OAO WrestleMania 22 thread - 4/2/06

[naiwf 0]

I may be overreacting.

 

No, you are. You sound like a spurned lover. It's THAT bad.

[Dandy 0]

I used to love John Cena when he had edgy raps that were funny. My favorite thing he did was constantly calling out Brock Lesnar ("You couldn't beat a cripple in a dance-off......wanna see the next big thing? Let me take my pants off!")

 

However, this isn't the 80's anymore when I thought it was legit and punch, kick, clothesline was sufficient to fill up an entire match. I watch for the wrestling and the storylines, and Cena cannot string together moves better than some of the Tough Enough contestants. I have seen him wrestle better than this. I know he has to get carried, but he doesn't have to be so bad. He could improve if he wanted to. I think he is comfortable in his position and needs an eye-opener like being sent back down to OVW for a coupleof months.

 

Turn him heel, give him several months of learning how to put matches together, and I might care about him again. But right now, I want him out of WWE. So yes, I cheered for Triple H last night and it wouldn't bother me if he won it on Raw tonight. But I guess that makes me one of the most stupid people ever, huh Porter?

[Angle-plex 0]

"The Cerebral Assasin may have played his greatest mind game to date by turning the fans against the once popular WWE Champion."

 

Bwahaha geat quote from WWE.com. Hunter is such a psychological genius that he can trick all the fans.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

So...

 

 

let's compare:

 

A. HHH- refuses to job on countless times, buries talents both in the ring and on the mic, hell I don't need to continue, his story is well known.

 

B- Cena- he sulks one night.

 

Wow. Cena sure showed HHH the definition of unprofessionalism.

[Brett Favre 0]

Funny, people have to look twice for this "OMG CENA SULKS" moment. It's not that big of a deal. You just hate Cena, so you happen see these things no one gives a shit about. I mean honestly, i'm sure Edge didn't even notice.

[Black Lushus 0]

I didn't notice it either and the first time I watched NYR was two months after it aired.

[2GOLD 0]

"The Cerebral Assasin may have played his greatest mind game to date by turning the fans against the once popular WWE Champion."

 

Bwahaha geat quote from WWE.com. Hunter is such a psychological genius that he can trick all the fans.

 

Hunter is such an awesome heel he can use his Sith mind control Powers to turn people against Jedi John.

So when Kurt is cheered, he's a horrible heel. When HHH is cheered, it's just because he's such an awesome heel he can make the fans think they don't like Cena?

 

Cena is a two fold problem now. His gimmick was destroyed when he moved to RAW (I expected that, Smackdown is just a better environment) and his wrestling ability isn't improving. They literally gave him the Austin moveset with him having zero clue how to use it. Austin could make it work, Cena cannot even come close to making it work. As for the Backlash ad, maybe Cena meant take back the fans instead of the belt.

[Dandy 0]

Triple H's history speaks for itself by burying Kane, RVD, and Booker T all in a row, but I tip my hat to him for losing cleanly at 3 straight Manias. That is what the top heel should do.

 

I am no apologist for him, but the world would not end if he got the belt again. He has different opponents lined up from the last time he was champ.

[humanoid92 0]

What I don't understand is that one of the onging arguments seems to be:

 

People who think Cena should turn heel vs. People who think he should have dropped the belt because he's getting booed

 

Well, why does it have to be one or the other? He doesn't HAVE to drop the title in order to turn heel. I think they should just turn him while he's still the champ.

 

I've never liked the guy and I don't like him as the champion but I also don't want to see yet another HHH reign. They seem hell bent on keeping the belt on him, so why not just turn him while he's still the champ. We haven't seen that dynamic in quite awhile.

 

What I'm not looking forward to is the endless string of rematches. The post WM formula has been so stale for years now, with main event rematches at the next two PPVs. Give me Cena/RVD or Cena/Edge or Cena/HBK or Cena/Flair or Cena/Benjamin or Cena/Carlito or Cena/anybody... just not two more Cena/HHH matches.

[Angle-plex 0]

I'm thinking Cena and Rey (with their respective titles) get traded during the draft so we get Rey/Hunter for the World Title and Cena can keep his title while they edit his crowd reactions and try to trick the fans.

[naiwf 0]

I'm thinking Cena's talking about regaining his edge. If, and this is a BIG if, the WWE were thinking ahead, they knew Cena would get the "treatment" at 'Mania and are planning to turn him heel, or at least tweener again. It's not out of the realm of possibility that him retaining the title last night was done to set up his eventual turn rather than putting the belt on HHH and then doing it. Granted, they should have done this 6 months ago, but you know how slow Vince is to acknowledge that his plans are not perfect.

 

It's also possible HHH wins the belt before the PPV, and they go the obvious route.

[Papacita 0]

"The Cerebral Assasin may have played his greatest mind game to date by turning the fans against the once popular WWE Champion."

 

Bwahaha geat quote from WWE.com. Hunter is such a psychological genius that he can trick all the fans.

That's just sad.

 

Anyway, I agree with the decision to put Cena over HHH at WM. To me, at this point HHH is really above the title anyway, so any title win for him these days is meaningless anyway. By having him retain cleanly at Mania, it'll mean much more when someone (hopefully not HHH) beats him for it down the line. I actually like Cena, but I'd mark the fuck out if someone completely unexpected came out and squashed him for the title tonight. That'd be great.

[Brett Favre 0]

I think we'll see RVD vs. Rey for the title.

[razazteca 0]

http://www.wwe.com/shows/smackdown/fightingchamp

Rey Mysterio is already set to make his first-ever World Heavyweight Championship defense this Friday night on SmackDown when he takes on the man he pinned to win the title at WrestleMania 22 – Randy Orton.

Oh hells no.

 

On the current topic, Cena should lose the title as soon as possible, but not to Triple H. Never to Triple H.

Is it transition champion time again for Edge?

[Guest Dam(o)nYankees]

Like I said, turn him heel. My claim was that he is the lesser of two evils...i'm not arguing whether or not he deserves to be champ. Thats moot. But to say hes worse than HHH? Come on.

I think keeping the title on Cena has the potential to hurt the company as much or more than the belt on HHH. I think its gotten to the point where the longer you keep the belt on Cena, the angrier you make the fans. And angry fans will not come back. This isn't "The chase" this is pissing people the fuck off. As bad as Hunter burying people is, and more spefically, will be, as long as he, Angle, Taker, Batista to an extent Bradshaw, Benoit and Flair (and you have to believe no matter what he says, Shawn won't ever totally leave) are around, they can survive. In two years, its going to be really ugly because the only other guys that they've put any effort in/havnt been buried, Cena and Orton, are falling on their faces.

 

Make no mistake, Hunter isn't good for the comapany's future. But I don't feel that Cena is good for the future or the present.

[Guest Coffey]

Another thing to think about. Since everyone, for the most part, blasts Cena for his workrate, if he were heel, wouldn't he have to call the majority of the match? That's probably not a good thing.

[Dandy 0]

I don't think the champs should switch back this year at all. I don't wantto further deviate from the topic, but I have an idea of the lineage it looks like they will go for on the year.

[Brett Favre 0]

Another thing to think about. Since everyone, for the most part, blasts Cena for his workrate, if he were heel, wouldn't he have to call the majority of the match? That's probably not a good thing.

 

He's had his best matches as a heel, against Taker, Brock, Eddie and Benoit.

[Guest Coffey]

His best match was a street fight with JBL where Cena's brawling actually made sense and was a focal point of the match.

[Dandy 0]

Another thing to think about. Since everyone, for the most part, blasts Cena for his workrate, if he were heel, wouldn't he have to call the majority of the match? That's probably not a good thing.

 

 

He wouldn't necessarily have to call the majority of the match, but he would have to control the majority of it wrestling. However, heels have a built in advantage of cheap shots, cheating, stalling, and getting the cheap DQ to aide in their limited moveset.

[Brett Favre 0]

Like I said, turn him heel. My claim was that he is the lesser of two evils...i'm not arguing whether or not he deserves to be champ. Thats moot. But to say hes worse than HHH? Come on.

Make no mistake, Hunter isn't good for the comapany's future. But I don't feel that Cena is good for the future or the present.

 

I rather keep Cena as the champ, than have HHH winning the title.

[Dogbert 0]

I liked Cena/HHH. Probably somewhere between *** and ****, in my opinion.

[Guest Dam(o)nYankees]

Another thing to think about. Since everyone, for the most part, blasts Cena for his workrate, if he were heel, wouldn't he have to call the majority of the match? That's probably not a good thing.

 

He's had his best matches as a heel, against Taker, Brock, Eddie and Benoit.

His best match really probably is the Taker match. if he becomes motivated again and works like that, I would be a lot less opposed to him.

 

I don't remember the Brock match though.

[Hawk 34 0]

Another thing to think about. Since everyone, for the most part, blasts Cena for his workrate, if he were heel, wouldn't he have to call the majority of the match? That's probably not a good thing.

 

He's had his best matches as a heel, against Taker, Brock, Eddie and Benoit.

His best match really probably is the Taker match. if he becomes motivated again and works like that, I would be a lot less opposed to him.

 

I don't remember the Brock match though.

 

I put the Benoit match ahead of the Taker match and Cena, had a couple good matches with Angle as well.

[Guest JRE]

Rey's not going to lose already- he's probably just being put over Orton to get some quick credibility and actually have the fans on his side this time.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

Cena's best match by far was againest JBL at last years Judgement Day.

 

Brutal, bloody brawl reminds me of the NWA days.

[Jericholic82 0]

well the show was bettre than I expected coming in so that was a pleasant surprise. here sosme quick thoughts on the matches

 

 

Kane/Show retain-bad match but crowd was into it, especially Carlito. Show finally gets a mania win, os good for him. A Carlito face turn is probably next.

 

MITB 2-A good trainwreck, Benjamin again was the star of the match. I mean he FLEW off the ropes onto the ladder from NOWHERE. RVD got a much-deserved win in front of a very pro RVD crowd (as Tazz said ECW was very popular in Chicago, nice line there)

 

 

JBL-Benoit- Boring match made better by JBLS awesome heel tactics. Bad finish, right result as JBL can be an ever better heel with a title to have, and Benoit loses nothing by dropping the title.

 

Foley-Edge-Insane match with crazy spots all around. Edge stepped it up and made an impact here and Foley put him over big time. Foley did get a Mania Moment finally, unfortunately for him it was a bump thru a flaming table . Edge sold it big time too, shaking and everything. very well done

 

 

Taker-Henry- Hope you enjoyed your main event run Mark. Horrible match but a nice plancha b taker gave it a good finish.

 

 

Trish-Mickie-very good, albeit sloppy at times. Better than their NYR match and Mickie showed that she learned something from that match (though it went unmentioned) and stayed focused enough to put away Trish. Right result for the storyline and the crowd sure loved Mickie here. Too bad for the botched finish but the announcers covered well (95 percent chance they edit that off the dvd), but it hurt the flow.

 

 

 

Shawn-Vince- A one sided beatdown. But that was perfect for the storyline of Vince and co ruining Shawns life for months. I dont but the whole "losing his soul" bit considering his mini-heel turn last summer. In my mind it was the correct blowoff for that feud. The babyface utterly destroys the heel to get ultimate revenge

 

 

Rey-Angle-Orton- Nice outfit Rey. Match was too rushed as I know they could have done more if the stupid pillow fight wasnt scheduled next. Match should have ended show but since they knew the reaciton to cena-hh would get huge heat they didnt want the crowd to be dead for Reys win. Despite this Rey got booed all match as the crowd clearly favored Kurt. But it was the right result, though Orotn seems to lose out sinc ehe took the pin, Angle can say he made both of them tap (the crowd even chanted you tappe dout at rey ha) and he wasnt even pinned so he loses nothing. But a decent match nonetheless, I liked the triple suplex spot at least, and the rana rey hit orotn with looked pretty sweet. Rey blew the 619 around the pole by slipping (another gem probably to be edited off the dvd) didnt hurt

the match too much. Rey didn't get much of a celebration and had to result to brining out chavo and vickie for more heat. Notice Rey didnt have the EG armbands on so maybe the whole eddie thing will end now.

 

 

Candice-Torrie- again I'll say it, why? Candice, welcome to the unemployment line soon.

 

Cena-HHH- Match had bad flow and was overshadowed by the NUCLEAR HEAT from the fans. But it probably made hte match more entertaining. I used to think the fans were booing cena to be cool, but they absolutely hated cena here. This was like brock-goldberg excpet all the heat was on one guy. and it reminded me of Hogan-Rock as well as the crowd booed cenas every move (literally, if he walked they booed) Dumb entrances, but I guess they were kind of fun. HHH jobs three years in a row! wow. But it was the right result for the storyline (Heel brutally underestimates face Champ and gets beat)

 

 

overall better than expected, not that great but I was pretty entertained and much of it felt like a WM so whatever I guess.

 

 

now begins the push to fill Ford Field.

[Downhome 0]

Total in-ring time, give or take:

 

SmackDown!

 

-47 minutes

 

RAW

 

-90 minutes

[Dangerous A 0]

Don't let them tell you one brand is more dominant than the other.

 

 

They are both on equal footing, I tell you!

[The Niggardly King 0]

I want to know what Triple H was thinking when he decided he was going to come out on that?

 

That looks like some shit the Boogeyman would do.