The Wrestling Thread: WWE WrestleMania 31 [NSFW]

[KK]

Batista & his poor grammar.

[captain red dog]

Well after seeing the Bryan match (forgive me for being an evening late) it was certainly an interesting development. It could have been better (doing the same deal a couple of weeks ago on Smackdown took some of the shine away) but as always it is one of those moments that will be judged with how it plays out over the next few weeks.

They have some amazing options, but I can see them picking the worst one! Onto the final match now, might save it for tomorrow. So far an extremely good PPV in my opinion.

[KK]

Vince McMahon has been quoted in a New York Times article:

“She just came in and rolled up her sleeves,” Mr. McMahon said. “She taught us a lot about network quality writing, story arcs, character development. She really helped the overall brand.”

Ms. Hammer decided that the heavy sports emphasis of the wrestling program limited its audience. “I thought it should be male soap opera,” she said.

See, I could have sworn this "heavy sports emphasis" worked out quite well in the late 80s...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/busin ... mer&st=cse

And Ed Leslie's wife, Barbara, has insinuated Hogan & Leslie are, erm, well...gay.

On Brutus' Relationship With Hulk Hogan: "I've watched my husband and Hulk interact for the past 20 years, and there have been many times when I felt they were much too close for comfort."

On Linda Claiming Brutus and Hulk Were Lovers: "I have absolutely no knowledge of a homosexual relationship going on between my husband and Hulk, nor has Linda ever shared anything with me that would indicate she has knowledge of that. But I've been acquainted with her for a long time and have never known her to say anything that serious unless she could back it up. She must know something."

On Beefcake Rushing to Help Hogan With the Toilet Seat Following His Back Surgery: "I thought how odd that was for one man to do that for another. The boundaries of the intimate bromance they share are definitely blurred, and I just find it all extraordinarily suspicious."

[Chocolate Jim]

We should have a forum sweepstake on how long Bryan lasts as the WHC. I say Royal Rumble.
Did anyone else notice not a single heel went over last night

[gaminglegend]

We should have a forum sweepstake on how long Bryan lasts as the WHC. I say Royal Rumble.
Did anyone else notice not a single heel went over last night

Classic WWF Booking

It's the beginning of the Wrestlemania Season now it's exciting!

[KK]

We should have a forum sweepstake on how long Bryan lasts as the WHC. I say Royal Rumble.

Tonight's RAW.

[gaminglegend]

We should have a forum sweepstake on how long Bryan lasts as the WHC. I say Royal Rumble.

Tonight's RAW.

I'd rather tonight on Raw the decision got reversed so that he cashed it back in at WM. Ruined the entire premise of his WM 'dream'.

[Mafro]

[Chocolate Jim]

BTW how awkward was that Hornswoggle/Long segment when Horny said Santa wasn't black ... collar stretching moment much!?

[Dante]

Kevin Nash's Knee no-sells shocker

[KK]

BTW how awkward was that Hornswoggle/Long segment when Horny said Santa wasn't black ... collar stretching moment much!?

Least it wasn't as horrible as this...

[Something Fishy]

So danielson is world champ.. I totally missed that.

I read some bloke moaning that a jobber won the title.

Jobber my arse. Sad they have been jobbing him.

Odd to see this now.

[KK]

Anyone know if it was left on the 2005 Survivor Series DVD, or did they edit it off?

[Prototype]

Thing is... in WWE land Bryan is nothing more than a Jobber.

The WHC is a joke of a title.

[Dante]

On another note, I just received word that Kim Jong Il died. I remember Osama Bin Laden died on the night that Christian won the World Title at Extreme Rules. Now Kim Jong Il as DBry won the World Title. Who is booking the deaths of these evil men?

[Dig Dug]

I wonder if Christ Jericho has seen how the Money in the Bank gimmick has been used over the years and I wonder, does he have any regrets with coming up with the idea. I mean it has had some gret moments, One Night Stand 2006, it was cool when Edge cashed in on Cena for the first time but since then it has basically being a way to put a title on someone who hasn't been built up for it. I like Bryan, I wreally do but from a booking perspective he is an enhancement talent, jobber to the stars, an upper mid carder, his mataches against Del Rio and Mark Henry are examples of his role as are his house show mataches with guys like Jinder Mahal who are still trying to adapt to the style, of course there was also his matches with sin cara also serving the purpose of trying to help someone find their feet.

What I am getting at is Bryan should not be a champion, at least not yet, he hasn't had the booking on his side, it is a lot like the Christian/Randy Orton feud, Christian had the booking support when it came to winning the title, he won it from Del Rio but after that he was put up with orton in a feud where he had to job several times to a bigger star, the creative was probably under the belief that Christian is talented enought to get himself over as Randy Ortons equal, of course we now know this doesn't work and Christian was lowered from main Event to upper mid card. At the end of the day booking is very important, Mark Henry was a mid-carder at best but with the booking on his side he easily because a credible main eventer, of course this didn't just happen Mark had to play his part to in order to get it to work.

it might be WWE are building Bryan as an under dog champion but the appeal of an under dog is that they over come the odds, Daniel Bryan did not over come the odds, he was booked to pin Big Show who was lying down for him, he didn't beat anyone to get the title. To be the man you got to beat the man, Shawn Michaels had to beat Bret Hart, Eddie had to beat Brock Lesnar, Christ Benoit had to beat Shawn and Tripel H. The point I am making here is these guys won their titles by beating the champs, I like to call this Rocky booking, the underdog challenger vs the unbeatable champion, sadly wrestling currently lacks a lot of credible under dogs to over come the odds and we have few credible champions who can give said under dogs a chance. The closest thing we have had to these recently are CM Punk vs Cena at money in the bank and Henry vs Orton at night of champions. Cm Punk didn't beat Cena clean at money in the bank and mark Henry wasn't a true under dog because he was a monster heel.

Say what you want about this subject but Money in the Bank now is not a way to get a guy over it is just side stepping having to build a guy up to become champion and it just doesn't work, in conclusion Jack Swagger.

[Cosmo]

We should have a forum sweepstake on how long Bryan lasts as the WHC. I say Royal Rumble.
Did anyone else notice not a single heel went over last night

Cody...

[KK]

The days of the WWE & World Heavyweight Champions being directly linked to your position in the company are long gone. There was a time where the World Champion carried the company. The PPV buyrates, ticket sales, tv ratings, they were all linked to how successful the World Champion was deemed to be. I remember the stories in regards to Eddie Guerrero & how seriously he took it.

Fast forward to 2011, & the faces of the company are John Cena, Randy Orton, CM Punk & to a lesser extent Triple H & The Rock. Whether someone like John Cena holds the championship is a complete irrelevance. He's still 'the man', & the focus more often than not is still on him. Whereas wrestling history dating back till forever has dictated that the focus of the company was your heavyweight champion, or the one chasing for the championship, that's now longer true.

In what sport does someone that loses all the time hold the World Championship? And that's the fundamental problem. Because when wins & loses don't matter, matches cease to matter, the outcomes cease to matter & the belts cease to matter. And when belts cease to matter, PPVs don't matter. What's continually been the most important match in the last few years? Undertaker's Streak. It's one of the few tangible things left that genuinely matters. Something that has been built, unintentionally maybe, but one that has been a constant in the WWF since 1991. CM Punk winning & leaving with the WWE Title at Money in the Bank was one of those rare moments in recent times where the championship meant almost as much again as that streak.

[Mafro]

1 or 2am for RAW tonight?

[KK]

2.