Only posting this to cut off the "no one started a thread? except me, right here, starting a thread" comment.
What you need to know:
- Daniel Bryan had a fantastic night in the ring - part of a great lengthy trios match with Kane & Randy Orton vs the Shield and another long singles match with Ryback in what had to be Ryback's best match ever. He was beloved by the crowd, completely impressive in the ring, and actually beat Ryback (by being put thru a table) - and yet is probably turning evil very soon.
- Paul Heyman gave Chris Jericho the match he wanted with CM Punk. Jericho responded by sticking the contract down Paul's pants, after signing it. Who's the guy we're supposed to cheer here? (Punk - or at least they acknowledged he'll be cheered in Chicago whatever they do now.) It's still unclear if Punk himself actually wants to do this match, or has even found out he's having a match yet.
- Curtis Axel remains the master of the countout victory.
- There was a match between Primetime Players and the Usos for a tag title shot. I am so unconvinced the winning team will ever get the shot that I'm not going to tell you who won.
- WWE thinks you greatly care about not just the health and wellbeing of HHH, but Stephanie & Vince's feelings about the health and wellbeing of HHH. I fast forwarded thru most of this show and they still would not shut up about it when ever I stopped. A HHH vs Axel rematch scheduled for tonight was canceled, then said to be happening next week. It's probably not happening next week.
- the people who keep having matches with each other kept having matches with each other.
My favorite part of this show was probably Ryback talking about how he injured Kofi so badly on Friday Night Smackdown that Kofi had to have surgery on Thursday. It's also fun when Damian Sandow says "Pardon me" when he misspeaks.
In-ring, that six-man tag was a lot of fun! Daniel Bryan's a workhorse, 2 matches in one night.
Sandow attempts to beat Shaemus using wit, logic, and sleight of hand, bolt cutters and common sense for the past two weeks on Smackdown, Shaemus responds by trying to kick him in the head and perpetuates violence.
On Raw tonight Cole laughs at Sandow for using a non-violent approach to outwit his opponent and congratulates Shaemus for harassment and physical violence when thinking becomes too hard for him.
Be a Star kids!
Has it been established yet why Jericho is so bent on facing Cm punk at Payback? This feud is odd and Y2j comes off a bit of a jerk in this angle demanding a man who hasn't done anything to him in months be forced from vacation to face him in a match.
The way they are playing my boy D-Bry's character as passionate but erratic and self-obsessed with winning I'm not totally convinced if Bryan will go heel or stay face. If Vince wants a quick way to isolate fans and lose money, he'll turn him heel soon.
This was Bryan's night. Team Hell No officially breaks up, he wrestles the two best matches of the night, stands toe to toe with Ryback in ring and out of the ring. If WWE was looking for their ultimate tenacious underdog to replace Rey Mysterio they've had it with Daniel Bryan since last year.
(edited by CruelAngel777 on 3.6.13 2138) I believe in The Shield....
Ladies and gentlemen, the following public service message is brought to you by your friends from D-Generation X, who would like to remind each and every one of you that if you're not down with that, we've got two words for you... They're absolutely moronic if they turn Bryan heel now. The man's a heat machine and a license to print money. I know they're all about Sheamus, but I'd use Bryan as the catalyst for Orton's heel turn and put them together for Summerslam to really strap the rocket to Bryan's ass. April is the 10 year anniversary of He Who Shall Not Be Named'd big WrestleMania title win, and what better way to erase it from history than by replicating it ten years later with a man who is his peer in in-ring ability, but absolutely puts him to shame in the promo and charisma department?
Originally posted by CruelAngel777Has it been established yet why Jericho is so bent on facing Cm punk at Payback? This feud is odd and Y2j comes off a bit of a jerk in this angle demanding a man who hasn't done anything to him in months be forced from vacation to face him in a match.
It's a PPV called Payback and Punk beat Jericho in two high-profile title matches last year. Not exactly rocket science!
smark/net attack Advisory System Status is: Elevated (Holds; June 18, 2006) While the switch from Cena to RVD should alleviate some complaints, the inevitability of the belt's return to Cena (note where Summerslam is this year) and the poor initial showing by the new ECW are enough to keep the indicator where it is for now. The pieces are in place, though, especially on RAW, for improvements to be made to the IWC's psyche in the near future.
Originally posted by thecubsfanOnly posting this to cut off the "no one started a thread? except me, right here, starting a thread" comment.
I totally would have made that comment.
Bryan might wind up turning heel out of all of this, or trying to turn heel, but when he came down for his match against The Ryback he paused and had an internal struggle on the stage, before doing his "Yes!" chants all the way down to the ring for the first time in a year. If he is going to wind up heel, he's teasing people that he'll be a face first. But with the way he's going, I'm not sure that people would even buy him as a heel. What can he do to make people boo him? Even if he suddenly became a cowardly chicken heel, that was the character people rallied behind as the World Champion last year.
They plugged Miz having Kane, Bryan and Orton on his talk show on Smackdown. For all the good stuff he's been doing, they don't let Bryan on a live mic all that often, he usually gets (presumably pre-taped) backstage promos. Hopefully he can step up and knock it out of the park there. We still need to find out what kind of match he'll be having at Payback. A tag title rematch? A match against Kane? A US Title shot on Ambrose?
Lost a bit in the shuffle is the series of matches Big E and Del Rio have been having over the last few weeks. They're doing a good job building off of them in succession, finishing each match in a different fashion. And of course, Big E is refusing to submit to Del Rio's finisher no matter how many times he tries it. It's as good a way to tread water until Ziggler's good to go as any.
Ok, after reading some of the reactions, I plucked this show out of my DVR trash bin and gave it a look. I'm definitely not sorry I did, because this was actually a good show.
This was ALL Daniel Bryan tonight, from the phenomenal six-man to (as Cubs noted) Ryback's best match ever. I don't know where the speculation for the Bryan heel turn is coming from, but that's the absolute LAST thing they should do, because that crowd (and myself) were seriously buying into Bryan during that Ryback match. They also booked that ending absolutely perfectly, since nobody could afford to take that loss. They played Bryan as the ultimate underdog that wouldn't die, no matter how much punishment he was taking, so Ryback got frustrated and killed him dead with the table powerbomb. I loved, loved, LOVED every part of that segment and it was booked so effectively that even John Cena was getting a big babyface pop when he came out to make the save.
Originally posted by ChumpstainBut with the way he's going, I'm not sure that people would even buy him as a heel.
Recall that Bryan never even had an official face turn. He was softly turned by the growing fan response and I can't imagine that's going to end any differently if The E tries to force a Bryan heel turn now. For that reason, I'm not buying this idea that Bryan's turning.
Why are they even bothering with Curtis Axel when they have to give him a countout win in a No DQ match? Either push him all the way or let him keep rotting on Superstars. This half-hearted BS push helps nobody.
Originally posted by Texas KellyIt's a PPV called Payback and Punk beat Jericho in two high-profile title matches last year. Not exactly rocket science!
Are they even referencing that feud from last year? It would really help if Jericho explicitly made mention to that feud, otherwise these dynamics are strange. And am I the only one thinking that The E is trying to turn the entire Chicago crowd heel? That's a strange way to treat one of your most loyal fanbases.
And everyone else on the roster (except maybe The Shield) is simply treading water. Sheamus is headed nowhere, except to a foregone conclusion feud with Damien Sandow. Alberto Del Rio and Big E Langston are going to fight another hundred times until Dolph's ready. And I don't even know what Randy Orton's doing anymore, other than waiting patiently for his Summerslam feud with Dolph.
I'm SO not dignifying any of that McMahon nonsense with a response. I'll just end here.
Don't you guys love HHH? Don't answer that, because I love him even more than you!
Okay, with that out of the way, let's talk about things people care about. Bryan is red hot, and easily the most over guy in the company right now. That was a great match with Ryback, and Cole even explicitly said on commentary that he thought Ryback went for the DQ because he knew he couldn't beat Bryan. A heel turn is not going to help anyone in the company, I guarantee.
THe thing is..they KNOW they'll have trouble getting Curtis Axel over. They are banking on Paul Heyman to carry him until people start buying into it.
But, if they give him time to develop, he'll work out. When Umaga was pushed down our throat, nobody wanted it. But he grew into a good asset. Ryback was silly with the jobber squashes, but it did work.
Axel hasn't really beaten anyone other than count-outs and such. But a year from now, they'll just say "he started off defeating Cena, HHH" and people will only remember that. It's the way wrestling works.
Ziggler was a joke in the spirit squad, then a backstage one-liner with the introductions. He pretty much sucked until he developed into one of the main reasons to watch the show.
I predict his first legit win will be at Payback, when he takes the place of CM Punk who doesn't show. It'll be a good match too.
Bryan is the most over guy on the active roster. Please don't screw this up, WWE.
I am digging Punk being kept off TV until his return, assuming he does return at the PPV. I can't imagine him no showing in Chicago, but what better way to turn him heel in his hometown? Still not a fan of hyping a match you have to pay for with no intention of delivering.
The Wyatt family promo was not quite as creepy as last week, but it seems Bray has the goods. I dig the crazy southern preacher vibe.
Imagine how amazing Raw is in the much better alternate universe where Cena turned to get help to beat The Rock at Wrestlemania and is now a suit-wearing corporate champ and/or Paul Heyman Guy hiding behind The Shield with this Daniel Bryan (backed by Ryback and his legit grudge against Cena) gunning for him?
The first ten minutes of Raw was about as pathetic as the show has ever been. Trotting out Vince AND Stephanie to shamelessly goad the crowd into chanting HHH's name and do a "you can't possibly love HHH - who has given everything to you and for this business - more than we do!" routine was truly amazing.
Did anyone keep count of how many times in the first 25 minutes some variation of "Curtis Axel is beneath you/HHH!" or "Curtis Axel isn't worth your time!" was said by someone on TV? I know Stephanie literally screamed "Curtis Axel is beneath you! Curtis Axel is beneath you!" to HHH when they were backstage. I predict that next week - when Curtis Axel beats HHH by no contest after Vince and Stephanie sent 30 guys with tranq guns down to the ring to stop HHH right as he's about to Pedigree him - they'll move on to having Lawler use a telestrator to draw stink lines around Curtis Axel during his entrance, and play noises specifically designed to make humans ill whenever someone says "Curtis Axel" by the time of the PPV.
Axel's win over Cena is such a wrongheaded way of pushing a guy compared to how Bryan looked in losses to The Shield and Ryback. They say things like "the damn numbers game, Cole!", but The Shield (the weird Cena double DQ match that they're already pretending never happened aside) always looks competent and legit in how they win and does zero harm to the guys they beat. Loved the throwaway bit near the finish where Kane sets up the double chokeslam and Reigns counters by freeing Rollins isntead of himself so Rollins can hit the rolling kick to free Reigns. Everybody involved is putting so much work into adding layers into these Shield vs. Hell No/x matches, especially Rollins, who seems to be everywhere at once in these matches in the best way possible.
(Kane looked like the biggest moron in the world in the loss last week - nearly every Shield win comes down to someone on the face side losing track of where Reigns is. Bryan, smartly, isolates Reigns to make sure he can't take Kane out while he's finishing off Rollins, but Kane stops to complain about Bryan and instead loses track of Rollins.)
Bryan is so, so, so good right now and such an embodiment of "a guy gets to do what he does and gets over doing it" that I can't let myself see anything other than the turn nobody wants coming.
I briefly thought they were going to try something daring with the finishes to Bryan/Ryback and Axel/Cena. There was a second where I thought Bryan was going to reverse the powerbomb through the table to rana Ryback through it (which would have been a Ryback win, but still made him look vulnerable). Do that and then have Axel win in any other way than "repeatedly beat Cena with a chair, still get demolished until awful countout victory" and you get both Cena and Ryback looking vulnerable without hurting them going into Payback and that's at least something new.
Hunter is portrayed as too devoted to the business to stay our of the ring despite the medical concerns. He threatened to fire the trainer before the Axel match, smothered Curtis with effective offense, and then collapsed. We're supposed to feel sorry for him? He's doing exactly what the SLI are telling athletes not to do. And Vince and Steph are heels for holding him back?
They had a chance to so something admirable here: Show Hunter following medical diagnosis and advice. Give kids a precedent to follow. Instead, he's gonna tough it out and show us he has heart. Wrong message. Wrong time.
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
He's not going to tough it out. He's going to stretch this to Payback where Axel will get his first actual pinfall win by piledriving Hunter or something equally dastardly. That's what I suspect, anyway.
Originally posted by Amos CochranHe's not going to tough it out. He's going to stretch this to Payback where Axel will get his first actual pinfall win by piledriving Hunter or something equally dastardly. That's what I suspect, anyway.
Going to the PPV is toughing it out. He shouldn't be wrestling if he has this head injury, and the only reason he's out there is because he's threatening to fire the medical staff. Even if they later use a PPV injury to push Axel as cruel and have Hunter learn a lesson about head trauma, the angle started with Hunter bullying his staff (BA STAR!) into dropping their medical objections.
Also, Hunter hits people in the brains with a sledgehammer. Will he retire Mjolnir to prove the lesson is learned?
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
Originally posted by Amos CochranI know, he's practically a serial killer!
Of pushes!*
*zing!
(edited by Mike Zeidler on 4.6.13 1044) "Tattoos are the mullets of the aughts." - Mike Naimark
"Don't stop after beating the swords into ploughshares, don't stop! Go on beating and make musical instruments out of them. Whoever wants to make war again will have to turn them into ploughshares first" - Yehuda Amichai
Ladies and gentlemen, the following public service message is brought to you by your friends from D-Generation X, who would like to remind each and every one of you that if you're not down with that, we've got two words for you...
Originally posted by It's FalseAnd am I the only one thinking that The E is trying to turn the entire Chicago crowd heel? That's a strange way to treat one of your most loyal fanbases.
I don't know about that. I think they're just assuming Punk will be cheered because it's his hometown and Jericho will be booed by default, but in all likelihood BOTH guys are going to get cheered and the crowd will be more or less split down the middle the whole match. Now, if you'd said the same thing about the Hartford crowd, I could have believed that with all the comments Vince & Steph were directing towards the crowd last night on the subject of HHH.
smark/net attack Advisory System Status is: Elevated (Holds; June 18, 2006) While the switch from Cena to RVD should alleviate some complaints, the inevitability of the belt's return to Cena (note where Summerslam is this year) and the poor initial showing by the new ECW are enough to keep the indicator where it is for now. The pieces are in place, though, especially on RAW, for improvements to be made to the IWC's psyche in the near future.