The Shape

I read they were looking at Mir/Lesnar 3, which seems more likely, as I sincerely doubt they put their biggest draw against a champ from another fed who could become a big star for the UFC in what would be pretty much a pure striker vs. pure wrestler match. Honestly I can see Reem getting a title shot right away depending on what happens between Schaub and Big Nog.

Much, much worse. With Hardy they were able to hype up his courage in surviving submission attempts and put it down to GSP's great wrestling exploiting a weakness. If Bisping fought Silva he would just be absolutely destroyed in the strongest part of his game.

I think it's better they do that and get a legit undisputable contender than try to protect them and them get beaten down like has happened the last two times they've tried to do that in the division. In other divisions it may work but LW is too stacked with too many contenders, they have to do it properly. There is no way one of them losing will be an issue because there will be a lot of contenders by the time the fight comes around.

Absolutely no way Cerrone is getting it now, he's at least two fights away. The top three contenders are Guida, Bendo and, dependent on how he does against J Lau, Guillard. But because the title fight and Guillard aren't till October, literally nothing makes sense other than putting Guida against Henderson. After the momentum-derailing-and-destroying-respectively losses of Pettis and Miller it'll be refreshing to have a fight where BOTH men get a title shot with a win, and it'll be a great one at that. Based on last night my money would be on Henderson, though admittedly I've only seen him fight twice. Guida last night was saying (while very annoyingly referring to himself as "we") he thought he should get the winner of EM3 because he beat Pettis who beat Henderson. Total nonsense, it's not that simple and he knows it.

He's not even that good standing. He's been out struck in his last three fights. Hardy shooting for a takedown to "score a couple of points" then getting subbed is like Winston finally deciding he loves Big Brother then getting shot at the end of 1984.

Problem with Bisping is if they protect him too much he's gonna end up looking like he's earned a title shot and get absolutely murdered. I'd still love to see the fight for the hype though.

He's beat him something like 7 times this year without losing. Rarely if ever clean, but still. If they book this right Punk will still be the first breakout star anywhere near Cena's level since Cena himself.

#kneejerk You have absolutely no idea where this is going. Nor do I, but I'll tell you they definitely aren't using Punk just to get Del Rio over. With Cena/Rock looming MITB had to be used soon and something bigger is at work here with Trips, Steph and so on.

With all the Mania talk the other day, I just had a ridiculous idea. Daniel Bryan vs. The Undertaker. MITB cash in versus the streak.

Kidding aside, I feel like Hardy not being cut after all of this some how represents everything that is wrong with the sport. UFC want to be seen as a legitimate and evolving sport and yet consistently encourage guys to "stand and bang" and ignore aspects of it. Fertitta says on twitter he won't be cut because he "likes guys that war." I didn't see Dan Hardy go to war, I saw him be a sitting duck for three rounds, attempt to steal a round with a takedown and get utterly embarrassed. That was the most satisfying takedown rejection since Gil Melendez against Kawajiri with his "NO, NO, NO" elbow smashes. Someone on sherdog suggested Akiyama vs. Hardy, losers leaves town style. I absolutely cannot describe how much I want to see that fight. That may contradict some of what I said but I really do not care. Sexyama would murder him.

ADR has to be involved in the whole Triple H/Steph thing somehow. Because otherwise it's just totally out of place. I mean of all people it's Kevin freakin Nash.

New corporation with Trips/Steph/Nash and Del Rio as their champion. A common enemy for Cena and Punk cements Punk's face turn. Yes please.

HAHAHAHA Hardy shoots for a takedown in the last minute and gets immediately subbed. Hilarious, he goes out not only having been bettered with what he wanted but also goes against everything he allegedly stood for. I never want to see him and his weirdly short arms fight again. Lytle meanwhile is an absolute hero.

Miz is at a stage where he can afford to put over a guy for a while and not get hurt at all by it.

Man this really does have the makings of an amazing fight. Final fight of his career vs. man who has to win (or IMO lose in exciting fashion) to save his job. I can definitely visualise Hardy boxing his way to a decision in a big anti-climax, or Lytle winning a decision in an absolute war. Really looking forward to Miller/Henderson...have warmed to Miller a lot lately. And Oliveira has been a must watch for me since the Escudero fight, hope he pulls it off. edit: Davis vs. Machida in the works apparently. Bet he wishes he fought Rashad.

Who could you throw in there as the Rumble winner with Punk and Danielson? They'd obviously have to be of a certain style. Maybe a Samoa Joe monster push

I've not been watching Smackdown every week but I've kept up with the big matches and I love the Christian/Orton feud, just the very idea of it. Seen some people saying it's dragging on but it just seems like the sort of thing that HAS to drag on. It's an issue that can not be resolved, the two of them feuding with anyone else would require one of them to in some way admit defeat, and I love that that hasn't happened yet. I hope it goes to HIAC for a proper resolution. Orton will almost certainly come out on top and I have no idea where the hell Christian goes from there, but at least he'd have had a good run.

I just feel like it needs it. Cena's talked about it being for the title. It's billed as the biggest match ever. The WWE title could be made irrelevant on the card without it. If it's going to be for the title I think they'll already have set on that and if that's the case then either Cena's going to win and Rock disappear or Rock's going to win and stick around for a month or so. My money would be on the latter, give them a huge ratings boost for a little while then walk away.

**** yes I forgot about DB. So that's a world title match sorted. Him vs. Punk would be incredible. And I think Miz is Austin's most likely opponent if he does wrestle. Here you go WWE, Mania sorted: Main event - WWE Championship: John Cena © vs. The Rock World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk © vs. Daniel Bryan The Undertaker vs. Triple H The Miz vs. Steve Austin Biggest show ever tbh. And the polar opposition of the two title matches would be amazing. *goes and writes diary*

Taking everything into account: Main event - Rock vs. Cena - WWE Championship (HAS to be on the line on a top three match else it'll be irrelevant elsewhere) CM Punk vs. Triple H The Miz vs. Austin Undertaker vs. ??? (Lesnar on a dream card lol) ...World title match Or Trips/Taker again and Punk vs. someone else for the World Title. Punk needs a huge match though. Rumble winner? Maybe even Austin. Or Miz depending on who he faces.

To be fair, if it happened, and Sheamus for some reason didn't fall but was meant to, they couldn't do much about it. However, I imagine if that did happen, we wouldn't be seeing Sheamus in the main event scene any more.

I don't think Akiyama chose to lie flat on his face, he was knocked there. I agree it's slightly sinister on Belfort's part but I feel like a DQ would just be totally unwarranted. He didn't win because of those punches, he'd basically already won. It's a tricky one yes, but this (and maybe telling him to watch it next time as it's already not looking like an accident) is the least bull**** way to deal with it.

This was the first time I'd seen Rashad fight live as I started watching after his last fight, and I gotta say I was impressed. Not just with the way he fought, which was great, but his overall demeanor, the casual arrogance that some people can't stand him for. The hype video at the very beginning of the PPV was what really won me over, the way he said "he really thinks he can beat me" with such pure and utter disgust. Providing Jones beats Rampage that is going to be such a huge fight. Best case scenario really, Rashad looked good but Tito didn't go down without a fight and threatened a few times to give the crowd something. The Belfort thing...shrug, he only got in that position because Akiyama was flat on his face anyway.

Anecdote time. So on Monday night I go out and notice Paul Daley on the opposite side of a fairly small dancefloor. He sees my reaction (a very visible oh my god or something of that nature) and sort of points at me and cheers. A few minutes later I go say hello, ask him about his last fight, if he'll be back in the UFC, get my mate who has no idea who he is to take a photo and he's generally really cool. Then, a couple of hours later, I notice one of my mates having words with some guy from Daley's entourage. The guy is basically telling him to go away because he bumped into some girl who was with their group or something (like I said, small place) and I step in and try to get my mate to back away and hint that this is probably a guy who knows how to handle himself. Naturally he does not, but he still doesn't do anything provocative, just tries to shake the guy's hand. The guy looks at his hand in full pro-wrestling promo style and sort of moves his out of the way, then out of nowhere throws this weird kind of elbow uppercut and hits my mate in the face. Everyone jumps in, and suddenly I find myself on the opposite side of a big scramble to Paul Daley and a load of huge guys in tapout t-shirts. My mate quickly disappears and gets kicked out, following which I find myself playing a sort of peacekeeper between him and the bouncers (one of whom said he was a friend of Daley) by being the guy who actually knew who he was and that he hadn't himself done anything wrong. I think Daley actually recognised me from earlier in the night as well as he was trying to tell his mate that we were alright or something like that. Not surprising as most people there had no idea who he was, which was emphasised by the fact that the England cricket team were there who everyone naturally knows and loves. Not sure how he felt about that xD

He should come to WWE and fight Trips for the right to one of his nicknames... And Punk's name is just so, so chantable, it really does help this angle xD