Quote:
Originally Posted by tpir
Phill what do you mean by suddenly? They have been teasing this for at least a few weeks now with Bryan's over-exuberant douchey celebrations. Either way IRM hit the nail on the head with:
I disagree this was obviously going to happen, but im perfectly happy to admit i may be wrong and this was planned from a bunch of weeks back. But i think the celebrations at first werent really douchy, or i completely missed something, the first time with the failed cash in on Henry was clearly legit and sold the pain of having the result overturned perfectly, then the win at TLC including rubbing it in Coles face was pretty face and on Raw with Punk and Ryder that was pure face. I think this has been much shorter in the planning than it seems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ItsRainingMen
so if i'm to understand the main event end game here...
smackdown main event heels: barrett, bryan, henry, rhodes, christian
smackdown main event faces: big show*, orton, sheamus
*really he isn't credible, but for reasons completely unknown to me he'll be there
i guess i don't hate it. you have 7 guys who on any given week can carry the WHC (f big show), but the imbalance will lead to stale feuds in a hurry. tbh i'm not really sure how to solve this, although i would like to see orton drafted to raw and punk drafted to smackdown. yea, it would be a step back for punk, but he'll be allowed to step away from the super-punk bull**** we've been watching, and a punk feud with 4 of those 5 heels (f henry) could be awesome
raw main event heels: miz, adr, y2j (apparently won't be around past summerfest tho), ziggler
raw main event faces: cena, punk (whatever's left or RMJ i guess)
i didn't realize til i typed it out but seriously, that's it. it's out of this world bad how bad wwe is getting faces over as headliners (i attribute this 100% to PG). i guess u could count ryder and truth on the face side, but really, they're not. truth will be annoying as hell again, and the longer ryder goes without having cena/punk/ziggler to carry him, the quicker fans will realize he really brings nothing to the table but a catchphrase
4 legitimate main event faces to 9 heels and they think they have enough depth to justify a brand extension. i guess, really, supercena the champ is here dabba doo isn't cena's fault.
of the 9 heels the only one i think can actually be over as a face is miz. jericho probably could but u really can't count on him for very long
lol wow, that is pretty damn bad
OK, lets pull the details:
Faces: Big Show+, Orton, Sheamus, Cena, Punk, Rey
Heels: Barrett, Bryan*, Henry, Rhodes, Christian, Miz, ADR, Jericho, Ziggler
+Big Show is apparently going to face Shaq so that requires a heel turn
*Bryan is assumed to be turned heel here ldo
Well, first thing first, its clear the plan for the first two quarters on Raw is Jericho heel turn and winning the number one Elim Chamber match, feud with Punk, goes over Punk at WM or maybe the following PPV, Cena over at WM, feud Jericho with Cena through to Summerslam, have Cena retire Jericho in some way - assuming you are right with the contract situation for Jericho this makes the most sense to me by far.
On Smackdown we are locked into Bryan holding through to WM and if he is being turned then having Orton go over at RR as has been rumoured makes sense. Orton will take on Barrett at EC in Feb with Bryan defending successfully in the cage. Orton almost certainly goes over at WM then i figure Orton and Bryan will go back and forth like happened with Christian last year to get Bryan solidly over with a blow off at Summerslam, maybe blown off a bit earlier depending how the crowd is reacting but i figure if any pairing can get 6 straight PPV main event matches and not be boring its those two. If not there is always heel Big Show, Barrett again, Cody again, someone drafted over like Ziggler.
So that gets us to the midway point in the year. They will probably need to throw in some chaff to be taken out by the wheat, with Cena and Jericho feud especially needing more build rather than the back and forth i think Bryan and Orton will have. One change i expect at the draft is Henry being moved to the Raw brand then being fed to Cena between WM and Summerslam, probably at MITB the PPV directly before it to maximise his velocity.
The definitely need to turn one person on Raw, or somehow do something unthinkable and bring someone in face to instantly feud at the top of the card, which i cant see happening. It all depends on injuries, but i figure Jericho (c) vs Rey is a go to mini feud that has produced a lot in the past and could be revisited to fill in for a PPV, Miz could be turned without much problem i think, he was almost a face last year at a few points, and given ADR is struggling to find his groove as a heel having him turned makes sense too.
They could always push Kofi as a main event face, or at least as far as having him take on Jericho at a PPV such as Bragging Rights. I dont think Kofi is a main event guy, but he is ridiculously over so he can easily fill in that role in the short term.
All in all they really need to fix the heel face dynamics. However is was a huge problem last year too but they made it work thanks to a face turn from Punk and an epic epic gimmick tweak to Henry. I dont think its as bad as it looks, especially as they start stacking the bottom of the deck with more talent coming up with Tyler Black, the other indy guy whose name i never remember and presumably we will get the Kings moving up shortly.