Matt D

I still would much rather see Bryan vs Orton at Mania with HHH vs Bryan in December to get him into the Rumble or in February in order to get the title shot at Mania. Neither here nor there but Bryan is one of the guys who could probably have a really compelling match with Vince too.

The show started out with Cena saying "I was defeated by a better man in a clean fight," then taking his hat off, handing him the mic like a baton, and leaving. The entire roster was scared by The Shield (and Vince/HHH) to the extent that they wouldn't do a thing (and not when Dolph/Show were being beaten down either). Bryan didn't exactly look smart, sure, but he sure as hell looked both brave and dangerous. Orton/HHH looked chickenshit for having other people do their dirty work. People said that Bryan was better off Monday morning than he was Sunday morning. I think it's pretty safe to say that he is better off Tuesday morning than he was Monday morning too.

They won two handicap matches, and had a hard time controlling Daniel Bryan between the three of them. I wouldn't make any assumptions yet, they've still gone from destroying The Rock and The Undertaker to not even making the card on the second biggest show of the year, and wandering aimlessly between feuds. I harp on about this, but WWE needs to start giving guys proper personalities and motivations. This just randomly beating people up and setting up a match never goes anywhere, and it always leads to pushes and characters petering out after the the first few months. Have people feud over something, have a proper storyline. With the Shield, I think they sort of messed it up last night, in as, if they were going to be the corporate lackies anyway, they should have went all out and put them in suits and let them be in the ring. Presumably their entire gimmick is about how the WWE constantly marginalized talent such as them (and Punk) in favor of people like Ryback. That seemed to me to be the whole justice thing when they debuted. I might be harping on this too much but I kind of love the idea that it's true just to the point where they're allowed to move from have nots to have. They sell out (and not to Heyman who is the crazy cult leader for the marginalized but to Vince/HHH) when Bryan does not. I think there's something compelling there, if they just spelled it out.

I'm a little worried about myself and the lucha 80s project. I saw two matches today. One was the Sangre Chicana vs MS1 hair match from 83. Of the two I saw, I'd probably be more likely to suggest that people watch Stan Lane and John Tenta vs Mil Mascaras and Ultimo Dragon. I'm not saying it was better. Mascaras being Mascaras sort of prevents that. I'm just saying I'd be way more likely to suggest people see the WAR tag.

I honestly think it's important to get Bryan away from Orton almost immediately and into some other feud either against a monster or some other force. I'm hesitant but it almost might make sense to do sort of a corporate ministry angle with Kane costing Bryan his rematch for Wyatt at HHH's request and spinning that off for a few months before starting the build to Bryan earning his title shot back at the Rumble. Punk on the other hand would be a great "mankind" to Orton's "late 98-early 99 Rock"

It's very possible that this is going to turn into a Summerslam 93 thing. Attention Spans are fickle. This doesn't feel like, let's say, Christian immediately losing to Orton to me. That set up a bs heel turn that no one wanted and killed his momentum. This seems like something far more orchestrated and organic. This seems like part of the rocket strapped to Bryan, not a derailing of the push.

I bet it makes you root for Bryan all the more when he finally gets his chance for retribution.

Frankly it's the most honestly heelish, emotion-generating thing done in the WWE since, what? Punk cashing in on Hardy?

It would have meant less if it didn't spoil the moment.

Thought your "right decision" article was good. With the current heel line up I can't imagine exactly what a Bryan title run would have looked like (though I keep picturing Rey's World title run that was disastrous with him losing more than winning). I would have liked to see a bit more about whether this was good or bad for Bryan longterm though.

Wrestling is fiction and has its own set of rules that real fights do not. That'll be 5 cents.

Cena effectively said he didn't respect Bryan, albeit in a less than outright way. Bryan responded by saying that when he was in Japan he learned something that the wrestlers would do to one another to fire each other up for big matches. They would take the palm of their hand and slap the face of the other man as hard as they could. He said he would love to do it but he couldn't do it to Cena because he wasn't a wrestler. Cena slapped Bryan, who just laughed and refused to slap him back Oh, so it was literally some sort of fighting spirit thing I didn't understand. That's kind of funny. I did like Cena selling the arm in the midst of it though. I think I'm just hotwired against "let's stop the match and stand here facing each other and take turns hitting each other" in my wrestling. But with that context, it absolutely works.

What in the promo from Monday led to the slapfest. I just figured it was some fighting spirit thing I didn't get.

Did MITB in Chicago have BS? I don't remember.

I still think the best thing to do is have Bryan screwed out of his rematch by some other heel, let Bryan fight him, let Punk chase Orton into Survivor Series and switch the belt back a few times, have Bryan beat HHH in December to get into the Rumble, win the Rumble and win at Mania. Basically, repeat 98 and Austin. I didn't see the promo Monday (I did see the go home smackdown) so that might be it.

It kind of lost me when they were kicking each other and slapping each other, I will admit. But yeah, I seriously don't get people bitching about this. It was iconic. It was a moment. It'll also be pretty hard for them to screw it up, or let me put it this way. It'll be a lot harder for them to screw it up than a lot of other scenarios. We could have easily just gotten another shitty Rey Mysterio type reign.

I'm kind of relieved they did the logical thing.Now they can have Bryan chase. I'd have him chase all the way to Mania and get the belt there but there's no way they can do something that longform in 2013-14.

That off the top ropes spot with Cena landing with Bryan was the scariest fucking thing.

Dylan, at least, will find this amusing. I tend to watch wrestling on the bike downstairs and stay out of everyone's way. At some point during Punk vs Brock, I apparently said "Come on!" loud enough, without realizing it that the 14 month old thought I wanted her to come to me downstairs, so she got her "little people" and were banging them upon the gate long enough for my 11 year old to come out of his room, where he was trying to sleep, and toss them across them across the room. Thus I caused discord throughout my household because I was into the match. This should once and for all destroy the myth that I am an emotionless wretch.

Not sure if it was MOTY but I sure as hell liked it. I loved the aerial strategy. I loved the Chair as the great equalizer. I thought they did more to get the steel chair over as a meaningful entity than any WWE match in years. I watched Sabu vs Show from Summerslam 06 yesterday and this was actually sort of tame in the actual BIG SPOTS that they did compared to that but everything meant so much more between a) the selling and b> the fact that styles have been toned down so that things can actually breathe more. I think, weirdly, my favorite part might have been the downtime as Brock was getting the chair on the outside. And the tie-bit. I loved the tie bit. Oh, I loved the headbutt to the groin too. That was sort of a man vs god moment, where the man has an edge because he is mortal and thus knows he will someday die. The moving away from the rib selling didn't bug me too much since Punk was really selling in that Bockwinkel Total Exhaustion sort of way.

Is it to jaded too respond with "Didn't cost him anything personally?" Because I'm kind of tempted to. Don't get me wrong. It's a terribly nice gesture in and of itself.

I would contribute to a kickstarter to support such a project.

I did as soon as Darren Young came out. LOLOLOLOL Damn it Bix.