Thoughts on the Daniel Bryan/Randy Orton Storyline

WE'RE BACK!!!

After a rather long hiatus, The Sports Monarchy Dynamic Duo is back looking to expand our horizons and achieve greater heights. We're back to talk NFL, NBA, WWE, TNA, and once in a while we'll go off topic and discuss movies and music.


For the first topic back, I want to talk about something that's been irritating me: Namely, this Daniel Bryan/Randy Orton storyline. When Triple H screwed Daniel Bryan out of the WWE Championship at Summerslam and sided with Randy Orton, the Attitude Era fan in me was excited to see a Corporation 2.0 and how they would do it. But they messed it up. ROYALLY. Shocker. Last night was the first time that I was interested to see where this angle goes next.

The night after Summerslam, Orton should've come out in a Suit and Tie and cut a nice, lengthy promo on why he did what he did. Instead, Triple H talked for 10 minutes and Orton had something along the lines of 2 sentences.

And that brings me to my main problem with this storyline: Triple H. I was a big Triple H fan in the Attitude Era, but him taking center stage in a feud that is supposed to be about Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan is beginning to get on my nerves. Randy Orton is the Corporate sellout. He should be coming out cutting promos in a suit and tie telling the people what he thinks about them and how he is everything Daniel Bryan isn't. But Triple H is doing the bulk of the talking and Orton is getting no chance to garner heat on his own. The feud is now Daniel Bryan vs Triple H and Orton is just in the background. Orton's not even the WWE Champion anymore!

In 1998, when they ran this Corporation Angle with The Rock. Yes, the premise was Mr. McMahon getting the belt of Stone Cold and onto somebody who he felt was "worthy" of wearing it, namely The Rock. But Mr. McMahon never did ALL the talking for The Rock. The Rock was able to cut promos and gain heat on his own. Not one time did The Rock become an afterthought in an angle that was about him selling out to become the WWF Champion. Randy Orton became an afterthought long ago.

Also, RAW didn't end 4 weeks straight with Austin getting his ass handed to him by The Corporation.

The build to their match at Night of Champions was horrible. Instead of building a proper story and balancing out Bryan and Orton getting the upper hand on each other, it was Bryan getting laid out EVERY SINGLE WEEK. Your challenger is supposed to look strong to feel like he has a shot against the dominant Champion. But instead, he looked weak heading into this match. Still over, still sympathetic, but weak.

I personally believe it was too early for Bryan to win the WWE Championship anyway. Having the fast count ref as a fail safe in case Orton lost was cool, but executed a little poorly. Orton should've beat Bryan one-on-one in classic heel fashion. Striking him with the belt, or low blow followed by RKO. Orton retains in heel fashion, but Bryan doesn't lose any steam.

But no, Bryan had to get stripped of the title. Bryan is a two time WWE Champion and he hasn't even held the belt for a full day. The booking of the WWE Championship is absolutely horrid. But last night was a glimmer of hope that they're gonna put this angle on the right track.

Since the WWE Championship is vacated, this is what I would personally do:

Triple H comes out announces there will be a Deadly Game Tournament at Survivor Series to crown a new WWE Champion. For those unfamiliar, The Deadly Game Tournament was used in 1998 and was a 1 night tournament to crown a new Champion because the title was vacated around that time as well.

ALL are able to compete except for Daniel Bryan. Triple H then strikes Bryan a deal. It'll be Daniel Bryan vs Triple H at the October ppv. If Bryan wins, he's in the tournament. He loses, Bryan never gets a shot at the title again. Bryan beats Triple H, gets in the tournament, faces Randy Orton in the Tournament Finals and beats him to FINALLY win the WWE Championship.

The angle literally writes itself. But somehow, WWE will find a way to mess this up. Hopefully, they get things right sooner or later.

This poor excuse of this new Corporation, McMahon-Helmsley Era rehash, or whatever it is they're doing is losing steam. It had initial appeal, but repetition and having ONE guy taking the bulk of the storyline and making the anti-authority character look WEAK is dragging it down.

They need to pick it up and make this thing interesting.

My two cents.


By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete



Also, we'll be launching a Youtube page very soon for Vlog posts and discussions on a variety of topics. It may take a little time, but this is just the beginning!

WWE SummerSlam 2012 Reaction

While SummerSlam was billed as "The Biggest Party of the Summer", it wasn't really hyped as much as it should've been. But it still delivered on some levels. It wasn't mind blowing amazing, but it was a solid pay-per-view with great wrestling throughout.

SummerSlam Pre-Show: 

United States Championship Match

Santino (c) vs Antonio Cesaro

For the hardcore wrestling fans, this match is Santino vs Claudio Castagnoli. But anyway, let's get to the match. I personally haven't seen Cesaro wrestle, so this was a real treat. The guy is extremely talented, got the body type, looks like he doesn't botch, and is a great mix of a brawler and grappler type wrestler. The match was pretty solid, with a funny spot for the kids where Santino pulls out a spare cobra from his ass after the first was torn earlier on in the match. But let's get to the important part...

There is a NEW United States Champion. Let me repeat, a NEW United States Champion! FINALLY! Santino was doing absolutely nothing with that Championship and certainly devalued the belt in the process. I certainly hope that they book Cesaro to do something with the belt and not just drop it to Santino at the next ppv, or at worst, tomorrow night on RAW. Keep the belt on this guy for a while and let's see what he can do.


 

After a meh intro and a good pyro display, we get introduced by Cole and Lawler. Before they can finish, we get interrupted by a very loud EXCUSE ME! I guess we know what match is gonna kick this show off and I don't have a problem with it one bit.

Chris Jericho vs Dolph Ziggler (w/ Vickie Guerrero)

This match was great. I mean, it was a really well done match. It started pretty basic with Jericho getting in early offense and Ziggler dominating for a good portion of the match, but once it got going, it got really good. It was so fast pace with great back and forth action. Match ends with Jericho forcing Ziggler tapout to the Walls of Jericho. Amazing match to kick off the show.

My only problem was that the whole theme Cole and Lawler were building throughout the match, and even when the match ended, was that Jericho couldn't win "The Big One." I understand that he hasn't won a ppv match since his return but, how is beating Dolph Ziggler winning "The Big One?" They act like Jericho just won the WWE Championship. No, he just beat Dolph Ziggler. Winning "The Big One" would be winning the WWE Championship, not beating an upper mid-carder at SummerSlam. C'mon now...

I don't think Ziggler loses anything from this loss, but Jericho leaves on a positive note.

Kane vs Daniel Bryan

A pretty ok match for the time it was given. This match proved that Kane can still get it done in the ring and Daniel Bryan is the best wrestler in the WWE right now. It was your average big man vs little man match with Kane bringing the power and Bryan to quicken the pace and wear him down. I thought it was a solid match. Didn't bore me one bit. I was a little shocked to see Daniel Bryan get the win here. The man is on fire, and I pondered how they were going to book this to have Bryan win and wins with a rollup after avoiding the tombstone piledriver. Solid match. After the match, Kane tore apart the locker room looking for Bryan. I see this angle is going to continue. They didn't this feud any life, or any story. Wonder where they go from here.

Intercontinental Championship Match
The Miz (c) vs Rey Mysterio

Here's where the string of good matches stop. Ok, let me not be that mean. It was a good match, but after the last two matches, this one falls just short. And it's a title match! Nothing really stuck out to me about this match. The close calls at the end saved it a little bit, but the match seemed a little too slow and stagnant for my taste. Miz wins via Skull Crushing Finale.

World Heavyweight Championship Match
Sheamus (c) vs Alberto Del Rio

I've been so tired of Sheamus' run as World Champion. It's not necessarily his fault, but rather the lack of top stars for him to face. And Del Rio is dull as dishwater. They've given Del Rio multiple times to get over, but he still can't get it done. That's my gripe with these two and this feud has been so boring, so poorly built, that I really didn't care that much about this match. Both men are great wrestlers, don't get me wrong, but they have ZERO chemistry with each other. This match was one of their better ones, but the meh storyline kind of takes away from it.

Then there's the lackluster finish. Sheamus hits Del Rio with a shoe, then hits the Irish Curse Backbreaker, and covers him. Del Rio puts his foot on the ropes, but the ref doesn't see it and counts to three. Sheamus knocks the foot off after the ropes. There seems to be some confusion as the Sheamus' music didn't play right away making the finish look that much more bad. Sheamus wins, but this ending tells us to that this feud is not over............great.




 

WWE Tag Team Championship MatchKofi & Truth (c) vs Primetime Players

Not a lot to say about this match. That's too bad because I like the Primetime Players. They're a simple, basic heel tag team. The match didn't really do anything for me. It seemed like just another filler match with no story attached, no matter how hard they try. But Kofi & Truth win a short, but good tag team match. This begs the question, now what? There's really no other teams left for Kofi & Truth to face and they really haven't done much with the tag titles. And since the kids love them, they won't drop the belts any time soon. I mean, as much as I like the Primetime Players, I don't feel like seeing these two teams going at it for the umpteenth time. Let's move on, shall we?

Triple Threat Match for the WWE Championship
CM Punk (c) vs John Cena vs Big Show

One word for this match: Weird.

I did like this match, but there were a few things I didn't like. First of all, their main selling point during this match was making the Big Show look dominant and they got the job done to perfection. I thought I was watching a handicap match. It was all about which man can get the Big Show down for the count first. Big Show was dominant throughout the match. I have to admit, I don't think I've ever seen a triple threat match go down like that. It Show vs Punk, then Show vs Cena, and so on, and so on. They were trying to get Show down, but the Big Man was dominant. That was very well booked on their part.

Here's my problem with this match: CM Punk and John Cena had two....TWO interactions with each other throughout the match. Once when Punk interrupted the five knuckle shuffle and another at the end. There was no trash talking and no wrestling between both men whatsoever. I mean, there was never even a staredown between these two. Really? It's Summerslam. Are they trying to save these two fighting for the next ppv? We've seen them wrestle before. It's not groundbreaking if these two face off.

It wasn't your average triple threat match, but it was still good. It didn't live up to the hype, but it still delivered. The cool spot at the end was interesting when Punk and Cena both had submissions on Big Show and he tapped. AJ came out and restarted the match. I thought Big Show had the match won after that double chokeslam, but I knew better. Cena hits the AA, Punk throws him out of the ring and pins Big Show for the win.

This match tells me two things:

1) I don't expect Big Show to win the WWE Championship one last time before he retires.

2) I expect that they're going to have Punk face Cena at Night of Champions seeing as how they had almost no interaction with each other throughout the match.

Match was good, Punk retains and I'm happy with that.

SummerSlam Concert:

Mr. One-hit-wonder Kevin Rudolf and his band performed the SummerSlam theme song, "Be A Star" with the Divas dancing in the background. I'm gonna be blunt. This thing sucked. Who really cares about Rudolf since "Let it Rock" anyway? I didn't even watch it. I switched away when he was being announced. They scrapped Damien Sandow for this? THIS? The next great heel in the WWE was scrapped for a Kevin Rudolf Concert. Good to know where WWE stands with its future stars. I feel like these concerts are going to be a yearly thing now at SummerSlam. Great.

Triple H vs Brock Lesnar

This match was really interesting. Unlike the Lesnar/Cena bout, HHH wasn't a bloody mess that got zero offense on Brock the entire match. The match started with Triple H actually getting the best of Lesnar. Lesnar takes his gloves off and it's on. Lesnar gets serious and starts his dominance of this match with a takedown and stiff shot to the neck. For a while, it's all Lesnar, but Triple H comes back and starts getting some more offense in on Brock. Another thing different from Brock/Cena is that there was less ground and pound. Brock didn't throw as many punches or implement UFC style holds and tactics like he did against Cena. My guess is HHH didn't feel like taking all those fist and knee shots. He wanted to work clean and be safe. Lesnar does work more stiff now since he's been in UFC and has the whole "fighter" gimmick. One day, he's gonna hurt someone.

Back to the match, after Triple H hits his second pedigree, Lesnar immediately gets up in locks Triple H in that Komura Lock and The Game has to tap out. I thought the match lagged a lot, but it was still an enjoyable bout. Lesnar gets the win and leaves with Paul Heyman. Triple H stays in the middle of the ring for a while and keeps saying I'm sorry. He leaves the ring, walks up the ramp, and says goodbye. He walks to the back and the show ends.

Does this mean Triple H will be off TV for an extended period of time? Is he done as a wrestler? Has Lesnar gotten his groove back? What happens with Lesnar and Heyman now? I guess RAW will answer all of that. 

Final Thoughts:

The show was solid. Not worthy of a 25th Anniversary version of SummerSlam, but it was ok.

The only title change was on the pre-show, the next great heel in the WWE in Damien Sandow was scrapped for a horrible concert, and pretty much everything after Jericho/Ziggler up until the WWE Championship match was forgettable except for the Kane/Bryan match, which was pretty solid. I feel like if these matches, or even the overall pay-per-view was hyped better than maybe it would've been more enjoyable. I like the wrestling in the show, but everything in between was meh. I feel like I would've been more invested in these matches if they had at least, semi-decent buildup. The only matches that had any sort of good build was the WWE Championship match, Jericho/Ziggler, and HHH/Lesnar.

All that being said, SummerSlam gets a 6/10 for me. And I'm being very generous with that. RAW tomorrow night should be quite the show.

Feel free to Comment.

By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete

WWE No Way Out Reaction

Another WWE pay-per-view is in the books and I'm not sure what to make of tonight. I want to say Over the Limit was better, but that'd be pushing it. It wasn't a bad show, but it certainly isn't a show I'd go back and watch again. The WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship matches saved this show from being a complete dud that's for sure.

It was just an average pay-per-view with nothing really special happening. Well, at least nothing we didn't see coming anyway. Let's get to my reaction of this show from top to bottom.

World Heavyweight Championship Match
Sheamus (c) vs Dolph Ziggler (w/Vickie Guerrero)


I'm kind of disappointed that this opened the show, but that goes to show you how far the World Heavyweight Championship has come to a point where it opens a show.

But besides all that, this match was damn good. I mean, very good. It was extremely well contested and was a great back and forth wrestling match. I was surprised that these two wrestlers have great chemistry. I didn't get bored of it at all. Great action and storytelling from start to finish. Sheamus gets the win after hitting the Brogue Kick.

I hope this is the beginning of a feud with these two, but I doubt it. This was just Ziggler filling Alberto Del Rio's spot in the match which sucks because I think Ziggler deserves a main event spot. I think this kid is ready, but who am I say who's ready or not?

Nonetheless, a great opening match.

Tuxedo Match
Santino vs Ricardo Rodriguez

To be blatantly honest, this match bored the hell outta me. I didn't find anything funny about this match until the end when Ricardo had Del Rio's face on his underwear.

Santino won and so ends the comedic portion of this show.

Intercontinental Championship Match
Christian (c) vs Cody Rhodes


These two proved they can put on a great match when given enough time to do so. There was great back and forth action, storytelling and a lot of technical wrestling thrown in there. I want to say this got to 10 minutes, and maybe more. I liked the match. I feel like these two can do even better than this if they got an extra 15 minutes, but I'm not in charge of these things.

Christian wins and retains the IC Title. I hope this the last we'll see of this feud. I think this is the closure Cody Rhodes needed for his IC Title run. He lost the belt at Over the Limit and lost tonight in his rematch. It's time for Rhodes to move on and start getting in the main event scene. Maybe he's the next opponent for Sheamus. You never know. As far as Christian goes, I'd love to see him feud with either Miz or maybe Damien Sandow next.

Fatal 4 Way #1 Contenders Tag Team Match
The Usos vs Darren Young & Titus O' Neill vs Tyson Kidd & Justin Gabriel vs Primo & Epico


I thought this match was going to be a complete dud, but it turned out to be really good. The good about this is that you have a chance to showcase great, young talent and show what these new kids can really do. The bad thing about this is that nobody really knows or cares that much about these guys because they haven't been featured on RAW or SmackDown enough for people to care about them.

The match was pretty good with all these guys getting some action in. The best spot was Tyson Kidd hitting a hurricanrana off the top rope sending Primo crashing into everybody else on the floor! That was SICK! And then came the swerve when A.W. who wanted to recruit Primo and Epico into a stable he was trying to form, screwed them and allowed Darren Young and Titus O' Neill to get the win.

What made it even better was that They all jumped Primo and Epico afterwards confirming that A.W. is going to be with Young and O' Neill full-time.

You know, this little turn would've have been so much more better if we cared about the people involved.

But anyway, Darren Young and Titus O' Neill look like they're really getting a push in the tag team division here. They maybe a threat to take the tag belts off of Kofi and Truth. Now, let's see if WWE can give these guys some air time so that we can really care about them.

Triple H addresses the WWE Universe


I'm going to cut through all the BS and get the heart of this promo. Triple H challenged Brock Lesnar to a match at Summerslam. You know Summerslam right? The pay-per-view that's all the way in August? Keep in mind that we're still in June.

He said get rid of the lawyers, the lawsuits, and the legal junk and he wants to "Fight" Brock at Summerslam.

As a fan, I can't wait to see this match because I've been wanting to see Triple H and Brock Lesnar feud with each other ever since 2002 and this is something I can't wait to see. But the thing about this is that they have to announce this match two months in advance to ensure that people are going to buy Summerslam. They can't build storylines like they used to anymore. Back in the day, HHH and Lesnar would've headlined No Way Out. You didn't need a bigger stage like Summerslam to get a match over, but again, I digress.

I'm looking forward to seeing how they build this up in the next two months.

Divas Championship Match
Layla (c) vs Beth Phoenix


These put on another solid match. It wasn't nearly as good as their match at Over the Limit match, but still solid nonetheless. They sort of repeated the same things they did in last month's match. Of course, the crowd didn't care because WWE hasn't given us a reason to care about the Divas anymore like back in the day.

Layla retains here and I don't know where she goes from here. Maybe Kharma returns and goes after Layla and Beth gets involved? I don't see how long they can milk a Beth Phoenix/Layla feud. They either bring in Kharma or here's what I'd love to see: Have Michelle McCool make a comeback and go after Layla. That'd be a feud I'd love to see. Former Lay-Cool partners going at it for the Divas Championship. That's what I'd do.

Sin Cara vs Hunico


Meh. This was a repeat of their match from RAW. Once again, I'm finding it real hard to care about Sin Cara when there's really nothing to invest in for him. Everything about him screams Rey Mysterio wannabe and I feel like he's so much more than that. But I digress.

Sin Cara wins in a solid match.

Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship
CM Punk (c) vs Daniel Bryan vs Kane


Here We Go! This is the match I've been waiting for all night long! The best storyline that WWE has going on right now will finally get its payoff. Let's set the stage for those who haven't been following. I'll make it short and sweet.

Bryan and Punk have been feuding, Kane has beef with both men, AJ's gone crazy since being dumped by Daniel Bryan and has been acting as such, all three are battling for the WWE Championship, and somehow AJ is the X-Factor in all this.

Tonight, she was seen with Punk and Bryan wishing them luck and when she got to Kane, he laid a BIG kiss on her! It's hard to tell what's going to happen. Let's get to the match!

The atmosphere was amazing and the crowd was HOT for the entire match! They were cheering from start to finish and loved all of it.....somewhat. Well, here's what I thought of it. The match itself was amazing and the fans made the match even better. There was never any lull in the action and there were great spots. The YES! Chants were in attendance in MASS and the crowd loved this match. There were great near fall spots, and I found myself cheering for Daniel Bryan. This match was extremely well done. Match of the night of course and it's not even close. For the most part, triple threat matches always deliver and this one didn't disappoint at all.

Now, here's where I bet EVERYBODY had a problem with the match: The way it ended. AJ comes running down to the ring and gets on the apron, Kane accidentally bumps into her knocking her to the floor, and CM Punk drops Kane with the GTS for the win. Kane leaves the ring and carries AJ off to the back and AJ looks back giving Punk a little smile.

I bet a lot of people were thinking AJ was going to screw over Punk and Kane and side with Bryan and help him win the WWE Championship. But the way they did it ensures us that this storyline isn't over yet. From the beginning, AJ was playing Kane like a fiddle all to help CM Punk retain the WWE Championship. She was planning it all along: Play Kane for a fool, screw Bryan, and help Punk. But I somehow can't feel like this story is over. I feel like the AJ payoff still hasn't come yet. It's coming, it's not over yet. I still can't get enough of the storyline. The more it keeps going, the more I love it. Just wish we would've seen Bryan at the end. He sort of just vanished.

Ryback vs Dan Delaney & Rob Grymes


And yet ANOTHER squash match for Ryback. Nothing more, nothing less. You know, I undertstand they're trying to build this guy into the next Goldberg, but at least Goldberg was facing people that were relevant and actually his size. Sometimes, he'd take out people twice his size. Ryback is beginning to bore me with the squashing of these 90 lb guys.

Steel Cage Match
John Cena vs Big Show


Well, here's it is. The Main Event: John Cena vs Big Show. If John Cena wins, Mr. McMahon will fire John Laurinatis, but if Big Show wins, John Laurinatis will fire John Cena. Quite a sticky situation indeed.

The match itself was slow and sometimes boring, but it followed John Cena matches to a T. Cena would get some strong offense in early on until Big Show started to dominate. Show would continue to dominate Cena until he could muster up enough strength to topple the Giant. But here's where things got interesting.

Cena would attempt to leave the Cage with help from Mr. McMahon, but Big Johnny would slam the Cage back in his face. Cena walks right into a chokeslam and kicks out! If the match was going to end at any point, it would be right there, but it didn't which meant John Cena was going to win at some point. You just didn't know when or how it would happen.

Big Show would later on go for the WMD. He'd miss Cena, and knock out the ref, but he'd come back and take Cena down anyway. And then, everybody that Big Show had destroyed in his reign of terror: guys like Zack Ryder, Kofi Kingston and Brodus Clay made their way down to the ring. Big Show would take them out but turn around into an AA.

But guess who won? You guessed it. John Cena. John Cena got to the top of the Cage and Big Show crawled out of the door. It was a race to see who would get to the floor first and John Cena won. Big Johnny got fired right on the spot by Mr. McMahon and got AA'ed through the announce table to cap it off. John Cena stands tall......once again.

So, John Cena wins and John Laurinatis is fired. Where do we go from here? Does Triple H take over? Does Mr. McMahon re-hire Teddy Long? Does something happen that causes John Laurinatis to come back? This next move is crucial.

This entire month of Big Show running through most of the RAW Roster was pretty much all for not since he couldn't come away with the win. I don't understand this to be honest. How does this at all help the Big Show. This heel turn isn't completely wasted, but it's taken one hell of a dent tonight. Where does he go from here now? I really doubt his feud with Cena is over, but how can he be taken seriously now? He didn't do what he said after all this and Cena continues to end every show on top no matter who he takes on. No matter how over a heel can be, they wouldn't dare have him go over John Cena and make him legitimate.


Overall, it was an average show saved by the World Championship and WWE Championship matches and was capped off by a poor main event that was saved by some late theatrics by other superstars. I would've liked to see some other things go differently, but that isn't the way things work. We have to wait and see how things develop.

Tomorrow's RAW should be most interesting. And I'm going to be there LIVE so I'm gonna love it......hopefully.



Feel free to Comment.


By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete