It’s good to be back. You know when you get that feeling that no matter how bad things are for you in your personal life, there is always somewhere you can go that strips all of that away. This is it for me and I hope that for some of you, this blog is that same thing. For some it won’t be and for some it may be. Now that this blog is back up and running, for a moment there I thought I would have to set up another blog and all this would be for nothing, but browsers have been updated and we, my good friends, are back in business.
A Change at the Top
I predicted wrong. It’s not often I get something wrong when predicting outcomes of matches, but hell, at Money in the Bank I got at least two wrong. Rob Van Dam was the perfect choice to win the match on his reintroduction into the company but hence, at last, Randy Orton grabbed the privileged after doing so much for so many. The match had its fair share of top notch moments, Paul Heyman turning on Punk was always sign posted from the beginning to set up the Punk vs Lesnar match at SummerSlam, but for as much as Randy Orton’s victory will be celebrated the other standout result of the night is the one which is most promising.
Damien Sandow is the new number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship. In the Money in the Bank preview, I wrote that Sandow wasn’t an option to win the match because his star in WWE wasn’t big enough. To take Damien Sandow seriously as a threat to the World Heavyweight Championship WWE should have pushed him hard towards the event and if we’re going to buy into him and the whole Team Rhodes Scholars split then Sandow has to look better than he has. Which means no more losing to Brodus Clay or Sweet T on Raw and Smackdown and no more jobbing him out to talent who are going nowhere fast. Now, Damien Sandow has to be the man others job to.
How is the best way to build him up for his Championship shot and almost inevitable reign I hear you ask, well that’s simple. First, Alberto Del Rio has to lose the World Championship. A heel vs heel feud will do no business in WWE and now that Dolph Ziggler has dumped A.J and not before time, WWE need to switch the Championship back to Ziggler for his face turn. When that has happened WWE need to concentrate Sandow on wrestling only the biggest and best wrestlers WWE has to offer, and yes that does mean Cody Rhodes as well. Rhodes may be at the bottom of WWE’s pecking order but he still has the skills to elevate Sandow in what would be a cracking SummerSlam mid-card match.
With Randy Orton occupied elsewhere now, Damien Sandow has a limited cast of bit players to rely upon to hoist him upwards to lofty heights. Sheamus surely has to be out, after their Payback pre-show match which Sandow lost, no one would believe the scholar is capable of defeating Sheamus in a run in to the gold. So who does that leave? Rob Van Dam could do Sandow some good. Their wrestling styles compliment each other perfectly and Sandow has the ability to cover up for any rusty elements Van Dam may have acquired since leaving TNA. The feud could be an upper card box office smash and it’s almost a necessity if Damien Sandow isn’t going to be a caretaker champion.
I don’t know how WWE are planning to handle Sandow in the coming weeks and months, but let’s just hope history doesn’t repeat itself. If WWE treat Sandow like they did Jack Swagger when he won the Money in the Bank briefcase and World Heavyweight Championship then all of this, the hype, the build up and result would have been for nothing. If Damien Sandow is squashed going into this run, then WWE may as well have put the story on Jack Swagger for all the good it’s going to do. This is once chance they cannot waste, yet again. The future depends on it.
Here Comes Summer
Now Money in the Bank is out of the way, we can look forward to SummerSlam and the biggest event of the summer, once again from the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California, looks very promising even though only one match has been announced but Brock Lesnar vs C.M Punk will be added at a later date. Will it be the Triple H vs Brock Lesnar feud of last and this year? Maybe. Punk has the skills we all know that and Brock Lesnar, if he puts in another performance like he did at Extreme Rules then this match and feud could set the WWE on fire.
Now that John Cena has chosen Daniel Bryan as his opponent for SummerSlam, Bryan has the unenviable task of trying to both make John Cena and the match look good whilst protecting his own image. We know that Cena has a habit of killing off careers like they’re going out of fashion, but WWE cannot allow Bryan to be the next in a very long line. As stated before, there are very few men to come out of a feud with John Cena with their image intact. WWE needs to add a stipulation to this to aid Bryan in hiding Cena’s weaknesses. I don’t know if he can do it alone and if the rest of 2013 is going to pan out as WWE have planned then Bryan may need all the help he can get dealing with Cena.
Hopefully though, John Cena will drop the WWE Championship to Bryan on the show and if he does, then expect Randy Orton to cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase on Bryan at SummerSlam and take the gold, thus finally beginning his heel turn. If played well then it could be a huge turn, much the same as C.M Punk’s on Jeff Hardy in 2009 when Punk cashed in on Hardy and gradually began to turn heel during their great feud. It wouldn’t have to be done immediately but in time, over the next few months, Randy Orton could finally get the push he’s so richly deserved. Of course, on the upside, there is one huge advantage to Bryan defeating Cena and then losing to Orton on the same card. If Orton was to dethrone Bryan, then Cena’s automatic Championship rematch would be null and void. Which means we wouldn’t have to see him in the main event again in 2013. Ever cloud...
Not much else has been announced for the show but its safe to say that Kane will try to exact his revenge on The Wyatt’s for his attack on the pre-Money in the Bank Raw and there is even talk that maybe Undertaker will make an appearance. This may be just rumour but the biggest event of the summer would be that much bigger if The Undertaker and Kane were to team up to face The Wyatt’s.
Take the Poll
Last but not least this week, those of you regular readers may have noticed that three new polls have appeared to the left side of the page. They are free to take and would give me an insight into what you miss from the blog and what you would like to see in 2014. The first poll will decide this with many options to choose from. The second poll is for you to vote for who you think is the greatest wrestler in history and the third is for the worst wrestler in history.
Please do vote, it’s free and no they do not have viruses attached to them. I don’t do this for my own amusement people.
Onwards and upwards...
