2015 Pro Wrestling Thread

Madusa's speech at the Hall of Fame has been awesome.

 

Especially with the garbage can.

 

I suppose now would be a good time to weigh in with my WrestleMania predictions. Even though I am incredibly down on this show, here we go:

Preshow:
Fatal Four Way Tag Team Match: There's a 90% chance I'm not even going to watch this match. Nothing about this appeals to me so, f**k it. I'll take the USOs pinning Tyson Kidd because why not? Another meaningless title change no one will care about in three weeks.
Andre the Giant Battle Royal: Now that this is on the preshow, I may or may not watch this bout. I'm excited to see Hideo Itami get his chance to debut and compete with the main roster talent but I doubt very much this match will do much for me. I figure it will be like last year's battle royal was: A lot of pure shit and a pretty strong finish. I'll go ahead and call two things. First, this will be where Miz and Mizdow part ways for good. Second, I'll take Ryback as the winner of this contest after he tosses out the Big Show and Kane.

Main Show:
Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins (15 minutes): I'm torn as to whether this or the IC title bout will open the show but, ultimately, I think this match will if only to serve as a way to keep people guessing as to whether or not Rollins will cash in at the end of the show. How that plays out, I think, will determine the winner here. If Rollins is going to cash in, I like him to lose here fairly quickly without too much damage taken in. If he's not going to cash in, my guess is Orton will dominate most of this match but he finds a way to come out with the victory, setting up the feud to continue at the next PPV.
IC Title Ladder Match (25 minutes): As bad as I want this contest to steal the show, I worry about whether or not they'll get enough time to do so. If the powers that be are smart, this match will play the role the MITB match used to play. Lots of crazy spots and big pops to get the crowd pumped. I'm not expecting too much here but I do think this will be an entertaining match and I fully expect Ziggler to do some crazy spot that gets talked about forever. The final result? I like a returning Sheamus to cost Daniel Bryan here and I'll take Ambrose for the victory as he's really the only challenger that actually has had any storyline-based reasoning for wanting the title.
Some sort of terrible comedy bit/celebrity bit (5 minutes)
Rusev vs. John Cena (30 minutes with elaborate entrances for both): It's been a while now since we've had a long John Cena Mania entrance. My guess is we get it here and it's every bit as awful and American pride-based as you can imagine. I think this is a make it or break it match for Rusev to prove he belongs. Cena can go and Cena is still the face of the company. This is a huge spot for Rusev to prove he's not another Koslov and build his character for the future. Ultimately, though, I don't see this ending in any other way than with John Cena making the Russian tap because, you know, it's WrestleMania and everyone loves them some John Cena. (Not)
Musical performance/promo (15 minutes)
Bray Wyatt vs. The Undertaker (30 minutes with entrances and exit): To me, this is the wildcard match of the night. We all know Taker is a huge question mark here and if he looks anywhere as bad as he did last year, this is going to be horrid. That being said, I love the idea of Wyatt getting to ascend the throne as THE "face of fear" with the WWE. I don't know if Vince would be bold enough to have Taker lose two years in a row at Mania but it would be huge for Wyatt to put on a good show here. In the end, I think this will be a strong match with a well-told psychology to it. I'll take Taker going over and looking better than last year but this match being the start of his true swan song before he hangs it up for good next year in Texas.
Hall of Fame/Promos (5 minutes)
Triple H vs. Sting (35 minutes with entrances)
This, to me, might be the match of the night for nostalgia purposes only. While I really didn't care about this angle at all, and I really though the build sucked, the WWE has done a good job the past two weeks getting me pumped about this. I only have ONE request here and that's a simple one. Please, please, please come out in the WCW makeup/costume Sting. I want that soooo bad.
As for the match, I think it will be thoroughly entertaining. Sting looked pretty light on his feet in his RAW segments recently and this one has the potential to be a real night-stealer. Will it? I don't know. But I'm quietly excited about it. I really am.
Bellas vs. AJ/Paige (10 minutes)
I still have no earthly idea why this isn't a fatal four-way for the Diva's title but, hey, whatever. These girls have had some really strong matches the past few weeks and I have to secretly hope they get at least 10 minutes on the card if the WWE is serious about really building the Diva's division back up. Odds are, Charlotte debuts Monday night and we may even see Sasha Banks on the main roster by the summer so, honestly, the time has come to give the girls some room to work and this would be a big statement to that affect. I like Paige and AJ to get the win here by taking out the soon-to-be departed Bella twins.
Lesnar vs. Reigns (45 minutes)
Now the main event. Argh. I can't believe they're really going with Reigns here. I really can't. I don't think he's ready and I think this is going to be very, very rough. That being said, I'm much more optimistic now than I was last week about this match as Roman can really go in the ring and, at least size wise, this should be a very solid, solid match. Lesnar is the undisputed top dog in the company right now and after he demolished both Taker and Cena last year, anything other than a strong showing here but him would be a mistake.
The real wild card to me here is how the WWE wants to play Reigns. Honestly, now that Lesnar has resigned, I don't think there's any chance this ends with a Reigns coronation. Reigns is too far gone with what will absolutely be a smark crowd and Vince LOVES ending Mania with a happy ending for the fans so either 1.) Reigns looks strong but fails to get the job done, setting up a redemption storyline for him next year to really make him THE guy, 2.) Reigns looks strong but he and Lesnar work with the crowd and pull off a brilliant double turn which positions Lesnar as the face in this match, allowing a win by him to make the fans happy or 3.) Reigns wins and the crowd shits all over the finish. I think we're going to get scenario #2 which means Lesnar wins and ...
Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar (5 minutes)
In a surprise move, I'm going to say Reigns turns heel and beats the ever-loving hell out of Lesnar at the end of their match/during his coronation. This sets the table for Rollins to come down and cash in his briefcase, blowing the stadium off the hinges. Storyline-wise, if I'm booking it, I have Lesnar beat Reigns, Reigns turn completely and demolish Lesnar and Rollins cash in with the help of his former Shield brother. This injects an amazing amount of intrigue into the next few months of programming and, honestly, would make for one HELL of a WrestleMania moment for Seth Rollins. I ultimately don't think we're going to get this but I can hope right?
Fingers crossed.
Overall, I'm not expecting much tomorrow night but even with the absolutely awful booking, this show could be amazing if done right. Here's hoping.

 

A man can dream.

 

Thought the final three inductions were all good, but I really enjoyed Lanny's speech about Savage. All in all I thought it was an excellent show that even though it ran long, I didn't feel like it dragged (other than Dana). The only thing that let it down for me was when some idiots in the crowd kept shouting out during the speeches, but I guess that's always going to happen.

 

I've been to two HOFs (22&29) and normally the majority of the crowd is super respectful and shits all over the people who try to ruin the night. I haven't watched last night's HOF yet but I imagine the idiots were the vast minority.

 

The Rock cuts some Wrestlemania "promos" on SNL. Enjoy.

Watch The Rock's hilarious WWE promo spoof on SNL - SBNation.com

 

Wyatt carted off after hurting his ankle while preparing for his match against Undertaker.

 

The E has to really keep its eye on Twitter to keep that ticker free of stupid shit. Most of the #AskLita questions are obsessed with which wrestler has the biggest small package.

 

He's supposed to follow the buzzards, not trip over them.

 

OK. Here we go. Fingers crossed ...

 

In the pre-show, Kidd-Cesaro retain in a fatal four-way tag match. It was a glorified spotfest, but a lot of fun to watch.

Big Show wins Battle Royal. Show, Miz and Mizdow were the last three, and then the Mizzes did the long awaited breakup when Mizdow eliminated his boss and then put up a fight before show threw him out. Good for what it was.