THE RAGER! Ignoring the John Cena Tower (Daniel Bryan, Bray Wyatt, CM Punk)

Columns, Top Story

Who would’ve thought we snarky wrestling fans would be enjoying the WWE product this much while John Cena was WWE champion. Does that mean some fans will still find something to complain about? Of course! Complaining is the life blood of us wrestling fans. If we stop complaining all-together, we risk restarted another full-on PG era and we barely made it out of the last one alive (unless you believe we’re still in the PG era then our collective deaths may be imminent).
The easiest explanation to this level of contentment would be how much the WWE title took a back seat to everything John Cena related for the better part of last year and now that he has the title, it’s almost like a demotion. That of course, is a dumb argument but I am a fair Rage King (I demand my likeness to be painted posthaste) and I consider all arguments, no matter how stupid (looking at you, Sheamus supporters). The better explanation would be how much better the rest of the wrestlers and storylines are that we are more forgiving of what we hate.
It’s like Cena is a giant tower while Vince McMahon and John Laurenaitis tended to the area around the tower to make sure Cena always looked like a grandiose skyscraper. It was a complete eyesore for anyone old enough to have taste. Now Vince stopped tending to the surrounding area as much while HHH and Stephanie took up the responsibility. Now surrounding areas are giving more opportunities to grow and be shaped and start to grow almost as tall as the Cena building. Over time, with all the taller shrubbery, we notice less and less that Cena just looks like a giant dick (that’s right, it was a phallic metaphor this entire time, thanks for playing along).

What’s so great about WWE right now?
Well there’s CM Punk and Paul Heyman sparring with words for the past couple weeks. Yeah yeah, we’re interested in his match against Lesnar at Summer Slam but I can’t believe anything could possibly live up to these promos between Heyman and Punk. So my gentle raging mind is simply happy with these segments and if we get a great match on top of it, I’ll feel spoiled.

Bray Wyatt is doing something interesting. I don’t know exactly what it is but it feels different and I’m always a fan of different. Hence why I was so welcoming for the repackaged Brodus Clay and the debut of Fandango because both were unlike anything else going on. Of course, Brodus ended up being a complete bust and Fandango seems to be perpetually on my fence. Will the Wyatt Family simply end up as a backwoods version of Shield? Maybe but I have high hopes in Bray in particular so if the other two don’t pan out, he will do just fine on his own.

A lot things have been scrambled in the past couple months or so. Sure, it can be a little confusing but we’re seeing more face vs face or vice versa matches which means we’re getting a different variety of matches.
Del Rio turned heel. Yes he wasn’t a face for very long at all but his ring work seems to be better as of late so maybe this is where he’s comfortable. Of course, it’s easier for him to maintain a heel persona when Ricardo is not there.
Cody Rhodes turned face. It’s still new but it’s something different for a guy that hasn’t been a face since his run with Bob Holly. He was given a great vehicle with the MitB match ending and hopefully Damien can help Rhodes over to put Rhodes’ career back to where it should’ve been a year ago.
Dolph Ziggler turned face. Easily the most successful turn out of this batch and we’re not exactly surprised. It’s Ziggler.
Mark Henry turned? Or didn’t? Who knows because this is the most recent after he seems to be going against Shield and enlisted the help of the Usos (also apparently teamed WITH Cena against the Shield in the dark match after the show).
And who knows what Randy Orton is doing these days.

RVD is back and I find myself to really be enjoying that. I was never a huge RVD fan, at least not as avid as most of the wrestling community but I always appreciated him. I wasn’t exactly stoked about his return to WWE after watching so much of his TNA work on Botchamania and hearing just how terrible things had gotten for him there. But now after a few weeks, it’s incredibly apparent how grateful he is to be appreciated and, in turn, is overwhelmingly willing to work matches that most 42 year olds probably should be doing on a weekly basis. It looks like he’s having a great time and that makes it a lot more enjoyable to watch (take notes, Orton).

The biggest great thing about WWE right now is, of course, this rejuvenated appreciation the company now has for Daniel Bryan. This ultimate underdog/constantly having to prove himself storyline has been incredibly fun to watch and it has a lot of people excited that Bryan might actually beat Cena at Summer Slam (sadly, I wouldn’t hold my breath). Of course, we don’t need Daniel Bryan to prove anything to us and the logic seems to be faulty considering he was the number 1 contender for 3 months last summer (but of course, he wasn’t going against the giant Cena tower then). Now we just need for WWE to elevate Cesaro so we can see more of him vs DB and things just might be perfect.

What is something that we CAN complain about? Total Divas.
Need I say more? I hate that I’ll end up watching it (might even include a weekly review right here in THE RAGER because we must share this pain). But I suppose it can’t be as bad as watching TNA…and the roster is about the same size as the cast (I will run that joke into the ground).

Be on the lookout for this week’s Classy Ring Attire podcast (follow us on twitter @CRAttire). We recorded it last night and we’ve never laughed this hard during a podcast. Also, I broke a major CRA recording rule so you’ll want to tune in for that. Until then, catch last week’s podcast here.

Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris

The Answer:
Not only did I email myself, I also responded. #PoliteInsanity

Chris is a writer from Fayetteville, NC. He's the co-creator of Irrelevant But Awesome Productions which produces podcasts you all know and love like Classy Ring Attire, Trashy Ring Attire and The Disney Magic Podcast. You can keep up with everything on twitter by following @IBAStudios and @CWSanders39