All those ridiculous spots where he looked like he was genuinely hurt thanks to his selling, and that's how Rollins finally gets hurt for real? I feel for the guy, even beyond normal human compassion: they had the most talented wrestler in the world* in Rollins and really did nothing but make him look terrible from the day after Wrestlemania until now.
(*"The world" = WWE/TNA/Lucha Underground/NJPW but only as recently as January 2015)
So, uh, yeah, they really should have saved Del Rio a month and had him coming back as a surprise, super over, conquering, anti-establishment face winning the World Title instead of having him win the US Title and immediately, fatally turning into a heat-less, cryptoracist heel, huh?
Originally posted by El Nastio 1) Have Ambrose win, Reigns turns. Blood feud.
2) Reigns wins versus Ambrose via turning. Blood feud.
I mean, this is it. We can all lay out a dozen intricate scenarios, but some variation of these two essentially similar outcomes is the simple, obvious, elegant solution that makes everyone looks good. There are a few ways to do it, but Reigns turning on Ambrose and Ambrose completely losing his shit over it is the way to go. Reigns gets to find his voice as the Corporate Rock he was always meant to be. Ambrose gets untethered and becomes the face version of '96 Austin he could be. I mean, Dean ain't Stone Cold and Roman sure as hell ain't Rock, but the parallels for both are right there and you're not going to do any better.
Couple ways to make it happen, too. The two above (Reigns takes a shortcut to win vs. Ambrose wins clean and Reigns snaps), or Ambrose barely hangs on and beats Roman clean, Sheamus comes out to cash in and Reigns, furious at losing, simply stands by and lets Sheamus cash in, then sells out the next night to get a shot at Sheamus to get the MITB briefcase out of the way.
Originally posted by El Nastio 5) Ambrose turning heel on Reigns would be the worst thing to do to Reigns.
This is the woooooooooooorst and therefore the one they're gonna do. Ambrose turning on Reigns means asking fans to choose Roman over Dean, and then means asking fans to not shit all over Roman winning the Rumble again and then asking those fans who are definitely going to shit all over Roman winning the Rumble again to super please double choose Roman over Dean.
There's probably some version of Corporate Sellout Dean Ambrose I could get behind where Ambrose tries to fit in with The Authority by wearing a suit he clearly pulled off a corpse or a hobo and backstage skits where Ambrose threatens to murder angry shareholders for HHH but that ain't how they book. Heel Ambrose vs. Face Roman would be nothing more than a smokescreen for a HHH vs. Roman feud and nononnonononononono to a HHH vs. Roman feud, because HHH vs. Roman is just HHH vs. Less Dynamic Cena, which is just a feud between the guy who killed the wrestling boom thoroughly enough that 10 years of a guy keeping ratings level was acceptable vs. a lesser version of that guy who just kept ratings level for 10 years.
Originally posted by Big BadThen again, forget a tournament. Use this as an excuse to bring back the ULTIMATE SURVIVAL MATCH from 1990. The whole Series card is 4x4 elimination matches, with the survivors all moving into a final bout at the end of the night. Sole survivor of THAT is the new champion.
Oh shiiiiiiiit yes. This is the best idea. Ultimate Survival. YES. Roman and Dean on the same team. Dean keeps surviving because no one can literally beat him to death. Roman does what they forgot to book him to do at the last Rumble and just trucks guys all night long. Finale comes down to basically dead Ambrose vs. Actual The Juggernaut Roman Reigns but Dean still won't die and pulls it off and that makes Roman pissed enough to let Sheamus cash in and then sell out the next night to The Authority to get the belt off Sheamus and Dean howls and rages and declares bloody, mortal revenge on the last and only true friend he ever had. That is great and beautiful and won't happen.
Originally posted by InVerseI was actually thinking the same thing. Does the World Championship also fall under Freebird rules? At the very least, Big E needs to make it to the finals to tease a New Day victory.
If it's a straight tourney and not Ultimate Survival, then yeah, the must-have spot is one of the Tournament entrants being "The New Day" and they keep switching out between rounds to stay fresh.
Anyway, biggest concern out of all of this after Seth's well-being is: what does this do to the Traditional Survivor Series matches and traditionally attempting to traditionally book traditional names for those Traditional Survivor Series match teams, as is our...custom?
Bray using zombie Taker and Kane to do his bidding til Mania is their best option. Just each month remove a member of the group til either Ambrose, Reigns or Bryan get him alone to win at Mania. It would be awesome of the Wyatts got so out of control they took out the Authority on the Raw after Survivor Series.
Reigns turning on Ambrose seems ideal to me. But only if they do i t as an homage at Great American Bash 91 with Luger and Windham. HHH will play Harley Race and come out to shout "Now's the time!" to Roman who hits a Pedigree on Ambrose for the win.
Originally posted by CEOIIICrazy idea: Raw Monday starts with the Authority, they announce the title is vacant......and Sheamus cashes in and is handed the belt.
This. Then he holds it until someone they trust comes back
We'll be back right after order has been restored here in the Omni Center.
That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy - Swift
Wrestling is a cruel business. I wasn't a huge fan of Seth as champion but he was an incredible worker and definitely deserved a better end to his reign. Hopefully his recovery is as speedy and painless as can be.
Looking on the bright side, I think Vince can sometimes come up with his best stuff when his back is against the wall...
Even though, under absolutely any possible circumstances, they will not do this, the best scenario here is to actually, finally turn Cena heel. Deadly Games is the go-to reference for a reason, but I'd do it with a returning Cena. He comes in, turns against Roman, and then ducks Roman through the Rumble. That does what they didn't do last year: establishes a reason for the crowd to want Roman to win things. He'll have been screwed over, and it's a chance to finally see Cena get some of the comeuppance he actually has deserved for like 8 years. That builds you to the WrestleMania match, where Cena can do the torchpassing thing, fully and credibly establishing Roman as the new version of Cena and positioning him as the top face for the company for the next ten years, just like they've always wanted.
Great idea; not going to happen.
Much, much more likely is a much, much more boring possibility. Roman wins the tournament, gets Sheamus'd, and then chases Sheamus for a month or two before he wins the world title for realsies.
Originally posted by Big BadThen again, forget a tournament. Use this as an excuse to bring back the ULTIMATE SURVIVAL MATCH from 1990. The whole Series card is 4x4 elimination matches, with the survivors all moving into a final bout at the end of the night. Sole survivor of THAT is the new champion.
Oh shiiiiiiiit yes. This is the best idea. Ultimate Survival. YES. Roman and Dean on the same team. Dean keeps surviving because no one can literally beat him to death. Roman does what they forgot to book him to do at the last Rumble and just trucks guys all night long. Finale comes down to basically dead Ambrose vs. Actual The Juggernaut Roman Reigns but Dean still won't die and pulls it off and that makes Roman pissed enough to let Sheamus cash in and then sell out the next night to The Authority to get the belt off Sheamus and Dean howls and rages and declares bloody, mortal revenge on the last and only true friend he ever had. That is great and beautiful and won't happen.
I thought this year we were celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Grand Finale Match of Survival? Seems like a no-brainer.
Wow, that video is gruesome. I feel so bad for Seth Rollins after seeing that; finishing the match (powerbomb on one leg!) is toughness on par with HHH finishing the famous Raw tag match with the torn quad.
Best Case Scenario (Semi-quasi-realistic):
Cue "Flight of the Valkyries"
Best Case Scenario 2 (Probably not realistic):
Cue "Cult of Personality"
(There has to be a big enough number + a WM main event promise that could make this work)
Originally posted by CEOIIICrazy idea: Raw Monday starts with the Authority, they announce the title is vacant......and Sheamus cashes in and is handed the belt.
Originally posted by Alpha DogBest Case Scenario 2 (Probably not realistic):
Cue "Cult of Personality" (There has to be a big enough number + a WM main event promise that could make this work)
There's also the not-inconsequential matter of Punk having 1) a UFC contract 2) a shoulder injury 3) a hatred for WWE 4) a crazy wife who would never let him live it down, am I right, fellas? Women, sheesh. #meltzer
What if Bray Wyatt just used all of his powers to quickly advance past four guys and win the title. Then a reluctant but optimistic Sheamus runs down to cash in and Bray blows him up with a lightning bolt.
Wow, that video is gruesome. I feel so bad for Seth Rollins after seeing that; finishing the match (powerbomb on one leg!) is toughness on par with HHH finishing the famous Raw tag match with the torn quad.
It went on beyond that, too. Rollins still had to hit the Pedigree to win the match. There's a video of that floating around somewhere, too...
Originally posted by JustinShapiroWhat if Bray Wyatt just used all of his powers to quickly advance past four guys and win the title. Then a reluctant but optimistic Sheamus runs down to cash in and Bray blows him up with a lightning bolt.
Sheamus tries to cash in, but when he opens the briefcase, the contract isn't there. Instead, somehow, either Kane or the Undertaker's hand comes out of the case and pulls Sheamus into the briefcase, where he is trapped until the next MITB match.
This sucks because I really think Rollins is the best in the business right now. That being said, this is something that can really work in the WWE's favor for a few reasons. They have options that can really move pieces in place that fix a lot of the problems they've had in almost every story arc involving their top tier wrestlers.
1) The simplest option would be to have one of their top baby faces win. Reigns would get a backlash free title win due to there literally being no better options. Not the wrestlemania moment they wanted, but it breaks the passing of the torch into smaller digestible bits, which is exactly what Roman needs. He wins the belt here, has a separate wrestlemania moment later, slays an immortal next year (Brock, Cena) to complete the torch passing, as opposed to last year when he was expected to do it all in one shot. They could also give it to Dean Ambrose while Roman does something else en route to his final coronation.
2) This also fixes the problem of Shamus being the least anticipated MIB cash in ever. If he was smart, he either refuses entry in the tournament, or gets him self DQed right away in the first round. Then after someone wins in the finals, all Shamus has to do is saunter down to the ring, completely fresh and beat a guy who just finished wrestling four matches. Even if he's not laid out like most other briefcase victims, he would be defenseless against a fresh wrestler the caliber of Shamus. They could even work in Shamus' backstage relationship to HHH, and make him the interim golden boy of the authority. Roman can then win the rumble and beat Shamus for the title, which I think would garner mostly support from the fans. They could add in either dean or Roman winning the actual tournament to give reigns the revenge heat also. If it's dean who gets screwed, dean can be the challenger for December and January, instantly filling that need.
In any of the above they could also go with Dean vs Roman in the finals, ending with the mutual respect ending, or Wyatt vs baby face with Wyatt losing thanks to the revenge of the Taker.
I dunno, if they play their cards right they could really revitalize the show for a while, but if they don't we could be in for a long 6-8 months.
I also wanted to point out what has been stated above that we haven't had a face champ in a ridiculously long time, and we haven't had a non-authority backed champ almost as long. This is definitely the time to at least put the wheels in motion for a long baby face reign, if not pull the trigger outright.
If they redo Deadly Games's Rocky Maivia/Corporation angle (Russo's masterpiece), and start building up the Wyatts as 1999's out of control Ministry of Darkness... this might be enough to get me to try watching again.
Originally posted by JustinShapiroWhat if Bray Wyatt just used all of his powers to quickly advance past four guys and win the title. Then a reluctant but optimistic Sheamus runs down to cash in and Bray blows him up with a lightning bolt.
Sheamus tries to cash in, but when he opens the briefcase, the contract isn't there. Instead, somehow, either Kane or the Undertaker's hand comes out of the case and pulls Sheamus into the briefcase, where he is trapped until the next MITB match.
1) You can't bring in Bryan and have him not win, simple as that. You can have him run interference, cause a distraction, all sorts of things. To have him wrestle would be The Rumble all over again. Unless they want to build even more heat on Rock 2.0, then the smart thing to do is to have him go over Bryan and the aforementioned items involving Ambrose.
2) Sheamus has been paired with Barrett, with that brief case more and more becoming an albatross. But a cool way to work this all together is Ambrose, and somehow beats Shemaus and the brief case, then the Authority comes out and gives Reigns one more chance all in one night. Or, Amrbose wins, gets put through a Gauntlet on Monday, defends against the briefcase, then Reigns. Blood feud commences.
3) Speaking blood feuds, if Sami Zayn is recovered, have him cost Owens a match. Like say, against Reigns, giving him an easier time.
I'll say this much; I'll be watching on Monday to see what happens for sure.
No. Not even close. Austin's just not in his element in these things, and it doesn't help that the Mad TV cast isn't exactly what you'd call sidesplittingly funny. Sasso's pretty good, but past him...