The holiday season brings a load of new cases and fun, merry, and goodwill towards all men, which means only one thing; more paydays for me. So yeah....I kinda missed the last update. Sorry about that. [At least I pay well, I'm happy for that! A well paid man is an honorable one - PB]
This week though I'm going to look at two talents that have had very different ways of trying to get over and get something going for them. One has kind of worked, one has been a hopeless failure in my personal opinion. One of them works for the WWE, one for TNA.
Want to guess where the failure is?
But let me first begin with the positive - and it may surprise you a little bit to hear this - but this whole Daniel(Son) Bryan thing has me intrigued. It's mostly because it does have all the trappings laying in place for one hell of a heel turn here, one that could make the IWC spontaneously combust when they see it.
The seeds were sown on this weeks Raw with his interview with Michael Cole. Cole basically called him a hypocrite for trying to cash in his Money in the Bank against Mark Henry when he told everyone he was waiting till Wrestlemania to do so. The accusation was essentially correct and Bryan essentially agreed with that, but then turned into Babyface Fire against Henry by giving the reason that Henry tried to put him on the shelf, and when he saw the opportunity he took it.
Now one of the main complaints of the WWE is the man calling the action, Michael Cole who at best could be called "schizophrenic" in his calls; one moment acting like the shocked babyface/neutral announcer, the next becoming another heel commentator (and not a very good one at that). However Cole has one thing a lot of the people on the WWE roster don't have. Heat.....Lots of it and the ability to generate heat onto himself and the people helping him. Just look at the temporary pick up Jack Swagger got. Okay, being the WWE nowadays they fucked it up but for a brief moment Swagger was over and that was the result of Cole.
Now let's parley this into one Daniel Bryan, who if anyone has watched his indy work would know he works better as a heel than a babyface anyway. One of the key things that a heel needs to be effective is to feel justified in his actions, to feel like he's right. Cole's interview could theoretically be used as the catalyst for a heel turn....possibly involving stealing the belt from Randy Orton once he gets it back. The reason is simple: When Cole berated him he looked inward and realized the only person being honest with him...was Michael Cole. Oh sure all the nerd jibes and such were only because Cole didn't like the direction he was taking when he could be so much more; he's spent a year and a half doing what the company told him or what the fans told him and what did it get him? Almost having his career ended, losing his job with the company, treated like a joke most of the time when he was the best in the world. No, Cole was honest and he sees that now and from now on he's going to do things for himself, he asks Cole to be his backup because he's the only one he can trust, and with that you kill two birds with one stone; you get another hot heel when you desperately need one and you get a chance to start fresh in the announce booth. Win-Win for all!
Now to the other guy...you know for all the talk of changing after Vince Russo left the head writing job, TNA can still screw things up on a monumental level. Only in TNA the screwups become your world champion.
Yep, I'm talking about Robert Roode, who had the perfect buildup, the perfect run, the perfect backstory going into this year's Bound for Glory pay per view. He was built like the next big thing, given an emotional video package and given a main event slot against Kurt Angle for the World Heavyweight Title in what everyone thought would be the perfect time to pass the torch and restart the company.
Now fellow readers let's play Fantasy Booker: The Home Game.
You have this great buildup for Robert Roode, preparing the torch to be passed to him to kick-start a new dawn, a new era for TNA after Vince Russo finally steps down as Head Writer. Do you as the new Head Writer
A) Put on a 30 minute wrestling clinic, filled with emotion, near falls and Roode fighting to survive at every turn, taking Angle's best moves and somehow kicking out time and time again till at last he hits the one big move, one big move that ends it and nets him the World Title he's been chasing all these years?
Or
B) Have the same 30 minute match, deflate the crowd when Roode jobs, show up on Impact the next night and say he was tricked into signing a contract that had no rematch clause, have his tag team partner substitute for him and get the big emotional win.....and the next week turn Roode heel against his own partner and not even put the blowoff match between the two partners on pay per view because God knows we can't go through a relaunch without AJ Fucking Styles in the main event of our first pay per view?
If you answered B: Congratulations, you're an idiot and are thus qualified to write for TNA.
You know I've said this before but sometimes being predictable is GOOD. If you sell the backstory enough we as wrestling fans will accept things even when they're obvious. You don't need SHOCKING SWERVES~! to keep our interest and most importantly when you're launching a new era for your company, sometimes having a strong babyface champion does work for you.
Just ask the WWE. They did the same thing with John Cena.
Clarence "Showstealer" Mason
This week though I'm going to look at two talents that have had very different ways of trying to get over and get something going for them. One has kind of worked, one has been a hopeless failure in my personal opinion. One of them works for the WWE, one for TNA.
Want to guess where the failure is?
But let me first begin with the positive - and it may surprise you a little bit to hear this - but this whole Daniel(Son) Bryan thing has me intrigued. It's mostly because it does have all the trappings laying in place for one hell of a heel turn here, one that could make the IWC spontaneously combust when they see it.
The seeds were sown on this weeks Raw with his interview with Michael Cole. Cole basically called him a hypocrite for trying to cash in his Money in the Bank against Mark Henry when he told everyone he was waiting till Wrestlemania to do so. The accusation was essentially correct and Bryan essentially agreed with that, but then turned into Babyface Fire against Henry by giving the reason that Henry tried to put him on the shelf, and when he saw the opportunity he took it.
Now one of the main complaints of the WWE is the man calling the action, Michael Cole who at best could be called "schizophrenic" in his calls; one moment acting like the shocked babyface/neutral announcer, the next becoming another heel commentator (and not a very good one at that). However Cole has one thing a lot of the people on the WWE roster don't have. Heat.....Lots of it and the ability to generate heat onto himself and the people helping him. Just look at the temporary pick up Jack Swagger got. Okay, being the WWE nowadays they fucked it up but for a brief moment Swagger was over and that was the result of Cole.
Now let's parley this into one Daniel Bryan, who if anyone has watched his indy work would know he works better as a heel than a babyface anyway. One of the key things that a heel needs to be effective is to feel justified in his actions, to feel like he's right. Cole's interview could theoretically be used as the catalyst for a heel turn....possibly involving stealing the belt from Randy Orton once he gets it back. The reason is simple: When Cole berated him he looked inward and realized the only person being honest with him...was Michael Cole. Oh sure all the nerd jibes and such were only because Cole didn't like the direction he was taking when he could be so much more; he's spent a year and a half doing what the company told him or what the fans told him and what did it get him? Almost having his career ended, losing his job with the company, treated like a joke most of the time when he was the best in the world. No, Cole was honest and he sees that now and from now on he's going to do things for himself, he asks Cole to be his backup because he's the only one he can trust, and with that you kill two birds with one stone; you get another hot heel when you desperately need one and you get a chance to start fresh in the announce booth. Win-Win for all!
Now to the other guy...you know for all the talk of changing after Vince Russo left the head writing job, TNA can still screw things up on a monumental level. Only in TNA the screwups become your world champion.
Yep, I'm talking about Robert Roode, who had the perfect buildup, the perfect run, the perfect backstory going into this year's Bound for Glory pay per view. He was built like the next big thing, given an emotional video package and given a main event slot against Kurt Angle for the World Heavyweight Title in what everyone thought would be the perfect time to pass the torch and restart the company.
Now fellow readers let's play Fantasy Booker: The Home Game.
You have this great buildup for Robert Roode, preparing the torch to be passed to him to kick-start a new dawn, a new era for TNA after Vince Russo finally steps down as Head Writer. Do you as the new Head Writer
A) Put on a 30 minute wrestling clinic, filled with emotion, near falls and Roode fighting to survive at every turn, taking Angle's best moves and somehow kicking out time and time again till at last he hits the one big move, one big move that ends it and nets him the World Title he's been chasing all these years?
Or
B) Have the same 30 minute match, deflate the crowd when Roode jobs, show up on Impact the next night and say he was tricked into signing a contract that had no rematch clause, have his tag team partner substitute for him and get the big emotional win.....and the next week turn Roode heel against his own partner and not even put the blowoff match between the two partners on pay per view because God knows we can't go through a relaunch without AJ Fucking Styles in the main event of our first pay per view?
If you answered B: Congratulations, you're an idiot and are thus qualified to write for TNA.
You know I've said this before but sometimes being predictable is GOOD. If you sell the backstory enough we as wrestling fans will accept things even when they're obvious. You don't need SHOCKING SWERVES~! to keep our interest and most importantly when you're launching a new era for your company, sometimes having a strong babyface champion does work for you.
Just ask the WWE. They did the same thing with John Cena.
Clarence "Showstealer" Mason
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