Reliving 2011

[thatotherguy]

Hello.

So this is somewhat ambitious, and I'm well aware of that.

2011 was one of the most memorable years for WWE in recent history. I'm going to take a look back at it and try and figure out if anything was actually accomplished in 2011 for the long term (by which I mean the year since). The long term effects of 2011 are obviously still with us – CM Punk just completed a historic 434 title reign that began that year, Daniel Bryan is a bigger star, and "part time" stars are becoming more and more of a thing. But beyond that, what were the long-term effects of 2011? Does the WWE look any different now than it did when 2011 began? Does it do anything differently.

I'm going to take a month by month look at 2011, including important moments, promos, matches, etc. to try and answer these questions. Keep in mind that I don't have a conclusion coming in, so this may be a bit disorganized.

Without further ado…

2010 – A Brief recap​

By recap I mean, what happened in 2010 that carried over to 2011.

The big story that carried the WWE through 2010 was the Nexus. The eight rookies from the NXT program – Wade Barrett, Daniel Bryan, Justin Gabriel, David Otunga, Heath Slater, Darren Young, Michael Tarver and Skip Sheffield – would attack John Cena and CM Punk during a match on the June 7th 2010 edition of RAW. Due to action during the attack (choking Justin Roberts), Daniel Bryan was "fired" (I am of the opinion that he was suspended to be brought back later but that's largely irrelevant) and thus the Nexus was reduced to 7 members. For a good portion of time Nexus would dominate RAW before eventually running into John Cena. And although Cena would temporarily join Nexus and ultimately be fired because of them, he was, in the end, their downfall. At this point CM Punk, last seen leading the Straight Edge Society (outside of a well-regarded run on RAW commentary) would take over the "New" Nexus, bringing in Mason Ryan and giving it more of a cult-like atmosphere. By this point, the Nexus looked very different. After Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater left, CM Punk's Nexus was composed of David Otunga, Michael McGillicutty, Husky Harris (the previous three were members of the second season of NXT), and Welsh big man Mason Ryan. Meanwhile, on Smackdown the oddly named "Corre" was begun starring former Nexus members Wade Barrett, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel and big man Ezekiel Jackson. By the time 2011 rolled around, neither group was looking particularly successful.

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The other major storyline that ran through late 2011 centered around three men. United States Champion (at the time) Miz, newly debuting NXT rookie Daniel Bryan (who, and I will get skewered if I don't mention this, was a major independent star under his real name, Bryan Danielson before joining WWE) and Monday Night RAW play by play man, Michael Cole. On NXT The Miz was mentoring Daniel Bryan, who in turn felt that Miz had little to teach him since he had, after all, wrestled all over the world and was fairly successful. Miz, didn't take to kindly to this. Meanwhile, Michael Cole, who normally favored faces in traditional play by play fashion, was actually siding with then-heel Miz, arguing that Bryan had never accomplished anything in WWE. This lead to some very strong promos by all three men, particularly between Cole and Bryan. Meanwhile, Daniel Bryan went through his time in NXT without a victory (although during said time he took then world heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho and top contender to the WWE Championship Batista to the limit, not to mention others). After the first season of NXT ended, Daniel Bryan would join Nexus for a single night, then leave. Meanwhile, Miz would win a Money in the Bank ladder match for the WWE Championship at the Money in the Bank pay per view, causing a few people to think – "wait, Miz? Really?" Meanwhile, Daniel Bryan returned at Summerslam, once again a face to challenge his old Nexus buddies, who had, in storyline, kicked Daniel Bryan out for regretting their initial attack. Bryan would go on to feud with Miz over the US championship, and eventually win it. Meanwhile, Michael Cole's heel persona had all but carried over entirely to Monday Night Raw, save for his dislike of the Nexus. After a Nexus attack, Miz would cash in his Money in the Bank contract on a vulnerable Randy Orton on the 22nd of November winning his first WWE championship to even more shock. I mean seriously. There was one girl in the crowd who looked like her entire world was ending. And then, Michael Cole cost Jerry Lawler the WWE Championship in a TLC match (which was, sadly, an important event for 2011. Look we had three Cole/Lawler matches I can't not mention it). Going into 2011, The Miz was WWE Champion.
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On Smackdown…not much was happening. Edge had had a dominant year, and finished it out with a TLC match victory for the World Heavyweight Championship over Kane (after a horrible Kane/Edge feud), Rey Mysterio and fast-rising star Alberto del Rio. And…erm…stuff. It wasn't a memorable year for Smackdown okay?

And then there's John Cena. In spite of being involved in the year's hottest angle (Nexus), Cena had been noticeably quiet all year. He spent the first half of the year as WWE Champion, then dropped the title to Sheamus in a Fatal Four Way match after a Nexus attack, feuded with the Nexus for a bit, and then once that was over…well again…stuff. Randy Orton was nearly a bigger star than Cena at one point in that year.

2010 was a transitional year for the WWE. They attempted to create new stars through the Nexus (which really hasn't worked, but we'll get to that), while dealing with the fact that most of their big stars from previous years were disapearing. Only Cena and Orton were really left Undertaker was on a reduced schedule. Shawn Michaels had retired at Wrestlemania 26. Batista had left earlier that year.

Entering 2011, The Miz was WWE Champion, and now had NXT season 2 protegé Alex Riley by his side. Edge was World Heavyweight Champion. Natalya was the Diva's Champion. Santino Marella and Vladamir Kozlov were the comedy duo holding the nearly worthless WWE Tag Team Championships. Daniel Bryan was in the middle of a forgettable United States Championship reign. And Dolph Ziggler held the Intercontinental Championship. Top face John Cena had very little direction. The Rock was making movies and not expected to return any time soon, or at all. Randy Orton was on fire in terms of popularity, but had no direction to speak of after failing to recapture the WWE title. Edge was riding high as World Heavyweight Champion. CM Punk was…the guy that lead the New Nexus, but other than leading stables that had not gone anywhere to that point, he wasn't really known for anything. Triple H had largely faded to the background. Vince McMahon had not been on screen in a long time.

Next time: whenever I find the time to post, we'll be looking at January of 2011. The build to the Royal Rumble commences. Miz faces an old friend for his title. Dolph Ziggler becomes a World Champion – briefly. And Alberto del Rio starts talking about Destiny. A lot.

 

[thatotherguy]

I hope this doesnt come across as spam because its just a quick honest question. I have to admit, i really did not watch WWE at all in 2010 (don't remember why). But is this statement legit?

There was a period starting with the breakup of Legacy around Mania where Randy was getting the biggest pops of the night every night. That was pretty much what got him the WWE Championship. He still ended up playing second fiddle to Cena as WWE Champion during the Nexus angle. And no, he never really managed to get booked like the top star. But, ever so briefly, Randy Orton was the most popular and nearly most successful star in WWE.

 

[thatotherguy]

January 2011​

Pay Per View: Royal Rumble
Title Changes and other Notable events

• Kofi Kingston defeats Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship (Aired January 7th, 2011 on Smackdown)
• Eve Torres defeats Natayla (c), Layla and Michelle McCool for the WWE
• Diva’s Championship (January 30th 2011, Royal Rumble)
• Alberto del Rio wins the Royal Rumble (January 30th, 2011)

First of all, a quick correction from my previews for January. Dolph Ziggler’s brief World Title reign was actually in February. Also I completely forgot the anonymous RAW general manager. Who was actually running the show when 2011 started. So, sorry about that.

2011 began, as has become tradition for WWE, with a WWE Championship match. John Morrison had defeated then-rival Sheamus at the TLC Pay Per View for the number one contendership for the WWE Championship, and would cash it in a Falls Count Anywhere match on January 3rd, playing off of Morrison’s new “parkour” gimmick. Then WWE Champion Miz was Morrison’s former partner who had turned on him, which had in turn caused Morrison’s face turn. Miz would defeat Morrison in a strong match.
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Of course, if we’re talking about long-term effect, this was little more than a good match. Morrison would leave WWE in December of 2011. However it’s important to remember that at the time, Morrison was on the brink of main event status. He had quite nearly defeated Sheamus for the King of the Ring title, had been the number 3 guy on Smackdown for a while before that (behind top face Jeff Hardy and top heel CM Punk), and seemed destined for a world title in WWE. Unless he returns, that will not be the case.

On the first Smackdown of the year, Dolph Ziggler lost his Intercontinental Championship to Kofi Kingston. On the same night, he won a Fatal Four Way match to become number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship against Cody Rhodes, The Big Show and Drew Macintyre. I’m going to talk about Dolph in a second, but let’s focus on the other four names that showed up in this paragraph.

Kofi Kingston’s fate, it seems is to be the WWE’s placeholder Champion. I can’t think of a single time in which one of his many mid-card title reigns really meant something. He’s often lost to people on their way up, or whenever the WWE needs someone for another heel to beat for the title. This was true before this match occurred and, unless Kofi is going to have a breakout dominant reign as United States Champion, it is still true to this day.

Speaking of people Kofi beat to win a title, Drew Macintyre is a great story of counting your chickens before they hatch. By this point, Macintyre’s star had faded considerably, but he was still one of Smackdown’s top stars. When he debuted in WWE (excluding a forgettable run as William Regal’s sidekick) Drew Macintyre was (in storyline) handpicked by Vince McMahon as a future World Champion. To say that this hasn’t come to fruition is something of an understatement. Drew Macintyre has been, in my opinion, entertaining during his run in 3MB, but he’s not exactly rocketing up to the top.

Big Show is Big Show, and if you think about, his role hasn’t changed much since 2011. While sure, he’s a heel now, his job is still to put over the big stars or up and coming stars.

Next, Cody Rhodes. Cody Rhodes is a name we’ll be hearing quite a bit about through 2011, as his story is fascinating in and of itself. At this point Rhodes was still operating under the “dashing” gimmick – essentially a typical narcissist gimmick complete with grooming tips. I have to admit, it was somewhat surprising to see him included in the Main Event.
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(Cody Rhodes teaches us how to floss. You know you're good when you a lot of heat from teaching people proper dental hygiene).

Finally, there’s Dolph Ziggler. I’ll talk more about his reigns as World Champion during the next installment of this little series but for now, let’s just note that Ziggler was on the rise, and this was a perfect example. It’s clear that WWE felt he wasn’t ready to win the big one, but the feeling must have been that he would do so sooner, rather than later. I would argue, in 2013, with Ziggler as World Heavyweight Champion, Ziggler still hasn’t won the big one. When Ziggler was challenging for the World Title in 2011, the title was almost on par with the WWE Championship. Nowadays? Not so much. I’ll get into this more during February’s installment.

The feud for the World Heavyweight Championship centered largely around Vickie Guerrero, then Ziggler’s manager. Guerrero was also at the time the acting GM of Smackdown due to an angle in which GM Teddy Long was found unconscious backstage. But of course, she never abused said power. She just made the spear illegal during Ziggler’s match with Edge. At the Royal Rumble Pay Per View, Edge speared Ziggler while the referee’s back was turned. The consequences of said action happened in February, which is my way of saying we’ll get there next time. Incidentally, he actually used the Killswitch to win the match. Somewhere in the lockerroom, you know Christian was smiling.
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(Edge shows us all how to no sell his own finishing move, then uses it to beat Ziggler. Smart if you think about it. Dolph probably couldn't no sell a punch from Hornswoggle, he wasn't going to no sell a spear.)

What were the long-term implications? Ziggler got his first taste of the main event scene but I’d be hard pressed to say that that has much to do with his current run of success. Since January 2011 Ziggler has changed gimmicks, briefly his look and finally switched out Vickie for another manager – AJ Lee. Really, I could easily see Ziggler making it to the main event without the events of January 2011, and even making it a little faster.

On RAW, once Morrison lost his title opportunity we went back to Randy Orton challenging Miz for the title. Orton vs. Miz…was not exactly a fresh match. What was new was a brewing CM Punk vs. Orton feud. When CM Punk returned as an active wrestler, CM Punk had claimed that someone in the WWE had wronged him, and he would take his revenge. Initially, CM Punk targeted John Cena (along with the New Nexus). Said rivalry would mainly carry over to the Royal Rumble. However, during the Miz/Orton match at Royal Rumble, CM Punk and the New Nexus would interfere, costing Orton the match.
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(On a side note, check out Randy Orton's entrance pose from this time period. Look familiar?)

Other events included a face Natalya losing her title to a face Eve Torres at Royal Rumble, which was masked by the fact that it was a Fatal Four Way match and the top female heels of the company, Lay-Cool (Layla and Michelle McCool) were also in said match. Lay-Cool had, by that point, easily overstayed their welcome, and while they were a great duo in many respects, by this point I think their act was getting old. However, while Lay-Cool’s act may have been old, it was sadly the last truly memorable act the Diva’s division would see until AJ Lee went insane.
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(Sure it may be from 2010 – but that is a perfect example of Lay-Cool. How did people get tired of them? And more importantly, why doesn't Wrestlezone forums have a sarcasm font?)

And then there was the Royal Rumble match. This royal rumble was advertised as the biggest rumble ever because it had ten extra wrestlers. The build featured a few people, but most noticeably, Alberto del Rio. Del Rio, who had just received his first World Title Match in a Fatal Four Way at the TLC Pay Per View, was not considered to be one of the favorites. However, going in, del Rio began to talk about how it was his “destiny” to win the Rumble.
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(Alberto del Rio talks about destiny – before it got old)

The Rumble itself…was a massive mess in my opinion. It rated fairly well, so I guess that’s my opinion but it seemed like it just didn’t have a strong thread going through it. It also didn’t help that there weren’t any fixtures throughout the match. For me, the best Rumbles are those that have a few guys hanging around for the most of it. CM Punk lasted longest at 35 minutes, but he was eliminated by John Cena well before the match ended. Cena himself lasted until the final five – but then he got eliminated by Miz, to help set up their match for Wrestlemania (it should be noted that it appeared that Cena was actually in the final four – Santino Marella was hiding largely forgotten at this point in the match). In the end the winner was Alberto del Rio, fulfilling this part of his destiny.

This was the true beginning of del Rio’s main event push. Considering that del Rio is still in the World Heavyweight Title picture today, it’s safe to say that if we want to talk about long term effects of this month, it was del Rio’s run in the Royal Rumble that exemplified that. The man is still in the main event today, and I think WWE needs him to be in the position he is now. If the WWE had gone with someone else to win the Rumble Match, who knows if he would have made it to the point in his career he’s at now.

Beyond that, however, January was not a big month in terms of long term effect. The Miz’s match against Orton was the blow-off match to a feud. Ziggler/Edge didn’t really do anything for Ziggler, and Edge – well I’ll get into that later. The Diva’s division was already on its way downhill by this point, but don’t worry folks, it’s only going further down from here. Eve Torres, the winner of said Diva’s match is also gone, although at least she was an impact player in 2012. However, I’m going to give the WWE a pass on this one. The Royal Rumble is about building to Wrestlemania, not the future. A big push for one main event fixture is enough.

Next time the Road to Wrestlemania continues, Jerry Lawler gets a main event match, Dolph Ziggler gets to hold the World Title for eleven minutes, and a True Story gets told.

 

[Vault08]

2011 was a great year, I loved it, and I hope that WWE can replicate it in some ways in the near future, best of the PG era for sure

 

[Ellye]

I really miss LayCool, Miz as a main event heel, and Wade Barrett as a stable leader and credible contender for world titles.

I only wish they didn't have those silly JL vs Cole and JL vs Miz feuds, and it would have been pretty much perfect, really.

Oh, and I'm happy you mentioned the Miz vs Morrison match on the first raw of 2011 - sure, it had no long term consequence, but that was a great match to start a great year.

 

[#MrScissorsKick]

2011 was good no doubt. The year overall was no doubt much better than 2008 through 2010. 2011 was a big step up and improvement from the lasting years of the brand extension. The year overall was really cool to look back on and see all the drama and feuds that were built up throughout the year. Punk took the center stage and never looked back. Cena was usual Cena but I do give him credit for continuing to do what he does best; not give up. 2011 will always be the year remembered for 1.) Punk's shoot, 2.) Punk's beginning to his 434 day WWE Championship reign. Although we can give all credit to Punk and Cena, we can't leave out the fact that other high mid-carders also contributed heavily to Cena and Punk. Del Rio wins the RR and MITB. Edge retires due to injury allowing some fresher faces in the main event scene. Christian/Henry/Orton/Big Show all stepped up and helped out the SmackDown Main Event scene while Punk and Cena kept us all entertained through the later months of the year. I believe the real impact of 2011 started at Extreme Rules. Cena defeated Miz and Morrison in a Triple Threat match. A little while later, Punk put his blast on and gave a solid shoot for all of us. Then Punk wins the title at MITB which to me was the best PPV of 2011. Then Punk leaves. Mysterio, Cena, Del Rio, and Cena win the WWE Title while punk leaves, and then Punk wins the belt back and becomes undisputed champ at a very good Survivor Series. All in all, 2011 was solid all around. From both brands RAW and SmackDown we were entertained to the max. Hopefully we'll see some things like the events in 2011 in the near future.