This Week in Wrestling

Craig Wilson & Jamie Lithgow.

(Image courtesy of superluchas.net)

When Randy Orton cashed in MiTB after Triple H had Pedigreed Daniel Bryan I felt somewhat deflated. For weeks the WWE had built up Bryan to be the underdog and on the back of that, and being one of the most over guys on the roster, it was great to see him reach the summit. Then that was shattered within a matter of minutes. A bad thing? No, not in the slightest.

In reality, it works out best for everyone concerned. Randy Orton is now a heel – a role he’s told every interviewer recently that he wanted to be in – and gets to be WWE champion against whilst Daniel Bryan is now the ultimate underdog and as crowd reactions indicate, the most over guy in the WWE as the fans get behind him in his quest to wrestle back the strap. The inclusion of Helmsley and the McMahons merely stoke the flames further. This has potential to be the hottest stuff in years. Not quite on par with Stone Cold’s feud with Vince McMahon but not a million miles away either.

Randy Orton has never been a superstar I’ve really “got”. I get that he’s a talented worker and think he has a fine array of moves – the DDT off the second rope being a particular favourite. However, there’s just something I’ve felt he’s missing. I’m now wondering if with a heel turn and aligned with Trips and the McMahon’s that he’s now got that. Time will tell but for the next few months as the cocky heel company man champion feuds with the underdog challenger we’re in for a treat.

What Wrestling Taught Us This Week

I want one! Roman Reigns sports the newest piece of Shield merchandise, a sticker!
(Image courtesy of wwe.com)

• The Shield have stickers!
• If you plan on antagonising fellow customers at a local L.A. bar then you might want to roll deeper than just you and one member of 3MB.
• John Cena has been teaching fans how to sell. A splash from Mark Henry is enough to keep any superstar down, but not competition winner Brandon Hendrix. Our boy no-sold the move as if it didn’t even happen.
• It’s 1998 again. I don’t care if it’s recycled, the Daniel Bryan vs. McMahons storyline is brilliant on so many levels. As soon as Raw finished I was looking forward to next week, and I still am.
• The Prime Time Players are good guys now, imagine that! All cynicism aside, one of the many heel tag teams had to turn babyface, and Titus and Darren were the obvious choice.
• Social Activity > TV ratings and PPV buys
• John Cena can wrestle in the hottest main event of the year with a torn triceps, but Sin Cara can’t finish a throw away TV match because he hurt his finger.
• NXT proved again that it is, at worst, WWE’s second best weekly show, thanks to Sami Zayn and Antonio Cesaro.
• The jury is still out on Bray Wyatt. He’s presented as being different, but he’s booked just the same as everyone else. Kane dominated their match at Summerslam and The Wyatt’s post match beat down was nothing I haven’t seen before. Whoever is booking his matches and segments is letting Bray Wyatt down.
• Heath Slater has some new tattoos!
• Footlocker sell good dancing shoes.
• If you’re a fat guy with front row tickets to Raw next week please boo CM Punk. The resulting abuse you will receive will thoroughly entertain the rest of the audience.
• Epico and Primo are to be transformed into Los Matadors, but I’m not sure why.

On the Blog this Week

In Monday’s RawRewind we saw HBK & HHH team for the first time to take on The Undertaker and Mankind, on Tuesday Jamie revisited the Hulk Hogan v Big Boss Man steel cage match from Saturday Night’s Main Event, in Wednesday’s post Brian looked at how to book various WWE mid-carders including Heath Slater, The Prime Time Players and Ricardo Rodriguez, Thursday’s Top Five saw Craig and Jamie list their favourite WWE Champions and on Friday Brian looked back at Arn Anderson’s retirement speech on Nitro as we approach the 16th anniversary of that

All previous ‘This Week in Wrestling’ columns can be found here.