Two For Tuesday: Steph and Cena; the WWEWHC Situation for MiTB

[George Steele's Barber]

Does anyone want to talk about something "non-Rollins we've seen this heel turn many times before" related?

Steph's and Cena's back and forth was fun yet accomplished nothing. I hope fans were able to enjoy the segment and not allow their biases about Steph, Cena and how "every segment needs to further a storyline for it to be good" opinions get in the way of something that most wrestling fans should find enjoyable.

To me the most incredible part was the way both had the fans eating out of their hands (oops, that is not their song), especially Cena. The Indy crowd ended up pandering to his every word even after they laid in to him hard when he first came out.

Even the biggest Cena hater has to admit that the "surgery" line was pretty funny. I doubt the two will be getting a lot of screen time together and too much of a good thing is too much but I liked the back and forth and thought the two had good chemistry. Did you enjoy the segment? Do you think it did further the story or was just for entertainment? Do you think this will lead to more interaction between Steph and Cena? A feud? Will Cena be in MitB?

And what a strange announcement from Steph. We may have a DB title match at MiTB. I don't remember WWE ever promoting a title match like this before. They are usually pretty definitive in their promotions. I am struggling to figure out what to expect. I think they may really not know whether DB will be ready.

On one hand it seems really lame to stick him with Kane again. I feel like Steph was putting that idea out there to garner heat. The fans in the arena don't want to see that. It makes her appear to be an out of touch promoter.

On the other hand, they may know he will be ready and are just making it seem like he is coming back to make Bryan seem that much tougher (see Cena and his history of medical defying returns) and keeping the title that much more important to him. That his returning should overshadow the lameness of his feud with Kane. Maybe they will throw in a stipulation to get Brie her job back.

I'm leaning toward DB and Kane being on for MitB. He probably comes back a week or two ahead of time to "defy doctors orders" and competes?

What do you make of Steph's announcement?

 

[The Eighties]

One of the highlights of a pretty lackluster Raw IMO. I thought Steph was great, her frustrated defiance was perfectly played and her timing was impeccable, especially on her comeback to the surgery line. Cena is a master at what he does.

It's hard to tell if it's leading anywhere as nothing came from it, I actually thought Cena was going to call out the fact that no one wants to see Bryan vs Kane again and Steph would make the match between them a #1 contenders match, Cena vs Bryan in Boston would have been great.

My guess is Cena will be in MITB to cause worry and add star power, maybe Steph costs him the match and enlists a heel as her avatar to go against Cena?

There's been talk of a Sheamus heel turn for ages now and the other day Cena vs Sheamus for Summerslam was a rumour, maybe this is where he turns and Steph helps him establish himself as a heel.

As for Steph's announcement, I think Bryan will attack Kane the week before MITB and simply state that he'll see him in Boston.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I'm wondering if there's a POSSIBILITY of this leading to a feud between Cena & Bryan a bit later down the line.

Generally speaking, anyone that's spoken up in any way against The Authority gets "punished", which we saw a bit of with Nikki Bella and John Cena last night. Nikki was put in a handicap match while Cena faced Kane. While Cena ultimately managed to escape but, then again, it's John Cena. It's pretty rare for Cena to be left laying by a single guy, though it could be a taste of future encounters between them; especially considering that Cena insulted her while simultaneously defending Daniel Bryan.

Nikki is Cena's squeeze, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that she eventually gets frustrated with Stephanie taking her own frustrations out on them. Eventually, Cena could see where she's coming from, even though it's not actually Bryan or Brie's fault. Cena could also become a little frustrated with others standing up for Bryan, such as him "allowing" Brie to quit and for himself & his girlfriend to be "punished" because of their association/connection to him. Also, Cena could want to be champion again, so the tension MIGHT be the needed heat to the feud rather than it just being about a couple of guys who know, like and respect one another.

As for Bryan & MITB, I ultimately see him returning, as mentioned, to "defy doctors orders" and face Kane at MITB. This is just a gut feeling, but I think Daniel Bryan is keeping his condition secret to all but a very, very small handful of people; namely his wife Brie, Triple H and Stephanie. As a result, nobody else knows his condition but, again this is just a feeling on my part, I think Bryan MIGHT be well enough to compete already but they're giving him some additional time to heal up and draw out the storyline a bit longer in order to generate suspense, interest and speculation among fans as to what's gonna happen.

I thought it was a pretty good segment overall, Stephanie is really shining in her heel role. She genuinely comes off as an unlikeable, narcissistic, condescending bitch who thinks her shit doesn't stink. Cena's random comment about her "surgeries" struck me as genuinely funny, though I think it should've been kept completely serious, as it would've had more of an impact.

 

[MWRedskins]

like others said above, my feeling is that Bryan returns "defying doctor's orders" (but in real life is healthy enough to return) and ends this sad feud with Kane and then moves on. to who is a good question. a Cena heel turn would be great here, BUT it wont happen. my guess is Bryan moves onto Orton at SummerSlam and finally beats him in a title match, my hope is that Bryan faces Rollins at SummerSlam, but i dont see it happening.

 

[GOOZEKING]

I think last night they made a small mistake involving this whole angle. They tried to show what happens when you cros the boss.... They had 2 on 1 handicap for nikki and by the end she was down and out. When kane was attacking cena wouldn't it have made more sense for kane to possibly chokeslam cena through announce table or something to really show and make people think.. Wow not even cena could take him down.... Hmm I wonder if bryan could. They even kept saying how cena wasn't 100% why wouldn't it make sense that kane would "lay out" cena. Instead of super cena powering through and taking down kane making him look less like a monster

 

[resignedknight]

I thought the segment was really interesting, too, mostly because it was the rare Raw segment where I wasn't sure what they were doing or setting up.

In the end, it may have just been a complicated set-up to distract fans from the very lackluster title match (it's not even just that it's Kane; stretcher matches always suck).

I think the problem is that it puts even Bryan's biggest fans in a complicated situation. The Money in the Bank match for the title sounds much more interesting to me than Bryan/Kane in a dumb gimmick match, so, despite being a Bryan fan, they've put me in a situation where I'm actually rooting for him not to come back--I get a more interesting main event that way. Doesn't seem like a position you want to put a guy trying to get over in.

 

[TheICChampion]

Well I hope that if the WWEWHC has to have a ladder match to crown a new champion, then we still have another one for a future title match. That way you can have guys like Cesaro, Reigns, Wyatt, etc. in that match instead of pushing them right away to the top spot and likely having it fail or flop. I know no one wants to see Orton or Cena holding the title again, but would you rather see someone who isn't quite ready for that top spot get it and then fail? (See: Jack Swagger. I only recall him being anywhere near the Heavyweight title picture just once since he lost it in 2010.) Then again, this being WWE, they don't have a clue what they're doing or what they're going to do so it will likely only be one match and then we'll see Cena or Orton get it anyway.

 

[Tyrant25]

I enjoyed the back-and-forth banter between Cena and Stephanie McMahon. I think it accomplished both advancing the storyline for Money in the Bank and a little comedy undertone. I still don't understand why fans hate on Cena when he's so good at what he does, and the crowd eats it up every time. I think Cena deserves way more credit for that.

As far as Money in the Bank goes, I'd still like to see Daniel Bryan vs. Kane in the Stretcher Match to end the rivalry. If the match doesn't happen, the rivalry can't end, unless WWE just ignores the fact that it ever happened and hope the fans ignore it too through some sort of selective forgetfulness. I'd like to see Evolution step into the WWE Title picture now that they have a new member in Seth Rollins, with Rollins winning the Money in the Bank and cashing in the same night on a "still injured" Daniel Bryan. Maybe John Cena steps in to help out The Shield. The only problem I see with this is, where do you go with guys like Bray Wyatt and Antonio Cesaro, who are beyond ready to break the glass ceiling? I don't know. It's a complicated situation.

 

[Trail_Blazin]

I think the WWE is setting up many different possible angles here. One of which could be the Vince McMahon return that was rumored last year.

Triple H and Steph are bringing personal vendettas to the WWE. They are fighting with superstars, they're wrestling on a regular basis, using dirty tactics against their own, ect.

I think this is setting up a giant Vince McMahon/Triple H war.

The interaction between Steph and Cena would show dissent among the two of them, and gives Cena further incentive to team with Vince, Bryan and the Shield against HHH, Evolution and Kane.

 

[resignedknight]

I think the WWE is setting up many different possible angles here. One of which could be the Vince McMahon return that was rumored last year.

Triple H and Steph are bringing personal vendettas to the WWE. They are fighting with superstars, they're wrestling on a regular basis, using dirty tactics against their own, ect.

I think this is setting up a giant Vince McMahon/Triple H war.

The interaction between Steph and Cena would show dissent among the two of them, and gives Cena further incentive to team with Vince, Bryan and the Shield against HHH, Evolution and Kane.

There were definitely a couple times in the Cena/Steph segment where I was bracing myself to hear "No Chance" boom over the speakers. It did feel like that was being set up for down the road at least.