WWE Championship Fallout

Like many people, I sat at my home watching the WWE’s Summer Slam on the WWE Network. For the most part I was quite happy with the show; in fact, if you look at the blog I posted just moments before the event you’ll notice that I predicted all but two of the main matches and the pre-show match correctly. However, I was wrong on the Main Event match for the WWE World Heavyweight Title. That night Brock Lesnar won the World Title. So what does this mean for the state of the World Title hunt now for the WWE?

I have a feeling that the WWE Title Hunt is about to go stagnant. I can see in some ways why they went with Brock…they are trying to make the Title an Attraction again. I have no problems with this, in fact I want the title to start meaning something again. I want to go back to the days of Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund where in 10 years you maybe have 4 or 5 champions at the most. It drives me crazy when they crow about how in 12 or 13 years John Cena is a 15 time champion. My first thought to this is that Cena has lost 16 times. Bruno was a champion 3 times but held it for 10 years during those 3 times and to me that is MUCH more impressive. I honestly think that when Vince McMahon Jr took over the company he ended up with a no superstar left behind policy as almost everyone is a one time champion of something now a days.

So it may seem strange from what I have said so far with being ok to travel back to the days of Sammartino in how long someone will hold a title and yet the title run will be getting stagnant. So let me just clarify some things. Before Summer Slam you had three very distinct and possible endings to the title match.

1) Brock Lesnar Wins, we don’t see much of him except to promo and then do matches during PPV type events thus starting to make the title more of an attraction again because we’ll only see it at huge events.

2) John Cena somehow pulls off the win and cements in place the fact that he deserves the title and that he is the baddest of the bad right now and you see a true fighting champion until they decide to give it to the next up and coming star.

3) Cena somehow pulls out a win but is so beaten and exhausted that Seth Rollins comes out and cashes in his Money in the Bank contract and has no problems defeating Cena. This opens up several Story lines within the Authority and for Cena.

So lets ask you… What do YOU think is the best for business? Personally I think it would have been number 3 followed by scenario number 2, and heres why:

In Scenario #3 Seth Rollins comes out and defeats an already pummeled John Cena. While John Cena is tough there is no doubt in my mind he would be laying down for a 3 count after already being mashed and trashed by Brock Lesnar. This puts Mr. Plan B as the new champion. However, didn’t both Randy Orton and Kane say they wanted the championship? So Kane tries his usual blatant approach to get the Title from Rollins while Orton tries every backhanded, underhanded and sneaky trick in the book to try and get the Title.  This leaves poor Triple H having to deal with a breakdown in the Authority. This could finally give people like Cena and Reigns and Ambrose time to rally the troops and start to take the WWE back for the Face characters instead of week after week having the Heels always seeming to be one step ahead. I know the Heroes are always winning in the end but to tell the truth they need a break from the constant barrage of just crap that keeps getting thrown at them. Let’s get the faces in charge for a bit where they can turn the tides of the battle and bring us hope that there can be something other than trial after trial after trial for these heroes to overcome. Heck even Superman gets a break sometimes where he can just relax a bit but god forbid Cena ever have a chance to catch his breath! This could all lead up to either Cena regaining and holding onto it until Roman Reigns takes it from him at Wrestlemania XXXI or it could show the Title staying in the hands of the splintered Authority until Wrestlemania XXXI where Roman Reigns could put the final nail in the Authorities casket by taking out whichever member might have it at that point.

Scenario #2 could have been similar but with a strong Authority trying to wrest the belt from Cena until Roman Regins steps up and seizes it but instead they go with Scenario #1. The big problem is how much of a knee jerk reaction they used to go with this Story Line. Not only was John Cena beaten but he got his ass whupped for lack of a better term. John Cena took 16 suplexes during the match, 16! So not only has Brock Lesnar defeated the Undertaker and stopped his Legendary Wrestlemania Streak he has now gone and undeniably made John Cena into a tiny puddle of goo before finally pinning him. I get this I really do…the WWE want to show how tough Cena is, how even though he was taking so much punishment he “Never Gave Up” and how he kept coming back for more. But Folks he was squashed! A 15 time champion was made to look like a dog’s chew toy! He was a rag doll in Brock Lesnar’s hands! In my eyes, this severely limits the possible Story Lines going forward. After seeing what Lesnar did to Undertaker and now Cena who on the Roster could possibly defeat Lesnar.  The answer is no one, not after seeing that match.

Sure on the next Raw and ever since Cena has been kicking ass and taking names but none of them are nearly in the class of Lesnar. Now Seth Rollins won’t be cashing in on his Money in the Bank contract or if he does he will be the third one to not get it because honestly Lesnar would squash Rollins so now we have a MitB Contract that is basically worthless, sorry Seth. Cena has a rematch for Night of Champions but I doubt we’ll see him win unless they have some sort of No DQ match where Cena can get in some good hits with say a bulldozer. Everyone keeps saying that Roman Reigns will be the next to take the title most likely at Wrestlemania XXXI but lets be honest if it’s Lesnar still the champion at Wrestlemania next year do you think Roman Reigns will have grown enough to defeat him? Cena or Kane or Rollins I would say yes, Lesnar though with how strong and overbearing they have shown him to be, well I highly doubt he would be ready by then.

The WWE has many changes they need to make. Right now they are losing money and their stock is going down. If you can believe the reports from all the various sports news sites the WWE is trying to cut 20 Million from their budget and making strategic cuts to try and make a better product. I think in some ways doing this can be good for the company as their titles are no longer seeming special by any stretch of the imagination. The US, Intercontinental and even the Tag titles all seem to be passed from one person to another on a whim on just about any show they wanted but it used to be that title matches were only during PPV matches. Yet it seems that the Tag Team and US titles are up for grabs just about every week and the Intercontinental at least every 3 weeks or so. So I like that they are trying to make the title an attraction again. but are they going about this the right way?

Just recently the WWE took the title from Daniel Bryan because he was injured. The reason they claimed to do this wasn’t because he was injured but because he would not be able to be around to defend the title whenever they wanted him to. Now they want us to believe that they have no problems with a champion who shows up maybe once a month if that. This is the same type of thing that took the title from Bryans because now you have a champion who isn’t a fighting champion he’s a part time wrestler if even that.

Vince McMahon once said, “We, in the WWF, think that you, the audience, are quite frankly, tired of having your ‘intelligence insulted’. We also think that you’re tired of the same old simplistic theory of ‘Good Guys VS Bad Guys’.”

With these new story lines, I am thinking that they are indeed still insulting our intelligence. They are trying too much to instill the real world into the wrestling business and while the injection of such worked in the attitude era I think perhaps they are going too far now.

So whats next for the WWE World Heavyweight Title? I hope that whatever it is it opens up some new storyline possibilities and I hope that the passing along of it doesn’t insult our intelligences too much. What do you think of the state of the title race?

 

Pictures Courtesy of:

Bruno Sammartino- http://www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com/

Seth Rollins- http://prowrestling.wikia.com/

Lesnar Suplexes Cena- http://www.theepochtimes.com