Honestly, I did not see the big deal. Daniel Bryan was talking some smack to Miz. Some people might say it was just kayfabe and Miz took it too far. Well, Daniel Bryan was starting to shoot on the "safe" WWE style and criticized Miz as someone that was afraid to get hit. Daniel Bryan pretty much left himself wide open to get owned. And he said it to someone like Miz, who is great on the mic. Put those two things together. What did people think might happen? Why wouldn't Miz remind Daniel Bryan of the fact that he banged himself up to the point that the WWE didn't want to let him wrestle anymore? Why should Miz let himself lose a war of words to Daniel Bryan over something that Miz can definitely hit back on and hit back in a hard way? Miz's great mic skills are pretty much one of the reasons this segment was so newsworthy.
Another reason it was so newsworthy was the guy being verbally stomped was Daniel Bryan. Everyone remembers when the WWE tried to treat this guy as a B+ player a few years ago. It backfired to an unbelievable level. Daniel Bryan has become a legend in pro wrestling. Miz berating him like he did was going to get a response.
Last reason this was going to get people talking, it's a pipebomb. Those things usually succeed in getting people talking. Someone is going to go out there and give a self-righteous promo. A few people have given these kind of promos in the last few years since CM Punk sat on that stage on Raw and complained. Miz's is probably at least second best to the initial one Punk did. Part of me enjoyed it more than any of CM Punk's pipebombs. I liked the intensity more than the trademark arrogance of CM Punk found in his pipebombs. I also liked that his argument was pretty much spot on. Criticize him for wrestling a "safe" style, but at least he is still wrestling, adding to his title resume, and contributing to the show in multiple ways.
Why did I not see it as a big deal? Take away the smoke & mirrors. Get to the core. Forget how popular Daniel Bryan is. Forget how good on the mic Miz is. Forget how these self-righteous promos do tend to grab attention. What was really the point? What could this possibly have led to that I should see it as a big deal? Unless the WWE has given Daniel Bryan the green light to come back for one more match or one more run, what is there to get excited about? Do people want Miz to get a better push? Problem is, AJ Styles is already the heel challenging Dean Ambrose for the WWE Championship. Do fans want to see Styles get screwed out of his spot so Miz can get it? Moreover, Miz kind of already is getting pushed. He is Intercontinental Champion. CM Punk's pipebomb felt like it shook the status quo, because it was aimed at the status quo. Miz's pipebomb was only aimed at Daniel Bryan. That's probably why I just didn't feel the same way about it as some fans.
Some fans expect that this will help Smackdown ratings. CM Punk's pipebomb didn't really help Raw back in the day. I would not expect Miz's promo last week to help the show this week get the most viewers of 2016. Ratings aren't out yet, so we will have to see.
Should the WWE try to turn Miz into the new CM Punk? He obviously lacks the wrestling skills. It is interesting how the WWE might lose a certain great worker and try to make another one later on. What usually makes a worker great is that he has more than one great attribute. That is why it is difficult to replace him when he isn't there. If greatness was so easy to replace, would it still be great? Look at those two guys I have been talking about, Daniel Bryan and Miz. One has the great wrestling ability that CM Punk also possessed. The other has the great mic skills that CM Punk was also known for. Individually, neither of these two can replace CM Punk. But if you take the best qualities of both, then you might just have another CM Punk. But as far as the WWE trying to make a new CM Punk with Miz, they probably shouldn't bother. It would screw up certain other guys on Smackdown. Besides that, Miz's pipebomb didn't exactly make him as beloved as CM Punk's pipebomb.
Some people are talking about whether Miz's promo last week was a work or a shoot. Judging by the mediocre way they followed up with it this week, they probably didn't expect anything big to come of it and just tried to make something of the hype. If they had planned to make a big angle out of it all along, I would have expected better. If it was a work designed to create buzz, why not follow through with it better? What they were going to talk about might have been scripted, but Miz's intense promo might have created more interest with smarks than the WWE expected. In any case, out comes Dolph Ziggler to kill the buzz.
Miz defends the Intercontinental Championship against Dolph Ziggler in two weeks at Backlash. Needless to say, this is a match just thrown together. There wasn't much time between Summerslam and Smackdown's first PPV of the new era. Ziggler was still partially involved in the WWE title scene up to last week. Miz could have continued his feud against Applo Crews. But this is the direction the WWE has taken.
Let me talk about Ziggler. He was involved in a face vs. face feud for the WWE Championship for Summerslam. It got a little heated at times. It looked like Dolph might turn heel. It looked like this was a storyline that should go beyond just Summerslam. People praise Smackdown for handling its show better than Raw, but I would say this is one of the first few mistakes Smackdown has made. That is all there is to the feud? Was there an actual payoff to the storyline? Even AJ Styles mocked Ziggler last week, who then only proceeded to lose to Styles in the main event. And now Ziggler is on to something else? If the WWE did not have any long-term intentions for Ambrose vs. Ziggler, why bother going with this feud? You had Bray Wyatt sitting in his rocking chair in the back for Summerslam with no match, he could have been the heel being used to put over Ambrose at Summerslam. It just seems like the Smackdown writers might have expected fans to react differently to Ziggler/Ambrose. When they didn't, they just did a poor job following through with the story. Some say that the Nikki/Carmella double-turn happened because Nikki got cheered when she returned. Some say the main reason was Carmella failing as a face. I just hope those writers aren't becoming too reactionary. Yeah, listen to the fans, but don't just kill the direction you are going when it doesn't work out the way you want it for a few weeks. Has Ziggler lost the storyline it looked like he was getting? Will Miz now get that storyline? In any case, there does appear to be some shaking up with the storylines on Smackdown.
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