I'd go so far as to say Kane did well, though nothing special, a pretty standard Kane performance.

FWIW if it wasnt for the buried alive gimmick I would take Bryan v Kane again over Bryan v Batista.

If WWE wanted Batista to challenge Bryan next why would they make him be the one to get pinned clean in the Evo/Shield match? Why not switch him with Orton?

That booking might indicate that plans to line Batista up next have been scrapped, but all the casual fan remembers is that Evolution lost anyway. Who pinned who barely registers.

Bryan vs. Batista would make sense for the same reason it was Batista in the ring at the end- massive, massive, heel heat.

TORNADO SIRENS THO

Upon reading this thread quickly

1- A lot of you are wrong and didn't love Shield/Evolution enough, and don't love Dean Ambrose enough. WHY ARE YOU SO WRONG YOU WRONGS. MAYBE TRY STOP BEING WRONG. BELIEVE IN THE SHIELD AND VOTE DEAN AMBROSE FOR PRESIDENT OF LIFE.

(it's obvious that they had to put Kaney/Bryan on last because of the amount of clean-up required, but it was odd that Cena/Wyatt wasn't on first. It didn't help that it had to follow that, but also it was the stupidest match like ever)

2- I think Paige has been in sloppy matches, but I feel like that hasn't been her fault. She's been working with complete ****.

I was surprised that nobody pointed out how convenient it was that an old car with no license plate just happened to stand in the parking lot of the arena.

Santa Claus isn't real either

her opponents certainly haven't helped but paige is not blameless. i mean, in her "title match" vs. AJ she was asked to do one move - her specialty, finishing move which she's done 1000 times - and she botched it.

in terms of character, she has had absolutely no presence or swag about her. she looks nervous and will let out a "yeahhhhh!" or "arghhhh!" once or twice per match after a move but that's about it. i think she's trying way too hard/overthinking everything in the ring and she's looking super stiff and tentative with everything. obviously being pitted against the likes of aksana and naomi or whatever doesn't help hide any of this.

by comparison, AJ would constantly work the crowd and always have some sort of awesome facial expression/reaction to basically everything from start to finish. AJ was great at interacting with the fans and for a diva to be successful i think that's almost a requirement since the in-ring stuff isn't going to compare to what the guys are doing.

finished the shift.

AJ wasnt exactly polished in the early days when she came through with Kaitlyn as the Chickbusters feuding off and on with Nattie and Beth Phoenix, it took a while before she was able to work the crowd and act the role whilst wrestling rather than just being there as a wrestler. She was the other chick in that team doing stories where she was dating Hornswoggle with Kaitlyn the expected star.

Paige will get there and work as well as she did in NXT (and better as she keeps improving, she is still just 21), she just got thrown into the deep end.

Keep in mind AJ was like one in a generation too. Once she polished her craft she became certainly top 3 since the 80s, so its a difficult comparison to make for Paige. Paige as rough as she is working is still better than basically everyone else on the diva roster but even if she becomes confident and error free she will probably never be as good as AJ on the mic and working the crowd, but then her in ring work has become so much better since her indie days in SHIMMER so who knows what she can do given chance to improve that next.

Like I say its mostly nerves working on the big stage, she isnt relaxed and it is coming through in the matches. Get her in a feud with Emma who she has a lot of chemistry with and the two can just run their NXT spots and put together a good performance week in week out.

I've got AJ as historically overrated

This sort of mind reading is silly.

I don't think any of us can pretend we know enough to judge much about who is responsible for what in a match. Even if we see somebody we know botched a spot, we don't know how it was actually booked and what not.

Paige's debut was obviously a mess, both with the specific spot and because they basically went with "shy new girl" over "crazy badass" to start. Now that she's hurting people and yelling and licking her lips and looking OMG and better establishing her character I think we have to give her a bit of a blank slate.

i've been watching wrestling long enough to confidently say that paige has been sloppy in her matches and it isn't entirely the fault of the people she's up against. there's really no need for mind reading - she used to be pretty good and now she's pretty bad.

I just now realized that Cesaro's entrance music with the sirens is a take off of Perry Saturn's entrance music in WCW.

I'm under the impression (and have been since I watched it for the first time and said it aloud) that AJ botched that spot.

JTG's gotta get around somehow

If Dids didn't think we loved Ambrose enough three years ago, I'd hate to see his reaction now.

I don't understand the point in the bump. I did think for a minute that he was talking about AJ Styles but then went up for context.

Amazing what happened during and since this card for these people. BNB in line for a sure huge push but too popular. Wyatt forever earns my mockery in the ending of that cage match. Shield/Evolution not being anywhere close to as good as Shield/Wyatts. AJ and Paige gone. Dids replied something about including Paige gifs...we certainly have those now.

AJ Lee was an awful awful wrestler with a fantastic ass. My statement couldn't be more correct if you read how the IWC treats her in ring and character work.

LOL Paige