Callum1993

That may have been the greatest Mania main event ever. Goosebumps. 

3 hours ago, Loki said:

Quite surprised to see so may people down on Cena’s work, especially after his glorious “workrate” US title run.

 As a heavyweight champ though he relied on having good heels to work with, and that’s where WWE really let him down.  Cena’s job (like Hogan before him) was to take a king beating with occasional mini shines before the big comeback and finisher.  It’s a style that has made more money and put more bums in seats than any other.

 He had some right old shit to work with though.  Forget André, Bundy, Macho, DiBiase, Piper - he had JBL, Khali, Big Show, Ryback, Henry (bless him) - all sorts of guys who really didn’t help with the matches.

 When he was in with really good heels, like Edge or Orto, Punk  or even  HHH things clicked better.

 Also… he was on top for DECADES and wrestled everyone.  There’s going to be as many bad matches as good.

I reckon Cena has another run in him in a few years, ala Rock, and I’m sure we’ll all be loving it when he does.

Some really good points. Although I don’t think you know what a decade is. 

11 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Speaking of Rise Above Hate, was there anything worse than the Kane "Embrace The Hate" angle? It was shit even by Kane feud standards, Cena making out with his jobber mates girl and all that.

Zack Ryder getting pushed off the stage in a wheelchair made it all worth it. 

21 minutes ago, Joe Blog said:

Peter Beardsley in Morrisons the other day. He has a ‘people who are pleasing to look at’ face, he smiled when I nodded as we walked past each other. 

You’re a good lad Joe. 

I assume they’ll also add:

Mysterio vs Escobar…Or some form of tag match involving them and the LWO/Legado

Lashley vs Kross or as above a tag match with their respective teams. 
 

Naomi and Belair against Damage Control for the Women’s Tag Titles or a 6 Woman Tag with Naomi, Belair and Jade Cargill against Damage Control.

Basically lots of 6 person tag matches potentially. I guess the rest will be in Battle Royals although they seem to have been moved to the Smackdown before for the last few years. 

With Dakota back now could they do a 6 Woman tag with Belair, Naomi and Jade against Damage Control? 

One for this could be Ted Dibiase Jr. Going into Wrestlemania 26 the consensus seemed to be that hopes for him were high and he’d be the break out star of Legacy. I don’t think anyone expected Orton to still be in such a prominent position in 2024 and for Cody to be the star of the company. Even by Wrestlemania 27 the following year Orton was still in a prominent position against CM Punk and Cody got a win over Rey Mysterio. Meanwhile Ted was in the pre-show battle royal won by Khali. These days he’s facing jail for fraud. 

Styles is due a great Wrestlemania match because I’d say arguably nearly all of his Mania matches so far have disappointed. The Matches with Jericho, Orton, Nakamura and Edge were all fine but weren’t at all memorable. The tag match with him and Omos against New Day was basically a squash. Arguably his best match was with Shane McMahon of all people. The Boneyard Match with Undertaker was good but was more of a Movie than a match. So he’s definitely due a memorable one. 

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

AJ vs. LA just feels a bit cobbled together, a real "and who have we got left?" affair in the style of Kurt Angle vs. Kane at 'Mania 18.

Before that, I assumed the direction was going to be a US Title clusterfuck with everyone Logan Paul had cheated or screwed over getting a shot at him - LA Knight, Kevin Owens, Randy Orton, probably throw AJ in there too, just a more blatant "get everyone on the card" affair, but one that at least feels like a 'Mania match.

Not to say Styles and Knight has been built up well but in fairness when Styles returned in December he immediately turned heel and attacked Knight and they’ve been feuding since…granted interspersed with the feud with Roman. But don’t think it’s fair to say it’s thrown together 

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

I wish they’d applied that to Lesnar. Reigns kicking out of five F5s at Mania 34 but then losing to a sixth managed to make Brock, Roman AND the move look weak all in one go.

The strange thing with that was they had protected the F5 for a couple of years before that. Like it became a once and done against Goldberg, Joe, Strowman in the year before that Roman match. I think it was another attempt at the time to get Roman over strong in defeat which obviously didn’t work once again. 

I wonder if Bray goes in this year as well? 

Second inductee confirmed by ESPN is Bull Nakano https://t.co/qyevpHRDos 

Paul Heyman announced as the first inductee into this year’s HOF as per Triple H on Twitter:

He’s been a promoter, a manager, an executive, a “Wiseman,” and now, a @WWE Hall of Famer.

There’s more to say about @HeymanHustle, but as always, it’s best to let him say it himself… with a live microphone in Philadelphia. #WWEHOF

Going to be introducing how they gloss over him and Brock but probably the right year to put him in with Mania being in Philly. 

On reflection they probably could have used Sami instead of Seth as Cody’s partner. Unless he faces Gunther at Mania he doesn’t seem to have a clear path to the show anyway. Could have played into the history there and if Rock is turning on Roman in the tag match it would have allowed Sami revenge for losing to Roman last year instead of that berk Rollins. 

The tease of doing Cody and Rock on Night 1 makes me worry even more that Roman retains on Night 2. Cody beats Rock ala Daniel Bryan beating Triple H to open WM30 leading you to think he’ll beat Reigns as well. Then Night 2 Roman retains probably due to a Rollins heel turn and they branch Cody off into that and move back to the Plan of Rock and Roman for Mania 41. Really hope that isn’t the plan but I can totally see them doing it. 

15 hours ago, BrodyGraham said:

Other way round but Peter Beardsley nearly killed me gunning his BMW at ridiculous speeds in my college car park.

It was when he was at Hartlepool and they used to use our sports facilities instead of an actual training facility.

I mean playing devil's advocate I can't blame him, I was in a hurry to get out of Peterlee as well.

He probably got his lovely lumpy chicken wrap stuck under the brake. You’re a good lad Brody. 

The Royal Rumble match from 1999 for me. Although nothing really happens once Austin and McMahon leave the match after the first 10 minutes it’s just pure nostalgia for me. Even though there’s lots of tripe in there like Kurrgan and Tiger Ali Singh I always revisit it every year. It was the first PPV I ever watched in full so has that special place for me. 

10 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Never forget that this is the company that shut down NXT UK and fired all of their Welsh talent right before running a show in Cardiff, though. All things considered, Branson Reed should consider himself lucky to have a job.

Surprised he isn’t there as he loves islands allegedly. 

4 hours ago, Supremo said:

I don’t know what to tell you If you think The Rock stepping in and inexplicably stealing Cody’s spot was top babyface behaviour.

If anything, it was the ultimate example of how much both the company and the fans have moved on. Actual character and narrative now matters. They’d developed a genuine connection with their main protagonist and his quest. They could recognise that it was a bullshit move for him to get fucked off in favour of the out-of-touch, Hollywood nutter.

Five to ten years ago? Such bollocks would have been accepted as the norm. Someone from the Attitude Era would automatically trump whatever shit we had going on these days. The default opinion was that everything was rubbish and better back in the day. Not now though. People are actually engaged. We’ve got our guy and he’s better than all that nonsense from the 90s. Woooooaaaoooooh!

Not sure I can agree with that when the entire build to Wrestlemania 30 was ‘hijacked’ by the fans rejecting Batista in favour of Daniel Bryan and WWE pivoting to that. The natural plan then was for Bryan to win the Title after being screwed out of it by the Authority from Summerslam onwards but as soon as Batista decided to come back they pivoted to him and Orton for the title at Mania. Again then just like now with Rock they had to turn Batista heel but kept him involved in the Main Event. Not saying it’s exactly the same but it’s pretty similar. 

Let’s be fair if Tony is a Peep Show character then he’s Gerrard. 

1 hour ago, Merzbow said:

Steve Austin posting actual wrestling stuff on his Instagram, he's gonna tag with Cody, isn't he?

Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in his corner with the Rock in Roman’s. 

I think it’s likely they end up doing Jimmy vs Jey at Mania so could see Jimmy costing Jey the title against Gunther on a Raw between now and then. Maybe Sami against Gunther for Mania then? 

This one is on behalf of my Dad. When I was about 10 we were driving down a dual carriageway and there were a group of Seagulls eating another dead seagull in the middle of the road. He didn’t have time to brake so went through the middle of them and luckily we thought we’d missed all of them. 
 

As we got closer to home we noticed a police car following us who then indicated for us to pull over. My Dad got out and the police officer uttered the immortal words ‘I’ve pulled you over for two reasons. One you were going a bit fast back there. And two you have a dead seagull stuck to the front of your car’. My Dad got a ticking off from the officer and then had to spend 5 minutes trying to remove the seagull which was somehow wedged into the front of the car. 

My Mam for years has had a fear of walking in the snow/ice in case of falling yet to my knowledge has never fallen in such conditions yet has fallen numerous times in circumstances which were mostly her fault. 
 

Once when I was a kid we’d just moved house so she popped round to see the neighbours and introduce herself. As she was walking out looking happy with the impression she’d given she tripped over their front step and face planted the pavement. Nothing was hurt other than her pride and probably the neighbour’s opinion of her. Another time when I was a kid she decided to empty a pan of oil that had been used for chips and for some reason that she still can’t explain decided to just pour it into a bin bag. She then attempted to put the bin bag in the bin outside not realising that the oil would just leak out of the bottom. She then proceeded to slip slowly on the oil until she was doing the splits( Ooh Kenneth Williams) out of the back door between the kitchen and the back garden and couldn’t get up for an hour. Don’t think her legs have ever recovered from that one. 

59 minutes ago, Loki said:

I actually thought Nick Aldis couldn't have looked less fussed that Raw had signed Andrade.  Perhaps he's been watching Rampage.  Like me, Aldis is much more interested in Bron Breakker!

Sidenote, I think Andrade might have forgot his wife's name there.  "Say hello to... uh... mia amore".  

 

I’m pretty sure he actually said ‘Say hello to Zelina Vega for me’. Don’t think they’ve ever really mentioned him and Charlotte actually being together in real life on screen.