Night of Champions 2013 review

"The fate, future and direction of WWE will be decided tonight," said Josh Mathews at the start of the Night of Champions pre-show. Even by WWE standards this was overly dramatic. Anyone who’d had a glance at the announced line-up of matches this show was offering could have told you it was going to be, at best, a functional show more concerned with advancing storylines than anything else.

Towards the end of the pre-show Booker T said he wasn't the face of WWE when he worked for WCW. He was entirely accurate. In addition to inane comments there was also a surprisingly good tag team turmoil match on the half hour freebie. It was won by The Prime Time Players, granting them a shot at the straps held by Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins later in the evening.

Triple H kicked off the main show, entering to his heel King of Kings track. He was there to put his stamp of approval on the show because he believed it would be one of the greatest nights in company history (I’d be amazed if anyone believed that claim). After trotting out his "best for business" catchphrase he announced that the main event would feature no interference from anyone, specifically naming The Shield and Big Show. He then, bizarrely, started doing his “Are you ready?” shtick but got interrupted by Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel.

Heyman tried to get out of his match, spurring 'The Game' to activate face mode. This was a bad move. Inconsistency with how performers are presented is a contributing factor to heel and faces switches not sticking. You never would have caught Vince McMahon playing a face while acting as top bad guy.

Triple H pointed out that Paul had nothing to worry about because he could simply rely on Axel to defeat Punk, ensuring he wouldn’t need to tag in. When Axel piped up he got booked in an Intercontinental title defence against, perhaps as some sort of poster-related title switch tease, Kofi Kingston.

Michael Cole described the match as being of great importance to both men. That he spent several minutes promoting an online poll and rattling off seemingly random IC title-related factoids should tell you how true that claim was. Axel won an enjoyable enough bit of filler with his neck breaker driver.

 

Curtis Axel is very good at post-match celebrations

 

Following the decision it was revealed that 63% of WWE fans had voted Chris Jericho as the greatest Intercontinental champion ever. They'd only been able to vote for him, Rick Rude (2%), Mr Perfect (24%), Pat Patterson (1%), and the Honky Tonk Man (10%), so this is far from a definitive answer to the "who's the greatest?" question. For the record I’d have voted for Hennig or HTM from the selection.

Backstage Ricardo Rodriguez and Rob Van Dam had a painfully awkward conversation. RR taught RVD various Spanish phrases in what apparently passes as comedy.

Elsewhere in the back Alicia Fox and Aksana were busy abandoning AJ Lee. Layla remained loyal but then disappeared to straighten out the deserters. It’s possible Layla was actually meant to be leaving AJ too, but that wasn’t clear. The upshot of this segment was that AJ was left alone for the four-way match.

Before the match we were reminded of AJ's worked shoot promo and subsequent alliance with the Divas who we'd just seen abandon her. An on-screen graphic also revealed that fans had voted Trish Stratus the greatest Divas champion of all time. That's pretty impressive considering she never won the belt.

The Total Divas teamed up on AJ at the start of the match before Brie turned on her allies and presented us with a fair bout. One of the highlights of this match, for me, was the revelation that fans had voted on what outfit Brie Bella would wear. Losing options included "raggedy Bella" and "strawberry shortcake Bella". This voting for outfits idea needs to be a permanent gimmick for the Bellas. It's tremendous.

Natalya clumsily applied a double sharpshooter to Brie and Naomi (during which the recipients' shoulders were on the mat in pinning positions for a lot longer than three seconds) only to be lumped by AJ. The champ then applied her wonderful Black Widow on Natty hold for the submission victory. The division has a long way to go before it becomes unmissable stuff but it's got the right woman as its figurehead.

Experts Booker T, Santino and Alex Riley had a chat about the World Heavyweight championship match. Booker picked Van Dam to win, largely because they're pals. I like the idea that he makes all predictions based on how well he gets on with people, as opposed to form or anything that even tries to sound legitimate. Santino and A-Ry contributed nothing.

 

The battle of men known by three initials is on!

 

'Mr Pay-Per-View' got a great reaction from his home state crowd. Alberto Del Rio had to work for his heat. That wasn't a problem: he had fans jeering by the time he was on the apron. Lilian Garcia's Spanish intro helped too. That heat only intensified when ADR got disqualified for refusing to release his cross arm breaker submission after a five count. The finish did what he was designed to, namely keeping heat on ADR and avoiding a clean loss for RVD in an area where he’s very popular.

Following the decision Del Rio gave his foe a kicking. His attempt to involve a chair was foiled by Ricardo, allowing ‘The Whole F’n Show’ to drop the champ with a DDT and dust off the old Van Terminator (a move which sees Van Dam launch himself from one corner of the ring to the other and kick a chair into a seated opponent). If that was a regular part of his repertoire it would be a nice use of Ricardo. But it's not. Head shots like that are rare in modern WWE, and for good reason. It happened here because RVD was so popular and it was a positive note on which to end the segment.

Backstage Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel were shown discussing their handicap match. Here Heyman tried using the fear of Triple H causing problems for Axel as motivation for his charge to perform. We’d seen plenty of this sort of stuff on TV since the match was announced.

The WHC poll revealed that Booker T is considered the greatest man to hold that belt by fans. He got an impressive 38% of the vote. Edge (22%), Batista (5%), Undertaker (21%), and Ric Flair (14%) were the other options. I suspect Booker benefited from being a part of the broadcast. I'd have voted for Edge.

Backstage (again) Randy Orton asked Triple H why he wasn't getting any help in the main event, all but admitting he felt he couldn't defeat Daniel Bryan unaided. Why are all heels cowards these days? This hasn’t always been the case, surely? 'The King of Kings' told him he wanted to make sure he'd picked the right man to be 'The Face of WWE'. Orton told him he had done and wandered off to do whatever it is he does before matches.

We were presented with a bonus match after that, The Miz facing Faaaaaan... daaaaaan... goooooo. 'The Ballroom Brute' was introduced first to a huge pop and enthusiastic gyrations. 'The Awesome One's' reaction was decidedly more tepid. I suspect WWE are building to a double turn with this feud. Miz is not considered a success as a face (although I like him in the role) and Fandango basically plays a tweener anyway, so it'd make sense.

The match was solid. Miz worked over Fandango's leg (further indicating he may be turning) and they included a number of spots that should have gotten a response from the crowd. They didn't. The audience was dead. Miz won with the figure four.

CM Punk and Curtis Axel both had kendo sticks with them when they came out for their handicap match. Perhaps they should have had a kendo stick on a pole match instead. Chairs and tables were also introduced. They made the most of the no DQ ruling they'd been granted, walloping each other and doing everything they could to remind us this was a relaxed rules affair. It was very effective. They undoubtedly benefited from being the only non-standard bout on the show. WWE should bear that in mind. Less is more.

Heyman predictably stayed down on the mat and didn’t involve himself in proceedings for the majority of the bout. His hand was forced when Axel had fallen to a GTS and an Anaconda Vice. He tried running away but that didn't work. After a jog around the tech area Punk caught him in the ring. He pulled handcuffs from his boot, slapped them onto his former agent-slash-bestie, and then pelted him with painful-looking kendo stick shots.

 

CM Punk is a talented man to be capable of wrestling with handcuffs pressed against his leg

 

After several minutes of fun and frolics Punk announced he was going to break Heyman's face. That was the signal for Ryback to charge to the ring and spear Punk through a table (a decision which did nothing to dissuade the Goldberg chant). 'The Big Guy' pulled Heyman on top of Punk and the match ended.

I'm a fan of this development. It's what I predicted would happen in my preview for the show. It should give Ryback a fresh start after being thoroughly mishandled for most of the year. He’s not bad on promos, but he’ll benefit from not having to do them quite so much and from the association with Heyman. Naturally he’ll be facing Punk at Battleground, which should be good for him too.

We saw the experts again at this point. They wittered on about what had occurred so far on the show. Santino's mind was apparently blown by the actions of Ryback. He's easily impressed.

Dolph Ziggler failed in his attempt to become a two time United States champion. Dean Ambrose beat him with the headlock DDT he's fond of. The match was good but didn't draw the crowd in. You may have noticed this was a theme at Night of Champions. The crowd were rowdy during introductions and at certain points during matches but quietened down often. They were less than ideal.

The result was a blessing in disguise for 'The Show Off'. Winning a mid-card title a couple of months after losing the WHC would have been a comedown for him, and would have looked like an admission that he didn't belong at the top of the card. Hopefully WWE will remember how popular he was in early summer soon and so something meaningful with him. He’s wasted at the moment.

After being told that 53% of WWE fans (those that voted, at least) believe Sting to be the greatest US champion ever it was time for the tag team title match. I wouldn't have been surprised had The Prime Time Players won the championship considering the rise in status they've enjoyed recently. But they didn't. The Shield retained when Reigns hit a spear on Titus, setting up a Rollins pin.

A video package recapped Bryan defeating John Cena for the WWE championship, Triple H going heel, Randy Orton successfully cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase, the firing of Cody Rhodes, the manipulation of Big Show, and Trips explaining that he's all about what's best for business. It was a very good video. It's the sort of approach that could be good for a post-PPV RAW.

Randy Orton's entrance was deemed the perfect time to address the greatest WWE champion poll. Bit weird, what with him being the face of the company and all. Hulk Hogan was considered the greatest (which surprised me) with an impressive 55%. 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin came second with 16% (he'd have been my pick), followed by John Cena (13%), CM Punk (12%) and Triple H (a meagre 4%). If these polls proved anything it's that we can't trust poll results from WWE's website.

Back to the action. The match was slow to begin with. Orty was on offence which meant a plethora of stomps, rest holds and nonsensical mid-match posing. Bryan took over at various points, which always resulted in a quickened pace and some noise from the crowd.

They had a good match. The regular spots such as Bryan’s diving headbutt, Yes Lock, and top rope German suplex and Orton’s hanging DDT and numerous failed RKO attempts were all present and correct. As good as it was it didn’t quite hit the heights of their exchanges on RAW and SmackDown from the summer. Perhaps it was the lack of a stipulation or Orty altering his style because he’s now a bad guy.

The finish saw Daniel Bryan escape an RKO attempt before hitting his running knee to win. That's two shows in a row where Bryan has beaten an established star with his new finisher. At SummerSlam it was a completely clean win. Not so with Night of Champions. Referee Scott Armstrong, who'd taken a scheduled bump at the hands of ‘The Viper’ during the match and been briefly replaced by a second official, gave a fast count during the match-winning pin.

 

Daniel Bryan there, celebrating his title win with a fan

 

This will almost certainly become a plot point. Perhaps it will be revealed Tripper ordered Armstrong to end the match in Bryan's favour so he'd have the chance to gauge Bryan's popularity as champ. That would contradict his reason for turning on Bryan in the first place but it’s still possible WWE will go with it. Perhaps we’ll learn it was 'The Cerebral Assassin's' way of discrediting Bryan. There's no obvious answer but the way the camera was angled to fully show Armstrong, not the norm on a WWE broadcast, indicates something was up.

Night of Champions had the potential to be a surprise hit. The handicap match and the WWE title match both featured performers popular enough to deliver belters, but they didn’t. The rest of the card featured nothing that couldn’t have occurred on RAW or SmackDown (or Main Event in some cases). The fate, future and direction of the company were not affected in any unforeseen manner.

Night of Champions 2013 preview

I don't usually talk that much about posters for WWE pay-per-views but I think I should here. At SummerSlam Triple H made Randy Orton the face of the company. Shouldn't it naturally follow that 'The Face' should be the featured performer on the following month's major show, especially when it's got a name as evocative as Night of Champions? Seems like a natural move to me.

The standard argument against that will surely be that the poster would have been produced months in advance. Well yes, but WWE clearly had a title win planned for Orty by the time he won Money in the Bank in July. That would have been decided on at least a week or two in advance. So basically WWE would have known over two months ago (at the absolute minimum) that Randy Orton was going to be heading up Corporation 2.0 as WWE champ by now. That's enough time for a company with their means to get a new poster ready. It would have been worth the trouble for the lovely little touch it would have been to the company’s main storyline.

Instead we have Kofi Kingston holding the Intercontinental championship, a title he hasn’t held since December of last year. It's changed hands several times since then and 'The Wildcat' hasn’t been seriously involved in the title picture since his loss. He is, in short, a peculiar sight on a Night of Champions poster.

 

The offending item

If WWE bosses were desperate to have the IC title on the pay-per-view poster, which is possible but entirely inexplicable, then current gold-holder Curtis Axel would have been a far better choice. In addition to being the reigning champion he's also involved in the company's number two feud right now. He’s playing a bit part but he's still there and his face on a poster would make a lot more sense than Kofi Kingston's does.

Axel's feud is, of course, with CM Punk. He's been brought in as a Brock Lesnar surrogate in order to keep the Heyman and Punk war going and preserve 'The Pain's' limited dates. It's a smart decision. Lesnar will be of far more value when WrestleMania season rolls around. And his SummerSlam match with Punk was a mild disappointment anyway. There's no urgent need for a rematch.

Since Lesnar took his leave of absence Punk and Axel have enjoyed a few brawls on RAW. All of them have been too long. Punk may be over and he and Heyman may be (rightfully) regarded as two of WWE's greatest assets in 2013 but they're still subject to the Too Much of a Good Thing rule. Having Punk and Axel tussle or Punk and Heyman snipe at one another in promos isn't necessarily a bad approach it's just one that can become samey pretty quickly. I did enjoy Heyman’s feigned ankle injury on RAW but it came just a little too late to be fully appreciated. The malaise had set in.

The Night of Champions clash will be a non-title handicap affair, Axel and Heyman facing a solo Punk. It will be fought under elimination rules, meaning that Punk has a chance to get his hands on Heyman in a "legal" setting. Should the New Yorker refuse to comply he'll be fired. This means Punk has no chance of becoming the Intercontinental champion. His feelings on this state of affairs are unrecorded.

Is there anyone who doesn't think that Punk will end up getting a measure of revenge against Heyman? I can't imagine this match playing out without the agent being forced to face the proverbial music. From there I can see two things happening. The first is Punk battering Heyman and then pinning him after a GTS or making him submit to an Anaconda Vice. That would wrap up the feud, which is the main reason I think WWE will avoid it. There's still at least another month left in Heyman v Punk.

The second possibility is the debut of a new charge for Heyman. They could interfere and cause a DQ or make the save after, it's all much of a muchness in that regard. They could get around Heyman organising someone to provide aid by having him deny all knowledge before agreeing to manage the new boy on the following RAW. The new guy could even make a pitch to Heyman about saving him because of their desire to be a Paul Heyman guy.

Obviously a new member of Heyman's stable would be the man to face Punk at Battleground. It could be a main roster guy who's doing nothing interesting. It could be Tyson Kidd returning from injury. It could be a newbie from NXT. Personally I think it should be Ryback. The heel turn's been disastrous for him. About the only thing that could save him and restore his credibility is an alliance with Heyman which sees him facing one of the most popular guys on the roster.

The match could go either way. Punk could win clean or via disqualification or Heyman could get the assisted victory. But because CM did the honours at SummerSlam I'm leaning towards him winning. Don't be surprised if Heyman wins though: it'll be a great chance for him to cut promos about holding a win over a former WWE champion.

Outside of the handicap match and the main event Night of Champions doesn't have anything especially noteworthy to offer. That's not necessarily a bad thing. WWE clearly aren't expecting it to be a show we remember in six months’ time. It seems to be more about advancing the big feuds and setting things up on the undercard. The show doesn’t look bad. It's just not going to be memorable.

The World Heavyweight championship match is probably the biggest match outside of the main events. Alberto Del Rio defends against Rob Van Dam. It's been a standard feud. Del Rio lost a non-title match to 'Mr Monday Night' and has attacked him a few times. RVD has hired ADR's former personal ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez, making this feud as much Del Rio v Ricardo as it is Del Rio v Van Dam. Which makes sense: Ricardo has far more reason for targeting Del Rio than anyone else on the roster but isn't in a position to have competitive matches with him (not yet anyway).

The matches ADR and RVD have had on TV recently are best described as standard. There's been nothing especially great about them and they've avoided being bad. If they can achieve that at NOC, and I think they probably will, I won't have any complaints.

As far as a winner goes I'm picking Del Rio. Van Dam is exactly the sort of guy who would be given the World title but there's no need to take it off ADR. I think it'll be with him until there's a face ready to take it from him who could go on to work with Money in the Bank briefcase holder Damien Sandow directly afterwards.

The event's pre-show will feature a tag team turmoil match for a title match later in the show. Entered into it are Tons of Funk, the Usos, two undisclosed members of 3MB, The Real Americans and The Prime Time Players.

As this is on the pre-show WWE has the option of giving it a lot of time. I hope they do because this could be a great series of matches (although it relies on The Real Americans getting a long stay to reach its full potential). As the champions are heels it seems reasonable to assume a fan favourite team will win. I'm picking the PTPs. There are no two men better suited to playing babyface tag champions now. I don't think they'll win the titles here though. I can see Rollins and Reigns going over to remind us that they're a formidable unit. Perhaps it'll start a PTPs v Shield programme, which would do everyone involved some good, but I don't think it's likely.

Speaking of The Shield I suspect Dean Ambrose will end up in a match with Dolph Ziggler. They've had a little feud going for the past week or two based around 'The Show Off' speaking out against the Triple H regime. I think they'll have a good match but I don't think we’ll see a title change, nor should we want one. Ziggler getting a mid-card championship would be a massive step backwards. Perhaps Rollins and Reigns could interfere to avoid (yet another) clean loss for Ziggler, providing a handy segue point for the tag title match to boot.

Ziggler's on-screen ex-beau AJ Lee will defend her Divas title in a four-way match. Her opponents are Natalya, Naomi and Brie Bella. The match has come about because of AJ's feelings regarding the Total Divas show (made emphatically clear on the August 26^th RAW). Since then WWE has taken some tentative steps towards making this an actual feud, including recasting all of the Total Divas as babyfaces fighting on the same side. How that will translate to a four-way match is anyone’s guess.

This match could help to make the division mean more. I can't imagine Naomi or Brie winning the title. Natalya would be good enough in the role but she wouldn't be better than AJ. If WWE wants to make their women's league mean something again, and all signs indicate that they do, then their best course of action, to my mind, is to keep the championship on AJ. Let her have good matches and build up anticipation for a title change. She's the perfect person for the job.

The big match is the WWE title match. Randy Orton, 'Apex Predator', champion, and ‘Face of WWE’ (I’m not going to sully the English language by referring to it as “the” WWE) defends his title against Daniel Bryan. In a way this rivalry has been just as formulaic and prone to repetition as has Heyman v Punk. Practically every TV show since SummerSlam has ended with some combination of Randy Orton, Triple H, The Shield, and a reluctant Big Show giving ‘The World’s Toughest Vegan’ a hiding.

Somehow the approach hasn’t worn thin here. It could be because there are more people involved, giving us more variety. It could also be that Bryan is fresher in such a prominent spot than either Punk or Heyman. That Randy Orton’s been playing a diminished role for several years could be a contributing factor too. Whatever it is I’m pleased not only that Bryan’s been given a chance to succeed at the highest level in WWE but also that audiences have reacted so well to him and the feud. It’s a good sign that he’ll stay at the top of the card for good.

I’ll be very surprised if Bryan and Orton don’t have the best match of the night. Both are two of the best wrestlers in WWE and have been doing solid work lately. ‘The Viper’s’ been an A-lister in the company for so long that he can beat anyone on any night. Bryan doesn’t have the tenure that his opponent does but he did beat John Cena, completely clean, just a month ago. These things serve to create a match that makes suspension of disbelief easy: either man could beat the other.

I’m picking Orton to win. While ‘The Dazzler’ regaining the title would get a great reaction I think it’s far too soon into the feud for that to happen. If I had to guess I’d say he won’t get the belt back until at least Survivor Series. I could even see WWE holding off until WrestleMania XXX.

Orton beating Bryan fair and square would risk putting a serious dent in Bryan’s popularity, not to mention show that Orty actually deserves to be the champion. As that goes against the entire point of him being ‘The Game’s’ hand-picked champion I think it’s safe to assume we’ll see some outside interference. It could come from The Shield and perhaps even Triple H himself, but I think the likeliest person to make an “unscheduled” appearance during the match is Big Show.

‘The World’s Largest Athlete’ has been dragged into the WWE title feud since SummerSlam. His financial recklessness is being exploited by the McMahons, making him batter Daniel Bryan on a weekly basis or see his contract terminated (presumably those iron clad clauses John Laurinaitis wrote in for him have expired). Show’s been an important part of the last month’s worth of plots and yet he doesn’t have a match at Night of Champions. An appearance during the main event is practically guaranteed.

This appearance could come alongside Triple H and-or Stephanie, with the bosses demanding that Show cost Bryan the title. Or we could see a classic swerve turn with Show coming out to ward off Shield interference only to KO Bryan once ‘The Hounds of Justice’ are gone. We could even see a combination of the two: Show being told to assault Bryan by ‘The King of Kings’, pretending he doesn’t want to, and then doing it.

A Show heel turn makes sense. It would create a new rivalry to keep Bryan busy before he moves back into WWE title contendership. Orton could then move on to… well, something. Perhaps I’m wrong about the Punk and Heyman feud ending. Punk may be heading into a programme with ‘The Apex Predator’. Or perhaps I’m wrong about Show being built up for a heel turn. Maybe he’s going to remain a face and slide into a title match with Orton.

That there are several possibilities regarding the top matches and performers at and after Night of Champions is good. There’s no obvious next step, but all realistic possibilities seem like they’d be entertaining. I approve.

Predictions summary:

Randy Orton to defeat Daniel Bryan
CM Punk to defeat Curtis Axel and Paul Heyman
Alberto Del Rio to defeat Rob Van Dam
AJ Lee to retain the Divas championship
The Prime Time Players to win tag team turmoil
The Shield to retain the tag team championship
Dean Ambrose to defeat Dolph Ziggler

Perfection on Hold

Well that didn't last long did it.

The man formerly known as Michael McGillicutty returned to our screens as the brand new Paul Heyman Guy on May 20^th. His first match under the new moniker was against Triple H, a match he won by count out (a win’s a win for a mid-card heel). At Payback he dethroned Wade Barrett, in a triple threat match also involving The Miz, for the Intercontinental title. As he celebrated the commentary team talked about how it was the championship his father had held before him and generally gushed to such an extent that it seemed certain he was being fast-tracked to the top. Being given wacky wins over Triple H and holding the Intercontinental title may not mean much in the grand scheme of things but they were signs that WWE was interested in and supportive of Axel.

After successfully defending his prize against Barrett on the June 21^st SmackDown Axel’s next big match was teaming with CM Punk to take on the Prime Time Players. The story of the match was that Punk didn’t trust Axel and didn’t want to team with him but tolerated him on the apron due to his friendship with Paul Heyman. It was a supporting role for Axel but he still benefited from the link to a star of Punk’s stature. At the end of the match he was portrayed as a glory-hunter when he tagged himself into the match for the winning pinfall after Punk had hit Darren Young with a Go To Sleep. It wasn’t a huge win but it was a nice bit of character work.

After that Axel inexplicably slipped down the card.

He defeated The Miz in a bland match at Money in the Bank. Later in the evening he was on run-in duty, attacking CM Punk during the WWE championship Money in the Bank ladder battle. That earned him a GTS and brought Heyman out to ringside so that we could all witness his turn on Punk.

That run-in was the last thing of relevance that Axel did for a month. It took just two months for WWE to lose interest in him and his push.

Axel had seemed promising when he was reintroduced to our screens. He got positive responses during his reintroductory segment and in his title winning performance at Payback. True they were more to do with his heritage and remixed entrance music than him as a performer in his own right, but they were still reactions linked to him. Many WWE wrestlers don’t receive anything when they perform.

The reason he found himself in a reduced role for a month was because Paul Heyman’s time was taken up feuding with CM Punk alongside Brock Lesnar. But now that Lesnar’s disappeared again, until the WrestleMania build begins next year if rumours are to be believed, Axel has found himself being used again.

Having Heyman appear in Punk and Lesnar related promos and accompanying Axel to ringside was probably considered too much by management. I can sort of see their point: it would have risked overloading us on Heyman. And it would also raise the question of why Punk wasn’t at ringside to attack him every time Axel wrestled. It was easier for them to simply reduce Axel for a bit.

 

Is Curtis Axel a future star?

 

Wrestling Punk is a boost for Axel. For Punk it’s a comedown but it’s also a logical continuation of his feud with Heyman. The two are scheduled to face one another on tonight’s RAW. I imagine they’ll end up tangling at Night of Champions too. I can’t imagine (or I don’t want to imagine, at least) WWE putting the IC belt on Punk which means Axel could be in line for an interference-assisted victory over ‘The Second City Saint’, possibly at Night of Champions. That would be another step up for the son of Perfect.

This start-stop approach to pushes is normal. The WWE method of elevating guys has changed over the years. At one point, many years ago now, a guy would be brought in and be pushed consistently for months on end. He’d be given plenty of chances to make it in the role that had been chosen for him and the plug would only be pulled after several failures.

These days guys will find themselves pushed hard and fast for two weeks and then forgotten about for the next two. It’s not an approach that makes the star building process any easier but it does seem to have its advantages. The constant halting of big pushes for CM Punk, Dolph Ziggler and Daniel Bryan meant that their main event pushes were incredibly successful when they did finally roll around. I can’t imagine Bryan would have become this over had he not been kept down in the middle of the card for several years.

If Axel can weather the stop-start storm then perhaps, in two or three years, WWE will activate a massive push for him. It’s not an ideal way of creating new stars. But it’s a way. More importantly, it’s the way WWE have chosen right now. If Axel wants to succeed he’ll have to get used to it.