They announced it on the WWE website. Looks like Ticketmaster is handling the sales for this one. Here’s the link.
Well that’s right. I was thinking of her contracting with WWE for a time, not just one event. Other MMA stars have come aboard after their losses, but I think for a one time thing like Wrestlemania it wouldn’t work too well.
Since WWE is spamming 25 years of Undertaker all over the place, I guess that means he’ll win his SS match against the Wyatts. That is, unless they have him job or get a big beatdown so his win at WM: Follow the Buzzards to Dallas will be more meaningful.
Will the dancing scarecrows be there?
So far, 'Taker and Kane have looked completely dominant in this feud and have beaten the entire Wyatt Family and their army of sheep druids.
And as we all know, Rule 1 of WWE Booking is that whoever looks strong on the go-home Raw is going to lose at the PPV.
I’m gonna go with an amended version of my earlier prediction and say that Bray brings out Finn Balor as his partner, and Finn pins Kane for the win.
Not a chance. They aren’t moving Finn away from NXT for a good while and I really don’t understand why everyone wants him there.
I swear if the damn smarks had their druthers, there would be a callup of Finn, Sami, Joe, Hideo, Bayley, Vaudes and Enzo and Cass.
So how do you like Tucker Knight as your NXT champ? Winning it over Hugo Knox and Blake? Yeah, didn’t think so
Finn Balor is awesome. He’s charismatic, he has everything.
Except that he’s 5’11" and 190 pounds.
Look how much trouble DBD had with the machinery. Vince doesn’t like guys this “small”.
So there’s no way I want him on the main roster right now, especially as packed with talent (you heard me) that is being completely wasted.
Which is the other thing that bothers me. People complain about a lack of star power and then ask about people who haven’t wrestled in 15 years. They need to buy a fucking clue and realize that TODAY, the WWE has a fuckton of really talented people and far too few top spots for them - spots that are all too often tied up by fucking nostalgia acts on the larger stages.
Finn needs to stay and be the face of NXT for as long as possible. If he ever gets called up, it shouldn’t be under anybody else’s aegis. He didn’t need it to pwn NXT. In prime time he’ll be reduced to feuding with Stardust and Barrett and jobbing to the stars.
I gotta say, Charlotte and Paige tore up that contract signing segment. I’m not sure how much of Charlotte’s choking up was kayfabe, but that’s the best I’ve seen her on the mike. Paige was the perfect bratty bitch who made Charlotte crack. I’m actually looking forward to their match.
So Jordan and Gables vs Gargano and Ciampa is one of NXT’s best matches of the year, but J & G vs Ascension is kind of ehhh… Ascension just kind of sucks the life out of the room. They just don’t have the physical presence the Road Warriors had, and they look like unfunny parodies of such.
Dana Brooke is slowly winning me over on the other hand. Her accent is still horrid, but it works for her on-screen personality. She’s a sassy bitch, but fun. Eva Mannekin however, is not fun. She’s all style and no substance, but apparently gives great head.
Three women’s matches tonight. Bayley’s getting more heat than Finn. The estrogen contingent is taking over.
Dash & Dawson’s match looked exactly like the Andersons vs Hapless Jobbers of yesteryear. Same prolonged torture of the first guy, instant defeat of the second guy.
Did anybody else think Baron Corbin’s promo sounded fey, for lack of a better term? I think he needs to stick with being low-key. He sounds bitchy when he’s emotional. Maybe the increased estrogen level of the show had something to do with it.
If they deliver anything other than “Bayley defeats Eva Marie in 7 seconds”, we riot.
Bayley is great, but I don’t want to see her struggling to carry Eva to a passable match, and I damned sure don’t want Bayley have try to make it appear “competetive”.
God forbid Eva actually wins. They might just burn down Full Sail.
Speaking of…
Ms. Cups and I are going to the taping tonight, and we did a house show last week.
Craziest thing about that is they set up the main event during the autograph session. Apollo Crews and the Vaudes were out signing for people and Baron Corbin came out and whacked Crews as he was signing something for someone. They fought, heels came out, faces came out it was a whole big thing. Main event was a Survivor Series match with Corbin and Apollo as captains. JJ/Bagels and the Vaudes for the faces. Mechanics and Superhappys for the heels.
Faces win, but it was interesting to see they had Bagels get out first. Probably did that to rile up the crowd because they were D-E-A-D. Like I said in my post above, it’s just hard to get into a match where Tucker Knight is facing Lenny Valenzuela jr. and Marcus Louis faces Elais Sampson.
Most interesting match was Cameron facing a girl named Adrianne Reeves. Both were girls, both were black (AR looked like she was Cameron’s sister). It was pretty good match and if I can say it now…this Adrianne girl has the potential to be really good. She was quite pretty, but had a great stomach/body and wasn’t as skinny as Cameron, or as big as Naomi.
Do you still have time to make an “IF EVA WINS WE RIOT” sign? 
Well, it would appear that Destination America’s foray into the wrestling business has come to an end. TNA announced today that it’s moving to Pop TV (which has similarly resulted in Paragon dropping its deal with Pop, marking the first time in history that TNA has ever driven out a rival promotion). Meanwhile, ROH is moving to Comet, a channel nobody gets (I’m informed that I can watch it locally on “channel 4.2”, which I don’t think I possess the appropriate technology to channel, though it’s moot since ROH is still on local TV in my area anyway).
It’s also being reported that WWE is looking to expand NXT’s tour schedule in a big way in 2016, and that they’re actively trying to poach ROH/Lucha Underground talent. Michael Elgin and Prince Puma have been named as people they’re interested in.
Due to a last minute phone call, stormy weather, and the fact that we actually live about an hour from Orlando Ms. Cups was way late for the show, which means we got in after the opening segment, but before the first match. Hilariously they ended up giving us camera facing seats on floor level in cushy NXT seats (causing some dude to yell "who are you gold circle people?!?!). We were sitting there during the Vaudes/Mechanics rematch and then once it ended the usher guy came up to us and said “You’re gonna hate me, but the people who actually have these seats showed up so we’re moving all of you”. So next wednesday’s show will consist of an opening segment without me in the camera, a match WITH me in the camera, then the rest without me.
Look for my bright-ass green shirt and/or Ms. Cups’ Xavier hat.
Other than that the tapings were pretty decent overall. Two big(-ish) returns, some squashes, and an above average main event. The main event is interesting because the crowd is out of it by the time that 2.5th hour rolls around and we’ve seen 10 matches.
Oh yeah, speaking of the crowd, they were on another level of annoying/smark. Be ready for that.
Pop TV used to be the TV Guide network. Isn’t that the one that shows soap opera reruns while the bottom part of the screen rotates the channel schedules? They’re just going to be background fodder on a reduced-sized screen with 0 budget. Is Dixie Carter trying to lose as much money as possible?
Speaking of pop, this year’s Survivor Series just doesn’t really inspire any pops in me other than the Paige/Charlotte match. UT & Kane vs the Wyatts just looks like it will be another clip in the 25 Years of Undertaker footage. The title match is just going to look like Roman got a “business as usual” push. Even if Sheamus were to cash in, it would create a void of suck because he’s been jobbing in midcard matches lately. Maybe if it came down to Dean vs Roman and Dean turns on his old Shieldmate and wins, it would cause an uproar. Otherwise, Major Yawners.
In addition, there’s a TBA 5 on 5. Whuuuut? They couldn’t decide on any names beforehand to generate interest? The 5 on 5 used to be what SS was all about. Now it’s just last minute filler. Did Seth’s booboo throw things into disarray that bad?
Dixie Carter is trying to keep her little fiefdom of personal fame and fading glory. Besides, it isn’t her money. It’s family money, and we don’t know how desperate they are to keep her happy and out of the rest of the family business. 
Adrianne Reeves is also known as indy smark darling “The Wrestling Goddess” Athena. Good wrestler, great charisma. Made her SHIMMER debut on Volume 33, IIRC, and was mainly a “job girl”, until a breakout series of matches against Mercedes Martinez starting on Volume 43 catapulted her into upper midcard/main-event status. She also had a great run in Anarchy Championship Wrestling.
They don’t actually air TV listings anymore - the market for that kinda dried up when everybody started getting DVRs and you could have channel listings at the press of the button, not to mention that there’s so many channels now that by the time it rotated around to a show you were interested in, it’d already be over. I still have fond memories (well, memories in any event) of the days when that was the only way to find out what was on if you didn’t have a TV Guide or a copy of today’s paper, and you’d just sit there waiting to see if there was anything good on.
I’m guessing it’s gonna be Usos/Dudleyz/Ryback vs. New Day/Ascension since those are the only ongoing rivalries right now that would really work. But yeah - WWE’s main roster these days is written by writers who are more accustomed to writing TV dramas where everything is filmed months in advance and one does not simply go and change things because the fans don’t like a given character or someone wanged their knee and can’t work.
Just gonna leave this 100000% true article here.
Eh. If the internet (as it is today) and streaming video had been a thing 20 years ago, people would have been writing the same kind of think-pieces about the ECW Mutants.
WWE has engendered a culture where they try to encourage “the Universe” to speak their minds, but aren’t prepared to deal with the consequences when said Universe doesn’t behave in the way the script says it’s supposed to. Moreover, it’s not as if “the audience” is acting as some sort of hive-mind to create these reactions; one person shouts something, some people around them repeat it the next-go-around, and after that the whole crowd is chanting it. (I can personally cop to starting a “THIS IS AWESOME!” chant during an Alberto Del Rio vs. Sin Cara match at a Raw a few years ago which, in retrospect, was not so much.)
If WWE doesn’t want audiences reacting unfavorably or inappropriately to the product they’re presenting, then they should start doing matches on closed stages instead of in arenas before a live audience. Until then, they’re going to have to respect that kayfabe is dead, that they’re performing in front of a crowd which knows they’re being worked, whose behavior can’t be controlled or predicted, and where the butterfly effect can cause a singular visceral reaction to spiral into an arena-wide movement, and they’re going to have to deal with that.
Oh, something to look out for. I think it was during the second show there is a Samoa Joe vs. Chiampa match that is, holy shit, the stiffest match I’ve ever seen.
They spent half the match slapping the ever-loving shit out of each other. So definitely watch for this match