Could all these leads to Heel Cena's return !?
Suddenly everything has changed.
WWE executed one of its riskier creative turns at Summerslam and Raw, aligning the McMahon family with WWE Champion Randy Orton and security goon squad The Shield. Standing against them is Daniel Bryan, who's become WWE's top guy by not only rivaling John Cena in popularity, but decisively beating him at Summerslam to send Cena away on four to six months of injury leave.
The comparison I'm seeing thrown around after Raw is that Bryan has become the new "Stone Cold" Steve Austin: The rebel and rightful top guy wronged by the McMahon family for not fitting its image of how that top guy should look and act.
That's valid, if a little glib. Bryan and Austin are worlds apart not only in terms of character, but also wrestling style.
More importantly, though, is the behind-the-curtain subtext of Bryan's feud with the McMahons. It's basically the Internet darling phenomenon made explicit and extended to the general WWE audience. For years now, the McMahons have been derided by hardcore wrestling fans as out-of-touch, talent-blind tyrants, more obsessed with muscles and mainstream appeal than wrestling ability. Now they've matched their storyline characters to their perceived backstage personas.
They're flat-out saying they don't want a scraggly, 5-foot-8-inch technician to be their champion. And in this instance, it's brilliant. It makes fans hate the McMahons not only because we believe they're telling us how they really feel, but because Bryan's fans are too on-board and won-over to be shaken by something so superficial.
The risk of this setup, of course, is teetering too close to the line where WWE is outright telling fans the wrestling is fixed. But so far, so good. Last night's show-closing beatdown of Bryan at the hands of The Shield and Randy Orton was the perfect punctuation on Triple H's explanation for his Summerslam turn. You could nitpick and say Bryan should have raged harder, or the massed WWE Superstars shouldn't have been so reluctant to leave the ramp and help him out. I'd even join you in lamenting The Shield's apparent demotion to McMahon family lackeys (which probably means a drought of Dean Ambrose promos in the immediate future).
But last night's big-picture booking was smart. If such beatdowns go on for months we'll have a problem, but WWE did just put Bryan over Cena cleanly, so I expect he'll get his soon — and after last night, I can't wait.
Paralleling Bryan's ascent is CM Punk's surprisingly great babyface run opposite Paul Heyman. Fiery, ready-to-fight Punk has proven much more appealing and fun to watch than smart-ass, shoot-promo Punk, especially when the former WWE Champion called on a booing fan to step into the ring last night. But given Brock Lesnar's likely absence until 2014 and Curtis Axel's significantly lower stature, I'm wondering how Punk continues feuding with his former best friend.
Given how much he has in common with Bryan, I wouldn't be surprised to see Punk have his fellow ROH alum's back against the McMahons — and maybe even put a less confusing bow on his underwhelming 2011 feud with Triple H.
Those two on top against the McMahons, Orton and The Shield would carry WWE through the winter. This is wishful thinking, but if they really wanted to turn WWE upside down with this storyline, they would have the breathing room to finally, at long last, turn John Cena heel. He does have much more in common with Orton than Punk and Bryan, and of course, it's heel Cena, so it'd be the biggest WWE storyline in 10 years for that reason alone. Plus we'd get more of this awesomeness.
Suddenly everything has changed.
WWE executed one of its riskier creative turns at Summerslam and Raw, aligning the McMahon family with WWE Champion Randy Orton and security goon squad The Shield. Standing against them is Daniel Bryan, who's become WWE's top guy by not only rivaling John Cena in popularity, but decisively beating him at Summerslam to send Cena away on four to six months of injury leave.
The comparison I'm seeing thrown around after Raw is that Bryan has become the new "Stone Cold" Steve Austin: The rebel and rightful top guy wronged by the McMahon family for not fitting its image of how that top guy should look and act.
That's valid, if a little glib. Bryan and Austin are worlds apart not only in terms of character, but also wrestling style.
More importantly, though, is the behind-the-curtain subtext of Bryan's feud with the McMahons. It's basically the Internet darling phenomenon made explicit and extended to the general WWE audience. For years now, the McMahons have been derided by hardcore wrestling fans as out-of-touch, talent-blind tyrants, more obsessed with muscles and mainstream appeal than wrestling ability. Now they've matched their storyline characters to their perceived backstage personas.
They're flat-out saying they don't want a scraggly, 5-foot-8-inch technician to be their champion. And in this instance, it's brilliant. It makes fans hate the McMahons not only because we believe they're telling us how they really feel, but because Bryan's fans are too on-board and won-over to be shaken by something so superficial.
The risk of this setup, of course, is teetering too close to the line where WWE is outright telling fans the wrestling is fixed. But so far, so good. Last night's show-closing beatdown of Bryan at the hands of The Shield and Randy Orton was the perfect punctuation on Triple H's explanation for his Summerslam turn. You could nitpick and say Bryan should have raged harder, or the massed WWE Superstars shouldn't have been so reluctant to leave the ramp and help him out. I'd even join you in lamenting The Shield's apparent demotion to McMahon family lackeys (which probably means a drought of Dean Ambrose promos in the immediate future).
But last night's big-picture booking was smart. If such beatdowns go on for months we'll have a problem, but WWE did just put Bryan over Cena cleanly, so I expect he'll get his soon — and after last night, I can't wait.
Paralleling Bryan's ascent is CM Punk's surprisingly great babyface run opposite Paul Heyman. Fiery, ready-to-fight Punk has proven much more appealing and fun to watch than smart-ass, shoot-promo Punk, especially when the former WWE Champion called on a booing fan to step into the ring last night. But given Brock Lesnar's likely absence until 2014 and Curtis Axel's significantly lower stature, I'm wondering how Punk continues feuding with his former best friend.
Given how much he has in common with Bryan, I wouldn't be surprised to see Punk have his fellow ROH alum's back against the McMahons — and maybe even put a less confusing bow on his underwhelming 2011 feud with Triple H.
Those two on top against the McMahons, Orton and The Shield would carry WWE through the winter. This is wishful thinking, but if they really wanted to turn WWE upside down with this storyline, they would have the breathing room to finally, at long last, turn John Cena heel. He does have much more in common with Orton than Punk and Bryan, and of course, it's heel Cena, so it'd be the biggest WWE storyline in 10 years for that reason alone. Plus we'd get more of this awesomeness.
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