2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

I like that idea. And it could make even more sense coming from Hogan, who could play off the fact that he once got an impromptu title match at Mania and beat Yokozuna for the belt.

 

See, I thought the opposite on Bryan in terms of the crowd cooling on him. I actually thought last night was a great example of how much the people love him. Clearly, the crowd was disappointed and uninterested in the idea of him facing Triple H. Yet Bryan was still able to coax them into copious yes chants for a match that they really don't even want to see. When he was challenging Trips you could hear and see people getting frustrated but when Bryan pushed it on them and sold it more, they joined in. At least that was my takeaway from it.

I do agree that at some point there has to be a payoff and it should probably come sooner than later. And I think it's silly to think he can't keep being a huge star if he has the belt (the whole chase is greater than the payoff thing). If they put the belt on him and make him the target, they could do a lot of cool stuff with him being the "champion who is always the underdog" and find unique ways for him to hang on to the title.

 

What I really wish they would do is build the angle around the fact that Daniel Bryan isn't "in the company's best interest" to put in that main event spot.
If I were booking this, I would have HHH verbally run him down every week and keep saying things like "WrestleMania is for the best in our business Daniel." He sort of made a comment to that effect last night when he said he'd "try to find a spot" for DB.
HHH should then constantly bring up DB's WrestleMania 28 failure, saying he can't risk having his title match end in 18 seconds because Bryan wasn't good enough and then say DB skated by for over a year on Kane's coattails.
To me, tearing Bryan down and then having him prove everyone wrong really makes this angle standout.

 

The harder you guys work to come up with scenarios in which it still is possible for them to put Bryan in the title match, the more disappointed you are going to be when it doesn't happen.

 

I am intrigued by your ideas, and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Even more interesting, after the match, Hogan back down with his music, starts his posing, invites Bryan to do it, then shortly through it stops and waves it off. Then he starts the Yes! chant as Bryan's music comes on.

 

I think most wrestling fans are going to be disappointed with WrestleMania if it doesn't end in some sort of payoff for this Bryan feud.
There seems to be ZERO interest in this Batista-Orton feud and, honestly, I've never seen a Mania main event shit on this much.
Ever.
I can only imagine what it would have been like 19 years ago if the internet was as big then as it is now. That LT-Bam Bam Bigelow main event would have been crapped all over.

 

I agree, it would have. For one thing, Bigelow wasn't really a top main eventer, more like an upper mid-carder who could main event in a pinch (like Kane). Plus what fans, outside of those in the New York/New Jersey area, would have cared that LT was wrestling? He didn't have the widespread mainstream appeal that Mr. T. had and had already been retired from the NFL for a couple of years. Today, the match would have been put in the midcard, just like Snooki and Mayweather, both of whom had much more national appeal than LT did.

It's like a couple of years later, when WCW had Kevin Greene and Reggie White wrestle. Nobody outside the southeast cared about Greene, and while White had some national appeal, there wasn't that much. Rodman was red-hot at the time, and fit in well with the NWO storyline, so that made sense. Jay Leno had national appeal, but, well, it still looked cheezy because he isn't a pro-caliber athlete. Arquette of course ... well, 'nuf said.

 

Been trying to watch WWF Armageddon 2000 since last night ...



I haven't got past the first 10 minutes because of the horrible servers. Buffering every 30 seconds. Pixelated picture. Sure, I understand that a lot of people are trying to access all at once because it's the shiny, new thing ... but the live shows work just fine. I'm sitting here prepping for state wrestling this weekend with Legends of Wrestling playing in the background.

Hopefully, it'll be better in a few days. Then again, Hulu Plus is shit a lot of days, too. Except for the ads. 1080p without fail.

 

There's going to be payoff and Batista-Orton isn't going to be the main event.

Bryan's going to go over HHH and lead 70k people in the "Yes!" chant as he finally proves to the Authority beyond any doubt that he is a big-time guy. It may even end the show.

Batista-Orton will be about the fourth-biggest match on the card and treated as such, title or not.

 

The more I think about this whole Bryan storyline the more I can't help but think about how many times Austin got screwed out of the title by Vince.

And then, when he finally won it, it was the best build-up ever.

I really, really, really hope the same thing is happening here, and that we'll get a mega payoff at Mania -- and if not then, I'm hoping something happens at Mania that sets that into motion.

 

I agree with that. I didn't mean "cooling on him" because of anything he did wrong, necessarily. It's just he wasn't selling them something they were crazy about buying.

I'm not particularly on the "He must be in the title match at Wrestlemania or it's a travesty!" train, but I'm right with everyone on the "for the love of god, HHH, stop putting yourself into storylines" train.

 

Speaking of him, on his podcast he's been pretty consistent in saying that the WWE needs to move on him while he's still white hot.