2016 Pro Wrestling Thread

I mean, I think there's plausible deniability on both sides, especially since Strowman isn’t among the announced participants in the Battle Royal right now. When he first debuted, Strowman was booked as a monster and somewhat protected. Then, he was basically relegated to a background member of the Wyatts during their feud with Lesnar, and his crowd response dissipated as well. (Chicken-and-egg with that to me - I think you can argue that he was demphasized because the crowd wasn't responding, or because he was demphasized the crowd stopped caring.) I think it's hard to claim the dirt sheets were definitely wrong though when the WWE has a long history of pushing a big, stiff heel guy who can't work until he hits a roadblock in the form of a better in-ring performer (Snitsky, Big Daddy V / King Mabel, early Mark Henry). The best thing for Strowman would probably be if he wordlessly disappeared off the main roster for a few months, and re-debuted after some more backstage tutoring.

 

Zack Ryder on a roller coaster. Kinda epitomizes his career, doesn't it?

 

All right, three days out, I'll start the 'Mania picks:

-- Total Divas vs. BAD and Blonde: Who cares? This is really a match at Wrestlemania? I'll go with Bad and Blonde. Guess this should be the pre-show match.
-- Kalisto vs. Ryback (U.S. title): Ryback wins. Nobody cares. This match needs to be kept short so the crowd doesn't turn on the card early. Let Ryback crush him and end it in a couple of minutes.
-- Usos vs. Dudleyz: Wow, another one I can't believe is at 'Mania. Usos will win in the 3,712th attempt to get them over. Because when nothing else works, surely a win over the Dudleys will. Right?
-- Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal: I've seen rumors Cesaro might be a surprise entrant. I hope it's true and they give him another win. I think they go with the original idea and give it to Strowman, though.
-- AJ Styles vs. Jericho: In what will be the second best match of the evening, Styles wins as Jericho does his duty and puts the new guy over.
-- New Day vs. League of Nations: New Day, of course.
-- Seven-man IC title ladder match: In a freak occurrence, five of the participants all suffer injuries on their way down the ramp, making this an Owens-Zayne showdown. Owens retains.
-- Charlotte vs. Becky vs. Sasha (Divas-soon-to-be-women's Championship): Sasha. Has to be Sasha. And I predict this is match of the night. Hopefully they give it time.
-- Ambrose vs. Lesnar: They should give Ambrose the win here. I'm gonna go ahead and predict they do it right and give him the victory.
-- Reigns vs. Triple H (WWE title): I'd love to see them give this to Trips and surprise us, but no way that happens. Reigns wins, and something happens after the match to cut the boos down some (maybe Ambrose comes out and turns on him).
-- Shane vs. Undertaker: Shane has to win this. Long-term storyline-wise, it makes no sense to give it to the Undertaker. I suspect Bullet, I mean, Balor Club involvement.

BONUS TAKEOVER PREDICTIONS
-- Aries vs. Corbin: Austin Aries may not be the Greatest Man That Ever Lived, but he'll be better than Corbin.
-- The Revival vs. American Alpha (NXT tag titles): American Alpha's dream comes true and they take the belts off the Revival.
-- Apollo Crews vs. Elias Samson: Crews wins this handily.
-- Zayn vs. Nakamura: I think this ends up the best match of the night (on a night full of great matches). Nakamura wins in his debut.
-- Bayley vs. Asuka (NXT women's championship): I soooooo want Bayley to win here, but she's gotta drop the belt so she can get called up to feud with Sasha. But then again, they brought Kevin Owens up before he dropped the NXT title, so maybe she wins. I'm kidding myself. It's Asuka's time.
-- Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe (NXT championship): Joe's gonna kill Finn! Joe's gonna kill Finn! Or he's about to and then the Bullet, er, Balor club shows up and makes the save. Balor keeps the belt and holds it despite getting a main roster call-up Sunday when he helps Shane win. He drops the belt to Joe in a cage match at the next Takeover.

 

Ever think you'd see the day when you'd be rooting for Triple H to go over in a title match at Wrestlemania?

 

Observer from April 4 (pre-Mania):

- Mania tickets are capped at 85,000. The last seats won’t go up for sale until the last minute, when they figure out all of the production details. Standing room passes are going for $21, and the cheapest seat is $175, on the secondary markets. Other “lowest ticket” prices: NXT April 1 show $405, $200 for NXT tapings on April 2, $73 for Ring of Honor on April 1, $175 for ROH on April 2, $37 for Hall of Fame night, and $84 for Raw on April 4. Interest in the HoF night is the lowest in years.

- For Mania itself, the company hasn’t promoted that Austin, Foley and HBK are supposed to be there. After announcing he would be there, there isn’t a defined role for The Rock either. John Cena is also expected to make an appearance. There could be surprise cameos. Ronda Rousey is a possibility, since the movie she was filming in April got pushed back to May. And if you’re feeling nostalgic, Funaki is doing the Japanese-language feed for Mania.

- The divas belt is likely to be dropped, since Charlotte has been mentioning in interviews that she thinks it looks bad. They likely wouldn’t let her do that if they weren’t planning a change anyway.

- Joking about the Andre Battle Royal, Meltzer said, “About the only people on the main roster who aren’t injured that aren’t booked on the show are Los Matadores.” The original plan was for Strowman to win the Battle Royal to setup a future match with Lesnar at SummerSlam, but that’s in doubt now.

- WWE is tight-lipped about the Daniel Bryan event cancellations. While it was intentionally reported as a health issue by some dirt sheets, he was training with Jiu Jitsu on March 29. Brie Bella finishes with WWE on the Raw after Mania, although she will be on an “ambassador” part-time contract.

- Nikki Bella will be on the shelf for a while, and might not wrestle ever again. She has a check-up on her neck fusion surgery in July. Best-case scenario, she wouldn’t be able to return to a full wrestling schedule.

- Harper has a torn ACL, and he’s out six months.

- Money in the Bank will be June 19 at the new T-Mobile Arena in Vegas.

- TNA got an offer from an outside investor for 55 percent of the company, and they countered with 49 percent, so that Dixie Carter could remain in power. Understandably, the unknown investor / company balked at that. Financially, the company is not doing well. Tapings are supposed to happen on April 19, but they haven’t been confirmed, because Universal requires a cash deposit.

- Angelina Love’s contract with TNA expired while she was having her baby. She’s looking to wrestle again in June. Velvet Sky’s contract expires in April, so, there is the slightest of chances that the Beautiful People could be WWE bound. (Note: Neither one is considered a great worker, and they’re both over 30.)

- CM Punk said he’s only 10 percent to fight at UFC 200. He had surgery for a herniated disc in his back six weeks ago.

- The office thought Eva Marie would get a face reaction at Raw, because they thought the NXT crowd booing her was just smarks. Even if that’s true, well, Brooklyn probably isn’t the best place to bring her back…

 

Wrestlemania #1 announcer

 

How out of touch is the office to think that a Brooklyn crowd wasn't going to boo Eva Marie?

 

Three matches into Takeover and all have been awesome with an insane crowd. Wrestlemania is going to have a tough time topping this.

 

Boooo boooooooo

 

Well, now we know what she's going to be doing this Monday night.

 

Only match I got wrong in my predictions was the dark match with Crews. I think most people could've guessed these results. And it was still a damn entertaining card because the wrestlers know how to put on a show and tell a story in their matches. The main roster could learn a few things from tonight.

 

What's Finn doing Monday tho? Last two matches results puzzle me.

Nakamura Zayn was the best part of the show by far.