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WrestleMania 23


So at WrestleMania 23, they say that the plan was to do a Tony Cena vs. Triple H rematch, but then HHH's quad injury necessitated them going to Plan B, which was Shawn Michaels. Do you or anyone remember what they were going to do with Shawn before putting him in the main event slot?

The logical thing seemed to be a three-way match with Cena v. D-X because they were teasing various things in that direction, but I never heard of a specific direction for Shawn otherwise.  I would imagine he would have ended up as HHH's cheerleader at ringside, were I to guess.  

Comments

  1. Wasn't Shawn vs Booker the plan?

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  2. I thought the plan was always for John Cena vs. HHH vs. Shawn Michaels.

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  3. There were a lot of people you could have pulled from the ladder match to have a good match with Shawn Michaels. I would have gone with Edge.

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  4. John Cena, Juan Cena, Tony Cena...he's the new Faces Of Foley

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  5. Fresh off the boat from Abruzzo, Italy.... TONY CENA!

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  6. Hoku's dying breath.

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  7. If Haku wrote a haiku for Hoku, how would it sound?

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  8. hi who is tony cena

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  9. 23 is around the time in my fandom where I would watch a Wrestlemania and immediately forget who was on the card like a week later.

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  10. Tony Cena is my favourite baseball squadron.

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  11. KOTR 95 never had the Summerslam title shot deal. They should have had, but didn't.

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  12. What does Magnum do? He's a poor heel IMO, and unless he's being put into a similar spot as Razor got years down the road, he's out of place in late 80s WWF.


    I guess upper midcarder/gatekeeper before a monster heel gets fed to Hogan?

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  13. Skindred are awesome. There's nobody like them. A metal band that had the whole venue dancing. Great live show.

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  14. Fat, Ugly Inner-City SweathogApril 27, 2015 at 12:27 PM

    Maybe he just wears polka dots

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  15. Extant1979 - Extreme SuperstarApril 27, 2015 at 12:27 PM

    This deserves more love

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  16. "I would imagine he would have ended up as HHH's cheerleader at ringside, were I to guess."


    So, what Michaels has essentially been doing at all of Hunter's big matches ever since he retired, anyway.

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  17. Well that was a heartbreaker, but any time the Gods want to give me two free innings I'll take it.


    Anyone feel like speed recapping the PPV? I'm barely getting into work I don't have time to read a full review

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  18. Fat, Ugly Inner-City SweathogApril 27, 2015 at 12:28 PM

    LOLCENAWINS

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  19. Reigns/Show may have been MotN.

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  20. Who did he even wrestle? Seriously I'm totally out of it, it's been a weird month

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  21. Wow. Is that a good or bad thing? lol

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  22. Bartender, I'll have what he's having.

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  23. ROCK-em SOCK-em Robot!!!!April 27, 2015 at 12:30 PM

    Pleasant surprise.

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  24. Kevin Love "seeking 2nd opinion on shoulder" - Windhorst.

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  25. ROCK-em SOCK-em Robot!!!!April 27, 2015 at 12:30 PM

    Rusev. Chain match with a chain that was approximately eight feet too long.

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  26. Reigns v show and new day v Cesaro and Kidd were really good. The rest of the show sucked outside of the crowd which booed lots of stuff.

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  27. Yeah that actually was during my hard partying days. I didn't care much for the product then either.

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  28. Fat, Ugly Inner-City SweathogApril 27, 2015 at 12:31 PM

    Kind of both. Good for Reigns in the sense that he took a potential * match and made something of it. Bad in the sense that Orton-Rollins, Cena-Rusev seem like they should be great matches on paper

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  29. I'll give one:


    "In my absolutely non-medical opinion, that shoulder got FUCKED UP! Just hope the hippie's still in the NBA next season, so you can get your revenge."

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  30. "As your second opinion, I think you should opt out and go to LA"

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  31. F'N Body Slams - Dan SelbyApril 27, 2015 at 12:32 PM

    It's fine.


    They've made the gimmick work, and now the face team are chasing the titles. Plus, they had a great match, so we'll have more.


    I don't see the issue.

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  32. Tony Cena kinda sounds like what would happen if Michael Bay directed RAW for a week.

    "This week, explosions, screaming, gladiators indistinguishable from each other, and Tony Cena vs. Rusef!"

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  33. Olynyk is afraid to rebound too.

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  34. ROCK-em SOCK-em Robot!!!!April 27, 2015 at 12:33 PM

    Six of which was Ziggler coyly wiggling his ass at Sheamus.

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  35. It's from a Variety article about Billy Corgan joining TNA, they referred to WWE superstar "Tony Cena."

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  36. Or Ken Cena - the man who just vanquished Zangief.

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  37. They eventually did the Cena/DX 3-way. I thought there was potential there with the possibility of team up to take him out or turning on one another but making it about Horsnwoggle was brilliant story telling.

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  38. "Who's The Champ" starring Tony Cena

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  39. Rusev really should have won "his" type of match, yesterday. Make it non title or whatever. Really makes no sense, booking wise, but they don't care.

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  40. I had that exact same thought last night, mostly because I'm watching the early '98 Raws right now.

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  41. I've said it a couple times, but I think they're actually doing a smart thing with Reigns. They're putting him in feuds (pluralized based on the assumption/rumors of Kane being his next feud) with people who aren't going to get smark cheers over him. The fact that he and Show pulled a shockingly good (borderline great) match out of their asses is all the better.

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  42. Instead of Orton going for the Pedigree, I wonder what the crowd reaction would've been if he's done Go To Sleep?

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  43. That's what I was saying last night about Big Show. It's hindsight now, but they should've given him a long world title run, had him win at least two Rumbles, and/or had him dominate a feud with somebody like Austin, Brock, HHH, etc. He really could've been another Andre or at least somebody who actually lives up to all the revisionist hyping they do of him now.

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  44. Am I crazy for thinking that Reigns looked pretty damn good in that match?

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  45. Yes, cause he isn't dead or addle-brained in 2015.

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  46. Rusev is honestly a better worker than Wyatt, and that enables him to have a career with unfavorable gimmickery.


    If necessary he can tear it up in the mid-card, or join a tag-team. He has a lot more versatility as a talent than Wyatt does so he's safer, IMO.

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  47. *Has new heel manager debut with blonde hair*


    *Doesn't think blonde women can be heels*


    GAH!


    I'm sure CJ Perry would've been willing to dye her hair, or rather, un-dye her hair. I'm pretty sure she's a natural tone is much dirtier.


    Like, why debut the talent with a tool, then have them drop the tool for the dumbest reasons. She's clearly over as a heel (well, she gets cheered too, but she can get heat), so maybe instead of questioning why she should be heel, you should just accept that she's over and realize THAT YOU HAVE AN OVER HEEL!


    "Why is that bald redneck over? Bald people can't be over!"


    It's fucking crazy to me. And then if we are getting a face turn, why not turn both Rusev and Lana? Try that stupid "Made In America" thing, with two people that are actually American. ADR is clearly a proud Mexican (which is totally cool), but Rusev and Lana have a house in Nashville together.

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  48. This is the correct answer. Kudos.

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  49. Bill DeMott gave his trainees a TON of knee injuries.

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  50. If they want to split them, I'd have Rusev turn face and keep Lana heel.


    Rusev loses the I Quit match after Lana puts in the towel. Lana says Rusev let down Russia, have Lana bring in a bigger heel (or a series of heels) to teach Rusev a lesson, then Rusev has to fight his former Handler while learning to respect America or something.

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  51. But then Cena would've lost.

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  52. I can't wait until Cena teaches Rusev bowling.

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  53. Meh. I think it was just lazy booking. He should have been no where near Cena unless he was gonna clearly win the feud and look like a real monster. Otherwise, he shouldn't be interacting with main eventers, he should be dominating midcarders. Then, when he loses the title, do the old Double J/Roadie thing with the heel miscommunication. Rusev threatens Lana, good guy saves her, and Rusev is recruited by some other manager (boy, having some good managers would be nice) and starts getting built up to a main event run. That way, you double down on the monster.

    The way they have done it makes no sense. They had a main eventer who gets no rub the deal beat him, left him with no excuse, and left him with nowhere to go because he already lost to a main eventer. They could have easily kept his heat alive for the long term and gotten a couple more years out of his heel run. Then they can stick him in a monster tag team. At least he gets a career out of it.

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  54. I mean...if wrestling Cena doesn't get anybody over, can we at least have Cena mentor someone?

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  55. Y'know, plenty of people are into that.

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  56. I did. Well not so much riot, but at least turn on the match. I was never more wrong.

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  57. It's just the way the WWE Meat Machine booking works. You get a big time monster heel, you build him up like a force to be reckoned by having him kill jobbers and midcarders, and then feed him to the big babyface and get a 3-month feud out of it.
    That's the way they did with Bruno, with Pedro, with Bob, with Hulk, with Austin to a degree, and what they've done with Cena for years. The important thing isn't to feed the big monster to a guy they wanna push, because the money is on keeping the main babyface strong, so the big monster's fed to him. The main babyface gets heat by beating the unbeatable, the monsters get's a lot of money from working with the champ and everyone's happy in a backstage sense.
    Then the big monster can go down the card, give back some heat to midcard guys (wrestling logic: once a monsters's been beat he becomes beatable by guys that wouldn't been able to faze him previously), send him away (if there were still territories) or repackage him before pushing him again.

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  58. It just kinda sucks when the guy is a good worker.

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  59. Oh, definitely. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Rusev.

    But we might just need to accept that once this run with Cena is over, there might be a ceiling for the guy. Hopefully he sticks around long enough to have plenty of good matches and feuds, but what he's doing now probably was never meant to transition into something bigger for him. Sometimes those guys break through a second time and go onto something much bigger- like Mark Henry- but not often.

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  60. Cena should give Rusev his first pair of wrasslin' boots.

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  61. Oh shit... my mistake, forget what I said.

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  62. Or Sid when he jobbed to a Luger clothesline in about 8 seconds.

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  63. I'd say they're about even in terms of who's a better worker, but what Wyatt has that Rusev doesn't is charisma.

    Sure, Wyatt's promos have been meaningless garbage for months, but so has his booking and career. He's still got the gift.

    Rusev gets a lot of the little things that a lot of guys don't, physically, but I fear he's tied to the Rusev character to a perilous degree.

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  64. Perhaps, but a guy who sells well and can hustle while being a pretty convincing "big guy" (despite being short) has a place in wrestling.


    Wyatt's never had a match that's matched Rusev's workrate.

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  65. I've been calling them K-Swiss for a while. My friend prefers "Swingin' Cats"

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  66. Swing Cats could work in a weird way. Though it's not dominant. I actually quite liked the Brass Ring Society, or whatever they were when Rose was with them.

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  67. Yeah, I know. House Hunters International has pretty good ratings.

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  68. And I mean...they're technically international house hunters, so it'd be weird if they didn't watch it.

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  69. Too on-the-nose. Plus, Shelley Long is great for that role.

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  70. yes, yes you are

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