WWE Wrestlemania 32 Reax

Read on for my thoughts on last night's WWE special.

More Takeover notes, another Table for 3, WWE honors pioneers of wrestling, guests in Dallas, Joe's battle scars, updates on rumored upcoming WWE signings, new stip for Reigns vs. HHH, LoN/New Day note, more on NXT heading to the UK, Galloway-EVOLVE update, Interviews with AJ/Sasha, Hogan-WM32 note, Supercard notes, NXT signings official, Orton update, WWN Supershow notes, Sting retires, and Questions on Molly in the Hall, where Shelton is, expanding on the Divas feud, and Smackdown going live

Vince McMahon was backstage watching Takeover:Dallas, and Stephanie was shown in the crowd. I imagine they didn't want Triple H out there getting a face reaction before Wrestlemania, so he stayed backstage. Another big success for NXT. They sold out an arena that fits roughly 10,000 people. 

TNA Lockdown in San Antonio in 2013 (when they were on Spike, featuring the Dudley Boyz, Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle, and Sting) only drew about 7,200 in their most-attended U.S. show ever. 

WWE filmed a Table for 3 episode with Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Tully Blanchard. OH BOY. I bet that one was fun.

WWE, via their official Hall of Fame guide, announced a Legacy Award for Lou Thesz, Pat O'Connor, George Hackenschmidt, Ed "Stranger" Lewis, Sailor Art Thomas, Mildred Burke and Frank Gotch. I'm very glad they did that to honor the legends of years gone by who have passed away. I hope more of those are coming in future years.

Everything else from yesterday is after the break.

WWE Wrestlemania 32 preview

Read on for my ideas for booking tomorrow's WWE special event.

Kickoff:
- Andre battle royal: This is likely Mark Henry's final Wrestlemania in his home state. I think he's earned the right to win here unless he's feeling really generous. If he wants to give the rub to a younger talent, Braun Strowman is my pick. Being big and dominant is his whole gimmick, and they need a monster for when Henry, Kane, and Big Show retire. I wouldn't be against Henry getting a title feud as part of his "farewell tour." Maybe he puts over the U.S. Champion at Payback and Extreme Rules before having a last hurrah for the WWE Title at MITB? He could snap after Extreme Rules and go on a tear to set that last one up. Make it a Title vs. Career match if the stakes aren't high enough.

- Kalisto vs. Ryback: I don't see any reason to end the Kalisto experiment here. Kalisto wins and faces a bigger challenge in the months to come, as hinted in the previous preview.

- 10-Divas tag: Team Brie wins. Brie thanks her team and the fans on Raw. Naturally Lana interrupts this heartfelt speech to lead to them facing off in Brie's last match. 

- Usos vs. Dudleys: Usos win, but the Dudleys escape the tables. This time... rematches await.

WM32:

- Jericho vs. Styles: AJ gets his Wrestlemania moment in a great match. AJ wants to move forward to the IC Title, and Y2J sets his sights on the belt as well. 

- IC Title ladder match: Zayn vs. Owens at Extreme Rules could be amazing. To build to that and get his heat back from losing at Takeover, Zayn wins here. Zayn, Owens, Styles, and Y2J tango their way to a four-way at Payback.

- New Day vs. LoN: This one builds to an all-out four-on-three brawl. The ref loses control as everyone's in the ring at once, and he eats an accidental Brogue Kick or Bull Hammer when someone else moves. It looks like LoN will win due to the numbers game until a certain someone comes down to electrify the audience and even the odds. Turns out The Rock's been cooking Booty-O's. With his help, New Day retains. I know it's a little silly to think the ref wouldn't hear Rock's music and all that, but I think the crowd will be fine with it. On Raw, New Day celebrate yet another successful title defense. They're cut off by the debuting Enzo Amore, Colin Cassady, and Carmella, because those promo exchanges should be GOLD.

As for Rock, after he has some fun with New Day, he turns serious and addresses the crowd about Roman Reigns, reminding everyone of when HE was getting booed out of the building, and how that put him on the road to becoming The Great One, etc. He says win, lose, or draw, he'll have Roman's back after the match.

- Charlotte vs. Sasha vs. Becky: Ric Flair saves Charlotte from losing, leading to Snoop Dogg coming out and putting Naitch in his place. Sasha gets the win to celebrate with the new Hall of Famer.

- Ambrose vs. Lesnar: These two beat the holy hell out of each other all over the place. Ambrose wins in some insane fashion. Personally, I think they could do a callback to Halftime Heat and have Dean pin him via forklift. They need to put Dean over while keeping Lesnar looking pretty invincible.

- Shane vs. Taker: I hope you liked the booking to HHH vs. Sting. Shane does a big dive that sends both men through one wall of the cell. Or Taker chokeslams him through it or whatever. Cue the Mean Street Posse. Taker eventually fights them off and kicks out of Shane's Van Terminator or whatever his "finisher" is. Then, here comes HBK. He tunes up the band and hits Sweet Chin Music on his Wrestlemania rival. No dice. Vince comes down and has Michaels taken from ringside. Then the Texas Rattlesnake himself makes an appearance. The Stunner can't finish Taker either, and he's ejected, too. Vince decides he's going to get in on the action himself, making it a handicap match. He goes in for the kill on Shane, but Sting appears and hits the Chairman with a bat before disappearing again. Taker breaks up Shane's pin. Taker, Vince, and Shane all get up at the same time, and Vince gets in Taker's face for not getting the job done. Vince slaps Taker, then eats a Tombstone. Taker walks out, and Shane gets the pin. Shane hires Taker back on Raw. Crazy booking? You bet. But it got the Texas legends involved, kept Taker strong, made him reject being Vince's bitch, AND let Shane win without pinning Taker. 

- NOTE: They could also turn Hell in a Cell into Shane/Cena vs. Vince/Taker if Wolverine is actually ready to compete again. If that's the case, they can have Vince take the pin to save Taker. Taker vs. Cena should still be set up for WM33 on Raw. They could even throw a retirement stip in for Taker at some point. Hell, Vince could decide to overrule his previous idea just so Taker can face Cena next year. If Cena is involved here, I think you can use HBK, Sting, Stone Cold, and Von Erich in an homage to the Rock/Austin/Hogan segment at WM30 in order to tribute Texas wrestling. 

- HHH vs. Reigns: Reigns wins an all-out slugfest. Rock comes out to congratulate him, and the show ends with those two getting a standing ovation from the crowd. There isn't a dry eye in the sold-out stadium as they chant "Roman Reigns" in unison. Just kidding. Roman attacks The Rock to turn heel, and more or less "shoots" on the whiners on Raw. HHH vs. Ambrose vs. Reigns at Payback (HHH is something of a tweener. He'll end up being the face authority figure of Smackdown, dumping Stephanie and Vince in the process). Personally, I want Reigns to "replace" Rollins and Ambrose with Bobby Roode and Eric Young as a "new" Shield to further getting heat from the salt mine that is a large chunk of the modern WWE audience. Him leading the former Bullet Clubbers is an interesting idea, too.

More wrestling tomorrow.

NXT Takeover: Dallas Reax

Read on for my thoughts on last night's NXT special.

Top British wrestler passes, more TNA tapings, Foley reality series coming, big Cena update, big debuts set for week after WM32?, indie names wrestling at AXXESS, Bryan update, ROH doing business in Dallas, HHH conference call, first names set for GCS, another international NXT tour, WWE teaming with Snapchat, ROH signing official, Heyman on Kaufman, NXT taping this weekend, lots of names in Dallas, Dusty remembered, and Questions on New Day inducting the Freebirds, supershows, old video libraries, Shane's streak, Ali vs. Inoki, and WCW's Tower of Doom

British wrestler Kris Travis passed away due to stomach cancer at the age of 32. Kris was a contestant on TNA's second British Bootcamp. That's an unfortunate end to someone who could have had a bright future.

- He was remembered by the head of PCW, who dedicated an upcoming show to Travis.

- PROGRESS also remembered Travis.

- As did a cancer charity he worked  with in his final months. 

- Jeremy Borash remembered Travis on TNA's Instagram account.

Everything else from yesterday is after the break.

ROH and Smackdown Reax - 3/31/16

Read on for my thoughts on yesterday's ROH and Smackdown.

ROH:
- Strong vs. Moose vs. Sydal vs. Page:
I hate random clustermess matches with no heat. It's lazy booking.

Strong's a pretty talented technician.

I'm liking Strong countering Sydal's flippy shit.

Page is OK. Nothing really stands out with him.

I like Moose bringing something different to this match.

NICE power by Moose.

Strong's a pretty solid worker from an in-ring standpoint. He'd be a good hand to have around.

Sydal is pretty much Indy Wrestler personified. I don't think WWE's missing anything without him.

Moose vs. Strong is pretty interesting. I'd like to see them do their thing without the other two.

And now we're getting into MOVES territory. I hope this isn't the whole show tonight.

Based Whitmer. Easily one of the best parts of ROH.

I liked Roderick stealing the win. He's growing on me as a performer.

Adam Cole should have taken the title. He works circles around Jay as a wrestler and (especially) a talker.

Cole beating Lethal one-on-one would be fine with me to end the monotony of Lethal's reign.

Yeah, the Kingdom's not a thing anymore. TNA unfortunately got Mike Bennett.

Cole, kill this jabroni.

Taven is delusional. He's not even Cole's Jannetty. He's the Barber Shop Window...

Cole should have just superkicked him and broken his crutch.

I enjoyed Castle's promo. Talented character. I don't know how he's survived in ROH with actual charisma, but good on him for doing it.

- Cheeseburger vs. Vinyer:
That was going OK, but I can't say I'm upset at ANX interrupting it. Actually, can this show be 50% non-matches? Those are usually the most dreadful part.

I'm liking ANX's promo here.

Good heeling from ANX. They've got passion here.

ANX's burial of other teams is fine for me, although they're pretty spotty as well.

I was wondering when someone would come save Cheeseburger.

Kind of a forced potential tag team title feud, but at least there's a story.

- Goto vs. Lethal:
I'm liking Goto so far.

Uggghhhh.... Truth Martini. Where's Donovan Dijak already? I was starting to think he was released.

This is alright so far.

Goto's pretty impressive. Can ROH trade Lethal for him?

That was good to show what Goto can do.

OH BASED DIJAK PLEASE DESTROY ALL OF THESE IDIOTS! AND NANA!

FINALLY! FINALLY!

I wish that would have gone on longer... I seriously do wish Truth the best in recovery, though.

Smackdown:

Fun stuff with the Social Outcasts as always. I can't wait to see them win the Andre battle royal.

- Styles vs. Slater:
AJ showing what he's made of, and why he was signed.

AJ's definitely a solid technical athlete, and an exciting performer. Great pickup by WWE.

Oh, well. Maybe Slater will have better luck in Dallas.

- Jey vs. D-Von:
This is going pretty well so far. D-Von works alright as a singles guy here and there.

Fine match overall. The real show is Dunday.

- Ambrose vs. Rowan:

I like seeing Rowan's offense. He's more like Frankenstein's monster than a choreographed performer.

This is fine for something of a filler match. 

Rowan's definitely better in a tag match. I like him, but he works better when he's playing off someone like Harper.

Glad that ended when it did. On to Wrestlemania!

More wrestling coming up.

NXT: Takeover: Dallas preview

Read on for my ideas for booking tonight's WWE Network special.

OK, first things first: key to my plans here would be setting up another NXT special for June. Even if it's "just" in Full Sail, I think the brand needs a good midpoint between this special and Summerslam weekend.

-Crews vs. Samson:

I know a lot of people really don't like Samson, but I don't think they should abandon the project yet. Hopefully we see more of what he can do against a more versatile opponent. This match should give him a chance to show us he's worth doing more with, while Crews shows us he's good enough to be NXT Champion by year's end. Crews wins.

-Asuka vs. Bayley:

I know a lot of people want to see Bayley called up to the main roster with the other Horsewomen. Good things come to those who wait. I don't think the women's division is quite ready for her to go yet; I think I'd rather her debut there around Summerslam or so in order to get the most from the current Horsewomen feuding. If we get a new Divas' Champ at WM32, they shouldn't rush her into a feud with Bayley. Her debut should be a big deal. Anyway, as for this match, Bayley wins a hard-fought contest. Asuka's disappointed in herself for the loss, and refuses a handshake after the match. The stage is set for Asuka to turn heel on the way to a rematch in June (after beating Nia in a contender's match). Bayley can feud with Dana in the meantime. If Dana's not ready to return yet, someone new can challenge the champion. They've got a few women working live events to choose from for that endeavor.

-A. Alpha vs. Revival:

It'd be crazy to stop Alpha's momentum here. They're on fire. I'd be tempted to do a big DQ here to set up a no-DQ match on NXT TV and blow off the feud in June, but I wouldn't complain about a title change.

-Aries vs. Corbin:

I like Corbin, but Aries needs to make a splash in his first (televized) NXT match. Corbin brings all he's got, but Aries is a former World Champion for a reason. He wins.

-Zayn vs. Nakamura:

This is pretty much Zayn's NXT swan song. I think they should use this opportunity to give Shinsuke a big first win. He and Aries are going to be part of "carrying" the show with Zayn leaving. Nakamura vs. Crews for the No. 1  Contendership at the June special.

-Balor vs. Joe:

Balor definitely needs to be done with his NXT commitments in time for WWE's July special in Japan. Rumor has it both men will be called up in a post-Mania brand spilt. I'd let Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows play Hall and Nash for a bit on the main roster, trying to get AJ Styles on their side while hinting at someone else joining them "when the time is right." I'd have Joe get the hard-fought win here, and Aries stops him from maiming Balor in the post-match. Balor gets a rematch on NXT TV, leading to Joe vs. Aries at the June Takeover special. Nakamura challenges the winner for the title in Japan. 

As for main roster futures, how about get Balor vs. Styles in Japan and MITB, then Balor/Anderson/Gallows vs. Joe/Styles/(Cesaro or Zayn) at Summerslam? 

More wrestling coming up.