It’s that time of year again. The time where the Internet is full of Top Ten lists, Best of/Worst of recaps of the previous year and a whole slew of similar such things. However it is a time of year that I truly enjoy so rather than shun the year in review, lets instead lean into it and see what the year 2013 had for us.
Every year at the beginning of the year, I offer up a wish list of what I would want to see out of the WWE in the upcoming year. Nothing to specific or outlandish like “Get Wrestler X to come back and give him the title,” but things that are vague enough that I would like to see happen at some point in the next 365 days. And that Wish List will come next week, but first let’s look at the Wish List from 2013 and see how good WWE did.
When CM Punk Loses: Going into 2013 we all knew that CM Punk was not going to have his title for a second entire year. At some point in 2013 Punk would be losing that title and all I wished for was that he lose it in a fantastic match to a worth opponent in order to bring a fitting end to the most important title run in the last quarter of a century. Safe to say, that did not happen, and I think I can feel confident in saying that no moment in the WWE has fumbled as bad as this one. No I dedicated whole columns at the time to the way that the royal rumble went down last January and you can find more than a few episodes of the Classy Ring Attire podcast that will feature rants on the subject so there’s not too much to add at this point. But still, almost a year later, Punk losing to The Rock, to a People’s Elbow of all things, in order to force the title into a feud that nobody wanted to see again may have been the worst creative decision this year. (Your mileage may vary on that one but I’ll stand by it)
Have a Summer Event: What I really wanted here was one of those big shocking things that bring us into the summer months to make me excited each week. Something like the initial Nexus invasion or Punk’s pipe bomb. We really didn’t get that this year, but what we did get was the whole ending of SummerSlam with Daniel Bryan winning and a simultaneous heel turn of both Orton and Triple H. And because the manner in which the feuds were build leading into SummerSlam was so well handled, I didn’t really miss the fact that the major summer event didn’t happen till it was basically fall. So even though they didn’t fulfill the wish, I’m happy to give WWE a pass on this one.
Do Something With Cena: This was basically a plea of not getting 52 more weeks of Super Cena in 2013. And we didn’t, although that credit really goes to Cena’s elbow instead of creative. No Cena was champion from Mania until he was forced to take some time off due to injury so I’d think it safe to say that the Super Cena character is alive and well, and seeing that he jumped right back into the title scene the second he got back, I fear that he won’t be adjusting that character any time soon.
Don’t Squander the Shield: I don’t think at the beginning of 2013 that The Shield would make it to the end. Factions just don’t seem to last that long, and I was sure that The Shield would be split up at this point, and if we were lucky one of them might still be on weekly television. But no, we still have The Shield (for now at least) and they’re still feuding with major stars. In fact CM Punk went so far as to say that 2013 was the year of The Shield, and while I get that was for storyline purposes, the fact remains that The Shield is still a major part of the WWE landscape heading into 2014.
Fix the Brock Lesnar Thing: At the start of 2013, my excitement about Lesnar’s return was nowhere near where it was after his first appearance. A subpar match with Triple H and rumors of an unnecessary rematch at Mania were enough to kill any enthusiasm for his return. All that changed with a single match. Apparently when you have a guy who’s just not as appealing as he needs to be, the surefire way to fix that is put him in a match with CM Punk. Going from I don’t care, to match of the year contender, It may have taken till August, but I think the WWE did exactly what the needed to do to make Brock Lesnar’s return exciting again.
No Cena vs. Rock: They promised…Once in a Lifetime. We got Twice in a Lifetime. And you know what? If this second feud had been different in any way, different promos, different motivations, The Rock actually showing up on Raw on a weekly basis to have promos with Cena, any of that I could have looked past the whole thing. But nope, it was like I was watching reruns for a whole three months. In fact if you took any one of those segments between Cena and The Rock, I think The Rock’s title, and Cena’s shirt color may be the only ways to tell which feud the segment was about.
