Current WWE

[WingedEagle]

 

At one time, Taker wasn't much more than an entrance either.

 

Strongly disagree. He was an attraction from the get go. The crowds of children were scared shitless. The chokeslam. The walk on the ropes. The flying clothesline. The salute to the urn. The tombstone. The zombi sit-up. The pale look. It was unique and unheard of as a package. Of course it helped that Mark Callaway was amazing and found himself in this gimmick. But despite the shitty matches for a good 5 to 6 years, Taker was special very quickly.

 

 

HUGE disagree as well. Taker began as an entrance, and worked a character that along with Bearer didn't play singalong, didn't work cheap pops for the hometown like Foley would do as a gag, didn't compromise a single thing about the character. It took a classic heel in Jake to turn him face, and at that point the character wasn't dumbed down or amended to include any wink/nod nonsense either. Most importantly, his presence during the matches (work be damned for years, because that's beside the point here) was completely different from everyone else on the card and consistently so for years.

 

It might very well be true that if Undertaker debuts in 2014 he doesn't get over anywhere near what he did back in the day. I'd be open to arguments he would or wouldn't. But man is Taker a whole other level from Bray Wyatt.

[anarchistxx]

 

 

411 through wrestlezone is claiming that PWI said that Batista thinks Bryan is too small to lose to in another match. Uh oh

 

WWE is working the dirtsheets brilliantly at the minute.

[tholzerman]

I'll say this about Bray Wyatt. He's been on the main roster for less than a year, and yet I cannot imagine WWE without him. Absolutely magnetic on the stick, and he's sneaky good in the ring. HE didn't get a whole lot of a chance to show his wares in 2013, but this year he's been really good, both in singles and trios matches.

[SomethingSavage]

There honestly wasn't a whole lot of meat to the Undertaker character in the beginning. You say he never did anything to compromise that character, and sure. I can see that. But really, what did that entail actually? Playing a zombie? He basically went out there and did a Michael Myers monster movie impersonation for a few minutes each night, along with the sit-up spot. The only REAL athletic thing they had him doing for years was the rope-walk, and it's something he picked up right away in training camp. So why not?

 

By the time he started working a more athletic, believable style - it was because they'd allowed him the freedom to do so. And it didn't risk doing any damage to the character either. Basically, I think the limitations of the Taker character were mutually beneficial, because they helped to cover up Callaway's own limitations at a point in his career when he wasn't so developed anyhow.

 

But by the time he began to work a more versatile style, it sure seemed like he didn't mind if it "compromised" any aspects of the undead zombie act he did for so many years ago.

 

And true. Paul Bearer was fantastic in transforming himself from Pringle the Third to fit that specific role, sure. But that's Percy. I take nothing away from Callaway as a performer & a worker, but the guy wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire for those first few years.

 

Not trying to say Taker didn't function as an authentic attraction early on. Obviously there was a demand there, otherwise I don't see them ever slotting him up against Hogan so freaking soon. It worked, but I'm not so sure it clicked in AS BIG a way AS QUICKLY as the Wyatt stuff has. Feel free to disagree, and I can't say whether one's right or one's wrong. But I just never got that impression from Taker's early days. They seemed a lot more stalled, start and stop, and hit or miss to me. Bray's been lightning since day one. He elicited a response right away, and - to their credit - they've stuck with it.

 

I'm not seeking to downplay either Bray or Undertaker as characters. Both clearly made immediate impacts upon their arrival. But to cast Bray aside as nothing more than an entrance or a gimmick - this deep into his run - is STILL reaching pretty far, in my view.

[Sidebottom]

 

At one time, Taker wasn't much more than an entrance either.

 

Strongly disagree. He was an attraction from the get go. The crowds of children were scared shitless. The chokeslam. The walk on the ropes. The flying clothesline. The salute to the urn. The tombstone. The zombi sit-up. The pale look. It was unique and unheard of as a package. Of course it helped that Mark Callaway was amazing and found himself in this gimmick. But despite the shitty matches for a good 5 to 6 years, Taker was special very quickly.

 

 

Agree EL-P. Randomly stuck in the 1991 Royal Rumble yesterday, and despite only being there a couple of months at that point he had such a strong presence in the match surrounded by much more established talent.

[Bix]

There was an opening for a Bryan-Kane preview at BR, so I used it as an excuse to write up some awesomeness Kevin Sullivan dropped on me about Daniel Bryan couple weeks ago: http://bit.ly/1rSkhTi

[El-P]

Sullivan is still a fascinating mind. The "No excuse" T-shirt idea is glorious.

[Matt D]

Wait, what did he have to say about Bray Wyatt?

[Jmare007]

I really fail to realize why Kane is a better option as a challenger than Sheamus right now. I don't think you win much more by re building Kane in 2 weeks as a monster than re building Sheamus in 2 weeks as Steph's new hired gun. I don't think any kind of fan would believe Sheamus or Kane could win the title but at least we would get very good matches.

[Russellmania]

I really fail to realize why Kane is a better option as a challenger than Sheamus right now. I don't think you win much more by re building Kane in 2 weeks as a monster than re building Sheamus in 2 weeks as Steph's new hired gun. I don't think any kind of fan would believe Sheamus or Kane could win the title but at least we would get very good matches.

Personally I think they need to drop the Stephanie stuff altogether. Let Sheamus turn heel and go after Bryan on his own...not because he's some schmuck hired gun but because he wants the title.

 

That needs to be the story of Bryan's title reign. He overcame the odds and beat the Authority and got exactly what he wanted. He got his WM main event an now he's the champion. But be careful what you wish for because now everyone in WWE is gunning for him. Sheamus, Batista, Orton, whoever....his reign should be a gauntlet of title defenses until someone (presumably Brock) finally proves to be one obstacle too many.

[Strummer]

The Authority stuff is supposed to continue. Vince thinks Steph and .hunter have to be on TV to transition to the future leadership. I'm wondering if they will ever do a blow off. It's been going on for nearly a full year

[Eduardo]

From Twitter. Cena and the Wyatts in the background:

 

[Matt D]

JBL is kind of great.

[KrisZ]

Per Meltz

 

 

 

Nothing is settled regarding the Payback main event even though Batista did the job in the Shield vs. Evolution match.

Vince McMahon still wants Daniel Bryan vs. Batista as the main event for the show. Even though tonight was Batista's last advertised appearance on this run, he is schedued to be in Albany tomorrow night.

If it's his last night in, there is a good chance he'll be in with The Shield. If not, that could change.

Right now, if they don't convince Batista to work with Bryan on the 6/1 show, the plan is Bryan vs. Kane in a Buried Alive match. Kane sat up at the finish because they felt they needed that as a last scene if they had to go in that direction after a clean pin in the middle had already happened.

[Russellmania]

well fuck

[BillThompson]

I know some people have been adamant that the plan all along was for Bryan to win at WrestleMania. At first I thought that but the more this Batista situation unfolds the more I think there's no way that was the case. That was Batista's slot, but luckily WWE listened this time and changed things on the fly.

[Eduardo]

WWE did the right thing with Daniel Bryan at WM.

I do get where Batista is coming from though. Looking at it as a job, which it is, I know how it feels being promised certain things and expecting a certain amount of pay, and then not getting either of those things. It sucks and it just makes you want to move on (if there are other options available).

At this point, what's the purpose of having Bryan-Batista after he cleanly tapped out at WM and lost via clean pinfall to Roman Reigns last night?

[anarchistxx]

There is no way whatsoever the Daniel Bryan thing was planned. My impression/theory of it was that it was the original plan circa Summerslam, to have him screwed and work his way up the a big Wrestlemania payoff. However, they get cold feet due to average ratings and low merchandise sales, Batista comes back into the picture and they change it up to have him winning the belt in an Evolution vs Evolution main event that they think will captivate the fans. Obviously the reaction bombs so they are forced to change it again.

 

It is clear to me that they aren't too sure how long Batista will be around. If he was going to be in for the long haul for the next couple of years, no way they have him job clean three PPVs in a row which seems to be the plan. Not sure having him eat the fall last night was especially conduicive to persuading him to work DB again either. Orton could have lost the match and it would have hurt him a lot less, but maybe they didn't trust Big Dave with the Rollins stage bump.

 

 

 

At this point, what's the purpose of having Bryan-Batista after he cleanly tapped out at WM and lost via clean pinfall to Roman Reigns last night?

 

There are no other credible heels except Randy Orton and Kane and both those matches have been done to death in recent months. They would have to elevate someone like Barrett or Cesaro for a premature shot, which in term would devalue Daniel Bryan. He needs to be working with people currently considered main event stars. Problem is even someone like Sheamus who they could turn has worked him a million times. Batista is one of the only fresh matches he has left looking at the current roster.

[SomethingSavage]

What the..? Is there suddenly some sense of sympathy surging up for Batista now? I miss a meeting or something?

 

At this point though, I honestly think I'd rather see them payoff the Kane/Bryan feud on a random RAW or something and actually run the 'Tista program for the next PPV. Special event. Whatever. At least it's somewhat fresh, and despite the neat spots of their Extreme Rules encounter last night, I just don't have much faith in Buried Alive Matches as being anything close to good. Pretty much ever. So yeah. I'd run the Buried Alive deal on RAW, try and bump a rating with that, and then gloss back over to Batista/Bryan to wrap up Dave's run this time around.

 

Oh. And there are a lot of options for guys to step in (or up) and face Bryan. They just need to get creative. The future of contenders to Austin's crown looked awfully bleak back in '98, too - but they filled time with the awesome Cactus turn. The Dude Love feud got really GREAT really quick. For a few weeks though, they had Austin fending off Hunter, Shawn's lackey, for filler.

 

By the time they wrapped up the Love stuff, they had a ready-made monster in Kane to move over into a program. From there came the teased tension with Taker, that blow-off, and by then they had elevated Rocky enough to feel like the next viable guy.

 

What I'm saying is - there are a lot of guys that they could look to for that fill-in role, similar to what they did with Dude Love in '98. Or heck, even Bradshaw for Eddie back in '04. It's a matter of rejuvenating careers and refreshing characters. A switch for Sheamus or a "Hall of Pain" type push on somebody could work wonders to make them come across as legitimate threats and challengers for Bryan in the months to come.

[Timbo Slice]

Well, now if payoffs are becoming an issue, this is really going to make things difficult for a lot of Bryan's top-tier challengers. He's already faced Trips and Orton enough. The only other big ticket guy he has is Lesnar, really, and even then, Lesnar isn't someone that you can see coming back after his contract is up next year after WM. Even then, it's pretty obvious that Cesaro is going to go over him at some point, too.

 

The Kane stuff is filler until they get past Payback, where they can run MITB and then really put something big on the cards for SS, where Bryan will most likely see Lesnar.

 

Problem is that the Wyatt stuff isn't happening the way it should be, too, as I'm guessing they were hoping Bray/Bryan would be something to build towards at some point.

[anarchistxx]

What the..? Is there suddenly some sense of sympathy surging up for Batista now? I miss a meeting or something?

 

I have no admiration for him as a wrestler. My point was simply that he is an established, main event star in the eys of the fans, who works as a dominant monster, so you devalue him by doing jobs every month. Every time he takes a fall it devalues his status as a big match attraction down the line. They have a lot of fresh matches with him that could conceivably draw, he should be kept strong if they intend to go that way or he just gets lost in the shuffle and they lose their considerable investment on him.

 

 

 

Or heck, even Bradshaw for Eddie back in '04.

 

That is the last thing they need. They had no confidence in Eddie as champion, and it really didn't help in the eyes of the fans that he was facing a lower level talent like Bradshaw. Eddie was also hampered by the brand split, and was the secondary champion on the B-show with a limited number of challengers. He was viewed as a failure on top. Daniel Bryan is the undisputed champion, he needs top level talent to beat, not repackaged mid carders. You can get away with placeholder feuds for a while but if you are selling him as the guy he needs to be facing big name stars.

 

A Bray Wyatt/Daniel Bryan rematch is a possible direction to go in, but neither could afford to lose really.

 

Silly gimmick matches like Buried Alive won't help him either. He got over because he worked exciting, fast paced, realistic, athletic wrestling matches. Whereas these gimmick matches are almost always overbooked, fake looking, slow, overworked train wrecks. How stupid is Daniel Bryan going to look shovelling a load of dirt onto Kane, nobody can take that kind of thing seriously anymore.

[SomethingSavage]

You really got sideways with the Bradshaw reference. I never proposed that they book Bryan like a B-level talent on any B-show. I was merely talking about the idea of taking a stale character or a stalled mid-card act & hitting the refresh button on 'em. Guys like Del Rio, Ziggler, Sheamus, and several other former World Champs spring to mind immediately. Maybe a Bad News Barrett reference would've gotten over with ya more, but you get the point. It's a tried & true method of just rejuvenating somebody and making them into a believable challenger in a short amount of time.

 

I know it turned the stomach of A LOT of fans to see Bradshaw get that spot, that push, and eventually that win over Eddie. But it was an entertaining feud nonetheless, and the promos were gold. GOLD, I tell ya. Plus it was done almost out of necessity, since they didn't have many other options or avenues for Eddie at the time. There was a hurt Kurt, sidelined until later that summer. And Brock had just bolted. They went with a longstanding company guy, got behind him, and gave him a shot.

 

Bray versus Bryan is an obvious path they could've taken. The story writes itself. The rematch books itself. There's a built-in logic behind it, and Bray has been positioned so highly up the card against Cena so consistently now that it wouldn't take any effort whatsoever to get the ball rolling for it.

 

I'm in absolute agreement about throwing Bryan into an abundance of gimmick matches and stuff right away.

[KrisZ]

Per Meltz

 

 

 

Raw is live tonight from Albany, NY. We're looking for reports on the live show including Superstars matches, dark matches, attendance and anything else not evident from the live show. John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt is being advertised locally. That doesn't mean it'll happen, it just means they are advertising it locally. Adam Rose will debut on today's show. The show opens with a Battle Royal for the U.S. title so I guess Dean Ambrose is vacatring it. The Sheild vs. The Wyatts with Evolution as the guest timekeepers are scheduled for tonight's show as the TV main event.

--If you're following the Batista story, he essentially is staying but not having to lose to Daniel Bryan on 6/1. Payback has been changed to a Shield vs. Evolution rematch and Daniel Bryan vs. Kane in a Buried Alive match.

--The kid who played Little Johnny last night was the son of Jameson, who used to be a regular on WWE programming in the late 80s and early 90s, and even co-hosted the short-lived Bobby Heenan show on the USA Network.

[Jmare007]

The more I think about it, the more I convince myself that they should save the Brock/Bryan match+title switch for Survivor Series. August seems way too early for taking the belt out of D-Bry (as I think Brock should beat him when they fight for the belt).

[cm funk]

It would be pretty great story telling if HHH forced Ambrose to vacate the US title on account of not defending it in 30 days (which has been mentioned on TV a lot), then put Rollins and Reigns into the battle royale for it, and one of them wins it. Great way to sew dissension amongst The Shield.

 

Don't love them doing Bryan-Kane again, thought it should have been one and done with a strong blowoff, but it's not a big deal. Who are they going to rebuild or repackage in a month who'd be a viable challenger? Oh, and the idea that Bryan shouldn't be put in gimmick matches is pretty ludacris. The Extreme Rules match was super gimmicky and I thought it was the best Kane match in a long, long time. Not every Bryan match needs to be fast paced hyper kinetic pinball stuff, he's way more versatile than that. He's an excellent underdog brawler.