Tag Archives: Royal Rumble

Solving the Bray Wyatt Problem

 

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The story of WWE’s Bray Wyatt is troubling.

When he debuted on the main roster in 2013, he was considered the next big star. His promos were incredible, his wrestling abilities were above average for men of his size and his faction carried a following. Wyatt was very over initially because he was very into his character.  While his first feud with Kane was mediocre at best, fans looked past it and have mostly forgotten it as the flash-in-the-pan as it was because of confusion surrounding the booking and at least Wyatt defeated The Demon.

Over the next eight months, The Eater of Worlds was sparingly used while his family did the dirty work for him, cutting electric promos in the wake of destruction. His feuds with Daniel Bryan and The Shield were amazing and elevated The Wyatt Family to the degree everyone hoped. It seemed Wyatt was poised to become the top heel by the end of 2014.

Until his horrendous feud with John Cena reared its ugly head.

Wyatt cut weeks of brilliant promos only to once again become another obstacle for “Big Match John” to shrug off and overcome like he always does. Wyatts matches with Cena were very one-sided and did not elevate either talent. The only match Wyatt wound up winning was a cage match at Extreme Rules 2014 thanks to the help of a questionably possessed child.

You read that right.

While Cena went on to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, the rest of Wyatt’s 2014 resulted in very meaningless midcard feuds with Chris Jericho, Ryback and R-Truth (this isn’t a jab at the talents Wyatt was working with, the problem is that WWE has made it very clear over the past few years that these are the “we have nothing for you” feuds with the exception of Jericho; who returns simply to put others over – which is a very nice but overused gesture). He also dissolved his stable for unknown and illogical reasons. It looked as if Wyatt was on the rise when he feuded with fan favorite Dean Ambrose, but sadly creative dropped the ball yet again when Wyatt became victorious thanks to a TV that exploded at random in an otherwise good match.

2015 was no different. Wyatt feuded with The Undertaker and Roman Reigns on multiple occasions but sadly never went over and wound up looking like a false prophet rather than “The New Face of Fear” he claims himself to be. Even after reforming his faction and adding a powerhouse in Braun Strowman, Wyatt continued to look like a joke due to poor booking. Although Wyatt did round out the year by defeating the ECW Originals team consisting of The Dudley Boyz, Rhyno and Tommy Dreamer, no one seemed to care because all of these men were in their 40’s and it would have not been believable otherwise (which is the main reason why Wyatt’s Undertaker feud may have done Wyatt more harm than good).

Not only did Wyatt lose most of his big matches in 2015, but he was booked into a horrific routine. Wyatt would come out, cut a cryptic promo, send his family out to attack whoever he was feuding with, lose the big match and then act as if nothing happened the following night. The few times he did win, it was made obvious. Wyatt has been booked so badly into oblivion that it seems that he may wind up as a comedic face in the near future.

The 2016 Royal Rumble has the potential to 180 Wyatt’s problematic situation.

Being that the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is on the line, WWE would be wise to have Wyatt hold the gold at the end of the 30 man Battle Royal.

Have Wyatt enter at some point in the middle but not officially enter the ring until all four members are in the match at the same time. Wyatt moves along with his pawns and the entire faction lays waste to the entire locker room. The final eight participants should look like Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, a returning Triple H (or Jericho), Ambrose and the Wyatt Family. Have everyone go to town for a good 10 minutes before the only participants left are Reigns and the Wyatts. Have Reigns try as hard as he can to build sympathy but unable to leave with his championship due to the Wyatts numbers. Once Wyatt (and ONLY Wyatt) eliminates Reigns, Wyatts cronies Luke Harper, Erick Rowan and Strowman sacrifice themselves for their leader and new WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

While the downside would rekindle a feud we’ve already seen, the upshot could be fantastic if Wyatt were booked and treated as a legitimate threat going into WrestleMania.

Enter Lesnar, who is furious at his Rumble loss. Have him challenge Wyatt at Fastlane and have Wyatt go over convincingly (clean or not). Lesnar has been booked so well since his return to WWE that anyone beating him who’s name isn’t John Cena will look like a monster. Wyatt can also use the fact the he’s beaten the man who beat The Streak in his promos against Reigns to increase credibility.

When ‘Mania does indeed come Reigns should go over because he should legitimately be over with the fans. Wyatt’s defeat of Lesnar should be enough to suspend even the smarkiest fans disbelief long enough for his match with Reigns to have that “big fight” feel. During this match, it is essential that Wyatt defends his championship alone. Keep the remaining members of the Wyatt Family out.

Let the two heavyweights go at it in an epic war and Wyatt will stay over.

With a talent so charismatic, it’s a shock that WWE has stunted Wyatt’s growth as a main event player as much as it has in such a short while. With a literal golden opportunity on their hands, it’d be a shame if Wyatt isn’t utilized to his full potential in the coming weeks.

Wyatt is not only on the Road to WrestleMania, but redemption as well.

 

 

Manopera! Episode 7: Giant Sized WWE TLC 2015 & NXT TakeOver: London Review

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In the final edition of Manopera of the year, Chris and “Spaceman” Frank analyze WWE TLC 2015 and NXT TakeOver: London.

Bonesaw Podcast Ep 1: Chris and Frank Shoot on Royal Rumble 2015

We finally did it guys. Thanks for all your support so far and the support you will continue to give in the future. For our first episode I’m joined by my friend and former college buddy Frank Lucci where we let the fur fly as we express our thoughts on this year’s Royal Rumble event. Frank and I discuss what we liked, disliked, a WWE/Jetsons crossover and more. Our band of the week GZR is featured as well so sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

WWE Royal Rumble 2015 Thoughts

Tonight from WWE Headquarters in Stamford, CT; Booker T and Michael Cole agreed last night’s Royal Rumble was a night to remember.

While the above statement is true, the annual event in question will be remembered – but for the wrong reasons.

Wrestlemania season is supposed to start with a bang. New stars receive fresh starts with memorable moments and old ones get to bask in their nostalgic glory if only for a moment.

Instead for the second year in a row, the WWE Universe was not happy with their order both figuratively and literally.

While the Royal Rumble match itself did have its moments (such as Buh Buh Ray Dudley and Diamond Dallas Page making  returns that popped the crowd), the contest was booked very predictably with very little direction other than to highlight its winner Roman Reigns.

The contest started out well with surprise appearances, some nice feud teasing and immense potential. The Wyatts brawled with each other, Bray dominated the match and DDP dropped the Diamond Cutter like a man on fire. Daniel Bryan, the obvious fan favorite made his way to the ring at number 10 and immediately started hanging and banging with the best of them.

For about 10 minutes before he was unceremoniously eliminated.

That took the air out of the building faster than the New England Patriots.

Shortly after Reigns entered and the rest of the match was booed worse than last year.

WWE pulled all the stops to reverse the fans polarity, even having The Rock do a run-in to aid his real-life cousin Reigns, but even that was rejected.

For the love of God the fans were chanting for Rusev, a man whose character is a Russian sympathizer on American programming.

The saving grace of Royal Rumble was the Triple Threat World Heavyweight Championship between Seth Rollins, John Cena, and  Brock Lesnar – who defended his championship in one of the best matches of each combatants careers.

Rollins’ ability is incredible as he demonstrated why he is the future, utilizing the psychology and dimensions of the match to his advantage.

Lesnar also played the odd man out to a “t,” double teaming his opponents and watching his back while laying waste to them at opportune times.

Cena also hit every aspect of the hero, but not in the force-fed way he usually is portrayed. This time around, it was believable and told a great story. Hats off to the three of them with hopes of this angle continuing in the near future.

The New Day vs. Cesaro and Tyson Kidd with Adam Rose was a decent warm up with a lot of very high spots. The finish was exciting as Cesaro and Kidd got the surprise win with great old-school heel tactics. Please give these men a shot at the titles.

Speaking of titles, The Usos worked another exciting match against The Miz and Mizdow for the Tag Team Championships. A lot of fun, but we’ve seen this already. The Usos need a new team to feud with.

Speaking of new teams, The Ascension defeated the New Age Outlaws in a quick match that unfortunately did nothing for either team. While it’s always nice to see The Outlaws, The Ascension were treated like toys on the previous Raw when the Outlaws and a slew of non-active wrestlers manhandled them in addition to their horrendous debut last month and childish promos. Hopefully these guys can be salvaged.

Speaking of things that can be salvaged (this is the last time, scout’s honor), The Divas tag match was much better than expected. The Bellas looked strong, but Paige and Natalya didn’t look like pushovers either. Paige was mostly left out of the match minus some quick action and a non-PG cover on Brie Bella, but this could be the seed for Paige vs. Nikki Bella for the Divas Championship.

Despite a major hiccup in the Rumble itself, the 2015 Royal Rumble event was OK; but just OK and that is a problem.

While we did have a few good matches, fun moments, and a show-stopping Championship bout, we got a lackluster main event that flopped on all cylinders. The issue with the Rumble was not who won, but how he won. When Big Show and Kane began literally dumping key players like Ziggler, Ambrose and Wyatt over the top rope without said key players even trying to fight back, there was no drama, and therefore no reason to continue watching. No drama equals no entertainment, and when your audience is not entertained, they don’t care about the product.