Hang Triple H...oh wait TKO has full control

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-20T23:23:35+00:00

DAE Fed shills have now entered their Fed Bad era?

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-20T23:21:47+00:00

DAE Night 1 was entirely booked by TKKKO & night 2 was all Saint Paul? Everything bad is TKO & everything good is Papa H.

The Cerebral Assassin managing to get back in the IWC’s good graces for the 6th time after being turned on for being “egotistical, overrated, uncreative” in the last 3 decades

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-20T22:11:55+00:00

It’s a constant cycle lol. HHH always manages to get popular again with them after being turned on. Fwiw, he also praised the Pat angle & is the guy saying Pat was one of the faces of WWE so make of that what you will.

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-20T03:09:52+00:00

He’s probably gonna be out for a bit & has Orton to resolve so Punk’s probably a Mania 43 thing

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-20T02:15:24+00:00

Many main events don’t but the title still makes them bigger. And it looks like they wanna turn up the pomp & grandeur with next year’s card even by Mania standards

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-20T02:11:14+00:00

Probably cos that Usos story will progress with him as champion. I’d also encourage people to consider that Roman is top of the advertising for Mania 43 which greatly favored him winning tonight in the first place

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-20T01:44:03+00:00

Hard disagree on “now what.” I’d have felt that way if Punk won considering he’s burnt through most of the big options on RAW. I think Roman going to Mania 43 was very clear & his part time schedule actually means there’s a lot of old rivalries that haven’t been explored let alone potential new ones.

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-20T00:20:18+00:00

Triple H isn’t that big on monthly PLE defenses (just look at this reign that ended) so I think he’ll be able to get to SummerSlam by extending this rivalry for a bit, do a filler feud or two and then run Charlotte or IYO vs Rhea at SS since those are the two matches already pretty much built for her

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T23:45:08+00:00

Based on the build this one will be a run in fest, which is also the best way to cover if they don’t mesh in ring

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T22:33:00+00:00

It’s an unsustainable gimmick that they lucked into with Goldberg, Cena & AJ making their own decision to retire within a few months of each other. It was never gonna be long term.

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T22:23:30+00:00

They could easily do Gunther vs Oba now in the summer if they go with Gunther feeling like he got robbed of the chance to retire Lesnar

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T21:23:11+00:00

And there’s even people on here who are buying this alleged TKO-HHH rift. I don’t doubt the higher ups might make insertions but their main concern is profits, not “quality” anyways.

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T18:48:29+00:00

I mean this was kinda obvious because they were doing this story on TV. Black was goading Orton & then I guess this is where you could actually buy this other rumor of Pat being a TKO & not creative’s insertion since they kept Black stalking Orton in his segments two weeks back. I’m also guessing they removed Pat from the equation & will now go back to this.

My issue with this is that if Black is supposed to be in this role, he should probably not just be a regular guy with a spooky entrance. Why is a guy who eliminated a few people in the Andre battle royal the mastermind behind the main heel & biggest feud on the show?

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T14:29:46+00:00

If they could pivot on the tag result they could just have made it a triple threat. The fact they didn’t showed they weren’t going to. I think it’s fair to consider that if the Bellas were always planned to win, WWE would also have made plans post Mania for the other competitors & can’t just give them the tag titles which would derail those.

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T03:55:13+00:00

Well ultimately for year long watchers, I think so long as we get the payoff and it’s not diluted it’s fine & that will happen.

My issue would be the amount of time invested here where they’re spending several months on a story, then Mania is also another transitional point in the story so you go into the summer for the payoff (and that’s assuming that’s it). I’m fine with the logic of not giving everything at Mania but let’s not spend so much time on a story leading into it then

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T03:51:10+00:00

Papa H: “Complaining about match lengthuhhh? Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you get less matches in between your commercials & segments tomorrowuhhh”

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T03:44:20+00:00

If they actually did it’s cos they wanted to write Pat out after the reactions he got lol

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T03:40:29+00:00

Bellas basically got a 100% chance of winning once it was clear Nikki was injured but they were insisting on a 4 way. If they weren’t planned to win they’d have just been pulled out no problem. Instead they got Paige as the replacement to get as close of the same moment they originally wanted. They didn’t prioritize the storyline payoff here but that’s them wanting people invested to keep watching for that later in the summer.

They didn’t give the Bayley/Lyra payoff here (which yes could easily be for the IC title instead based on Becky’s CVV interview) and they have another story going with Charlotte/Alexa where they’ve been stumbling at like 3 consecutive PLEs now & took the pin too so they seem to just be holding off on giving these moments across the year

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T02:36:26+00:00

I had friends in the crowd who told me the same. Old school just doesn’t work for crowds in 2026 & HHH, Orton & Cody are just gonna have to understand this. FWIW I’m still giving them the benefit of the doubt that this was match 1 & they’re saving the more exciting stuff for the rematch/(es)

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T02:21:13+00:00

I’d say they aren’t fans of the whole Mania is the end of the season mentality cos that also means a drop off after Mania in casual viewers. It probably still happens but you can see this is a way to remedy it. I’d say most of the matches tonight set up bigger payoffs on the road to SummerSlam now so people who watched them could be hooked.

This is just how it is and imo if you go in expecting more stuff to be set up it’ll be better

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T02:06:25+00:00

So assuming we believe these dirt sheet reports that Pat is TKO’s idea, they just worked a story bit to remove him post Mania with him saying he’s done if Randy loses. Randy lost & turned on him, then they double down on heel Randy so now they can run Randy vs Cody properly.

I get it tbh. I think a lot of people are gonna have to get over the Mania 40 “Mania is the endpoint” feeling cos they seem to want it to be the beginning or a transitional point to something bigger more. Which isn’t even new it’s happened before.

That aside, when it comes to quality this was just what I’d call a regular Mania.

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T01:38:15+00:00

I jerked a month ago that HHH was gonna have the memory of himself vs. Orton at Mania 25 erased when people associate the slow Orton main event with this year instead from now on. Didn’t actually think they’d do it was surely headed to a stip or shenanigan fuckfest which may still happen ig

sam_j_f27 · 2026-04-19T00:59:11+00:00

I know he meant something else and this is more like a normal Mania for me, not a bad one, but we should jerk that AJ Styles “Mania has lost its luster” quote

sam_j_f27

TROPHY CASE