Slasher

Well yeah. He can take out Taker, the God that showed up at Backlash with HBK and Vince McMahon (the devil). That's easy :-)

Rusev was always a Bulgarian. You know his nickname is "The Bulgarian Brute", after all. His deal is he was a pussywhipped dude who loved a Russian chick. So he advocated everything Russia for her. But he has always been Bulgarian.

Also I think Cesaro is more of a fans' guy than a company guy. He has kept his fans through thick and thin. He is not the guy I would use as your example. A guy that fits more is someone like Rusev. A guy who was a complete WWE creation, got over as a heel, and now is nearly at a point where the fans would accept a babyface turn...without the indy credentials that has kept the hardcore fans into guys like Owens or Rollins/Ambrose or Cesaro.

I get that but I think right now the important thing is to rebuild a little bit of trust on both sides. The WWE has spent too much time in recent years swinging their dicks at the fans. I think if the WWE showed an open mindness towards saying "You guys are not total idiots. This guy that you like does deserve something" the fans would be more pliable towards going along with other plans in addition to that. There is nothing wrong with having Ace 1A and 1B and each being represented by both sides. Now I do recognize the risk of giving fans too much power but I think if you strap them in at the beginning of the ride for someone's push-a rise from debut to main events, it will placate them while you do your own thing as the company. If say you debut Finn Balor on the main roster and the fans are invested, instead of cutting him off to test his resolve, just keep pushing him like he IS a chosen one, all the while pushing your guy as his rival or whatever who is YOUR chosen one and I think it could work.

Should have kept the Submission Sorority name around and make them the central figures of Summerslam set to that theme.

But to Loss's point, I think the only way we are getting that universally cheered babyface is if the company did the wacky thing and...y'know...listened to the fans. The fans have been telling them who they want to see. Most of the guys though? Either pushed half heartedly or not at all. This is part of the war against the fans. If they stopped that shit and just tried to invest that same willpower they have been using with Cena and Reigns and Triple H on one of the people the fans have actually advocated for....just try it out and see how it works out.

Actually Reigns started getting turned on when they realized Dean Ambrose was a better babyface challenger to Seth Rollins and by extension, the Authority. Seeing Ambrose get jerked around while leaving Reigns in bubble wrap is what got the fans to realize it was Reigns or bust. Then over Bryan? Oh hell no.

Remember when everyone here (except me) thought Cena wasn't going to win at Summerslam? How quickly things turn around with the addition of a stipulation...

Also wanted to add that if DB started the "start from bottom" angle with Stephanie McMahon, this would be interpreted as an implicit promise to move him along into main events in short-ish order. Then it could start the whole Summerslam 2013-fall-WM 30 sentiments all over again. I for one, do not want to see that again. Hence why making him an upper midcarder with no real interaction with the Authority is probably a better idea. You can still have him messing around with midcarders if you want and there is no feeling of "How are they paying off on the angle? Hes gotta get back to the top, right???"

Being an upper midcarder to start off with a clear sense of moving him along back into main events. Summerslam is being headlined by two part time wrestlers, the fans are not stupid. They will eventually ask "Hey why not Daniel Bryan?" The company has very good reason to not push him so heavily anymore but he has sort of become their Tim Tebow where people want all or nothing. Daniel Bryan serving as a "mentor" to a main roster Sami Zayn would be cool though.

It isn't that I don't want to see the Bryan storyline play out the way Loss described it. It is that I don't think the fans will buy it...in the long term, especially when you have the guy that Daniel Bryan should be beating 8 out of 10 times be their world champion. I don't want tp see the fans hijack events because he is wrestling jobbers instead of main eventers. I think believing the fans will be "conditioned" to go for the ride gives them too much credit. Didn't someone just throw a briefcase at Roman Reigns's head? The one positive I do see from the idea is if Daniel Bryan was willing to reinvent his wrestling style by getting low impact moves over so that he doesn't have to do the dives and the top rope headbutts and the front dropkick into the corner and any other stuff that he does that is dangerous. But I am not sure Bryan would even be willing to do that either. It's not fun to read naysayer posts, I get that, but that is the fault of the company for instilling this level of distrust in them and their mindset. Of course in a perfect world this would work..but alas, this isn't a perfect world.

I LOVE the idea of Stephanie telling him he has to start from the bottom and programming him with someone like Slater to start. They could stretch that out for two years and just let the crowd determine how far to take it. That is absolutely a terrible idea and one that the crowds will no doubt refuse to play along with.

I would say in kayfabe its not different than any and most superheroes and supervillians. For example, Bruce Wayne knows he is Bruce Wayne but he dons the Batman costume for battle. Yes, what makes Cody insane is thinking he is one (superbeing).

I understood your point. What I was saying and I alluded it with "for different reasons" is that Vince might have had positive feelings for Bret and his being in the WWF for the life or majority of it at least of the contract. Then it is possible Vince in September after making him champion went "Wow was that contract a mistake!" Sports teams suffer bad contracts that they wish they could have taken back...sometimes within the first year of the deal.

Who says? What if they did plan on Bret being the champion that long? Six weeks is a long time for the WWF and Vince in specific to change his mind based on different reasons. Heck they changed their mind six weeks later in 2014 when they realized the fans weren't having none of Batista and wanted Bryan in there instead. But they likely had a long term plan dating back to Summerslam where the main event was going to feature Randy Orton against Batista.

Not that I think he will miss out on Summerslam but it's not even like Cena vs Rollins was a real hot program to begin with. It started only like two or three weeks ago haphazardly with it being transparent that they were only going tp have the match because there wasn't anyone else in the back with the momentum to get involved in the title match and the only two logical opponents were being tied up in other matches/programs (Brock vs Taker and Reigns in the tag team Shield vs Wyatts). If the guy really needed to take time off, now was as good a time as any to go.

Actually it isn't that the Carter Family is hell bent on it being Dixie or nobody else, her parents have wanted to get real wrestling folks involved with the company. It is quite simply that Dixie herself refuses to step aside and since it was her idea that the family invest in the Jarrett promotion and become the owners, it has essentially become her plaything while the parents preoccupied themselves with their real jobs and being horrified by the bills that Dixie has run them up for but not having the heart to shut her down. The passage even implies as much, with Bob and Janice falling in love with JR but the deal not working out because Dixie doesn't want it to.

Well we can't forget about Sheamus either. They aren't going to wait til 2016 for him to attempt a cash-in. And unless he does it to turn babyface, it would be awkward to see heel bully Sheamus cash on heel coward Rollins.

You really don't see Cena winning at Summerslam?

Wasn't the plan for the IC title when Bryan won it is to have it be a Smackdown exclusive title? If so, Reigns shouldn't be holding it because he should be on Raw. Well unless the WWE was committed to making Smackdown a strong viable show in its own right after the move tp USA, in which case making Reigns the exclusive franchise ace of Smackdown could possibly work.

Plus Triple H has made a career out of latching on to the hottest or rising acts in his last few years as an active roster member. So the fact he has barely had any real interactions or feuds with Cena says a lot about how he sees him as a viable partner. It isn't like he fears Cena's backstage stroke that he couldn't manipulate results in his favor. He just didn't care to work with the guy beyond what...two singles matches on PPV and a few multi-man matches.

Honestly I feel like they should have had him win the IC title when Bryan got hurt and had to drop it. That would have been a great way for him to build up his credibility for a while. Then Reigns and Wyatt could be feuding over the IC title right now instead of having it sit at home in Ryback's suitcase or whatever. Yeah it would be totally great to have the guy who got vilified for "taking" Bryan's spot for Wrestlemania be the guy who takes Bryan's title. That won't totally kill him dead for sure!

No Triple H doesn't think Cena is a very good wrestler. There has been tidbits over the years that reflects on this. But that doesn't mean he doesn't see the immense value in Cena as the ace. Maybe he has softened on this stance in recent years though.

Which is odd considering how little Triple H respects Cena as an in ring performer and how much he loves himself some Nature Boy. If Vince steps aside anytime soon I am willing to bet Cena will all of sudden find himself struggle to get to that exalted number.

Heidenreich was never put in a position to be a true blue main event act. Roman Reigns had the Survivor Series elimination record, had the Royal Rumble eliminations record then won the damn thing a year later. He had a Wrestlemania main event match which was a title match against a killer act like Brock Lesnar who they don't waste appearances on just anybody. What the hell did Heidenreich have in comparison? Besides rape Michael Cole?