Dark Day

Despite their general lack of direction WWE has a pretty strong top end on their roster right now. John Cena is experiencing something of a resurgence thanks to the varied opposition his fourth reign as US champ has provided him. They have cowardly, conniving heel Seth Rollins walking around as WWE champion without having fully earned the right. Roman Reigns is ready to be tipped over into headlining champ territory at a moment's notice. And there's Brock Lesnar waiting in the wings to make a triumphant return as an unstoppable monster out for revenge and the world heavyweight championship.

But despite this the company's hottest feud is between two mid-card tag teams.

The rivalry between Cesaro and Tyson Kidd's Brass Ring Club, Masters of the Universe or Best Team Ever (they're going through names like nobody's business) and the New Day trio of Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods is an example of a wrestling company listening to their audience and reacting accordingly. Two months ago Cesaro and Kidd were bad guys but their ring work has been so enjoyable that audiences have been supporting them (a theme throughout Cesaro's career). New Day are the opposite of this. Even though they've been positioned as good guys and their matches have always been solid the stereotypical characters they've been given to play have seen audiences booing them. That they're essentially playing 80's-style clean cut babyfaces has probably been a factor too.

The smart thing for WWE to do was to take the two tandems, flip their roles and put them in a series against one another. So that's what they did. Cesaro and Kidd are now free to officially encourage the positivity crowds send their way and ramp up the pop-inducing sequences in their matches.

New Day heat.

It's the New Day lads who have really benefited from this, and not just because their status as heat magnets has resulted in them getting a tag team title reign complete with the Freebird Rule. When they were lobbed together last year it took the writing team months to figure out what they wanted to do with them. They were eventually cast as bland babyfaces with unclear motivations. They spoke like gospel preachers and liked to clap, that was it. There was no depth to them and it wasn't clear what they were meant to be.

No reason was provided to cheer them. So people didn't. The resulting apathy gradually turned to active dislike, perhaps because the three New Dayers remained so positive despite being in such an obviously poor spot on the roster. That's the kind of blending of storyline and playing on audience's heightened knowledge of pro wrestling's workings that WWE (and others) should do more often.

The turn itself has been handled well and has allowed New Day to tinker with their performances. One of the key moments for the trio came when Kofi interfered in a match on Woods' behalf. The look Woods responded with was perfect, conveying that he'd only just realised in that moment that there was nothing to stop them breaking the rules. It created a reason for New Day to be booed and set up a simple booking formula for them: the cheat to win matches. And they had a reason for this change in attitude too. They were being booed while trying to fight fairly, so what did they have to lose by cheating?

Playing heel also suits the three men well. Kofi Kingston is essentially playing a slightly more arrogant version of the character he's always played, which makes sense as for him to make drastic changes nine years into his WWE run would be odd. I remember him saying in an interview years ago, so it's nice to see him getting the opportunity to do so. Big E is more at ease than he has been since his time with Dolph Ziggler, showing passion and presence both in the ring and on the mic. He's playing a man who knows that his obnoxious hollering will get under people's skin but who doesn't care.

It's Xavier Woods who has the most interesting character right now. He's coming across as a man with a lot of pent up rage inside him, glaring into the distance as Big E and Kofi prattle on during promos, clearly wanting to speak out about the ridiculousness of what they've been given to do but not quite bringing himself to verbalise his anger. If he ever gets to cut loose in a promo he could deliver gold.

I like what's being done with New Day. There's nothing revolutionary or amazing about any of it. It's just simple, effective booking that takes into account the crowd's views on an act. It's what WWE should do all the time but don't, so when they do it's eye-catching.

Daniel Bryan's Achilles' Neck

If you watched Extreme Rules you'll know that Daniel Bryan didn't defend the Intercontinental championship as planned. He was officially pulled from his match against Bad News Barrett hours before the show aired because he wasn't medically cleared to compete. The issue was with a concussion, nagging neck issues or a knee problem, depending on your source of choice (personally I think the neck thing seems likeliest). Almost the exact same thing happened to Bryan last year. After winning the WWE championship at WrestleMania XXX he made one pay-per-view defence (against Kane, of all people) before being pulled from action by WWE's medical staff. He eventually vacated the championship and took time off for neck surgery and rehab.

That history has repeated itself, and so soon, will surely prompt WWE to assess the way they use Bryan, which is a shame because he's a dedicated, talented man who worked hard for years to make it to WWE and gain acceptance with their audience (and management team). The more he's afflicted by health problems the more it seems that the wrestling style that initially got him signed is catching up to him. It's a sad, ironic twist worthy of the finest wrestling storyline.

This man has had no luck with
title reigns over the last two years.

Obviously the right thing has been done by Bryan in the short term. He's been taken off TV and will presumably return only when he's healthy. Ultimately though, a long term solution is required to this problem. The fact that Bryan has been having these issues, on and off, for well over a year and that they resurfaced so soon after his return from a lengthy layoff indicates that there's something serious that needs addressing. While part of the problem can probably be taken as Bryan pushing himself too hard and coming back earlier than he probably should have done the issue is very likely something that's going to keep cropping up regardless of how hard Bryan pushes himself.

There are several options open to WWE. They can send Bryan home for months, possibly even years, and not use him as a wrestler again until he's passed the strictest medical tests. They can stop using him as a wrestler and keep him on TV in an authority figure role. They can lighten his schedule, giving him more time off to rest his knackered body. Or they can take the incredibly extreme route and release him from his contract.

The first option would be best for Bryan. He'd be getting paid to get himself healthy. Were he to be released (an extreme option, as I'll discuss below) he'd almost certainly begin taking non-WWE bookings at the first opportunity, which would not help whatever his current medical problems are. But if he remained under WWE contract he wouldn't be able to do this. WWE would benefit from this too, keeping access to a popular performer for their various media efforts and looking like a benevolent outfit. They'd look like scumbags if they released him.

The lengthy layoff doesn't seem likely though, not least because Bryan will apparently be cleared within a few months and is keen to get back. Only the incredibly useless or the incredibly useful get paid to sit at home by WWE. Look no further than JTG for a useless example and Shawn Michaels for a useful one. Bryan is clearly closer to the HBK end of the spectrum but I don't think he's quite useful enough to earn an extended rest break. There's also the fact that he may not want one and request a release if WWE stopped booking him.

Keeping him on TV and recasting him as a commissioner, commentator or manager would encourage Bryan to rest and keep a bigger name on television but it wouldn't play to his strengths. Bryan can handle the occasional lengthy promo but he couldn't spout the plot points needed for an authority role. Plus that scene's flooded with better suited talent at present, most notably Triple H and Steph McMahon.

The idea of Bryan as a manager anywhere in wrestling is ridiculous. He could probably make a good colour commentator for a company like Ring of Honor (especially when you consider his status in that promotion) but he'd be lost in the role in WWE. And again there's the issue of there being no vacancies anyway.

Releasing him would be, as noted, extreme. WWE have released one prominent star in relatively recent memory: Kurt Angle was cut loose in 2006 when he refused to take time off or go to rehab to combat his neck and addiction problems. This is about the closest parallel I can think of but it's still not especially strong. Nothing indicates Bryan has turned down help and he's definitely not coping with the addictions Angle had. There's also the fact that even though his stock had fallen by the late summer of '06 Angle was still probably more highly regarded by the WWE office than D-Bry is now.

The biggest difference in the two situations is WWE itself. In 2006 WWE was only just getting into the swing of drug testing. It was years away from being as coma aware a company as it is now. In other words, it wasn't a company as concerned with presenting itself as caring and considerate as it is now. This may sound cynical and to be honest it probably is but I don't believe the majority of WWE's management team care overly about the health of their in-ring performers because so much of the way the company operates contradicts that claim. But they do care about being seen to care and a by-product of that is that working conditions have improved, for the appearance of the thing as much as anything else.

All of which is a bit of a tangent. The bottom line is that I think it would take some very serious and unpredictable exchanges for WWE to reach the point where they're releasing Daniel Bryan, freeing him up to head to New Japan to get kicked in the head by Shinsuke Nakamura.

Personally I think the best thing WWE could do with Daniel Bryan right now would be to put him in a tag team. This would have several benefits. Firstly it would cut down on his in-ring time without affecting his TV time or house show schedule. It would encourage him to work a safer, or at least less spot-heavy, style. It would give the tag division a boost, which could tie in nicely to the recent great work done by New Day and the Brass Ring Club. Finally teaming with Bryan would be a good way to elevate someone.

I think the ideal candidate for a D-Bry partner is Dolph Ziggler. He wrestles at a similarly swift pace, he's every bit as popular, he could take a beating to set up a hot tag to 'The People's Elixir', and there are entertaining (to me, if nobody else) team names in Team DBZ or The DB-DZ Connection waiting to be used. No, strictly speaking 'The Show Off' doesn't actually need elevating but together I think Bryan and Ziggler could make the tag team championship mean more than it has in years. That, along with the health benefits for Bryan, makes it worth trying, in my opinion.

Summoning the Demon

Anyone who watched the RAW after WrestleMania (and as it was guaranteed to be one of the most eventful episodes of the year that should be most people reading this) would have seen Adrian Neville make his main roster debut. Or, more accurately, Neville make his main roster debut. He's dropped the first name between NXT and Monday Night RAW. Very probably because Vince McMahon doesn't think the name sounds tough enough.

With this call-up WWE has an ideal opportunity to set up another one in a couple of months time. Here's how...

Adrian Neville doing some weird Hawkeye pose.

Have Nev win some more showcase matches over the next couple of months. Maybe put him in a feud with a mid-card heel who's not doing much (which is most people). Someone like Stardust would be ideal, or New Day if they go bad. The idea would be to establish him as a flashy wrestler who can win so that people have reasons to care about him.

Between now and April reunite Erick Rowan and Luke Harper. Nothing fancy would be needed to achieve that. They could simply watch one another's matches from the stage for a few weeks and having little staring contests afterwards. On the RAW after Extreme Rules have one of them wrestle a match against Cesaro or Tyson Kidd. Harper would be nice because he's the better of the two but Rowan is the established face so he'd probably make more sense.

Rowan (or Harper) could beat Cesaro (or Kidd) and then Harper (or Rowan) could wander out to the ring and together the swamp-lovin' lads (decent team name right there) could beat down Kidd and Cesaro. Harper, Kidd and Cesaro are all officially designated heels by WWE but that shouldn't matter. This could just be a feud in which people cheer for whichever team they like best. That's a direction WWE should be testing more anyway.

After the standard array of singles matches between the two teams they could have a tag title match at Payback. Rowan and Harper would win. They could head into defences against the Usos (who they had good matches with last year) and the Lucha Dragons. Maybe the Prime Time Players and New Day too.

Meanwhile the disgruntled former champs could attack Neville (yeah, I got it back to him) during a match the night after Payback. It needn't be a DQ finish or anything. Neville could win a match then be attacked. By that point he'd have two months of TV exposure behind him, enough time for people to think it bad that two angry blokes are taking out their frustrations on him.

This would naturally lead to a couple of singles matches between Nev and the former tag champs. Ideally he'd lose to both Kidd and Cesaro via interference, distractions and shenanigans. These screwy finishes would give him a reason to challenge both of them to a tag match at Money in the Bank: they could interfere but he'd have someone there to watch his back. Cesaro and Kidd would accept and the Nevster would promise a mystery partner for the show.

Neville and Bálor could do a lot of good in the tag division.

Naturally this mystery partner would be Finn Bálor. Just as naturally he and Neville would win the match. This would be an ideal show-opener and would help to make Money in the Bank a memorable show. With it having become one of WWE's most important pay-per-views that's probably going to be a priority. It's also worth noting that as so many guys always get funnelled into a ladder match there'd be a good amount of time available for Cesaro, Kidd, Neville and Bálor to do something  particularly worthwhile.

From there Neville and Bálor could enter the tag division. They could win another tag bout the next night on RAW (maybe a rematch against Cesaro and Kidd) and then tell some backstage interviewer that they like teaming and that they're setting their sights on tag team gold. A win over the Usos, the closest thing WWE has to a well-established, always on top form team, at Battleground could set them up as challengers to Harper and Rowan at SummerSlam. Winning championships in their SummmerSlam debut would draw attention to the lads and allow talk of them being the future of the company to sound legitimate.

This would reinvigorate the tag division and create a platform for two new guys to make an impact in their first months on the roster. Which means it's something WWE aren't going to do.

That Wrestling Podcast Episode 27

That Wrestling Podcast Episode 27 by Dave Hatton on Mixcloud

At the start of the year Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow were working together as The Rhodes Scholars. At the time it seemed inevitable that they would be the pairing to take the tag straps from Team Hell No boys Daniel Bryan and Kane. There were no realistic alternatives and they were too entertaining to not get a reign.

 

That didn’t happen of course.

 

This is a team that deserved a title reign

Instead Rhodes and Sandow mounted an unsuccessful title challenge at Royal Rumble, got split up and put back together in a matter of weeks, and then spent months killing time in completely forgettable and not especially good matches. It was Shield members Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns who were selected as the men to dethrone Team Hell No, having progressed throughout the spring from being six man specialists alongside Dean Ambrose to men who could contribute to shows in more conventional ways.

 

In the long run it made a little more sense. Rollins and Reigns benefited not only from being the men to take the belts from THN but also from holding them for so long. It’s unlikely they’d have got them as soon as they did had The Rhodes Scholars had them after WrestleMania. And the aimlessness of Rhodes’ and Sandow’s careers throughout the first half of the year can be overlooked with hindsight because such a good job was done with them at Money in the Bank.

 

But even there I can’t simply heap glowing praise on WWE. The feud between former best friends Sandow and Rhodes should have continued for longer than the month it did. The story was there to be told and WWE, for unfathomable reasons, decided to cut it short.

 

For Rhodes it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. He got sucked into the company’s lead angle opposite Triple H and Stephanie McMahon and got a belated run with the tag straps alongside his brother Goldust. Since being paired with ‘The Bizarre One’ Cody has had a string of fiery, captivating matches that have reinvigorated the tag championships.

 

All Sandow wants is some consistency, is that too much to ask?

‘The Intellectual Saviour’ hasn’t fared as well. The sudden ending of his programme against his former best pal left him drifting for weeks. The failed cash-in attempt he made on ‘Superman’ Cena could have been the start of something interesting for him. He cut promos hinting that it would be, saying that his goal in life was to destroy Cena. Needless to say that’s not happened. It was never likely to. But the fact that Sandow’s done nothing to advance this stated plan feels like a wasted opportunity.

 

It’s interesting how much has changed for the two most prominent WWE teams since the start of 2013. Neither are together anymore, but one of the four is a current tag champ. His partner has fallen and risen from grace numerous times, and currently seems on the cusp of another rise. Kane has gone from being an unstoppable monster to a modern day interpretation of Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco’s stooge role. Meanwhile Daniel Bryan has left the other three, and the rest of the roster, behind him and become the most popular man in the company.