The Official WWE / NXT Discussion Thread *May Contain Spoilers*

[panix04]

I would imagine that Jericho V Fandango will also run until then and possibly Miz Vs WB

[20LEgend]

I wish crowds were like that all the time. Made a great show even better! Bryan, Ziggler, Ryback, Fan-dan-go was all great. Better still the crowd chanted for RVD and MICHAEL COLE!!!

[Hive]

WrestleMania sounds boring. Boring, predictable matches with nothing new.

 

Why do they never try anything fresh?

 

Cena vs. CM Punk vs. The Rock

The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar

 

...that, I would have watched.

[UkWrestleFan]

When do Wrestlemania 30 tickets go on sale? Looking at the possibility of trying to make it next year.

 

Also, anyone have any idea how much it'd cost in £££'s for decent seats?

[Blackman]

That little segment after Ryback vs Henry with them showing off some toys was the greatest Mania moment ever. I laughed my ass off when JBL was just hitting them with no effect. Greatest marketing ever.

[Tha Black Phenom]

Oh, and in my post about the little things I forgot this gem following the Shield segment off air

 

http://i.imgur.com/F3jtJG4.jpg

 

 

slightly good feeling when you see how far Daniel Bryan has come.

[FINisher]

Damn RAW was good. Much of it because of the crowd. Loved Ziggler's cash in, loved Ryback-Cena ending. Awesome RAW.

 

"We are AWESOME!", yes, yes you were.

[Jaysin]

Oh, and in my post about the little things I forgot this gem following the Shield segment off air

 

http://i.imgur.com/F3jtJG4.jpg

 

 

slightly good feeling when you see how far Daniel Bryan has come.

 

That picture is amazing.

[FINisher]

I can't help to replay Zigglers win.. Just look at that man in that moment. That's years of love for wrestling right there, the childhood dreams coming true.. Second World title reign, I don't think he even counts the first one (that was awarded to him by Vickie after DQ'ng Edge by using the spear) since he lost to Edge in the same night and thus had zero defences of the belt.

 

Wouldn't it be good to be in your shoes Ziggler.

 

Post-RAW Cena promo / more crowd action. Love it!

 

 

Zigglers cash in live

[Rickymex]

Two demons and a goat walk into a bar...

[DaMegaFish]

The crowd was great on Raw, sure, but you know what was even better?

 

Fandango! After getting beat down by Jericho and being awarded the match by DQ, all he cared about was the ring announcer still not being able to pronounce his name correctly. As he was laying on the ground all beat up, his final words weren't at Jericho, no, they were, "FAN-DAN-GOOOOOO"

 

Awesome heel work. The guy completely won me over with that. I'm a 100% Fandango fan now. I already liked him, but he is now easily one of my favorites on the show. Also, everything about his character reminds me of mid 90's WWF. From the weeks of video vignettes to the giant light up version of his logo in the ring on his entrance, it's all absolutely wonderful.

[Rone Rivendale]

My all time favorite wrestler no joke is Disco Inferno, so needless to say I am loving the Fandango character so far. I hope he sticks around for a while and doesn't get the mini-push/burial that alot of people receive.

[MrSelfDestruct]

so why in the hell didn't they have Ziggler cash in on the big show that was arguably very lackluster?..

 

Will never understand that, with that said, glad to see Dolph win it finally. The wHW title always seems pretty weak but they built him up good, except losing cleanly at Mania with the so-called "Beast"

[ThomasRiordan]

Damn RAW was good. Much of it because of the crowd. Loved Ziggler's cash in, loved Ryback-Cena ending. Awesome RAW.

 

"We are AWESOME!", yes, yes you were.

 

The RAW crowd was amazing last night. I really wish I had stayed and went to RAW rather than heading home right after WrestleMania because those were a lot of the people I spent the weekend with and for the most part except for a few bad apples at the Hall of Fame the fans were amazing.

 

I don't take the time to interact with a lot of people normally but I interacted with people from all over the world this past weekend and they were some of the nicest people you could want to meet. By the end of WrestleMania we were fist bumping the people around us and saying goodbye like we were the best of the friends and we didn't even know each other's names. Those fans truly made the experience more amazing than any other event I've been to and made me view wrestling fans in a more positive light.

 

Unfortunately, there was this one group at the Hall of Fame that made me downright ashamed of being a wrestling fan. This will probably never make it to the air and probably will be edited out of the DVD (and right it should be) but this is what really happened. Michael Cole had come out twice before it started and told us that this was a special night for the legends and that you will be respectful of them or you will be removed; no cat calls, no foul language, etc.

 

This group about 2 sections to our left was chanting "get off the fPGking stage!" at Maria Menounos. To be honest I didn't know who she is or what her relation with Bob Backlund was and had no real interest in listening to her, but I respect Bob Backlund so I respected her enough not to be disrespectful like this group were.

 

Then they continued to disrespect Bob Backlund who was the most interesting speaker of the night. Had they been sitting behind me it would have been well worth getting thrown out and spending the night in jail for punching them in the mouth. It made my skin crawl that much and made me embarrassed to be in a crowd of people who would disrespect someone who built the sport they love that much.

 

Worst still is security did not remove them. We could see security down on the floor looking for them and people pointing at them but they were not removed although they did settle down after awhile. Sure there were chants throughout the night like "we hate Ron!" at Trish's husband, but she was feeding off of it and acknowledge it so people kept doing it and it was done in a playful manner of interacting with the crowd. This was not playful and security really should have removed them.

 

If you truly are that classless then stay home from the Hall of Fame. It's presented as a classy event, and for the most part it was but why come and do stuff like that on a night honoring the people who built the sport you love? I could see if it was children or teenagers doing it, but there were very few of them at the Hall of Fame, these guys were old enough to know better and should be ashamed of themselves.

 

Axxess was a bit of a let down and I've sent this experience to WrestleZone and WWE but I waited in line for 2 hours for Paul Heyman, was told that our row was the last 5 people he was gonna sign for before leaving and then he tells the two people in front of him that he has to go do a handicap signing and then he'd be back to sign for us. Heyman said himself he'd be back in three minutes because we were on the steps going up to him, 2 people in front of me, we were within 10 feet. Then he doesn't come back after event security told us he was too. They bring out JBL who I did get an autograph for, but I did not wait for two hours to meet JBL. I passed up a lot of other people for Paul Heyman and they basically pushed him out the door right in front of me.

 

It's upsetting as an adult to have that happen but imagine had they done that to a child waiting to see Cena only to have him tell you he'd be back and then push him out the door replacing him with some jobber (and I'm not saying JBL is a jobber or a lower superstar just that he was not who I was there for and sacrificed for). That child would be heartbroken and you'd probably lose them as a fan. It was just a crappy thing to have happen and it's not Paul Heyman's fault, it's not JBL's fault, it might not even be WWE's fault, but it doesn't make it suck any less.

 

The signings for the second session you couldn't even get to them because there were already lines from the previous signing still waiting because this is exactly what was happening. They would keep pulling Paul Heyman out of the booth to sign for the handicap. So he'd sign 4 or 5 autographs and then he'd be gone again. There were only maybe 60 people ahead of me so it wasn't like he couldn't sign his name 60 times in 2 hours, but the line barely moved at the rate they were going because they kept pulling him out every time someone rolled up.

 

I understand they have to accommodate for the handicap too but they shouldn't have handled them like they were more important than everyone else in the building. They should have had the superstars signing for the people standing or sitting in line, and then had them go out and sign for the handicap after or even before the event started they could have took the handicap in for their signing. But sign 5 autographs, yank him because one or two people roll up just does not work.

 

If I was in a wheelchair I could have met everyone in there in the 4 hours we had. Legally, I am disabled. I can walk and I don't use my disability to get special treatment simply because of the fact that I can walk and don't want to take something from someone who truly needs it. But damn this really made me think of going up and asking what they count as handicap enough to have them cater to you like this.

 

WrestleMania could not have been a better experience or planned any better on our part. We decided to check out of the hotel, skip the second day of Axxess because of the Heyman incident, getting back late from the Hall of Fame and deciding to go home rather than go back to New York paying another $200 in fees and getting back to the hotel late only to have to check out by noon with little no sleep which none of us had over the weekend.

 

We got to the stadium around 2 due to leaving early to give ourselves time for traffic which was terrible coming into New York City. I was navigating and wasn't even driving and 20 minutes in NYC and I wanted a drink, if I had to live there I'd be a full blown alcoholic. So we thought getting out thru the tunnel would take a long time and we ended up getting to the stadium in 20 minutes.

 

There were already people tailgating which was a negative people experience. There was this one guy and kid who were throwing a football back and forth at cars and the kid is a lousy catcher. Now another father and son were tossing the ball long ways across the parking lot which made a little more sense and the kid actually had an arm and could catch the ball. But the other kid actually ran into the back of a stopped car and he hit hard enough that we could hear it.

 

We said something to the police on the way in because they were throwing the ball at the car while we were in it and we know they could hear us talking about them. The police just said they're allowed the throw the ball and if they break something they're responsible. Yeah, right. They're throwing the ball with us in the car, you clearly don't give a flying flock of geese enough to be watching them. So how are they responsible if no one sees it if they break a window?

 

Walking up the the gate there was a line across the parking lot and another 3 hour standing in line session was not something we were in the mood for and in a dumb stroke of luck as we were walking up they opened another gate and we were the first 10 people in the line. Going to your first WrestleMania is awesome enough, but we were among the first 1,000 people in the building. WWE was actually filming us as we came up the escalator to our seats. And then coming out of the tunnel we see this breathtaking site.

 

 

For not knowing where our seats were other than the 100 level we really lucked out on views. We ended up in section 126, row 16, seats 5,6 and 7. So we were in the end zone facing the stage and damn near everyone around us had a title belt. There was a couple in front of us with a Canadian flag which I thought for sure would ruin many pictures during the night due to them holding it up. They didn't. The ones behind us who we thought were going to be like the Hall of Fame idiots weren't and actually made the show better and we talked with them most of the night.

 

The cold didn't really become a factor once the show started and the rain thankfully was a little shower here and there and didn't last long. That was the biggest threat to the night. Everything up to that point could not be a better experience but then to have it downpour on us for 4 hours in the cold night would have really turned WrestleMania from awesome to completely sucky.

 

We thankfully did not get an obstructed view like so many who paid so much more than us ended up getting.

 

We had two ends of the spectrum during the night; going in everyone was pumped chanting "yes! yes! yes!" and coming out everyone shuffled down the ramps. Yes! ramps! thank you, Jesus! I am so glad there were ramps because if I never see another step in my life I'll be a happy man. We must have climbed 5,000+ steps over the weekend between Madison Square Garden which was a good 10 flights of very short windy stairs, to the subway where we literally would go down to go up to go down to go down to go up to go down to go up. It was like the zombie apocalypse as everyone shuffled down the ramps to their cars.

 

We sat in the parking lot for a good hour without moving which I thought would be a problem but the police actually said it was a good idea to sit there and let it empty out a little before leaving because the traffic was like the Heyman line, it was going no where fast. We made the drive home and pretty much were out as soon as our heads hit the pillows. It was tiring and we had some bad travel incidents like being trapped in New Jersey while the person who had our train passes was bound for New York thanks to a train door closing damn near sandwiching him, and spending an hour trying to find him when we got to Penn Station which seems to have a Dunkin' Donuts and Hudson News on every corner and level and no directories that we could find, then getting an express subway train that didn't say it was an express until it was skipping over the stop we needed so we got lost in New York City for a few hours.

 

I'd say the Hall of Fame and WrestleMania was worth it and I would go again but Fan Axxess needs to be handled better in the future or that's a now go. I've typed a lot so I'll leave you with the luckiest picture of the night since I had been trying to get the fireworks and kept failing. This one I had turn to take a picture of my uncle reacting to The Undertaker winning and just happened to catch this on the way back around.

 

[ThomasRiordan]

so why in the hell didn't they have Ziggler cash in on the big show that was arguably very lackluster?..

 

Will never understand that, with that said, glad to see Dolph win it finally. The wHW title always seems pretty weak but they built him up good, except losing cleanly at Mania with the so-called "Beast"

 

It doesn't really make much sense with his character being an egomaniac. Why would he not cash in in front of a crowd of 80,000+ only to do it the next night for a crowd of 20,000 or less. Had they had him cash in at WrestleMania it would have blew the roof off of the MetLife Stadium if it had a roof. They could have done something really original to make up for the fact that 90% of the people in the stadium had no clue Swagger had even come out. They give him this grand entrance being driven in with no music and no one is looking. I have a picture that tells the story perfectly. Swagger and Colter driving around the corner and most of the crowd is looking the opposite direction. So he got a jobber entrance and then the crowd was supposed to give a damn about a title match and believe he could win. But they could have had Ziggler come out and cover one of them after knocking each other out, they could have had him covering Del Rio as he applied the crossarmbreaker to Swagger as AJ tried to seduce Colter and Big E. threatened a retreating Ricardo. But they went with what even Michael Cole said he did what everyone before him has done cashed in on an injured champion. I just made no sense for the Ziggler character to cash in last night but I guess they needed something big to make up for Rock and Brock being injured.

 

WrestleMania had it's share of confusing moments for the live crowd like Swagger who many people had no idea he was even out there until they started talking. Then it was like where did Swagger come from.

 

The National anthem being cut confused the crowd as well and from the looks of things Lillian Garcia. The National Guard came out and was waving flags and Lillian was in the ring and everyone was rising for the National anthem and then the National Guard just heads to the back and Lillian is standing in the ring like what's going on? Like they never told her it had been cut because she went over to someone later on like she was asking them what the hell happened.

 

The worst one was the main event. A lot of people had got up to go to the bathroom thinking it was the tag match next and then Cena's music hits and it's the main event.

[DaMegaFish]

It doesn't really make much sense with his character being an egomaniac. Why would he not cash in in front of a crowd of 80,000+ only to do it the next night for a crowd of 20,000 or less. Had they had him cash in at WrestleMania it would have blew the roof off of the MetLife Stadium if it had a roof. They could have done something really original to make up for the fact that 90% of the people in the stadium had no clue Swagger had even come out. They give him this grand entrance being driven in with no music and no one is looking. I have a picture that tells the story perfectly. Swagger and Colter driving around the corner and most of the crowd is looking the opposite direction. So he got a jobber entrance and then the crowd was supposed to give a damn about a title match and believe he could win. But they could have had Ziggler come out and cover one of them after knocking each other out, they could have had him covering Del Rio as he applied the crossarmbreaker to Swagger as AJ tried to seduce Colter and Big E. threatened a retreating Ricardo. But they went with what even Michael Cole said he did what everyone before him has done cashed in on an injured champion. I just made no sense for the Ziggler character to cash in last night but I guess they needed something big to make up for Rock and Brock being injured.

 

The way he did it makes perfect sense. He had stated in an interview that he wanted to do it when it wasn't expected because if everyone expects it, then surely the champion also expects it. Ziggy also said that he wanted to wait for the perfect moment because trying to force his cash in failed too many times so he'd rather just pick his perfect spot. Why not attack a guy after he gets hurt in his 2nd match in 2 nights when you didn't have a match that night? Makes sense to me.

[ThomasRiordan]

It still was fully expected last night though. Everyone was saying WrestleMania or the RAW after he'd cash in. To be truly unexpected they would have had to do it at a random house show and it wouldn't do much for Ziggler if he cashed in that way either.

 

It's really hard to do the completely unexpected these days but they could have done a much better job with this cash in rather than using the same storyline they always seem to end up with. Heel takes advantage, wins the title. They've done it too many times before that it doesn't even have the impact that it should.

 

It's like they get hooked with one idea and keep running it over and over and over to the point that you know the ending before the story starts. Just look at how many times they've run the heel goes under bottom rope in a battle royal, gets forgotten, false winner, heel comes back and throws them out. Or even the number of times they've run two guys hate each other forced to team win the titles, they've run that numerous times with Cena, and they've done the same thing with Kane and Daniel Bryan with the only original idea in the storyline being the anger management bits.

 

If you watch the same movie a thousand times you know the ending then the excitement is gone, and that seems to be the problem WWE has had for the past five years or so. Sure they might be able to pull the same old stuff off for the kiddies but the adults who are actually the ones buying everything it doesn't work as well because they're smart enough to remember that they've already seen this movie a thousand times.

 

They just could have done much better with Ziggler cashing in rather than do the same thing they've done over and over again.

[Stennick]

It still was fully expected last night though. Everyone was saying WrestleMania or the RAW after he'd cash in. To be truly unexpected they would have had to do it at a random house show and it wouldn't do much for Ziggler if he cashed in that way either.

 

It's really hard to do the completely unexpected these days but they could have done a much better job with this cash in rather than using the same storyline they always seem to end up with. Heel takes advantage, wins the title. They've done it too many times before that it doesn't even have the impact that it should.

 

It's like they get hooked with one idea and keep running it over and over and over to the point that you know the ending before the story starts. Just look at how many times they've run the heel goes under bottom rope in a battle royal, gets forgotten, false winner, heel comes back and throws them out. Or even the number of times they've run two guys hate each other forced to team win the titles, they've run that numerous times with Cena, and they've done the same thing with Kane and Daniel Bryan with the only original idea in the storyline being the anger management bits.

 

If you watch the same movie a thousand times you know the ending then the excitement is gone, and that seems to be the problem WWE has had for the past five years or so. Sure they might be able to pull the same old stuff off for the kiddies but the adults who are actually the ones buying everything it doesn't work as well because they're smart enough to remember that they've already seen this movie a thousand times.

 

They just could have done much better with Ziggler cashing in rather than do the same thing they've done over and over again.

 

I agree with you the Money in the Bank concept needs major tweaking however that being said Money in the Bank by its very nature isn't a business boosting "championship".

 

The entire point is they can cash it in anytime. So unless you're building to it by saying "I'm cashing it in this day" the fans have no idea when it will be cashed in and therefore you can't make any money off it in the tradional sense. You make money off it now by dedicating an entire pay per view to it and before by making it a draw for ordering Wrestlemania. So the money is made off of the chance for MItB and not after you win it.

 

You mentioned that it doesn't have the same impact. My question is how do you know? The reason that place blew up like it did when he won because it was a smark crowd. If anything cashing it in on RAW was better for him. You think the Wrestlemania crowd would have popped like that for him? Did they pop for The Shield? Hell the only thing they popped for all night was Taker/Punk really. Ziggler is a heel and he's a damn good one. He doesn't get babyface pops everywhere he goes. By cashing it in on RAW he got a HUGE reaction for it that he would have NEVER gotten if he cashed it in any night but that night.

 

You mentioned that adults "won't pay to see the same movie" isn't Wrestlemania this year EXACTLY the same movie as last year? As far as the main event goes and outside of that where people going to order it to see Brock/HHH 3 when the outcome was obvious or where they going to order it to see Punk/Taker where the outcome was obvious?

 

You are making the same mistake a lot of internet fans make. You take what YOU want to see and how YOU feel about the shows you and then say things like "it doesn't have the impact it needed" or "people won't watch the same movie over and over again". When in fact people have been watching the same movie over and over again for about the last seven years with John Cena and the WWE. And yet through all of this Wrestlemania this year will still do well over a million buys. The product is awful and has been and likely will conitnue to be for quite a while. My suggestion is watch TNA or ROH or grab ahold of that Attitude DVD.

[DaMegaFish]

It still was fully expected last night though. Everyone was saying WrestleMania or the RAW after he'd cash in. To be truly unexpected they would have had to do it at a random house show and it wouldn't do much for Ziggler if he cashed in that way either.

 

It's really hard to do the completely unexpected these days but they could have done a much better job with this cash in rather than using the same storyline they always seem to end up with. Heel takes advantage, wins the title. They've done it too many times before that it doesn't even have the impact that it should.

 

It's like they get hooked with one idea and keep running it over and over and over to the point that you know the ending before the story starts. Just look at how many times they've run the heel goes under bottom rope in a battle royal, gets forgotten, false winner, heel comes back and throws them out. Or even the number of times they've run two guys hate each other forced to team win the titles, they've run that numerous times with Cena, and they've done the same thing with Kane and Daniel Bryan with the only original idea in the storyline being the anger management bits.

 

If you watch the same movie a thousand times you know the ending then the excitement is gone, and that seems to be the problem WWE has had for the past five years or so. Sure they might be able to pull the same old stuff off for the kiddies but the adults who are actually the ones buying everything it doesn't work as well because they're smart enough to remember that they've already seen this movie a thousand times.

 

They just could have done much better with Ziggler cashing in rather than do the same thing they've done over and over again.

 

You act like the only way anyone has EVER cashed in is the run in route. That is completely false. WWE has done it a number of different ways. Obviously, for most wrestlers though, it makes sense to take advantage of a fallen victim.

 

Also, when was the last time the WWE used that battle royal finish? I'll admit that I always hope to see someone who isn't eliminated by the true rules come back and win but I can't remember a time it has happened recently. I'll be fair on this one though and admit I haven't watched a ton of WWE over the past few years.

[TakerNGN74]

I was reading some stuff about Triple H's entrance at Wrestlemania because a lot of people were commenting about the white stuff that was on his stomach when he was coming down to the ring. It turns out that he was hit by dry ice and suffered 2nd degree burns from it. If that is the case I give him a lot of credit for being able to do the match after the incident.

 

It's like the time Undertaker was in an elimination chamber match and got hit by fire, so he ran to the ring and medical personel had to hose him down with water and a doctor had to clear him to wrestle the match.

 

Figured I would pop in here and comment about it though since nobody else did because I myself was wondering what had happened.

[BHK1978]

I was reading some stuff about Triple H's entrance at Wrestlemania because a lot of people were commenting about the white stuff that was on his stomach when he was coming down to the ring. It turns out that he was hit by dry ice and suffered 2nd degree burns from it. If that is the case I give him a lot of credit for being able to do the match after the incident.

 

It's like the time Undertaker was in an elimination chamber match and got hit by fire, so he ran to the ring and medical personel had to hose him down with water and a doctor had to clear him to wrestle the match.

 

Figured I would pop in here and comment about it though since nobody else did because I myself was wondering what had happened.

 

I can't stand HHH but I have to give him his due for that. As someone who has been exposed to dry ice in the past I can tell you first hand it hurts like a you know what.

[djthefunkchris]

So... I've seen probably 90% or more of this weeks RAW, and by golly gee willerkers, if I didn't feel like I went back in time, far as that crowd was concerned...

 

I'm going to guess that probably the only thing that will feel anything like this show at all, are Chris Jericho being way over his card level, and Fandango theme being mimicked by the audience. Jericho, for most, is a given, but I think his recent match's have cemented in the fact that he's going to give it his all in there, no matter what else he is doing, for the time he can afford us. The crowd is going to have huge reactions to him I feel, as long as he keeps that energy he seems to get when he's playing a face. Fandango's character is so cheesy, that I do think the mimicking of his theme song will endure for a while.

 

All the rest of it... I'm going to go on a wild goose chase and say I'm not going to hear Michael Cole chants at next weeks RAW. I WISH the crowds could always be like that.

 

So... Undertaker and Hell No vs. The Shield next PPV? Looks like a fun time there.

 

Who the heck is going to feud with Ziggler? He needs someone on his level to make him look good before a major feud happens, otherwise I won't be able to buy him being in the same league as Del Rio and Swagger..... And we all know WWE want's to make sure that I, and I alone, is able to buy into what they are selling.

 

I have to say I marked out for Ziggler I think... I mean, I couldn't help it. I don't think he's ready (I've mentioned that a time or two before), but that crowd made me mark out for him. I know he's not going to be getting those reactions for long, but it was so awesome it happened at least once. It's going to be interesting to see what happens with him now. Think he can break Daniel Bryan's record in how fast he loses it in a match?

[milamber]

WrestleMania sounds boring. Boring, predictable matches with nothing new.

 

Why do they never try anything fresh?

 

Cena vs. CM Punk vs. The Rock

The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar

 

...that, I would have watched.

 

WM is for the marks. Raw after WM is for the smarks. WM is about putting your biggest stars on show for the world to see and having them win. Granted they did put over the Shield, Henry and Fandango, but that was for storyline purposes. If you treat Wrestlemania as the beginning of the Road and not the end of it, the booking makes sense. Let's just hope they don't drop the ball heading into Extreme Rules.

[Comradebot]

I'm saying it now, before it's too late, the next WM needs to have...

 

The Rock vs. Undertaker

 

 

Taker is this close to complete retirement, and it's a matter of time until The Rock is happier staying in Hollywood full time again. While they're both still involved with the WWE, they need to start getting them ready for it next year. It may not be the most technically brilliant match, but my gods, imagine the heat. Can "The Great One" also become "The First One"?

 

The fact they didn't do it this year worries me it may never happen, but obviously Cena/Rock was the longterm plan, and I'm sure Punk enjoyed the honor of being the next of Taker's victims.

[Nathers7]

Looking at reports of Smackdown, seems Ziggler is massively over .