Matt D Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 Well if it's just Mania placement we're worried about, who cares? I'm drooling over the idea of weekly TV matches of Bryan/Harper vs Cody/Goldust or Bryan/Harper/Rowan vs Rey/Usos. I care about that way more than a Bryan vs Shawn or Hunter or Bryan/Cena/Orton or whatever else the "Best Possible Scenario" Mania match would have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 The Wyatts are absolutely not mid-carders at this point. I would argue that they maybe should be (and I love Harper), but they aren't. They are extremely well protected. I would be shocked if Bryan was in a "lame mid-card match" Mania. If anything the fact that the last thirty minutes of the last Raw of the year on a show where Brock returned were dedicated to Bryan suggests to me he will be in a high profile match at Mania. All WWE angles are overly dramatic. The angle made tons of sense. The authority has fucked over Bryan, he has the fan support, but he has nothing else because they are fucking with him. The Wyatts keep going at him to bring him aboard and he eventually gives in on the last Raw of the year after it's announced that he's basically being passed on for the big title match again. Honestly if anyone other than Bryan was involved in this angle it would be universally praised Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 Also to Kris point, I know what has been reported, but I am really starting to think the reported matches are off. I could be wrong and I would be fine with those matches, but I have a feeling Brock won't be working Taker. In my heart of hearts I feel it will be Brock v. Batista and Taker v. Cena though I admit I have no reason to believe that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmare007 Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 I'm fine with the angle as long as we get a version of heel "kicking people's heads in" Bryan and Cena NOT coming to the rescue. D-Bry has always been a better heel and him working as one and cutting promos against the machine will be very fun to watch. I also agree that TV wise, this is gonna open up a lot of interesting matchups. But dammit, as a huge mark of him, I wanted a big Wrestlemania match for Danielson. It's his 4th one and he was heading into it as the most over guy in the company...now it looks he'll end up in a good 7 minute match with Bray Wyatt and it bums me out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 How is Bryan raging against the machine by joining the Wyatts? I thought it was implied that it was the Authority who sicced the Wyatts on him in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmare007 Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 Honestly if anyone other than Bryan was involved in this angle it would be universally praised Now that is very true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 How is Bryan raging against the machine by joining the Wyatts? I thought it was implied that it was the Authority who sicced the Wyatts on him in the first place.They never implied that on TV. That was Internet jibber jabber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 You know that you're super protected top guys in WWE when they put you on Wednesday Main Event & you don't even get an entrance~! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 You know that you're super protected top guys in WWE when they put you on Wednesday Main Event & you don't even get an entrance~! The Wyatts have been presented strong in every match they've had on t.v. They squashed the Usos last week, a team that has gotten a mammoth push by WWE standards. They've been presented as a main event stable from day one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Evans Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 You know that you're super protected top guys in WWE when they put you on Wednesday Main Event & you don't even get an entrance~! The heavyweight champion of the world doesn't even get entrances sometimes. Hell even HHH doesn't get one. The Brock thing was so great I didn't care about the main event angle. That F5 to Mark Henry was a thing of beauty. As long as this Wyatts/Daniel thing leads to Roman Reigns making the save for Bryan during a Wyatts/Shield mania match, I'm all for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 So is there any reason to turn Brodus heel if all he's going to do is job? It seems he would have been better off with Tensai if the focus on tag teams continues. Hell, we could have used a heel team of two big fat guys just to help put over acts like the Rhodes and the Usos. And all the fussing about the Bryan angle reeks of "my favorite isn't in the main event (except when he is...) so he's being buried!!" Guy gets a shit ton of TV time and more often than not gets the W. Did WWE miss an opportunity to make him the next big star? Possibly. He's still doing really well despite that. I think Loss is a really intelligent guy, but Bryan has in no way been buried and it's actually difficult to see how anyone could think that. Buried is Dolph Ziggler going from WHC to trading wins with gimmick wrestlers in random gimmick matches with no direction by year's end. Bryan could have been handled better, but he's still constantly a focus and is still involved in one of current top 3 or 4 programs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 I enjoyed the end angle since Bryan took my advice and gave in. Ultimately, this whole story only matters if the payoff is that DB becomes the new face of the company. If that doesn't happen, this is all junk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 And as they inevitably do a few weeks of Bryan killing actual midcarders as a Family member, people will need to realize that attacking "the machine" starts with killing guys like Kofi, Dolph, Miz, etc. So save the "he's fighting midcard guys/ burried" stuff when those matches happen. It's not as if the Wyatt's with Bryan are gonna start by going after the Authority. I mean, it might happen that way but I'd guess they have Bryan and the Family destroy lower guys as a build up. I'm thinking it ends up with Punk vs Bryan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cm funk Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 I didn't like the end of the show angle, and here's why I didn't believe any of it. I love Bryan, but acting is not his biggest strength, and he didn't sell me on this huge moment. You can see it coming from a mile away that this is a swerve and Bryan is pretending to join the Wyatts only to turn on them. Which I guess is the point, they made it obvious so that people would look forward to that, but to me, for it to really work, I need to think, "oh shit, Bryan has turned" which I never thought once during the angle. So, whatever they were going for there, it didn't work for me Also, there's the whole Total Divas thing, where WWE is walking this line between the reality show and the reality of their universe, and are totally inconsistent on. They've acknowledged that Bryan and Brie Bella are engaged on tv, and they took the Cena-Bryan real life friendship/dating the twins and made it part of their tv. But Bryan joins the Wyatt clan? Please. And where is his best bud John Cena when all this is going down, the guy who stands up for him/leaches off his heat at every turn? The writing is way too spotty and inconsistent for me to get invested here I also suspect that Bryan's heat is waning at this point. It feels like crowds have a pavlovian respense to his act, but these months and months of bad booking and being shunted down at the expense of other people's pushes are going to catch up. This is totally not Bryan's fault, he does the best with what he's given to work with, but he's been given a lot of shit. And I'm not at all on the Bryan burial train, I 100% believe that they are pushing him as hard and as best as they know how, a guy doesn't beat the top star clean and then beat Orton fair and square every single time and be "buried", the problem is they generally suck at booking. Bryan will be fine in the long run, but they really aren't doing him favors the way they've handled this push Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankensteiner Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 I don't really care about this storyline one way or the other but I always get a chuckle when someone defends WWE storylines with some fantasy booked future pay-off in mind. When was the last time the WWE delivered a satisfying payoff to one of their big storylines? Even if they stumble upon something worthwhile, it's my impression things get unnecessarily dragged out before eventually petering out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 Anyone think the Lesnar/HHH program would have went better if their promos were like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meQ-fhkVjd0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimmas Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 One thing that could be interesting is that Bryan joined the Wyatt family to help him get back at the Authority. There is something like the Wyatts help Bryan in the Rumble and the final two are Bryan and Bray. Bray asks Bryan to leave for Bray to win the Rumble, only for Bryan to throw Bray out and disclose the ruse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 I don't think Bryan is getting buried. No one in WWE that gets this much airtime, especially "top guy" top of the hour segments, is being buried. With that said I don't think he will be in the title match at Mania because they just don't see him at that level or want him there. It's frustrating but this is probably the best we can hope for. The Wyatts probably are a upper tier act now because, again, of how much airtime they get. A "push" in modern WWE is not winning a lot but how much screen time you get and when your segments air. It's just that the fans want to see Bryan fighting for the title and in the top mix with the singles. I don't think he is winning the Rumble or anything but I guess it adds to the intrigue of the finish. Batista will win it. I was pissed off last night watching the angle live but letting it sink in I guess it isn't the worst thing. Still frustrating as hell though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 Here's what I can't figure out. Is WWE burying Daniel Bryan? Or is WWE "burying" Daniel Bryan, because they've figured out that the more they beat him, the more he gets over? I think they've tapped into something where fans think supporting him is being rebellious against the company, and I can't figure out if that's promotional incompetence or if it's by design. I don't know that this is the case. Bryan's pretty clearly less over after months of being laid out and screwed over than he was immediately after Summerslam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Liska Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 Here's what I can't figure out. Is WWE burying Daniel Bryan? Or is WWE "burying" Daniel Bryan, because they've figured out that the more they beat him, the more he gets over? I think they've tapped into something where fans think supporting him is being rebellious against the company, and I can't figure out if that's promotional incompetence or if it's by design. I don't know that this is the case. Bryan's pretty clearly less over after months of being laid out and screwed over than he was immediately after Summerslam. How so? I haven't noticed a difference in how crazy the crowds go for him, unless you're talking about SummerSlam itself, which is a unique internet-based crowd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmare007 Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 And if we are going by special crowds. The one in Seattle was just as loud as the L.A one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 It appears to me that the reactions he gets these days aren't nearly as enthusiastic as the ones he was getting before and immediately after Summerslam. He still gets the Yes chants, but that's more of a Pavlovian reaction at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 I was at the TLC PPV live and he was pretty fucking over. It didn't feel Pavlovian like "What's Up". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timbo Slice Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 Yeah, Bryan's still over. The degree of how over he is at this point is splitting hairs. He was a supernova at some point this year, sure, but it's not like he's flamed out. This seems like the usual WWE slow burn booking. Will's right though. This only works if Bryan comes out on top here. But it's not going to matter what the reaction is. It's going to matter if Bryan gets exactly what he wants, and whether the crowd will like the fact that he did it regardless of the cost. If it turns the Wyatts faces (Which is a huge possibility), then that's just what happens. I don't care if the fans blow the roof off the place every time he comes out. It's obvious they want him to succeed. If he succeeds this way, the crowd will respond in kind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slasher Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 How can they turn Wyatts face? It is hard for me to imagine a scenario where Bray steps aside and lets Bryan lead or where Bryan is a subservient willing underling for Bray. Something has to change about the whole dynamic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts