theFRANCHISE

I admit, I'm not that jacked for Rock's pending appearance...but I know that'll easily change once his music hits and I scream like a little girl.

He's been training weekly since Survivor Series in his personal ring that he keeps near the set of each of his movies. That would explain why he didn't have much ring rust in November. There's a catch-22 argument to be made for having Rock wrestle prior to Mania. On one hand, it'd be good for him to tease the fans and get some practice, especially since a gym is no substitute for bumping in front of a live crowd. On the other hand, there's the risk of sabotaging the main event with an injury. If Rock goes down, buyrates go down significantly; at least if Cena goes down, they can always slot someone else into that match, even though the hype has always been for that specific match with those two specific stars.

He'll be making a live appearance in-person. Doubtful there'll be any in-ring stuff, but who knows.

I had a debate with my buddy about this and he brought up the argument that Rock is resented because he's now known more for his non-wrestling success. I'd argue, however, that Rock's success came initially because of his wrestling days, and that his talent is why he continued to get movie roles during that long absence from WWE. The Rock owes nothing to anyone. Stone Cold owes nothing to anyone. Chris Jericho owes nothing to anyone. These guys paid their dues and put in the time. We spend our hard-earned money to be entertained, and these guys deliver every time they're in front of a camera. That's why legends are legends, and why legends are good for business. As long as the name is bankable, there's no logic you can present to Vince McMahon or any successful promoter that it's a bad idea to book a past star -- even a guy like Hulk Hogan, who I could care less to see. If a young wrestler is unhappy with it, then do something about it. Rock, HHH, Austin, Foley, and others all did; that's why they're the greatest of all-time.

Rock is correct. WWE wouldn't feel such a strong need to book past stars at WrestleMania if the younger guys would maximize their opportunities and stand out. That's what separates the Cody Rhodes's and Dolph Zigglers from the Trent Barrettas and the Curt Hawkins's. Particularly, Rhodes took a recycled narcissist gimmick and made the most of it, hence his extended run with the Intercontinental Championship. While it's easy to make the argument that WWE should devote more TV time to younger stars, if said stars aren't doing anything to stand out, then there's no reason to invest in them. If anything, those young guys should use this as motivation to improve their craft. Historically, the cream always rises to the top.

Doubtful. Foley says he can be ready if they want him, and he'd be down for anything, but it looks like the most he'll do is be a guest referee for a random match. Maybe ref a match between John Laurinaitis and Teddy Long for the right to be the GM of both WWE shows? Who knows. Foley admits that he's lost a step and moves much slower, but he also said he can put on a good match if given a good opponent with the right circumstances for the right show.

You'll probably see it on there in 6 months or so. That was about how quickly Netflix got the Chris Jericho documentary for streaming and disc rental. Pretty sure the Randy Orton documentary is due to be on Netflix soon.

Both the WM15 and WM17 matches were on the recent Stone Cold biography DVD. WM17 was also on Stone Cold's anthology DVD. WM15 and WM19 were on The Rock's anthology DVD. In addition, WM15 and WM17 were on the History of the WWE Championship DVD. So basically, those three matches have been recycled numerous times within the past 5 years, so to get all three in one set, we'll have to wait for the Rock-Austin Greatest Rivalry DVD.

From what I understand in speaking to the guy that runs WWEDVDNews.com, WWE wanted to include forgotten gems since most of Rock's most significant matches are already on other DVD boxsets, including his previous DVD release. They didn't want customers to feel gypped that they're buying a new DVD boxset with mostly the same matches that collectors (such as myself) might already have. It's a catch-22 situation for WWE.

Rock's documentary is fantastic and offers new insight, even for someone like myself who's familiar with his entire career. It's not quite as good as Stone Cold's documentary, but that's just a whole 'nother category. In terms of WWE wrestler documentary features, my top 5: 1) Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All-Time 2) The Epic Journey of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson 3) Breaking the Code: Behind the Walls of Chris Jericho 4) Randy Orton: Evolution of an Apex Predator 5) The Big Show: A Giant's World This list doesn't include career match anthologies like "The Rock: The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment" or "The Definitive Hulk Hogan Collection," etc. It also doesn't include sit-down features like WWE's Greatest Rivalries series since that's not a career retrospective.

CM Punk's video response to Chris Brown makes me PROUD to call him my WWE Champion and the BEST wrestler in the WORLD: http://www.twitvid.com/4CAPE

There's a fine line between audience participation and ruining a segment. If not for the strong mic skills of The Undertaker and Triple H, that segment would've been completely deflated by the ignorant "What?" chants. I understand that fans pay their hard-earned money to go see the shows and react however they feel, but there's also a measure of respect that you should give to certain performers or segments. For example, if Vince McMahon were to announce the passing of a legendary wrestler, I certainly wouldn't be chanting "What?" during that segment. On a separate note, with the card shaping up as it is, in what order would you place the matches during the broadcast? Do you finish with Cena-Rock or HHH-Taker? Where do you put Punk-Y2J? How many matches total do you see for the final card? I have my own idea that I've already told a couple of you, but I'd like to see what your thoughts are.

That was the same exact promo that Cena cut last year about The Rock, talking about how he left for 7 years to go to Hollywood. Can we get any other bulletpoints? Can we get a promo where Cena doesn't talk about how he's been there for every show? Can we get a promo where Cena, maybe, talks about how Rock is craving this win so that his legacy is cemented? Maybe Cena talks about how this win validates what Cena's done his entire career? Anything other than the movie star thing? C'mon now. The delivery was better than usual, but the fake Boston accent is awful and gives Rock more credence to his claim that we hate Cena because he's phony.

They just hotshotted that Eve angle with Cena, but I don't agree with the decision to turn her heel. There's not much mileage they can get from her playing a skanky role like past Divas. Also, why can't they come up with a more creative way to turn her heel? It's like the heel Divas always have to be promiscuous. Shame, really. Eve's too good of an ambassador for the company and appears to be too nice of a person publicly. Unless Eve is planning on taking a break, WWE just shot itself in the foot with the move.

Yeah, that segment was a waste of time. It was cool seeing Del Rio and Christian come back to huge reactions from the crowd, but it could've easily been done on RAW or SmackDown. I would've preferred to have seen one more bonus match in lieu of that segment. Maybe Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre. Or maybe they should've just added those minutes to a couple of matches; I know the SD Elimination Chamber match could've used a little more Santino with how he had the crowd on fire.

Santino is wildly over with the fans, and the rule of business is, you always give the paying customers what they want. Santino has done everything asked of him and has worked hard to get over. I say, give him a push. Granted, if he's to contend for the World Heavyweight Title, I'd like to see a little bit of seriousness but he should still retain some of that comedic edge. There's room in this business for comedy acts like Santino. Not everyone has to be super-serious all the time. Santino could straddle the fine line that Mick Foley had after he first won the WWF Title. Let Santino have a run with the IC Title again. Let Santino hold a heavyweight title at least once before he retires. As long as Santino continues to work hard, let him be rewarded.

CM Punk takes a jab at Chris Brown, riles him up, the IWC loves him for it. Screenshots here: http://i42.tinypic.com/smfzux.jpg

I felt it was a good show that was hampered by the odd order of the matches. Cena-Kane wasn't bad -- it just wasn't worthy of closing the show, especially since there was no big pay-off at the end. I would've done the matches in this order: 1) SmackDown Elimination Chamber match 2) Divas Championship match 3) Cena-Kane 4) (Bonus) Swagger-Gabriel 5) RAW Elimination Chamber match The RAW Chamber match was an excellent bout, but the problem was, it was too good and none of the other matches were able to top it thereafter. Santino was hugely over with the crowd and his feel-good moment would've been perfect to kick off the show instead. I also found it odd that an Ambulance match was the main event of a show called Elimination Chamber. Just wonky logic all around. Jericho's bump looked legit at first and I was worried, but it appears that it was all part of the story. Ziggler did a tremendous job of selling during the match, as I actually thought he was seriously dead at one point because he didn't move at all.

I'd be happy with any of these matches as the headline attraction of Mania 29: - Rock-HHH - Rock-Austin IV - Punk-Austin - Rock-HBK - Austin-Orton - Austin-Cena - Rock-Orton - Austin-HHH - Austin-HBK II -- the quality match they meant to have at Mania 14 I think they, realistically, go with Rock-HHH and Austin-Punk as the two side attractions for WM29, then do Rock-Austin IV for WM30 (11 years after their last encounter), to bring things full-circle.

I couldn't blame people for being mad about it...but then, I'll point to The Undertaker and Triple H as examples of guys who've worked WrestleMania with a part-time schedule during the year, as well. Granted, Taker's had injuries, but lesser guys wouldn't be given the same privilege if they had returned from injury at the same time prior to Mania. Also, if Stone Cold were to come back for a Mania match without doing anything all year, no one would complain in the least. So, would I want Rock to work a match at Mania 29? For selfish reasons, of course I would. But for business reasons, I think Rock can still put on a good match, so the only downside to his presence would be a young guy getting bumped off the card -- but that's why these young guys need to work harder to get noticed, so WWE has no choice but to book them.

We haven't even hit the 2-year anniversary yet, and we're the most active Off-Topic thread, the most active ongoing thread on the entire board, and the majority of activity comes from barely a dozen regulars. This thread has also had the least-deleted posts of any thread, by far -- and we've got two Moderators who post here regularly, with other Mods doing spot-checks at night. This is my favorite part of the board.

It's not fake; it's scripted. Big difference. You can't fake gravity. But yes, just like movies and TV, wrestling is scripted, including outcomes. For the most part, outcomes are determined in advance, but there's rare instances where there's an improvised finish due to injury or circumstance. One of the last things on my wrestling bucket list is to see The Rock in-person. So, unfortunately, seeing Taker and HBK isn't much of a consolation prize for me, even though I'll probably still be excited. I've already seen HBK wrestle HHH live, and I'm not a huge Taker fan even though I respect him tremendously. I don't see much value in RVD as a full-time WWE wrestler, but he'd certainly be a nice attraction hand like Taker, HHH, etc. RVD wouldn't want to work a full-time schedule, so therefore, I don't think he should be involved in full-time storylines.

So, remember the irony of The Rock making an appearance on every RAW leading up to Mania except the one I'm attending in Philly on March 19th? Well, The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels are being advertised locally for that show...but Rock still isn't. I'm dying a little inside right now.

Agreed. Also, at least the substitute is hard-working despite his gimmick. He's done well to get over with the fans. Khali is just over because he's huge; he offers nothing in the ring, and he's got a roster spot because of WWE's huge fanbase in India.

Under most circumstances, that would actually be a heel move. Granted, Eve kissed Cena first, but Cena didn't try hard to push her off. Also an odd twist since most of Cena's fans know that he's married in real life. I understand that they're trying to make Ryder into a sympathetic character, but the execution is lacking. I sorely hope they don't intend to turn Ryder heel since he was only just starting to catch on with the crowd as a midcard face. I'm praying that there is, indeed, a payoff to all of this, and that it'll result in a new edge in Cena's character (heel or face) after WrestleMania.