Which Do You Prefer?

[Jack-Hammer]

On Raw tonight, Stephanie McMahon announced that Daniel Bryan has to be cleared to compete by Money in the Bank or the WWE World Heavyweight Championship will be officially vacated. As a result, the Money in the Bank ladder match will be for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship rather than the winner earning a title match anywhere at anytime over the next year. If Bryan is cleared to compete, he has to finish up his feud against Kane at MITB in a stretcher match. So which scenario would you prefer?

Bryan vs. Kane hasn't been most people's preferred feud for Daniel Bryan. At the same time, now that it appears the horror movie schtick is done with since Brie has "quit" WWE, WWE could potentially get this feud back on track. At the same time, a stretcher match isn't exactly the most exciting match out there. While a Buried Alive match was reported to be the match that'd take place, WWE obviously decided to scrap the idea. They had a strong match at Extreme Rules and if Bryan was moving onto someone else, there might be some who'd go for this option rather than having him vacate the title.

As for the title being vacated, it may be too soon to decide whether or not you wanna go with this one as such a choice might rest on who's gonna be in the match. Alberto Del Rio won the first MITB qualifying match earlier tonight by defeating Dolph Ziggler. One has to imagine that main event mainstays like John Cena and Randy Orton will also find their way into this match. According to reports, Cesaro is allegedly the front runner to win MITB this year, so it's quite probable he'll at least be a participant, we could possibly see Bray Wyatt in the match as well, It's not out of the realm of possibility that Sheamus & Wade Barrett wind up in the bout as well and I'm certain that at least one Shield member will be a participant. If it's all three members, then there'll be numerous rumors & speculation going about once more about WWE splitting them up.

There are pros & cons to either choice.

As I alluded to earlier, Kane isn't really who people wanna see face Bryan and a lot depends on Bryan's condition. It's not Bryan as it's just that they're bored with Kane and given that Bryan's been out injured, he's understandably lost some momentum. As a result, some might be more inclined for WWE to just move on. On the other hand, it'd be a lousy end to what's been an extremely memorable journey and storyline for Bryan. Personally, I've little doubt that Bryan will have no trouble regaining whatever momentum he's lost since being on the shelf if he's genuinely up to par, so it's enticing to have Bryan move past Kane to a fresh program.

When it comes to vacating the title, the problem presented here is two fold:

1. The WWE winds up putting the title on someone that fans just aren't interested in seeing as champion such as Cena, Orton or Del Rio.

2. The WWE winds up putting the title on someone that's just plain not ready and/or ultimately doesn't have what it takes.

One positive aspect of Money in the Bank is that there's always at least the potential for WWE to build up the MITB briefcase holder over a period of time and for him to cash it in when they feel he's ready. While WWE has used the WWE Championship a few times in the past as sort of a proving ground test, the strategy has fielded mixed to negative results. Given that there's only one World Championship now, meaning that the World Heavyweight Championship is no longer around to fill the role as the unofficial upper mid-card title, I think they need to really, really think as to who they feel should win based on what they see out of the guy in the long term.

I have a feeling that Bryan will be cleared to wrestle by Money in the Bank. This is only a guess on my part, pure speculation, but I have a feeling that Bryan could potentially be physical able to wrestle right now, but they're doing the right thing by being cautious. So, Bryan won't be working in the ring until MITB. Bryan being healthy enough to compete is probably the safer way to go, I'm guessing it's also the preferable one for WWE management. As I alluded to, neither of the potential options for a vacated title match at MITB sounds all that appealing: either someone we're sick to death of seeing as champion or somebody who isn't ready for the spot, resulting in a lame duck reign that's over with before it begins.

So, which do you want to see go down?

 

[Harthan]

I'm desperately hoping he gets a chance to defend the title and return strong. I've said before that returning after the title is vacated would kind of give him the chance to relive WrestleMania, which would be cool, but the hope that he could just return and wrestle after missing only one show is too attractive for me to pass on. I'd sincerely prefer to see Bryan defend.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I personally hope for Daniel Bryan to get cleared to compete, finish the Kane feud and move on. It doesn't have to be Kane. He could face Triple H, Randy Orton, or even the newest member of Evolution in Rollins. I am 100% fine with it being Kane though. He and Bryan have so much history and can put on one more good match together before the feud finally ends. This is the better alternative. The Money In the Bank match being for the World Heavyweight Championship is one of the STUPIDEST ideas I have ever heard from the WWE. That defeats the whole purpose of the Money In the Bank match. It's supposed to be about a title shot that you win to cash in at any time. There is no such thing as a Money In the Bank World Championship match. That's an 8 or 10 man Ladder match. If you want to do that, then book a Ladder match featuring multiple top tier wrestlers for the vacant belt but while STILL also having a traditional Money In the Bank Ladder match on the same card for a briefcase with a world title shot contract in it. They NEED to keep a Money In the Bank briefcase up for grabs. If they don't, they would be making a colossal mistake.

 

[Mustang Sally]

I took #3....undecided, because we don't really know enough about Daniel's condition.

One of the best things about WWE also serves as one of the most frustrating; the fact they mix real-life situations with their storylines and aren't afraid to keep us off-balance for long periods of time.

As a result, it's added tons of guesswork on our parts to items like the CM Punk situation. Look at the gobs of time we've spent batting this around; is Punk really retired or on extended hiatus? Is he really unhappy about the direction of his character in WWE or is the direction of the company as a whole? Does WWE really know what his ultimate intentions are or is the whole thing a huge, elaborate work?

Take the Edge-Lita-Matt Hardy triangle. Apparently, the whole mess stemmed from real-life events that wound up being incorporated into the act.....talk about life imitating art! I loved the whole thing because it seemed the scripted act could break into a real-life war at any moment.....the ultimate shoot match.

But it's these same factors that make the question in this topic ("Which do you prefer?") almost impossible to answer.

We don't know if the damage to Daniel Bryan's neck was worse than originally figured, the same as originally figured, or if there's a possibility he didn't hurt his neck at all, but that this entire scenario is a way of giving the guy an extended rest from the ring wars after having served so hard for so long......which could be a nod to the CM Punk mess with WWE realizing that the Punk "retirement" caused so much negative publicity and genuine bad feelings on the part of the fans that the company might have determined that a better way to handle a lengthy vacation by a performer might be to have him fake a serious injury......after all, no one's going to come down on Daniel and his employer if the poor guy broke his neck, are they? Meanwhile, they can tantalize us with "Will he or won't he?" possibilities that add spice to the proceedings even when the guy isn't performing in the ring.

No, the purpose of this post isn't to suggest Daniel is faking the neck injury, but in the world of pro wrestling, it could happen, couldn't it?

Therefore, speculating on how the vacant world championship situation will be handled is virtually impossible until we know the real facts behind Daniel Bryan's neck injury and how quickly (or slowly) he's really coming back.

 

[bxbigshow]

I thought part of that speculation would've been cleared up on this past Raw. I was hoping that Cena would've convinced/pressured/con Stephanie in saying/guaranteeing a return Championship match for Bryan once he's cleared.

By doing that then Bryan would have no reason NOT to vacate he title, but that never happened.

I hope he is stripped of the belts and a believable 'face' (Cena/Big E/Kofi) wins it in MITB. This way they can offer Bryan the rematch at SummerSlam. Not possible if a heel wins.

 

[BestWrestlingOpinions]

I would go with the undecided at first, but hey, between a feud of Bryan vs Kane and a Ladder match for the titles, I'd much rather see the second.

 

[OYDK]

I would MUCH rather see Daniel Bryan come back to defend his WWEWHC against Kane and than move on to whoever from there. The feud with Kane will probably end after the MITB match (assuming Bryan returns) so all the people bitching about it won't have to see it anymore and it's a much better option than giving it to Orton, Cena, HHH, or basically anybody else at this point. If Bryan wasn't going to be able to compete, than Steph should have just stripped him of the title to garner more heat, instead of giving the two options. Here's to hoping Bryan comes back in a month.

 

[laodaron]

Here's where we're at right now in the Daniel Bryan fiasco:

Daniel Bryan has an extremely successful push into the title hunt for half of 2013 and 2014. He finally gets his title at WM30, to much fanfaire, and immediately leaves for a wedding that could have literally been planned for a month before or a month later. Then something horrible and tragic happens, and his father passes away. And then, it turns out, he's going to get that neck surgery that he's probably needed for a few years but decided until after he was champ to get done.

Hey, I don't blame him, but let's be honest. At least some of the reason he's been unsuccessful since WM30 is his own decision making, which isn't very good.

To top it off, the WWE pairs him up with probably the oldest active guy in the locker room, which results in horrible matches, and terrible acting/storyline. But, in their defense, everyone else that's worth anything is currently involved in much more interesting storylines than the "Underdog that couldn't win is now going to always win" storyline.

The only real option here is to strip him and reset. Give the belt to someone else on the roster right now, and have DB start chasing his title again. Otherwise, you're just looking at another hard worker that burned out early.

You can't give it to Cena, he's too busy building the company. You can't give it to Orton, he's doing the same.

What you CAN do is strip DB, and give it to HHH at MitB. You already have Orton/Rollins v. Ambrose/Reigns. Right now, HHH is the 5th wheel in the story. That ends up perfectly with putting the belt onto Reigns when he's ready, or even have Bryan beat HHH again. But really, the only person that will be able to comfortably eat the heat that would come from stripping DB is HHH.