Great Daniel Bryan moment to kick the show off. Great Paul Heyman speech as he sticks it to the crowd again.
The Wyatts are the best.
Caesar is a Paul Hey man guy!?
It's been a fun weekend, but I'm starting to feel like that crowd and feel burn out setting in. Tomorrow should be an off day, but it's Shield vs Wyatts.
Hopefully they start pumping the brakes a little, at least for my sake.
One minor complaint. They really telegraphed what The Shield was going to do. Should have just let it happen.
Edit: Crap forgot the logo again. I need logo fixing rights.
No recap today because I was splitting time between this and the Kentucky game.
If Paul Heyman hasn't gotten/doesn't get a significant raise for his work of the past few weeks, there is no justice in the world.
That crowd was electric during the Wyatt match, breaking into song with him and chanting "Bray's gonna kill you" right before Bray finished Big E clean with the Sister Abigail. That six-man tag was quite special, as evidenced by Harper breaking out AIR HARPER!
Rob Van Dam is back! Unfortunately he was not The Undertoker.
Cesaro is a Paul Heyman Guy! Somehow this was cheered to high heaven. I think on any other night, that would've been a heel turn. Of course, if there is a wrestling trophy, it must be destroyed and the trophy for the ARMBAR had a lifespan of only 24 hours before Jealous Jack Swagger got his hands on it. It was great to see Cesaro clutching onto the remains as he left, though. Also, it only took Paul Heyman like seven seconds to give Cesaro a nickname: #KingofSwing.
Agreed that the Shield thing was telegraphed and they could've done without the little backstage segment right before the main event. I was genuinely excited at the prospect of a TripleHBomb but unfortunately that did not come to pass.
Orton and Batista were forced into a tag match for the tag titles, but decided on taking the countout and demolishing the Usos instead. That Batista Bomb on the stairs was SICK. The Usos have my life tougher because both of them now have chest tattoos, covering up the name tattoo that Jey had. Orton and Batista managed to get onto the same page for most of the night, and Trips even teased an Evolution reunion for a bit there.
Rusev is alive!
Paige is your new Divas Champion! She made her debut to congratulate AJ on conquering all comers, but AJ took offense to being interrupted and put the title on the line as a post-Wrestlemania bonus. I was hoping for a nice 8-minute match, but this was maybe a couple of minutes, and they botched the Black-Widow-into-Paige-Turner ending and it looked *awful.*
#BadNewsBarrett was probably the third-most popular guy in the building tonight, after Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt. The "BOOM" that he's doing with his Bullhammer Elbow needs to become a permanent fixture.
Line of the night goes to Paul Heyman for referring to the commentary crew as "Mr. Leyfield and two other things." The disdain in his voice was glorious. And he did it twice!
Just one of the great Raws of all time. I'd have to say that was the best of all the post-Mania Raws since it was actually in tune, and nearly perfect lockstep, with the audience.
So. I wonder what would've happened tonight on the Raw after Wrestlemania with Batista vs. Orton and a Shield triple threat? Bryan did an emotional interview on the post-show saying everything changed at the Royal Rumble. All of you here, you're welcome for saving your Wrestlemania, you pieces of trash.
Originally posted by BigDaddyLocoOne minor complaint. They really telegraphed what The Shield was going to do. Should have just let it happen.
Definitely agree -- crowd would've figured it out anyway and enjoyed it even more if they got there on their own -- but they played their part, "3-M-B" notwithstanding. There's the full Shield turn on Triple H I lamented missing when they turned face on Kane. Daniel Bryan and the Shield being together because of mutual respect from their wars touches me so deeply. So is this going to be like all those Elimination Chamber Wargames people really really figured were coming and then didn't? Triple H said "war" a number of times, and at Extreme Rules matches are contested in extreme conditions...
He's certainly had some good ones but that might've been the greatest promo of Paul Heyman's career. A man in full command of his powers. Cesaro as the active roster Paul Heyman Guy, my god, it's all happening. You've been reading my telegraphs! Cesaro can remain a heel in the world's remaining arenas since they need more top heels than rising babyfaces right now.
John Cena is 1995 Bret Hart fighting to get his ring jacket back. If Daniel Bryan was "a midcarder" after Hell in a Cell, what's John? He didn't even bother with the traditional "y'all are a passionate bunch in the WWE Universe, I know the way some of you out there feel about me and I respect that but jack we got bigger business to attend to right heyah too-night!" Ideally, singing "John Cena Sucks" to the beat of his tune will catch on and remain a thing, because there isn't much further else to go in the perpetual tug of war with him. #stillinnovating
AJ not dropping the title in a battle royal so she could work with Paige, who debuts in front of the one crowd who will treat like her a big star, was my pitch for Wrestlemania. It seemed unlikely.
It sucks a substantial amount that they didn't put Ziggler on the show. He lost to Ryback on Superstars. At least Fandango got to be with his people. And I think the crowd and the Euro contingent resuscitated Barrett's career, which had basically been in stasis since he broke his arm in 2012.
Ambrose and Renee's interaction on the post-show will launch a thousand more Dean/Renee ships. Speaking of which, please watch this amazing, amazing video. Starts as your basic Believe In The Shield lecture then devolves brilliantly into pals cracking up about the triple double. It's pretty much an outtake that still works as a great face interview. PALS.
Originally posted by JustinShapiro Ambrose and Renee's interaction on the post-show will launch a thousand more Dean/Renee ships. Speaking of which, please watch this amazing, amazing video. Starts as your basic Believe In The Shield lecture then devolves brilliantly into pals cracking up about the triple double. It's pretty much an outtake that still works as a great face interview. PALS.
"It's human hair." Oh, glorious. Glorious.
Originally posted by JustinShapiroHe's certainly had some good ones but that might've been the greatest promo of Paul Heyman's career. A man in full command of his powers.
For my money, it's the greatest WWE promo since Mark Henry's fake retirement speech.
I told my friends that the WWE video production staff is the greatest in the world. I stand by that always, and tongiht especially. They replayed the Daniel Bryan Promo Video from Wrestlemania XXX, and added at the end some audio from the PPV.
As someone who used to do this stuff (and still loves it), I couldn't help but marvel at the video. The video cut to the sogn was so, so fitting. Specifically, the first part where they get into:
I'm only a man with a candle to guide me, I'm taking a stand to escape what's inside me. A monster, a monster, I've turned into a monster, A monster, a monster, And it keeps getting stronger.
At the bolded, they have a series of transitions as Bryan evolves into the bearded, shaggy appearance he has today. Literally, the video is matching the words as he turns into "the monster". Then later in the video, they do the exactly same words again, but a babyfaced Bryan doing the KIPUP followed by the fullout BEAERD!ed Bryan doing the KIPUP.
Amazing. Marvelous. They all need raises, every one of them.
Speaking of raises, Paul Heyman has no equal. NONE.
New Orleans, you did good tonight.
Daniel Bryan.....what else can be said? Great promo, better crowd. And when Triple H made that match, the thought crossed into my mind "are they truly making Bryan into the new Foley, with a one day title reign?
No. No no, no he isn't. Of all people, The Rock called it last night; with his fighting against the machine, Bryan is now more like Austin.
And now we have the Shield aligned with Bryan. 4vs4. We can all hope, we can all dream. But we all know that in our hearts we yearn for the 'war'-type setting Justin describes.
THE DOUBLE TRIPLE POWERBOOOOOOMB BAAAAAAAAAAAAAABYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEE
(edited by El Nastio on 8.4.14 0020) "You can't put a price on integrity"
Yes, I forgot to mention just how great that Heyman promo was. He made fun of the crowd, made fun of the announcers, made fun of Taker, made the case (to the IWC) about why Lesnar was the one who broke the streak. And he did it all in convincing manner, while gaining tons of heat.
Well done Paul E.
YOUR 2012 NCCA Tournament Bracket Challenge Winner
I'm in genuine disbelief that Paul Heyman managed to somehow deliver both the best heel promo of the night and the best face promo of the night within the span of an hour! He really is something special! And speaking of special, there is noooo way anybody saw the Cesaro turn to Heyman coming and I loved every second of it! And good on Swagger for giving us the long-awaited trophy smashing, even if it came a day late.
Daniel Bryan is still champion and they made a star out of him tonight. But it's one thing to do that, but it's another to deliver drama all the way up to the very minute, because I was very convinced that Hunter was going to get the title after that convincing beatdown from Orton and Big Dave. That's how you do suspense, my friends.
How do you know they're turning over a new leaf and building new stars? John Cena gets the opening match and is never heard from again for the rest of the night.
Let the Rob Van Dam Nostalgia Tour continue!
The Paige debut was pulled off so perfectly. And all it took was for AJ to go full Honky Tonk Man and put up her title in a moment of spontaneous hubris. Paige and AJ sold their post-match emotions beautifully. This feud's going to be fun and it could conceivably be the first Divas PPV match to actually get significant ringtime since Trish in her prime.
#BOLIEVE!!!
Where we are for the potential EXTREME RULES card so far: -Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H (w/Stephanie McMahon): WWE World Heavyweight Championship Extreme Rules Match -The Shield vs. Kane, Batista, and Randy Orton -Cesaro (w/Paul Heyman) vs. Jack Swagger (w/Zeb Colter) -Paige vs. AJ Lee (w/Tamina Snuka): WWE Divas Championship Match
(edited by It's False on 7.4.14 2136)
"Playing guitars. It's hard to sing while playing...guitars."
Damn was that ever a wild crowd. Wyatt, Barrett and Heyman are all ostensibly heels but got three of the biggest face pops of the night. You could tell they loved being the fan favorite, too, especially Wyatt and Barrett. I really think they're going to have to do a double turn somehow with Cena and the Wyatts, Cena is becoming Bootista-level hated by the crowd, and the more psycho Wyatt acts, the more the fans love him. LOL @ the announcers suggesting that it was voodoo that was making the crowd act so crazy.
Didn't see the sudden title switch coming, and I'm not sure Paige did either. She really came off as a total noob who got lucky, with that long, slow awkward Black Widow-to-Paige Turner finish, which was also the only piece of offense she got in the entire match. They really didn't make her look very strong in her debut ... especially to get handed the title out of the gate. Maybe they're going to go for a "Mikey Whipwreck" scenario, where the champion clearly has no business holding the title, and gets the crap kicked out of them every single match ... but keeps finding ways to win anyway.
I knew Cesaro was going to turn face and dump Zeb on his ass, but I definitely didn't see him becoming a Heyman guy ... and DEFINITELY didn't expect that doing so would turn HEYMAN face! I'm guessing having him join Heyman is to keep him as a tweener while he fights with Swagger, but we might run into odd situations like tonight, where Heyman is viciously booed when he's seen with Lesnar, and cheered like mad when he's with Cesaro.
Speaking of, RVD is back, good to see him again. I kinda like Dr Unlikely's idea of RVD joining Heyman's stable, especially now that it's looking like a tweener stable with a monster heel at the head. Taking the name of UnderToker and wearing a trenchcoat with airbrushed dragons is optional.
That finish was a total clusterfuck, though I knew as soon as Steph tried to intimidate the Shield (NEVER a good idea there) that the night was going to end with the Shield rebelling against the Authority and helping Bryan keep the title. I would've liked if they had at least pretended to have a real match ... if HHH was willing to cheat to that level, why not just make up some BS excuse to strip him of the titles again? Granted, I could have asked the same thing of Vince during Austin's reign as champion ...
The ending is making me wonder what they're going to do at Extreme Rules for the American Dragon. Rematch with HHH? Rematch with Orton? Some kind of Fatal Four-Way? I have a feeling they're going to build Lesnar up more as an unstoppable beast before he reminds us all that he still lays claim to a title shot (for no reason other than he wanted one, but still).
I like Bluntertaker as an alternate RVD name, with his goal being to get everyone in WWE Tombstoned. He could also use the same Taker fog for his entrance, only now it's smoke.
Please, just do a War Games match, WWE. Every time HHH puts himself in the title picture I get super nervous because I still have HHHPTSD from 13 years ago. I know that's the point, but I'd rather see Bryan in there against Batista. HHH has me at the moment, but it could easily go south.
I enjoyed seeing a Warrior out there tonight, although the segment didn't sell me on a Warrior mask since it didn't even fit him right. I thought he added great closure to his WWE career and it's now implied that Warrior's electricity and Destrucity flows through everyone in the company now, so he will live forever with true foke.
The NXT influx tonight was also great, with more on the way. I'm guessing some people on the active roster are about to get the axe.
One of Cena's better qualities is that he seems to fit and play along with whatever role management wants him to do. I like how he was placed on the show tonight and if we're really entering a new "Era" then he's doing a great job helping to usher it in.
I hope the US and IC titles get defended again someday.
I'm not going to lie, if any HOFer had to be out there giving a coda speech last night, I would've only preferred Jake Roberts. Jake cutting what surely would've been an incredible promo and getting a heartfelt hero's welcome from that crowd would've been amazing.
So...can we go ahead and pencil in Cesaro vs. Lesnar for an upcoming network special? TAKE ALL MY MONEY (by which I mean $10 a month) (okay, another $10 a month...Lesnar/Cesaro would make me get a second network account out of sheer joy)
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." --- Bart Giamatti, on baseball
Congrats WWE on an outstanding weekend. They managed that crowd *perfectly* tonight, keeping them under control from the get-go as the party continued from last night. Awesome reactions from Bryan and HHH in that opening promo.
Best move of the night was putting Wyatts on after the opening to quell the singalongs, and I loved that the crowd delivered. Man were they conflicted with the Fandango vs the Emma though.
Paul Heyman line of the night: "...because Brock respects nobody. He barely tolerates me!" (Full promo text here)
Gotta say, after all that happened prior to it, RVD's return was kind of a letdown. With all the changing of the guard, he really seemed out of place. I groaned when I saw Sandow in the ring. "At least it's not Ryder", I told the lovely Mrs. whatever. Then we saw the Rusev debut. *sigh*
PAIGE! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Here comes the actual Women's Division!
Still cannot believe Heyman pulled off the perfect heel to face dynamic in the same night. Wow. LOVED the crowd singing along to Cesaro's theme!
I will give a lot of credit to Randy Orton, he is really doing an outstanding job through all of this.
All these debuts and vignettes, and we still have Sami and the Ascension yet to come!
"As you may have read in Robert Parker's Wine Newsletter, 'Donaghy Estates tastes like the urine of Satan, after a hefty portion of asparagus.'" Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock
Originally posted by Blind_GuardianDidn't see the sudden title switch coming, and I'm not sure Paige did either. She really came off as a total noob who got lucky, with that long, slow awkward Black Widow-to-Paige Turner finish, which was also the only piece of offense she got in the entire match. They really didn't make her look very strong in her debut ... especially to get handed the title out of the gate. Maybe they're going to go for a "Mikey Whipwreck" scenario, where the champion clearly has no business holding the title, and gets the crap kicked out of them every single match ... but keeps finding ways to win anyway.
Yeah I loved the idea of AJ having defeated the Entire Main Women's Roster but Here Comes Paige! But she should've been fiery and bad-ass and slapped on her submission, not come out meek and hit one move.
Forget Daniel Bryan (do NOT forget Daniel Bryan), the greatest miracle of this whole WrestleMania season is truly Wade Barrett, who took possibly the worst gimmick anyone's ever been given, and somehow, somehow managed to become one of the most beloved faces on the roster with it. Everyone likes Bad News Barrett! He's delightful! I think we can go ahead and just call him a face now. Wyatt, on the other hand, I'm pretty sure he was just getting cheers because it was New Orleans. He's a hillbilly cultist; what did you think their reaction was going to be to that? Cesaro+Heyman=Tweener, I guess. We'll just have to see how he gets booked going forwards.
Originally posted by whateverPAIGE! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Here comes the actual Women's Division!
I wish I could believe that, but I don't. The way the women continue to be presented and treated on RAW and Smackdown, especially by the commentary team, makes me very sad to see any of the talent from NXT get called up. In fact, I'd love to see Paige, Emma, and maybe Summer Rae and even AJ get sent back down to NXT, where they'll be treated with the respect they deserve as competitors. As it stands, if you like Paige, get used to not actually getting to see her wrestle, and also get used to hearing someone, probably the King, tell you how hot she is.
An aside - the single best thing they do for the women in NXT is have Renee on commentary for all the matches. Having a woman in the booth really keeps things on track. Also, Renee is herself pretty great.
Finally, yes, Daniel Bryan feeding HHH his teeth after the grand plan went awry was the perfect capstone to the WrestleMania season. I know he can't hold the belt forever, but a solid run against the authority, most likely culminating in a defense against Lesnar at Summerslam? It's really all I could have asked for from them.
And I want to mention one thing that hasn't been said.
Just a great show, and Hogan receives a hell of a lot of pipe from the IWC for taking the stage, taking heat from the young guys. He put Cesario over, gave him the uber face rub and got the hell out of there. He wasn't hanging around during the Colter thing, or when Swagger came in to do his thing or during Paul E's promo. He did what that position was supposed to do, and did it well, and got out of the way.
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
Hogan will always play ball with Vince now. Vince has given him no slack at all when it comes to his prima donna stuff over the last twelve years. Look at when he walked out in 2003 - Vince just shrugged and got on with it.
Originally posted by whateverPAIGE! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Here comes the actual Women's Division!
I wish I could believe that, but I don't. The way the women continue to be presented and treated on RAW and Smackdown, especially by the commentary team, makes me very sad to see any of the talent from NXT get called up. In fact, I'd love to see Paige, Emma, and maybe Summer Rae and even AJ get sent back down to NXT, where they'll be treated with the respect they deserve as competitors. As it stands, if you like Paige, get used to not actually getting to see her wrestle, and also get used to hearing someone, probably the King, tell you how hot she is.
As long as AJ is also on commentary whilst scouting her opponent and telling King what a perv he is. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic coming off the weekend, but I am hoping that the sheer force of awesome wrestling can overcome a lot. Look no further than Trish, Lita, Molly, and the other gals who managed to overcome the whole 'Attitude'-Era King who was even worse then than he is now.
That said, Emma needs to ditch Santino ASAP. Ugggh.
"As you may have read in Robert Parker's Wine Newsletter, 'Donaghy Estates tastes like the urine of Satan, after a hefty portion of asparagus.'" Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock
JBL is no Brock so I don't wanna see JBL/Show. Guerrero/Show I wouldn't mind. Big Show could possibly be a tweener, taking out Angle but then also Guerrero and possibly JBL.
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