The Difficult Third Reign

It seems incredibly likely that Daniel Bryan is going to win his third WWE championship soon. Whether it happens at WrestleMania XXX, Extreme Rules, or on a hyped episode of RAW the title change it’s going to be a special moment for WWE. D-Bry has been the company’s hottest star for at least a year now and people have been desperate for him to capture the WWE championship and go on to enjoy the long reign they feel he has earned.

WWE have done a good job of stoking the fire and keeping people interested in and supportive of Bryan, with his first two reigns contributing significantly to the support for him. His first title victory started when he defeated John Cena clean in the main event of SummerSlam, a significant moment for any wrestler these days: Cena doesn’t get beaten by just anybody, let alone clean. That lasted only a few minutes thanks to a heel turn and Pedigree from special ref Triple H and a Money in the Bank cash-in from Randy Orton.

Reign number two lasted longer, but still wasn’t long. Bryan pinned ‘The Viper’ at Night of Champions but was relieved of his prize the following evening when referee Scott Armstrong¹ implied he had been paid off by D-Bry to make a fast count (even though Bryan clearly had Orton down for longer). Bryan denied this, natch, with the implication being that ‘The Game’ was actually the man who’d paid Armstrong off to make a fast count so he’d have an excuse to strip Bryan of the title. A contingency plan should Orty lose.

Future three time champ?

That Bryan’s first two reigns with WWE’s premier prize lasted less than a day combined (making him the shortest reigning two-time champ by a significant margin) helped to rally fans behind him. That he had been slighted, held down by his bosses in such an open manner, made him hotter. People wanted to see him fight back for what he’d earned, uncowed by the significant odds stacked against him. It was an effective storyline choice, taking feelings fans already had and causing them to become more fervent. That’s what a good wrestling storyline should do.

WWE need to have a good plan in place for Bryan’s third reign to meet the high expectations of fans. Viewers have been kept waiting for a Bryan title win that would last. They were ready for it last August when he beat Cena. The intervening time has, as I’ve already said, only made people more desperate for him to win and keep hold of the championship. But the build can’t go on indefinitely. At some point Bryan needs to win the title and hold it for a while to validate the belief people have placed in him. Burning him too often burns the fans too often, and WWE can’t afford to do that if Bryan’s going to be a star for them long term. If it’s going to meet expectations the manner in which he wins it and the length of time holds it for has to satisfy fans.

I’m not advocating Bryan being the champion for a year or equalling CM Punk’s vaunted 434 day reign. But a period measured in months rather than minutes is called for if people are to be left satisfied in their chosen hero’s quest. Bryan keeping the belt(s) until SummerSlam would be good. That would be long enough not only to satisfy but also to prepare someone to take the prize from him, and a storyline to tell.

***

¹ With the Triple H character since becoming a man who uses his power and old pals to hold down deserving talent I’m surprised the fact that Armstrong is Road Dogg’s brother hasn’t been mentioned. Road Dogg has become one of Tripper’s enforcers and a beneficiary of his favourtism over the last few months. Acknowledging it was his brother that made the fast count, even in a minor, off the cuff way that could go unnoticed by most, would add a lot to the story.

That RAW Recap 16.09.13

Monday's RAW saw Daniel Bryan stripped of the WWE championship. For anyone who'd seen Night of Champions the evening before this failed to come as a surprise. That show had ended with Bryan dropping Orton with his knee strike finisher and referee Scott Armstrong counting a distinctly fast three count.

It was clear from that that something was going to happen on RAW regarding Bryan's status as WWE champion. Something turned out to be the stripping. Triple H interrupted the new champ’s celebratory yesfest during the opening segment and called out Armstrong to check out some footage of him counting to three. Once it was established that he had indeed counted a little faster than usual he muttered to Bryan that they’d been had.

Bryan asked what he was talking about and it was immediately clear that Triple H, living up to his ‘Cerebral Assassin’ moniker had set Bryan up. Orty joined them in the ring and ended up laying Bryan out so Tripper could regain the title belt.

 

The champ is here! Yes! Yes! Yes! etc.

 

The short reign Bryan had at SummerSlam was not harmful to him. It portrayed him as being a worthy headliner. He defeated John Cena clean and was only defeated by Randy Orton because of a surprise Pedigree from Triple H. The combination of the unexpected finisher and the gruelling encounter with Cena is what put him down at SummerSlam. The loss of was presented as, in wrestling parlance, a screw job. It set him up to chase Randy for the championship, the assumption being that he would eventually defeat him for the feel good victory (and the title).

I didn't expect this to come just four weeks later. If I'd had to guess I'd have said Bryan would get the championship back sometime between Survivor Series and WrestleMania XXX. I thought he'd lose at Night of Champions, due to outside interference or similar conceit, and head into a placeholder programme with someone else. It seemed like the logical step.

What we have instead is WWE's hottest star having won the WWE championship twice in under a month with both reigns combined lasting under twenty-four hours. There's obviously a plan in place here but right now it's tough to see what it is. I understand WWE want to crank up the sympathy for Bryan and to a certain extent the approach they're using will achieve that. But I can't help but feel that too much of this will cause fans to feel they can't put their trust in Bryan. If every time he wins the title he loses it very shortly afterwards people will simply begin predicting the losses and stop caring.

We're not at that point yet. With the title vacated it looks as though it'll be a while before Bryan's in a position to be one a three time champ. If and when that happens I think Bryan will get the lengthy title reign he deserves.

For the record the reason the McMahons gave for not returning the title to Orton was that he’s lost his edge. Stephanie specifically told him that she wants the man who handcuffed Trips and gave her a DDT. Her reasoning for wanting this was (completely unsurprisingly) not stated.

The only other notable occurrence from RAW was a passionate promo from Dusty Rhodes. He talked about going down the wrong in life and being unable to pay bills and mortgages (and, strangely for a man who’s theme song declares him to be “just a common man”, being unable to pay for people to come and cut the lawn). It was, of course, about Cody being fired. Dusty wanted him rehired.

Steph hit the ring with her catchy R’n’B theme music and offered Dusty exactly that but also threw in the option of having Goldust rehired. She actually said there was only one open spot. Remember that as newcomers continue debuting on the main roster in the coming months.

Dusty refused to choose. His reasoning was that as a parent he couldn’t pick one son over another. This resulted in The Shield storming the ring and Big Show being summoned by Steph. ‘The Dream’ was then given a second choice: a beating from The Shield or a KO punch from ‘The World’s Largest Athlete’. Dusty refused to pick so Show was ordered to do the deed.

That didn’t happen so Steph ordered The Shield to dish out some hurt. Show yelled at them not to. Reigns evened the score with chairs so Show ended up launching his WMD fist at Dusty anyway (Dusty swayed after absorbing the blow instead of doing what everyone else does and simply falling flat, which allowed Show to catch him). Rhodes did a stretcher job.

 

Big Show sobs after accidentally killing Dusty Rhodes

 

It was a bit long-winded but it got the job done. Steph looks like a callous ice queen and we were all reminded that Cody Rhodes exists. Plus they managed to keep Big Show’s story going. Not bad. It’s just a shame so much else on the show was filler.

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.