At 3/26/16 10:54 PM, ZJ wrote: Hogan's Beach Shop in Florida.

Enjoy your trip To Florida?

I figured they opened a location near you in Ohio. Not sure, if they have them in other states?

Sami Zayn vs Shinsuke Nakamura.

Holy shit, man.

Cancel Wrestlemania, no one can follow that. A thing of beauty.

At 3/26/16 11:12 AM, DoctorStrongbad wrote:

At 3/25/16 09:03 PM, Ganon-Dorf wrote:

If Ambrose wins i riot.

Ambrose is a joke and its not funny. Brock needs to beat the crap out of Ambrose. Give him at at least three F5s.

I wrote that, you accidentally deleted my name.
By the way, you gained 15% of my respect with that sentence.

Wrestlemania is tomorrow. Anybody want to guess what will happen?

Had some time to process just how good NXT Takeover Dallas was.

The Revival vs American Alpha - Great opener, fast paced and entertaining throughout. Both teams are great at actually being tag teams. The way The Revival continually cut off hot tags, and the double team offence of American Alpha are beautiful. Just love Jordan and Gable together, they've got incredible chemistry. Looking forward to a great championship run for them.

Austin Aries vs Baron Corbin - Corbin has really come into his own recently. Been cutting great promos, and all of his matches at these specials have been solid, although a lot of that might have something to do with who they've been putting him in the ring with. Great heel work from Corbin, denying the fans what they wanted by grounding Aries with a nerve pinch of all things, and I love him talking shit at the fans. Told a good story, too, with Aries stealing the win via a roll up leaving Corbin fuming and still looking strong.

Sami Zayn vs Shinsuke Nakamura - YES PLEASE THIS IS WHAT I WANT. Incredible reception for Nakamura who came across as just the coolest man in the world. Having rewatched the match this morning it's not quite the masterpiece it first came across as, because the hype and the crowd played a big part in making it feel huge, but it's still absolutely incredible stuff. The timing on some of those sequences towards the end, like when Nakamura dodged the Helluva Kick, is phenomenal. So yeah, it's not an all time classic like Nakamura vs Ibushi at WK9, but it's still an incredible debut for Nakamura and the MOTY so far.

Speaking of Ibushi, looks like he's heading for NXT, along with Bobby Roode, as both were at ringside last night. There's going to be no talent left outside of WWE at this rate.

Also, Nakamura's new theme is incredible, even if it does sound like he's coming out to the opening titles music from Angel.

Bayley vs Asuka - Was looking forward to this, and should have been great on paper, but having to follow Zayn vs Nakamura and having the crowd torn between wanting to see Asuka as champ but not wanting to see Bayley lose did it no favours. Face vs face can work, as in the previous match, but it didn't really click here. Asuka wrestling pretty heelish which was also weird, and having Bayley lose by being choked out felt a bit odd too. I get that this way she wasn't pinned or submitted, going for the whole Austin at WM13 thing, but I'd have much preferred if she went down swinging then slowly passing out.

Not sure where they're going with this now. Bayley will presumably be debuting on the Raw after Mania, but I can't tell if they're going to turn Asuka heel or not. She didn't offer Bayley the handshake like it looked like she was going to after the match, but I might just be reading too much into it.

Also, reports from fans in attendance say Izzy, the little girl who is at ringside at every NXT taping dressed as Bayley, had a mental breakdown when Bayley lost and had to be carried out of the arena screaming and crying by her dad.

Finn Balor vs Samoa Joe - As seems to be the theme of Balor's title run, his main event match is totally overshadowed by what has come before it. Joe getting busted open in the first few seconds didn't help, and the constant stoppage so the doctors could try and stop his eye for leaking gallons of blood down his chest killed the pacing in the early going. Solid enough stuff and having Balor barely survive yet again makes Joe look like an absolute killer. With Balor retaining I guess we might be seeing Joe up on the main roster before we see Finn, which I'm pretty okay with.

Fantastic show on the whole. Can't imagine Wrestlemania will be able to follow it, but live in hope and all that.

Is anybody actually going to buy Wrestlemania this year? Between the predictable matches and it being shown for free on the WWE network, I think it will have record low sales.

WOO WOO WOO
YOU KNOW IT, BABY

Until Corbin the wrong person won literally every single match.

So close to getting the clean sweep once Reigns goes over.

At 4/3/16 10:36 PM, TheMaster wrote: Until Corbin the wrong person won literally every single match.

So close to getting the clean sweep once Reigns goes over.

What're you talking about, the Battle Royal was absolutely amazing.

I mean, Tatanka and DDP having a slot in the match was great! Not like they could've put some NXT team there to have some stuff with the Social Outcasts.
Not like Damien Sandow's elimination wasn't justified, it got Shaq a 44 year old non-wrestler over, that's the important part!!!!
Then of course Axelmania didn't happen once again but pfft, who cares about lovable goof underdogs, right??

Boring Corbin was the right choice.

Best :^)
Battle Royal :^):^)
Evur :^):^):^)

At 4/3/16 10:36 PM, TheMaster wrote: Until Corbin the wrong person won literally every single match.

how dare u

No WWE, i'm sure the Wyatt burial was needed, especially Rowan's 6 second match, i'm sure that really elevated him as a wrestler and the family as a whole.

I can't believe Grandpa Undertaker beat Shane.

Suppose the best you can say about the show was that in places it was so shit it became hysterically funny, rather than just depressing.

Liked the New Day's entrance. Liked the ladder match, women's championship and hell in a cell, even if the wrong people won each of them.

Rest was just dire. Crowd chanting for NXT, Nakamura and American Alpha during the main event says it all. There's loads or good wrestling around, but it sure as fuck isn't here.

Liked most of WrestleMania 32 at least up to the Battle Royal, from then onward it was sucky.
Shane's sick bump was sooooooo amazing. It's pretty much the modern equivalent of Mankind's Hell in a Cell fall. Guess that was what they were going for, no?
Charlotte won, i think it's more than well deserved, i can't remember the last time i watched an actual women's match from start to finish without switching to any other tabs or going for a bathroom break, great "inaugural" Women's champ.
Roman won, everyone saw it coming, might as well give them a shot to run their story for a few months, maybe he'll grow on us?

Jesus, 5 in the fucking morning already.

The New Day should of won. They are the only comedy on RAW.

At 4/3/16 10:36 PM, TheMaster wrote: Until Corbin the wrong person won literally every single match.

So close to getting the clean sweep once Reigns goes over.

Ryder winning is the right way to go. I don't want to be one of those people who thinks 'paying your dues' means anything but Zayn winning now is more than likely a mistake and it's better to let him build whereas the other competitors were either too stale or not credible enough. I would've been happy with Miz because i'm a Miz mark but Ryder was the best choice to reinvigorate the midcard. That's not to say Owens isn't great, in fact I think he's easily one of the best but that's why he should move on to the main event scene.

I was also happy with Corbin winning and every other match's finish was trash. (Lesnar/Ambrose was acceptable)

At 4/4/16 01:02 AM, Gobblemeister wrote: Ryder winning is the right way to go.

I was happy for the guy, but Owens retaining would have been the right decision. Continue to establish him as a credible champion heading into an Owens/Zayn programme for Summerslam.

I was also happy with Corbin winning and every other match's finish was trash. (Lesnar/Ambrose was acceptable)

Corbin was the best of a bad lot. Couldn't complain based on who was in there, but still felt like a bit of a waste. Not like they ever do anything with the battle royal anyway so hardly matters.

At 4/4/16 12:03 AM, Radaketor wrote: i can't remember the last time i watched an actual women's match from start to finish without switching to any other tabs or going for a bathroom break, great "inaugural" Women's champ.

Mate, get Sasha and Bayley's matches from Takeover Brooklyn and Takeover Respect watched. The Brooklyn match was MOTY for 2015, incredible stuff.

Sasha vs Becky from Takeover Unstoppable is fantastic as well, as is the fatal fourway at Takeover Rival.

At 4/4/16 07:51 AM, TheMaster wrote: Mate, get Sasha and Bayley's matches from Takeover Brooklyn and Takeover Respect watched. The Brooklyn match was MOTY for 2015, incredible stuff.

Guessing either one of those was the Ironman match, right? Watched it, didn't care for it so much as last night's match.
I remember getting a loooooot of shit on online chatrooms and forums for not thinking that was match of the year.

At 4/4/16 08:21 AM, Radaketor wrote:

At 4/4/16 07:51 AM, TheMaster wrote: Mate, get Sasha and Bayley's matches from Takeover Brooklyn and Takeover Respect watched. The Brooklyn match was MOTY for 2015, incredible stuff.

Guessing either one of those was the Ironman match, right? Watched it, didn't care for it so much as last night's match.
I remember getting a loooooot of shit on online chatrooms and forums for not thinking that was match of the year.

The iron man was at Respect, and was the lesser of the two matches. Brooklyn was the match that spurred them on to giving them the 30 minutes and doing it in the main event after it totally overshadowed the actual main event of Brooklyn.

I like AJ Styles becoming the #1 contender for Roman's title. There's no way in Hell that they'll let him take it from him, but it's awesome that they're gonna let AJ go for the title.

Anyone, but fucking Reigns..

At 4/5/16 04:48 AM, Lich wrote: - What the fuck was the point of Jericho winning over AJ?

Twilight of his career, i don't think it hurts to have the veteran go over the "new" guy every once in a while, remember HBK vs Y2J at 'Mania XIX? Besides, Jericho's lost so much in feuds these last few years he needed something to cling onto to remain a credible threat for the casual fans.
Or maybe it's the last big run of the title for him, i'd like to see him go at least once more for the WWE title, unlikely, if not near impossible to win.

WWE's storytelling is just becoming garbage.

I did enjoy the ladder match, but typically when you have THAT MANY stars in one match, you leverage it to build convincing fueds. They didn't really let Owens and Zayne build a new chapter in their rivalry, nor did they really give anyone else a real chance to shine.

The only story that came out of that was a veteran finally got to shine at Mania, for no real reason other than he was overdue. They were too hung up on adding a swerve that they missed the chance to build Owens Zayne, or create some character development that could lead to Sin Cara going Heel against Calysto later, etc etc.

LON vs ND was dumb. New Day had been burying them for weeks so it was kind of obvious they were going to win. Why they didn't have a title match that could have maybe made the whole rivalry actually interesting is beyond me. They could have put the titles up under freebird rules nodding to the HOF induction, but for some reason they wanted LON to get a win without taking the belts off New Day, so they gave us a pointless filler match nobody really wanted.

The biggest fuck-up in storytelling... why would you have a street fight with barbed wire bats, chainsaws, etc etc, if you had no intention of letting the match break the PG rating? We all knew they weren't going to let Lesnar get beat with barbed wire, and we also knew Ambrose had no chance without that level of violence. Had they made this a tables match or last man standing... something that could be pulled off without blood, they could have sold Dean as actually having a chance and told a really good story.

The Andre Battle Royal was just a bathroom break match for the most part. Basically the same thing as the middle part of a Royal Rumble where they cart out random people that have zero chance of being on TV again for years just to get some cheap pops. The minute Big Show started selling for Shaq, any suspension of disbelief was gone. The closest thing to a story they got in there was that Social Outcasts could actually MAYBE be players. Props for giving Corbin the win though. He gets a decent initial push without having to be in a title picture before he's really ready.

The biggest storytelling offender was Reigns v HHH. How do you have a HHH match and not get some of the best in-ring storytelling possible? Think about his past matches with weaker guys like a younger Jeff Hardy, or the storytelling clinics with Taker and Lesnar. And he's one of Roman's biggest supporters backstage. How the fuck did this match not get super personal? Steph was the only one that did any real storytelling. Otherwise it was just a Raw-quality match with no real sense of purpose.

Shane v Taker. This match actually told a story. But the buildup for it kind of made it a pointless match. We all knew Taker wasn't going to be retired by a guy who was never really a wrestler, and hadn't been around for 7 years. The outcome was obvious, and I, for one, had no investment in the angle of Shane taking over Raw as a result. The spots were well done, and both men really did great selling the idea that Shane was willing to kill himself before giving up. Unfortunately Shane's rust and Takers age made it a really slow match. Without the crazy spots it would have been garbage.

The Women's Championship was the clear winner of the night. The 3 women involved had a lot of pressure to deliver, but also were given the freedom to do things their way. I was sold on the rivalry they had with each other in advance, and adding in the re-christening of the women's title really made it feel like this revolution of theirs had paid off. It was really the only match that felt special from start to finish.

Then you get to Raw the next day. Shane gets to control RAW anyway... Ryder drops the title (thanks to a great surprise in Marise coming back to TV), Cesaro is back, and AJ is the #1 contender. Where was this storytelling and momentum BEFORE Mania? They just suck at making the matches in these huge shows feel special anymore.

At 4/5/16 10:23 AM, Radaketor wrote:

At 4/5/16 04:48 AM, Lich wrote: - What the fuck was the point of Jericho winning over AJ?

Twilight of his career, i don't think it hurts to have the veteran go over the "new" guy every once in a while, remember HBK vs Y2J at 'Mania XIX? Besides, Jericho's lost so much in feuds these last few years he needed something to cling onto to remain a credible threat for the casual fans.
Or maybe it's the last big run of the title for him, i'd like to see him go at least once more for the WWE title, unlikely, if not near impossible to win.

Given that they had obviously already planned on pushing AJ into the world title picture on RAW, having him lose was probably best for business. Jericho's whole position right now is to elevate younger talent. If he becomes a jobber, he simply can't do that. He absolutely has to be a credible competitor even if he's not going to be the #1 guy ever again.

I just wish they hadn't already over-exposed this match-up ahead of time.

At 4/5/16 01:05 AM, ZJ wrote: I like AJ Styles becoming the #1 contender for Roman's title. There's no way in Hell that they'll let him take it from him, but it's awesome that they're gonna let AJ go for the title.

I have funny feeling that AJ will try to make a version of the Bullet club. It could be Shane's attempt at an invasion style angle.

I would have Jericho enter a feud with Zack Ryder, get the Intercontinental Title, then a Triple Threat Match between Jericho, AJ, and Ryder.

At 4/5/16 04:07 AM, wolfe wrote: Anyone, but fucking Reigns..

I could not agree more. He has no mic or wrestling skills.

That's my ticket booked for NXT's UK tour this summer. Only travelling 3 1/2 hours to it this time, rather than 7 like the one last year.

2nd row, but on the entrance ramp side. Was second row on the opposite side to that last time, and dead centre, so probably not quite as good of a seat, but hopefully still decent.

At 4/5/16 08:26 PM, The-Great-One wrote: I would have Jericho enter a feud with Zack Ryder, get the Intercontinental Title, then a Triple Threat Match between Jericho, AJ, and Ryder.

Well that lasted long. Hopefully this won't cut Zack Ryder short.

Do you guys think Mania hurt this year because of all the people hurt, or do you think WWE suck at building people now; or both?