Daniel Bryan Lost A Match. It’s Ok. Breathe. Plus An Amazing Song And Some Other Things

For some reason I have things to say about wrestling, so I shall say them now. As usual, inspiration comes from one of these.

Daniel Bryan losing to Rusev on Smackdown was the wrong call.

I have no idea why this is a thing, but yes, people are honest to Christ losing their shit about a guy everyone loves dropping one match to a guy everyone likes a lot. It’s completely dumb and is good for nothing but giving those who think the internet fans will never be happy no matter what more reason to ignore us.

Daniel Bryan will be fine. He’s always fine when he loses. That’s part of why he’s special. Plus the last thing we need is Daniel Bryan in a ladder match. Remember, he’s the guy who we all thought until a couple months ago would never wrestle again because of concussions that took him out of the ring for two years. Relax and enjoy Rusev Day. He needs the spot more than Bryan does anyway.

Kevin Owens signing a new 5-year deal with WWE is great news.

He’s easily my favourite full-timer in WWE, so yeah, I’m thrilled. He’s one of the few who can give a WWE style interview and have it not come off terribly. He always delivers in the ring. He can make you love him or hate him with the snap of a finger and make it seem effortless. He’s gold. Give him all the money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N-BpCNRpPo

If WWE runs a three MITB matches at this year’s MITB PPV they will run the risk of burning out the gimmick.

The gimmick? Nah. Money In The Bank as a concept has built-in intrigue that’s almost impossible to get tired of. But burning out crowds might be another matter. Three ladder matches in one night is a lot. They might be able to get away with it once similar to how they pulled off the men’s and women’s Royal Rumbles this year, but once that novelty is gone it could be a tough slog if they try to make it an annual thing. There’s only so many things you can do in a ladder match, and once you’ve seen them the first time, you don’t need to see them twice more on the same day.

WWE attempting to portray Roman Reigns as a “Daniel Bryan-like” figure is a poor plan.

Hilariously poor. Who could possibly have Daniel Bryan style sympathy for Roman Reigns, a giant, unlikable, good looking man from a generations deep wrestling family who has been given every chance to succeed but keeps losing big matches without really being screwed over all that much? Yeah there was that cage match at the Oil Rumble that he maybe should have won, but he lost at Mania simply because Brock Lesnar kicked his ass in a fair fight, which I would argue means he shouldn’t have been in that cage match to begin with.

The reason the Daniel Bryan thing worked with Daniel Bryan is because Daniel Bryan is everything Roman Reigns isn’t. He’s a small, odd looking indie guy who it sure seemed management wanted nothing to do with making anything out of until the cheering simply got too loud to ignore. Even then, they held off and held off, fucking the guy over at every turn. He would get beaten up by management or by managements lackeys on a weekly basis. Every time he lost, there was a legitimate fear that he might never get another chance. It was a weird mix of storyline and real life that was helped out by Bryan being an actual person. There’s a sense of honesty and authenticity to him that very few people in wrestling have now, and even people who didn’t know his whole story could relate to it. Roman Reigns is fine as a wrestler, but what is he, really? He’s a package of catch phrases and not a whole lot else in a character development sense.

And let’s not forget that the entire reason that Roman Reigns gets booed out of buildings to this day is that in 2015, he won the Royal Rumble that was designed (based on the story WWE was telling) to be Bryan’s big return from injury and road to getting back the belt he never lost. WWE puts out a lot of forgettable product, but people do remember that and poor Roman has been doomed ever since.

Wait, did somebody say poor Roman?

I’ve been waiting and waiting for a chance to use that. You have no idea how happy I am right now.

Anyway, I don’t know what the answer for WWE is here, but trying to make us see all of Roman’s advantages as his disadvantages almost certainly isn’t it.

After a DOUBLE LOW BLOW, neither @AJStylesOrg nor @ShinsukeN could answer the count of 1️⃣0️⃣, so AJ Styles is STILL your @WWE Champion! #WWEBacklash pic.twitter.com/Aql9vG3iZ2

— WWE (@WWE) May 7, 2018

The AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura feud has been completely under whelming so far.

It certainly hasn’t been New Japan, I’ll say that. But it’s had it’s moments. The matches have been fine other than the stupid No DQ finish referenced in the tweet above and I like that they’re finally giving Shinsuke something resembling a personality, so I’ll let it play out and see where it goes before I say it’s completely underwhelming.

I haven’t seen Smackdown yet, but I hear their next go round is going to be a Last Man Standing Match. You know, the kind of match where you have to put somebody down for a 10 count. Don’t even think about it, WWE. Don’t even think about it.

WWE Backlash was a horrible PPV.

I didn’t hate this show the way most people seemed to hate it. There was only one truly worthwhile match on it (Seth and Miz) while the rest was rounded out by lots of questionable booking and complete wastes of my time, but that’s how it goes fairly often with WWE. Anyone who thinks it was legendarily bad needs to go back and watch Heroes of Wrestling or year 2000 WCW again and get back to me.