Bryan's Injury Is An Example Of Positive Booking Changes In WWE

[Jack-Hammer]

The obvious buzz in the wrestling world this week will revolve around what ultimately goes down with Daniel Bryan's neck surgery this Thursday. Every report I've come across today give the notion that Bryan's injury isn't all that serious, that his recovery time could be as short as him being able to return in time for Payback or as long as 8 weeks and that the feeling backstage is that WWE won't be stripping him of the title if the prognosis is a positive one.

That's not to say that Vince couldn't decide to strip him of the title at any given moment, but it strikes me as an example of some positive change that's come over WWE's booking style in the past couple of years. Five years ago, if there looked to be even the least bit of indication that ratings were dropping or gonna drop, if a wrestler didn't get exactly the sort of reaction that was hoped or suffered some sort of significant injury; Vince would've gone into panic mode, soon stripped the guy of the title and put it back on John Cena as soon as possible. For someone who looks at things from a long term perspective, Vince sometimes suffers bouts of severe impatience that lead to decisions based on kneejerk reactions. As of now, officials are waiting to see what's revealed after the surgery is performed this Thursday before making any sort of decision rather than the sort of reaction that was prevalent in years past. We saw something similar regarding CM Punk during his feud with Ryback where he sustained a knee injury. Punk was able to recover quite fast and Vince didn't run around in hysterics.

I might be wrong on this, it's just a guess, but my instincts are that Triple H has been something of a moderating influence on Vince these past few years. Maybe it's partially due to Vince getting older and genuinely mellowing out. It's hard to imagine Vince mellow, I know, but we've seen some FAR less likely things come about the past several years like Vince burying the hatchet, at least to some degree, with guys like Bret Hart, Bruno Sammartino and The Ultimate Warrior. Trips is gaining more power in the company and every report I've read seems to indicate that he doesn't sweat the small stuff the way Vince does. If a commentator says the wrong thing or whatever during a match, for instance, Trips doesn't drop a lung whereas Vince has been known to damn near start speaking in tongues.

In my eyes, it strikes me as a sign of confidence and that WWE is FAR more in touch with who fans want at the top of the mountain than they may have been 6 months ago. It's one thing if Bryan winds up having to be out for a considerable length of time,, it'd be another if they rushed to take the title off him. It would come across to a lot of people as an inglorious end to the epic storyline of Bryan combating The Authority for better than half a year that culminated in a classic WrestleMania moment. Being champion and being a pro's pro in general obviously means a great deal to Bryan given that he told officials he wanted to stay and do the angle with Kane on Raw before taking a later flight back home on the day his father died.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

I agree to a certain degree, however, I think it's too early to tell in Bryan's case. I actually believe there's a legit reason to think stripping Bryan may really and truly be "best for business" this time, both for the WWE and for Bryan.

I think if the choice is between a mediocre series of defenses against a guy nobody believes has a chance of winning (Kane) versus having the belt taken from you due to injury thereby creating another underdog situation, my vote is for the latter.

 

[JJ15776]

I agree to a certain degree, however, I think it's too early to tell in Bryan's case. I actually believe there's a legit reason to think stripping Bryan may really and truly be "best for business" this time, both for the WWE and for Bryan.

I think if the choice is between a mediocre series of defenses against a guy nobody believes has a chance of winning (Kane) versus having the belt taken from you due to injury thereby creating another underdog situation, my vote is for the latter.

To be fair, nobody was going to be believed to have a chance of winning, and his storyline with Kane has been very entertaining, so that would certainly be better than taking him off TV entirely. But you are right that him losing the title due to injury wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. If he's out for two months, they could strip him of the title, bring him back in July, make him earn his way back into the title picture(in storyline) and he could have another feel good moment winning the title back at SummerSlam. If he can make it back by the end of June, he'll only miss one PPV, and I would say keep the title on him. But your champ can't miss two PPVs in a row.

Incidentally, I've always wondered why they don't do Interim Champions, like in boxing and especially MMA, when the champion gets hurt. I wouldn't do it every time a champion gets hurt, obviously a lot of times the the champion is still able to get through a match to let somebody else beat them for the title...but in situations where the champion is so injured they'd have to forfeit the title - like HBK, Batista, Cena, Edge,(weird how it happened three times in such a short period of time) and possibly Bryan - just give somebody an interim title. They can defend it and feud over it like normal, and then when the champ is healthy, it naturally sets up a natural unification match. Obviously the former champ always gets right back into the title picture anyway, but I think Champion vs. Champion would be a bigger deal than Champion vs. Former Champion Who Got Hurt.

 

[BestWrestlingOpinions]

To be fair, nobody was going to be believed to have a chance of winning, and his storyline with Kane has been very entertaining, so that would certainly be better than taking him off TV entirely. But you are right that him losing the title due to injury wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. If he's out for two months, they could strip him of the title, bring him back in July, make him earn his way back into the title picture(in storyline) and he could have another feel good moment winning the title back at SummerSlam. If he can make it back by the end of June, he'll only miss one PPV, and I would say keep the title on him. But your champ can't miss two PPVs in a row.

Incidentally, I've always wondered why they don't do Interim Champions, like in boxing and especially MMA, when the champion gets hurt. I wouldn't do it every time a champion gets hurt, obviously a lot of times the the champion is still able to get through a match to let somebody else beat them for the title...but in situations where the champion is so injured they'd have to forfeit the title - like HBK, Batista, Cena, Edge,(weird how it happened three times in such a short period of time) and possibly Bryan - just give somebody an interim title. They can defend it and feud over it like normal, and then when the champ is healthy, it naturally sets up a natural unification match. Obviously the former champ always gets right back into the title picture anyway, but I think Champion vs. Champion would be a bigger deal than Champion vs. Former Champion Who Got Hurt.

Great topic, a lot of things to talk about. First, I will give my thoughts on the quoted post. The interim champ doesn't really work. It feels like a filler champ, a joke champ. Go back to 2011 when Punk left with the belt. Mysterio and Cena were both filler champs, joke champs, fake champs. Punk was the real champ. Nobody will buy thing in my opinion. It would be better if the original title is vacated, there is a tournament or whatever for it, and then the returning original champion who was stripped of it (Bryan) gets a shot at the nearest PPV for it, with no man having the champion's advantage or something.


Now, to the OP, I don't remember a lot from 2008 and before because I didn't watch a lot back then and I didn't read into dirtsheets and stuff (basically I didn't know what was going on etc), so, if what you are saying about Vince panicing is actually true, then we are certainly better now. I believe that he did that with a reason though. Back in 2007, there weren't many main event talents. Cena was there, sure, but most of the other guys (HHH, HBK and whoever else was there) were guys that most people had seen for years. They wanted something new and I think Vince actually understood that. Like it or not, Cena was still new back then.
Orton got injured at 2007, but the injury was severe and you had to put the belt on someone else. I don't know how much Vince waited for that decision, if he actually got informed how long the champ would be out for or anything, but I have to believe that he knew. Therefore, he had to eventually crown a new champion. And you can't give the belts to anyone just for the sake of giving the spotlight to a new guy, especially since there weren't many big names back then.

As far as now goes, we are still waiting to see what happens on thursday and I bet that everyone is panicing. Vince and HHH are panicing. Not because they have some mental problem, but because they don't know what to do with the title. They are waiting to see how Daniel goes and then they will make any decision. I think Vince was always like, even though from an outside point of view, it might seem that he just wanted to rush things and put the belt on someone he trusted or something. Since they believe that the injury might not be that severe anyway, they can wait and see what happens. If Bryan is gonna be out for more than 2 months, then that is when they will panic. They don't have any big name to hold the titles right now.

It is really intriguing to see what happens over the course of the next days, but the possible scenarios are two:
-Bryan's injury is a short-term thing and he might not even miss Payback. Even if he does, he will be back for MitB and I don't think it will be a problem. If anything, they can make a #1 contender's match at Payback for the title or something.

-Bryan's injury is actuall severe and he will miss at least both Payback and MitB. He has to get stripped of the title. There would be no point in having it. There will be a way to crown a new champ, and I do think that Vince and HHH will be panicing. They don't have anyone at the moment.


I don't know if HHH is different than Vince but the situations back then and now are different, to the point that you can't draw a line and compare them. Back in 2012, when Punk for injured, they didn't rush anything, really, they just took a PPV with the title not being defended. But they had the upcoming match with the Rock and they had to give the Shield a program, so it probably worked out better for them. The injury wasn't that big though, so HHH didn't really have any big issue with it. Orton's shoulder injury was pretty severe and given that lack of depth of the roster back then, it is logical for Vince to give the title to Cena. Thre weren't many other things going on. Now there are. There are a lot of good things. Wyatts, Shield, Evolution, the mid-card titles. Even if the WWEWHC misses a PPV,the rest of the card will still be decent. This wasn't the case back then.

Sure, HHH might be different than Vince, it seems so, but you can't say for sure. Different periods, different Superstars, different situations. Vince sees stuff in his own way, since it's his own company and can't risk a lot of stuff. HHH is more laid back, can probably understand the business better. I don't know. It seems like we are in a better era though. It is obvious. HHH might not be the guy to congratulate for this. It's probably not Vince either. I'd say Punk's pipebomb changed a lot. Crowds became more vocal, matches' quality exlpoded and so on. HHH made sure to keep that line on a growth and that is certainly best for business.

 

[Raptor93]

In terms of stripping bryan because the story with kane is bad and thus creating a new one I dont like. Kane bryan isn't working badly but your right its not something people are buying into however Id rather them come up with something a little more creative then back to the underdog , its been done very well and they got the biggest pay off they could get let bryan move into a new story maybe he is still the underdog but I wanna see him do more. On a side not every champions reign of any decent length will likely have some filler , just last year cena faced ryback twice I think and Henery once. Great henry troll aside at no point from when that first attack from ryback came to cena making henry tap did I consider cena would loose. Filler unfortunately is a part of wwe title reigns, even if you reboot the underdog when bryan does get the title back he will likely go to a filler feud. I wouldn't even mind him facing bray again but with more to the story then bryans the underdog and a counter balance to rowan and harper

 

[SoulTrain4]

The Authority just needs to be heels that means just take the belt and blame it on his injury, even IF he can come back quickly it's an instant heat move.

Don't think for a second that Cena isn't an option right now but they have gone to him less over the last few years because he too has had injury issues. I believe it's also because there is no need to Cena to have the title, he peaked when he beat The Rock.

 

[theblasterkid]

His injury is unfornate but the show must go on, or something like that. I called for an 8-man tournament. 16 men compete for qualifications at first leaving eight to compete for the title; well it could go by the superstars drawing numbers instead because the timeframe to Payback is short right now. I'm not sure how this would work though because four guys (Orton, Triple H, Batista, Cena) that should be in the tournament are in feuds right now. Perhaps, if they fought twice at Payback maybe? On the other hand, most people think Bryan will face Brock at Summerslam and lose the title. In my opinion, it should be Brock vs. Cena at Summerslam and Bryan versus whoever is the crowned champion at that point. His comeback should get major pop and it's a great story to sell for one of the four major PPVs in WWE!

 

[Messiah]

He didn't even have surgery yet. Don't believe any of the reports until his surgery is done tomorrow. None of the reporters know shit. Neck injuries can be very serious. He's been injured many times in the past, I doubt he'll be back in time for Payback.

 

[LODemolition]

The bright side of this if they have to strip Bryan of the title is that MITB is not that far away, so it would give them time to hold qualifying matches each week on Raw and Smackdown, and then put 8-10 guys in the ladder match to determine a new champion.

Something I haven't seen anyone else talk about is this. Smackdown has really suffered since they unified the WWE and World Titles. I don't think it would be a horrible idea to split them again and have 2 ladder latches at MITB. I don't think this will happen at all, but I would personally like to see it happen. And the perfect winners would be Triple H for new WWE Champion and Cesaro for new World Champion.

In reality, I believe Triple H becomes new WWE WHC if Bryan indeed has to relinquish the title. This would let Triple H have one last good run as champ before Bryan can regain it around Survivor Series. If they can somehow get Lesnar to work more dates, then I think he'd be an even better choice for new champion. After beating the streak, you would think he'd be a no-brainer to be the one who knocks Bryan off the top of the mountain.

 

[Dragonslayer]

The bright side of this if they have to strip Bryan of the title is that MITB is not that far away, so it would give them time to hold qualifying matches each week on Raw and Smackdown, and then put 8-10 guys in the ladder match to determine a new champion.

Something I haven't seen anyone else talk about is this. Smackdown has really suffered since they unified the WWE and World Titles. I don't think it would be a horrible idea to split them again and have 2 ladder latches at MITB. I don't think this will happen at all, but I would personally like to see it happen. And the perfect winners would be Triple H for new WWE Champion and Cesaro for new World Champion.

In reality, I believe Triple H becomes new WWE WHC if Bryan indeed has to relinquish the title. This would let Triple H have one last good run as champ before Bryan can regain it around Survivor Series. If they can somehow get Lesnar to work more dates, then I think he'd be an even better choice for new champion. After beating the streak, you would think he'd be a no-brainer to be the one who knocks Bryan off the top of the mountain.

I disagree with splitting the WHC and WWE titles again. It would be way too soon after the unification, and besides, I do believe there should be ONE top tier champion.

If Smackdown is suffering, it's only because WWE have not yet managed to build the Intercontinental and US titles back to relevancy.

They're trying to with the IC now, and also by taking the US belt off Ambrose, who's held it for no reason for like a year, and putting it on Sheamus, a legit main event guy.

I think that once they've managed to establish the fact that top tier talent is once again fighting for the IC and US titles, as it has been the case in the days of yore (as opposed to the titles being mere props for lower midcard guys), then Smackdown can focus on featuring great matches for these titles even as main events, and it will not need separate WWE and WHC championships.

As for the OP, I think that as much as any injury sucks for Bryan, it might come at an opportune time; if an injury can ever be "opportune".

Before you kill me for this, hear me out: Bryan had his great run in chasing the championship, culminating in his "big moment" at Wrestlemania. Perfect story.

Now, he's trying to maintain his momentum, but is struggling to do so in a feud with Kane that isn't working in Bryan's best interest.

If he has to take a break now, "The Authority" can strip him of the title, putting more heat on them, and Bryan can make a great return when he's ready, trying to "reclaim what's rightfully his", which is the type of story that has been proven to work with Bryan's character.

I just hope the injury itself is really not too serious and not in any way career threatening; would be a shame to see it cut short now that he's reached the top.