Jun
04
2014
0

The Four-Sided Ring: Everyone Loves a Good Double-Cross

The unthinkable has happened. We’ve witnessed the breakup of one of the most dominating teams of all time, The Shield. Before we get to that, let’s talk about Sunday’s “Special Event” Payback. This event seemed to be the culmination of some major feuds that have been going on through Extreme Rules and Wrestlemania. While the show didn’t seem to lose any momentum through the loss of Daniel Bryan, Payback suffered from only really having 2 major storylines going in. We were given good matches with Cesaro vs Sheamus and Barrett vs RVD, but there wasn’t enough time spent building these midcard feuds. Add in the filler beatdown of Kofi Kingston by Kane before Kofi’s match with Bo Dallas could even begin and another Rusev squash match, there was only Wyatt/Cena and Evolution/Shield to look forward to, and they both delivered big time. Cena beating Wyatt might not have been the outcome most fans wanted, Wyatt still looked strong. We also remember that Bray has been on television less than a year, and he’s already had wins over The Shield, Daniel Bryan, and Cena just last month. Wyatt’s character transcends wins and losses at this point. The Shield gave Evolution a surprising clean sweep in the elimination match, but that wasn’t as great as all of the “Bluetista” memes. Oh, and Daniel Bryan is keeping the title and letting his wife, Brie, quit the company (I was hoping he would go the whole “divorce” route).

That leads us to Evolution coming out at the beginning of Raw. It’s getting close to time for Batista to start promoting Guardians of the Galaxy, so he’s leaving the company because he’s pissed at Triple H for not giving him his one on one shot at the WWE title. I almost feel bad for Batista. The guy was a victim of the circumstances of his return. Having his return spoiled, forcing the WWE to promote the return rather than surprise the fans hurt it, but having him in the spot all of the fans wanted Daniel Bryan to be turned the Batista in the fuel for fans’ rage. He was the representation of the WWE forcing their own guys down our throats over the hard workers that we the fans wanted to see. Since then, he’s tapped out to Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania and been pinned by The Shield at two different events. Batista has done more than enough at this point to disprove his critics.
Fresh out of his program with the Wyatts, John Cena came out to throw some verbal jabs at Stephanie McMahon. They’re still unsure if Bryan will be ready in time for Money in the Bank, so it seems like they’re planning for both scenarios. If Bryan isn’t back, they might be giving his spot in the feud with the Authority to Cena. They’ve also set up the Money in the Bank ladder match to be for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship instead of the Money in the Bank contract if Bryan is unable to compete, which leads to the question: would it be more exciting if Bryan took more time to heal, missed the next special event, and came back as the underdog trying to reclaim his title at Summerslam? I want closure to his storyline with Kane, but at the same time, I don’t care to see another Kane/Bryan match.

Now we come to the main event that never happened. E tu Seth Rollins? The Shield awaited in the ring for Orton and Triple H to come up the ramp when Rollins grabbed a steel chair and proceeded to beat the life out of Reigns and Ambrose. Orton joined in on the beat down, and Triple H came in to join the group. This was the perfect twist to continue giving this rivalry a fresh feel. The Shield had done as much as they could as a team. They beat almost everyone on the roster, and it culminated in a clean sweep of Evolution. The question is, where do we go from here? The Shield could continue to live on by picking a new member from the roster, or grabbing someone from NXT who would benefit from association. They could end up bringing in John Cena to team with them considering he and Stephanie seem to be starting a feud. This could just lead to the permanent split of all three of them. Rollins was the perfect member to turn on the team. Out of all three, he’s had the least amount of character building while with the group. Ambrose was the assumed leader at the beginning, and that position seems to now belong to Reigns, but Rollins never got his chance to shine other than with big spots in their matches. This will give us a chance to see his personality, and it will give him a lot of heat.

Last Thursday with NXT Takeover, the second NXT special event on the WWE Network. The show was loaded with good matches, but it was highlighted by Sami Zayn vs Tyler Breeze in a #1 Contender’s match and Tyson Kidd vs Adrian Neville for the NXT Championship. The talent down in NXT is incredible, and since they have so little time to get over on the mic, they go all out in the ring. We’re seeing moves in NXT that we’ve never seen on the main roster, and the fact that we could be seeing a majority of these guys on the main roster soon is exciting.

 

That’s all I’ve got for this time. Be sure to check back for more wrestling-goodness on WTN!