Steenalized

Have you had RAW on mute for the last 14 months if you just noticed it I am not sure if it is sad or funny that the one person most responsible for getting Roman Reigns over until WM isn't actually Roman Reigns but Daniel Bryan. Of course I say this and Rollins probably beats Bryan clean as hell. I've gotten very good at ignoring them. Cole, Lawler, and JBL became white noise to me but Booker T is throwing that off. No pun intended.

Normally it doesn't get to me and I tune it out but damn JBL is brutal on commentary. You're supposed to put people over, not make them look bad.

WWE history question: when did 20+ minute opening promo become the default start of Raw?

I was watching some 80s Memphis today and I love how reactive the crowd is even in the studio. The crowd at Funk-Lawler No DQ is nuts. I wish a crowd would still react like that. You could see the cops there to keep the crowd away still focusing most of their attention on watching the match, people are jumping up and down and screaming. Only kids really do that today. Now everyone is too 'smart.'

Again, rubbish, 700,000 people bought Wrestlemania on PPV for $60 last year despite it being a sixth of the price on the Network, They could easily go back to a PPV model, although it might not be as profitable. Sorry, but WWE is not 'done as a company' if X happens. They will be around for our lifetime in some form or another. That's because it's rare for it to happen over night. It pretty much doesn't happen unless someone was cooking the books. What does happen very often is that once huge companies slowly dwindle and either die or are so insignificant that their eventual death gets little more than a "huh." See Blockbuster, K-Mart, Sears, Polaroid, Blackberry (we're in the midst of that one), Pan Am, etc. What happens is that major companies fail to adapt and then get beaten out by someone else. It is when you realize how much money live sports are getting.

What a shit show.

Listen to those boos get louder as he tipped them over

Wow, Ambrose's elimination was brutal. Even that was crushingly anti-climactic.

No reaction is a lot worse than a negative one.

Ambrose got about as good of a pop as I'd expect. It was about a twentieth of Bryan's.

It started so strong, then they dropped the biggest of goose eggs.

Oh man, that chorus of boos

WWE is clearly working the idea that a guy as small as Bryan shouldn't win a battle royal.

Bubba would be a welcome addition to the roster in my mind, but I'll take him as a really nice surprise too

Early MOTYC contender. Loved the hell out of it, grinning and laughing and reacting the entire time. Even Brock being stunned/dazed after the match as he snaps out of his delusional rage was spot on.

I get the complaints about having him as your champion, but I want to watch this guy wrestle any time he's on, even if it's only a few times a year.

Went too long but at least it wasn't horribly long. The Ascension's gimmick just doesn't work. Road Warriors looked jacked to the gills, so did most of their knockoffs. Billy Gunn looked to be in better shape than them.

He already got that treatment two years ago and I'd rather not see it again. Nothing against Ziggler but I'm in the camp of super long runs are overdone and devalue getting a late pick when it happens every year.

To whom? That one guy somewhere that likes The Ascension? To anyone who is sick of the WWE putting ancient stars on a pedestal over current workers. I don't care about the Ascension, but the Outlaws shouldn't be beating anyone.

Outlaws not jobbing would be appalling.

That second match makes me shudder, but the rest is... well not great, but I don't hate it.

Brock as a face should be like Stan Hansen as a face anyway. He acts the same way no matter if he's a heel/face it's just who is he going to destroy this time around.

Brock did need that win vs. Taker at mania. If he loses there, then he's lost to Cena, HHH (meaningless tie-breaker aside), and Taker. He would have beaten CM Punk, who lost to everyone.

If you Ric Flair woo loud enough, someone will always respond.

Wrestlemania XIV. Not the first PPV I owned on VHS, but easily the one I watched the most. Austin winning was huge to me, especially with the Tyson turn. I enjoyed every match as a kid except Mero/Goldust and I still think it holds up now.