2016 Pro Wrestling Thread

I'm hoping Bray isn't too hurt to work Mania. The Harper injury is tough, but I was assuming Strowman would win the Battle Royal anyway. Basically because Strowman.

 

If the past few weeks is an indication, Bray isn't working Mania.

 

Any idea how and when he suffered this back injury?

 

Apparently he's had it a while, and it's getting worse.

I can see him in the battle royal, since it's not really physically too demanding for a wrestler. All he'd have to take is one bump out of the ring.

 

With the push he's supposedly getting after Mania, they won't risk it.

 

I heard Bray was back in action this weekend and in the dark match after RAW.

Regarding the debate here, the only match that should EVER end WrestleMania is the culmination of the most prominent storytelling angle of the year or the world title match. That's it. End of discussion. Most times, they're the same match. Let's look at the recent WMs shall we?

31: Reigns-Lesnar title match. Reigns was RR winner.
30: Bryan-Orton-Batista title match. Culmination of the rise of DBry.
29: Rock-Cena title match. Culmination of the Twice in a Lifetime storyline.
28: Rock-Cena NON TITLE match. Culmination of the Once in a Lifetime storyline carried over from WM27 so, OK. Makes sense.
27: Cena-Miz title match.
26: HBK-Taker NON TITLE match. Culmination of a feud that started with HBK-Taker I the year earlier. Makes sense. Most anticipated Mania rematch of all time.
25: Orton-HHH title match. Culmination of their crazy good feud.
24: Edge-Taker title match.
23: HBK-Cena title match.
22: HHH-Cena title match.
21: HHH-Batistia title match.
20: HHH-Benoit-HBK title match.

Before that, there had only been two other non title matches that ever closed out Mania (The tag match at WM1 with Piper/Orndorff vs. Hogan/Mr. T) and Bam Bam vs. LT. That means in the 31 years of WrestleMania, there have been FOUR times when your title match didn't close out the show and all four of those times it was jettisoned because of a much hotter angle that somehow rose above the title.
Are we really putting Shane vs. Taker in this same category? This has been a joke of a build but come on. Even if it got an amazing build, you really want to end the supposed biggest Mania of all time with a HITC match featuring one guy who hasn't wrestled in almost a decade and another who averages 1.3 matches a year?
How does that help anyone?
Further, the Mania poster has HHH-Reigns on it. No one else (as of yet.)
Reigns-HHH is closing out the show and I'm going to make a prediction: It's going to be good.

 

I don't think they should end with Shane-Taker at all. I was just saying there are times the title shouldn't be the last match. Honestly, they way things have been built, I wish they'd end it with the women's triple threat, which they obviously won't do. That's had better build than Shane-Taker or HHH-Reigns.

And Reigns and Trips might put on a good match (it won't be as good as Ambrose-HHH at Roadblock, but could still be good). And if there's one place they could hold 'Mania and not get Reigns booed out of the arena, it's Dallas. In a lot of the smark cities, he'd be crapped on. And there will still be smarks in the crowd that will boo, but there will be a lot of old-school fans who won't boo the face, too.

 

Unless something happens to sway me in the next week, I'm happy to boo Roman Reigns out of AT&T Stadium. I just can't sympathize with a guy who wears a bullet-proof vest, which should be illegal for a match, and gets all these opportunities handed to him to be the top guy despite the fact that his promos are terrible and his in-ring work is mediocre.

Mostly I'm disappointed at the lack of common sense in the storytelling and how everyting feels thrown together with little build. Tag title match? Thrown together in a few weeks.

IC match? Thrown together two weeks before the show. What was not good enough about continuing the story between Owens and Zayne? US title match? Who knows because it doesn't rate high enough to be on the Hulu version of Raw. Ryback vs. Calisto. Why couldn't that have been the multi-man match?

Shane and Taker? What the hell is the story from Taker's side? Why is he in this match? What does he care about McMahon family drama? If Taker wins then nothing changes. If Taker loses, how can Vince say it's his last WrestleMania? Shane would be in charge, and sticking the the logic of the story, Shane would not pass up Taker at Mania in the future. Bad for business because people will still want Taker as long as he can still go. It's a no-lose for Taker, but why is he controled by Vince? I just don't get any of it.

The only story I feel invested in is Becky's quest to win the title. I know she won't, but the story is fairly solid (as long as you kept up with them in NXT, otherwise it seems thin) and the three work well together so I know it'll be a great match. But I would love for Becky to win. I feel like the story is a little more geared to her right now. She's cutting good promos, and it seems like it would be a bigger deal for Becky to win now. Charlotte and Sasha were NXT Women's Champions, but Becky didn't hold that title before the call up. There's plenty of time for Sasha. I'd get a lot more satisfaction out of the story if Becky comes out of Dallas with the title. One can dream. (Speaking of dreams, if I meet Becky at Axxess I'm offering myself as her slave.)

The Hall of Fame is a little weak, to me. I'll proabably find something to do for the early part of the show, then show up later to see Sting.

I'm excited for NXT even though I'm not as familiar with some of the newer talent. Should be fun to see the Demon's entrance and match and to see Bayley.

And I wonder what the Raw reset will be?

But my main event is Ambrose vs Lesnar. I'm bought into Ambrose's story. He's getting the best build of anyone right now. Multiple segments on Raw, stupid good promos. He's getting the rub from Foley and Funk. He put on a hell of a match against Triple H. The one misfire was putting him against Strowman, but that's not his fault. Win or lose at Mania, he's walking out a megastar. He might even go over Lesnar since it's a street fight.

 

Yous guys remember Tout? Funny story:

Managing editor comes around and shoots the breeze a bit. "Why am I getting WrestleMania ads on our homepage? Did you have something to do with this?" Joking because he knows I'm going to Dallas. He's not into wrestling, but he's from updtate NY so he remembers watching Superfly and others in pre-Hulkamanaia WWF as a kid.

A day later, we're told that the company is going with Tout for video and reporters should learn about it to post there instead of YouTube. Then it clicks: He was online looking up Tout, of which WWE owns a stake. I tell him of this, and he thinks I'm ribbbing him. I tell him to check. Yep, a $5 million investment in 2012.

I haven't heard anyone mention Tout in years until a day ago.

Edit to add: Further research shows WWE abandoned Tout in 2014.

 

I agree that Ambrose probably has the most to gain from this WM. Reigns is going to get crapped on. Ambrose, win or lose, should help establish himself. I hope they give him the win so he can come out on Raw and tell Reigns, "I may not have the belt, but I did something you couldn't do. I pinned Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania." Easy way to set up a feud with the two of them.

As for the rest of the card, all the analysis on here is right. Outside of a couple of matches, it sucks. The buildup for a lot of it started too late and has been horrible. Even Styles-Jericho, which could be great, had weaker buildup than it should have because they wasted time with the whole tag team angle. They could've had Jericho do the same heel promos without that because they were chanting for him during their matches. Have Styles get in a match against someone in the League of Nations, have one of the other League guys help beat up on him some, Jericho makes the save and then he nails Styles and beats him up himself. Would've worked just as well or better. Of course, then we wouldn't have Y2AJ shirts.

Also, they made Styles look a little weaker, IMO, when they had Jericho cost him two matches just by coming out on the ramp, and then when AJ tries it, Jericho wins his match.

 

Had same thoughts when someone at our place mentioned Tout recently.......WWE starts and tries to cram down our throat around 2011-12.....WWE quits in 2014.....newspapers learn what it is in 2016. So quintessentially the newspaper business that it hurts.

 

I'm the news/design chief at my place, which means I oversee the off-site page designers (sort of), build a weekly paper, and supervise an as-needed part timer who builds any special sections/tabs. I'm just goin' down with the ship until I can figure out something else.

I had to bite my tongue pretty hard when the ME made a joke about having to work at call centers once journalism dies. Thing is, I'm pretty sure my wife, a supervisor at a call center, makes a hell of a lot more than he does. I know an entry level job there pays more than a reporter makes.

Sorry for the tangent, back to rasslin' ....