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hellpop

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My brother, cousin, and I get together to watch the Royal Rumble every year. Part of our pre-game is playing a game whose original conception we made up when we were kids. In the past, we've always hand-drawn the roster, but this year I decided to design the roster on the computer, and now I put it up online. Check out the link and let me know if you can identify everyone.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/218419827/paper-rumble-the-do-it-yourself-role?ref=shop_home_feat_1

PaperRumble_zps2242e286.png

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I have been so damn bored with WWE lately. NXT has been very enjoyable though. I like the fact that they are actually given time to put on a decent match, especially the divas. It seems once a wrestler is called up to the main WWE roster that they are immediately watered down.

I haven't watched TNA in about a month and watched it this past week. It was a good show and I hope they continue in the direction they are going. Get the main belt off Lashley and on Roode. Then keep building up the X-Division and showcase those wrestlers like they used to. The tag team division still needs work, but it looks like they are putting effort into it. The Hardys/Wolves match was pretty dang good this past week. I just think they need a few more tag teams.

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I picked up WWE Network last week, and watched the Takeover show from December last night. Really good stuff. I had no idea KENTA and Prince Devitt were teaming together. Main event was fantastic. Now Kevin Steen and Zayn are no doubt going to be top dogs on the show. A very exciting time for NXT. And WWE has Cena and Lesnar in the main event again. Yawn.

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WWE has been so, so, SO bad for months now that it's killed almost all my interest in them. I've decided that I'm going to wait to see who wins the Rumble, and if it's Roman Reigns, I'm out. Basically, if we are not getting Daniel Bryan vs Brock Lesnar for the WWE title at WrestleMania (the best possible WWE match), I'm done with this company. I'll still probably check the results, and if I hear there was a really must-see match I'll check it out, but I've had enough. NXT outside of the specials sure isn't good enough to make the Network worth keeping.

On the other hand... New Japan now has a weekly TV show! It's on AXS, which I don't get, so I haven't had a chance to check it out, but I hear it's great. The Tokyo Dome show that Jim Ross and Matt Striker called was excellent. New Japan is far and away the best wresting in the world, and I'd love to see them get a foothold in the US.

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So you won't be a little excited if Seth Rollins is somehow in the main event picture at Wrestlemania? I don't imagine that would happen, but damn would I like to see it. Hopefully Bryan is healthy and over by the time WM comes around.

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Well... Seth Rollins vs Daniel Bryan for the WWE title would be an acceptable alternative. Actually, the other day I was thinking about what would be the best possible WrestleMania card this year, with match quality taking precedence over set storylines (although I did take that into consideration). I decided to limit it only to guys that you could reasonably expect to make the show, meaning not guys that are definitely retired (so no Steve Austin) or don't work there at the moment (so no CM Punk), but yes to guys that are under contract in some form and have been rumored to at least be considering it (so yes to the Rock, Undertaker, and Chris Jericho) and NXT guys. I decided to settle on 10 singles/tag matches, plus two multi-person matches. No Divas match, because the perfect WrestleMania has no Divas. My best possible WrestleMania:

1. Daniel Bryan vs Brock Lesnar for the WWE title. As I said, I believe this is the best possible match in the WWE right now. It's the ultimate underdog babyface vs the ultimate monster. And these guys are both amazing performers in their own way.

2. Roman Reigns vs the Rock. Why not.

3. John Cena vs Rusev. It's SUCH a shame that they didn't sign Kurt Angle to give him even a short run. He's the perfect opponent for Rusev. Such an easy setup too: Rusev's spot in the Rumble comes up, and he clears the ring in seconds. Lana gets on the mike, puts down America, says Rusev has no challengers, you know the deal. Bring out the next challenger! And Kurt Angle's music hits, and the place goes nuts. But anyway... this is the best spot for Cena, and I think he and Rusev will work well together, and it's maybe the only opponent with which Cena will be cheered.

4. Randy Orton vs. Cesaro.

5. The Miz vs. Mizdow. It's time.

6. The Usos vs Sheamus and Wade Barret for the tag team titles. I always thought that Barret and Sheamus would make a great team, especially since they go so way back. Heck, resign McIntyre and make them a UK trio.

7. Dolph Ziggler and Sting vs. Seth Rollins and HHH. If match quality is your goal, then you probably need some workhorses in there to carry the spectacle.

8. Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose.

9. Sami Zayn vs. Finn Balor for the NXT title.

10. Undertaker vs. Kevin Owens. I just have a feeling this could be cool.

11: Money in the Bank (because the best possible WrestleMania has a MITB match): Bray Wyatt vs. Tyson Kidd vs. Luke Harper vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Adrian Neville vs. Goldust vs. Stardust vs Jack Swagger. Put Neville over.

12: Everyone else: the Andre Battle Royal on the preshow.

That might even be better then Wrestle Kingdom 9.

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Well. . .NXT is good, anyway. . .

Boggles my mind how clueless the WWE execs can be. Second year in a row that we get a huge WTF decision re: the winner of the Rumble. Sadly, I knew who was going to win once Bryan went out.

Edited by karamazov80
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That was unbelievable, and not in a "this is awesome" kind of way. Obviously they thought that getting Daniel Bryan out early would get the crowd to get their disappointment out early... nope. Just caused the crowd to check out completely. That was even worse then last year.

Yep, cancelling the network... right now. There!

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I love Philly.

Triple threat match was possible MotY, and the Rumble was somehow worse than last year. Not even Rock can stop Reigns from getting booed out of the building. They're pushing him way too fast. His work isn't that great and his promos are absolutely cringe inducing.

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The Rock is drunk apparently.

That was great.

I love Philly.

Triple threat match was possible MotY, and the Rumble was somehow worse than last year. Not even Rock can stop Reigns from getting booed out of the building. They're pushing him way too fast. His work isn't that great and his promos are absolutely cringe inducing.

They have literally done everything wrong with the guy since they broke up the Shield. You've gotta feel for him a bit. But it was hilarious listening to the announcers put over his win like a big deal when the crowd had openly turned on him.

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Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about the announcers and how they are forced to totally ignore reality. I listened to the CM Punk/Cabana podcast from November last night, and then watched the McMahon Austin podcast on the Network, and was a bit surprised at how accurate my intuitions were to what really went down from Punk's POV. He talked about how totally out of touch McMahon was with trying to push a returning babyface Batista last year, and this year, the same. He also talked about the SHIELD being his idea, with Chris Hero coming into the Reigns position. But HHH wanted Reigns, for obvious reasons. . .now we see the self-fulfilling prophecy tonight.

One of the hottest guys right now is Mizdow, so of course he gets tossed out unceremoniously after being in the ring about 30 seconds. Hilarious how the audience was chanting for Rusev at the end. I was surely doing the same, and would have been a bit psyched if they actually went with something less predictable and snore-inducing.

Now, WWE has little choice but to either make Reigns a heel, or change up the match again like they did last year. --edit: what am I saying? They've been disregarding the fans for years when it comes to Cena. Of course, the most obvious move will be to make the main event Reigns/Lesnar, just play it straight, and build up some unrealistic expectation that the fans will come around before WM.

Edited by karamazov80
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Also I was wondering why there was a small "Curtis Axel" chant breaking out for a second, then I realized he never got eliminated officially. Obviously that doesn't matter at all, but I guess people noticed.

EDIT: He was technically disqualified I guess. Still kinda strange.

Edited by Politician
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I was caught off guard by the "we want Rusev" chant, since I didn't even notice he hadn't been eliminated. Shows how disinterested I was in the match by that point.

Apparently, the Cancel Subscription page on the network has crashed. laugh.png

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That's the thing, I'm pretty sure Lillian explained the rules as always and that is, the only way to lose is to be thrown over the top rope. Granted, Axel never made it to the ring but only 28 people were eliminated.

Also I wanted to reiterate what hellpop said, when Bryan went out that crowd died and booed endlessly the rest of the show. I could barely hold interest after that. The Philly reaction to Bryan was as strong as ever, I got goosebumps hearing the crowd chant for him.

EDIT: The phrase "#CancelWWENetwork" is also the number one trend on Twitter lmao

Edited by Politician
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Hey, WWE loves it when something they do is "trending." Maybe they'll promote it on Raw tonight!

It's funny, that in doing what is "best for business," McMahon does a lot of things that people like and support, but will turn around and do the most awful or mind-boggling thing in the next minute, so people keep coming back. It's partial reinforcement, and wrestlers (like Bret Hart and CM Punk at various points) and fans alike get sucked into wanting to give him another chance constantly. Yeah, Cena has dominated the company for the last decade, but every once in awhile he'll give us a Wrestlemania 20 (Guerrero and Benoit both leave as champs) or WM 30, and we all start believing that he's capable of doing the fans right again.

In the back of my mind, I want to think that last night was just an elaborate ruse, and that they're going to use this as an intentional means of getting Roman Reigns to go heel, and that they will throw hurdles in Bryan's path with the expectation that he will overcome them and end up in at least one of the 4 "main events" at Wrestlemania or whatever. But on the other hand, this would be so like McMahon to just try and shove this guy down our throats, public opinion be damned. Reigns is a big guy, he toes the company line, he's not an "internet darling" that McMahon and HHH no doubt despise, and he would be totally in the debt of the powers that be for getting him to the top, which they can't hold over the heads of guys like Punk or Bryan. We'll see.

Edited by karamazov80
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You know, I was thinking about this on my way in to work this morning... how many WWE docs have you seen where Vince says something like "the people always tell you what they want"? Well, the people are telling him something. Daniel Bryan is the most popular guy on the roster. He may not want him to be, but that doesn't change the facts. By not recognizing that, AGAIN, it just goes to show that Vince is ignoring his audience. The booking of the Rumble was clearly designed to bury Bryan. And it failed spectacularly. Why Vince would think that the most popular guy in the company wouldn't be the most over guy in the Rumble after being out for nine months is baffling. There's no other star he would've treated that way. Remember when Triple H tore his quad? He came back a hero at the Rumble that year and was put over big time.

Seriously, the booking of that match was astonishing. I get more annoyed by it as time passes. Not because Bryan was eliminated and Reigns won, per se, but more because it's the ultimate example of how at odds with the audience this company is. Anyway, I cancelled my network sub, and I'm not watching Raw any more until I hear there's a reason to watch.

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Maybe I'm being unduly optimistic, but despite the obviously questionable booking of the Rumble, and lack of drama or good storytelling in general, I don't think the Bryan thing was done purely as a squash for the sake of squashing him. I think that will feed into his story--he's got to shake off the ring rust, build up the motivation to win again, whatever--that could potentially pay dividends down the road.

If they really wanted the audience to get on Reigns's side, they should have made his Rumble performance really impressive. Asked him to work his ass off, do some new things he hasn't done before, excite the audience! But instead, he laid around the ring doing jack squat for about 90% of his time in there, then inevitably won in the way people expected, with a cheap assist from the Rock. Not gonna do it.

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Reigns is, for all intents and purposes, a Golberg clone. He can't be in the ring for more than 5 minutes or he's exposed as someone who can't wrestle. His big moves are tackle and punch, he cannot grapple or wrestle. Reigns has only had ONE ppv singles match thus far. His second will be Fast Lane and his third singles ppv match will be winning the title at Wrestlemania.

They already set up Lesnar's "broken rib" and the spear angle, it's only going to get worse. Bryan is looking like he's getting bumped down to mid-card as lots of early plans have him battling Sheamus again at Mania. I honestly hope this company loses enough viewers and money to get a good scare because they sure need it.

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Sheamus again? Really? Good lord, if true. And calling Reigns Goldberg is quite the indictment. Even Nash could wrestle better than Goldberg laugh.png

But McMahon doesn't really give a crap about wrestling ability, and never did. "We're not pro wrestling. We're sports entertainment!" I love how Austin just refused to let him have that one.

Edited by karamazov80
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Goldberg was well protected, though. Reigns is better then Goldberg, but the WWE has done a terrible job with him since last summer. They broke up the Shield, then plopped him right into the title picture after Daniel Bryan got hurt despite having a strong heel authority group. So no one had the chance to get behind him before he was already being pushed all the way up. They undervalued the Shield breakup program and gave it to Ambrose, which made Reigns seem like a dick. Then the Ambrose/Rollins feud got hot, so they tried to switch it to Reigns, which didn't work. They wanted to keep some continuity with the Shield, so they let him keep the music, the entrance, and basically the same look, but they repackaged Ambrose and Rollins, so they seemed fresh and Reigns stale. And finally, they are scripting the poor guy to death. Basically, they are trying to protect him so much that they are exposing his flaws and ensuring he fails.

I don't think his being booed Sunday was so much about him as it was about WWE decision making. He's clearly being groomed, despite not accomplishing much and not being that popular. Daniel Bryan, meanwhile, is awesome, a legit nice guy, and just coming off an injury. What did they think was going to happen at the Rumble? In Philadelphia?!

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You're totally right, Reigns has "the look" and sadly that's all you need now. Having quite possible the louded fan pop ever is lost of McMahon and it baffles me. I hope they find SOMETHING for Bryan that leads into the title picture asap.

Anyone catch Raw last night? I believe it was a replay of the Rumble? Just curious if the boos were piped out. I know the triple threat match had the entrances cut which I was bummed about because the crowd sang "John Cena sucks" in perfect rhythm to his song.

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Right after bryan went out and the boos started, the boos got louder when bray wyatt went out. It was definitely the decision making boos. They did the same the last year where the last half of the rumble was all boos.

Ive missed the last 3 months but I thought it would be a good pay per view but it had a lot of predictable stuff. I predicted half of what happened and I hadnt even been watching. I would definitely be interested in checking out that podcast with cm punk and then the austin mcmahon one.

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