing a Vegeta shirt.

I don't really have much else going on tonight, so I'm streaming this on VIPbox... there's as much action as any other soap opera thus far..

Come on. You didn't enjoy watching 60 year old men fall over each other and baseball bats breaking sledgehammers?

Reigns getting booed out tha stadium lol

hows it been?

If you are a hot new wrestler. Your push just got derailed by the old guard.

Rollins lost, Rusev lost, Bray lost, and Trips went over Sting.

Can Lesnar's new hometown be Suplex City Bitch ahah

Maybe it's a testament to his ability to stay in character, or maybe I just don't know the guy well enough, but every time I see Brock wrestle it just seems like he's an inch away from a legitimate shoot.

I have no idea what just happened, but that felt really, really cheap.

Rollins got the ultimate push.

Didn't see that coming haha.

What happened? Did Doink come back!?

Rollins cashed in during the main event, making it a triple threat match.

Oooooooo.... Blah

Good ending though, everyone looked came out looking strong

Roman got the shit kicked out of him legit. Brock is either an excellent faker or he was working him really stiff.

Lesnar is known to go rough w/ people in the ring. Not many people like working w/ him.

another year where the 50 year old part timers bury the young talent. Same old Wrestelmania.

Then the product sucks for the next 11 months because the guys that wrestle year round cant get over.

I lol'd at reigns getting pushed around by the crowd during his entrance. Man they really hate him. I feel bad for the guy. He was like a steaming locomotive when the Shield burned out, but creative handled him horribly and turned the crowd against him. Would assume Brock wins the title back at some point this year and faces Daniel Bryan at next WM.

Loved the ending. Absolutely loved it.

A little bummed that Cena won (lol) and that Bray lost, but very entertaining show nonetheless.

Brock vs Rock is coming

Just turn him heel at this point