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| I'm okay with this, and I'm okay if you're not okay with it Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Sometimes, that passion leads me to ornate criticisms, deserved criticisms, essays about how WWE isn't the friendliest company for women or minorities to be on-screen characters. I'm bothered severely that either the writers decided to give Daniel Bryan the cue to flirt with homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny right now, or more disappointingly, that Bryan himself has taken that mantel up. Other times, my fanaticism for companies that provide me with my hours of entertainment, whether they be Chikara, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, or yes, even WWE, might cause me to look blinded and not "critical enough," mostly within the story.
I understand that WWE isn't so great at middles and endings of stories. They're phenomenal at beginnings. CM Punk's pipe bomb, the Nexus decimating everyone and their mother, Sheamus' "OI'LL FOIGHT 'IM," Brock Lesnar coming back to mutilate John Cena... of those examples were hot starts to angles that petered out, at least personally. I know some folks stand by the whole Nexus story, for example (Gregg G., lookin' at you), and that fact is fine. In fact, personal preference is where I am going to couch this entire post, because there are a whole bunch of folks who don't like how the Daniel Bryan/Triple H/Randy Orton story has begun so far.
Those people are entitled to their opinions. WWE again has a lousy track record with following through on stories, and an even worse track record on stories involving Triple H as a focal point. Track record means everything until a company or wrestler proves otherwise. So, Bryan gets laid out for five straight main-offering shows, and the sky is falling, and that's a valid viewpoint for people to have.
But I don't see it that way. I have made my approval of this story clear as day since the moment Triple H Pedigreed Bryan at SummerSlam. The angle centers around Triple H as a pivot point, and Bryan gets his ass kicked at every turn. But I am all in. So many pieces to this story appeal to me. Bryan is laid out at the end of the show as a rule, sure, but his spirit isn't broken. He is still defiant in the face of staggering authority with no allies at this point. He is still carrying on guerrilla warfare through vandalism. He is still charging to the ring with a steel chair to clear away numbers game four to one in his disfavor.
The other players are in top form as well. Triple H isn't trying to be the coolest guy in the room, and now his character seems to be working (although I feel as if the Sword of Damocles hangs over my head for him to revert). Orton, from the Gollum-esque way he's holding the Championship to his dedication to bumping and making his opponents look good is working as the cowardly heel Champion. Passive-aggressive Stephanie McMahon is the best Stephanie McMahon. The Shield as the McMahons' corporate paramilitary Blackwater might be the most brilliant thing they've ever done. Cody Rhodes might be ready to charge right through the door behind Bryan as a top face. WWE is even painting with so many different shades of gray with The Big Show, playing with both in character stuff as well as playing with the perception to fans that Show might turn because that's what he does that I can't help but appreciate it.
But I know I could very well be setting myself up for the fall. Just like last night on Twitter, when I was musing aloud that AJ Lee should decimate all of the women she's currently railing against, just for WWE to build Nattie Neidhart back up, and Danielle chided me by saying "Build her back up into what?" She has a point. WWE can't be expected to build up the women until they actually start to build up the women. They have not shifted the paradigm regarding the women; fuck, they haven't even begun to make overtures that yes, they are going to treat women as more than accessories. Lee's pipe bomb was just the Divas of Destruction recycled, and we all know what happened to Beth Phoenix and Neidhart.
However, maybe I'm talking myself into thinking the main event story will be different, but just by having the Corporation be so dominant early speaks to WWE trying something different. IN the five years I've been watching WWE since I came back to wrestling, the story has been the same. Heel threat will pop up, and in short order, John Cena or Sheamus or CM Punk rises up to crack that threat in the skull with a baseball bat. Now that the shoe is on the other foot and the bad guys are allowed to accrue heat, the atmosphere has already changed. Is that enough?
If that change in paradigm isn't sufficient for you, then you can be beholden that opinion without reproach. Right now, the narrative is sufficient for me. Maybe the reason is because I am a fan first, and as a fan, I want to look forward to something that I am enjoying at the present moment. If you can't enjoy something at a visceral level, then why would you waste your time with it? I got to that point with TNA a few months ago, so I stopped watching the DVRs and handed coverage off to someone who does like it in Shane. And no matter how awful I find TNA, I respect that he still is fan enough to watch every week and find enjoyment in it.
If we're rolling into Survivor Series and hope doesn't exist for Bryan, then yeah, maybe the time would have arrived for me to watch WWE only for the wrestling and character performances and not for the story. Maybe the time would have arrived for me to jump back into the indies deeper than I ever had before. If I'm wrong, and WWE doesn't deliver on this story, what's the loss? Minimal as far as I'm concerned. I love wrestling. I'm willing to be disappointed to get what I want out of it.
And when the day comes where I am not ready to do just that? Well, you won't be reading this page, because it will have gone into archival mode.
