So tonight was the last episode of RAW before WrestleMania. Overall, it was a decent enough show, and they managed to build a little interest in the awful angles they're working. There was some good (by WWE standards) ring work, and a couple of excellent promos happened. And then the final segment arrived.

If you saw it, you know what I mean.

Ever since winning the Royal Rumble, Roman Reigns has been persona non grata among hardcore fans, and his booking in the months since hasn't done him any favors. We're looking at a WrestleMania main event between an incredibly beloved heel, Brock Lesnar, and a babyface that the fans hate—a guy who's so despised that proximity to him got The Rock booed. The fuckin' Rock!

So Brock came out in the last segment, accompanied by his manager, Paul Heyman. God of the promo that he is, Heyman got into the ring and did an amazing job of building hype for the match. And then the music for Roman Reigns hit. There was a strong, immediate pop, but it faded after a couple of seconds, and almost all that was left were boos. The music ended after Reigns got into the ring, and the boos were thunderous.

No words were exchanged between Lesnar and Reigns. They simply stood in silence while the crowd booed Reigns and chanted, "Let's go, Lesnar!" Eventually, Reigns grabbed the championship belt Lesnar was holding and snatched it away. The boos intensified. Lesnar tried to take it back, and for a few seconds, the two of them were shown playing tug of war in the ring.

Then the feed cut out. They didn't even show the usual logo on the screen before fading to black. It just stopped. They stopped the broadcast because they were unprepared for that reaction, despite having months of warning that it was going to happen. And Mania will undoubtedly be even worse.

I haven't laughed so hard in ages. This is why I look to NXT and Lucha Underground for quality programming and treat WWE like it's a carnival side show in the path of a crashing train.

Wow. I haven't been watching any of it, but I've been following some of the news online. Gonna have to see if I can dredge up a video of this online. Wrestlemania sounds... epic in all the wrong ways. (But at least it's going to have Sting!)

As soon as haymen came out I turned it off and switched over to destiny because I forgot to do the daily challenge. Shows how much I care about the main event of Wrestlemania.

I gotta be honest. This Wrestlemania may be their worst. And it's got nothing to do with the matches. WWE has had some of its most talented performers in YEARS. Maybe some of its most talented crop ever. The thing is, they don't have any stories. The only storyline I care about going into Mania - The ONLY storyline - Is Miz/Mizdow. And that's because at least they've given me a reason not to like the heel, and a reason to cheer the face. And that's not even a match on the show. It's in the Andre the Giant Memorial Filler Segment. Stardust/Goldust as well. There's a six man ladder match AND a Battle Royal, two matches that are fine but not really great for stories. Sting is fighting to defend the honor of a company that's been irrelevant and defunct for the majority of my lifetime. And seeing him on TNA has taken any mystique out of the guy for me. So what else is there? Well, we also have Orton/Rollins, a storyline that might mean something if Orton could act. A Divas Tag match. Oh, and Reigns/Lesnar...

Ugh.

Look. I like Brock LEsnar. And ROman Reigns is honestly one of my favorite guys in the WWE. But even I can't get behind him here. There's a sense when he wins the Rumble of him not earning it, and then the fact that he keeps barely winning matches means that he STILL doesn't seem to have earned it. The only way for them to get out of this is for Lesnar to win handily, then build up Roman as an actual FIGHTER for the next year. Because Lesnar is a fucking BADASS. And Roman gets taken to the limit by guys like Seth Rollins. I want Roman to be the big guy for the future. I really do. I like to watch him wrestle. I don't like to hear him talk, but whatever happened to letting your fists talk for you? He does have a presence. And he has charisma, just... No ability to talk.

By the way, that Cena/Rusev match. Again, UGH. I like Rusev. I even like Cena. But look.

Rusev cheated to beat John Cena, the first 'evil' thing he's done in his career except punch a racist and live outside the US. Cena, in response, TRIED TO KILL HIM. Because seriously. Imagine for the purpose of argument (in-character) that Lana didn't say Cena could have a title shot. Rusev's unconscious and being choked. Cena would have just plain killed a guy.

Wrestlemania needs stories. It needs something to get me to care. If you were to show me a list of who's performing at Wrestlemania, aside from the Bellas and Sting, I'd have said this would be a hell of a show. (Okay, I personally don't like Daniel Bryan, but at least I can acknowledge that I'm in the minority and he IS a great wrestler.) But it won't be, because nothing will mean anything. The feuds are either nonsensical, stupid, or irrelevant.

This card has great performers. And they will, I am sure, put on great matches. And if every wrestler on the card put on the match of their LIVES at Wrestlemania, it might, potentially, be okay. I love wrestling. I love Wrestlemania. But I have a barely-started D&D game this Sunday, and there's a very good chance pretending to be a fantasy lawyer is going to outrank Wrestlemania on my priorities list.

4201140

Honestly the only match I'm looking forward to at wrestlemania 31 is sting vs triple h

4201445
I agree with you about pretty much everything, with the exception of liking Reigns. I never saw anything in the guy. He has a great look, but that appears to be it. He might have potential, and he occasionally does something awesome, but he usually follows it up by bragging about it in interviews, which loses me every time.

Even so, I might be able to just overlook that one lame match-up if it at least told a good story. But there's no story. There's no reason at all to get invested in it.

Meanwhile, the feuds people care about, as you said, are buried in the lower card. Miz/Mizdow should have their own match instead of being jammed into a battle royal that Sheamus will probably enter at the last minute and win. Goldust and Stardust have had their feud completely halted, despite it being one of the most compelling stories WWE had running.

Since Undertaker hasn't appeared, leaving the entire build to his match on Bray Wyatt's shoulders, it's hard to care about that match. There's nothing on the line.

And John Cena, Mr. All American, nearly murdering a guy for exercising his right to free speech... Your hero, ladies and gentlemen! Hard to believe Rusev is actually more of a babyface going into this match than Cena, but there it is.

Rollins vs Orton doesn't really mean anything, especially since we've seen it before on RAW.

Sting vs Triple H is probably the only match that's had a decent build, but Sting's supposed motivations are pretty dumb, and the match doesn't seem to have any stakes.

My weekly gaming night is on Saturdays, but if my group assembled on Sundays, I probably wouldn't cancel for this show.

4201822

A lot of people don't like Reigns. I like him, I think he's got look and enough talent to put on good matches, and his style is just different enough from other people's at the moment to want me to see him go far. I'm seeing the same thing happen with him that happened with Sheamus though. When they let him play himself, he was cool. But now they give him this new character, because they don't want 'The next big star,' they want 'The next John Cena.'

I'm more surprised that your disagreement wasn't my not liking Bryan. :P

Anyway. Yeah. The thing with Rusev I think has been that they just kind of assume it's still the '80s, and they can get away with not doing much except him shit-talking America. Except him shit-talking Amerca is enough to make me be annoyed at him, but we aren't actually staying up at night afraid Russia will destroy us. So it's not actually a BAD guy thing, just a 'kind of a dick' thing.

Sting/Triple H has had a fine build, but it's not a good story. THey had great stories, and they bury them. My D&D group is scheduled for noon, and I'm hoping the DM doesn't change it, because I would go to it and not watch Mania. And then I'd not care enough to watch later.

4202894
I think Reigns might have the potential to be a big star in a few years, but as it stands, he can't hold up the card. He's not very good (yet) without a ring general to carry him through matches, and he's gassed after about 7 minutes. His push is reminiscent of Sheamus, but his ring work reminds me more of Ultimate Warrior.

As for you not liking Daniel Bryan, I have no reason to care. Everyone has their preferences, and as long as you don't make a blatantly false claim, I have no reason to say anything. Personally, he's my fourth favorite guy on the WWE payroll, behind Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, and Bray Wyatt.

I've been laughing for months about how Rusev fights relatively clean compared to the babyfaces who challenge him—like Big Show and Mark Henry ganging up on him, Cena trying to murder him, etc. He's a great performer, and I wish him well in years to come, but I'm deathly afraid that he'll fall victim to Cena's shovel.

4202923

His ring work may not always be the best, but he's at least able to keep me in the match.

Personally my favorite guys on the roster are Bray Wyatt, Dolph Ziggler, and #BadNewsBarrett, but I definitely see Reigns as a guy with the star power. Ziggler's too good for his own good, and Wyatt can be the new Undertaker. Barrett's giving bad news to people is just super fun, and I wish him the best, but I dunno about him getting a serious enough character to make it to the top of the card.

Rusev fights clean, and hangs out with someone who's got a Putin fetish. That's as far as his evil goes. I want him to beat Cena, but even more, I at least want them to have a good match. My ideal would be that it ends up with Cena winning by also cheating, then they go to a hardcore match at Payback/Extreme Rules/Whatever that Rusev wins despite not using any actual hardcore stuff.

Worst Ever: FUSSY FIGHTS

This is the problem.

The WWE World Heavyweight Champion is Brock Lesnar. He’s one of the most legitimate athletes pro wrestling’s ever had and has achieved crossover success, winning the world heavyweight championship in both Shoot and Kayfabe Fighting. He’s accomplished the biggest feats in WWE history: defeating The Rock for the championship and sending him off to Hollywood, being Undisputed WWE Champion, squashing John Cena in a main-event title match and shuffling him back down into the undercard, defeating the Undertaker at WrestleMania, and on and on. He can throw around Big Show like a baby. He trains by picking up trees and running around with them. He’s managed by the best talker and one of the best minds in wrestling. His WrestleMania opponent is a young, fired-up, handsome-as-balls guy who spent most of his WWE career as 1/3 of The Shield, the coolest thing any of us remember happening in WWE since like, 1998. He DESTROYS people. He broke the Royal Rumble eliminations record, won it, ran over the most popular guy on the show to prove himself and is now headed straight for Lesnar. He’s the next heir to the Samoan wrestling throne. He is built on family, honor, legacy and respect, but has learned his trade as a mercenary for hire. He’s got a real-life chip on his shoulder. He’s about to face a monster who makes piss run down peoples’ legs, for the greatest prize in wrestling, at wrestling’s biggest show.

Raw ends with them having a fussy fight where they try to pull the belt out of each others’ hands like they’re f*cking Black Friday shoppers.

What am I supposed to do? Is the title even involved in this feud? When Roman snatched it out of Brock’s hands and the crowd went OOOOOH, I thought it was gonna go down. I thought we were gonna get shoot punches and bloody noses and some crazy mayhem to sell us on Mania. Instead? A guy who’s barely interested in being on the show is trying to get his decorative belt back from an entitled asshole. So … what are we cheering for again?

Remember last year with the whole “yes yes yes” thing? And the sick kid in the front row, and all the confetti, and the … no? Aw okay. :(

http://uproxx.com/prowrestling/2015/03/the-best-and-worst-of-wwe-raw-32315-the-alliance-to-end-axelmania/5/

So, Lesnar's staying. I think this has been the best news anyone following this feud has heard.It may pick it up a bit, but it's still slow and lame, and Lesnar needs to retain at Mania.

This has been Mania's worst lead-up yet.