One Year Later: Did They Botch?

CM Punk's epic rise started about a year ago. That is when he did a bitter "shoot" on the company during a title feud with John Cena. Would CM Punk leave the company with the WWE Championship? Would the WWE mess up, like many say they did with Nexus? Would he be killed off after a while and returned to the midcard? To put it simply, would they botch? One year later, have they messed up with Punk?

Of course, all this is from the standpoint of a certain type of fan. Before I get into that, how about looking at it from the standpoint of the WWE. This was their big summer angle last year. And yet, it did not draw great ratings. CM Punk became very over and sold a lot of merchandise, but ratings were not there. A year later, he is on the cover of video games. He is still very over. Ratings are moving back up, but I would not say that is because of him. Ratings are obviously not everything, but I find it interesting that not one conversation I have come across about how awesome CM Punk was last year ever mentions that ratings were not great.

How about reasons that fans might have to complain or say the WWE "botched" with CM Punk. Going back to last year, some fans did complain about CM Punk coming back so soon. I can overlook that. Zoom to 2012. CM Punk is one of the longest-reigning WWE Champions in the last decade. That should be something to keep CM Punk fans happy. And he has been putting on great matches. Problem is, when was the last time that he was in the main event of a PPV? That has not happened in 2012. He is still being overshadowed by John Cena, the centerpiece of the company. A lot of fans can have a legitimate complaint in that. Now, go back to the last PPV. John Cena was instrumental in the demise of John Laurinaitis. Wasn't CM Punk the guy who was challenging the establishment and status quo last year? Earlier this year, he was the one feuding with Laurinaitis. Funny how things just shifted away from that and to Cena feuding with Laurinaitis, isn't it? Once again, I would say that this is a legitimate complaint fans can have. Why shouldn't CM Punk look like the hero who beats the establishment? That was his storyline since last year.

All things considered, I don't think the WWE messed up at all. Some may complain about Alberto Del Rio winning the title last year, Triple H beating Punk, and Kevin Nash being inserted into the storyline, but there are other guys the WWE had to feature besides Punk and they have a right to try to develop the feud. Most importantly, it didn't even screw Punk. And even though he is a midcard WWE Champion, he is still holding the title longer than many thought he would. As for Cena getting what should have been Punk's feud, you just have to live with that. The status quo has not changed. CM Punk is still being pushed well. Has he lost some of his edge with his recent storylines? Yes. But he is still showing he has that ability to connect with the fans. I would say that the WWE has not "botched" with CM Punk. That is to say, not yet. What happens when he loses that title and gets cycled out? It will have to happen sooner or later.

Layla: Not The Centerpiece

I had said that what would really show whether or not the WWE wanted to develop Layla as centerpiece would be how they push her after her current title reign ends. Would they continue to revolve the major diva matters around her? You don't even have to wait that long. The WWE has pretty much already shown that they do not currently want to develop her as the top diva.

Go back a few weeks. Beth Phoenix got another title shot at a PPV. Before they brought this feud back to the main shows the week prior to No Way Out, it was pretty much nonexistent. When they did bring it back, it was just to hand Beth two wins to build momentum before losing to Layla, again. This match was more diva filler for the PPV card.

Where has Layla found herself since then? No credible jobber looks to be on the horizon. They can definitely try to push a heel Tamina against her, but they aren't. She has a brief encounter with AJ this week, including what happened on Raw and what will happen on Smackdown, but AJ is already tied into something more important. Layla is the one who does not seem to have a clear, great direction. And yet, she is Diva's Champion. But not the centerpiece.

As for AJ, her storyline continues to revolve around 3 main-eventers. They are pushing her hard. This is the hardest they have pushed a diva in the men's division since Lita. Depending on how much longer it lasts and what more they have her do, this might top what the WWE did with Lita. Because the WWE is not yet showing any interest in developing major diva division matters around her to hype her as the best diva in the division, she is not the centerpiece. It just goes to show that a diva does not need to be Trish Stratus for the WWE to develop her as a star. It is a smart move to shift to building divas in the periphery after years of failures with creating a centerpiece. AJ is definitely getting over.

Speaking honestly, I find it a shame that Mickie James will have to end up with this tainted legacy, while a woman hyped by many as her replacement is getting built to be a success. Comparing AJ's career in the WWE to Mickie's is comparing the career of a periphery diva to a credible jobber. Mickie James earned her overness the hard way and a better career than she was given. As I just mentioned, AJ is really benefiting from years of inability to recreate Trish. They are not even pushing their Diva's Champion as well as they are AJ.

Final point, what about Beth Phoenix? If you have ever read my blog before, you probably guessed that this depush and poor treatment would be coming for Beth even before she won the title last year. If you have never read my blog before, let's just look at the history of Beth's recent push. Before she got the push last year, she wasn't doing anything. She had no storyline or feud going. The WWE even had to turn her heel the very night she won a title shot and started her feud with face Kelly Kelly. After Beth did win the title, they never really developed any great feuds for her and often pushed her inconsistently. Good focus was not on her. It should have been easy to see that this push for Beth would end like all her other pushes in the past. She is back to being lost in the shuffle.

Big Show Not Moving Down An Inch

Brodus Clay is no longer undefeated. Nothing wrong with having him lose to Big Show, but I am disappointed that the feud didn't last too much more than a week after Brodus helped Cena beat Big Show at No Way Out. Brodus was just used to put over Big Show's new dominance. They did that before No Way Out, even though the match between the two then never got started. This is why the midcard is so poor. I should have known not to trust the WWE to do the right thing. Elevate Brodus up to an upper-midcard feud. Lower Big Show down to that level, just for a little while, if necessary. Big Show can go over in the feud, but Brodus at least walks away with some good credibility. That is how I would have done it. Brodus was not completely squashed on Raw, but it wasn't the kind of match I had in mind. Needed to be longer.

Where does Big Show move to? Money in the Bank. There were definitely a few ways to still develop a feud with Brodus Clay off of Big Show's goal to win a briefcase, but I'll move on. The WWE Championship Money in the Bank match will feature 4 main-eventers going after the briefcase. In past years, the briefcase was usually a tool for new Champions to be developed. There are some exceptions, like Kane. Kane, John Cena, Chris Jericho, and Big Show will go at it. Where are your midcarders who can use the rub or make the match more entertaining with their unique styles? Kofi Kingston? I would say Brodus Clay, but many fans may dislike big men in ladder matches. And yet, this match will feature both Kane and Big Show. And Cena really isn't famous for ladder matches. Basically, the match quality may suffer from not having as many good spots as past Money in the Bank matches have had.

Big Show still going after Cena? Was that really necessary? With Jericho coming back, a feud between Cena and him would have been a little fresher than Cena and Big Show. Even if they were still going to all be in the 4-man match, keep the focus on a fresher foe for Cena. With the way they are pushing Big Show, it is like Mark Henry 2011 all over again. The WWE must have noticed what having a dominant monster did for Smackdown's ratings. Nevertheless, even though I do not hate Big Show, I wish they would have given him some slight depush.

Brock Lesnar Vs. Triple H At Summerslam

This is a feud that the WWE is trying to develop over the span of months. This is a feud that a lot of fans have been interested in seeing for close to a decade. This is a feud that may be the main event of Summerslam. And Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar is going to happen.

And yet, I'm really not too hyped for it. Having Brock return a few months ago was great. Even though having Cena overcome him in his return match was typical booking for many, I still found it great that the storyline involved this idea that Brock was trying to basically take over, bullying the GM of both shows, John Laurinaitis. When Brock "broke" Triple H's arm, you could tell what was coming. They bring in these lawsuits to make things more heated, but I'm not feeling the hype. There is still a lot of time to develop things further and raise the stakes.

Why is it even important to care about this feud being good? Brock Lesnar is a huge investment for the WWE. He is someone they are pushing as a big deal, while not even using him much. Is he really going to earn his pay? That might be the wrong question. Is the WWE going to utilize Brock properly? If they do not, I can see them making the same mistake TNA makes. They have great talent, legends, and people who are definitely popular and proven they can draw. And yet, the company does not deliver on its part to make the talent really deliver for them. If the WWE cannot come up with a good direction for this feud between Brock and Triple H, this whole investment may fail to draw.

There is an even scarier thought than that. What if this feud between Brock and Triple H is the big summer storyline they were planning to develop this year? They also have Raw's 1,000 episode and going 3 hours, but that isn't really connected to a storyline. Going back to my main point, this feud seems to be lacking hype to it. Go back to the previous big summer angles. Last year, CM Punk did a bitter promo and challenged the establishment. Year before that, Nexus revolted against the entire company. Before that, Donald Trump "bought" Raw. In all these situations, there was intrigue in what will happen and the very landscape of the company could have been altered, in terms of kayfabe (storyline). In Brock/Triple H, I don't really feel that intrigue. As I said, when Brock attacked Triple H, it was obvious what was going to happen. They were going to fight. What about the company being shaken? They could definitely do more with that lawsuit aspect. As of right now, it is really just about money. They need to do more. It would be the 2nd-biggest disappointment of 2012 if the big summer angle ends up just being a basic feud between Triple H and Brock Lesnar over an injury and lawsuits. The biggest disappointment would still have to be Jericho's epic return. And he's coming back again, isn't he?

Dixie and AJ Are Such Good People!

Most of my complaints involving TNA's storylines revolve around them being boring and repetitive. The feuds are often dry. This recent storyline involving Dixie Carter and AJ Styles does not fall in that same category, but it is so bad, I have to mention it.

A lot of people would say that pro wrestling is a lot like a soap opera. TNA has just proven that point. For weeks now, Christopher Daniels and Kaz have been terrorizing AJ and Dixie, claiming that they were sleeping together. This week on Impact, the truth was finally revealed, supposedly. A woman came down and said she was an addict whom AJ and Dixie were trying to help. That is supposed to explain everything. That is one of the craziest things that could have come out of this storyline. Too dramatic. I would agree that TNA needs to come up with some elaborate storylines to appeal to more than just wrestling fans, but the direction this storyline has taken is over the top. They had an elaborate feud between Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angle last year. That was a good feud with a reasonable storyline. Well, reasonable in comparison to what is going on now. The feud became personal through Jarrett bringing in Karen. That feud was based on something that actually was real and it made sense. What is going on with AJ and Dixie is obviously just a storyline to cause drama. Once again, I think they are taking it too far in a stupid direction.

What should they do? I would hope it is revealed that Dixie paid that woman to lie. She wanted to cover up the truth. I am not saying Dixie needs to turn heel. The way the storyline is going, it is sickening to see them make Dixie and AJ look so virtuous. They go to all that trouble to help that woman? It is just a hard storyline twist to swallow, which makes me really dislike this whole thing. I hope this all does not end with the tag title match coming up.

Since I am on the subject of TNA, how about the ratings? How have ratings been doing since the disastrous number the first night they went live at the new time? From that night, it took 2 weeks just to get back to a 1.0. Yeah, that is pretty sad. You never had any episode drop below a 1.0 during the summer of last year. So far, it would seem that going live and starting at an earlier time is having no positive effect. The response will be to wait until people get used to the new time, but where will that get you? 1.2? 

People Power Ends

Let me go back to what I said before No Way Out.

Unless the WWE plans to bring in a controversial replacement for Laurinaitis or make their summer angle revolve around Laurinaitis trying to revolt in some way, John Cena should be the one losing.

Obviously, John Cena did not lose. No clear signs of Laurinaitis trying to regain his power have popped up. How about a controversial replacement? The WWE has decided to run with interim GMs. That is not something I had in mind, and I definitely would not consider it controversial, but it is an interesting thing to do. There have been a lot of legends who have been in charge in the last few years. We have already seen Mick Foley. How about Bret Hart? I would be happy to see Stephanie McMahon again. And even though William Regal is still on the roster, it would be nice to see him used in a relevant role again, even if only for a short period. Moreover, depending on what the WWE does with the future GMs to come, this can branch off to that controversial summer angle. Simply rotating GMs is not good enough to count as a big angle. Nevertheless, it does get people interested in who may be coming back to run the show and the kind of things that might happen.

John Laurinaitis is gone. Would they bring him back for a run as interim GM? It would be funny if that somehow led to him regaining full power. As of now, he is gone. I honestly think he should have lasted longer. And then you have the issue a lot of people may have. Did Cena have to be the guy to get rid of him? I would have had a good feud between Laurinaitis and Triple H, but that was long before Triple H and Brock Lesnar started their issues. Before that, everyone would have said that CM Punk should be the guy who topples Mr. Excitement. CM Punk's whole gimmick last year was that he was anti-establishment. Laurinaitis was his enemy. I wouldn't say that the WWE shifting away from that is an example of bad writing or not being able to follow a storyline through. I would say that it is an example of once again putting the centerpiece in a spotlight where he may not have belonged. Did Cena really need to look like a hero here? Whatever some people want to say, he did end up looking like a hero. They spent a long time building up Laurinaitis, and it paid off for Cena.

And ratings? I read that it was a 3.42 for Raw this week. That is a very good number and will definitely help elevate the low yearly average Raw has gotten so far in 2012. For the sake of comparison, not one Raw during the summer of 2011 saw an average rating as high as a 3.4. People tuned in to see Laurinaitis go? Fans are always talking about this guy being the reason for bad ratings, but if ratings do eventually sink back to anything around a 3.0 or lower (before football season), what will the excuse be then?

Jobbers Take Over Tag Division

The direction the tag division has taken recently is kind of funny. In the last few weeks, you had Ziggler and Swagger, who are arguably the top heel team, split up for the benefit of Ziggler getting more of a singles push. As far as R-Truth and Kofi Kingston went, they were obviously the top tag team of the division and held the titles. Problem is, R-Truth got injured. That pretty much leaves your two major teams broken.

What does the WWE do? With the tag division showing even fewer resources to run optimally than the diva division, they pulled in four tag teams for a #1 contenders match at No Way Out. There were actually four other teams other than Ziggler/Swagger and Truth/Kingston? Yes. They were hidden away in the lower-midcard. These teams would be lucky if they even got to job on Raw in recent weeks.

Darren Young and Titus O'Neil have been getting some good exposure lately. They are the ones who ended up winning the title shot. They also have developed a little feud with Epico, Primo, and Rosa, after A.W. betrayed his former clients. An actual storyline in the tag division? Epico and Primo have held the titles before, so it is good that the WWE is still giving them attention. I did find having them win on Raw this week stupid. If you are going to build up Darren Young and Titus O'Neil, they will need some wins to build up their credibility. Even a cheap win would do. Instead, Epico and Primo get the cheap win. But I do realize that the WWE pretty much needs to do this. Even if the current Tag Champs were at 100%, they would have to break up eventually. And then what? You start building up new teams? Why not start now, especially when R-Truth is not ready to go? Overall, I have to give the WWE credit for their recent interest in the tag division. It's too bad it took the possible short-term collapse of the division for them to do it, but still good.

Brodus Matures

Brodus Clay is still undefeated. Otunga did not defeat him in the pre-show match last night. More importantly, Brodus was an instrumental part in Big Show's loss in the main event. Obviously, Big Show made a few enemies during the course of the storyline, and that came back to haunt him.

This is the kind of Brodus Clay that I was hoping for 2 or 3 months ago. This is more than just squash matches against the regular jobbers on the roster. The WWE is finally having this guy show he is more than just a dancing comedy character. This is good character development. From here, Brodus can continue to be used in more regular feuds.

Where should he go from here? An obvious answer would be a legitimate feud with Big Show. I don't see any need to continue Cena/Show. As everyone knows, those two have already been in various feuds over the years already. I would also say that now would be the time to finally develop a midcard title feud for Brodus, but there is an obvious problem with that. The U.S. and Intercontinental Championships are held by faces. A heel would have to win them first, then eventually transition to a feud with Brodus. That would take a while. Big Show and Cena does not need to continue, and some fans may hate if it does, so a feud between Big Show and Brodus Clay would be great. Start developing a new big man.

And in something completely unrelated, I was watching one of those old-time shows. It wasn't a wrestling show. The host passed along some interesting words of wisdom. He said, "A rumor is like a check- don't endorse it until you're sure it's genuine." Probably heard it before, but just keep it in mind.

Dance Or Die

I'm not allowed to ever mention my favorite singer, am I?

Vince McMahon returned on Raw, made fun of Jim Ross, danced a little, put John Laurinaitis in a "Do or Die" situation, and got killed off again. On Smackdown, it will be revealed that John Cena might end up being fired, if he does not defeat Big Show in that cage match. In other words, someone is going to lose their job.

Did the match really need that added stipulation? Just go back to how the match looked before this week. John Cena vs. Big Show in a cage was going to be the main event of a PPV, trumping World title matches. These two have faced each other before in PPV matches that did not involve a title. It wasn't the main event then, so what makes this feud worthy of it now? Enter Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis. Putting the GM job on the line definitely makes it worthy of the top match on the card. But making it seem like Cena now has something to overcome? He has beaten Big Show lots of times. I have to admit, they at least made things more interesting to try to draw in buys.

Who will win? Obviously, no matter what happens, it can all be undone very easily. Cena has been "fired" before. Remember when Cena was drafted to Smackdown? That didn't last long. But how should the WWE handle this situation? Laurinaitis losing his job will lead people to wondering who will be in charge next. How will that person run things? Will Laurinaitis try to fight back? If Cena loses, that will cause even bigger controversy. Of course, they didn't exactly follow up with that kind of direction the last time they did it very well. Unless the WWE plans to bring in a controversial replacement for Laurinaitis or make their summer angle revolve around Laurinaitis trying to revolt in some way, John Cena should be the one losing. That would be the only real outcome that will get people wondering whether the status quo will really change or not.

Santino Is Still Champ, Right?

I was thinking about current things in the WWE that I may have been overlooking. How about that Santino? He is still United States Champion, but he really hasn't done anything relevant with the title for a while now. That is not surprising. Before him, Jack Swagger was not doing much with the title. Before him, Zack Ryder had a bad reign. Dolph Ziggler was the last well-booked U.S. Champion.

The WWE still seems to be continuing issues between Santino and Ricardo. Both are comedy characters, but both can wrestle. Why not make more of a legitimate feud out of this? For the title? Yes. Crazy? I don't think it is as crazy as putting a title on a popular worker and not doing anything relevant with him. Am I saying Ricardo should win the title? No. But this can at least make for an interesting feud in the midcard.

Getting serious, who should be the real person to actually take the title off Santino? No need for him to lose it to another comedy character, but I think he has held the title long enough. What heel could use it? Give it back to Swagger? I could only see him getting it if they wanted to transition it to another face they wanted to develop. They definitely do not care about developing Swagger, at the moment. Now that Tensai is heading into a direction that may fit him more, the midcard, I don't think it would be bad to give him a title run. Have him beat Santino. If the WWE had lost all faith in the guy, they would have just dropped him completely, especially after his loss to Cena. They didn't drop him. They had him lose to Sheamus this week. Then, Tensai beat up his buddy. He is pretty much crumbling before our very eyes. But he has to level off somewhere. Or get released. This guy isn't so horrible that he needs to go to FCW. There is also Otunga. Again, people may criticize his wresting ability, but he has never held a singles title. And he has definitely gotten a lot of good solo attention lately. Other than those two, I cannot think of a heel on Raw that really deserves a title run and is not already involved in something more. Santino definitely does not need the title to be used.