Wrestling Discussion Thread

Bob Holly (in 1996, lasted nearly forty minutes)

M.V.P. in 2010 (eliminated The Miz)

Charles Wright (The Godfather/The Goodfather/Papa Shango)

Kane (one of these was as the fake Diesel)

Bret Hart

Jimmy (Wang) Yang and 2 Cold Scorpio/Flash Funk

I was thinking for question 3, I was thinking of the time Foley entered as Mankind, Dude Love and Cactus Jack. I missed read the question.

Really those are the surprise entrants out of everybody from ECW they go for 2 Cold, surely Sabu or Sandman or Dreamer would be more over.

Surprised there isn't more Sting talk.

Reigns being a boss and Bryan/Wyatt was good though, but I can't properly enjoy it just now.   

Though no-one else at my mates' party thought much of it, I quit enjoyed this year's Rumble PPV.

Didn't see The New Age Outlaws match. They're surely just keeping those belts warm for The Usos, right?

Pleasantly surprised by Bray Wyatt's performance in the opener. True, he was carried by Bryan, but he did well to keep up. Very enjoyable opener with a logical result.

It was strange seeing how little sympathy The Big Show was able to garner from the crowd. He took an absolute pounding, and it was all a little unsettling.

The crowd shat all over it, but I thought Orton and Cena worked their bollocks off. It can be very disappointing when crowd's 'go into business for (themselves)', and this was one of those occasions. Stupid marks. I'm not too surprised that they've pulled the trigger on the Wyatts/Cena feud. They're won't be too many looking forward to that: Flair/Steamboat for the 2010's it won't be...

Enjoyed the Rumble, didn't mind Batista winning at all, though the way the crowd went flat and turned on the match as Rey Mysterio came out at #30 must surely be one of those very rare instances that makes WWE take stock. I know crowd reactions mean f**k-all to WWE (if the did, Cena would be a super-heel), but it must have been very embarrassing for everyone involved. Still, WWE obviously has a plan, they've shelled out a lot of money to bring Big Dave back on a two-year deal and it looks like he'll be against Orton at WrestleMania. While it isn't a match I'm particularly fussed about, it could be decent if the crowd behave themselves and wraps their pish.

Yeah, I wanted Bryan to win, and was too a tiny bit disappointed he wasn't in the match at all, but I'll stop well short of saying that I'd 'disgusted' or 'repulsed' (as I've read on Twitter). It wasn't the exploitation of Paul Bearer's death, or Randy Orton trying to kill The Undertaker with the recently-deceased Eddie Guerrero's car, or anything akin to that. Simmer down!

1. CM Punk
2. Seth Rollins
3. Damien Sandow
4. Cody Rhodes
5. Kane
6. Alexander Rusev
7. Jack Swagger
8. Kofi Kingston
9. Jimmy Uso
10. Goldust
11. Dean Ambrose
12. Dolph Ziggler
13. R-Truth
14. Kevin Nash
15. Roman Reigns
16. The Great Khali
17. Sheamus
18. The Miz
19. Fandango
20. El Torito
21. Antonio Cesaro
22. Luke Harper
23. Jey Uso
24. JBL
25. Erick Rowan
26. Ryback
27. Alberto Del Rio
28. Batista
29. Big E Langston
30. Rey Mysterio

...Miz, Harper and JBL for me. Lucky!

I'm with TCK about the Outlaws keeping the belts warm for the Usos, they have to be the next Tag Team Champions. In time we'll be thankful that they haven't given this throwaway title reign to a full-time heel tag team (Real Americans, for example)

Cracking match between Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt. They made Wyatt last night.

A pleasantly short Big Show/Brock Lesnar match worked for me. The chair beatdown was a bit much, I'll agree there.

For the hard work that John Cena and Randy Orton put in, I'm glad the crowd rebelled at this, I'm glad they voiced their frustration at being fed the same old tired match ups over and over again. WWE may think this is Rock/Austin for the 21st century, but it isn't, it's nowhere near it.

I enjoyed the Rumble match itself, but Batista winning is so, so frustrating, and I'm not the only person to think so. There's no way that a forty five year old man, who has been out of the WWE for four years (because he didn't like the direction the company was moving in) should walk back in six days before the event and win it - undeserving is an understatement. And don't get me started on how horrible and tedious he is in the ring...

How on Earth did WWE think it was acceptable to not have Daniel Bryan be in this match? One of the biggest matches of the year, and you leave out your most over guy. I was one of many who thought Bryan was going to show up as a surprise entrant, thinking that the hype around Batista winning was a red herring, but what a blow when I realised he wasn't showing up.

Overall, a very strong show, but that end result is so deflating.

Cody, Miz and Sheamus for me.

It just really rankles my brain that back in 2005, WWE took a chance on a guy on the cusp of the main event who was getting great crowd reactions, and hey, it paid off. Making that same guy win in 2014 instead of taking the chance to build a megastar in Bryan is not the right move.

1. WrestleMania is old boys reason. I'd have been stunned if anyone but Batista had won last night - after all, he's not come back to do arm-drags in the second match.

2. WWE couldn't have done much more in the last year to emphasise that 95% of it's current full-timers aren't up to scratch when compared to the likes of Batista, Triple H and Brock Lesnar.

3. The Wyatts are f**ked. It's a money position, yes, but history shows that Cena will likely cause irreparable damage to their heat and progress as he massacres them over the course of the next few months. It's the same thing that happened with The Nexus in 2010, Miz in 2011, Kane in 2012 and particularly Alberto Del Rio last year.

And isn't this just horrible. Imagine if they'd have bumped Stone Cold Steve Austin from WrestleMania 14's main event and replaced him with Hulk Hogan...

WrestleMania is old boys season. I'd have been stunned if anyone but Batista had won last night - after all, he's not come back to do arm-drags in the second match.

That's why ten years down the line when Batista, Triple H, Lesnar, hell, even Cena and Orton are too old to go full time WWE is going to be in dire shite. They've not built up one star like they did with Cena/Orton/Batista/Edge. Punk? He was still second fiddle to Cena. Bryan? Not been given a chance to run at the top for an extended period of time. Sheamus, Ziggler, Del Rio? No chance.

Batista was always going to be in a main event, but they really screwed the pooch by ignoring Daniel Bryan's fan response at the Rumble in lieu of their latest former main eventer with a movie deal.

2. WWE couldn't have done much more in the last year to emphasise that 95% of it's current full-timers aren't up to scratch when compared to the likes of Batista, Triple H and Brock Lesnar.

...which is depressing. Austin, Rock, Triple H... none of them were fed to Michaels or Hart or Hogan or Undertaker to fuel their egos. Instead, they were put on the same level as the established talents.

3. The Wyatts are f**ked. It's a money position, yes, but history shows that Cena will likely cause irreparable damage to their heat and progress as he massacres them over the course of the next few months. It's the same thing that happened with The Nexus in 2010, Miz in 2011, Kane in 2012 and particularly Alberto Del Rio last year.

This is likely true. Unless they give Wyatt a massive win at Mania - which they won't - he'll be hurt irreparably by Cena dismantling the entire stable.

The long and short of it is that there's a glass ceiling which everyone that didn't debut before 2004 has to press up against whilst the old boys look down and laugh their way to the bank.

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2. WWE couldn't have done much more in the last year to emphasise that 95% of it's current full-timers aren't up to scratch when compared to the likes of Batista, Triple H and Brock Lesnar.

That's the thing though if they gave some of them a chance then they could, but too many get left in midcard limbo, two that instantly spring to mind are Cody Rhodes & Kofi Kingston.

Like Jay said this will come back to bite them if they don't fix it.

Remember when Austin was meant to lose to Lesnar on RAW during Lesnar's big push and he walked out on the company? Supposedly CM Punk did the same thing on Monday night. I won't say who he was supposed to lose to as it's spoilers for Smackdown (who watches Smackdown anyway?) but it's looking pretty bleak. He's been removed from the advertising for all upcoming WWE shows and there was no sign of Kane on Smackdown to address the issue.

If you're really interested in who he was going to lose to, then click below.

Smackdown spoilers: