CM Punk & Wrestling's Best Storyline in Years...

[Brougham33]

Not going, but if I had the choice I'd attend NXT Takeover Dallas over Mania. Having said that, I legit feel like this years card is better or atleast more interesting than last year. Predictions:

WWE World Heavyweight Title Match
Roman Reigns vs. Triple H

Toughest to predict imo, Reigns goes over but turns heel. Possibly turns on the Rock. Sets up Rock vs Roman at SS.

Hell In a Cell
Shane McMahon vs. The Undertaker
If Shane wins, he controls RAW and Taker is done at WrestleMania.

Shane wins with the help of Cena. Taker can't fight at Mania, so gimme Cena vs Taker at SS. Option B. Shane calls upon the Bullet Club, establishes Balor and his crew as anti-authority. Deadman vs the Demon at some point.

No Holds Barred Street Fight
Dean Ambrose vs. Brock Lesnar

Lesnar wins, Ambrose dies 1000 deaths but comes out a made man. Handshake of respect to end it. Hope they keep Wyatt out of this, him helping Ambrose somehow get the win doesn't help anyone.

Ladder Match for the WWE Intercontinental Title
The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Sami Zayn vs. Stardust vs. Zack Ryder vs. Sin Cara vs. Kevin Owens

KO retains cause it's goddamn KOmania. Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens fued ALL SUMMER PLEASE.

Triple Threat for the WWE Divas Title
Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte

Sasha wins. Think this will be match of the night if the crowd gets behind it and depending where they put it on the card. Bayley debuts on Monday?

Handicap Match
Sheamus, Rusev, King Barrett and Alberto Del Rio vs. Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods

New Day. Please give us a New Day vs Enzo and Big Cass program afterwards

Third Annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
Heath Slater, Curtis Axel, Adam Rose, Bo Dallas, Big Show, Kane, Tyler Breeze, Mark Henry, Jack Swagger, Fandango, Damien Sandow, Darren Young, Konnor, Viktor, Goldust, R-Truth and 4 others TBA

Bruan or Bray?

Chris Jericho vs. AJ Styles

AJ Styles in top 3 match of the night.

Kickoff Pre-show
The Usos vs. The Dudley Boyz

Usos. Dudley Boyz split.

Kickoff Pre-show
Natalya, Paige, Alicia Fox, Brie Bella and Eva Marie vs. Lana, Tamina Snuka, Naomi, Emma and Summer Rae

Fuck it, let Eva pick up the win.

Kickoff Pre-show: WWE United States Title Match
Ryback vs. Kalisto

Please don't take the strap off Kalisto. However at this point, where does the Ryback character go if he takes another Mania L. Suppose he can get his heat back with a post match beatdown.

[alpha]

Dude, 100% how I'd like it to go. Especially the bullet club and bayley parts.

[blastmaster]

I would book Roman to win, overcoming a bunch of interference on HHH's behalf and then have The Usos, The Rock and Ambrose come out to celebrate. RR spears them all on some "where were y'all when I needed you" shit. Bad ass, lone wolf, heel Reigns is the only way to go.

[Brougham33]

That's good, Reigns spearing the shit out of a half dead Ambrose trying to talk sense into him = $$$

[blastmaster]

Exactly. The build up of Ambrose could totally benefit Reigns. I hope they are that smart.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

Is Usos-Dudleyz confirmed for the pre-show?

Say what you will about the feud, but The Dudleyz have NEVER had a proper two-on-two match at Mania, and the Usos, despite lighting every pre-show on fire, have never had a proper Mania match. I was hoping for them to have something on the main card to really show what they can do, even if it's the annual truncated super-short match.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

So, I'm doing the Network free trial, and I've decided to binge watch the Raws between the Feb '96 in Your House and Mania 12 to watch Wrestlemania 12 on its 20th anniversary tomorrow.

I started watching Raw weekly in April/May '96, so this is both entirely new and vaguely familiar to me.

There's a segment on the February 26, 1996 Raw with Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Roddy Piper setting up the Iron Man match that's just surprisingly excruciatingly uncomfortable and unwatchable. Seriously. For three guys, all faces at the time, and today universally considered three of the ten greatest talents to ever attempt the art of professional wrestling, it's not only utterly awful but they get boo'ed out of the building, with Piper's announcement of "ONE HOUR!" having the absolute fakest piped-in crowd enthusiasm I've ever heard.

Has anyone else watched this? It's surreal just how bad this is.

[907]

I'm still in late 98 of watching Nitro from the beginning, but I'm planning on doing Raw once I'm done. That's a shame, I've been looking forward to all the Bret/Shawn stuff.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

I'm still in late 98 of watching Nitro from the beginning, but I'm planning on doing Raw once I'm done. That's a shame, I've been looking forward to all the Bret/Shawn stuff.

The rest of it's good, is just this particular in-ring is an outlier. You can tell they tried to make all three (four if you count Vince) still be lovable white meat edgeless inoffensive babyfaces, and it just goes nowhere. Plus, Shawn does the whole interview is his typical pre-match attire and, when he's just standing and talking and not stripping, it looks distractingly ridiculous.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

That Sting "into the light" documentary is awesome. Really makes you want to hang out with Sting.

How were the JBL Legends with Hayes or the Austin podcast with Foley?

[Brougham33]

Yeah, really enjoyed "into the light". And I totally felt less butthurt for him in regards to taking the "L" in his only mania match. Dude seems genuinely at peace with his career and legacy, Mania was just an experience he had to check off the list.

Haven't watched the Foley/Austin podcast, but I totally enjoyed Hayes on the JBL thing.

[Brougham33]

So amped for Nakamura to debut tonight. Wonder if they open the show with it.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

So amped for Nakamura to debut tonight. Wonder if they open the show with it.

This is Aries debut tonight too, right?

[Brougham33]

Yeah, happy for Aries, but saw that Corbin "after this you'll be back signing autographs in a bingo hall with Virgil" promo...kind of hoping they don't job Baron out.

[seagrams hotsauce]

Takeover has been nuts. American Alpha vs Dash and Dawson was amazing. Wish i'd been keeping up with NXT the last few weeks

[battlecatmeowstab212]

Takeover's rightfully awesome, but apparently ROH's Supercard of Honor X was incredible as well.

Look who's returned to Ring of Honor...

[alpha]

Balor winning means he's not due up after raw?

Bayley!

[Brougham33]

Damn, maybe the best Takoever yet. Nakamura, his entrance, his music, that match and crowd were all perfect.

Also Kota Ibushi and Bobby Roode...holy shit.

[blastmaster]

It's amazing that the same company that can put together a near-perfect wrestling show like that, pumps out the current Monday Night Raw. Something needs to change.

[Brougham33]

No coddling. Each match had a clean finish, and nobody looked weak either.

[tehgiftofgab]

Nights like last night are why I still love wrestling, every match was dope

[CarlosDelgothoes]

terrible

[Reason1]

sad that the two guys who are realistically way past their prime put on the best show of the night. ladder match and Divas title match were solid. the rest I thought was pretty much garbage. they had to dig deep in their book of audio tricks to drown out what I'm hearing was the loudest chorus of boos like, ever.

[seagrams hotsauce]

When his music hits you could hear the mics go down. The crowd was not feeling that shit, rightfully so. I wonder if the meta-ness of Stephanie's "we hate you idiots" promo was intentional

[blastmaster]

Ryder won. The rest was pretty much a missed opportunity to make things right. Usually I applaud clean finishes, but they fucked up not having Reigns turn heel and keeping the hell in a cell match shenanigan-free.

Now watch Owens absolutely murder Ryder tonight.

I can't think of a reason to watch Raw.

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

Steph's promo before the main event was downright cringeworthy. Wtf was that shit?

[battlecatmeowstab212]

Divas match was a flawless, perfect match. That, Ryder winning, and Erick Rowan getting a Mania match were the highlights for me.

I missed the pre-show though. Worth watching?

[CarlosDelgothoes]

skimmed it again, here's my rundown

IC Title: best match of the night. Great spots, satisfactory finish.

Y2J/AJ: decent match, trading finishers were cool, the finish didn't make sense in terms of the story. Why wasn't AJ put over?

LON/New Day: A standard Raw match. Really thought New Day would go over, although "THE LADS HAVE WON" was fucking magnificent. The 'Legends' postscript was pointless but i get it. Shawn, Stone Cold, Texas etc

Brock/Ambrose: worst match of the night. All that buildup, zero pay off. OH MAH GAWD MAGGLE LUNATIC ASYLUM LOOK AT THOSE WEAPONS. Literally used none of them. Took them out, waved to the crowd and then dropped them. ZERO POINT AT ALL. Fucking useless. Not that Brock was ever gonna take a spiked bat to the head, but jesus, why bother.

WC Triple threat: match was good, finish was redundant. HOLY SHIT RIC FLAIR HELPED CHARLOTTE WIN NEVER SAW THAT BEFORE. Like playing kayfabe, wouldn't Banks have known this was gonna happen? Wouldn't she have a counter waiting for him? No, of course not. Fine, you want Charlotte to be your first official women's champ, just find a way that hasn't been in use for the past 3 months.

Taker/Shane: Good match. Spot of the night obviously. But the finish shows they clearly came up with this storyline a month ago and had no idea how to see it out. Shane losing makes no sense re: story

Battle Royal: very happy Kane or Show didn't win. Does this mean Corbin's gonna get the super push?

The Rock: Absolutely pointless and shoehorned so he and Cena could show up and slap dicks.

HHH/Reigns: LOL, no. Shit match. Shit finish. Shit story. They literally have no idea what they're doing.

So in short: 1 great match, 3 very good matches and a corner of dumpster fires. NXT Takeover was much better but we already knew that was gonna happen.

[blastmaster]

Poor Zach...

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

Pleasantly surprised styles is already getting a title shot.

Them styles/reigns promos gonna be something awful tho.