IT'S WRESTLEMANIA WEEK!

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Let's try and get excited!

The build may have not been the greatest but looking at it it's not a bad card. 3 young guns facing 3 of the top stars plus Sting's first match in WWE. A ladder match featuring some of our favourite stars (plus R Truth) and a potential show stealer in Orton vs Rollins.

What are your thoughts, predictions, hopes for the night?

Hopefully Brock is used without the title but in glad he's resigned. Hopefully we get him vs Orton soon. 

Crimey, how you don't rate Bray and Ziggler I dint know. Two of the best on the roster

Gregers wrote:Crimey, how you don't rate Bray and Ziggler I dint know. Two of the best on the roster

I think that both are limited in their appeal. Bray isn't great in the ring, he's had one really good matches, a few okay ones but mainly he's been actually hard to watch in the ring. The problem is that I don't think his promos make up for it, they're very repetitive and they've lost a lot of impact over the past year where he's become more human and the impact and uniqueness of the promos is definitely starting to wane. I also think he's not great at delivering live promos, he'll often stumble over his lines.

Dolph Ziggler is a mid-carder, I rate him as that. I'd put him at a similar level to Kofi Kingston, I think talent wise they're about similar, the difference being that nobody thinks Kofi Kingston is a bona-fide main eventer or that Kofi Kingston is one of the best on the roster. I'll concede that Ziggler gets great crowd reactions, but I just don't see what they cheer for. On the mic he's average, he's not great at delivering promos at all, even at his very best he's well below par but his wrestling isn't good enough to make up for it. I've yet to see a match with Dolph Ziggler which I've actually thought was good, he's too interested in selling and it's too much for my suspension of disbelief at times. I also think the character he portrays is totally inconsistent.

Obviously each to their own but I have to disagree on both of those comments. Bray is a good bigger wrestler, hes not a mat technician hes a brawler (similar to taker really) and his live promos have been superb (cant think of one where he has stumbled on his lines) in fact behind Heyman I'd have to say Bray is the best talker that WWE currently have

Great Ziggler matches? How about the one with Bryan on Smackdown last week? I'd say hes probably the best in ring performer WWE have at the moment (yes including Bryan)

For me Ziggler reminds me of HBK in the ring, Bryan reminds me of Jericho in that he's always going to be able to move up and down the card

Zigglers triple threat with Cesaro and Kidd a few months ago on Smackdown was also an awesome match.

And the ladder match with Harper

Gregers wrote:Obviously each to their own but I have to disagree on both of those comments. Bray is a good bigger wrestler, hes not a mat technician hes a brawler (similar to taker really) and his live promos have been superb (cant think of one where he has stumbled on his lines) in fact behind Heyman I'd have to say Bray is the best talker that WWE currently have

Great Ziggler matches? How about the one with Bryan on Smackdown last week? I'd say hes probably the best in ring performer WWE have at the moment (yes including Bryan)

For me Ziggler reminds me of HBK in the ring, Bryan reminds me of Jericho in that he's always going to be able to move up and down the card

I don't think his style is the problem, I just don't think he's any good. He doesn't have anything at all memorable about him in the ring, he can hit a decent clothesline, and he can do the crab walk. He's big, but not strong, he's not particularly athletic or impressive. The gimmick carries him but I think in matches the gimmick isn't enough to keep me interested. He stumbled on his lines on Raw, he does it pretty much every live promo he cuts, he's good at recovering from the stumble granted, he usually just laughs or repeats the line, but I've said for a while that he's not great at delivering live promos, he struggles with the crowd making noise as he does it I think. 

I didn't actually see that match but I thought there match on Raw, I'm assuming it wasn't as good, but I thought it was average. It wasn't great by any means. I'd put him well, well down the list of best in ring performers, as I said before he's on the level of Kofi Kingston for me. A very capable worker, but not special, he'll always give you at least 6/10 but he's pretty much never going to hit 9/10 or 10/10. 

I think comparing Ziggler with Shawn Michaels does Michaels a huge disservice. He's not even close. Just because Ziggler has the same selling style doesn't mean he should be being compared with HBK. Ziggler doesn't have any of the same in-ring psychology, he's not capable of telling a story at all for me in a match. I also think Bryan is much better than Jericho and I like Jericho, I think whilst Jericho is better on the mic, Bryan is much better in the ring. I also think even more so than Jericho, Bryan deserves more than that because since I've watched wrestling, I don't think anybody has ever been more over. He's more over than CM Punk was outside of Chicago, which is saying something.

But hes never been as good as Punk at any aspect of wrestling, other than fast pace.

Bryan is Bret Hart to me.

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:But hes never been as good as Punk at any aspect of wrestling, other than fast pace.

Bryan is Bret Hart to me.

I think he's very good at telling a story in the ring that people can buy into, I think the best examples of this are Summerslam 2013 against Cena and Wrestlemania 30. I think he's got a really good style which makes up for size because of his sheer ferocity, everything he does has impact, which is something I think Dolph Ziggler definitely lacks. 

I don't think Daniel Bryan is as good as CM Punk, but I do think he has a connection with a larger demographic of people than Punk and I think he's an easier sell to the masses than Punk. I think his look, whilst unusual, is unique and cartoonish and that is a real selling point. I can understand why Punk's "alternative" look might mean he doesn't get the following from a lot of demographics, but I don't think Daniel Bryan has the same issue, he's pretty much universally popular.

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:But hes never been as good as Punk at any aspect of wrestling, other than fast pace.

Bryan is Bret Hart to me.

Not sure if you meant that as a negative but I'll assume you meant he is the best of the best.

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:But hes never been as good as Punk at any aspect of wrestling, other than fast pace.

Bryan is Bret Hart to me.

I think I'll disagree with this, Bryan in my opinion is in a different league to CM Punk in terms of his in ring ability, I've not seen anyone other than Shawn Michaels control a live audiance and keep them in the palm of his hand the way Bryan does, he taps into something not many can do.

I love Punk but I think he does more of his work pre-match using his ability on the mic to get across his feelings, he uses that to tap into the crowd, he uses the mic to paint a picture while Bryan tells his story inside the ring - I'm not underestimating Punk's ring work here either, he is/was very very good but I'm not sure he could tap into that pure raw emotion of a live crowd the way Bryan can (with the exception of Chicago)


I can see why you'd say he is Bret Hart to you but I think the major difference I can see in those two is vulnerability,  Bret was so protective of his character that he didn't often show his vulnerable side and Daniel Bryan using his own Vulnerability to his advantage, thats what he uses to tap into the fan in the stand

bretmeharty wrote:

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:But hes never been as good as Punk at any aspect of wrestling, other than fast pace.

Bryan is Bret Hart to me.

Not sure if you meant that as a negative but I'll assume you meant he is the best of the best.

Its a negative and a positive. It means hes a fantastic in ring competitor but he lacks the charisma to really care what he says

My feeling on why I prefer Punk in the ring is that he tells varying stories well. I don't think Bryan has different degrees of ring work.

Really? Thats interesting, I think he does, he can be that pure Wrestling machine, he can be that reckless guy with a chip on his shoulder who is less methodical and more impulsive,  he can brawl too, I think he's got every string to his bow as far as ring style and storytelling is concerned.

My main concern with Bryan is when he hasn't got that chip on his shoulder I struggle to buy into any of his promos

Rusev is awesome

The rumblings really have it that the Mania main event could go either way, with Lesnar's contract turning things to more of a discussion about him keeping the title. Sadly, within this, a lot of people are discussing Reigns as a modern day Lex Luger with a push that doesnt work. Vince is still high on him, so I hope he's not dumped completely.

Also rumours of a big Ambrose push going into SummerSlam. I would say that leads to Rollins being champion at that point.

He'll win, Vince wouldn't change his plans after the Rumble shambles & He won't change it now.

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:

Also rumours of a big Ambrose push going into SummerSlam. I would say that leads to Rollins being champion at that point.

The way I look at WWE. House show attendance is flat. US TV ratings are flat. The network is struggling to cover its 1M subscriptions to break even.

So, WWE has to start finding other avenues for money. There is the TapouT deal. The deal with NBCU marketing deal. And pushes into new markets in Asia.

But they also have to maximise merchandising. I think this is a reason that Balor is getting promoted cos he has a cool look that will move shirts. And Ambrose was moving merchandise last year, so that makes sense to me. I don't necessarily see that means Rollins being champ though. A feud with Rollins not being champ because Ambrose stopped him cashing in (again) works equally well.

By SummerSlam he'll have to have cashed in. And I'm pretty sure they'll have him win

Plenty of rumours regarding The Rock also picking up now; and given before his post mania injury in the now infamous Cena Rematch he was being lined up for a Brock match there could be legs in it.

Anyone see a heel turn for both Rock and Reigns at Mania with the former somehow getting involved either before or after a Reigns victory?

Can't see Rock turning heel. Suspect the Hollywood money men might be concerned that it'll make him less bankable.

In other news, the Andre the Giant battle royal has been bumped to the pre shoe.

Which is disappointing as it means that basically it's going to be totally inconsequential, I would have much rather the tag team title match was on the pre-show.

My mistake, both the tag title match and the battle royal are on the pre-show. Guessing that's because there's no time to fit in the match with all the huge entrances.

Crimey wrote:My mistake, both the tag title match and the battle royal are on the pre-show. Guessing that's because there's no time to fit in the match with all the huge entrances.

Yes. As a wrestling fan, I'd rather matches be bumped to the pre-show than be shortened. I'm not attending the event live, I'm not watching it in a bar, I'm not having a party with friends, I might not even watch the show live or even in one sitting. So, I'm more interested in the matches and having good 12 minute + bouts than bringing guys out for 2 minute match ups just to fit everything on the WM main card. Although, I am sure that on the pre-show the announcers will be more likely to talk about other events, or for commercials to spoil matches.

However, what it really does say is that:
- WWE have had minimal planning over the last few months. Nothing has changed this year in the build up, has it? As far as any of us can tell, what could have been the card from late last year, is still the card. So I think both these matches were advertised and built up as WM events for someone to realise 'oh, they might not fit'. It's that level of inability to plan that isn't a big deal here to me but does affect the whole product.
- The biggest PPV of the year is for returning part-timers, not the full time roster. Again this doesn't bother me, but it can't be that motivating for a lot of the roster and if that affects their in-ring performances then that will diminish my enjoyment of the event.

It does potentially mean that there might be some room in WM for something from one of these bouts (or elsewhere) to be added late to the full card. So it might not all be bad, but its just IMO symptomatic of the lack of attention and caring that the WWE has for its own product, which I do think then translates into the ennui that WWE seems to have given its fan base right now.

I thought that the battle royal would have been a nice way of splitting up some of the bigger-name matches. Looking at the card, you've only really got the ladder match and divas tag to put space between the big singles feuds.

Is there a band? Remember its not just a wrestling show, its sports entertainment. A band playing a 10 minute set is the kind of thing Vince likes to add for variety.

Yeah Kid Ink is performing apparently, LL Cool J is there as well, not sure if he's performing.

I thought the battle royal would be a good way to break up the amount of singles matches on the show, with the ladder match likely first it means the show does have the potential to really drag.

I think I'd have preferred them to move the Rollins vs Orton match to the pre-card.

Now, I know that this could be Match of the Night. But, it could also be that match which is pretty good, but we'll all have forgotten it by next PPV. It'd also set up the expectation better IMO that Rollins might use his MitB if he wasn't on the main card.

No chance, Rollins is the new CM Punk in their eyes although probably an easier to deal with type, there's every possibility hencould cash in the MitB too, they'll be wanting to highlight this point throughout the night, Orton is a 12 time World Champ and in the prime of his life, theres no chance that should or would be moved to the pre show, in the grand scheme of things, the matches on the Pre show are no more than filler matches, I understand the need for those type of matches but not at the expense of a big feud between big opponents

Kay Fabe wrote:there's every possibility hencould cash in the MitB too, they'll be wanting to highlight this point throughout the night

I actually think they'll want the opposite. They'll want Rollins vs Orton out of the way so that you have time to forget about Rollins and his contract so if he does cash in it has a bit more impact. If its early in the card then I reckon we could see a cash in - especially if Rollins loses.

I'm getting a bit bored of Rollins carrying that briefcase. But I don't see a cash in.

If Reigns wins its because Vince wants him as the top man. So, he has to leave WM with the confetti falling on him.

If Lesnar wins then what do you do with your mega-bucks special attraction who only wrestles a couple of times a year if he doesn't have the belt.

Maybe I'm not able to think around this creatively enough, but I'm not seeing it.

If Rollins tries to cash in and Ambrose stops him you leave WM with Ambrose as the biggest thing. Actually, that one I could buy.

I suspect they could be opening the show. Id expect something similar of Orton vs Jericho Night of Champion 2014 ending with the RKO off the top rope.

Aloe Blacc will be singing America the Beautiful

I think Rollins will cash-in. Reigns will be given the rub of beating Lesnar, he'll be out on his knees because of the monumental effort it took, and then Rollins cashes in. The situation suits his character perfectly.

You've then got an immediate feud for the summer, Rollins vs Reigns. That will undoubtedly help Reigns improve in the ring, and storyline wise he can just slot straight into the "face having to fight The Authority to get a fair shot" role that's been filled with Bryan and Cena before him.

That's perhaps why that street fight between Reigns and Big Show has been advertised for one of the house shows on the UK tour(I think) because Reigns will have to fight his way through The Authority to get to Rollins.

Maybe even have Reigns have to win a Number One contenders match at the first PPV after Mania before he gets his shot at Rollins, which means you could then have Rollins vs Orton rematch in the Main Event with Orton returning the favour for Rollins.

Rollins cash in on Reigns on Raw. Said it all along.

Okay Mat. 2 questions:
- Vince has spent so long building Reigns up, do you think Vince's faith in him has changed if he is the Champ for minutes?
- WWE has spent a lot of money on keeping Brock. How do they realise that investment if Brock is not in the title picture?

1) I don't think so, it just means Vince will have to take a slightly longer way round to making Reigns the superstar Vince wants him to be. I certainly think Reigns can be that next Franchise player. Reigns has improved week on week since the Rumble, give him three months of working with Rollins/HHH and he'll be even better. And it gives the fans something to buy into. Everything has been too easy for Reigns so far, give him something to fight for, a cause and then maybe a larger section of the fans will take to him.

2) I think we've already seen that Lesnar doesn't need to be in the title picture for them to make good on their investment, such as the feud with Punk. There's plenty of marquee names for him to face without needing to be in the title picture, and there's always Heyman around to keep him relevant. I've enjoyed Brock as champion, it's been a good experiment and has worked well. But I don't think the WWE will want to continue with what is a part-time champion.

That 2nd point is flawed. Because then Lesnar has to be champ forever

Being in the title picture, doesn't mean being champ. And I think Mat's response was good about him fighting other marquee names, I'm just not that hot on the idea.

For all the faults of the build to this WM. What I do like is that the main event is something I can't call, e.g. I can see arguments for Lesnar retaining, Reigns winning and I'll listen to the one for Rollins cashing in. I would just prefer personally if that one was following a Lesnar win. E.g. Rollins wrecks Reigns' chances then cashes in. This keeps alive Reigns' chase for the title and sets up a feud with Rollins too. It also keeps Brock in the title picture. I just think that is too convoluted to happen. But I can't call what will happen.

I think there is absolutely zero chance of WrestleMania finishing with Ambrose stopping Rollins cashing in MitB, if anything I could see him possibly heel turn and help but even then I'm noy so sure, I just don't think its logical if they had Brock,  who has just signed annew multi-million dollar deal win the match and all the focus goes on Ambrose, or worse still, Reigns, a guy many believe is Vinces next big cash cow win the World Title at WrestleManian and the show ends with talking about his old partner thwarting a Cash In attempt.


I can see Rollins cashing in, this is the first WrestleMania I've felt they would cash it in, I think it makes sense with either Brock or Reigns,  if he cashes in on Brock it basically sets up a one on one for SummerSlam, or if he cashes in on Reigns then it sets up the Rollins/Reigns program over the Summer

Either way I think Rollins as Champ will be feuding over the Summer with Reigns, I'm just not sure yet who he takes the belt from.

If they legitimately see Reigns as the real deal new cash cow though he has to beat John Cena clean next WrestleMania, passing of the torch

I think this year Reigns should have been facing Rusev or Cena, beating either one would have been perfect I think at this stage.

Rusev should be his opponent this time next year.

BTW only jesting about Ambrose for the reasons Kay Fabe outlines. I personally don't see how Vince puts so much stock in Reigns builds him all the way to here and doesn't have him walk out champion unless he's gone very cold on him very quickly.

I can see him chasing Rollins for the Title though, don't think that signals Vince going cold on him, more that Vince would be trying to garner sympathy for him

He could change his plans knowing Brock has signed a new deal, the title change was always going to happen when Brock was leaving, but Vince has put money into Brock now, I see him leaving as champion

I think they will have Lesnar lose and go off our screens for a while,saying that he (kayfabe) didn't want to sign a new contract after leaving,then have him back for Summerslam.

It does mean a big chunk of the year is without him but then his appearances will be far more consistent.

I don't know what I'd do with Heyman in that time though,that's a tricky one for me.

They've had him talking about his contract signing on WWE TV so there's no chance they play the no contract card.

BTW people should have been watching Smackdown recently. Its been brilliant and enhanced a lot of the build

Yeah I would have preferred they kept his contract signing a secret, then when he loses have him leave and people believe it. Then if he turned up again it would be absolutely huge.

Crimey wrote:Yeah I would have preferred they kept his contract signing a secret, then when he loses have him leave and people believe it. Then if he turned up again it would be absolutely huge.

That would of made it very predictable, them announcing this opens the match up a little bit.

Although I would of been in favour of it being kept quiet and have a shock Lesnar win but them going this way makes me think Reigns wins.

For me, Reigns is not ready for this title win. They've rushed him to the top of the card when realistically, he needed another year to develop and slowly enter the main event scene. I would have actually quite liked to have seen Lesnar vs Orton vs Rollins. I've always had a soft spot for triple threat matches and it enhances the main event of Mania imo. Fingers crossed Lesnar walks out champ. Reigns can have a good showing, push him all the way and feud with someone around the main event scene for the year, trying to work his way back up to Lesnar again.

Sting:

I'm feeling like this is probably going to be my last one. We'll see how everyone reacts. If I'm asked to do one more at Survivor Series or maybe even WrestleMania next year, at this point, I would consider it. But realistically, this is going to be my last one.

However, both Sting and Taker are booked for Raw after Mania. Interesting.

And also, Lana is set to appear at Mania

Is the hall of fame on the network?