Wrestlemania 34

[StanMarsh51]

Except Braun said he had a partner last night. Not that WWE wouldn't already forget that he said that by next week.

I thought he said he doesn't need a partner right before Sheamus and Cesaro interrupted...I must've missed when he said he has one in mind.

 

[Ewa PGH Fan]

I thought he said he doesn't need a partner right before Sheamus and Cesaro interrupted...I must've missed when he said he has one in mind.

He started with he didn't need one. Then later said he had one and Shamus and Cesaro said you and your partner in response. It was a little confusing like they were hedging their bets on who it might or might not be.

That's why I think it's Big Cass. He was at Raw to be officially cleared and according to PWInsider.com is schedule to be at the Performance Center the next few weeks to work off ring rust. Which means if all goes well, he'd be ready to be back in the ring by WM. But if things don't go as planned, they can still change direction.

Another possibility that crossed my mind is Johnny Wrestling from NXT. Storyline he's kicked out of NXT and Braun recruiting him wouldn't be out of the question.

 

[iowajerms]

People bash how WWE is having Reigns build up the matchup with Lesnar by himself. I think it is kind of brilliant and new to Lesnar's character. I also think it is helping Reigns with his promos. Then next few weeks, Lesnar is more involved in the build up. Lesnar has a bland character. It fits him great, but if we see him too often, we get bored of him.

 

[Judge Fudge]

People bash how WWE is having Reigns build up the matchup with Lesnar by himself. I think it is kind of brilliant and new to Lesnar's character. I also think it is helping Reigns with his promos. Then next few weeks, Lesnar is more involved in the build up. Lesnar has a bland character. It fits him great, but if we see him too often, we get bored of him.

I think it is helping Romans crowd support too

 

[Judge Fudge]

Keep a eye on some kind of tag team match involving D-Bry and Shane o mac

 

[Ewa PGH Fan]

I think it is helping Romans crowd support too

Yeah, the attempted "You deserve it" chant after the beat down died on the vine and never really picked up any steam.

 

[Judge Fudge]

Yeah, the attempted "You deserve it" chant after the beat down died on the vine and never really picked up any steam.

Even the boos are becoming less noticeable.

They need to have paulie change some promos a bit for it to work

 

[wildturkey]

Shane McMahon has come down with diverticulitis and also has a hernia, making it HIGHLY unlikely he'll be able to be in a match at WM. Looks like the all but confirmed Shane/Bryan vs KO/Zayn match will have an audible of some kind

 

[Ewa PGH Fan]

Shane McMahon has come down with diverticulitis and also has a hernia, making it HIGHLY unlikely he'll be able to be in a match at WM. Looks like the all but confirmed Shane/Bryan vs KO/Zayn match will have an audible of some kind

Shane supposedly had surgery on the hernia. Cena would be the obvious choice to replace Shane but he's tied up with the Undertaker. It will be interesting to see how WWE adjusts this close to WM.

 

[futballiscool]

Shane supposedly had surgery on the hernia. Cena would be the obvious choice to replace Shane but he's tied up with the Undertaker. It will be interesting to see how WWE adjusts this close to WM.

The crowd would go apeshit if Rusev was a surprise partner.

 

[Yo Tee]

Confirmed Matches:
Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns for Universal Title
AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for WWE Title
The Miz vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor for Intercontinental Title
Charlotte vs. Asuka for Smackdown Women's Title
Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax for Raw Women's Title
Randy Orton vs. Bobby Roode vs. Jinder Mahal for United State Title
Ronda Rousey and Kurt Angle vs. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon
Cesaro and Sheamus vs. Braun Strowman (w/ maybe a partner) for Raw Tag Team Titles
Cedric Alexander vs. Mustafa Ali for Cruiserweight Title
Women's Battle Royal
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

Rumored Matches:
John Cena vs. The Undertaker
The Usos vs. New Day vs. Bludgeon Brothers for Smackdown Tag Team Titles


Couple questions still unanswered for me.

The Zayn/Owens vs. Bryan/McMahon thing. Could the Shane McMahon hospitalization story be a work or is that legit? Could that possibly be to sell the beatdown that he got 2 weeks ago? If not, would WWE make it a handicap match? Bryan vs. Zayn/Owens? Would they give Bryan a mystery partner?

Is the Taker/Cena match a done deal or are these Cena promos just to kill some time while they work out a deal with Taker? If it's not a done deal, what does WWE do with Cena at Wrestlemania then? There's no way they leave him off the card. I'm pretty sure they have a done deal with Taker if they are letting Cena cut these promos. If not, then these promos literally mean nothing, just killing air time.

Do they really give Strowman a partner? Or do they let Strowman win the Tag Titles by himself? I can't see anyone making sense to team up with Strowman except for......WEEEEEELLLLL....well it's the Big Show!

Why are they building up this Sasha vs. Bayley thing if they aren't gonna give them a match against each other at Wrestlemania? I don't get this whatsoever. Seems to me that the best thing to do it so have Bayley vs. Sasha given the set up over the last 2 months.

 

[Ewa PGH Fan]

The crowd would go apeshit if Rusev was a surprise partner.

They could make it a mystery partner and have it be Rusev. The storyline could cross over to Total Divas which WWE likes to do.

 

[Ewa PGH Fan]

Couple questions still unanswered for me.

The Zayn/Owens vs. Bryan/McMahon thing. Could the Shane McMahon hospitalization story be a work or is that legit? Could that possibly be to sell the beatdown that he got 2 weeks ago? If not, would WWE make it a handicap match? Bryan vs. Zayn/Owens? Would they give Bryan a mystery partner?

Is the Taker/Cena match a done deal or are these Cena promos just to kill some time while they work out a deal with Taker? If it's not a done deal, what does WWE do with Cena at Wrestlemania then? There's no way they leave him off the card. I'm pretty sure they have a done deal with Taker if they are letting Cena cut these promos. If not, then these promos literally mean nothing, just killing air time.

Do they really give Strowman a partner? Or do they let Strowman win the Tag Titles by himself? I can't see anyone making sense to team up with Strowman except for......WEEEEEELLLLL....well it's the Big Show!

Why are they building up this Sasha vs. Bayley thing if they aren't gonna give them a match against each other at Wrestlemania? I don't get this whatsoever. Seems to me that the best thing to do it so have Bayley vs. Sasha given the set up over the last 2 months.

The Shane surgery was announced on WWE.com and seemed to mix storyline with real life. How much is which remains to be seen but announcing a hernia surgery 2 weeks before WM doesn't seem to be just storyline due to the fact Shane won't be recovered in time for WM. A handicap match doesn't make sense for a returning star, one who hasn't wrestled for over 2 years. Mystery partner makes the most sense now but who is a big question. Which ties into the Cena/Taker storyline.

You'd think Cena calling out Taker would lead to a match but Taker hasn't shown up yet and Shane's surgery if legit has thrown them a curveball at the last minute. So, who knows. Taker appeared to retire from WM after last year's match. Maybe they now put off Taker/Cena to Summer Slam and make Cena DB's partner against Zane/Owens??? They are practically brothers-in-law after all and would tie into both Total Divas and Total Bellas. Something WWE does all the time. So, TBD.

Big Show is still recovering from hip surgery and the last reports i saw he wasn't ready for a in-ring return but maybe he is now. Kane and Ellias would also make sense if you forget their recent feuds with Strowman whcih WWE does all the time,

As for Baley/Banks, I think one or the other will screw the other out of the Battle Royale win or eliminate the other one setting up a summer feud calumniating at Summer Slam. So well see but if not you're right what's the point of what they're doing now.

 

[StanMarsh51]

Is the Taker/Cena match a done deal or are these Cena promos just to kill some time while they work out a deal with Taker? If it's not a done deal, what does WWE do with Cena at Wrestlemania then? There's no way they leave him off the card. I'm pretty sure they have a done deal with Taker if they are letting Cena cut these promos. If not, then these promos literally mean nothing, just killing air time.

You'd think Cena calling out Taker would lead to a match but Taker hasn't shown up yet and Shane's surgery if legit has thrown them a curveball at the last minute. So, who knows. Taker appeared to retire from WM after last year's match. Maybe they now put off Taker/Cena to Summer Slam and make Cena DB's partner against Zane/Owens??? They are practically brothers-in-law after all and would tie into both Total Divas and Total Bellas. Something WWE does all the time. So, TBD.

Regarding Cena/Taker, there are a few rumors floating around that....

Spoiler

Taker returns as the American Badass character if the 'Deadman' character is truly retired. This would work with Kid Rock being inducted into the HOF, as they could have him perform the song as Taker returns.

I read an article the other day that had a interesting scenario - have Cena come to WM as a fan (sit in the front row, mingle with fans etc) then he gets frustrated and comes into the ring and demands a match, to which the American Badass song hits and Taker comes down.

 

[Ewa PGH Fan]

Regarding Cena/Taker, there are a few rumors floating around that....

Spoiler

Taker returns as the American Badass character if the 'Deadman' character is truly retired. This would work with Kid Rock being inducted into the HOF, as they could have him perform the song as Taker returns.

I read an article the other day that had a interesting scenario - have Cena come to WM as a fan (sit in the front row, mingle with fans etc) then he gets frustrated and comes into the ring and demands a match, to which the American Badass song hits and Taker comes down.

I've seen those spoilers too but I'm not sure the hardcore fans that attend WM or all fans for that matter want to see him as anything other than Taker. From my memory the American Badass character wasn't really over and he went back to Taker again which the fans went nuts for. At this point, I have a hard time seeing him as anything other than Taker. I think a lot of fans do too. So IMO he should either appear as Taker or not at all.

 

[StanMarsh51]

I've seen those spoilers too but I'm not sure the hardcore fans that attend WM or all fans for that matter want to see him as anything other than Taker. From my memory the American Badass character wasn't really over and he went back to Taker again which the fans went nuts for. At this point, I have a hard time seeing him as anything other than Taker. I think a lot of fans do too. So IMO he should either appear as Taker or not at all.

I agree that he should appear as the Deadman, but fans love nostalgia (even if wasn't a great idea back then) so I do think many will like this.

The fact that Cena's been 'humanizing' Taker in his taunts (talking about his workout clips on his wife's instagram, posting pics of Taker's failed gimmicks pre-WWE, etc) leads me to think it's not the Deadman character we'll see, since it doesn't seem like WWE to acknowledge that the Deadman is a dude with a family and had failed gimmicks pre-WWE.

 

[Ewa PGH Fan]

I agree that he should appear as the Deadman, but fans love nostalgia (even if wasn't a great idea back then) so I do think many will like this.

The fact that Cena's been 'humanizing' Taker in his taunts (talking about his workout clips on his wife's instagram, posting pics of Taker's failed gimmicks pre-WWE, etc) leads me to think it's not the Deadman character we'll see, since it doesn't seem like WWE to acknowledge that the Deadman is a dude with a family and had failed gimmicks pre-WWE.

They own WCW's library so he could come out as Mean Mark Callus. I would pop for that, course none of the kids would know that character. Come to think of it, none of the kids would know the American Badass Character either. Hell if WWE wouldn't keep reminding me, It forget the American Badass character too!

 

[StanMarsh51]

They own WCW's library so he could come out as Mean Mark Callus. I would pop for that, course none of the kids would know that character. Come to think of it, none of the kids would know the American Badass Character either. Hell if WWE wouldn't keep reminding me, It forget the American Badass character too!

None of the kids really remembered the Hardy's but they came out to a major pop at last year's WM. The WM crowd is largely adult fans who make the trek, and they remember the American Badass character and typically cheer for almost anything nostalgic.

 

[Yo Tee]

The WWE has put themselves in such a bind with The Undertaker. Last year, you have him lose to Roman Reigns, essentially putting Reigns over, you have him put his gear in the middle of the ring. You have him break character to kiss his wife. For a year, you've built up Roman Reigns as the guy who retired The Undertaker......now, you possibly have him coming back just like every other Wrestlemania, to face John Cena. I only see this going one of two ways:

Either you have him do his traditional Wrestlemania appearance, which in turn dumbs down Roman's win last year, completely taking away the thing that you built him up on all year and maybe more importantly, makes the after match events that were very emotional...mean absolutely nothing and creates this situation where the only way fans will believe that Taker is really done is if he literally comes out and says that he's done.

OR....

You have him not respond, not show up at all, essentially using the Undertaker name to sell more tickets and hype the event up more, and just push John Cena into a situation where it makes zero sense for him to be in, which in turn creates this situation where Cena's promos leading up to Wrestlemania mean absolutely nothing and it completely ignored and forgotten about after Wrestlemania, unless you have a situation where The Undertaker wrestles at Backlash, or you push it back to Summerslam.

I think it's pretty clear that, as a whole, WWE creative is absolutely lost with what they are doing here.

You have such a shit Universal title picture regardless of who wins the title.
The IC title was being thrown around like hot potato just so Roman Reigns could be a grand slam champion.
The US title is CURRENTLY being thrown around like hot potato.
The Smackdown tag title division is being held back by a lackluster tag team division, hence why the New Day and Usos are back feuding.
The Smackdown women's division is so weak that you needed Asuka from Raw to challenge for the Smackdown Women's title, which in turn completely ignores Carmella being the briefcase holder.
You have this amazing feud with Sasha and Bayley, but it is being completely ignored just so you can "break the mold" and include everyone on the women's roster in Wrestlemania in a Battle Royal.
It feels like Ronda Rousey is being forced on us with her crap wrestling moves and horrible mic skills.
And everybody continues to not give a fuck about the cruiserweight division or the Andre the Giant memorial battle royal.

 

[wildturkey]

So it sounds like Shane is still going to try to work Mania. They announced the match as official tonight. That seems like a really stupid and risky thing to do. Diverticulitis ain't nothing to fuck around with. It seems unwise to wrestle a match 2 weeks after being diagnosed.