The scenario where, if he is healthy he defends his title, or if not he is stripped of the belt, does nothing but threaten everything that Bryan has ever worked for. And with his grit and determination, his staggering mental toughness, clearly he's going to do whatever he can to hold on to his dream spot. It's the nature of wrestlers, especially the ones dedicated enough to make it to the top. Looked at from his perspective, you may take the stance that it's commendable.
But looking at the WWE's decision, I find it completely appalling.
Since WrestleMania 30, Daniel Bryan has had a tough time as WWE Champion. On his very first night as King, WWE couldn't have offered a more symbolic image to its viewers: Daniel Bryan unable to stand, lying beaten in the background, as Evolution and The Shield took centre stage with their first staredown. A sign of things to come. A combination of real life events (his honeymoon with Brie Bella and the death of his father) and terrible booking (Daniel Bryan's title reign being a low enough priority that all they had for him was Kane) stalled his run from the beginning, and things only got worse when word got out that Daniel Bryan needed neck surgery. Right now he is in no position to be taking bumps, with the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter stating that Bryan's rehab is slow going, and worse, that has been losing strength in his arm.
The Pay-Per-View is in three weeks. I understand the need to have your champion available, and to use the World Title on your big events. The company has shows to promote and all, but for putting the guy in this position, WWE need to be strapped into chairs and beaten with hammers. Have they not learned a single thing?
All this situation does, one more time, is demonstrate that underneath all the promotional bullshit, the campaigns, their Wellness policy, their rehab offers and their new initiative to help former employees go to college (WWE: The College Years needs to be Network viewing, by the way), when it comes to crunch time, they have the same bullish, ignorant mentality when it comes to the treatment of the talent that they always did.
Daniel Bryan fucks up his neck for the business. You either come back before you are ready or you lose your spot. And this won't be the first time this has happened in the last couple of years. Fandango was brought in, put over Chris Jericho at WrestleMania and treated like a hot commodity. Then he gets a concussion, and poof - all gone. Dolph Ziggler wins the World Championship, and suffers the exact same fate. Concussed and depushed. What kind of culture does this kind of mentality breed? The same one this company always did - fuck you and your health, we come first. Oh, and hide your injuries, because you'll be punished for them.
The road schedule in the 80s left a lot of casualties behind. Say what you want about the excesses of the time, and you'd be right to, but the old mentality of only being paid when you worked didn't help the massive painkiller problems and drug addictions that led to a lot of early demises. Ditto the 90s and early 2000s, where the bar was being raised and the envelope pushed, the environment encouraging guys to take incredible risks and keep on going. The results on the bodies spoke for themselves, and if they didn't, Dr. Youngblood sure would.
Daniel Bryan's win at Mania 30 led to a lot of comparisons to Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit from a decade earlier. Two undersized guys who, through incredible talent, broke through the roadblocks placed before them. And how did they do it? By doing things that they have no business doing to their bodies.
Eddie Guerrero defended his WWE Title against JBL at Judgment Day 2004, and was given a few weeks off afterwards, at the time believed to be as a result of a blood transfusion after his massive blade-job. As it later came out, he was actually given a break because he was told by his doctor that his back was absolutely destroyed, broken beyond belief, and that he needed to retire immediately. The pressures were getting to Eddie, and the title was taken from him.
But he carried on regardless, striving to get back to the top level, washing away the pain with high amounts of painkillers, increasing his steroid and human growth hormone use to dangerous levels in order to give his physique that extra something. We know how his story ended.
In 2001, Chris Benoit was doing diving headbutts from the top of a steel cage with a broken neck to try and get to the top. He used steroids his entire career, refusing to get off them even when he was out for a year with neck surgery, for fear of losing the slightest edge. He was renowned for his drive and focus. I'm not going to suggest the business made Benoit do what he did, but there were a lot of elements about it that stem from his desire to make it, and the pressure from the WWE, spoken or not, to do certain things that weren't healthy.
One look at an episode of Raw now reveals that the company is generally a lot cleaner on the steroids front than it has been for a while, but how the fuck WWE can't see how dangerous this decision is, and how shit-headed they are about how their decisions impact these guys lives in a negative way, is beyond me.
Even more frustrating, they don't need to take this foolish measure. This situation lends itself to a natural solution, one they should blatantly steal from the UFC - have the Money in the Bank Ladder Match be contested for the Interim WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Since they have absolutely no heels ready for Daniel Bryan right now anyway, this is the perfect way to set up a big match for Bryan upon his return to determine the real champion, one in which the fans will be behind Bryan 100% to maintain his threatened position. And more importantly than booking, it sets a positive precedent and sends the right message to the guys.
Instead, you're rushing this guy back, and the match you're making him risk his health for is against Kane? WHY!?!?
I know the counter-argument. Daniel Bryan can say no. And you know what, if his neck is that bad, then he should. Because he doesn't want the fate of the guys who said "YES!"
Personally I think WWE knew about Bryan's neck situation prior to Mania but the payday was too good to turn down. At the biggest PPV of the year the biggest star should be champion. This would make sense when it comes to the Shield v Evolution becoming the priority as far as booking. Kane is a veteran and to be fair to Bryan, he made him look like the Kane of old. Kane looks like a killer again. WWE have taken a short term gain over a long term vision. For me, I would have stripped him of the title on the Raw after Payback instead of Brie quitting, put the title on the line at MITB with Bryan versus the MITB winner st Summerslam. Postpone Lesnar v Bryan until Survivor Series(orig rumoured to be at Summerslam) and go from there. Then they can run with whatever WWE was planning to do albeit with a 3 month delay.
ReplyDelete