PDRMatt Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 Great third fall and all, but with Harper and Rowan losing again, where do they go from here with the WWE tag titles? Assuming they do still care about the tag division. The Usos really have no other opponents (Dust Brothers are unfocused, Rybaxel aren't championship material...what other tag teams exist?), but why keep on giving Harper and Rowan monthly title shots when they keep losing in the title match? Are they just going to put them in another gimmick match at SummerSlam? With Bray losing to Jericho as well, doesn't the Wyatt family lose a ton of credibility with all these losses in a row? Does logical booking even factor in anymore? Is everything random? Why are we here? Is life just a series of random events? Is there no order to the universe?!?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 I assume The Ascension debuts tonight and attacks the Usos. Jericho will have a series of blah matches with Wyatt that won't get him over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PDRMatt Posted July 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 Ugh, yeah Jericho and Bray have so little chemistry. "You wanna get crazy? I can get crazy." When has Jericho ever proved to be Wyatt family crazy? Not buying it. He didn't get crazy at Battleground, and he doesn't really have to get any crazier now that he's already beaten Bray. Tonight, Bray will cut another promo about being "reborn" after another loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Faulconer Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 I hope the Ascension has improved a lot since their match with Billington and Cahill. If they haven't they are going to bore everyone to tears should they ever get called up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 I feel like them working with Dustin for a while will help things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chief Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 The Ascension HAVE to be debuting soon, right? That's the only logical reason why Rowan and Harper don't have the belts. Even if I think Ascension suck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 I assume The Ascension debuts tonight and attacks the Usos. I read this same thing like a month ago & it was why I picked the Usos to win again, against my better judgment, and lo and behold they won. I don't really think the Ascension are ready but the tag belts on Rowan/Harper don't really help them any either. Of course, neither does another loss. The Wyatt Family have really fallen off lately. Still putting on good matches (at least anything with Harper) but they feel pretty directionless. I don't know if they will add a new member, or split or turn babyface or what. They've been on a pretty big slide since Elimination Chamber. That feud with Cena didn't do Bray ANY favors, that's for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 The Ascension HAVE to be debuting soon, right? That's the only logical reason why Rowan and Harper don't have the belts. Even if I think Ascension suck. At the NXT tapings last week they did a tag tournament to decide the next challengers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Man in Blak Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 The crucial mistake with Bray Wyatt was having him lose the match with Cena at Wrestlemania 30. Once they did that -- once they teased the "Cena has to become a monster to beat Bray" storyline in that match and then crushed it -- they cut his legs out from under him. The cage match at Payback introduced something that the Jericho feud has continued to drive home -- that Wyatt has to have Harper & Rowan to accomplish anything meaningful. And then they damaged the Family as a whole by having Cena (and the Usos) win the Last Man Standing match, even with the Family interfering the whole way. The Battleground matches didn't really help either. They've strongly established a narrative where the Usos aren't losing the belts to Harper & Rowan, no matter how dangerous they may be. And the Jericho/Bray match was a sloppy disaster that sorely needed a narrative beyond the referee banishing the Family from ringside. (Seriously? It's that easy?) The ending, in particular, made Wyatt look like a loser, no matter how desperately JBL wanted to sell it as an upset. WWE is treating them like they're bulletproof but, as the BO-RING chants from a week ago proved, they're not quite there yet, no matter how cool their ring entrances may be. It's going to be hard for Jericho to erase the stink off of that first match, if they're really intending to use him to boost/rebuild Bray. And who knows where Harper & Rowan go -- the only other established face tag team for them to work with is Goldust & Stardust, so perhaps they could be the catalyst in the Goldust/Stardust split? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMJ Posted July 22, 2014 Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 While I wasn't as down on the Jericho/Wyatt match as others (I thought it started off sloppy, but then got better as it went along), I wholeheartedly agree in the finish being a bad idea if they want Wyatt to still be a major consideration going forward. I can understand that Wyatt beating Jericho here would've been "predictable" considering Jericho's reputation for putting over talents, but why not end it with a DQ of some sort? Or even some sort of cool storyline-progressing bullshit like Jericho "getting crazy" and mercilessly attacking Wyatt with a weapon, only for the audience to almost turn on Jericho, who has "gone too far"? I'm not saying it needs to lead to a Wyatt face turn, but for the sake of a short-term storyline, why not play with the fans' minds? As Jericho is not a longterm priority, he'd be perfect for the role that Cena simply can't play. As for the tag match - I liked it too, especially the near falls in the end. I'm not sure where they should go with the Usos, but I do believe there is money in an eventual Wyatt split with Rowan and Harper coming to blows. Did anyone else also think that last night was arguably the first time the Usos' individuality came out? Honestly, before last night, I thought they were really interchangeable, but that match did a lot to make me think that they could eventually be singles talents in their own right. As crazy as it sounds, maybe they need to add new blood to the group? A Sister Abigail character to inspire them to more twisted acts? At this rate, though, I just don't "get" why the Wyatts haven't bulldozed through more opponents. Like Cesaro's post-Mania booking, it is just been head-scratchingly bad despite their matches being generally engaging and crowd-pleasing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted July 22, 2014 Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 Bray Wyatt not winning WWE World Title at MITB was their one shot to revitalize the character. I have no great love for the Wyatt character, but if you were going to salvage the investment then he should have won the title. It would have been perfect coming off the loss in the Cena feud to immediately reestablish him as a top flight act. Instead, he was the most un-noticeable wrestler in the match. Wyatt/Usos matches have had diminishing returns. I was live at MITB and I thought that was their peak and each match has lost its luster. Mostly because they follow the same template and have not really tried to differentiate them. Still definitely one of the feuds of the year so far. Bray losing to Jericho was so weird. I would have never predicted that in a million years. Jericho can get violent and insane see the HBK 2008 feud but that is a heel. You would think Jericho would be better suited in a role against a Cesaro where they can have a "workrate" (for lack of a better term) match as opposed to a Wyatt match that feeds off of hate. It was a solid match that was built around Wyatt bullying Jericho. Jericho peppered in some good hope spots and Wyatt would cut him off. Wyatt kept him hanging around too long before Jericho was able to hit his home run. It had a pretty good build and followed a pretty basic formula. I would call it good, but not great and probably second best match on a lackluster card. I don't really know where you go with the Wyatts from here besides adding more members or a face ugh turn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Man in Blak Posted July 22, 2014 Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 I think Bray winning the title at MITB would have made a ton of sense, if only because it would have provided a more direct path to what we're already staring at -- Bray wins the title, Cena challenges Bray for the title at Battleground, Cena wins and goes onto face Lesnar at SummerSlam. It makes so much sense that it may have almost felt too predictable, especially because the Cena/Wyatt title would have basically been a foregone conclusion. (It also would have taken away the opportunity to cram Reigns into the main event scene, which is clearly a priority.) If Cena had dropped the first match, though... I'll have to give Jericho/Bray another watch with a more critical eye but, while I was watching it the first time, it just felt unrelentingly slow. It could have been picture-perfect from a structural standpoint, but they took too long getting from point to point and the transitions between those points weren't especially memorable. (Other than the botched spot that Bray immediately re-did, of course.) I don't expect Bray Wyatt to work an arm like Arn Anderson or anything, but slow-paced brawling back and forth only works for me when both guys are throwing bombs...and neither Wyatt nor Jericho brought anything on that level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted July 22, 2014 Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 I don't know if I would go back to re-watch the match or anything. There actually were not any real transitions. The entire match was Wyatt on top with Jericho occasionally getting some offense, but never stringing together a comeback. I thought Wyatt did a good job building his offense to escalate to Sister Abigail that never materialized. It was a pretty awesome beatdown. Jericho's offense is just not very suited for this match besides a nice back elbow. What I didn't like was it felt like they were putting over Jericho's resiliency more than Wyatt is playing with his food. Wyatt would be shocked Jericho kicked out. You would think that Jericho is the up and coming star and Wyatt was the established monster based off the structure of the match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 22, 2014 Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 According to Dave, Vince changed the finish of Jericho-Bray on the day of the show. Dave suspects (but doesn't know) it's because he realized Bray winning at Summerslam and NOC would be more memorable, and that Jericho has to win at least one for the program to continue. So they chose this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkdoc Posted July 22, 2014 Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 i kinda suspected the jericho win before the show tbh among those Casual Smart Fans parv loves to talk about, the meme with jericho is "he loses every match whenever he comes back". it's become a very obvious cliche and they had to do something to make his jobs mean anything again. take that and add in the biggest throwaway PPV of the year, and voila! jericho takes the first one, then wyatt wins the two on the shows that actually matter. not exactly rocket science imo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 22, 2014 Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 I'm surprised that there is no actual storyline going on with Jericho and Bray. They are feuding, sure, but Jericho usually lays out stuff like with Punk, Shawn and Rey that has some type of storyline. I don't really see that here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(BP) Posted July 22, 2014 Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 I'd think now that he got laid out on Monday, and even juiced a little, we might get serious business Jericho from here on out. He needs to get nasty like the aforementioned programs with HBK/Punk for this to go anywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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