This week in WWE!
It’s been a weird week. Daniel Bryan seems to be getting the big push again! I said it before and I will say it again until it’s been beaten harder than a dead horse. Expect Bryan to win the Royal Rumble. Expect Bryan to go to WrestleMania. It’s the story of Chris Benoit, in 2003 and 2004, who was held down, beaten, conspired against, everything to keep him away from the WWE or World Championships. One day, he entered a Rumble, and on that same day, he won it. Choosing the World Championship, Benoit was the underdog. Going up against Triple H and Shawn Michaels, few thought he had a chance to walk out of Madison Square Garden as champion. Sure enough, the underdog succeeded, forcing Triple H to tap out to his Crippler Crossface.
If you think about all the fun little details, one might think WWE is recylcling this very same story line with Daniel Bryan. Held down. Titles stripped, matches interfered. Side-tracked storylines. Here we are, the Royal Rumble right around the corner, and once again the ultimate underdog, who by coincidence uses the Yes-Lock/Labell-Lock/Crossface submission mauever, will have a chance to win and head to WrestleMania 30. Now, we do not yet know the participants, and we do not yet know who will challenge Randy Orton for the coveted WWE World Heavyweight Championship. I will tell you this, Bryan entering and winning looks really good right about now.
You also look at the guy with the title. Randy Orton. We agree, he is mediocre in the ring and even less so on the microphone. But, he is the guy who is the champion. He is the guy who we love to hate. The guy who knows how to antagonize. He is the guy. This is a guy who has standing to take and defend the title at WrestleMania 30. Unless he loses it to Cena, and we get a Bryan/Orton/Cena triple threat match as its main event. Orton is playing the spoiled brat routine, and as much as I hate to admit it, he does it very well. Probably some truth to the fiction.
In other news, Brodus Clay is finally a big bad monster. We thought the monster was coming a few years ago, and wound up with a cuddly Funkasaurus. Please oh please let Clay be the modern-day Human Suplex Machine.
Sin Cara continues to be in two places at once. Amazing.
Damien Sandow continues to be in limbo. Dolph Ziggler continues to be in the twilight zone.
The roster is overflowing with talent right now. It’s good, but at the same time it is not. If you look at TLC, if not for the Fatal-Four Tag Team Title match, there would have been about a dozen wrestlers at the event. Probably more, but you get the point. Tag team wrestling is the best thing going right now. There is a lot of talent in that pool. Remember the late 80’s, early 90’s where the tag belts would change hands every-so-often? Money Inc. would have it, then the Steiners, then lose it back to Money Inc. or the Natural Disasters, there as a lot of back-and-forth between great teams.
I know some of you will say, “well, look how that worked during the Attitude Era, it devalued the WWF Title.” I would agree, but you also have to look closely at how those title changes occurred. The tag title era I refer to saw wrestling, while the Attitude Era saw title changes thanks to DQs, interference, cheating, screwjobs, you name it, it was done. The WWF Title changed hands on Raw every few weeks and at every pay-per-view, because of some shady finish. Frequent title changes does not always mean something bad, but could show respect to those who earned it. I would love to see The Usos and The Real Americans trade the titles back and forth. Have the Prime Time Players win it once at least.
Big E. Langston is getting the big push. He’s everywhere. Teaming with Henry, high profile matches, even potential main events. Now that the Intercontinental Championship is regarded as the #2 title, a guy like Langston can be shown as a strong future WWE Champion.
Let’s see how WWE continues to build the Royal Rumble event. Could be big.
