The PPV Discussion Thread

[T.A]

Was always gonna happen when Lesner retained. Wish people would stop crying over Bryan thinking he should win all the time.

Thought some of the entrants could have been better tho, more old Skool ones. Not a bad PPV overall

 

[ForeverUnited]

Brilliant title match.
I didn't think they'd actually go through with it, be interesting to see where they go with Reigns between now and mania.

 

[RavenBish]

DEFEND THAT RUMBLE MATCH OAF. FUCKING DEFEND THAT.

Triple threat match was great. Should have ended with it.

 

[RavenBish]

ahahahahahha

'Currently, fans are reportedly blocking talents cars outside the arena and the Network is slow due to many cancelling their subscriptions.'

 

[Gilly?]

The highlight is that my 5 fold came in.

Garbage overall.

 

[Leewilson]

I hope I'm wrong but have the nasty feeling it will be a Lesnar retain and Reigns rumble win. In fact, I'll be surprised if it's not this.

Would love a Rollins victory and Bryan triumph but just don't see it.

Knew I could trust you with the anti-climax WWE.

 

[This Charming Mike]

My overriding feeling after watching the PPV this morning is that I'm glad I didn't bother staying up for it. I think that says it all about the 2015 Royal Rumble.

I'll give WWE some credit. The title match was fantastic with plenty of cool spots. I genuinely couldn't call the winner, even going into the latter stages, which I think is testament to the quality of the match and the skill of those involved.

The Rumble match was the complete opposite. Couple of nice spots (Bubba Ray, Boogeyman/Wyatt) but largely predictable and an entirely naff ending. The reaction for Reigns when he entered, during the match and when he won was exactly what we all expected/feared and even his cousin The Rock couldn't save him from the boos that rang out around the arena.

Fuck you, WWE.

 

[James]

Nothing to do with Bryan not winning as to why the Rumble match was terrible. It's more the fact people were going crazy for him to be a part of the 2014 one, and it's sort of a "fuck you" to people with his early exit. It also made him look ridiculously weak, something you just don't associate with DB's character.

I had no idea Bubba Dudley was due in, I lost my mind when his music hit. First time I've reacted like that since I was a kid. I also forgot Curtis Axel existed.

Also, where the hell is Orton? Perfect chance for him to come back tonight. Never thought I'd see the day where I miss Randy Orton.

 

[Big Bird]

Stayed up for it. Meh. I'd be pissed if payed 20 quid through box office.

Network held up well through my 360 with minimal pauses but didn't look quite right.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Title match apart, that was dire.

 

[mase]

I watchecd it via PS4 and it streamed perfectly all night so kudos to WWE for that.

Triple threat match was amazing. Had it just been Cena/Lesnar it would have got stale quick;ly. Having Rollins in there elevated the match massively.

the rumble itself was very meh. The opening 15/20 minutes it was kind of fun and what a Rumble should be but after that it got boring.

I'm not bothered that Reigns won, but I was confused as fuck with the way it was booked. All the talk was either Bryan or Reigns to win. Bryan going out so early meant that we all knew who was going to win and there was still 40 minutes to go. Bryan should have been in a lot longer to keep people into the match.

No idea what the point of the Rusev angle was either. If all we're going to do is have him come in at the end and immediately be thrown out by Reigns, why bother doing that whole angle? Nothing was gained from it happening whatsoever.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

ooh no.

please do not tell me WWE told Bully Ray to ditch his bully Ray gimmick and go back to bloody Bubba Ray

Bully Ray has been probably one of the most entertaining wrestling characters over the last 4 years, be an absolute crying shame if WWE ended it just like that

 

[mase]

ooh no.

please do not tell me WWE told Bully Ray to ditch his bully Ray gimmick and go back to bloody Bubba Ray

Bully Ray has been probably one of the most entertaining wrestling characters over the last 4 years, be an absolute crying shame if WWE ended it just like that

It was in Philly, and he made his name as Bubba, I'm sure it wasn't a 'get rid of bully ray' and more 'give the people bubba'.

Was only a one-time appearance anyway.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

That WWE would bring him in as just a cheap half-ar*ed pop is just another example of why I am pleased I ditched WWE ages ago.

No no don't bother adding someone who does enjoyable promo's and may drag Cena to an interesting feud for once, just have him come into the RR for a cheap pop.

 

[mase]

^ Maybe, but for all we know he doesn't want to come back full time. They'd be stupid not to try and get him though.


It does say a lot when you need The Rock to come out in an attempt to force a pop for your winner, and it still fails..

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Excuse my ignorance as I don't watch it weekly, but why is there a big negative reaction to this reigns?

Is that based on him not deserving a push or based on the same as last years heat in they want Bryan to win it?

 

[This Charming Mike]

Excuse my ignorance as I don't watch it weekly, but why is there a big negative reaction to this reigns?

Is that based on him not deserving a push or based on the same as last years heat in they want Bryan to win it?

The former. It's too much, too soon. Reigns has only been in the business for two years and still has a lot of developing to do, both in the ring and on the mic. But now he is going to main event WrestleMania against one of the biggest stars of the last 15 years and for the WWE title.

 

[mase]

Excuse my ignorance as I don't watch it weekly, but why is there a big negative reaction to this reigns?

Is that based on him not deserving a push or based on the same as last years heat in they want Bryan to win it?

Probably a little bit of both but moire so that they don't want Reigns as the main guy. He's poor on the mic and many deem him as 'another Cena with few moves;. Look at Rollins in the main event last night - sensational, Reigns has never done anything similar. The fans are annoyed because Vince is shoving Reigns down their throats instead of having the fans make the stars - which is how it should work.

 

[Oaf]

DEFEND THAT RUMBLE MATCH OAF. FUCKING DEFEND THAT.

Triple threat match was great. Should have ended with it.

Stayed up to watch that live. Was looking forward to it as, basically, I've spent fucking thousands to go to Wrestlemania and this PPV is pretty much setting up the building blocks for it, so it was all pretty important.

To start with, lets get the good stuff out of the way...

That title match. If that match isn't match of the year 2015, we're going to get a fucking all time classic in the match that beats it. All three of them were absolutely incredible, and Lesnar came across as a fucking beast (more on that later...).

Also, the rest of the card wasn't overly terrible. Uso's vs Miz/Mizdow in particular was pretty great (Uso's are always superb, Mizdow is magic) and I didn't mind any matches, really.

And we had some good spots in the rumble. Bubba Ray's return, DDP, Wyatt, ect...

And that's that. Now to get onto the bad.

How? How is it possible to fuck up the Royal Rumble this badly, not just once, but TWO YEARS IN A FUCKING ROW!? We've had two years now of the ending phases of the rumble being absolutely bombarded with boo's. How is it possible that everybody on the fucking planet apart from the decision makers are WWE could see that coming? Part of me wants to believe that WWE actually fully intend to turn Reigns heel and this is actually all just a big, master plan to do that, in which case, kudos WWE, you've worked wonders with the guy. But I just don't see it.

What the fuck were they doing with Bryan? Why build him as one of the major contenders, knowing the reaction they get when they fuck over Bryan and his fans (See: Royal Rumble 2014, Wrestlemania 28 after his 18 second match, pretty much the entire ass end of 2013, when he was fired in 2010... there's a fucking catalogue of examples to learn from) and then dump him out as if he's just another guy in it. It legitimately felt like a big "Fuck you, fuck what you want, you'll get what you're given".

What the fuck were they doing with that Kane/Big Show bullshit? It was probably about the least exciting ending stages to a rumble I've ever seen... Kane and Big Show slowly plodding around the ring, taking out a guy who they fucking know we like and eliminating them as undramatically as possible. Again, if felt like a huge "fuck you", as if WWE know we want to see Ambrose, Wyatt and Ziggler succeed, so they went and dumped them out of there as excruciatingly as possible. It was painful to watch and I don't remember ever feeling as flat out insulted by WWE as I felt last night. I know it sounds silly to say I feel insulted by a fucking wrestling organisation, but it's like they know what people want and purposefully try to shit down everybodies throats... almost like it's revenge on us for liking the people we like, rather than the people they shove down our throats. Either that, or they really are that dumb, and I just refuse to believe that they could be that stupid, especially after last year.

And Reigns, Reigns, Reigns. I do like him. I felt bitter toward him last night, but after sleeping on it I've cooled down a bit, and I accept that my bitterness toward him last night was not his fault. In fact, the guy actually looked pretty fucking out of sorts. Shocked. Depressed, even. I think he may have expected a bit of a negative reaction, but I still don't think he expected that. And it's really not his fault at all... it just feels like WWE booked the thing absolutely perfectly to get people to want to take out a lot of frustration on Reigns. Like I said, it actually feels like it's been done on purpose, it's just hard to believe that they actually thought people would stand for that shit and keep on cheering Reigns. I, and many others I'd guess, don't mind Reigns at all and I'd actually consider myself quite a fan of the guy. But from this point onward, there is no chance in hell (to steal a phrase) of recovery from this. The only options are heel turn, or make him Cena v2.0, in that he'll be a guy who does all the right things, but will be boo'ed to shit. And that just won't work for him anywhere near as well as it has for Cena. Cena can handle it and play off of it. After seeing the look in Reigns face last night, I'm not sure that he can.

I've gotta fuck off for now, but I shall return. I ain't done bitching yet.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Excuse my ignorance as I don't watch it weekly, but why is there a big negative reaction to this reigns?

Is that based on him not deserving a push or based on the same as last years heat in they want Bryan to win it?

Because he's another Cena super hero that gets dominated in matches for 10 minutes, hits 3 moves and wins. WWE basically want him to be the Cena of the next decade and he's already getting boo'd by most of the WWE universe, despite being a face.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

did anyone watch Wrestletalk last night because Russo was on it and was interesting, even if yep they all always praise their own work and slate everyone else.

but one interesting thing was he was talking about the creative side and trying to put his view over on defending what he did in 1997-99 and he said Vince couldn't write a show at all, what vince was good at is working with a small team and discussing with them 2-3 people their writing and suggesting additions to make it from a 7/10 to a 9/10

but he was thinking the problem stems from WWE having 25 writers instead of just 2-3 like they used to have and McMahon getting involved int he writing side which he never used to...........be interesting to see if it was correct

 

[T.A]

Some how we've managed to get another pointless PPV as well.

 

[ForeverUnited]

When Wyatt and Bubba went head to head, I was just thinking wow, imagine the promos in their feud.

 

[Oaf]

Right, I'm back. Just checking the thread, there are 19 uses of the word fuck on this page, 17 of them are by me in that one post. That's a fucking good example of how I feel.

Where was I? Oh yeah...

I don't mind that Reigns won, I just hate how it's all been done. It's not just a case of trying to make us grin and bare Reigns winning (which, as I said, I could have done and been happy enough), it's the way they've done it. Deliberately (surely, surely, as they can't be that stupid) taking the piss. They let us have "our" WM last year... now they seem to want revenge, or someshit.

Wrestlemania 31 is going to be Lesnar vs Reigns. Yeah, Fast Lane is still to come, but shit, WWE are even already saying it's the main event of WM now, so even though they'll try to sell the idea that whoever is competing for the title (if anybody...) stands a chance at FL, nah, they don't. Unless...

WWE do what they did last year. After their tremendous cock up last year of thinking that we all wanted to see Batista vs Orton, we saw that with enough of a push from the crowds, WWE can change things up. They may find their hand forced again this year.

The annoying thing is, I'd always said that an ideal WM main event for me would have been a 3 way shield match. It seemed easy to fit Reigns and Rollins in there (have them both win last night) but getting Ambrose in was the problem... then, while watching the build up for the triple threat, in a moment of clarity...it dawned on me. After trying for ages to think of how it would work, I got the formula...

Reigns wins the rumble, yada yada yada, he's in. Rollins out right wins the triple threat. He's got the title and the MITB. On Raw, there's a battle royale or something to see who faces Seth at FL... Ambrose wins it. Ambrose beats Seth at FL, but is then beaten down... Seth cashes in MITB to win back his title and get into the main event at WM. Meanwhile, Ambrose is still owed a rematch technically after losing the title... so he gets in as well. So yeah, to think that up hours before and then have it come crashing down was a shitter.

So, as somebody going to WM, what do I think? I'm ok with the match itself. Lesnar last night got me believing that he's going to be awesome to watch no matter who he faces. And, as opposed to most people, I don't think that Reigns entirely sucks in the ring, in fact when he gets going he's fun as hell to watch. But that's on the face of it...

What I'm not really ok with is this idea that Reigns may win it. There is no way, in my mind, that Reigns as he exists today should beat that Brock Lesnar that we've had over the last year. After the Streak Conquering, the Cena squashing, and being unstoppable force that he was last night... there are literally two scenarios to me that seem acceptable to see him lose; 1 would be Cena and 2 would be The Undertaker at WM getting revenge. Nothing "mortal" should beat Lesnar as he is. Only Cena (yeah we all moan about how much he wins... but at least it means he'd look credible in beating Lesnar as a result) or a WM powered up Undertaker would work. No mere mortal should be capable... much less a guy who's pretty much just getting started, in Reigns. If Reigns wins that match, he should pretty much go the rest of his career undefeated. And we don't need another guy like that around.

I think the basic thing is that Vince doesn't really know how to build people up via any means other than shoving a chosen wrestler down peoples throats. Look at Hogan... only, it was seen as more acceptable back then, times were different. Then he did it with Austin... only Austin had actually won over the people beforehand, so people accepted it. Then he did it with The Rock... and, to be fair, The Rock was booed a fair bit. Then he did it with Cena, and... well, that explains itself. Now he's got the next guy he wants at that level... but in this post-Cena era, poor Reigns, through none of his own faults, stands no chance at all.

 

[Oaf]

Wow... #cancelwwenetwork was the number 1 trend last night (Still trending now) and the subscription page crashed due to the amount of people doing it. The network is pretty much the life line of WWE right now, and it's being fucking SEVERED.

Looking around, it's actually getting to the point where I'm starting to think that the main event of WM31 will be anything but Lesnar vs Reigns.

 

[RavenBish]

Reigns needs to win at WM. Lesnar's leaving and they want Reigns to be 'the guy' so he has to. It's not a clusterfuck of a match like they were left with last year because people didn't want Batista and were completely uninterested in seeing Orton too whereas at least this year you know people aren't going to boo and protest a Brock Lesnar match - they'll just want him to kick the shit out of Reigns. It'll actually be quite fun in some ways.

As you said, Reigns getting fast-tracked as a corporate heel would be one way of doing it because there's that acceptance of 'he's not ready' but the Authority blah blah blah - however, The Rock thing meant that was 100% not their intention, they tried to use Rock to protect him and Rock got booed. The Rock got fucking booed during a surprise RR run-in, imagine how angry a collective crowd must be to just say 'oh look it's the Rock, I don't care, fuck this shit'.

Reigns also looked like a scared child throughout the whole thing. I can't remember him doing a single memorable thing during the actual match, post-match with Rock was awkward as fuck, he was still trying to play face with the arm raising whilst Rock stood there looking completely flabbergasted by what was happening...and then, did you see the fallout interview? Looked like Reigns was just shook, fluffed his two lines and Rock had to step in and improvise, he did that extremely badly and both him and Reigns looked incredibly stupid.

The Rumble was just booked appallingly, started off ok and then it lulled during the procession of jobbers fed to Wyatt and then Bryan! Business picks up. But just look at the last 10 entrants.

Mizdow - ok - but lasts 15 seconds
Swagger - no-one cares
Ryback - I guess
Kane - F U
Ambrose - made to look a jobber again
Titus O'Neil - reeeaalllllyyyyy?
BNB - wooooo, wait, did he do anything?
Cesaro - woooo, wait, see above.
Big Show - F U
Ziggler - see Ambrose.

Where's the surprise and the pops? Why were the 4 actual good people in that made to look bad? Why out of those 10 were Kane and Big Slow made to look the strongest in the year 2015? The end sequence was terrible as well, couldn't even give poor Roman that. I can see why fans were fuming. It's one thing having a winner that causes so much anger but if you look at the Rumble as a whole the only person they've actually put over using the match other than Reigns is Wyatt. It was horrendously booked.

 

[Christian Slater]

#cancelwwenetwork was the #1 trend Worldwide last night. The Times has reported on it.

The Network's cancel subscription page crashed under overwhelming traffic.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

People cannot keep moaning about the WWE product if they just keep watching it all the time.

Griped about that numerous times, WWE is just the Simpsons......not even a fraction of the Quality it used to be, but won't get killed off because people watch it regardless of how terrible it is just because it is the Simpsons and used to be good.

Maybe if people to cancel their network subs it might finally wake WWE up, but I'm very doubtful it will because WWE stopped caring about what its fanbase thinks in about 2005

Saying that they will change it up for their beloved mania................sod the other 11 months like, but they will sort it for that one month, mostly because financially its their do or die month.

 

[RavenBish]

There's glimpses though Dave. That's the problem. They've got a good roster. You watch NXT and kid yourselves that they 'get' the simple booking formula. You watch the triple threat last night and see a glimpse of how it can be good again and then they crap on you - it's not like it's all bad. The NXT special is in a couple of weeks, that will be great, Fast Lane will be shit, the WM build will be good and WM will probably be good and then everything will go shit again. It's an avoidable pattern if they were smart enough to identify what works and what doesn't.

 

[SamScfc]

Was so tempted to watch this last night despite having to be up for work at 6:30 and all I can say is thank fuck I didn't. The triple threat was good, the divas match was even quite good but the reason I was even debating staying up late to watch this was for the Rumble and having just watched it i definitely made the right decision not to stay up.

So boring, soon as it got down to the last 5 or 6 I said that Reigns would be stuck with Kane and Big Show and end up eliminating them, no-one wanted Reigns to win and they still shove him in our faces. Zzzzzzz