Hello everyone. I’m back this week after taking a short hiatus last week. Sometimes, you just need to take a break and re-charge your batteries. Plus, it doesn’t help when there is nothing really new to write about when it comes to the WWE. And you know what? There still is nothing. The WWE seems to be just treading water right now and stuck in neutral. There’s nothing new to write about. Until the WWE is willing to take chances and change their booking philosophies, then we are stuck with the current product. These 3 hour RAWs have been hard to get through recently.
So I’m going to look ahead in my crystal ball. My crystal ball that probably isn’t right, but it would be if I had any say. I’m looking ahead to the rest of 2013. Here, I will take a look at five feuds that I would like to see happen in the WWE this calendar year. The problem with three hour RAWs, however, is that we see a lot of wrestling on the show that lessens the impact of a feud down the line. Or, we see Kofi Kingston vs Dolph Ziggler for the 523897289 time. While the wrestling is good, it also over exposes the product and makes us see matches that could be built up to a PPV match if there wasn’t so much time to fill.
But enough complaining about 3 hour RAWs, let’s get into My 5 Feuds I Want To See This Year!
1. World Champion Dolph Ziggler vs Daniel Bryan
In my early Wrestlemania 30 Predictions column, I wanted to see Daniel Bryan take on Randy Orton for the World Title at Wrestlemania. That can still happen if this feud takes place. Bryan doesn’t have to win the Title here. He could have a 1 or 2 PPV Match feud with Bryan and move on. It would also help get Ziggler over more. Once again, another problem with the WWE today is that the heels are booked so poorly that they lack credibility. Look at Dolph Ziggler for example. He’s barely been World Champ for a month and he already has lost to Jack Swagger in a singles match and tapped out to Alberto del Rio in another match. The heels aren’t the ones who are supposed to look vulnerable in wrestling. But the WWE likes to live in opposite land when it comes to that.
As far as Daniel Bryan goes, the guy has been ready for a big singles push forever now. But he has been stuck in Team Hell No forever now. Bryan can definitely hold his own in the ring and he has evolved so much as a character over the last year. He has a personality now and has improved on the mic. This could be a good feud to have going in the early fall. Imagine if these two were given 20 minutes on PPV to just go at it? At minimum, you would be looking at a ***1/2 star match. If Ziggler is going to be established as the next main event star in the WWE, he needs to hold the World Title for a long time. A quick loss by Ziggler does nothing but shoot him back down the card.
2. WWE Champion John Cena vs Antonio Cesaro
You think I’m joking with this, don’t you? Well I’m not. Despite the constant terrible booking of Cesaro in the last month, he still appears to be high on the WWE’s radar. He had a great match with Kofi Kingston on Main Event last week, and he received a lot of praise for it. He is kind of getting the Dolph Ziggler treatment right now. He’s taking a lot of losses, presumably before being built up as a main eventer down the line. If you ask me right now who my favorite would be to win the RAW Money in the Bank Match, Cesaro would be my guy. He’s very polished in the ring and has the look Vince McMahon likes. John Cena is only as good as the guy across the ring is from him. And Cesaro is one hell of an opponent to have.
But who’s to say that this feud couldn’t happen pre-Money in the Bank. Lets say that the WWE decides to go in a different direction with Cena after he is done with Ryback. Who does John Cena feud with next? CM Punk isn’t walking through the door anytime soon. Dolph Ziggler is World Champ. We aren’t getting Randy Orton/Cena again. There’s always the possibility of Mark Henry, but I can’t picture Cena going from one giant monster to another. The Shield could get a main event push, but June/July would be too soon. If Fandango was still hot you could make an argument for him. Cesaro is one of the few options they have left that hasn’t been done before. The WWE needs to build Cesaro up if they wanted to do this in early summer. One way or another, I would like to see this happen.
3. Randy Orton vs Fandango
If the WWE wants the Fandango character to stick, they are going to need him to feud with some of the top stars in the company going forward. His program with Chris Jericho is okay right now, but it is more on the goofy than serious side. With Chris Jericho more than likely leaving again after this program with Fandango, you would expect Fandango to come out on top. Fandango isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Is it corny? A little bit. But as we said on the Creatively Endeavored Podcast, you need characters like this in wrestling. If you don’t understand that than you take wrestling way too seriously. Fandango is a good worker in the ring and he can make it work.
Randy Orton would be the complete opposite feud for Fandango. While Chris Jericho is the goofy program, Orton would be the serious, no-nonsense program for Fandango. We have been clamoring for a Randy Orton heel turn almost as much as a John Cena heel turn. Losing a couple matches to Fandango might finally get Orton to snap and turn on somebody. Yeah Orton is over, but he works so much better as a heel. And there are some fresh match-ups out there for a heel Randy Orton. This could be a good program in the summer that catapults Fandango farther up the crowd, and gives Randy Orton more motivation for a potential heel turn.
4. CM Punk vs Brock Lesnar
I’m pretty sure we can all agree that we’ve seen enough of Brock Lesnar vs Triple H. I’m disappointed that they are even wasting a third Brock Lesnar appearance on it. You can’t raise the stakes anymore than you did at Wrestlemania. It is the WWE’s own fault for getting in the whole they are in. But after Extreme Rules, Brock Lesnar is going to need a new opponent. There are a handful of options that could work. I still maintain that Lesnar’s first feud in the WWE should have been with Randy Orton, not John Cena. I wrote about scenarios where Cena/Lesnar was saved until this year’s Wrestlemania. Now Orton isn’t a likely choice due to his eventual heel turn. If the WWE wanted to get serious with Sheamus again, him vs Lesnar could work. Ryback is more than likely out of the picture with his heel turn. And an Undertaker/Brock Lesnar match would take place at Wrestlemania.
So who does that leave us with? My answer is CM Punk. Punk will need a big return when he comes back. And looking at the current roster, there isn’t too much to make a big return against. CM Punk’s departure set up a return that could be either a heel or a face one. It was pretty open ended. If it were me, I would do a redemption story for Punk, building up to a Royal Rumble win and WWE Title Match at Wrestlemania 30. But before that, Punk gets a return feud against a fellow Paul Heyman guy. There are a couple of ways you could do the split. Heyman could talk about moving on from Punk, then have Lesnar take Punk out. It could happen at the Payback PPV in June, in Punk’s hometown of Chicago. Then you have the summer to build up to Punk’s return match at SummerSlam against Lesnar. Punk/Lesnar is the next big money match to do with Lesnar.
5. The Shield vs Triple H, The Undertaker & Kane
Everything about The Shield has been great so far. They are what we wanted the Nexus to be. A young rebel group who runs rampant over the WWE. And they have yet to be beaten so far. It now appears that they will be going after some titles in the WWE, with the Tag Titles and possibly the United States Title the first ones on their list. But the problem with The Shield is that they have already taken out a handful of three men groups in the WWE, and pretty much all of the top stars have been involved in them. So eventually, after they have a run with the Titles, The Shield will need a new group of super faces to take on.
That is where Triple H, The Undertaker and Kane come in. Everything is already being set up for it. The Shield took out The Undertaker a few weeks ago on Smackdown. They were ready to take out Triple H. And with their on-going program with Team Hell No, a beatdown of Kane is always possible. Kane isn’t getting any younger and he could always use a month or two off from the road. Triple H and Undertaker would be fresh opponents for The Shield and win over them would be great for The Shield. It would give them the one more big win necessary to catapult up into possible WWE/World Title discussions. At least I would hope that The Shield would go over these guys. What good would Triple H and The Undertaker going over The Shield do? Nothing if you ask me.
And you know what, this looks like a strong SummerSlam card too. Throw in maybe Sheamus/Ryback, Jericho/Barrett and a couple other matches and you have a good looking SummerSlam card.
Agree or Disagree? Let me know!
Until Next Time,
Justin C
Follow Me On Twitter @JCWonka
