So on Sunday, John Cena won his match. Cena is champion. Still. And at that moment, I was, as I’m sure many of you were, quite displeased by that result. Not only has we gotten Cena’s “underdog” antics overcoming triumph for the quadzillionth time, but it came at the cost of what should have been a very much earned victory for Mark Henry. We got that retirement speech swerve, the buildup to this match, the unexpected, but nonetheless very welcome injection to the man’s career, so upset seemed like a reasonable reaction. But then, time passed and anger subsided. And while this isn’t an article claiming that Cena should have won on Sunday (Still no on that one) we can say that maybe this isn’t as terrible of a decision that it seemed.
First of all, it greatly softens the blow of another John Cena victory to have it be announced that Daniel Bryan would be the challenger at SummerSlam. A face vs. face match of Cena and Bryan at SummerSlam ha clearly been in considereation for some time now. Some dirt sheets were saying that this would happen long before it could ever be considered rational to think WWE would ever consider this. So though Mark Henry didn’t get his well earned moment to be champion, and at this point may very likely never get it, the fact that at lest part of the reason is to highlight a newer and upcoming star like Bryan is not a bad thing.
Now a lot of the argument that follows is going on the assumption that Bryan will be winning next month. Probably not a clean win, because after all this is still the WWE and John Cena that we’re talking about, but a win nonetheless. If this is not the case however, and we are rewarded with another LOLCENAWINS ending to SummerSlam, feel free to disregard the following thoughts.
Daniel Bryan is very much the Main Event star that many of us have wanted and clamored for since his debut in the company. And just recently, Bryan has become the main event star that the WWE wants to have over the next several years. Bryan is unquestionably over with the crowds, he can seemingly move merchandise, and still has a more or less clean cut image if the company is still hesitant to leave a PG feel and lose all of that kid money.
Now a title run should be a big deal on it’s own, but lets not kid ourselves. A Victory at SummerSlam is a bigger deal than a victory at Money in the Bank. Plus, SummerSlam was the event that Daniel Bryan where Bryan first came back to fight his former group Nexus. Plus a victory over John Cena, especially a face John Cena, will be a much bigger deal than a victory over a heel Mark Henry. Not only that, but it would show that the company has faith in the guy as a champion, not just as a placeholder for the title.
Lets be clear here. Mark Henry has done some of the best work of his career these past few years with the Hall of Pain run. And the buildup this past month, especially the retirement speech was unquestionably top-notch work for the guy. And for all that to end in Mark Henry standing victorious over a broken Cena would have been the cherry on top of this storyline, but at the end of the day, Henry’s story here was just a filler one till we got to Bryan and Cena for SummerSlam. And that’s a good thing. As easy as it is to complain about WWE refusing to look to the future, it is important to remember at this time that we are theoretically about a month away from Daniel “fired in 2009 for the tie thing” Bryan from being a WWE Champion.
