I’m not sure I buy into the popular wisdom that we’re just feeding Cena to Lesnar at Summerslam. It makes about as much sense to give Lesnar the belt as it would the Undertaker or The Rock. The guys who are only putting in a small amount of time per year and have agreements to that effect don’t make sense as being in the title picture.
I think the original plan would have been to feed Lesnar to Daniel Bryan, which would have massively pumped up DB’s legitimacy. But since they had to strip Bryan of the belt, I think they may have to retool the entirety of their plan for Lesnar at Summerslam. Since Lesnar is never going back to even close to full time (or even part time) WWE roster because he hates the life and the travel, you’ll never see him doing more than a few Raw appearances and a few PPVs per year. So from a booking perspective you can only have him win in a non-title match as it makes little sense to make the somewhat irrelevant WWE titles even more irrelevant by putting them on a guy who will only be seen on TV maybe 3 times a year and on PPVs 4-5 times.
If you book Cena to defend the title against Lesnar just so Lesnar loses to Cena, that’s a waste of a Lesnar appearance. If his deal is anything like the Undertakers (which I’ve heard is a strict per-appearance fee) then it’s a waste of a decent chunk of change for something that will advance no storyline and do nothing to hep bring up new wrestlers. Cena is already established. The only way Lesnar winning would make sense is if you’re able to bring someone in to take it from him immediately in like a Raw appearance or the next PPV, because you definitely can’t have an absentee champion for more than an entire PPV cycle or you might as well just get rid of the belts and the championship.
Just remember, Paul Heyman’s client, BrrrrrOCK LES-NAR, ended the Undertaker’s streak at Wrestlemania etc.
Maybe the long-term plan is that Seth Rollins, after he wraps up his feud with Dean Ambrose, cashes in his MITB contract immediately following the Lesnar-Cena match. That way, it won’t matter who wins the belt, because Seth will step in and take it after both contestants beat the hell out of each other. Brock goes back to Minnesota with his newly padded bank account, and Cena takes a few weeks off.
None of this is nearly as important as someone telling Rollins that he is neither the Black Ranger nor a SCUBA diver, and thus he should get some gear more appropriate to his gimmick.
Also, I know they don’t keep feuds going for a year anymore, but I sure would like to see Ambrose just keep thwarting Rollins to the point where the expiration of the MITB contract became an issue.
Wow what a RAW. That’s one of the best, most unpredictable RAWs in recent memory.
The return of Jericho? A feud with Bray? AJ is back (and apparently not pregnant), BNB is out (again) and now a Battle Royale for the IC title! Oh, did I mention the IC title is cursed? Bad News Barrett gets hurt so they announce the number one contender CESARO…who then gets hurt.
The ending with a hurt Cena, a ready-to-cash Rollins, with Ambrose ruining it, and a staredown with Trips.
Apparently, she used the self checkout while buying some stuff and forgot to ring up an iPad case, and the charge will be stricken from the record after she does some community service.
I hope WWE doesn’t bury her for this, because she’s a pretty good wrestler when they let her be.
I am pretty much a benefit-of-the-doubt kind of guy anyway, but I can’t seriously believe that she purposely tried to steal a whopping 25 dollar product.
She’s no Bella, but she’s doing well enough to afford that. I’ve accidentally stolen shit from a self checkout too, I can’t imagine this was on purpose
So, they bring back Jericho, one of the most popular performers ever, and immediately have him beaten up by the Wyatts in order to…what was the purpose of this again? To establish that the Wyatt clan are evil?
I’m going to give this a shot GoodOmens. It’s probably nothing near what WWE creative has planned (if anything), but I like to speculate anyway.
The Wyatts’ angle is based on doomsday cults. Bear in mind, WWE doesn’t want to risk alienating their Christian audience, so Bray’s not going to mention anything about God or Jesus in his rants. He’s passing himself off as a god, prophet, messiah or whatever. It doesn’t have to be logical, because he’s insane. This approach works, as the Wyatts are now hugely over.
The word “Jericho” is a semi-Christian icon. More of a Jewish icon, but it’s biblical. The city of Jericho was encased in impregnable walls. Under command from God, Joshua had the Israelites circle the city seven times, then blow ram horns and shout. The walls came tumbling down and the Israelites destroyed the city. So, Jericho is seen as a symbol of victory.
Since Bray didn’t win the WWE titles at MITB, he didn’t achieve the godlike status he wanted. So, he’s going to recreate the Battle of Jericho symbolically and beat down Chris Jericho. He figures this will provide the impetus for him to eventually become WWE champion. CJ will probably beat Rowan and Harper in singles’ matches, then have a showdown with Bray at the next PPV, much like the Bray/Cena angle.
Eh, don’t think about it that much. Jericho decided he wanted to come back and specifically asked to feud with Bray Wyatt. This can only help Wyatt and keep him occupied while other wheels spin. Wyatt is a good talker and Jericho is one of the best. Having them feud should hopefully be awesome - and help Wyatt develop further as both a talker and a wrestler.
Years ago Jericho used to loudly proclaim over and over “I’m the Best in the World at what I do”. What he did was to bring heat and make other people look better. And yes, he was the very best at doing that. After a year(?) of Jericho being away and saying that he didn’t see any particular reason to return, it’s an honor that he decided to come back specifically to put Wyatt over.
The only half-joking theory prevailing on another board I read is that half an hour after they fired her, they remembered that they’re touring in Australia later this year.
I really like that Jericho and RVD come back to help push young talent. I do think RVD needs a big win here and there just so that when the pushee gets the win, it seems even bigger, but the learning experience for the young talent is something no amount of NXT can give.
If it was Vince’s idea, not even Trips - not even Stephanie - has enough stroke to overrule it.
IIRC, the last time HHH wanted a “favor” from Vince - not having to go to Smackdown after it was announced on a Raw Roulette show - it came with a price; he had to lose clean to some midcarder on Raw.
