Daniel Bryan - A Goat's Tale

So I'll be the first to admit, I wasn't a huge Daniel Bryan mark back during his first major title run, I didn't like him on NXT, and I don't watch any independent promotions so I never knew him as Bryan Danielson. But 2013 has quite literally been the year of Daniel Bryan, and what has pissed me off more than anything is that Vince, Triple H and co seem determined to make 2014 the year that is not about Daniel Bryan. Bryan started 2013 well, he was tag-team champion with Kane in one of the best teams to come along in recent years, Team Hell No, then when they broke up and his singles career started (again) he seemed to be one to wander around in limbo unsure of where to go next. But then the delightful John Cena (who is actually known for trying to get younger talent over himself) picked Bryan as his opponent for SummerSlam, which was great Bryan deserved it. But if, like me, you were skeptical, you had a good right to be, I was almost certain Cena would lose...I was wrong.

Bryan won clean and solid at SummerSlam and became WWE champion, but of course, as usual, our skepticism wasn't totally off the mark; Triple H screwed Bryan so Orton became champion. I hope I'm not the only one who thinks there seems to be some sort of backstage grudge against Daniel Bryan for getting over without their help, because again Bryan won clean at Night of Champions only for some ridiculous storyline to come into play where he was stripped of the title again. Then at Battleground...no contest...then at HIAC, HBK screws him....it just goes on and on...and now he's not even in the title picture. It seems like a ridiculous, petty thing from Triple H that he feels the need to not only physically bury Bryan on every chance he gets, but also verbally mock him. Like when he mentions Bryan being the 2013 Superstar of the Year, he mentions it every time he mentions his name, like he's openly mocking him for the fans voting him. I imagine that Bryan made a big deal out of being SOTY and HHH probably said something backstage to him like "you know it's just a fan vote right? Not a real award" or something like that, he's that petty and shallow and he has to have his "boys" Orton and Cena...and now Batista...on top of the pile.

Then of course the pettiness shone through again last week when Bryan joined the Wyatt Family...it was like "hey, he's the most over superstar in the company and didn't need our help to get it...we can't have that...let's ruin it and turn him heel". It is the most single pathetic thing I've ever seen happen to a popular superstar, I really hope I'm proved wrong and they have him turn on the Wyatt Family. My ideal scenario actually would be for Kane to save him, and Undertaker to return to save the both of them, then for the three of them to work a tag team with the Wyatt's at 'Mania, 'cause let's face it, Taker isn't getting any younger and has struggled to get through the first ten minutes of a match without wilting for the past few years, it would be a great match and a good payoff. In fact, my ideal scenario would be for Bryan to win the Rumble and Wyatt to dispute it as his title shot, that way the two can face off at Elimination Chamber and Bryan wins the title shot and faces whoever at WrestleMania.

The bottom line is Bryan has been treated like dirt these past few months, all because he got over without creatives help, hopefully I'm wrong and he hasn't fully turned and this Wyatt Family angle ends soon, otherwise the only reason he's involved is because he's got a beard, which is ridiculous.

Anyway, stay awesome,

Watch wrestling.

Paige: Will She, Won't She?

If you were to ask most WWE fans who the future of the WWE Divas division was, the general consensus would tell you it was Paige. I think I've written a lot about her on this blog but that doesn't change the fact that she's probably the best thing WWE have going for them in terms of female talent and budding young stars, the main problem is that WWE doesn't seem to recognise this and Paige remains stuck down in Orlando on NXT. But in my opinion that may not be a bad thing, the thing is is that everyone seems to be satisfied with what Paige is doing, her character and the basically the way she generally presents herself on television. However if she was to be promoted to the main roster there is absolutely no guarantee that she would come up the way she is now, she may come in as a member of a faction like The Wyatt Family or The Shield, she could come in billed as a local jobber who manages to get one over on a top Diva. The problem seems to be is that most people (myself included) are happy with Paige the way she is and don't see a need to change her character, but WWE are obviously too dumb to even realize how well she is doing and how much she is appreciated, never mind how great her character is. 

I personally think the anti-diva gimmick (not really sure you could call it a gimmick) is a brilliant fit for her, she pulls it off well and it's a grand change to the crap that WWE shove down our throats every week with the whole Total Divas malarkey. I think now would be as good a time as any to bring her up to the main roster, with Total Divas returning next week and the likes of Eva Marie and JoJo bound to get more airtime than they should be, Paige is the only Diva I can see really shaking things up and making the Divas division interesting again. While AJ has been in a nice little program with them I don't see that feud going anywhere. AJ is great, I really do love watching her, but she still carries that ugly Divas championship around, and refers to herself as, pretty much, the most important Diva on the roster. I think Paige would be someone who could come in and really beat the living crap out of the Total Divas crew and probably be the only one of the whole female roster who wouldn't be referred to as a Diva and I think that would be really important in her growth as the future of the women's division.

Which brings me to my next point; I'll admit it, I love watching the Divas, not because they're hot and provide good eye candy, but because most of them genuinely want to be there and try hard to put on a good show and succeed at this level. Women like AJ Lee, Natalya, Naomi, Layla Tamina and of course Paige, have worked for years and years (some longer than most superstars) to get to the big time, especially AJ and Layla, who before becoming WWE Divas, they were huge fans of WWE. But then you get ones like The Bella Twins, Cameron and Eva Marie who really had no intention of getting into the business but still get pushed and promoted ahead of the likes of Paige, Kaitlyn and even JoJo. I'm not going to make a huge deal like most people do out of the Bella Twins, while Nikki seems content with her position as one of the top Divas through no work whatsoever, Brie seems to be genuinely working hard to get ahead of her competition, especially in recent weeks Brie seems to be working much harder, putting on better matches and genuinely looking like she belongs there, it seems that a few things may have rubbed off Daniel Bryan and onto her (giggity). Eva Marie is possibly the most baffling as to why she gets promoted, she really has no in ring talent and is notorious for her awful ability to sell falls, it's disgraceful that she's on Raw nearly every week while the likes of Paige, Kaitlyn and other sit on the sidelines doing nothing, 

I will definitely be looking to continue this post as Paige continues to develop, I just hope if/when she does get up to the main roster, WWE doesn't muck her character up and shove her on Main Event or jobbing to Eva Marie nearly every week on SmackDown. 

Cheers for reading.

It's Been A While.

I don't know if too long even describes how long it's been since I posted, I absolutely promised myself that I'd post on here as often as I can and it's been since like April since I posted. It's not like my priorities or anything have changed, I haven't stopped watching WWE, I still tweet about it all of the time and comment on Facebook and talk about it as much as I feel the need to. 

In fact in the summer I watched a bit of TNA (BOOO!!)...to be fair they did have some half decent shows and did seem to care a lot more about the women's division than WWE does (of course, we've touched upon that in a previous post Diva Destruction) but what I learned is that they are basically setting themselves up to be another WCW...without the success. I also recently bought the Best of WCW Monday Nitro DVD's from WWE Home Video UK and was actually disappointed that, back in the day, I paid too much attention to WWF and didn't bother to watch WCW at all. There were some really interesting segments and some matches that I really enjoyed on the 2 DVD sets, it makes me wonder that if TNA ever got the financial backing and audiences that WCW got would they ever be serious competition for WWE? Taking in to account the fact that WWE is now a globally recognized media brand with virtually endless funds and connections. Anyway, I stopped watching TNA after about a month, I think I might be a curse, because I'd heard from a friend that TNA was getting really good and had better programming than WWE most weeks, then as soon as I started watching it, it just turned into absolute shit. What bothered me most is Aces and Eights, I really don't understand what was going on there at all, Bubba Ray Dudley as World Heavyweight Champion? Bitch please. 

Also, The Wyatt's arrived on the main roster! I was impressed with the Wyatt's in NXT and really enjoyed watching them, I think they definitely give off a Manson family vibe which could definitely be both controversial and successful at the same time. While everyone on Twitter seems to be raving about Bray Wyatt, I've always been more impressed with Luke Harper, he just has a look of a real scary dude, and that works in his current gimmick but it worries me what they'll do with him when the Wyatt family finishes. He's a very solid worker for a big man and can go with the best of them, I also really like the "YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!" thing he does during matches, it won't be long before that's printed on t-shirts.

The whole "Authority" angle is really boring me now, the IWC have begged for so long for a heel Orton and now they have him and they're still bitching, I, personally, preferred him when he was a face, I think his character had developed so well he was more in touch with the wider, younger audience than any other superstar (except maybe Sheamus, and of course Cena). The decision to turn him heel came at a good time when Daniel Bryan was making his claim to be the top face in the company while Cena was out for "six months". But that all ended when Cena came back and now I'm worried that Bryan will be dropped like a bad habit, it seems that Bryan's world title pursuit is over and now they're pushing him to the secondary main event in a feud with the Wyatt Family. It's certainly not a good idea, a worker as solid as Bryan should be in the main event and holding the title (for longer than 3 minutes, or 23 hours) but now that Cena is back they have the two top stars that HHH wants (Cena and Orton) as well as HHH himself and Steph taking the spotlight away from every other wrestler, and belittling as many of them as they can. It's really pissing me off and I just hope that somewhere down the line Bryan steps up again and can hold the title for a decent amount of time, he can be the new Bret Hart and carry the business into a new era, but to do that he needs the torch passed to him, he was given the opportunity to make a name for himself and Vince/HHH/Steph (whoever) mustn't have thought he worked as a top star, resulting in HHH burying him every single week. I really hope he gets another big push soon (maybe a Royal Rumble win) because he really does deserve it.

Anyway, I have Uni work to do, which I should really get back to, 
So until next time, 
Holla, Holla!

Why I Love Wrestling (Part I)

Being 20 years old and still watching wrestling, usually when I talk about it I get a funny look or (ironically) a raised eyebrow but the fact is it's never really bothered me in the slightest. I don't know what the cultural views on wrestling is like in America or anywhere else but over here in England it's very taboo and even during the Attitude Era when the target audience was men aged between 18 and 40 it was still seen as a "kids show". Obviously now it's totally different because the target audience is much younger, but when you see guys like CM Punk and The Rock and Chris Jericho cutting the promos they do, using phrases like "stick it straight up your candy ass" and "your father's an alcoholic and your sister is a drug addict" (Jericho to CM Punk) it's clear that, while it's not as edgy as it used to be, it's still not a "kids show". But wrestling when I started watching it was probably at the lowest point of it's popularity, the high point of the 80's had past and the whole Rock N' Wrestling connection had faded when Hulk Hogan jumped ship to WCW in 1995. 

1995 was around the time I started watching WWF, as a matter of fact the first angle I ever remember was Bret Hart vs Diesel for the WWF Championship going into Royal Rumble '95. The Hitman was the first wrestler I ever really loved, he was like the John Cena of those days, he was the face of the company, wrestled every main event...difference was people actually cheered for him and liked him. But I remember this feud mostly because of how attracted I was to the Diesel character, he was so cool and cocky, and in the ring he wasn't bad either, but I was a Hitman fan and remained so up until the same point as everyone else; during the Stone Cold feud. Stone Cold was, and still is, one of the greatest heels of all time (during his original heel run), that went on to become the greatest babyface and most popular WWF/E superstar of all time. At the time of the feud I was around 2-3 years old and it was very strange not only for me but for most people then when you stopped liking the Hitman, goodest good guy there is, and started liking Steve Austin, the most vile human being in the WWF. 

Austin remains my all-time favourite, ever since that run with the Hitman that shoved him right up to the main event in a matter of months. Of course most people remember Austin for his best moments during the Attitude Era, that may be so but there's no denying that Austin's best matches came during his feud with Bret. Obviously the one that speaks volumes is the match at WrestleMania 13 which many consider to be one of the best matches of all time, where Bret walked in the biggest good guy, Steve walked in the biggest bad guy, and in some amazing way during the match they managed to switch roles and in the end Hart was booed out of the arena, and Austin was applauded for his valiant effort. While it took him a whole extra year to get has hands on his first WWF title Austin remained to be on of the top billed stars in the company, and by this time the Monday Night Wars were in full flow. Clearly Steve Austin was the catalyst in the Attitude Era (I guess some would say) no matter how much people want it to be The Rock, or how many people believe that he was the major draw between '97-'01...there's just no way. But the one's that don't get the credit they deserve in the starting of WWF's Attitude Era was D-Generation X, in my eyes and most peoples eyes they were the real catalysts behind the Attitude Era, they started everything with all the dick jokes, booby references, "suck it"s and basically putting the 'Attitude' in Attitude Era, and it was HBK's feud again with Bret Hart that turned the volume up on WWF's edge-o-meter. 

While I do love a good dick joke and booby reference nowadays, at the age of 4 it wasn't that fun. Not because it was vulgar and crude but for the simple reason I just didn't understand it, which is why I'll always prefer the '06 incarnation of DX, of course people will argue that there acts were majorly toned down and the crude humour didn't even come close to what it was in '97 but the simple fact was that I understood the humour in '06, so then it was funny to me...at 4 year old watching men dress up as women in thongs and telling their bosses to "suck it" and such was just disgusting, now I find it funny. Of course regardless of which incarnation of DX is better, I still prefer Triple H and Shawn Michaels on their own. I loved The Game around 2002 during the McMahon/Helmsley era, I thought he was a badass then, but I still much prefer him between his Evolution tenure and his King of Kings championship pursuit against John Cena. I loved how sadistic he was, I loved how he would get jealous of Batista and Randy Orton when they took "his" title...believe me, the WHC was "his" title! The sledgehammer just made it that much cooler. 

Of course I could on for days about how I love wrestling...but not today. I plan to continue this post soon but there are a few other things I need to talk about first, tomorrow I'll be bringing you a part II on the Divas Destruction post, and soon a bigger look at the Face, Heel or "Tweener" argument.

As for now, don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Glipho,

Thanks again,
Andrew.

The Next Generation (Part II: NXT Invasion)

You all should be able to tell by now that I'm a huge NXT fan, in fact before I started writing this today I just finished watching last nights episode, and I have to say the new Bray Wyatt/Adrian Neville, Oliver Grey, Bo Dallas angle is coming along nicely. I'm not big on Bray Wyatt at all, I think he seems like he can cut a good promo, but that's about it, I've only seen him in the ring one of two times, and what I seen of him was rather underwhelming. Luckily his brother Bo Dallas (both are the sons of the original WWE taxman I.R.S) has some very good ring talent, he's one of the budding young stars fighting to get out of NXT. Right about now NXT doesn't seem like a place for young stars to hone their craft, but rather a place to stick hyped up talent, and mid-carders who they can't fit on the show and creative are too afraid that these young kids could get way over, just like they are down in NXT, and eclipse the boring older talent on the main shows. 

We got a glimpse of Bo Dallas on Raw and SmackDown and in the Royal Rumble match a few weeks/months back, and he caused quite a stir among the fans and some Internet bloggers like myself. He wasn't well known to most people in the audience who never watched NXT but people like myself who watch NXT every week had watched him grow and start to become the main focus of the show on NXT, then what do you know, he shows up in the Royal Rumble match after winning the NXT tournament and then the next night on Raw. It didn't come as a shock to some people that Bo was the one to come up rather than other top NXT stars like Bray Wyatt and Leo Kruger. He was literally the main focus on NXT for a good couple of months or so, he was doing very well, then they called him up to the main roster for two/three matches and BAM! He's back down to NXT...but this time he wasn't the main focus. It seems like the call-up killed a bit of his momentum, despite him beating Intercontinental champion Wade Barrett, cleanly as well might I add. I was hoping for a feud and maybe an IC title match between Bo and Barrett but the storyline kind of just washed up after the one or two matches and he was back in NXT doing basically nothing until recently. The feud with his brother is interesting but I would much rather see him getting up on the main roster, if not challenging for the NXT title (which doesn't seem to be getting any airtime lately). It would p**s me off a little bit but the guy they built up instead of him was really engaging.

Adrian Neville is the guy I'm talking about, Neville is a young lad from Newcastle, England (just like myself) and is definitely the most popular wrestler they have in NXT. He's now one half of the NXT tag team champions and is killing it every week in the ring, he really is that damn good (sorry Triple H). I think finally with Neville, WWE are realising that they have a huge talent on their hands, and even though he's still in NXT, he is a tag champion, he'd only been in the company for a few weeks when they handed him the belts which shows WWE's commitment to him by naming him the inaugural NXT Tag Team champion. I think it might be a good long while before Neville shows up on Raw or SmackDown because I know you American fans aren't too hot on us English being top drawers on WWE, William Regal never got there, you all flipped out at the possibility of Wade Barrett potentially becoming WWE champion, but I think if you watch Neville he may be the one to swerve your opinion on us English. The only problem you might have with him is understanding his promos, being a Geordie most of you will probably think he's Irish or Scottish, but I'm just hoping that one day I get to hear "Wey Aye Man!" on Raw or Smackdown...please, one day.

As far as the NXT Divas go though, there is no one else you can discuss other than Paige. Some people will make arguments for Sasha Banks or Summer Rae or Charlotte Flair (yes, that's Naitch's daughter) but Paige is the main draw on NXT, possibly out of everyone! Not just the Divas, even the Superstars, she gets the loudest pops out of everyone, every time she appears. And giving the current state of the WWE Divas division (see my post on Diva Destruction) WWE need Paige and could really use her on the main show right about now, I really do hope they realise what they have in her, but as I said in my Divas post that's less likely. She really is that good, she has a really unique look and is definitely one of the best female wrestlers I've ever seen, she could give an in-form in-prime Trish Stratus a run for her money. With reports coming in over the past number of weeks that WWE are looking to bring back former Divas, we've already seen the return of The Bella Twins which is great (I love Team Rhodes Scholars and The Bellas make it just that little bit more interesting) and reports of potential returns from Maryse, Kharma, Beth Phoenix and Kelly Kelly could be around the corner just makes her main show debut look increasingly unlikely (follow Beautiful Wrestling Divas on Facebook for news updates on Divas, some great pics on there too). But personally I think the sooner the better for Paige's debut, WWE really need her and she's definitely NXT's very top drawer at the moment, WWE really need to realise that.

Don't forget to follow my twitter on @SLWrestling and also on Glipho on @amjobling,
Thanks for reading, see you next time,
Andrew.