But upon finally watching the conclusion of last week’s RAW, I’m going to say that the steam has just been released out of the Daniel Bryan/Randy Orton/Best for Business storyline.  When Orton confronted Brie Bella in the back was one thing, but as soon as Brie Bella ran out to ringside to helplessly plead with Orton and then watch him beat down on Daniel Bryan, the entire storyline to me, went from one that was a test to see if Bryan Danielson the performer, could hold the WWE’s torch in a time of need, to one that is now being used to conveniently hype the continuation of Total Divas.

I really hope I’m wrong about it, because as a fan, the rise of Daniel Bryan is the best thing that has happened to the WWE in quite some time.  This is the first year in numerous years where wrestling has managed to keep a hold of my attention on weekly basis throughout an entire baseball season, and I’m making conscious efforts to keep up with weekly shows, even if I am DVR-skipping most of the actual action, just to see where the storylines are going.  Because that’s what’s the best thing about wrestling now – the interesting storylines.

Continue reading “I hope I’m wrong about this” →

Earlier in the week, Darren Young, a current active WWE wrestler, came out of the closet and announced that he is gay, when he was approached by a meddling paparazzo at an airport.  Admittedly, it’s funny to watch how the paparazzo probably thought he could corner Young into an uncomfortable situation with a loaded question, only for this admission to happen, and completely turn the tables on him.

But the point remains, it’s somewhat notable that a WWE wrestler would come out of the closet while still currently active and fairly regularly used on television, considering that just about every wrestler or other professional athlete who also admit to being gay, all waited until their careers were already over and in the past before doing so.

Continue reading “Positive ambivalence” →

6/24/13, Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton – Match of the Year

Obviously this is subjective, since I’m kind of more of a casual viewer than I once was, but it’s also worth noting that this is probably the longest stretch that I’ve been paying attention to wrestling in quite some time. Typically over the last few years, the pattern is that I start tuning again in around November when the baseball season is completely done with, all the way to around Wrestlemania which oftentimes coincides with the start of the next baseball season, and despite my intent to keep tuned in through the baseball season, I typically wane until the pattern repeats itself. That hasn’t really happened this year; whether it’s baseball’s importance to me drifting off, or the quality of WWE programming to keep me tuned in, I’ve still been capable of paying attention and staying somewhat on top of current storylines and happenings. I like to think it’s the latter.

Regardless, I still rarely watch any episodes of RAW or Smackdown live. I DVR both programs, and watch them at my own convenience; I’ve gotten pretty good at utilizing the +30 seconds button on the remote to fly through commercials, John Cena promos, and matches that don’t seem worth the time, and am capable of condensing a three-hour RAW down to about a little over an hour.

But anyway, as I was catching up this past Monday’s RAW, I found myself eagerly awaiting the main event between Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton. They’ve been running a program over the last month or so, where Orton has often been getting the better of through a series of lame-duck endings, while Daniel Bryan has been portraying an inferiority complex gimmick, which is getting massively, wildly over with the WWE fans, to a point where even management realizes that they have to do something about it.

Continue reading “Daniel Bryan and taking good back” →