Stiva

Rusev looks a potential Cena summer opponent to me.

i think he's a made guy now. Say, if he loses the belt to Lesnar (though I think it'll be Batista who transitions to Lesnar), there's going to be people pissed that he's dropped the belt full stop and people pissed that he lost the belt to the guy who broke the streak so that's going to guarantee a crowd willing him to win the belt back no matter what.

I'd bet Cena, Sheamus and Show are three guys who really know their wrestling. There's an interview where Orton acknowledges that everyone in the back knew who Bryan was and knew he could go. Maybe Miz didn't but I guess pairing him up with Bryan was inspired if so.

Ziggler is a guy who desperately needs some direction and Swagger desperately needs a new partner since he's pretty shitty by himself. I'd like to see him continue trying to hit the ankle lock out of lots of crazy positions though.

Wyatts vs. Shield III was another great match. I thought Ambrose was the stand-out guy with a performance full of awesome little touches. The way he sells the Wyatt's strikes, the way he fights out of their submissions and how he went into full FIP mode and looked a total natural at it. It looks like he's damaged his ribs badly but I loved how he turned it into this crazy, rambling rant when he was needed on promos. Roman Reigns is going to be such a star, it isn't even funny. It's almost like WWE are cheating having him.

I think my only major hope for this is that we get some long Chris Masters main events out of it.

When you look at that show tonight; no Ryback, no Miz, no Del Rio, no Rhodes Brothers and you wouldn't say they were missed in the slightest. I'd prefer to see more of the latter pair, especially with the tag belts possibly transitioning to Batista and Orton. Those matches would be great fun.

If they can mix in Heyman's guys with Bryan vs. The Authority, I am on board for the next 6 months of WWE like you would not believe.

I had no idea they had the capacity to bring about this much excitement to their product anymore. Yeah, there's been bits and pieces throughout the years but this has had new guys getting positioned prominently, angles and workers people care about, debuts on the horizon with the potential to heat up the midcard nicely and great matches on every show. Main Event is now getting awesome main events (HA!) to bring in Network subs. It's not perfect, it never is but it's hitting all the right notes for me.

If only Hero wasn't gone. I'd actually love to see Sheamus as Cesaro's next program after this mini-Swagger feud plays out.

I would be so down for Dangerous Alliance 2014 going after Bryan. Can someone get on the phone to Chris Hero?

CESARO AND HEYMAN!

Yikes, that was a real awkward little match with the minimum amount of thought put into how it actually came about. Great crowd to debut Paige but that's a big disconnect between her on NXT and what we saw there.

AJ co-opting all Punk's little vocal stylings is a neat touch.

I hope Warrior had one more massive rail of coke before this promo for old time's sake.

Man, I did not expect RVD to get that kind of reaction at this point, even in front of this crowd.

Bo Dallas. With a great inspirational video too. "Don't say 'Impossible' Say 'I'm Possible!'"

Between that night in Chicago, leaking fake spoilers and making Brock break the streak to get incredible heel heat, they really have got the working of the smarkier fans down perfectly. And now, Heyman is cutting the promo that is needed for this crowd. Such a great segment so far.

Great show, guys. Whoever it was (sorry, not familiar with voices yet!) that compared Taker's loss to Owen Hart dying got a legit huge laugh out of me. Agreed with just about everything that was said, especially the love for Stephanie's rad outfit.

So, Jarrett has made his announcement.

I'd have to revisit it in the future and divorce any emotion from it but it was certainly the most surprising one. The way he worked in it was really refreshing, you can tell the dude was relishing a long match with Bryan. Did everyone else's stomach drop when Lesnar pinned Taker? I'm a grown man, that shouldn't be my reaction to wrestling!

You got to give mad props to HHH tonight and I'm not a guy that likes him. Great work in the opener, great stuff in the main. Almost every single one of his annoying tendencies have been curbed in the past month and the ones that haven't, have been used to get more heat.

This really felt like the first Mania in a while where major shit went down. Taker's streak is done and so is he (from the look of things), they finally christened Daniel Bryan as THE guy and Cesaro had his moment in the spotlight. Kane and The NAO were swiftly dispatched and things feel so different now. It's certainly not perfect but the future is bright.

On the plus side, Batista's heel outfits really do get better every week. On the negative side, this kind of microphone segments are now totally insufferable.

Man, now we've got Hunter working shit through with this video package.