The Wrestling Thread Is At Home Until Further Notice - - Part 141

[Darkness Falls]

For 30 Years, WWE and its Superstars have created a pantheon of iconic WrestleMania moments that are immortalized forever in history- but only one man can lay claim to the nickname “Mr. WrestleMania”, Shawn Michaels.

Whether giving Undertaker all he could handle in a quest to break the streak, revolutionizing the business in a Ladder Match with Razor Ramon, or descending from the rafters for an exhausting 60-minute Iron Man Match with Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels always accomplished his one goal at WrestleMania. That goal was to steal the show.

Now, fans can own all 16 of his iconic WrestleMania matches. See all the jaw-dropping action from The Showstopper on WWE’s grandest stage.

Blu-Ray Exclusives:

The Rockers Talk About The Twin Towers
WrestleMania V

Shawn Michaels Talks With Rhonda Shear
WrestleMania X

Shawn Michaels With Pamela Anderson
WrestleMania XI

Shawn Michaels And Sid Talk With Nicholas Turturro
WrestleMania XI

Shawn Michaels Post-Match Interview
WrestleMania XIX

Shawn Michaels Says Goodbye Backstage
WrestleMania XXVI

Stories:

Friends Leaving the Company

Because You’re A Girl

One Demand for Ric

The “Flair” Watch?

Hell To Pay

At Least The Dude’s Got Balls

End of An Era

Mr. WrestleMania vs. The Streak

The Shawn Michaels Encore Tour

WrestleMania Wish List

Flair – Michaels – Jericho

that's a really good set besides the glaring omission of one match for obvious reasons

 

[TX85]

Aren't wwe allowing Benoit stuff be on the network?,why not dvds?

 

[Pink Ranger]

Funny thing is, I wonder if Cena would have become Vince's pet project had it not been for his increased muscle mass by 2004 and 2005?

I mean look at Cena in 2002 and how small he was and take into account that he's not even taller than Shawn Michaels and barely taller than X-Pac. Interesting that there's a chance Vince's muscle fetish would have caused Vince to overlook him in different circumstances since HHH was already backstage saying Cena wouldn't make it.

I'm the same height as John Cena?



And yeah, I agree with you. If Cena wasn't as big, he wouldn't be the face of the WWE.

I am going to go against the grain here and speculate that yes, Cena would still be the go-to vanilla babyface of the WWE even if he was leaner. Part of the reason is that there would be no logical alternative to think of: Randy Orton would still flaking out during that time, Batista would still be relatively old.

Even without big muscles, Cena's gimmick and natural "cool big brother" character would be a natural selling point for Vince to put him in front of kids to cheer for.

 

[Kaleb]

Kenta's statement

"I am sorry for having you all confused over the various information about my visit in the US.

As a matter of fact, I am in the States and enjoying the WWE training. But as for now, it’s not about getting a tryout or a contract.

It is indeed true that I have always been yearning for a spot in WWE, and I’ve always wanted to give it a try sometime. After all, you only live once. “I should have given it a try.” “I should have chosen another way.” I’ve had those regrets when I was in my middle and high school, and even after I got in to this business. I just did not want to regret later about something I haven’t tried, so I used my time off to participate in the WWE workout. The executives were at the workout, so perhaps I may have left a mark.

The place is full of competition and hungry guys. It’s not as simple as being good at Puroresu or having strength. There are so many guys with monster physique and guys who are way athletically superior to me. And even they don’t get into the big league. That’s how tough this place could be. I can easily imagine that surviving in this environment could be severe. And spending a few days in that environment became a really good experience for me.

I’m sorry to have caused the confusion, but one thing I can say for sure is that “I’m glad I came”. I would like to work even harder making use of this experience.

And lastly, I would like to thank [NOAH] President [Akira] Taue for letting me take this chance."

 

[Wheels]

Some lunatic fan started a White House petition to get Bryan the title.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

Some lunatic fan started a White House petition to get Bryan the title.

That's even worse than some of the petitions to remove Jesse Eisenberg playing Lex Luthor in Batman vs Superman.

 

[Wheels]

That's even worse than some of the petitions to remove Jesse Eisenberg playing Lex Luthor in Batman vs Superman.

I know. There's being a fan and then there's being an idiot.

 

[SuperBatman]

Some lunatic fan started a White House petition to get Bryan the title.

Lol sometimes I wonder about the wrestling fans out there.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

I know. There's being a fan and then there's being an idiot.

Agreed. I've been a mark for the guy since 03, but that's just pushing it.

 

[sweetre15]

Lol sometimes I wonder about the wrestling fans out there.

What's funny is that a 100,000 people signed it before it got taken down...Have they not heard of change.org? lol

 

[MMMMM...Pancakes]

Hey, thanks for the positive responses! You're all a classy bunch of guys.

Metallo, glad to have you back and Pinky, the Canucks are my favorite Canadian team (but don't tell anyone, it's a secret!)

 

[Van Petrol]

Cesaro vs Ziggler on Smackdown is great and Swagger vs Christian is pretty good as well, I liked Christian's post-match promo.

Titus turning on Darren and the Aleksander Rusev vignette were surprising in as much as Mania season is not usually the time for a change of character direction or a debut.

The promo between The Shield and Triple H was really good, it set the ground work for some interesting possibilities.

The Shield vs Bryan/Rey/Sheamus was an entertaining main event.

Smackdown's only on now, how have you already seen it?

 

[Van Petrol]

The difference between the Bryan and Punk chants to me is that they are not a case of fans just being jerks, they are born out of mass frustration that has reached boiling point and the fans feel that hijacking is the only way to make their views known to WWE management.

It sucks as a situation, I mean I think in all of this no one has really thought how much it sucks for Orton, the booking has made his reign an afterthought as he's been little more than Triple H's puppet through everything, and he will go into Mania as a Champion that fans simply don't give a **** about, instead of as a heel champion with a lot of heat that fans are waiting to see get his comeuppance. He's been having his best matches in years since last summer, but it will be for naught come Mania.

I agree with what you're saying, but I don't agree that it isn't a case of them being jerks in some instances. Not only do they chant to hijack and let the brass know who they want (which I understand and agree with), but they also go the old 'boring' route in some instances when a match that is going on at that time is actually quite good, just because their preferred smark favourite isn't in the ring. An example being, Del Rio. He may have the charisma and promo skills of a cardboard cut-out, but he delivers for the most part in the ring when he's out there, but even that isn't acknowledged.

I suppose to the smarks the great match he had with Nicky a few months back on ME was all down to Ziggler. If that's the case, I call BS.

 

[Slushy]

What's funny is that a 100,000 people signed it before it got taken down...Have they not heard of change.org? lol

Wrestling matters.

 

[sweetre15]

I agree with what you're saying, but I don't agree that it isn't a case of them being jerks in some instances. Not only do they chant to hijack and let the brass know who they want (which I understand and agree with), but they also go the old 'boring' route in some instances when a match that is going on at that time is actually quite good, just because their preferred smark favourite isn't in the ring. Case in point, Del Rio. He may have the charisma and promo skills of a cardboard cut-out, but he delivers for the most part in the ring when he's out there, but even that isn't acknowledged.

I suppose to the smarks the great match he had with Nicky a few months back on ME was all down to Ziggler. If that's the case, I call BS.

Now I think the problem with Del Rio matches is that he keeps it too "simplistic" because the Average ADR match can easily be summed up to superkick-superkick-enziguri armbar. As I've said before, for a "submission" wrestler his repetoire isn't very submission friendly and I think that makes it hard for the audiences to get into the Average ADR match...meaning ones without guys the audience already supports addding that to how he just seems to be phoning it in during those matches.

Either he should make his moveset more "grappler"-esque and focus on targeting the limbs to build suspense for that armbar or come up with more exciting "kick" moves to add to his matches. Because while Punk and Bryan do use a lot of kicks, their sequences as well as their choices of the type of kicks they use are more fun to watch than just a bunch of superkicks to the stomach.

 

[TX85]

Lol sometimes I wonder about the wrestling fans out there.

The way fans and people are in general I am honestly surprised there hasn't been a tragedy with a lunatic fan yet,Mass shooting at a wrestling show/a wrestler being murdered/terroristic threats to promoters and stuff like that by a fan.

Thankfully the most they ever do is rush to ringside or in the ring to attack a wrestler and whenever that happens..they fail!

 

[Lobo]

Just got gifted two tickets to tonight's WWE house show. I'll be a little late but I'm on my way. The scheduled main event is Orton vs Cena

 

[Kaleb]

Smackdown's only on now, how have you already seen it?

It airs first in Australia, so its on YouTube very quickly after that

 

[TX85]

Have fun Lobo,There's a house show in my town in march but I ain't going to that,Will be using $10 that I'd be using on my ticket for he network

 

[Pink Ranger]

Hey, thanks for the positive responses! You're all a classy bunch of guys.

Metallo, glad to have you back and Pinky, the Canucks are my favorite Canadian team (but don't tell anyone, it's a secret!)

Ha! I knew it!

And to be honest, the Blackhawks are my favorite American team. After Los Angeles, Carolina, Columbus, Buffalo, Detroit, Tampa and San Jose. Oh yeah, and the New York Islanders. And the Syracuse Crunch.

 

[Kaleb]

Daniel Bryan was recently interviewed by Reyan Ali of The Classical. Here are some highlights:

You've had an enormous career in terms of all the people you've come across on the independents or in WWE. You must have seen hundreds of hours of matches. In terms of finishing holds besides your own, do you have any favorites and, on the flip side, ones you really dislike?

I still think the Superkick is the best finisher ever. It was just so good. There's so many [favorites]. I think Antonio Cesaro's finish right now is cool. I always loved the Piledriver, so an adaptation of the Piledriver is very awesome to me. I've always loved submission holds, so I love the Sharpshooter, that sort of thing. I love Dean Malenko's Cloverleaf.

The things that I never really liked as finishers were the stuff that was wacky, stuff like the Von Erichs [who] did the Tornado Punch, you know what I mean? [Laughs] The Ultimate Warrior—even though he was my favorite as a kid—[had] the Press Slam, and then he'd hit the ropes a couple of times and give 'em the Big Splash, the Hulk Hogan Legdrop—stuff like that was all stuff [where] I was just like, 'Eh.' To be fair, I honestly always hated the Rock Bottom. To me, it was just like, 'Uh, that's weird and stupid.'

Considering the success of Total Divas and your big role on the show, what do you think of the idea of Daniel Bryan as a reality show star?

Oh my gosh, it's so surreal. If you would have asked probably anybody in my high school who was the least likely person in our graduating class to be on a reality show, I probably wouldn't have [been] the top as far as the least likely, but I would be up there in the top 10 percent, you know what I mean? [Laughs] Even my friends from the independents: 'Hey, will Bryan ever be on a reality show?' 'No, he has no interest.' It's just very surreal. [The cameras are] not following me around, they're following Brie around, so it's not exactly the same thing. But [considering] just that I'm in it, my friends and family are like, 'This is crazy.' [Laughs]

Aside from what the cameras pick up, what's your relationship with Brie like?

We very rarely get time off, so for us, it's mostly just recovering from wrestling. A lot of times, I'll leave on Friday and I don't get home 'til Wednesday, so then I have the rest of Wednesday, which I'm exhausted [for], and then Thursday, [for] which I spend a lot of the day packing for the weekend. We don't go on a lot of dates per se. Our lives are relatively boring in comparison to what you would think.

But when we do get some time off, like for Valentine's Day [2013], we had like four days off, and we went to Sedona, Arizona, which is like a little piece of Heaven. We did some stargazing. We went hiking. We went on this guided spiritual tour thing. It was so much fun. It was beautiful. It was out in the mountains and all that kind of stuff. That's kind of the thing that we're into.

loved his comments about the waky finishers

 

[MMMMM...Pancakes]

Ha! I knew it!

And to be honest, the Blackhawks are my favorite American team. After Los Angeles, Carolina, Columbus, Buffalo, Detroit, Tampa and San Jose. Oh yeah, and the New York Islanders. And the Syracuse Crunch.

Vintage Pink Ranger.

 

[Pink Ranger]

I think Vicky forgot to get fully dressed before coming out.

 

[sweetre15]

Definitely like the promo to hype Shield vs Wyatts for the Elimination Chamber. This match honestly should happen in the Chamber itself.

Let's just hope they book this angle well.

 

[MMMMM...Pancakes]

These 2 would have an awesome feud if ever given the opportunity.

I want to see how Ziggler sells Swiss Death, UFO, Giant Swing and Alpamare Waterslide.