Rolling 2014 Haunted Rocking Chair Thread

sweet match too.

The bad news Barrett character was such a bad idea. More of it doesn't make it work better.

yeah I don't understand what they're trying to do with him at all.

Poor Batista, maybe the only way to get anyone on his side for Wrestlemania is to have him face Cena.

Batista's wrinkly head gets more pronounced week by week and creeps me the hell out. He looks like a testicle.

v good chamber match besides the lame overbooked ending

quite silly, yes. you already have six guys in a huge weird cage, it's not a scenario that's going to take many more convolutions before it falls apart.

Halfway through the show and:

Wyatts v. Shield is Match of the fucking Year. Its going to be very hard to top. 5 out of 6 in that match have the potential to have legit hall of fame worthy careers. Luke Harper is so creepy. Seth Rollins gets better every day. Dean Ambrose is the perfect Keifer Sutherland 80s movie villain. Reigns is a God. Bray too, I guess. Rowan... will need a sexual chocolate esque mid card reboot.

The crowd chanted BOO TISTA.

Big E v. Swagger was fun but its nothing you wouldnt get on Raw.

NAO need to go. Usos are great.

The Crime Time fight was ok. I feel like I once started a thread about unnecessary tag team break ups. Kicking Marty and throwing him through the glass made an ok midcarder who needed razor ladder matches and 4 years until the iron man match win. But Titus ain't Michaels and O'Neill ain't Marty (actually he might be.)

The EC intros have taken like 15 minutes.

Coming out party maybe not the right phrase given how long The Shield in particular have been knocking around the main-event, but jeezus did those six guys look good out there. Especially in the finish, when the Wyatts started stalking and Roman Reigns found himself caught in the same trap that The Shield have used for so long, holyyy shit. And powering out of the Sister Abigail at the end for the close-but-no-cigar comeback, that was some fucking old school babyface-against-the-odds shit. The moment when Reigns started to force Wyatt's wrist up, wow

Surely they've realised something is gonna have to give with Batista / Orton? Unless they want to stick that match in the middle of the card under Taker / Lesnar, HHH / Bryan, Cena / Wyatt and whatever it is the Shield are going to be doing (triple threat? Reigns vs Ambrose and Rollins in a handicap match?)

Tbh that actually looks like a pretty passable WM card, minus Batista / Orton (which would be fine in the middle of the card as I say, but not as your big title match). Shields / Wyatts starting to build a little star power up, particularly after last night. Amazing what can be achieved when talented wrestlers are hired, given gimmicks that aren't beneath contempt and then given time on PPV to show what they can do. Cena needs to put over Bray Wyatt though, if that's gonna have any legs.

I have no idea what they do but in my head (fantasy wrestling booking is a gym time distraction favourite of mine) I really hope its set up akin to WMX and Bryan has to beat Hunter on the night to be put in the title match at the end of the night. Between now and then he can feud with Kane, put Steph in some compromising position (shame Shane isn't around to do the exact same set up Mankind did to fit Rock) to add the stipulation to the match and then have some face offs with Evolution. Maybe have him fight Flair or something too, just for completists sake.

Yeah, the future looks hella bright. Fire Miz, Big Show, ADR, Batista and Orton and its pretty much a dream roster. For all the talk of shitting on the crowd recently and having Orton be the insipid face of the company and the boring as shit authority figure storylines, wrestlemania could be a classic. Last night was excellent too, and Royal Rumble had a classic in DB v. Bray.

Tonight is the biggest Raw since Raw 1000. UT, Brock, Hogan and Vince all presumably return. WM has to be set in stone. Like I said, it could be a classic and there are many combos of what the card may look like in making it really fun. The only real match we know is Bray v. Cena and that should be amazing regardless of who wins, as I'm sure Cena won't be super duper Cena and at least give Bray some rub if he does win.

Run that stipulation for Bryan / Trips, have him go over and inserted into the title match only for Big Dave to pin him clean and fair in the middle of the ring. WRESTLEMANIA MOMENT!!! And then Trips comes out, prods Dave with his index finger and covers for the title. WRESTLEMANIA MOMENT!!! And then Hogan can bust on out there to immediately challenge HHH and beat him in 20 seconds. The show ends with Hulk Hogan standing tall as WWE Champion. WRESTLEMANIA MOMENT!!! Kevin Nash will have been involved, but no one's quite sure how or why.

Also I don't know how they do it but I'd love the Shield to stay together as faces for the next year, along Roman as title challanger/holder. Splitting them for a Mania match will be disappointing.

I'd personally love: Bryan-Hunter (Bryan wins to go into the main event); some tag team clusterfuck w/ Usos, NAOs, Shield, other Wyatts, Rhodes fam, el torito gang; making two matches somewhere between Big E, Swagger, Cesaro, Sheamus, Jack Swagger and maybe Ambrose for hard hitting undercard matches w/ titles; Taker-Brock with Sting in the rafters; Cena-Wyatt; token diva; Orton-Batista-DB that I'd also love to be a clusterfuck where Bryan some how defeats every part of the authority (Evolution + Michaels + Kane etc.? throw them all in).

That seems like a hell of a show to me. If the rumours are true and Batista is contracted to win the title at mania, have Orton-Batista early with the DB-HHH stip match and then DB fucking running knee him at the end for a big YES! as Dave can't work two matches a night. I'm sure they can easily find a good heel to feud with Bryan until SummerSlam not related to Evolution so him punking them all out will be fine.

---

Or they can have RO-BFDave third on the card and pretend it doesn't exist and no-one is booing.

I am fascinated by the idea that Hunter said ten years ago Orton-Batista had going to be the headline to WM30 regardless of circumstance and so its happening. Its not even trolling, its just over a decade of stubbornness.

It wouldn't be a disaster were Cena to go over Bray, but I think the card is such that there can be other feel-good babyface wins this time round (Bryan, basically, also maybe Reigns, obviously Taker and *shudder* Botchtista). Think they should strike while the iron is hot on these newer guys, I can't remember the last time they had such a raft of workers so obviously on the cusp of big things. Cena doesn't lose much shine if he puts over Wyatt here, there'll be shenanigans from Harper and Rowan anyway. But if he beats Bray clean on such a big show after the wins that Bray has been getting this year then it just kinda kills yet another promising heel's momentum.

Cesaro needs a big match on this card I feel. Him vs Sheamus in a face vs face power match where they just whale on each other would be eminently acceptable, provided Cesaro gets the win.

Cesaro v. Swagger also acceptable. Throw in some Zeb-Hulk Real American nonsense too and it would be really fun.

I'm interested who seems to get the post-WM Raw reaction this year. Last year it was Ziggler and Fandango. The year before was all about Bryan losing in 18 seconds. This year I wanna say Cesaro? Depends on how the next 6 weeks are booked I guess. There's still SO much to happen w/ Hogan, Sting, booking the damn card, proper turns etc.

Also lol poor ziggler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S9ODZCk0H4#t=0

I want a Bryan v. Kane feud, where Taker comes back to save his brother. A Taker heel/Bryan face WM match would be amazing. Crowd would be torn, and a Bryan win to break the streak would be bigger than the belt.

Anyone sign up for the network today? I'm hearing lots of "content unavailable" problems and such. I figured I'd wait a bit.

currently jobless and youtube/daily motion/prowrestlingtorrents still exist so no. i think i will when i get a bit of money and stability but i know i have to save every last penny until like october... so maybe when it properly launches in the uk anyway.

USA only I thought? Not arsed with all that mucking around with proxies and whatever

OSW Review - Old School WWF *Video* Reviews
about an hour ago · Edited
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE WWE NETWORK!
• These pics are from Vince's introduction, and the Benoit & Over The Edge 99 disclaimers. OTE has ~12 minutes cut.

NON-AMERICANS: You can sign up from OUTSIDE THE US!
• Create a new account http://network.wwe.com/ (don't use FB/Twitter)
• Get fake US address http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/
• Use your own paypal account ($9.99 per month with a 6-month commitment)
• No VPN required on desktops/laptops (eg Chrome) but Phones/tablets seem to be Geo-locked to USA. You may need a VPN/proxy (eg Tunnelbear, unlock-US). PS3/PS4? Create a US account.

EVERYBODY:
• 'New' RAW & SDs won't air for 30 days after their original TV airing
• Live PPVs will be available on demand right afterwards
• STILL CENSORED: e.g. ECW Swearing and original music is dubbed out
• RAW archives only go back about 2 years (and also the first few eps) SMACKDOWN goes back about a year.
• Streaming quality is variable because of the surge but when everything calms down it's excellent
• Devices: Desktops/Laptops/360/PS3/PS4/tablets/phones/ROKU box/Apple TV. NOT XBOX ONE YET. Chromecast has issues at the time of this post.
• Register with two devices at a time.
• Any questions ask below!

maffew at botchamania also says essentially click US as country of origin and thats enough to get it.

haha was coming here to post the Booker T youtube, truly the lord taketh away and the lord giveth

The only real match we know is Bray v. Cena and that should be amazing regardless of who wins, as I'm sure Cena won't be super duper Cena and at least give Bray some rub if he does win.

yeah Cena seems like he's having a ton of fun lately having crazy non-formula matches with talented guys he has an ostensible style clash with

without the deadwood mentioned above there are plenty of good potential matchups between all the various technical little guys/tank-topped swamp monsters /insanely strong hosses/Roman Reigns

kind of hope they send Ambrose into a 1.0 Jake the Snake heel push post-Shield, try to generate some old fashioned I Am Genuinely Uncomfortable Whenever You Are On Camera heat

tempted by the shonky UK WWE network thing but kind of unclear if the free trial is actually a trial or they just give you a week free then hoover up your bank account forever; if they work out how to pull the ladder up and cut off the motherland it could be a pain in the ass

In retrospect this thread should perhaps have been called The Road To Wrestlemoania but we weren't to know I suppose

I'm watching my first episode of Raw for ooh maybe twelve years? So far Hulk Hogan has been cheered a lot and rambled a lot, and everyone has been talking about WWE Network a lot.

now as everyone enjoyed part 1 so much we have an ADR - Bootista rematch.

nice of both the director and commentators to acknowledge the Bootista movement.

That's the best they could do with Bootista's incredible lack of anyone giving a fuck? how sad.

felt like they handed Batista the mic and let him come up with a response on the spot.

I didn't mention it last night but it seemed odd that Cesaro was built up as a monster with superhuman strength, only to have him tap out the second he's put in the STF.

I guess he's super strong not super tough.

lmao @ hogan fucking up selling the network within a minute. selling the wwe universe to the wwe universe brother!

lmao @ the batista-orton promo. they chant for punk. "if they boo me, i boo them back!" oooooh dave.

people chanting we the people to cheer the foreign white heel against the nice black american dude? im reading too much into that right? either way it makes me a bit uncomfortable.

fuck me thats a horrible crowd for bray v. reigns. you get the two biggest stars of the next ten years in the main event and you chant for jerry fucking lawler and husky harris and every other fucking wrestler? gtfo. well done for ruining it.

Paul Heyman just isn't a short-haired man, he has a ghost ponytail much like the ghost moustache we find on the upper lip of formerly moustached men who've recently shaved. More conspicuous in its absence than it ever was when present.

Trying out the network. Live streaming works great - they're running shows throughout the day and no hiccups or anything wrong at all.

The on demand vault stuff though has been a different experience. Tried about ten different things and they all froze between 1-10 minutes of starting. However, right now I'm watching Starrcade '83 and it's working fine. Tried earlier and it kept freezing after 3 minutes.

Spoke too soon. Died about 35 minutes in.

Think I'll leave it for a while until it settles down a bit, the internet here is shoddy anyway.

In other news, looks like they officially turned Bootista heel last night. "I will destroy your heroes" Kinda helps the tv shows because now at least they can pretend that they've got themselves a lightning hot heel rather than an failed superstar babyface. But does that leave Orton as a face champion? :((((( This match is still gonna suck seven kinds of ass, idk if they're gonna run with Batista as the new choice of the Authority and have Orton go rogue or what. They haven't really left themselves much leeway with the other matches now set in stone. Heel vs heel is never gonna happen at WM, so I suppose a turn for Orton must be in the offing. What a fucking mess.

Its Dragon v. Evolution I tells ya.

This vid was recently reuploaded to Youtube in the wake of the sad passing of Nelson Frazier Jr. Can't make up my mind whether my favourite part is the juxtaposition of Big Kev's snidey revisionist takedown and Mabel's wide-eyed naivete ("I felt like it would've been better for me to be the champion and let Diesel chase", "It was a good match") or the transparent David Brentism of "they were going to fire him on the spot [...] I said fire him, fire me". Kevin Nash - eats, shoots and leaves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KloN39L8nk

NXT Arrival kicked of with a match of the year candidate. Cesaro v. Zayn was special; great wrestling, great pacing, great ring psychology. High bar for the rest of the show.

The next two matches aren't just failing to reach the bar they're tarnishing the damn thing.

I'm really into watching all these old PPVs on the network. Just finished the Wrestlevision Classic from 1985. It's the Survivor Series tourney before it had that name, and was a blast to watch. Lots of fun pairings, and a heaping helping of prime Macho Man.

If anyone has recommendations for classic events I'd love some tips.

wcw in 1994 pre hogan is increasingly becoming one of my favourite eras - sting pillman austin cactus vader flair steamboat rick rude regal - its a perfect roster.

wm17 19 and 24

no way out 2001? if thats the one with rock angle and the three stages of hell

idk any ecw but heatwave 98 is generally considered the classic

summerslam 98

are the clashes on it? wrestlewar... 89? if thats the end to steamboat-flair.

great american bash 1991, king of the ring 1995, wcw in 1999 and 2000 (although i think spring stampede is a beloved show), december to dismember and royal rumble 2014 for hate watching.

Thanks! I've seen some but by no means all of those. Looks like every WWE, WCW and ECW PPV is up to stream so all of these recommendations should be accessible.

Had nothing on this morning and I'm hungover to hell and crave entertainment so I've caved and set up the free trial for the Network. Pretty good really, isn't it? Just watched the MSG show from December 1991 with Hogan vs Flair, Bret Hart vs Mountie, Rockers vs Nasty Boys. Good fun show, Flair / Hogan makes for interesting watching given the eventual situation at WM VIII. Flair bumped like a champ for him all match, as you'd expect, but then was allowed to kick out of the Leg Drop (or at least get his foot on the ropes). Crowd was loving this stuff.

dayyuumm, just dawning on me how much content this actually is. It'd be worth it for the PPVs alone. Is the current plan just to keep adding content then? It'd be absolutely extraordinary if they got the complete archives of Raw, Smackdown, Nitro, Thunder, ECW Hardcore tv etc. up here, not to mention all of the super shows from the '80s etc.

Streaming quality for me so far has been fine, no delays, no problems, all in HD. And I'm working off quite a crappy internet connection here, max download speed is around 400/500 kbps. Seriously impressed so far. Might watch some of the early In Your House PPVs later.

Ah, jinxed it. It seems I can't play any of the videos now except for the two I've already streamed this morning. Piss.