Shockingly the crowd right from the start has been shitting on the Orton-Cena match.

1/26/2014 9:17:34 PM

what an odd match

crowd shit all over it the whole time and the commentators were doing their best to just play it off, chants during the match:

Quote :

"Undertaker, Angle, Y2J, Macho Man, Boring, Little Naitch, Daniel Bryan, You both suck, This is awful, We want divas"

After Cena and Orton tried each other's finishers on the other, Cena had Orton in the STF. Orton was about to reach the ropes and Cena pulled him back and had him in the STF again. Then the lights went off and Bray Wyatt's music hit. When the lights came back on, all 3 Wyatts were on the apron. Cena cleared them out and Orton hit the RKO for the pin. The Wyatts beat up Cena a bit post-match.

Meltzer reported earlier this week that John Cena's opponent at WrestleMania was going to be Bray Wyatt.


Rumble starts. First two: C.M. Punk and Seth Rollins.

#3 Damien Sandow. #4 Cody Rhodes. First eliminated: Sandow when Punk low bridges him.

#5 Kane. Runs roughshod on everyone and then got eliminated by Punk on a kick.

#6 Alexander Rusev (a big Bulgarian powerhouse from NXT). #7 Jack Swagger. #8 Kofi Kingston. #9 Jimmy Uso.

#10 Goldust. A group of guys get together to eliminate Rusev. Then Kofi gets thrown out by Punk and Rusev catches him, puts him on the barricade alongside the ramp and gives him some shots. Kofi then gets a running start and is able to land on the apron. #11 Dean Ambrose. #12 Dolph Ziggler.

[Edited on January 26, 2014 at 10:02 PM. Reason : /]

1/26/2014 9:35:23 PM

#13 R-Truth. R-Truth eliminated after maybe 30 seconds by Ambrose. Jimmy Uso was on the top rope and got shoved off by Ambrose.

Swagger was trying to eliminate Kofi. Kofi hung on to the bottom rope with his feet and had pulled off Swagger's boot.

#14 KEVIN NASH! Immediately eliminates Swagger who was trying to get his boot back.

#15 Roman Reigns. All 3 Shield members in the ring. Reigns eliminates Kofi Kingston, then Ziggler, then low bridges Kevin Nash.

#16 Great Khali. Shield go 3-on-1 on him. Reigns eliminates him in a minute. So far this has been the Shield show.

Goldust eliminates his brother Cody Rhodes. And then Goldust is eliminated by Reigns. So 4 guys left here with a brief 3-on-1 Shield vs. Punk.

Next entrant to save Punk is returning #17 Sheamus. Runs wild. #18 Miz. #19 Fandango. Crowd is fandangoing.

#20 is El Torito! The little midget bull! After a minute he eliminates Fandango. And then he gets caught by Reigns who eliminates him.

#21 is Antonio Cesaro. Gives Miz, Punk, and Rollins the giant swing. #22 is the first of the Wyatts, Luke Harper.

#23 is Jey Uso. #24 is JBL who gets in from the announce table. After getting in the ring, he turns around to hand Cole his jacket and Reigns eliminates him by throwing him over the top rope. The crowd responds by chanting "you still got it!"

#25 is the other Wyatt in the match, Erick Rowan. Miz eliminated by Luke Harper. Jey Uso eliminated by a Luke Harper big boot. So you've got 2 Wyatts, the 3 Shield members, Cesaro, Sheamus, and Punk with 5 to go.

#26 is Ryback. Goldberg chants.

#27 is Alberto Del Rio. So Batista "lucked into the last 3".

#28 is BATISTA! Batista eliminates Rowan. Then Ryback jaws at Batista, and throws Batista in the corner. Ryback goes for his clothesline and Batista is able to throw him over the top rope onto the floor. Del Rio then goes after Batista and Batista gets Del Rio up on his shoulders and throw him over the top.

#29 is Big E Langston. Crowd chanting "YES!" wanting Bryan.

#30 is Rey Mysterio. Crowd booing wanting Bryan. Crowd now chants "Daniel Bryan". Massive booing now.

Sheamus eliminates Langston.

Mysterio does a 619 to Rollins and it gets no reaction. Rollins responds by putting

Reigns eliminates Harper. Ambrose tries to eliminate him from behind. Rollins pulls Ambrose asking him what he's doing. Cesaro sees an opportunity and tries to eliminate both. Reigns is able to get rid of all 3. Cole mentioned he tied Kane's record for eliminations in one Rumble.

Kane then shows up to pull out Punk to eliminate him and goes berserk at ringside putting him through a table.

Final 3: Reigns, Batista, Sheamus. Crowd chants Daniel Bryan.

[Edited on January 26, 2014 at 10:36 PM. Reason : /]

1/26/2014 10:07:27 PM

I love the rumble.

1/26/2014 10:16:13 PM

Mass booing as the 3 go back-and-forth. Now they're chanting "NO!"

Sheamus went to go for his brogue kick on Batista and every time he hit his chest the crowd chanted no. Reigns winds up eliminating Sheamus to set the record for eliminations in one Rumble. Batista attempted to get him out behind his back and it didn't work. Crowd has still not improved.

Reigns gets the crowd to respond positively when he does something. Batista is not.

Batista is able to throw out Reigns and wins the Royal Rumble. You hear the boos initially and then they play his music. But this has been one of the biggest crowd reactions against booking I've ever heard. The Rumble was pretty good but once the crowd realized Bryan wasn't in the match there was no hope for it. This was a very heavily smarkish crowd - they responded huge to Ziggler when he came out.

They're breaking up the Shield soon and when they do Roman Reigns is going to be a big star they'll push to the moon.

But it looks like the main matches at WrestleMania are:

Orton-Batista
Cena-Wyatt
Undertaker-Lesnar
either Punk-HHH or Punk-Kane

[Edited on January 26, 2014 at 10:46 PM. Reason : /]

1/26/2014 10:38:01 PM

awful rumble.... might convince me NOT to get the network

1/26/2014 10:46:32 PM

I won't say the rumble was awful. Yeah, the booking was pretty bad if you're hoping to satisfy the IWC.

You don't bring back someone like Batista and not have him win the Rumble. WWE is more interested in marketing stars that have success outside of the promotion to garner more mainstream interest. It's the 'best for business' decision that everyone hates, but no one should be surprised by it.

Either way, the WWE messed up by not having D-Bry as an entrant. He didn't need to win, but he needed to be in there.

Still got two months to 2+ months to Wrestlemania, there's still opportunities to right some of these wrongs, we'll see if the top brass will make some changes. Whether they like to admit it or not, booing from these live crowds on their biggest stages isn't good for business either.

1/26/2014 10:59:53 PM

Crowd rightly shitted all over it.

1/26/2014 11:28:08 PM

Bryan is apparently going to be programmed for Mania with...Sheamus.

Imagine they'll tell the story of Bryan getting revenge for losing in 18 seconds. Still though, that's pretty much "the best midcard match".



[Edited on January 26, 2014 at 11:58 PM. Reason : /]

1/26/2014 11:42:01 PM

Quote :

"WWE is more interested in marketing stars that have success outside of the promotion to garner more mainstream interest."

The Michigan State Bryan press has got more burn than Batista "starring" in the comic book movie with the talking raccoon.

Also, holy shit was Batista blown up after five minutes. I know we've got 10 weeks until Mania, but he needs to get in ring shape in a hurry.

1/27/2014 12:22:06 AM

1/27/2014 7:39:40 AM

Ethan Carter III of TNA (Derrick Bateman in WWE NXT who worked a lot with Bryan his one season):

Quote :

"Congrats Dave! Always refreshing to see a guy start at the bottom, grind it out, WORK HARD, sacrifice and be recognized on a grand stage! #CongratsDave There are a lot of scum bags in that industry who will do anything to sabotage the most talented with the most heart for unbeknownst reasons Like the literal worst, people who have no right being in positions they are in. Insane to comprehend almost! Mind boggling! But.... As long as you stay the course, stay in the game, WORK AND BELIEVE your talents will truly be recognized! Success is best revenge! Having said that, just like to again say Congrats Dave! Mr. Grohl adding another #Grammy to his resume is a constant inspiration to all."

Mick Foley:

Quote :

"Mick Foley @realmickfoley 1h Does @WWE actually hate their own audience? I've never been so disgusted with a PPV. ... "As I mentioned on Twitter, I've never felt so disgusted at the conclusion of a WWE (or any) PPV. Like many of you out there, I just don't get it. The Daniel Bryan thing is a phenomenon. You get it. I get it. The fans in Pittsburgh (yes, I was thinking of writing "RIGHT TH...but I'm just not in a cheap pop mood) got it. But tonight, for the first time, I had to admit to myself that the powers that be are just not going to get it. And that makes me sad. I'm just honestly sad, just flat out fucking sad (yes, I dropped an F-bomb there to emphasize how Fucking sad I am for the guys who bust their butts night in and night out--Ziggler, Punk, Bryan, etc. with no hope of getting their shot at this year's Mania. You know who else I'm sad for? Me. In my two years as an official WWE Ambassador, I never once had to lie about my enthusiasm for the company or the product. Now, although I am no longer offically an Ambasaddor for WWE (believe it or not, my only official role in WWE is as GM for Saturday Morning Slam, a contract that ends in one month), I was still looking forward to being part of the biggest event of the year. I'll probably end up going anyway. but I'm about 1/6th as excited about it as I was just a few hours ago. I wanted so badly to hear 75,000 WWE fans chanting "Yes," and seeing fans walk away absolutely ecstatic about the outcome of a PPV for the first time in a while...a long while. But when given the chance to make it happen (unless they've got something MAJOR up their sleeve), WWE's answer right now was a resounding "NO, NO, NO.""

Meanwhile, this tweet from Bryan screams work.

Quote :

"Daniel Bryan ?@WWEDanielBryan They try to keep US down and away from the top spots, but they can’t ignore the reactions forever. Keep voicing your opinions. #YESMovement"

1/27/2014 12:15:16 PM

Look, if it's all a big work to get Bryan over as much as anyone since Austin, great. I'll bow down and acknowledge that it worked. But we're edging toward Russo territory when they're allowing/provoking the crowd to hijack the #2 PPV of the year. Shitting on every other angle isn't worth the extra rub to the Bryan angle when the dude's already white-hot.

1/27/2014 1:25:36 PM

anyone thinking this is a work is giving WWE far too much credit. Vince is a muscle man, plain and simple. it's why Cena always wins, guys like Brock and Batista get to come and go as they please, and HHH runs the show exactly like Vince would. I suppose we were lucky to have gotten the Year of CM Punk, because they're not putting DB over AT ALL. this isn't building to any big victory for DB, they're just gonna keep screwing him over. this could be Stone Cold 2.0 but DB just isn't a McMahon guy. instead we get the same garbage from the same garbage wrestlers every week.

that said, I hope the crowd shits all over everything tonight like at the PPV. if it was really a work, King and Cole would handle the crowd reactions better than they do. the fact they had to crank Batista's theme up to 11 last night and try and drown out the booing (which failed) shows WWE has no idea what they're doing

1/27/2014 1:31:09 PM

Feel sorry for Mysterio. He's just doing his job and the crowd blamed him last night.

I read a really good idea from a fan earlier. If this was meant to be a WWE angle of them snubbing Bryan, "the Machine keeping him out", they shouldn't've had Mysterio #30. It should've been Bad News Barrett saying "I'm afraid I have some bad news. Daniel Bryan is not #30, I am." That way WWE is acknowledging the crowd, gives the impression something will be done about it later, and the heat is smoothly put on a heel that really needs it because his gimmick is dying.

[Edited on January 27, 2014 at 2:30 PM. Reason : /]

1/27/2014 2:27:25 PM

I love Bad News Barrett. A lot. But a comedy heel is not something they need right now.

1/27/2014 3:23:49 PM

They're probably still scratching their heads trying to figure out why the crowds don't give a shit about Batista. He's a movie star!

1/27/2014 3:26:46 PM

The opening of last week's Raw got a massive huge rating they hadn't got in a long time. And those fans were there to see Batista, because Raw lost a million viewers from 8pm to 11pm.

The reason why is the WWE fanbase are multiple fanbases that don't agree with one another on what they want to watch at all:

-the hardcores, people that watched ECW and ROH, cheer for Dolph Ziggler and boo John Cena
-the casual fan that watches Raw, maybe attends a house show or TV taping, might buy WrestleMania and that's their only PPV for the year
-the kids that cheer for all the faces and boo all the heels
-the fan that watched wrestling because they used to like it a long time ago and still watch now but preferred (insert Territory X) or WCW, Vince not so much, would never admit to being a wrestling fan in public (the average age of the Raw viewer per Nielsen is something like 38, contrast that to the crowd that shows up for a WWE TV show at MSG)
-Mexicans that are pissed off at WWE for how poorly they book Mysterio, Del Rio, and Sin Cara

[Edited on January 27, 2014 at 5:31 PM. Reason : /]

1/27/2014 5:02:17 PM

LOL @ JBL talking about ECU during the R-Truth/Fandango match. Saying it was the "Harvard of the South".

1/27/2014 10:03:42 PM

^ Vince and Linda graduated from there.

Jake the Snake to the WWE Hall of Fame.

[Edited on January 27, 2014 at 10:30 PM. Reason : .]

1/27/2014 10:13:07 PM

enjoyed that last match when john cena wasn't in the ring. how do you botch a spear?

wwe is fulling aware of this "snubbing Daniel Bryant" angle and they riding it. this is all part of the plan.

1/27/2014 11:11:22 PM

i didn't watch all of it but i thought it was kind of a snoozefest last night. you could hear crickets chirp during the main event. so quiet that i actually turned it off before it ended.

1/28/2014 8:26:51 AM

[Edited on January 28, 2014 at 3:35 PM. Reason : probably just an act]

1/28/2014 3:30:57 PM

the first one of those they did was really funny... been the same ever since... pretty [old] now

1/28/2014 3:41:31 PM

That's the best thing I've ever seen.

1/28/2014 3:43:36 PM

Apparently CM Punk took his ball and went home

1/29/2014 6:53:08 AM

can't say I blame him, they've done nothing with him since feeding him to the Rock last year

1/29/2014 11:56:31 AM

I mean, if I had gone 50 minutes in the Rumble and had an angle-building incident only to be left completely off TV the next day, I'd be pissed, too.

And before anyone says, "Not everyone can be on TV every week," you're right. But you know who was on TV on Monday?

Ryback
Curtis Axel
R-Truth
The Miz
Sin Cara 2

People without angles who can't hold a candle to Punk.

1/29/2014 12:12:34 PM

Punk-Undertaker at Mania was very poorly built (although it was best match on the card). After that the Punk-Heyman feud was good.

Since that ended though, he's been doing a whole lot of nothing. Personally, I think he should've remained heel.

Could be they told him they're giving the match with Hunter at Wrestlemania to Bryan instead of to Punk and he said "fuck it, I'm done".

^ vinylbandit, he quit before Raw. It's just it only got out last night.

[Edited on January 29, 2014 at 12:14 PM. Reason : /]

1/29/2014 12:13:07 PM

^ Gotcha. Saw headlines on Observer last night so I figured that he went home after not being used on Raw and didn't show up for the SD taping.

1/29/2014 1:21:43 PM

lead story from today's Wrestling Observer on Punk:

Quote :

"The status of C.M. Punk has become a major talking point in WWE, as he told Vince McMahon about 30 minutes before the start of Raw on 1/27 in Cleveland that he was flying home, and did. He wasn’t on the show and didn’t appear at the Smackdown tapings the next night. WWE has since pulled him off all shows, although at press time he was still being advertised for Elimination Chamber on 2/23 in Minneapolis. We’re told that he will eventually be pulled off that show as well. It’s sketchy what happened. Over the last week, ever since Punk’s interview with Ariel Helwani before the Chicago UFC show where he openly brought up that his contract was up in July and didn’t want to say what he was going to do next, several people who know him had noted not to be surprised if he leaves. Two different people said that he was “as good as gone” in July, and one said that they didn’t expect him to even last until July. There were frustrations with creative and with money, even though he has made great money the last several years. This was not a spur of the moment thing as much as something that had been building. The way we were told was that he couldn’t take it any longer and told McMahon that he was going home. McMahon had been tied up all day since they were rewriting the show, based on what happened the prior night at the Royal Rumble to figure out a way to keep the show under control and not have the audience hijack it again. Punk had been scheduled for an interview on the show to presumably build up a match with Kane on the PPV, which would lead to his planned WrestleMania match with HHH. Because McMahon was so busy, Punk didn’t see him until 7:30 p.m., when he told him he was leaving. The reason the Kofi Kingston vs. Alberto Del Rio match on Raw went so long is because it came during the period laid out for Punk’s interview and had to go a second segment to cover the time, so the key “money” segments would be in their correct time slots. The working assumption internally has been for several weeks that Punk was leaving in July and not going to sign a new deal. The belief was that he is not a spender, has saved his money and doesn’t have to work. It was a weird dynamic because he’s one of the few guys on the roster that the company and Vince McMahon knew believed he didn’t need them, and financially, really doesn’t. So they can’t deal with him from the same level as all the other guys who are scared to lose their jobs and spots. Within the company, the reason was that he came to the realization that he would never be positioned higher than he was. His goal was to main event WrestleMania, as in be in the real main event. He felt that because he didn’t fit the mold of what they think the top star in the company should look like, he would never be the guy and the centerpiece. It’s not known at press time what caused the situation to get to where it did and what was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Another person close to the situation who was aware it was coming, just didn’t know when, said it was a classic case of being burned out, and noted the dichotomy that he’s never had a job where he’s made anywhere close to the same amount of money, nor ever been as famous, and gotten more out of wrestling than this one. But, he has been miserable at the job for some time, and he was a guy who loved working in pro wrestling when he made nothing or very little. It was noted that he never had the personal connection with Vince McMahon that most of the big stars had, and always knew he was not their kind of guy, didn’t have the look they thought a star should have, and felt he got over in spite of how he was used and not because of how he was used. The feeling was that there was a communication issue and lingering unresolved issues that dated back some time, probably most of the last year, combined with frustration regarding creative going forward and of late. Sheamus will be replacing Punk at all the Smackdown tapings where he was largely advertised as the main star. It is a brave new world and you can never rule out the possibility it’s a work, and you won’t know for sure unless Mania comes and goes without a return. Daniel Bryan will be advertised as the main star on Smackdown going forward since John Cena is not booked often on the Tuesday tapings. Punk was at the Wizard World Comic Con in Portland, OR, on 1/25, as he flew form Chicago to Portland, then back to Chicago for UFC that night, and then to Pittsburgh for Rumble before leaving from Cleveland. During the Q&A, he seemed very lackluster about WWE. He basically said that he used to argue the creative but now he just shows up and does what he’s told. He pushed the idea that he felt this was Daniel Bryan’s year and knocked the short-term booking and planning several times. In many ways, this was similar to when Steve Austin left in 2002, when he publicly started complaining about creative, and a week later he was gone (of course that was precipitated by them wanting him to job to Lesnar clean with no build-up on Raw as opposed to Lesnar going through everyone to set up their first match on a major PPV). Punk did a long interview with MMAFighting.com reporter Ariel Helwani from his home, since UFC was in Chicago. He said at the time that his contract was up in July and said there’s no point in saying anything about it. He said if he doesn’t sign, he wouldn’t say so now, and if he says he is looking at not signing, and then he does, people will think he was working an angle. Plus, he said in 2011, when he started that angle where he was leaving, he was in his mind, 100%, out the door at that time. The circumstances that ended up taking place led to him signing a three-year deal. He’s always said that he won’t be around as long as people think. Many in WWE have noted to us that Punk has not been happy with his creative. At the same time, of the full-timers with the company, Punk, Batista, John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton are the top tier. Batista is scheduled full-time but he is 45 and has had a lot of injuries in the past, although to his credit his body held up for an MMA camp, which is more intense than a wrestling schedule. The difference is the MMA camp is two months and a wrestling schedule never ends. While WWE doesn’t “need” anyone, even Cena, Punk does have significant value given the lack of depth on top and injury rate. You can also see with Batista and others that if you do really leave for a while, your value can increase greatly by not being there if you want to rest for a few years and then come back. There’s the legends role of a few big shows a year, the Jericho role of half the year or so full-time (although as we’ve seen with Jericho and RVD, that role does limit greatly how much they’ll push you), or leave, rest up injuries and come back full-time, waiting long enough for a Batista level return. The one thing with Punk is he is a big enough star that if he does leave for several years, his return would be a big deal. Still, very few walk away at 35. Batista and Jericho left, but they both did so for other entertainment ventures. Punk hasn’t seemed like he’s interested in that direction. "

1/29/2014 9:54:20 PM

Quote :

"He said some days he’s hurting really bad and other days he’s not, noting he’s taken very little time off over the last ten years. He said when he took the two months off last year, that he probably should have taken more time. He wasn’t fully healed but came back because the Payback PPV was in Chicago and he worked with Chris Jericho, starting a babyface turn. As noted many times, the reason he turned heel when he was a hot babyface, was recognizing that he could be the top heel in the company, but would always at best be the No. 2 babyface. But after the heel run, he was turned back. Still, he was always in top programs, was beating The Shield in 1 vs. 3 matches consistently and was being groomed for a match with HHH at WrestleMania, which while not the main event, was guaranteed to be pushed as one of the key things on the show. Vince McMahon does like a challenge in the sense if a guy looks like he wants out, like Punk did the last time, he may be able to cut a better deal than the guy who the company knows isn’t going anywhere and is so glad to be there and afraid of losing their job that they’ll take anything. It’s an interesting game because he is valuable, maybe second or third most valuable guy in the company, at a time when value of the individual means less than it ever has. He was also asked about doing MMA. He talked about it like he’d like to do it, and noted that he knows people think he can’t do it and looks at that as a challenge. He noted that people thought he couldn’t do what he did in wrestling and he loves proving people wrong. Bellator has already expressed at least preliminary interest in him. He would be free and clear of any WWE contractual obligations in July. He thought some people who wanted him to fail would tune in to see him get beat up, but he gets punched in the face four times a week anyway. I get the impression a part of him would like to do it the same way Batista did it as a bucket list thing. With Batista, it seemed on the surface to be a real bad risk, but in the end, he did it and wasn’t hurt at all. With Punk, on the surface, it would seem the same thing. A theoretical big risk. There was a time when a giant name pro wrestler doing MMA would have been huge, as noted by Brock Lesnar’s UFC debut. But I don’t see UFC using an 0-0 guy for the same reason they never used Herschel Walker, and at least with Lesnar and Kurt Angle (who they made a strong pitch for), they had the high-level wrestling credentials to make them real. Bellator should take him, but that limits the upside and PPV money. The key is he’s 35 and his body is beaten up from years of pro wrestling. While he does train in fighting disciplines, he doesn’t have the competition background at a high level in any fighting sport. That is very old to start out in unless you want to compete at the beginners level. It’s also hard to say if he goes against someone legit and loses, how it would affect him for a WWE return, either with the fans, or with management. And I’m not sure exactly what kind of challenge he’d be up for. Herschel Walker was up for the challenge, got a lot of publicity, but was put in with guys below his level that he was going to have no trouble beating. But he’s also one of the great athletes of modern times. Alberto Del Rio’s previous MMA means nothing good or bad for him because most fans don’t know of it. But Punk is such a big star people would know. Batista did one fight and few saw it and it meant nothing one way or the other, but he also didn’t lose. Had he got knocked out, would it have made a difference? I’m leaning toward no from a fan standpoint because wrestling fans know the difference and if you are a star to wrestling fans, no matter your personal life shortcomings or screw-ups, in the end, you are still a star to them. Punk also said he’s told Vince McMahon (via text) that he’d like to induct Ultimate Warrior into the Hall of Fame, although one would think his leaving may nix that, and there probably was never a chance of it to begin with. He said he’s never met Warrior, but Warrior texts him inspirational messages before PPVs and they have a connection. He noted that Hulk Hogan, who is rumored to be the one who inducted Warrior, hates Warrior. He tried to downplay the Michelle Beadle/A.J. Lee thing. His description of what happened with he and Beadle was exactly what we heard, well with one added thing. She was with a few of her girlfriends and walked past him and said, “Hey, fuckface” and then high-fived them. I heard everything but the high-five to her friends, which I guess would explain why he wasn’t too happy about it. She had claimed it was a greeting of endearment (the two dated at one time briefly), and later went on Twitter and made a comment about girlfriends ruining guys’ friendships with girls. His description of what happened with A.J. Lee (whose name he never mentioned, only saying “my girlfriend”) was very different, trying to low-key it and play down that anything happened. He said the connection with HHH and Rener Gracie is that HHH and Stephanie brought Rener and Eve Torres (the former WWE star who now is involved in teaching Jiu Jitsu to women) to teach their kids Jiu Jitsu and he put over how great both of them are at teaching kids. When asked about the network, he said as a fan in 1997 he’d have loved if such a thing existed. As a wrestler, he doesn’t know, because nobody knows how it’ll affect PPV bonuses and none of the wrestles have been told much of anything. Across the board, among the wrestlers, there is a lot of curiosity regarding WrestleMania paychecks. The one thing is, with all the new money coming in, all the wrestlers should make far more because the revenue will be way higher presumably come October when the new TV deals are in place. However, wrestlers have never been paid a cut of the TV deals in the past, and the bulk of their income is either their downside guarantee if they are hurt or not used well, or a formula based on the house show revenue, the PPV revenue, how their merchandise does and a fee from the video game. The network won’t hurt house show revenue significantly or at all. It may hurt PPV revenue a lot, and may hurt revenue on DVDs somewhat. So that’s a situation to look at. But if PPV and DVD business goes down with the network, but the company gets as much or more revenue based on network subscribers, what cut of the network will the wrestlers be getting is a real issue. In a sense, with more revenue coming in presumably, wrestlers should be paid better. Yet at the same time, with so much of that income more guaranteed rather than generated based on individuals, when it comes to the key guys and big moneymakers, how will their value be measured? He said he has no problem with Batista coming back in a Mania main event spot, but he did have a problem with Dwayne Johnson because he doesn’t think you should be in the business part-time and take a WrestleMania spot from someone who deserves it, but since Batista is around the long haul he has no problem. I hope he doesn’t really mean that because it would tell me he doesn’t understand the concept of a drawing card, since the three Mania shows Johnson came back for were the three biggest grossing events of all-time because of that fact. I really don’t think Batista will make anywhere close to the same difference this year that Johnson made the last three years, not that he may not help. The subject of Bryan came up and he said that Bryan gets the biggest crowd reactions at the shows, but he doesn’t know if it’s Bryan that is popular or the most popular wrestler, or that people just like screaming “Yes, Yes, Yes.” An interesting note is a few days later at a Q&A at a comic con he did, he said he thought this was Bryan’s year and he’d like to see Bryan in the main event at Mania instead of Batista, said Batista was his friend, he’s glad he was back. He said he had no problem with Batista in the main event because he’s back full-time. He said his belief Bryan should be in the main event was meant as no slight toward Batista. It’s a weird deal because things are self fulfilling in many ways. The Bryan & Punk shows haven’t done the kind of business the Cena & Orton shows do, and that would indicate the “Yes” chants aren’t selling tickets like Cena, but the biggest draw in most cases is going to be the guy pushed as the biggest star. He said he was happy for Bryan because he knew where he came from. Helwani asked about Bryan stealing the chant from Diego Sanchez but never acknowledging it (Bryan has acknowledged it in a few interviews I’ve heard) and Punk said something about how today people know while in the past people didn’t know Superstar Billy Graham stole everything from Muhammad Ali and that Ali stole from Gorgeous George. Graham did take a lot from Ali, but tailored it for his own thing and created a lot of new stuff. Dusty Rhodes took a ton from Graham, as he was in the AWA with Dick Murdoch when Graham was in his AWA heyday, and then used the same interviews when he went to Florida as a heel after the AWA, but also tailored it and created his own stuff."

1/29/2014 9:54:48 PM

http://deadspin.com/grand-jury-to-investigate-1983-death-of-jimmy-snukas-g-1511023624

1/30/2014 10:41:48 AM

watching last week's Impact, they were in Glasgow and they got a huge crowd, Magnus has the gutless heel champion act for his promos down well, Randy Orton: take notes

(MVP is now in TNA.)

2/5/2014 7:37:25 PM

Not to take anything away from Magnus, but Orton is excellent at whining.

IT'S A SHOOT

[Edited on February 5, 2014 at 8:04 PM. Reason : 2]

2/5/2014 8:04:25 PM

What happens when a not very good worker is asked to drop a knee on an eyesocket, and she actually does it instead of holding back.

2/9/2014 11:12:58 AM

i still love you, aksana

2/9/2014 5:50:32 PM

^ she's on the "I don't understand why they're still employed" list, even by divas standards they've never done anything with her

other members: JTG, Camacho, Evan Bourne, Ezekiel Jackson, Mason Ryan, Layla, Alicia Fox

Quote :

"This week's CM Punk rant from another WWE employee: "Honestly, Punk is being a little bitch. I liked him so much before his run leading to and after that Money in the Bank in Chicago. He's a guy where you have to be really in his circle for him to I guess open up, which I understand, but being put in a feud with Kane and then with HHH at Mania is not a bad thing. Now I understand he feels this is his last Mania and he wants to main event and really, with the right storyline, that match could main event, but literally after the Tribute to the Troops incident he's just been difficult. There are so many there that want his spot, that want to say, 'I need a weekend off to go to UFC.' I really and fully believe he's a little jealous of the crowd reactions to Bryan and it's getting to him—He's just been such a dick lately. That interview with Ariel, he acted like he was the victim at the Troops taping when Michelle was just joking. Little bitch AJ took it to the wrong level. Do you really think AJ would have a 'pipe bomb' interview time or longest Diva champ BS if she wasn't dating Punk? Punk really doesn't want to be the face of the company. That's BS. I hate hearing that shit. He says he does but this isn't ROH or OVW. He would bitch so much if he had to do Michael & Kelly at 9 a.m., then fly to a different state (for Raw), do a Make-A-Wish at 1 p.m. and then RAW, then do SmackDown, then do something Wednesday to fly home Thursday to be on the road Friday or Saturday. No way he could handle that for four months. He may come back as soon as Monday or he may never come back, but if never comes back he better remember how many fans he's fucking over right now, the same way he believes the WWE is fucking him over. And I'm not defending Vince or HHH. Especially HHH, because people are seeing that HHH taking over isn't as cool as they thought it would be. Outlaws, Nash, X-Pac, Flair, HBK, Batista—yeah must be nice to be HHH friends.""

2/9/2014 6:35:33 PM

From that knee shot above, Naomi has a broken orbital bone and needs eye surgery. She was supposed to win the Divas title at WrestleMania. Not happening now!

[Edited on February 13, 2014 at 9:14 PM. Reason : /]

2/13/2014 9:11:11 PM

RIP Mabel/Big Daddy V

2/19/2014 2:53:23 PM

the world's largest love machine...GNSP

2/19/2014 2:55:12 PM

Shockingly, he died of a heartattack.

Dish Network has dropped carrying WWE PPVs in response to the WWE Network. They won't even carry Elimination Chamber Sunday. (The WWE Network starts Monday night.)

2/20/2014 10:24:00 PM

wow.. match of the year right there with Shield vs. Wyatt Family

2/23/2014 9:28:16 PM

Nice show all told.

Two straight PPV shows of Batista getting shit on ("Bootista" chant made me LOL) means they've gotta get Bryan in the main event somehow...or at least one would think.

2/24/2014 12:51:37 AM

Anyone sign up for the network yet?

2/24/2014 12:29:24 PM

I'm planning on it, but like any smart shopper you NEVER go day of or first iteration. I will get it a week or two before WM.

... about Batista/Bryan. Unless something happens tonight with Hogan/McMahon inserting DB in the main event, I'm pretty sure we'll see Bryan/Kane at WM (which is atrocious). I really think they should have given the title to DB last night then you would have had NUCLEAR heat on Batista. It really would have went well at WM.

2/24/2014 1:04:29 PM

There is no way in hell that DB is not in the main event now. The main event of WM30 and the first big event on the network getting booed out of the building is not an option.

2/24/2014 1:30:45 PM

^^The 7-day free trial is today through next Monday (ie, signing up this Friday still ends on Monday). Get the trial now, then wait until late March to sign up for real (if you plan to).

2/24/2014 2:13:18 PM

You don't even have to sign up for the trial. Just register/log in to your WWE.com account and the Network launches when you click the button.

2/24/2014 2:23:02 PM

I gotta think they're going to do something tonight...they absolutely cannot go into NOLA with Orton/Batista as their Main Event. The crowd will absolutely SHIT all over it, as they should.

The slow burn has built for DB and the time to cash in is NOW for WWE.

I think they will do something tonight. I get having Batista win RR. I get having Randy win last night. But now they've got to figure out how to get Bryan involved.

2/24/2014 4:31:54 PM