If WWE Had Any Balls, They'd Be Building to Bryan/Henry at WrestleMania

They need to follow through on Bryan's WM title match
Photo Credit: WWE.com

We all know that WWE Creative has the collective testicular fortitude of their average in-kayfabe heel. When it comes to having a long term feud that has nuance and puts a new star over, it's really a losing proposition. The Miz was built up really through a series of wins and segments that were more stand-alones. They get credit for creating him as a guy with main event name cache, but if you want to go back to a long term story that really built someone up, you have to go back to about six years ago, when Batista's slow burn exit from Evolution developed and culminated in him vanquishing his old boss Triple H.

Right now though, they have the chance to really tell a great story through to WrestleMania this year, one that puts over two guys who deserve time in the sun. If WWE had any balls, they would totally give Mark Henry the World Heavyweight Championship, let him continue to split wigs on Smackdown unabated until WrestleMania, when the last possible contender on the Smackdown side finally fells the World's Strongest Man.

Daniel Bryan.

It would be a glorious story. Henry splits Randy Orton's wig this Sunday at Night of Champions, and again wards the Viper off at Hell in a Cell. As Orton's claims to the title grow even more tenuous, he branches off to feud with a former protégé in Cody Rhodes. Meanwhile, Henry takes out Sheamus at Vengeance and again at TLC. In the interim at Survivor Series, he fends off a challenge in a three-way match from the Brothers from Other Mothers of Destruction, Big Show and Kane. At the Royal Rumble, he makes an example of the real Sin Cara. At Elimination Chamber, he holds off Orton, Kane, Big Show, Rhodes and Wade Barrett.

Meanwhile, Bryan, embroiled in other struggles, helps bring back the real Sin Cara in the face of the obvious impostor. He goes on wrestling in classic matches on both Smackdown and PPV, showing that he not only has put his losing streak behind him, but has become a dominant submissions specialist. Fake Sin Cara, Christian, Barrett, The Miz, R-Truth, Jack Swagger and even in a rare face vs. face matchup, Ezekiel Jackson are proven to be no match for Bryan's prowess at making people tap or snapping their bones and ligaments.

That brings us to the end of Elimination Chamber. Henry gets on the mic and claims he's beaten everyone in WWE, hell, not just beaten them, but DOMINATED them. Out from the back, Bryan comes out with his briefcase and reminds Henry that no, he hasn't beaten everyone, and that at WrestleMania, he's going to show Henry that pure power and domination aren't the only ways to beat a man. Of course, Henry answers this by flattening Bryan.

In the build, it would feature a lot of Henry destroying Bryan, but each show before the big event would have Bryan getting more and more of an advantage on Henry. He would get the big guy wrangled in his LeBell Lock and guillotine choke only to have Henry power out of them and destroy him. But the fact would be that Bryan would get Henry off his feet and in compromising positions. Henry still would look like a juggernaut going into the match, but there's a seed of doubt as to whether he'll destroy Bryan at WM.

That leads into the match itself. Like in the build, Henry would power out of the LeBell Lock and the guillotine choke. Frustrated, Bryan breaks out the one move he knows Henry can't power out of.

Cattle Mutilation.

The move catches everyone in the arena off guard because of how unique it is to most of the crowd. That being said, WM is a smarter crowd, so it'll get a bigger reaction than it would at, say, a house show in Dubuque. Henry would have no choice but to submit. Bryan is a conquering hero, showing that through wrestling and smarts, you can take down the World's Strongest and Angriest Man.

That of course presupposes a few things. One, it supposes that WWE has the patience to allow Bryan to go all the way to WrestleMania as the holder of the briefcase. Plans have changed before, and apparently they still fly by the seat of their collective pants, no matter how many times people swear they're going to do more long term booking. Two, it assumes that Mark Henry is winning the title at Night of Champions. There's a good chance that Orton just jizzes all over him like he jizzes all over everyone in his path. Three, it assumes that if Henry wins, he'll keep the title until WrestleMania. They did let Miz have that massive reign last year, but that was the exception to the normal rule. Four, there is no four, only Zuul. Five, and probably most importantly, it would assume that WWE would deviate from the "all faces, all the time" plan and their steadfast refusal to have anything booked for WrestleMania from now. The big Rock/Cena match is another exception, but at the same time, there was rumbling they were trying to submarine that match even.

It also assumes WWE has balls, and the only thing they've done in the past that presumes that is letting CM Punk have a live microphone. Sorry, but a sample size of one out of a billion other examples to the contrary isn't enough for me to believe WWE has the kind of moxie to go through with this. But it's nice to dream, right?