They did a video on the app (I know, i know) where they tried to ask Rusev about it, he responded in Russian several times until asked if his and Lana's relationship was more than business and he said it was none of our business and walked off. So it looks like they are setting up including their real life romance as part of the story.

I would be genuinely shocked if Lana is not at Mania. I'm guessing they'll fly her in. While Mania itself is not lacking "star power," it has been mentioned many times by many people that the real problem with the show is that the "stars" are all part-timers. Even in the Divas division, AJ Lee seems to be on her way out and the Bellas, who I'd say had a great 2014, are losing steam now. Creatively, they have peaked and, in terms of wrestling ability, after much improvement, they're still not good enough to carry the division. Lana is the right female talent in the right role to be spotlighted moving forward and there's no bigger spotlight than WrestleMania.

Rusev & Lana have been shifting the act a lot lately as Rusev is doing way more talking for himself and they are definitely planting the seeds for something down the road but yeah before that happens they will eventually out them as a real life couple.

Not to mention the story of them buying a house together made TMZ, and recent history shows they only do so when WWE tells them to.

Bunch of dudes dressed up as old school wrestlers in the front row. WWE made them take off their costumes. That's pretty shitty.

Yeah, that sucks. Here's a letter one of the guys posted.

 

 

"As a life-long fan of your product, I was very excited to attend your show last night (Des Moines 3/16/2015). I had secured 10 tickets in the front row at $100 a ticket. By my math that is $1,000 that we paid the WWE to attend your event. The seats were in the front row. Being a huge fan, I made sure to invite 9 other rabid fans and we all made the decision to pay tribute to our favorite wrestlers and dress like them. Within 10 minutes of the show starting, we were told that our outfits were "too distracting" and to change clothes, or we would be moved. I assure you none of the members of our party were being in any way unruly or belligerent. You can watch the taping and see for yourself. We were merely watching the show. Now, I have heard rumblings in the past of people being booted from their seats for costumes, but I always sided with the WWE and assumed that those fans HAD to have done something else to lose their seats, and WWE wouldn't boot people for simply dressing up. Now I know that they indeed will do that, regardless of how respectful you are. This seems to contradict your "Be a Star" promotions (which ironically enough was running on the screen as we were being scolded by WWE producers) that seem to encourage fanaticism.I guess at the end of the day, all I am looking for is an explanation as to why you would boot fans who spend the time, energy, and money on advocating your product. Seems like just the kind of people you would want in your corner.

For the record, I am still in your corner, however disappointed I may be.

Thanks for your time, Matt Sheridan

PS - Had we all been dressed as John Cena or Roman Reigns would the outcome have been different? Please advise so I can let the other 9 guys know for future shows"

Yeah that confused me too. It's not like they were dressed as non WWF guys and it didn't appear as if they were doing anything distracting either. Most I noticed is the guy dressed as Flair did the "hey I'm on TV" stand up and wave thing at point.

I'm glad to see Parv made it into that picture.

The crowd at the show was pretty upset about it, too. Lot of booing when they were pulled out, and more when they were made to put on t-shirts. Nobody was going to do anything to cause a disturbance at the show. Several of them (Macho, Jake, Volkoff) are long time local workers. They've been doing this when RAW comes to town for several shows now. Very disappointing, as they're always really popular with the fans, taking pictures outside before the show and hanging out at the bars downtown.

When WCW was around, WWE used to promote their "freedom of speech" of not taking away signs, etc. How quickly things change when there's no real competition.

Well it's been 14 years so it's not THAT quickly.

They were confiscating NWO signs at the Canadian Stampede ppv in 1997 so that boast was bs back then

Dave confirmed in the WON that they really were confiscating pro-Bryan signs. Not a rumor.

Dave confirmed in the WON that they really were confiscating pro-Bryan signs. Not a rumor.

I'll bet WCW never even did that with their popular undercard wrestlers in the late 90s. After 30 years as a fan I'm really starting to despise this company. Seriously, fuck them

I should also add that people in WWE are saying this is not true when Dave has asked about it. However, Dave heard the exact same account from two sources.

That Max Landis video was amazing and beautiful

 

Dave confirmed in the WON that they really were confiscating pro-Bryan signs. Not a rumor.

I'll bet WCW never even did that with their popular undercard wrestlers in the late 90s. After 30 years as a fan I'm really starting to despise this company. Seriously, fuck them

 

 

Agreed. It confirms the worst fears we had of them actively trying to hurt somebody's drawing power. It's one thing not to give a guy a push. It is another to actively squash the one genuine thing this company had going for it.

It's so frustrating. Reading that in the Observer today leaves a really bad taste in your mouth. I mean after Wrestlemania last year I don't think anyone would have guessed that DB would be in a match with R-Truth and Star Dust at the following Mania. I know it wasn't one of our predictions on the reaction show.

I still really wonder about the confiscating signs thing. On one hand can you put anything past WWE?; on the other hand that just sounds like TOO much for anyone. It's easy for two people to just make up shit to send to Meltzer.

I have been in lines where signs being confiscated held up the flow of the line. I can't tell you what signs were being confiscated though.

 

The worst line hold-up was at the 2013 TLC PPV where two guys were painted up as Crow Sting and Goldust. They were going to let the Goldust guy in but refused to let Sting guy in until he wiped off his makeup. It was completely absurd.

I disagree, Fake Hogan made many a PPV more entertaining, especially KotR 93.

I feel if you're a grown person who feels the need to dress up like Sting, Goldust, or any other wrestler when you go to a live event, not only should you be barred from entering the arena, you should also be legally prohibited from reproducing.

 

Having said that, it's a safe bet that guys who dress up like wrestlers are unlikely to ever have any form of sexual contact with a consenting female that doesn't involve money changing hands first, so perhaps the no reproduction law would be overkill.

 

The ironic part about this is one of the messages feminist groups these days showcase is "Cosplay doesn't equal consent".

 

Anyways, this isn't about a fan's background, it's about a fun thing in wrestling being taken away. People go to WWE events to have fun. God knows there's less of that in the shows these days; we don't need more of that with their handling of the fanbase. Ottawa seems to get only Smackdown tapings once a year (I say "only" because I'd rather go to a house show personally). The last one I went to in 2013 had three young ladies dress up like The Shield (and doing an awesome job with it). I honestly don't remember anything memorable or fun about that night, aside from a dark match Bryan and Orton had.

The WWE is kind of anti-fun and fans.

 

No Toronto PPVs since 2006. Yes that is 9 years ago now.

 

Chicago, Philly, New York, LA all get a yearly PPV and Toronto (one of their hottest and most fun fans) haven't had one in 9 years.

 

They run like one TV taping in Toronto every other year and a house show or two a year. What is the deal?

 

Confiscate signs, kick out fans for dressing up, de-pushing the most loved wrestler, etc...

 

Seriously what is going on? There is a real issue here.

The WWE is kind of anti-fun and fans.

 

No Toronto PPVs since 2006. Yes that is 9 years ago now.

 

Chicago, Philly, New York, LA all get a yearly PPV and Toronto (one of their hottest and most fun fans) haven't had one in 9 years.

 

They run like one TV taping in Toronto every other year and a house show or two a year. What is the deal?

 

Confiscate signs, kick out fans for dressing up, de-pushing the most loved wrestler, etc...

 

Seriously what is going on? There is a real issue here.

the issue is that there are still way too many fans who will pay for their shit (live shows, Network, PPV, merch, etc.) and then do nothing but bitch about it online.

 

Whenever I come here or some other place online for wrestling conversation and see people talking about how fucked up WWE is these days I wonder how many of them still subscribe to the Network and watch RAW every Monday.

 

At some point people need to put their money where their mouth is and just walk away for a while. Until business completely tanks or Vince dies nothing is going to change (and it may still take years even then)

 

I mean look at that letter from one of the costume guys. He rants about how shitty WWE was to him and his friends at the live show and then ends with this:

"For the record, I am still in your corner, however disappointed I may be."

 

As long as fans keep coming back for more abuse from WWE they are going to keep doing whatever the fuck they (Vince) want.

If those guys in the fancy dress had actually started working a match in the aisle, it would have been more compelling than Raw.

I'm hoping Dolph and Cody are in there to do the "holy shit" bumps (maybe Harper too), so Bryan won't have to hold up that end of the bargain. I am wondering how far they're gonna go with the "lawdy, i'z afraaaaid to climb this here ladder" stuff with Truth.

 

I seriously picture Truth on commentary for the match until it's his time for a comedy spot.