The Man in the Boiler Suit

If you didn’t watch RAW last week you’ll have missed Daniel Bryan finally giving in and joining the Wyatt Family. I wrote last month about why this is not a good move. You can read that here. My opinion hasn’t changed since.

This is happening. Get used to it

What was Bryan’s reasoning? The support of the fans hadn’t gotten him anywhere apparently. Yep, the classic heel turn excuse. Only, really, this isn’t the most passionate heel turn in history. Bryan has cut any scathing promo on wrestling fandom. He’s just had enough and joined up with a group that says they want to help him. Maybe he’ll do something more overtly heelish on this evening’s show.

Assuming he appears on tonight’s RAW (and why wouldn’t he?) D-Bryan will probably be sporting a rather natty navy boiler suit. It’s what he’s worn at house shows over the last week to demonstrate his Family ties. The amusement factor is something to look forward to I suppose.

The show as a whole will be presented with the much loved (by somebody, somewhere) old school theme. This basically means there will be a range of former WWE stars on hand for the show, many of whom were more prominent before the debut of RAW than after. Among them are Roddy Piper, Sergeant Slaughter and Dusty Rhodes. Attitude Era fans will be catered for with The Godfather and the reunion of Too Cool. If you’re wondering that reunion’s happening don’t worry: we all are.

He may be a free agent as of this morning but don’t expect Jeff Jarrett to show up. ‘Double J’ and WWE had a falling out fifteen years ago and it’s unlikely the man from Memphis will ever appear for WWE again. In fact it’s likelier that Hulk Hogan will appear. He definitely fits within the old school remit and it would allow WWE to start setting something up for him at WrestleMania. Assuming he’ll be doing something at WrestleMania, of course.

The point of this (yes there is a point) is that I tend to like the old school editions of RAW. Because WWE actually puts some effort into making them watchable and special. It’s not about seeing the stars of yesterday today, more that hiring them forces WWE to make use of them and doing that involves some thought. Generally speaking these episodes are proof that when the creative team put their minds to it they can churn out an enjoyable episode of RAW that doesn’t follow a pay-per-view. I hope make tonight’s episode entertaining. And if they do I hope they realise that they could, in theory, do the same thing every week.