He had such a good 1994 and worked with such great heels that it's just frustrating to me in retrospect.

They shouldn't turn Cody. He is fairly effective in the midcard as a white meat babyface - perfect guy in fact for the 'competetive squash' matches where the face becomes so close to causing an upset before being cut off. You don't seem to get many of those anymore, they don't really like to keep guys that level. Him as a heel is ridiculously boring.

As an aside this will most likely be Steph's first appearance in front of the live crowd at Mania since WM 18. She appeared in a backstage vignette at WM 23

 

She was in front of the live crowd at 29.

Did Meltzer said that RVD is signed for Mania? If so, he will probably be a Battle Royal participant. I was only half way listening and I know he said there is no chance that Jericho would be there. That probably means there is a 50-50 chance Jericho will be there,.

Did Meltzer said that RVD is signed for Mania? If so, he will probably be a Battle Royal participant. I was only half way listening and I know he said there is no chance that Jericho would be there. That probably means there is a 50-50 chance Jericho will be there,.

 

I recall him saying that RVD has been signed, and that they are flying him in for the Raw after Mania, but not Mania itself.

OK, that would make sense.

Looking at the card, we have the 8 matches locked up. What order would you put the matches in?

Here is what I am thinking...

 

Real Americans vs. Usos vs. Matadores vs. Ryback & Axel - Give this 15 minutes and you give the crowd a hot opener.

 

Battle Royal - This will probably go about 10 minutes.

 

Shield vs. Three Shmucks - This should last about a minute.

 

John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt - Give them 20 minutes and you have a hot crowd and you can give Wyatt the win to keep them hot.

 

Intermission / Concerts/ Hallll of Fame/ Skits/ Hogan jibber jabber, etc.

 

Brock Lesnar vs. Undertaker

 

Divas

 

HHH vs. Daniel Bryan - No way HHH is going to directly follow Taker's match after last year. The Game will need a buffer.

 

Three Way Championship Match - The entire crowd chants YES at the end, feel good memorable Mania moment.

If they are bringing RVD back full time they need to turn him heel. Him as a Paul Heyman guy along with Brock Lesnar challenging Daniel Bryan would be a ton of fun. He can also work with The Shield. Lesnar/RVD/Ryback vs The Shield would be awesome. RVD is stale and generic as a face. his best on on the mic and in the ring was as an arrogant heel during his first few months with the company.

He suffers from too popular to be heel disease.

Nothing a decent booking team can't solve. He isn't that over anyway, especially if he is around every week and loses the rub of being a special attraction. Look at the New Age Outlaws - got crazy pops when they came back once a year and ran through their routine, but now the novelty has worn off they are pretty effective as heels.

 

Anyway, WWE has 'personalities' now apparently, so he can always act heel and get a few cheers, depending who he is facing. His character is so uninteresting as a face that it makes any feuds worthless.

He suffers from too popular to be heel disease.

Yeah, I can't see crowds wanting to boo RVD. I mean, anything can happen but that's a tough one. I know I'm never booing him, I love Van Dam.

And the Outlaws being embraced as heels is easy since they were always better as bad guys, RVD is a natural good guy.

RVD at Wrestlemania ? In 2014. How exciting.

They'd boo RVD if they paired him with CJ Parker.

They spent way too much time the last two weeks with Triple H with Batista and Rand Orton for Triple H not to be in the main event. On the other hand the crowd probably will riot if the main event is Triple H vs. Batista vs. Orton, so my prediction: *drum-roll* Triple H beats Bryan in a screwy fashion, some authority figure (Vince?) changes the main event to a four way where Bryan beats Triple H clean.

My predictions:

 

Undertaker wins. The match is good but below expectations.

 

Bray Wyatt beats Cena relatively clean, which is put over as a huge shock. Bray is positioned as a title challenger. Match is way better than anyone would have expected.

 

Rusev wins the 30-man battle royal in an attempt to debut him hot.

 

Bryan vs HHH goes 30+ minutes and is a really good match with tons of surprise run-ins from familiar faces and some great nearfalls. Bryan wins but suffers some type of injury along the way that makes the odds huge going into the main event, which happens immediately after this match.

 

Bryan wins the triple threat after pinning Orton. Some of the aforementioned surprise run-ins may carry over here. Stephanie will get her comeuppance in some type of spot in either this or the previous match. Orton and Batista will briefly work together to take out Bryan so they can go one-on-one in an attempt to rally the crowd behind Bryan even more. Orton eats the fall, likely tapping to the Yes Lock. They have a crazy post-match celebration with (pre-cleared) fans and a bunch of wrestlers coming into the ring to celebrate and hoist Bryan on their shoulders. Batista looks on from a distance and tells Bryan he's coming after him. Stephanie is in tears screaming or something. The end result will be that Bryan had to compete for over 50 minutes and Michael Cole will make a big deal of the match time. Maybe they go even longer so Bryan can break the Bret/Shawn record and they can say he gave the longest in-ring performance in Wrestlemania history.

Does Bryan/HHH go first? I imagine it would have to be at least early enough in the card to give Daniel (or HHH, haha) a rest before the end of the show.

 

My prediction for Undertaker/Brock isn't too far off from Loss', I think it'll be relatively shorter compared to the matches with Shawn, Trips and Punk recently.

I think it will be consecutive precisely so the deck is stacked against Bryan as much as possible.

Yup, I also think they gonna go HHH/Bryan - Triple Threat back to back. They've trusted Bryan's cardio plenty of times on RAW so they know the guy can go 40-50 minutes and not miss a bit so I'm pretty sure they are trust him on the regard so they can tell the underdog story of being to injured and tired to win the title.

RE: Loss

 

1. I expect that Bray v. Cena will be really good, and can't imagine why people would think otherwise.

 

2. While I think it is likely that the scenario you outline with Bryan will occur, I can't see them hooking me into the match and HHH was able to kill dead Brock and Punk at periods when it was hard to do both. I do think the match is likely to be "good," but I'm not sure that is right for the angle.

1. People still aren't convinced that Bray Wyatt deserves his spot. There has been a lot of skepticism here even. I'm not sure why at this point, considering the last two pay-per-views. People also underestimate Cena.

 

2. It's possible HHH will kill off Bryan then go on to win the main event. Anything is possible with HHH. I just don't think it's likely. I don't really think there is a wrong way to work the match. Even HHH dominating most of it gives Bryan bigger odds to overcome in the triple threat. The angle on RAW tells me HHH is approaching this differently. He seems to be having lots of fun trolling fans and flying around for Bryan. My theory that isn't based on any evidence is that HHH is determined to put over Bryan convincingly without bullshit as some type of fuck you to Punk for doubting his professionalism. I think anger at Punk is what is fueling all of this.

That's an excellent point. This might be one instance where Hunter's ego is actually going to be to his opponents advantage.

Don't misunderstand me - Bryan is winning and winning clean. But I'm not convinced it will be a convincing win, and more to the point I'm not sure a 30-minute HHH wankfest is in the best interest of Bryan or fits the angle. The injury component makes it fit more, but I have real skepticism about the WWE booking a perpetual underdog like Bryan, as opposed to a an ace disguised as an "underdog" like Cena.

 

 

2. It's possible HHH will kill off Bryan then go on to win the main event. Anything is possible with HHH. I just don't think it's likely. I don't really think there is a wrong way to work the match. Even HHH dominating most of it gives Bryan bigger odds to overcome in the triple threat. The angle on RAW tells me HHH is approaching this differently. He seems to be having lots of fun trolling fans and flying around for Bryan. My theory that isn't based on any evidence is that HHH is determined to put over Bryan convincingly without bullshit as some type of fuck you to Punk for doubting his professionalism. I think anger at Punk is what is fueling all of this.

 

I agree with this. Hunter demeanor towards Bryan changed a lot after the Rumble. He went full heel, showed ass, put D-Bry over in promos, has bumped like a madman for him. He's clearly trying to prove a point imo.

If Punk had stayed the promos would have been real interesting. I can't see Punk being happy with Hunter and .Steph constantly one upping him on the mic. How much would Punk been allowed to say?

 

Plus if Punk stayed they still would have had to get Bryan in the title match somehow. There is no way the fans would have accepted a match with Sheamus. You have to wonder seriously what the hell this company was thinking at the Rumble? It's almost as if they have already erased that show from history despite happening less than three months ago

It's interesting because Hunter's put a ton of attention on himself. He made his proclivity not to put people over part of the story. You almost think he might be on his best behavior just to stick it to people.

 

EDIT: I missed Charles saying a lot of this, but I agree with him on the point.