iWiN4PreP

Moncada

QUOTE (ChiSox1917 @ Apr 15, 2018 -> 02:48 PM) The problem is that the league is far past due for expansion. It's now been 20 years now since the last expansion team, and it really should be about every 10-15 years that two teams should be added. Bring back the Expos, and then add one to three more expansion teams and you'll see a reversal of that trend. Expansion hurts pitching more than it does hitting statistics. I'm sorry -- I don't understand your logic here. You are saying that adding expansion teams every 10-15 years will solve the problem of baseball being boring? I don't get it. So in 50 years we can have some 10 or so more teams? How does that help?

Well it looks to be in the 40's today. That's pleasant.

Yeah -- I was thinking yesterday just how the hell they are going to find spots for everyone on the main roster now. It is way too overloaded.

Jose Abreu

So... what do you care about? The good WWE storylines? lol. Stories, wrestling, character development are all better on NXT compared to the main roster. I mean, I get it too -- I prefer watching the main product just for historic sakes... watching NXT is like watching the minor leagues instead of the major leagues, but when the minor leagues are putting on a product that is consistently better than the main product in every avenue... you should check it out. NXT Takeover in Chicago this June. I'm looking forward to going there.

So apparently Vince and Lesnar had a near-violent altercation last night after the main event match. Not sure if the rumors are just a plant and a work or if this is legit. I would imagine it being legit since the main event sucked so hard and i'm sure lesnar couldn't be happy about the fans chants nor would Vince. People are speculating that it might have been the elbow shots to Reigns causing the blood. Same situation as Orton was in against Lesnar during SS. We see what HHH does with his match, NXT, and 205 live... some day I hope Vince can wake up to it. It's really not that hard to put on a good show with a good storyline and build wrestlers. The talent is there...

Welp, snowing early here... damn you Chicago.

Matt Davidson

I mean it took something like 7 F5 finishes and Reigns being busted open to finish the match. There was no point in any of that after a year of brock defeating everyone with one simple F5. Bogus

I keep thinking about this... ... What was the point of the year-long coronation of Reigns to end like this? If they were going to have Reigns lose be the outcome all a long surely they could have appeased fans by having it be Braun vs. Lesnar or Braun vs. Lesnar vs. Reigns instead? Something must have either changed or they just severely wanted to swerve/piss off the fans with the Lesnar win. It makes no sense. The only thing worse than Reigns main eventing 'mania year after year is Lesnar with the title still in his hands. :| Wrestlemania started off amazing and was filled with crazy swerves (Naka heel turn, Asuka loss, Reigns loss, Brauns kid partner) and so it was not bad like the past couple of years, but man, the second half of mania WAS terrible. AJ/Naka was forgettable when it needed to be a classic. Braun's partner, while amusing, is likely a very bad thing for the raw tag division, Bryan's return was lackluster and boring, Nia/Bliss was just bad, and Reigns/Lesnar was one of the worst Main event's in WM history. If I was booking I would have done a few things differently: Easiest choice would be to have Banks vs. Bayley in a heated feud for the woman's title instead of Bliss vs. Nia (Nia vs. Bliss could have easily been on the kick off show, so no harm done). I would of had Braun in the main event vs. Lesnar and probably also vs. Reigns for the triple threat. Once again, no one is damaged by this and with Strowman leaving as champion, that creates a WM moment and the fans get behind it strongly as they dislike Reigns and Lesnar. That also means we get a proper Raw Tag Title match, but there's a ton of different ways you can go about that so I won't project on that. Obviously, I would have hoped/tried to plan for a better match between AJ/Naka. Can't really fix that, I guess. Maybe I would have made Naka heel earlier? I guess hindsight here.... As for Bryan, I'm not sure how I would have fixed that situation, maybe make it a singles match between either Owens or Zayn? But that doesn't work as well for Storyline purposes. But with those changes WM second half would have been dynamite.

They did all of that work on Reigns just for this WM main event pay off... it's insane. IDK if they were going for the unpredictability factor with the Asuka and Reigns loses tonight. Asuka's loss was understandable. Reigns losing after kicking out of 5 F5's and to Lesnar... i don't even know wtf they are going for. Did they cut a deal with Brock or something? all of this is f***ing stupid. The fans chanted it best... "this is awful" "boring" and started to play with beach balls in the main event.

14. Raw Title. After 7 hours of Wrestlemania, and the last 2 or so hours being really dull, we get this s*** main event. The match so far has been brutal and that's fine, but sorry -- don't give a damn about either Lesnar or Reigns. Reigns kicks out of the second F5 and the crowd reacts with "BORING" Lmfao. Third F5 and Reigns kicks out. This is not a good match, this is a finishing spam that was supposed to be special because no one has kicked out of the F5 in over a year, but this is bulls*** because no one wants it to be Reigns. This is what happens when WWE wants to force down our throats Reigns. For what is the third year in a row we get 'Mania main events that the fans are dead in because it involves Reigns. Holy s*** lesnar wins.

13. Raw Tag Title: Braun and ??? vs. The BAR - Braun is asking for a WM tag partner from the fans. This is kind of funny. - He picks a kid... now it's not so funny. Can't have the kid take the pin, that's just bad. Can't have Braun lose, hes a monster. Can't have the kid become champion, that's just wrong. Ok. Braun and the Kid wins. This buries the division hard. Funny as all hell and entertaining, but very bad.

Heel turn from Naka on AJ to set up a months long feud? I'm definitely OK with that, they will have MUCH better matches in the future, especially with a heated rivalry with emotions.

One of the biggest letdowns in recent memory, Aj styles vs. Naka. Per usual... 'Mania starts off hot with great matches then ends flat.

12. SD Title: Naka vs. Aj - Naka with a nice entrance. Now they have the champ's entrance come last. Figures. - So happy for this match. AJ is the best wrestler in the 'E that deserves this type of highlight. Naka is fantastic, but hasn't done so well in the WWE. This is a great chance for him to show WWE crowds what he can do. HIGH expectations for this match. - After 6 hours of wrestling, it's hard to enjoy a "good" match up. I find myself doing other things then completely focusing on this one unless the pace picks up. - Match ends kind of out of nowhere. Dull Match. Really did not come close to expectations.

11. Bliss vs. Nia - Expectations? Hoping for Carmella to cash it in in a big swerve after Alexa retains via DQ and Nia DESTROYS her. It would make good storyline sense. Other than that, a quick squash is likely. Ok. That was pretty boring. We get Nia as a champion. This type of match/feud/result is perfect for a B-level ppv. But for 'Mania, they could have done much better here like a Bayley vs. Banks Title feud. Major fail here much like every single Bliss match ever.

10. Owens/Zayn vs. Bryan/Mac - Here we go again with the anticipation. Can't wait. Really happy to see Zayn on the main stage. He deserves it. - I didn't watch WWE while Bryan and the Yes movement came to be. From everything I hear and see, this guy is amazing. I'm glad I get to see him compete. - Ha, sneak attack from Zayn and Owens to start out. Nice. That's why Bryan/Shane came out first . - Love this from the heels. They've been BRUTAL the past month. It's perfect. - There's no f***ing way that the report on Shane's injuries this week was real. He just flew across the f***ing ring to hit Zayn. Either it's not real or he's a f***ing beast. - Match had a 5 minute boring interval with Shane o vs. the 2 heels. But now Bryan is back. - Zayn and Owens lose in a dull match. They'll likely head to Raw. A let down of a match to be honest. So that means the lows of WM have been: - US Title Match meh, not really a low but not a high. - Taker "Match" was deff. a low - SD tag Title match was a low - Bryan Match was a let down.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Apr 8, 2018 -> 08:36 PM) Yeah taker cant go anymore so it was fine. Since they are declaring taker back though I do wonder if this feud continues? They have to sell 100k seats in Australia later this year. Guessing we see round 2 then. I'm just struggling to understand the point of everything there. It was sub-3 minutes match. Who benefited? Can we say that the fans *really* wanted that? That entire segment lasted some 20-30 minutes, it benefited Elias a touch since he got to get some air, but he got owned.

9. Cena? Undertaker? - Welp, Cena comes out, then another ref comes out to tell him Taker isn't here apparently. Then Elias shows up. Wonder what the hell is going on with taker.. the teasing is getting a bit out of hand for one ref to tell Cena he's here then the next to tell him he's not. - My guess is Taker shows up, destroys Elias and sets up a match for next year's Mania. - This means Elias is not Braun's partner... likely Rey Mysterio is the partner of Braun or Big Show. - Taker's here. Kinda cool. Very Low expectations for anything Taker Related. I don't care about the nostalgic fluff... if he can't wrestle, he shouldn't be wrestling. - Wow, we are actually getting a match here. Taker looks better than last year, initially. Ok, match ends. s***ty match. It's a very good thing that they did not put this match on the card as it would have been a major let down if they did so. The surprise of them actually having a match here was good enough for this. It was more of a fan-fare then a wrestling match. It was nice to get Elias some air. Also, nice to let Taker go off on a win now instead of that abysmal Reigns/taker match last year.

8. SD Tag Title Triple Threat -Usos, the champions, come out second for some reason. WWE really doesn't care about when the champions come out. It's little, but something simple to fix. -I picked the Bludgeon Brothers in what should be a good match. -Welp, that was fast. BB win. Overall, pretty bad match compared to what we should have expected, but they needed a squash on the card for time reasons. Usos didn't get pinned so maybe this sets up usos vs. BB, a good feud. Im ok with this, but a bit disappointed.

7. Rousey + Angle vs. HHH/Steph - Oh Boy, is this where Wrestlemania takes a nose dive? This match has my expectations extremely low. I'm really worried about Rousey here. Angle hasn't shown anything. Steph isn't a wrestler. And while HHH is a God, he is OLD. It hurts that this match is very predictable with a Rousey win. - Happy to see a more 'tame' HHH WM entrance and not one that lasts 15++ minutes. - Maybe it was smart having the heel Jinder win the match before to ensure the babyface Rousey gets a bigger Ovation? I guess that's what their thinking. - Rousey looks great in this match. Complete 180 in her prior engagements in WWE. Seems like a more natural fit for her here in a fight setting. - Stephanie is surprisingly decent/capable... compared to some of the divas of the past she's actually much much better. - HHH with the MASSIVE heat taking Rousey out of the ring. - Already this match has far exceeded my expectations. This could be one hell of a Wrestlemania (one of the best). Especially if we get some swerve to the Reigns/Lesnar match like Heyman joining Reigns with a Reigns heel turn. - I'm so happy for Ronda! Performing well. YES! - WOW double submissions on to the mcMahons and HHH sends Angle into Rousey. I thought FOR SURE it was ending there. Match goes on. "This is awesome" chants ensue. - GREAT wrestling Match!!!

6. US Title -I picked Rusev Day to win this due to fan support, with Charlotte retaining it's more likely that we see a title change with Rusev day now. -Of course... NOW they have the champion come out last, because its "king" orton. Inconsistencies are annoying. Decent match, winner is Jinder. Unpredictable winner here. I had a huge problem with him as WWE Champion, but as US champion, it's not a big deal. Would have rather had Rusev Day, but it makes sense for a heel to win here after 2 face wins and more face wins to come.

Big difference: -When they ruined Charlotte's PPV streak by having her lose in some bum-f*** of a match against Bayley at some February PPV last year that was awful and indefensible. -When they lost Asuka's streak on Wrestlemania against Charlotte, it's not what I would have done... I would have let an up and comer take the streak, but it is an entirely defensible move because it was unpredictable, it was on the grandest stage of them all, and it was to a wrestler (charlotte) who is one of the best evers. I have no problem with it.