Crash Holly was also a tremendous gimmick and he was very well-booked most of the time. I'd have no problem with them emulating that, but can you imagine a midcarder getting 18 months or so of pretty strong booking now?

I don't think there's anything wrong with the "little guy who carries himself like a super heavyweight" Crash Holly gimmick except for the fact that I don't think Neville has the personality to pull it off.

Everyone comes to a crossroads in their life and I’ve come to mine. I look forward to telling you all about it tonight on #Raw.

That's from D-Bry's twitter for the record

I guess Bryan is healthy for the Rumble and this is the angle to start it off.

 

Everyone comes to a crossroads in their life and I’ve come to mine. I look forward to telling you all about it tonight on #Raw.

That's from D-Bry's twitter for the record

 

 

The pessimist in me is thinking they may try pulling a Michaels'esque fake "I don't think I can do this anymore" angle (see the stuff with Jericho in 2008) as a result of his injury and recovery. I'm hopeful it's a return at the Rumble regardless, the main event picture outside of Brock and Cena has been timid for months, there's so few actual "superstars" at the moment (with the exception of Orton, who was out for a while too). I mean, Rollins has been good, but it's a slow burner with him, Reigns is still meh in my eyes, and they've been start/stop with Ambrose.

 

Remember when Sheamus was tipped to be "the guy"?

Can't see it being retirement, as others on the 'net are speculating, because who "looks forward" to an early forced retirement?

 

My guess is he's entering the Rumble, but if so, how fucking dumb to blow their load by announcing that now. Imagine what an awesome surprise that would be. The entire arena would become unglued.

 

Guess we'll find out in a few hours...

Maybe he's going to announce another surgery, so that he'll miss the Royal Rumble to try to stop people from chanting for him, instead of Reigns, at the Rumble?

Maybe he's going to announce another surgery, so that he'll miss the Royal Rumble to try to stop people from chanting for him, instead of Reigns, at the Rumble?

 

Maybe, but again, who "looks forward" to a major surgery?

Can't see it being retirement, as others on the 'net are speculating, because who "looks forward" to an early forced retirement?

 

My guess is he's entering the Rumble, but if so, how fucking dumb to blow their load by announcing that now. Imagine what an awesome surprise that would be. The entire arena would become unglued.

 

Guess we'll find out in a few hours...

 

I don't think they are dumb at all. Gives WWE some momentum going into 2015, incentives to buy the network, setting up potential feuds and angles...

Can't see it being retirement, as others on the 'net are speculating, because who "looks forward" to an early forced retirement?

 

My guess is he's entering the Rumble, but if so, how fucking dumb to blow their load by announcing that now. Imagine what an awesome surprise that would be. The entire arena would become unglued.

 

Guess we'll find out in a few hours...

Not dumb at all. They can't get buys/subscriptions on surprises. Bryan is a star and they really need stars right now.

Yeah, the perfect scenario would be the bunny as #30 starting to do very familiar-looking moves while Stephanie figures it out and comes out on the house mic screaming at everyone still in the match to "Get the bunny!" in her best heel voice. But with The Authority storyline being blown off and Bryan being a little too visible on TV while injured, it wouldn't have the same effect anyway.

I was definitely going to skip RAW tonight, as I typically do for most RAWs, but now I'm sitting in front of the TV, counting down the minutes, guaranteed to watch the opening segment. If anything, I'd say the WWE should've held off on the announcement for one week (and built up to it this week with music videos and hype) and maybe had a WWE writer edit his Tweet to be a more cryptic. His use of the word "excited" seems to point to him not retiring...but if he does announce his retirement, it would be an, at best, odd word choice (and, at worse, kind of infuriating and "trollish").

So originally I was sure that we were getting some very disappointing news about Bryan because you wouldn't run a presumably hot angle on a holiday week Raw. But if they're opening with a package recapping Edge's retirement due to injury, I can't imagine letting that overshadow Bryan. Not that my guess is worth a damn, but I'm at least optimistic now.

So Christian is officially retired? That sucks.

So Christian is officially retired? That sucks.

It's been assumed for a while now, but that's the first "official" mention of it. Definitely a guy who achieved more than his perceived limit, the dude has a lot of good stuff to hang his hat on.

Oh God is this shitty scripted promo is going to damage Ryback's heat?

This Ryback promo is dreadful

What. The fuck. Was that?

I didn't think it was that bad. Could have used a little more intensity when he talked about Rusev though.

It was just too long. It had like three ready-to-play videos all mid-promo after coming back from a commercial break.

I thought the Ryback promo was fine and I wish they would do that kind of stuff more often. Although if you listened to him on Talk is Jericho, he literally told the exact same story word for word.

The Ryback bit was a lot better when I heard it on Jericho's podcast and I have to think would've gotten over more if delivered as part of a sit down interview rather than in this format. But it was still different from the standard fare, and while the crowd seemed to drift, they popped at the parts designed for it so maybe it has a chance.

 

On another note, Lawler just teased Bryan retiring which means I am now very, very stoked for that part of the show.

If that promo was Cesaro's chance to make a big statement, he fucking blew it by messing up his lines.

Poor Claudio

Looks like Bryan is getting the main event slot. Going to feel stupid for saying this in a while but part of me thinks they have changed plans and are going to go with Bryan instead of Reigns. This show has been so weird that I don't think it's out of the possibility