Based on their desire push Roman, the backlash it's getting, Bryan's return, and the obviously changed RR main event (they had a whole commercial package every week about LESNAR CENA THREE even after they added Rollins), I'm wondering if we're going to get something funky next Sunday. Maybe they've called an audible on the title match and are going to have rollins leave with it in some convoluted way involving the briefcase. Then they'd still get their Lesnar/Reigns main event for a Reigns push, can have a Bryan/Rollins title match in the middle of the card, won't have Philly **** on everything, and get the title off Brock without it looking ridiculous that he lost based on recent results.

Seems like it'd be a way to do everything they want to do for WM, get out of a corner they kind of backed themselves in, and have the fans enjoy it.

To clarify, the only reason I'm thinking this is due to the adding of Rollins when the commercials for the Rumble make it clear this wasn't their plan. Anyone else think it's possible?

That does make a lot of sense. Bryan continues his feud with the authority, Lesnar stays strong to put over Reigns and Cena is freed up to feud with Rusev.

This would be so bad on many levels.

First, putting the title match in the middle of the card? Ugh, it was bad enough when they led off WM28 with Bryan/Sheamus, but they had another main title and "once in a lifetime" after that.

Second, the build to it Reigns/Lesnar would be terrible. You've got a guy who's infrequently there vs. a guy with bottom 5 mic skills on the roster. Then again, if anyone can make this work, it's Paul Heyman.

Lastly, the match itself would probably suck, but that's probably the least of the problems with this.

I co-sign everything eyebooger said.

Which is not to say that I can't see Jim being right about it as a prediction, but it's truly awful if that's the route they go.

Reigns on the mic and Heyman on the mic are the two non-wrestling segments I look forward to the most currently. I don't know if they would mix well though. It would be like alternating between watching 2 minutes of the Godfather and 2 minutes of Reefer Madness over and over.

What's dumb is that if they'd never put a mic in Roman's hand you can probably build that feud just by having them stare at eachother.

Can totally see them setting up something like Bryan/Seth for the belt and Roman/Brock though.

Saw on PWI today there were ads running for future events that have since been pulled promoting champion John Cena. So there's that.

meh. Wherever Fast Lane is was advertising Seth/Show vs Cena/Reigns as the main event. Doubt that happens. Hasn't happened on RAW yet, so I won't rule that out.

one possibility that isnt getting mentioned that is 100% in play because lolcenawins.

Here's a little fantasy booking:

reigns wins the rumble, cena beats lesnar for the strap, then we get cena v reigns at WM31. Reigns turns heel in the meantime because he has no other choice because his promos are horrible and crowd is tired of his **** (and they wanted bryan to win the rumble) . in the reigns vs cena title match, Cena wins lol, to tie the record for number of title reigns. Ambrose comes out and attacks Cena and Rollins cashes in, and we get a reuniting of the Shield except all of them are heels for the authority.

In the 2nd headliner match, bryan goes over Lesnar.

The top heels after WM are the Shield, and the top faces are Bryan-Cena-Ziggler

Seems legit though there's a decent chance Ambrose is in new Day the time wrestlemania rolls around

Going against Cena doesn't seem like the optimal program for a guy who freshly turned heel because of the crowd being sick of him.

Stipulation for Bryan/Kane on Raw is that if Bryan doesn't win then he will not be in the Rumble. This should be good because it shows a continuation of Bryan v. Authority which makes him more likely to win the Rumble imo.

That or he's actually being taken out of the Rumble and they're trying to divert the heat from Reigns to the Authority.

Yeah you can never really underestimate just how dumb WWE is, so sadly this is also in play.

Because?

One of the dumber things I've seen recently is people getting worked up about Dean's W/L record. Are we really unable to sort that out from how over he is?

I think its the reason why he is over, why I like him anyways is because I think he's funny, where Stone Cold or Rock, yet very funny could legitimately whip some ones ass.

You have to win matches to be credible. Think of any top guy ever and they never jobbed out as often as someone like Dean. I don't think he's won a big match since the shield broke up. They're treating him as more of an upper-mid card guy than a top guy. If losses aren't important, why does Reigns or Russev never lose? Why do you have to have at least 5 guys to beat Cena? Top guys don't consistently job like this. I'm not saying he can never lose, but its getting out of hand. They're doing it though to make sure the audience knows that Reigns is more important.

Win loss record is fairly important in getting wrestlers over and in my experience as a fan has a strong correlation with willingness of the company to push a guy. So even though you can technically be over despite having a bad win loss record, the company tends to ignore overness and not push these people until they rebuild credibility through a winning streak

His recent losing streak has pushed him down the card very very quickly. Kind of reminds me of Cesaro's post mania losing streak.

See Ziggler, Dolph

I don't think this is true. In part because I think things are so jumbled right now, and just because it's natural with everybody being in the rumble, but I'm not sure I'd know how to order the card beyond 1- Cena. Dean seems like he's treated as being on par with Roman, Dolph, Bryan, all the non-Cena faces.

In terms of TV time and individual attention, Dean seems like as big a deal as anybody.

We can't be watching the same shows if this is what you're seeing. Do you really believe this?

Wat

lol

I mean, I'm more on Dids' side about it being not a big deal (because imo they are currently using his popularity to help along some heels move up the chain a bit and I think that's a reasonable decision) but I can't even fathom seeing him as being on par with Roman in the WWE hierarchy.



Also: regarding the Rumble post and responses earlier, I definitely agree that it wouldn't be the best. Was more thinking of what it is they are trying to do with clearly adding Rollins last minute. It kind of looks like they realize strapping Reigns would be bad, but still want to give him the Lesnar rub they planned on and so this is their new plan.

I do. Show you work, demonstrate how Dean is clearly in a lower position on the card (ignoring W/L) than anybody else. (and cute ignoring the fact that my point was basically that everybody who isn't Cena is roughly at the same level).

Roman's being pushed harder in the sense that crowd is constantly being remidned that he's important- but to me that feels like an attempt to elevate him to Dean's level. Dean's already there and doesn't need the WWE constantly propping him up.

If you're watching WWE and getting the message that Dean Ambrose isn't a big star- I have no idea what you're watching. Last night he had two backstage sequences AND the functional main event match. The ambulance match was a huge part of last week's RAW. He was in the main event on Smackdown. He's getting some of the biggest pops of anybody on the roster. I assume the reason he took the eventual feud ending loss vs Bray is that Bray needed the win way more than he did.