Originally posted by thecubsfanOr, to pick another big guy, this is exactly what they did with Big Show when he came in, very long ago. And Big Show's been a main event guy at times and been useful at times and not so useful at times and really fat at other times, but he's never ever been The Best Guy and maybe he could've been if he wasn't pinned one month in. Brock's a great deal better than Big Show (and Kane!) but if they want him to be The Best Guy, they need to protect him like they do Cena, and Cena wouldn't lose in his first match back after a long absence.
The Big Show comparison is really a good one. As much as WWE is Hoss Heaven, they seem to get cold feet when it's time to just unleash a rare guy that really should strike fear into the whole roster. Sure, there are those Mark Henry/Umaga runs, but usually most of the real stars are busy with their own business.
While the Big Show booking was questionable, he had the WCW stank that Vince always hated and he was up against stronger backstage personalities. Brock is about as legit as you are going to get and the backstage pull doesn't seem as strong as it used to be, so not booking Brock like a total unbeatable monster out of the gate probably means you are scared of him running through your entire roster and then getting bored and leaving before anyone get a legit win back.
If you are a full time MMA guy and watched this PPV, would a solid beatdown and a win keep you around longer? Or was the wrestling superhero coming out on top just another reason why wrestling is gay?
Maybe the win wasn't flukey enough?
I kind of wonder whether Kharma was ever going to get the super monster push and now looking back at the track record I bet she would have gotten the Big Show style push out of the gate as well.
It takes balls to have someone come in and run wild all over your hard work. Maybe Vince doesn't have those kind of balls.
This was the first time since MitB '11 I got this invested in not one, not two but THREE wrestling matches on a PPV.
What a phenomenal performance by Daniel Bryan. "I have 'til 5!!!" I did not like the finish of that match, thought it was way too much formula and definitely could have used more drama. And a Bryan win but oh well, I guess they are still pissed at the fans chanting YES.
What a fantastic Punk/Jericho match. Just awesome.
And then to top it off a very unique and VIOLENT brawl that told a real story. Those Brock elbows looked horrific. Everything going according to plan... until that finish.
Bah, gutted Lesnar lost, but I guess that's our punishment for the Rock winning at WM, and for me, that still kinda rules.
Besides, I still think they'll be a change a comin' for Cena in the future, despite the ending throwing us off the scent a little bit. Mostly because his win last night was a fluke and he (kayfabe) knows it, Lesnar dominated him during that match & would've been booked to win if the IWC hadn't been mouthing off for weeks about how WWE would be 'idiots' to have Lesnar lose and how he 'had' to win, one thing you need to take from last night, is that you .never. EVER tell Vince McMahon what to do.
And have we forgotten that Cena LOST THE BIGGEST MATCH OF ALL TIME A MERE MONTH AGO, REMEMBER? THE MATCH HE HAD TO WIN, THE MATCH HE COULDN'T AFFORD TO LOSE, that will always be there now, lingering in the back of his mind. So what if he won last night? Because when it mattered, on the grandest stage of them all, he didn't get the job done.
Originally posted by steven87gill {A lot of stuff that's 100% right.}
I'm not sure most people are concerned with Cena's place in the company coming out of this. I mean, sure the losing streak could have been a nice twist to the guy's character, and maybe even recharged him a bit too if guys like Orton got a chance on top. At the end of the day though, in the fans' eyes, Cena's in pretty much the same spot he was in
The problem is Lesnar's placement in fans' eyes. The potential with him is capped now. He's just another wrestler that beat up Cena for a bit, but then lost the match. No matter what "dream matches" they come up with in the future, Lesnar/Taker, Lesnar/Rock, etc, he's always going to be the guy that came in, talked a lot, then got pinned.
One thing to remember is that most of the WWE's audience didn't watch the PPV last night. For most people, they read the outcome online or will find out when RAW starts, and the only thing they'll really take away from it is "Cena pinned Lesnar."
Originally posted by lotjxYet, in the "reality" of WWE, Tensai is apparently stronger than Brock.
You guys act like Tensai was out there all by himself like Brock was. If I even thought this was a valid argument, it would AT LEAST have to be "Tensai + Sakamoto + Otunga (optional '+ Laurinaitis') > Lesnar" and then...so what?
I wouldn't say I'd be HAPPY if Sakamoto + Otunga + Laurinitis all got involved in the main event, but Brock winning in screwy fashion is better than Brock not winning at all. When they get around to doing the Tensai/Cena match on PPV, WWE will bring up the win and not as much the interference and all will be well.
(actually, I would be happy if Brock won via MIST, and so would everyone, that would've been rad)
2. Maybe Tensai IS stronger than Brock. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Again...so what?
One guy's really over already, one guy's just getting Albert chants, I try to do more with the guy who's really over. There's the argument that you protect the guy you're paying millions of dollars per year to get something out of that investment, but it's not my mine, they can burn it all they'd like.
I'm screwing this up by making it seem like it's about Tensai. It's not about Tensai - Cena should've lost that match if that match had to happen (did it?) and I'm glad Tensai won.
My problem is with the idea that Cena had to get a win back. I don't think that's a sensible concept - Cena's more hurt by the passage of time than any and all losses - but if you believe that to be true, you don't have to give him that win back over a guy the level of Brock. And if you've already decided he absolutely must have a match with Brock, then you don't put him in a situation where he absolutely has to get his win back.
I understand the idea is this will work out for the best over the long term via planning, but they got to Brock losing to Cena in his first match based on the lack of planning, and I don't know why I should expect that to change any time soon. (Brock losing as "CM Punk Coming Back Way Too Soon", I guess.)
WWE has never been good at booking monster heels. That was always more of an NWA thing. I remember an interview with Taz where he got into hot water because he didn't act cowardly enough and beg off.
Hell, they even booked Sid f'n Vicious as a coward. It's just one of Vince's things. You can't have a heel who wins because he is just that badass.
Originally posted by Dr UnlikelyFired-up speculation is pretty much the only real fun part of watching wrestling anymore, so I'm against anyone who doesn't check in with their opinion.
Fair enough. Most of the fun of a $600 million Powerball ticket is the week of dreaming, not buying a quick-pick three hours before they choose the numbers.
No question, the big matches were top-notch (edit: to be clear, I very much enjoyed what I thought was a strong show).. my problem is with the mindset that is determined to continue pushing storylines on Wednesday that they planned out Saturday.. no matter what the crowd does on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
Bryan did everything he could since WM to turn the heel heat away from Sheamus and onto himself. Last night, he even hit Chicago below the belt, saying Chicago wrestling crowds were overrated. (Bastard.) And it worked as far as last night the YES!/NO! was a lot closer to 50/50, and the "Daniel Bryan" chants were less booming. They had the WM-quality match that both men were denied in Miami, but I don't think they cleared the bar on getting Sheamus over like a Royal Rumble - WM winner. While remaining a guy the people want to see, whatever lightning-in-a-bottle they might have had with Bryan has been dissipated under piped-in random crowd noise. Mission accomplished?
Punk continues on as the Jericho/Benoit level of 'over WWE champion' who is decidedly NOT the star of Raw. Again, whatever hard-to-explain "it" factor they had with Punk and the MiTB angle turned out to be a fleeting glimpse of what could be beyond the Cena era. In this case Punk was sidetracked by HHH and Kevin Nash, when Punk never got wins back over them in the end. They couldn't even admit that it was JOHN CENA who Punk beat for the championship in that very arena last year. So Punk remains a guy the people want to see, but the chance to be the company's next breakout star appears to have dimmed. Particularly in light of what happened last night, it makes me wonder if Cena and Rock may end up the only guys allowed to beat Lesnar.
Then the main event - after saying to myself, 'Whoa, he's going to kick out of an AA on the ring steps!'.. my mouth dropped open for a good 5 seconds when they beat Brock. There are some good ideas of where to go from here upthread, but that doesn't change how gobsmacked I was at the booking decision. Again (it seems to me), there was an electricity in the arena when Lesnar returned. And almost immediately, there was a concerted effort by the bookers to make sure that Cena wouldn't get booed out of the WWE Universe. Even with all they did to make Brock a heel, I was surprised that Cena got as much support in Chicago as he did, the crowd was pretty 50/50 for the whole match. Mission accomplished again, I guess. Give Lesnar his Pin Me! Pay Me! t-shirt.
Would Paul Heyman stubbornly put his pre-determined guys over regardless of crowd reactions? Would Cornette? Would Jim Crockett or Verne Gagne for that matter?
They've shown that they can sway enough of the customers, but it appears to me that they do it by making people less attractive compared to what they want to sell us (Rock 'exposed' for writing notes on his wrist? As Gorilla would say - Give me a break!) It doesn't seem to do much for getting Cena, or Sheamus more over than they are already.
Originally posted by It's FalseTWIN BULLSHIT! Brie's facebuster is countered with the Lay Out (not called by the announcers) for the pin and the title!
To be fair, I didn't hear any of the announcers call Shaemus' Texas Cloverleaf by name either. (Although they sure were ready with the name of the MMA armbreaker that's never been used in WWE before.)
It remains to be seen if they capitalize on Bryan, but it's pretty hard for me to say they haven't been running really hard with Punk. Even if they screwed up whatever potential there was coming out of MITB from August to October, they've made him a strong, permanent #2 guy in the company. He's had the longest world title reign since Triple H in 2008. Cena's still in the anchor segments on TV, but that's actually good for Punk because he's being protected from a negative ratings pattern while he continues to establish himself as a guy they can build around.