After a solid month of Daniel Bryan alternately getting the shit kicked out of him and then kicked right back into him, I found his triumph tonight to be a little more than surreal. I can understand the tide coming in on his story and allowing him to feel the cool refreshment of oceanic victory after weeks of waiting on the hot sand. Then again, I'm not sure that his standing tall at the end of the show tonight was the problem.
When Triple H announced that The Shield would have THE DAMN NUMBERS GAME put against them, something seemed afoot in the WWE's nouveau front office. Then, he forced selected wrestlers to go through double duty. Classic divide and conquer tactics. Rob van Dam, Kofi Kingston, and the Prime Time Players all risked their hides to help Bryan last week. Tonight, they were served up to various other opponents with bad intentions after the match. Bryan was nowhere to be seen. If ever an opportunity for resentment rose up, surely the circumstances put forward, especially after Triple H put the verbal cue in motion, would let those bad feelings ferment.
Yet none of the above really figured into the end of the show tonight. The Shield was left out to dry, none of the wrestlers who were battered and bruised by double duty, RVD especially, teased leaving Bryan hanging, and the most recent former WWE Champion was able to choreograph "YES!" chants at the end of the night in front of a crowd that was all too eager to partake in them. WWE certainly is dabbling in longer-term storytelling, and I'm in the strange new territory of giving them my good faith and asking them not to break it. Four years ago, that decision would be akin to handing a watermelon to Gallagher and expecting him to give it back to you in one piece.
Then again, strange is a word that fit tonight's RAW to a tee. CM Punk came out and cut the best promo for the NHL season I've heard, but at the same time letting his words speak for his own experience. Probably not a coincidence that his best babyface promo to date came in front of his hometown, but for a wrestler who has been so bitter and dour since WrestleMania XXVIII, I felt like I was watching a bizarro world Punk.
Granted, in the compressed calendar of WWE's autumn, where pay-per-views come with the rapid fire of rounds from a Tommy gun, the narrative between SummerSlam and Survivor Series might not follow traditional checkpoints. Perhaps a mighty sledgehammer is about to fall on Daniel Bryan's head, maybe even in the form of a meaty ham hock of a fist belonging to The Big Show. As if Miz's in character neck health hasn't suffered enough the eight days. Maybe the pacing feels a bit off because they are spreading out a larger story, one that is intentionally out of time with the pay-per-view checkpoints that usually signify save spots on the WWE's rolling, video game narrative.
But even if the future will hold more plot point addressing, shows like tonight, while still satisfying on some level, will always feel a bit eerie. When a company that beats its fans over the head with straightforward storytelling experiments with nuance, then yeah, maybe the experience is meant to be a bit jarring.
When Triple H announced that The Shield would have THE DAMN NUMBERS GAME put against them, something seemed afoot in the WWE's nouveau front office. Then, he forced selected wrestlers to go through double duty. Classic divide and conquer tactics. Rob van Dam, Kofi Kingston, and the Prime Time Players all risked their hides to help Bryan last week. Tonight, they were served up to various other opponents with bad intentions after the match. Bryan was nowhere to be seen. If ever an opportunity for resentment rose up, surely the circumstances put forward, especially after Triple H put the verbal cue in motion, would let those bad feelings ferment.
Yet none of the above really figured into the end of the show tonight. The Shield was left out to dry, none of the wrestlers who were battered and bruised by double duty, RVD especially, teased leaving Bryan hanging, and the most recent former WWE Champion was able to choreograph "YES!" chants at the end of the night in front of a crowd that was all too eager to partake in them. WWE certainly is dabbling in longer-term storytelling, and I'm in the strange new territory of giving them my good faith and asking them not to break it. Four years ago, that decision would be akin to handing a watermelon to Gallagher and expecting him to give it back to you in one piece.
Then again, strange is a word that fit tonight's RAW to a tee. CM Punk came out and cut the best promo for the NHL season I've heard, but at the same time letting his words speak for his own experience. Probably not a coincidence that his best babyface promo to date came in front of his hometown, but for a wrestler who has been so bitter and dour since WrestleMania XXVIII, I felt like I was watching a bizarro world Punk.
Granted, in the compressed calendar of WWE's autumn, where pay-per-views come with the rapid fire of rounds from a Tommy gun, the narrative between SummerSlam and Survivor Series might not follow traditional checkpoints. Perhaps a mighty sledgehammer is about to fall on Daniel Bryan's head, maybe even in the form of a meaty ham hock of a fist belonging to The Big Show. As if Miz's in character neck health hasn't suffered enough the eight days. Maybe the pacing feels a bit off because they are spreading out a larger story, one that is intentionally out of time with the pay-per-view checkpoints that usually signify save spots on the WWE's rolling, video game narrative.
But even if the future will hold more plot point addressing, shows like tonight, while still satisfying on some level, will always feel a bit eerie. When a company that beats its fans over the head with straightforward storytelling experiments with nuance, then yeah, maybe the experience is meant to be a bit jarring.
