The rumor I heard was that she pushed her retirement up because something is up with DBs health.
He cancelled a bunch of appearances and no one is saying why
It’s now been announced that the battle royal, Usos vs. Dudleyz, Kallisto vs. Ryback, and the ten-Diva clusterfuck match (which is now Emma, Lana, Naomi, Tamina Snuka, and Summer Rae vs. Brie Bella, Paige, Natalya, Alicia Fox, and Eva Goddamn Marie) will all be taking place on the pre-show.
Also, New Day vs. League of Booty is no longer for the tag titles, apparently because creative just remembered that Wade Barrett is quitting as soon as his contract is up.
It’s a 5v5 match so that they can cut it short if needed. Otherwise I’d rather see that as a battle royal match, but it’d take more time.
Heh. Maybe that can be the official Summerslam match akin to the Andre Memorial. Make it a Fabulous Moolah Cup Women’s Battle Royal and include all of the worthy NXT women. Hell, Carmella is f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s, so maybe she can win the first one in the same manner she won the NXT #1 contender’s match.
Emma’s stupid entrance music has become my earworm.
Dowoop dowoop da doop depp doop depp dowoop dowoop da doop depp doop depp
It’s always fun to jive to her music in the shows because you can insert a “what” “what” in between the beats of the music
Watched the Daniel Bryan doc over lunch today. Holy crap get your tissues ready when you watch that!
I swear the best thing about the WWE is their video department
My Wrestlemania Predictions:
**Triple H vs. Roman Reigns **
Obvious match is obvious. Reigns wins. If they’re smart, heel turn. If not, he gets boo’d out of the building anyway.
**The Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon **
To be honest, I don’t fucking care. I’ll likely not even watch this match.
**Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose **
Lesnar utterly destroys Dean Ambrose, pins him and he’s taken out of the ring on a stretcher to show how resilient he is. Possibly jumping off said stretcher to return to the ring. Doesn’t matter, Lesnar conquers.
Charlotte © vs. Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks
Sasha all the way. My future ex-wife Becky will take the pin, leading to Charlotte complaining about never being pinned and a feud between her and Sasha over the championship. Becky goes back to wrestling “Divas”.
Chris Jericho vs. A.J. Styles
Obviously it should be Styles, but Vince sometimes gets stupid where Jericho is involved.
**Kevin Owens © vs. Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn, The Miz, Stardust, Sin Cara, Zack Ryder **
At least two of the participants are injured during the match. The only two viable winners here are Owens and Zayn.
**Kalisto © vs. Ryback **
Kalisto wins, feud continues
League of Nations vs. New Day
Honestly this is one of the few matches I see up in the air. I think League wins to continue the feud, because if New Day wins, there are no other established threats to their title (due to bad booking, but whatever).
Pre-Show
The Dudley Boyz vs. The Usos
Oos.
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
I’ll pick Show for the second year running unless there is a surprise team entering or something.
Natalya, Paige, Brie, Alicia, Eva vs. Lana, Naomi, Tamina, Summer, Emma
Sadly, this one gets cut to about 20 seconds of actual match time (shorter than the intros) and Emma takes a pin from Paige or Natalya.
Apparently, the battle royal has been moved back onto the main card from the pre-show. It’s currently being reported that the pre-show card will have Kalisto vs. Ryback somewhere around 5:30 Eastern, with Usos vs. Dudleyz and the AJ Lee Memorial Divas Clusterfuck Tag Match (which is what I’m calling it from now on and I’m sticking with it) sometime in the 6:00 hour.
Bleah… here’s my predictions
10-Diva Clusterfuck: BREE MODE wins
Kallisto vs Ryback: Kallisto
Usos vs Dudleyz: Usos
AtGBR: Braun turns on Bray, Kane then throws out Braun
Jericho vs AJ: AJ, with help from the Bullet Club
Charlotte vs Becky vs Sasha: Sasha, with Becky getting pinned
LoN vs ND: Is this for the title or not? If not, LoN.
IC Ladder Match: Sami Zayn grabs the belt, KO knocks him off, Sami drops belt, KO recovers, keeps title, megafeud ensues
Lesnar vs Ambrose: DEAN! Dammit, Dean’s due for a PVP win, and a victory over Lesnar will be tainted with weapon use, which won’t suck away too much of Lesnar’s heat
UT vs Shane: UT - Shane will take a Mankind-level bump to justify this match’s existence
HHH vs RR: RR LOL
We still haven’t come up with a chat room, have we? We’ll just spam this thread again and set a SDMB record.
And that hurt his career when it happened last year in what way, exactly?
There is another option: an audience face turn. Here’s a crazy example: after Yet Still Even Another Ref Bump, have ShaneOMac come out to interfere, and when Stephanie comes out as well (pause while somebody hits Reply to add, “Well, that explains a lot”) to help her husband, Brie Bella shows up as well to take care of her without WWE having to show man-on-woman violence. One Van Shaneinator later, you end up with:
Reigns is the new champion
The crowd cheers (well, doesn’t boo as loudly as usual) him
The next night, Vince gets his revenge by firing Brie on Raw (as an excuse for her to leave the company)
Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if Triple H and/or Stephanie end up helping Shane win the HIAC match, and then reveal that the whole thing was a setup and the three of them were in cahoots the whole time, followed by months of teasing that Shane is only doing what Trips and Stephanie ask (including the aforementioned firing of Brie, but then, if Shane only controls Raw, why can’t Brie show up on Smackdown?), until the Shane turn on the other two months from now, possibly to set up something at SummerSlam.
Copying from Knowed Out cuz I’m lazy and his was easiest to do…
10-Diva Clusterfuck: I actually like the thought of Brie taking the pin here as one final goodbye. I’m voting with my heart here because I really want that to happen
Kallisto vs Ryback: Going with Kallisto here because I think when it comes to Mania, when in doubt, faces win
Usos vs Dudleyz: Never bet against the Usos
AtGBR: Either Braun or, because of Texas and the impending retirement, Mark Henry. Hoping beyond hopes it’s Henry, but marking down Strong Broman here
Jericho vs AJ: AJ will win this because Jericho wants to lose it and put over a “new” guy
Charlotte vs Becky vs Sasha: Sasha, with Becky getting pinned…unfortunately
LoN vs ND: Since it’s not for the titles, League of Booty takes this one
IC Ladder Match: This comes down to KO and Sami. I believe KO wins, but wouldn’t be surprised if Sami came through
Lesnar vs Ambrose: This is match of the night for sure. I think it’s going to be a crazy-mayhem bloodbath with Lesnar going over by virtue of being Brrrrrock. I think this is the best opportunity for him to show his wrestling skills though and not just do a thousand suplexes and call it a day
UT vs Shane: UT - UT goes over. I think this match will be on the high side of “just ok” and Shane looks all good, but eventually loses. However I wouldn’t be too terribly surprised if it ended up being a Shane/Stephanie/Taker conspiracy to thwart Vince and eventually give Steph her long-rumored face turn.
HHH vs RR: RR wins, but I DON’T think he goes heel, especially on the Rock. That would be stupid and pointless and not make any sense for anyone’s character whatsoever. It’ll just be a beatdown a la Dean and Lesnar but with RR going over.
Absolutely hilarious: Paul Heyman remembers his encounter with Andy Kaufman (with bonus appearance by Fred Blassie).
Heh. Vince souring on Strowman’s push according to a couple of articles.
Come on Vince, just admit that you’re bisexual and you have a thing for big strong men. 
Like one article said (paraphrasing) “another big man brought up too early and not ready, pushed to the moon and then dumped when the crowd didn’t buy in”.
The key there, VINCE, is that they’re GREEN AS FUCK and you’re so hot and bothered that you bring them up before they’re ready - and your fans don’t buy in because THEY’RE GREEN AS FUCK.
Well that and we’ve seen the trajectory all too many times. Monster push, winning streak, get to Cena, LOSE, get turned into comedy wrestler. None of that gives anyone any confidence that any new guy you push will be treated any different.
And yeah, Strowman has that face that I can easily see him booked as the simple minded guy who likes puppies and children’s tea parties.
It’s been reported that WWE is doing away with the Divas belt and will be bringing in a new version of the Women’s Championship. The belt has reportedly already been made and has been shown to people, and it may debut as soon as this Sunday.
In other news, we have our final card for tomorrow’s Takeover, which seems like a pretty easy show to call;
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Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe for the world title. Joe’s gonna win here. No point in doing this match twice if Finn is going to retain twice, and the rumor is that he, Gallows, and Anderson will be debuting on the main roster as Bullet Club next week. A win for Joe here would make him the first person to hold a top title in ROH, TNA, and WWE.
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Bayley vs. Asuka for the women’s title. Could go either way. Asuka’s got a good shot here, but I don’t see her winning unless they plan on bringing Bayley up soon.
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American Alpha vs. the Revival for the tag titles. American Alpha wins, no doubt about it.
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Austin Aries vs. Baron Corbin. Austin wins here - this is his WWE debut, and he’s likely to be a contender for Joe’s title later this year (as he’s also a former ROH/TNA champion).
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Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. Nakamura for the same reason, coupled with the fact that Sami’s already on the main roster and is likely staying there. If he jobs to Nakamura, it’ll likely be his NXT swan song and we’ll see him win the IC title on Sunday.
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Apollo Crews vs. Elias Sampson. Should be a win for Apollo - he’s another likely title contender going forward, so a win here will give him some much-needed momentum after his title feud with Finn got sidelined and forgotten about.
Oh man, I hope Asuka does win and Bayley gets called up if only because now I’m picturing Emma & Dana Brooke whining about how unfair it is because Asuka is so scary and dangerous and shouldn’t be allowed to be champion. 
Well, it would explain a lot about this clip from '92…
I managed to wangle both Saturday and Monday off work through nefarious means, so I can actually stay up and and watch NXT and Wrestlemania and not be a zombie the next day at work. One of them I’m incredibly thrilled for, the other not so much, but hey, I want to see Roman get booed out of an arena as much as the next guy.
My pics for Takeover Does Dallas
Finn vs Joe: Joe. If Joe wins, he’s got title defense matches against a gold mine of talent. Ciampa, Gargano, Finn, Crews, Aires, Nakamura… Finn can stay in NXT and still be the face of NXT.
Alpha Americans vs Nu Horsemen: Bagles works 90% of the match, audience says “Kurt who?”, Alphas win the titles.
Bayley vs Asuka: Bayley will look scared and worried when Asuka smiles, takes a beating but keeps the title.
Sami vs Nakamura: Zayn’s doing what Neville did, jobbing on his way to the majors. This match will steal the show. Nakamura wins and becomes NXT’s newest rock star.
Aries vs Corbin: The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived gets his debut win. Corbin settles into his role as the dire opponent you must beat if you want a title match, the lieutenant boss, the Joey Pepperoni.
Crews vs Sampson: Clash of music styles. Apollo has the loud, triumphant baton-twirling music, while Elias has the ominous doomsday guitar that is absent of joy. I’m probably the only Elias Sampson mark in existence, but Apollo’s got too much pro experience to job to somebody this green. Apollo cruises.
Also, Lucha Underground happened. Dario Cueto has returned to the Temple, he’s brought his demon-possessed mass-murdering cannibal brother with him, and all is well with the world! They’ve even got a new house band - Chingon, with Robert Rodriguez himself on lead guitar. (In-universe, one wonders how the conversation went when they asked Dario Cueto what happened to the last band. “Oh, nothing - one of my employees murdered them and made a chair out of their bones, that’s all. It used to be right over there - right where you’ll be playing.”) Dario agrees to let Rey and Dragon Azteca Jr. compete, and denies knowing anything about how Dragon Azteca Sr. died (I’ve got a feeling junior and Black Lotus are going to have to discuss that at some point.)
We see Mariposa in action, and learn a little more about her history from Marty Wyatt - the Moths were the wealthiest of the Aztec tribes (thus Marty’s being able to afford to live in La Jolla, one assumes) and the Mariposa mask has been passed down from mother to daughter for centuries, its wearer protecting the tribe from those who want to take their riches. Weirdly enough, Blue Demon was one of the random luchadors she attacked in that vignette.
The Unlikely Trio successfully retain the trios titles in a rematch against the Disiciples of Death. I thought we’d seen the last of them after Mil Muertes murdered them a few episodes ago, but I guess that nobody associated with Catrina stays dead for very long.
Matanza absolutely squashes Pentagon Jr. in the main event. I don’t think I’ve seen Pentagon get manhandled like that even once on the series thus far. Minor botch when the laces on Matanza’s mask came undone and he had to quickly re-tie them - you’d think the mask would be a little more secure, seeing as the reason he’s wearing it is to keep him from eating people and all. He even smacks Vampiro around when he runs in to protect his student after the match - wonder if we’ll see him and Matanza in action against each other at some point?