There is no wrestling company in history that protects part time vets more than current WWE and that includes Jericho.

Bullshit - Jericho jobs nearly ever match - when was the last time he won a feud or a huge match? Rock and Undertaker get protection but that is about it.

 

Jericho went twenty minutes on Raw with Punk the day after Punk got jobbed out to Rock on a single move which NEVER happens in WWE main events. He lost on a banana peel to a guy they clearly have plans for in Fandango even if you hate him. Jericho's not Rock, Taker, HHH, Brock or Michaels, but he's not even close to a JTTS

The best thing about this Diddy concert is him coming out to Shaun Tempers theme. I was fully expecting an ad for "Temptation For Men." Also, no one will get this but Dylan and I but I don't give a shit because it's funny as fuck.

Best part of Mania

Jericho went twenty minutes on Raw with Punk the day after Punk got jobbed out to Rock on a single move which NEVER happens in WWE main events

Don't see how that emphasizes your point - Punk gets made to look like shit by The Rock and Jericho lasts twenty minutes with him? Hardly a ringing endorsement.

 

Jericho is no higher than, say, Damien Sandow on the card. Maybe he isn't the JTTS but he certainly never gets any big wins or comes out of a feud on top. If he lost less often it might mean more.

Jericho went twenty minutes on Raw with Punk the day after Punk got jobbed out to Rock on a single move which NEVER happens in WWE main events

Don't see how that emphasizes your point - Punk gets made to look like shit by The Rock and Jericho lasts twenty minutes with him? Hardly a ringing endorsement.

 

Jericho is no higher than, say, Damien Sandow on the card. Maybe he isn't the JTTS but he certainly never gets any big wins or comes out of a feud on top. If he lost less often it might mean more.

 

Jericho is far above Sandow on the card. It's not close.

 

The point is that WWE had no interest in protecting Punk. Jericho was one of the Iron Men/points of emphasis in the Rumble and then goes twenty minutes with the alleged number 2 full time guy in the company on his first two nights back. And he's allegedly not protected because he lost on a roll up at Mania?

Del Rio's boxing get up ruled

Not watching the show, but I thought this was funny.

 

They did a video of a bunch of people from all over the world saying "I am one of the millions." Lots of cute kids, good looking adults, trying to change the image of what wrestling fans are. Smart to do it, but I'd rather this was on Raw as opposed to here.

Do they think they can be more friendly to advertisers if their audience is seen as more attractive? I didn't see the video, so I'm curious if the takeaway from everyone here was the same as Dave's takeaway.

ADR vs. Jack Swagger (WHC)

I didn't care for this too much. It was fine. The submission countering was a little too cutesy for my liking. The final cross arm breaker looked okay though. Plus, no Dolph equals a little bit more disappointment.

God what an utterly bizarre match that was. Another spot in this that looked mildly flubbed but not awful. Swagger was bumping like crazy here I"ll give him that and I loved Dutch in this. Finishing armbar looked great. Very strangely put together in that it was booked as WWE equivalent of a spotfest, then it was like they were trying to tell a bigger story, hinted at going longer and then the end. Odd stuff.

Given the way Dutch wrote about his first Mania, I am so glad he got to have another, and in a featured role too. He was great here, especially that look of horrified frustration when Swagger lost. There was a huge whip on that final Cross Arm Breaker. I wouldn't have minded the abruptness of the finish on another PPV but it was a little weird here.

Del Rio looked great, much better than usual, in his opening salvo. Loved him stomping on Dutch's fingers. But then he just whiffed on that corner kick. Yuck. Swagger's gut wrench power bomb was nasty, and I liked the little grappling sequence. But the ending just kind of happened, and the whole thing was less than the sum of its parts.

Submission exchanges were good. Seconds were good and Del Rio (great garb and all) did the best he could. Swagger's near the bottom of WWE guys I want to see and this did little to change that.

Living Colour guys look old, which makes me feel old.

 

That video made the Punk-Taker build look better than it was.

Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger

- I had to feed my kid so I missed most of this. I don't really care for Swagger at all anyway. Mechanically, I am sure he is fine but I don't care about his character, I think his Shamrock/Angle Lock is lame and it really should have been Mark Henry in this spot. I am glad that Del Rio went over though.

Without wanting to be dramatic and go 'OMG I quit!! Had enough of this shit!!", I think unless these last three matches deliver I'm going to stop watching WWE again for a long time. Everything has just been so underwhelming, so filled with the sense of 'seen it all before'. Getting cable again a while back made me watch it by default, and coincided with Money In The Bank 2011 which was fantastic. Since then it has been diminishing returns, and I have watched Raw more and more sporadically.

 

It isn't a protest at anything in particular, just that everything gets on my nerves now. The constant time wasting with adverts and videos. The constant shilling of how popular they are on Twitter. The commentary that consists of nothing but WWE buzzwords and trademarks. The sameness of the style of wrestlers and match. How far behind popular culture they are. The lack of any compelling storylines. Occasionally something like The Shield will pique my interest but it still doesn't make up for the 80% of the show that is tedious. Raw going three hours kind of killed it for me. There is no sense of 'anything can happen', no excitement, no feeling I will miss anything if I don't tune in.

 

Bit of a pointless post I know but thought I'd get it off my chest...

Living Colour guys look old, which makes me feel old.

 

That video made the Punk-Taker build look better than it was.

I second all of this. Actually, just the singer looked old.

Pretty sure Living Colour are just about or are in their 50s. But yeah...

Heyman's expressions are awesome.

Holy shit, Paul Heyman is fucking incredible out there

Punk vs. Taker

Great match with an outstanding performance from Punk. Of course, none of those near falls were believable. This match was as good as it could'v been as far as match quality goes which is a good thing I guess. Punk needs to go far, far away though and vanish for months.

Undertaker vs CM Punk

- Match of the show so far. Heyman was great. Punk's expressions were great. The Undertaker's expressions were great. The execution was pretty great. The only thing that hurt this was that the finish was never in doubt but Punk worked his hardest in trying to make you believe it was.

The front row fans really made that urn shot near fall. I'm okay with the g2s into tombstone shot since he obviously got him way low. I didn't catch if they made that clear or not.

Did Undertaker sell as much for Punk as he did Michaels and HHH? Just curious.

Very good match, pretty amazing that Undertaker can still pull it off at his age, with all the injuries, after a year out. Was very surprised at how over CM Punk was, expected the crowd to be firmly against him.

Agreed that Heyman's expressions were great. Punk worked really hard and Taker was better than I thought he'd be. Not exactly any doubt who'd win, but very good nonetheless.

There was no good way to book that match because of the way it was set up. As an isolated/stand alone match I thought it was a very good match of that sort, with some really good spots. I thought Taker and Punk's strikes seemed really on point which added to it. Big Elbow and teased Taker dive were the best spots. I didn't care for Punk being back up so quick after the tombstone he kicked out of, but what are you going to do?