Wrestling - Road to Wrestlemania 29

[Phoenix87x]

Hacksaw in a suit looks so weird.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

WWEWHC Match Between Orton and Cena starts

Fans: DANIEL BRYAN

[KevShmev]

Yep, the crowd is basically shitting all over this match, and the commentators are trying, unsuccessfully, to make us think this match is good.  Yeah, Orton/Cena on PPV for the 739th time is awesome!!

[Destiny Of Chaos]

[Syzzle]

Well Cena vs Bray at WM30 confirmed right there

[Phoenix87x]

Corporate Kane

Glad to see a quick elimination.

[Jaffa]

Meh.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

God that sucked. Glad that the crowd let them have it for that crap.

[Jaffa]

On the bright side, Reigns still got to put on an impressive performance.  I'm wondering if we're going to see a triple threat match between the Shield at Mania, since Reigns eliminated the others.

I'm also thinking maybe Cody Rhodes vs. Goldust, seeing as they lost the titles and Goldust accidentally eliminated Cody.  They'll have their tag title rematch, but one of them will walk out on the other, setting up a Mania feud?  Just a thought. 

[Destiny Of Chaos]

On the bright side, Reigns still got to put on an impressive performance.  I'm wondering if we're going to see a triple threat match between the Shield at Mania, since Reigns eliminated the others.

I'm also thinking maybe Cody Rhodes vs. Goldust, seeing as they lost the titles and Goldust accidentally eliminated Cody.  They'll have their tag title rematch, but one of them will walk out on the other, setting up a Mania feud?  Just a thought.

Both of those matches will most likely happen. And unfortunately, the internet marks have been calling both for months.

[Syzzle]

[jjrock88]

opening match was fantastic

[BlobVanDam]

That PPV was absolutely awful, and was conclusive proof that the WWE is either blind/deaf, or just hates their fans. Daniel Bryan is the most over guy they've had in a long time, and they seem set on trying to bury him and downplay his popularity instead.

Daniel Bryan 100% carried that match and even made it pretty good, but for some reason the commentators spent the entire match positively gushing about Bray Wyatt's very limited contributions to the match. Daniel Bryan zips around the ring like a madman, then they compliment Wyatt for his speed. WTF? No good words given to Bryan.

The Lesnar/Big Show match was a waste of space. Nothing worth mentioning there. Yawn.

The audience didn't give a shit about the Orton/Cena match, and spent most of the time cheering for Daniel Bryan, while the commentators desperately tried to downplay it, and pretend like the crowd was just chanting randomly to put off Orton (and to the audience's credit, there were some good random chants in there).

The Royal Rumble match was pretty solid as always, and the highlight was once Mysterio came in, the crowd instantly went dead and booed everything once they realized the outcome was gonna suck. From the "NO" chant towards ginger, it's pretty obvious who the crowd wanted coming into that rumble and winning it.
It came down to a mid card heel tag team wrestler, and the apparent big returning star, and who was the crowd cheering for? This is a pretty strong sign you're doing it wrong, WWE. And CM Punk's elimination was super lame.

The only redeeming thing about this PPV was the amazing audience. It's a shame nobody is listening.

[wkiml]

Mick Foley's rant about the Royal Rumble


Mick Foley wrote up the following on his official Facebook page early on Monday.

HEY WWE....WHAT THE F?

Yes, I'm going to put a brick through my TV. It's just going to have to wait until tomorrow. I had every intention of putting a brick through my TV tonight, after seeing that Daniel Bryan was not even entered in the Royal Rumble match, let alone going to win the thing. But, upon seeing their dad with a brick in his hand, my younger children got a little bit scared, thinking their dad had lost his mind. A rather spirited debate about the wisdom of following through on the promise to put a brick through my TV ensued with my wife - and, as is usually the case in marital debates, I, being the husband, did not emerge victorious. Honestly, the points she made about mercury and glass fragments everywhere were pretty good ones.

But I'm still going to put a brick through my TV. It's just going to have to wait until tomorrow - when the kids are in school, and I can take the TV outside the house for the actual throwing of the brick. Granted, it's not nearly as dramatic as doing it live, right after the Rumble, but at least I will be keeping my word.

As I mentioned on Twitter, I've never felt so disgusted at the conclusion of a WWE (or any) PPV. Like many of you out there, I just don't get it. This Daniel Bryan thing is a phenomenon. You get it. I get it. The fans in Pittsburgh (yes, I was thinking of writing "RIGHT TH...but I'm just not in a cheap pop mood) got it. But tonight, for the first time, I had to admit to myself that the powers that be are just not going to get it. And that makes me sad. I'm just honestly sad, just flat out fucking sad (yes, I dropped an F-bomb there to emphasize how F'ing sad I am for the guys who bust their butts night in and night out - Ziggler, Punk, Bryan, etc - with no hope of getting their shot at this year's Mania.

You know who else I'm sad for? Me. In my two years as an official WWE Ambassador, I never once had to lie about my enthusiasm for the company or the product. Now, although I am no longer officially an Ambassador for WWE (believe it or not, my only official role in WWE is as GM for Saturday Morning Slam, a contract that ends in one month) I was till looking forward to being part of the biggest event of the year. I'll probably end up going anyway. But I'm about 1/6th as excited about it as I was just a few hours ago. I wanted so badly to hear 75,000 WWE fans chanting "YES" - and seeing fans walk away absolutely ecstatic about the outcome of a PPV for the first time in a while...a long while. But when given the chance to make it happen (unless they've got something MAJOR up their sleeve) WWE's answer tonight was a resounding "NO, NO, NO".

[KevShmev]

It's blatantly obvious that Vince, HHH, and Stephanie don't do give two shits what the fans want, especially since fans continue to buy their shitty product.  Thank God I found a link online last night.  Not that I would have paid to watch the Rumble, but last night is a good example of why I will never pay for the WWE Network.  To do so would be basically telling them, "You can keep feeding us crap, and we'll still be sheep and lap it up and give you our money."  No way.

Meanwhile, two of HHH's best buddies, Orton and Batista, are now looking to main event Wrestlemania.  Is anyone surprised??

[John94]

While I love surprise returns, I was extremely underwhelmed this year. Nash? Done it already. I would have genuinely preferred X-Pac if they want to bring back some of Trips' buddies. As for Daniel Bryan, I can't say what hasn't already been said. 0% interested in  the rumoured Daniel Bryan v Sheamus at WM30. Hoped it was a smokescreen for DB to enter and win at number 30.

While everyone craps over Vince Russo for his booking, he had the unpredictability nailed. That's whats poor about WWE at the minute. So predictable, for (at least) the second year in a row, you already knew who was winning the Royal Rumble.

The PPV done nothing but good for Roman Reigns too. Hope to see a turn and a split from the Shield for him. While he is no Daniel Bryan, he is definitely a refreshing person to have in the Main Event scene. Wouldn't surprise me if he won the next Money in the Bank.

[Zook]

Oh sure, Vince Russo was unpredictable, but he ran WCW into the ground with some of the worst shit in professional wrestling history. Fuck Vince Russo.

[Cool Chris]

I would have genuinely preferred X-Pac if they want to bring back some of Trips' buddies.

Boy you know things are bad when you want X-Pac back.

[KevShmev]

 

[Perpetual Change]

So what the heck is going on?

Professional wrestling is still awful, and people are still surprised?

[Jaq]

So what the heck is going on?

Professional wrestling is still awful, and people are still surprised?

It's not so much that as the sheer shock at how willfully stupid WWE is being. They have a guy that will put butts in seats and is over like no one since Austin, and they're kneecapping him because he's not who the McMahons want to push. How dare he get over!

[KevShmev]

I still get the occasional "OMG, you still watch wrestling?" cracks from a few friends or my brothers, but it's like I tell them, I only watch for maybe an hour a week (the time it takes me to get through RAW after DVRing it), and while a lot of is crap, the truly special moments - like Punk/Cena at MITB a few years back, or Bryan's moment against the Wyatts two weeks ago - are still pretty awesome, and it's those special moments that make it worth watching still...sometimes.

And of course, to say I "still" watch wrestling is not correct either, as I barely watched it for a solid 10 years - I gave up in the late 90s when the nWo storyline and WCW starting going to crap, and didn't start watching again until I just happened to randomly turn on RAW in early '09 when Orton was punting Vince.

[Zook]

Everything is so ass backwards in the WWE....

[KevShmev]

I suspect they could be altering plans on the fly.  Daniel Bryan tweeted this last night:

Daniel Bryan ‏@WWEDanielBryan  15h
Sorry guys, the machine wanted me nowhere near the Royal Rumble match. But I thank everyone for their support. YOU are the #YESMovement

Daniel Bryan ‏@WWEDanielBryan  14h
They try to keep US down and away from the top spots, but they can’t ignore the reactions forever. Keep voicing your opinions. #YESMovement

And from what I've read, Bryan is not the kind of guy to legit stir shit up like this on his own, so this is all likely a work.  We'll know soon enough. 

[DebraKadabra]

That PPV was absolutely awful, and was conclusive proof that the WWE is either blind/deaf, or just hates their fans. Daniel Bryan is the most over guy they've had in a long time, and they seem set on trying to bury him and downplay his popularity instead.

Daniel Bryan 100% carried that match and even made it pretty good, but for some reason the commentators spent the entire match positively gushing about Bray Wyatt's very limited contributions to the match. Daniel Bryan zips around the ring like a madman, then they compliment Wyatt for his speed. WTF? No good words given to Bryan.

The Lesnar/Big Show match was a waste of space. Nothing worth mentioning there. Yawn.

The audience didn't give a shit about the Orton/Cena match, and spent most of the time cheering for Daniel Bryan, while the commentators desperately tried to downplay it, and pretend like the crowd was just chanting randomly to put off Orton (and to the audience's credit, there were some good random chants in there).

The Royal Rumble match was pretty solid as always, and the highlight was once Mysterio came in, the crowd instantly went dead and booed everything once they realized the outcome was gonna suck. From the "NO" chant towards ginger, it's pretty obvious who the crowd wanted coming into that rumble and winning it.
It came down to a mid card heel tag team wrestler, and the apparent big returning star, and who was the crowd cheering for? This is a pretty strong sign you're doing it wrong, WWE. And CM Punk's elimination was super lame.

The only redeeming thing about this PPV was the amazing audience. It's a shame nobody is listening.

I really can't argue with anything in this post, or Mick Foley's (the one wkiml posted).

[Destiny Of Chaos]

Last night, one of my "Facebook Friends" referred to Daniel Bryan as “the flavor of the month”.

This could not be farther from the truth. What Daniel Bryan has measures up to what Hulk Hogan had in the 80’s and what Steve Austin had during the Attitude Era. I’ll go a step further and say that his “level of being over” has surpassed even them.  At the Royal Rumble, The fans chanted “DANIEL BRYAN” during his match. They also chanted his name during a World Title Match that he had no part in. They also chanted his name during the Royal Rumble match that he had no part of. That sort of sustained buzz over the course of a Pay Per View event is UNPRECEDENTED!

So how has Daniel Bryan achieved this new height? The answer is simple. He appeals to the entire fan base. The kids love him. The Indy fans love him because he grinded in the trenches for years and years. The fans of the actual wrestling love him because of his mastery of both technical and submission styles of wrestling. The fans of “entertainment” love him because he always plays a great character, even if he’s being asked to be a womanizing Vegan of all things! He is loved by the wrestling purists because he can work a match with ANYONE and make them look absolutely amazing. Put it all together, and the fan base for Daniel Bryan is UNIVERSAL! Maybe one day down the road, if WWE Creative shoves Bryan down our throats at that Cena level, some people will hope off of his bandwagon. But as it stands now, he is all that is right about this sport that we all love!

Creative has always been rough on Bryan. From having him go winless during Season One of the NXT Competition, to having him drop the World Heavyweight Title in 18 Seconds in a Wrestlemania opening match, to having him win the Championship at Summerslam, only to have Orton immediately cash in.  Some of that is fine, as it’s storytelling 101. For many top faces, the chase is better than the reign. But this team has sabotaged many pushes for one reason or the other, and for whatever reason, they’ve done with Bryan what they’ve done with Bryan.

In contrast to Bryan, Batista is the total opposite. To be billed to win the Royal Rumble on his first match since 2010 is one thing. But to have him actually win it, looking rusty while doing so was something that virtually no one wanted to see, not when Bryan is the hottest thing in wrestling, or when Punk has yet to be afforded the honor of closing a Wrestlemania, or when Roman Reigns is ready to break out like Batista was when the decision was made for him to be put over in the 2005 Royal Rumble match. Then after the match, for Batista to be disrespectful to the fans just because they were disappointed with creative was uncalled for.

So now Batistia has that Golden Ticket to Wrestlemania.  If they balk like they did with the Wyatt Family angle, the writers will have Batista be more like a heel, and instead of shoving the decade old Evolution angle down our throats, Wrestlemania XXX will end with 70 thousand yelling YES! YES! YES!

[Syzzle]

- F4Wonline.com reports that despite everything that went down, or didn't go down, at the Royal Rumble last night, WWE is still planning on pushing Daniel Bryan in a big way.

I wonder what their definition of a big push is. Probably a nice run with one of the garbage mid card titles

[Jaffa]

Eh, I could kinda see it all being part of the plan.  Every time they snub Bryan, the fans get more and more behind him.  At this point, if he ever actually does win the title, the crowd reaction is going to be out of this world.  Maybe that's what the WWE is trying to build toward.

Then again, maybe they're just idiots.  I certainly can't rule out that possibility.   

[KevShmev]

Bryan is so popular, among other reasons, because he is awesome to watch in the ring.  It's the same why other "undersized" guys like Punk, Ziggler, and Reigns (who isn't really small at all, but given the gear he wears, you can't really see how big he is) are so well-liked by so-called smarks.  When you can entertain the hell out of people by putting on great matches, fans are gonna love you.

[Jaffa]

While that's certainly true, I do feel obligated to point out that some of Bryan's popularity (not all of it, mind you, but some of it) comes from the 'Yes' chant itself.  He really found himself a goldmine with that.  It's simple, it's easy to synchronize, and it's fun enough that every fan in attendance wants to be a part of it.  The result is a series of enormously impressive displays of crowd control and audience participation with Bryan standing at the center of it all.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to take anything away from Daniel Bryan.  He's definitely a very talented wrestler, and there's a lot to love about him.  But sometimes I can't help but wonder where he would be if someone else had beaten him to the 'yes' punch. 

[jingle.boy]

I don't think he's flavour of the month, but I'm not sure you can compare him to Hogan or Austin or The Rock in their heyday as the top face.  The pops that they got were off the charts.  And Austin with "What?" and "Hell Yeah" was just as big as "Yes" and "No" and "Daniel Bryan".  Crowds would chant "What" during every Austin angle, at every pause in a promo.  They still do sometimes.

If Bryan can sustain this for a long time, I'm talking years... then I'll eat my words.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

My point was that during the Attitude Era, no one was chanting "Austin" while The Rock was wrestling Triple H (or whoever). I avoided mentioning the "Yes" Chant, because like "What", it's way to easy for the crowd to say it.

[jingle.boy]

Fair enough.  BTW, I think you nailed your assessment on his broad/vast appeal.

[Perpetual Change]

I have no idea who Daniel Bryan is, but if Mick Foley is even pissed at the org, that says something.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

Fair enough.  BTW, I think you nailed your assessment on his broad/vast appeal.

Thanks! I'm not used to getting cred