I've just never seen the big deal about Braun. Felt like he did get pretty over a year ago, then Brock beat him and he was never the same since then. But I've never gotten this 'next big thing' vibe from him at all, especially this past year with all the corny goofball babyface stuff they had him doing.

5 hours ago, SomethingSavage said:

Wait. They abruptly & unexpectedly lose Roman to a life-threatening illness, and their immediate solution is to suddenly bury their second biggest star? In favor of what? Another Brock run with the beef red belt? Fuck me running. 

Remember when Daniel Bryan got injured in 2014 and had to vacate the belt? WWE responded by having Brock Lesnar squash John Cena...

Didn't see any of it, but Brock winning and Hogan showing up already makes it sound like the worst show of the year.

9 hours ago, El-P said:

Meanwhile, Lesnar is probably the smartest guy in pro-wrestling, ever. The ratio money/actual work is insane.

Him, Nash, or Hogan?

I must say.. I envy them all.

Jarrett is probably up there as well.

So Cormier did a promo on Lesnar at UFC last night. Another sign that their potentially collaborating or, at the very least, Vince want to have Lesnar to be carrying the WWE belt when he goes into the Octagon.

Would really love if they could do a deal where DC costs Brock the title before the fight instead, just for the massive intrigue it would generate along with wails from the post-Shamrock/Ortiz/Liddell era fans who think they follow a "pure" sport.

With all the controversy going in, and due to the Saudi fans just being happy to see the WWE brand, all Vince had to do was have some decent matches with better finishes with no angles, i.e. a glorified house show with babyfaces going over. 

The World Cup was a troll angle. Dolph vs Miz in the finals was ridiculous after the World Cup was being hyped as having legendary icons and had babyface vs heel matches until then. Shane O'Mac winning it was the nail in the coffin. I know this board is unique in that it generally does not rate highly Kurt Angle, Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, and Seth Rollins but the World Cup could have had some decent matches if booked as a real tourney.

Brock and Braun could have at least had a 12-minute actual 50/50 match.

Even decent matches like AJ vs Joe and the preshow had abrupt/quick clean finishes.

Not sure how fans were supposed to feel satisfied with DX posing at the end, considering Triple H and Shawn screwed Taker in Australia. Felt like 1997 again in terms of politics. No wonder Hogan had to bring Jimmy Hart for locker room protection. :-) 

Taker and Kane missing Shawn's moonsault on the outside was bad.

Anyway, really bad booking and finishes, leaving out all the real world issues. No, not as bad as 2000 WCW but still indefensible. But the so-called experts still pull their punches: instead of just coming out and saying it was a COMPLETE BOMB:

Wade Keller: "There was some news and decent action on this show, but not enough to justify the near four hours it took, and the news is more puzzling than satisfying at this point."

Jason Powell: "And while I won’t put Shane’s win in the Hit category, I will say that I’m not as down on it as a lot of fans seemed to be on Friday. In fact, the angle helped explain Shane’s dickish announcement that he would fire any Smackdown wrestler who lost to a Raw wrestler in the finals because he couldn’t handle his sister having bragging rights."

 

Dave was pretty clear he thought the show sucked and was surprised  to hear there were people who thought HBK was at the same level he was at before.

Also Taker and Kane letting Shawn crash and burn right between them was some stuff you'd expect to see in CMLL in the opening match. At least it seemed to convince him to stay in retirement (at least until the next Saudi payday) as opposed to him working with someone who could have carried their end of the deal more and caused us to have to endure another comeback tour.