What's Happening in the WWE?

SummerSlam, the second biggest show for the year for WWE, has come and gone. The post-PPV Raw has come and gone. Here’s what we learned:

The Brie Bella – Stephanie McMahon story line just got confusing.

The tag team scene is confusing.

Creative’s weird booking is confusing.

Bray Wyatt is confusing.

Seth Rollins is becoming a great heel.

Brock Lesnar demolished John Cena.

Those are the high points. I’d like to talk about each one, in no particular order. Let’s break it down.

Twin Magic & Heel Turns

Brie Bella challenged Stephanie McMahon to a match prior to SummerSlam. Stephanie carried the workload of the match, which is surprising. She’s not been in the ring in over 10 years, yet she carried Brie Bella through the action. Then the confusion began. Nikki Bella, whom Stephanie McMahon had tortured for weeks, turned on Brie, allowing Stephanie to win.

On Raw, Nikki claimed that she hated being in Brie’s shadow, and so she wanted out. Brie came to the ring to confront her, and Nikki slapped her. Now we have the Bella Twins in a feud. Think about this, Nikki Bella, a third-tier performer in the ring, actually turned heel before her boyfriend (John Cena). The Bella Twins, possibly the worst actors on the roster, have shown more character range than the company’s “golden boy.”

Tag Teams That May or May Not Make Sense

The tag title picture is confusing. The simple truth is that the Wyatt Family should’ve won the tag titles long ago. Luke Harper is one of the best big men in wrestling today. His partner, Erick Rowan, doesn’t have the range of Harper, but he makes up for it with insanity, intensity, and pure strength. He scoop-slammed Big Show with relative ease on Raw. Beyond that, the Wyatts have great chemistry with the Usos.

Instead, WWE has decided to move the Wyatts away from the tag titles. Leaving the belts on the Usos is an okay move, as the Usos are good champions. But it now requires Creative to build up new threats to them. The Dust Bros. (Goldust and Stardust) are not yet being fully pitched as title contenders. The Ascension is still at NXT, though they’re expected to be called up soon. And now we have the team of Big Show and Mark Henry.

Sure, the pairing has revitalized their careers, but truthfully they’re just two aging superstars who don’t belong in the main event scene anymore. Pairing them up as a tag team gives them something to do, provides Creative with a reliable draw, and means fans will always see a well-worked match.

But it could all be better. And it’s all Creative’s fault. Why?

False Starts

For some reason, WWE Creative has gotten into a rhythm of beginning a story line, only to abandon it within a couple weeks. They might give it a little longer, but they’re still going to abandon it.

This could've been really awesome...

About three weeks ago, Kofi Kingston and Big E lost a tag team match. Afterwards, Xavier Woods showed up in a suit a delivered a solid, if cryptic, promo. On Main Event, Big E and Kingston teamed up and displayed a much more vicious side. They were shown back stage watching other matches. They came to ringside to watch matches. And the fans were behind it. It was hailed as the second coming of the Nation of Domination. An all-black stable of mid-carders fed up with their role.

And then it stopped. No explanation. It just stopped. Kofi came to the ring by himself and he was once again happy-go-lucky Kofi Kingston. Big E came to the ring by himself. No one saw Xavier Woods. Sure, at Hulk Hogan’s birthday celebration last week the three were standing on the side of the stage wearing similar colors. But the new stable was dead on arrival. Creative just gave up. And no one knows why.

Sheamus, the stalest character in the history of modern WWE, was supposed to turn heel. Defeating Dean Ambrose in the battle royal for the US Title was supposed to be the start of his heel turn. And we all know Sheamus needs a character re-invention. A heel turn is perfect for him. He was better as a heel, anyway. Instead, Creative halted the heel turn and Sheamus is still the always-smiling FELLA!-shouting guy he was. I’m sure we’ll get another 1-800-FELLA commercial soon.

If this happens again, we riot...

Cesaro was one of the most “over” guys in the company. Fans loved him. He had a move-set that most babyfaces would kill for. His “giant swing” brought everyone to their feet. He was primed for a babyface turn. He won the Andre the Giant Memorial battle royal at WrestleMania 30, lifting and body-slamming the Big Show out of the ring to win.

On the next Raw, as Hulk Hogan presented him the trophy, Cesaro announced that he was leaving Zeb Colter, a solid heel at the time. Fans erupted. Then Cesaro announced he was joining Paul Heyman. Heyman was/is the heel to end all heels. He manages Brock Lesnar, who had just ended the Undertaker’s streak at WrestleMania. But Heyman is good enough to manage a babyface with Cesaro and a heel with Lesnar. But Creative forced Cesaro back into the heel role and it has absolutely halted any momentum the guy had.

His teammate with Zeb Colter, former Wolrd Heavyweight Champion Jack Swagger, has been the victim of so many false start pushes that fans no longer view him as a credible threat to anyone. Even when Swagger and Colter turned babyface to feud with Rusev, Creative refused to allow anyone to go over the monster heel, and so Swagger’s sudden babyface push has been halted. He not only lost at SummerSlam, but Cesaro beat him on the next Raw and Bo Dallas came out and mocked him. Talk about kicking someone when they’re down.

And it’s all Creative’s fault.

The Curious Ordeal of Bray Wyatt

Bray Wyatt should be a monster top tier heel by now. He should be. Instead, Creative entered him into a feud with John Cena. At WrestleMania, in a match that would’ve served to bring up a new frontline heel, without damaging Cena’s reputation, Cena took the win. The feud wasn’t over, but it was starting to look bleak. At Extreme Rules, Cena faced Wyatt in a cage match. This was supposed to stop outside interference, but Harper and Rowan were involved the whole time. Cena was poised to win this match, when a small child with an oddly distorted voice came out and sang to him. Yes, that happened.

Bray Wyatt...whom Creative is confused about...

Wyatt won the cage match, but his reputation was suffering thanks to Creative refusing to allow Cena to lose cleanly. At Payback a month later, Cena faced Wyatt in a Last Man Standing match. Anyone thinking that WWE would look to establish a future star needed to turn the TV off. John Cena was not losing a feud to Bray Wyatt. Cena won the LMS match by, literally, burying Bray Wyatt. It was a great match, but the outcome proved that WWE wasn’t really serious about a new heel threat to the top of the card.

Wyatt entered the WWE World Heavyweight Championship ladder match at Money in the Bank, but was basically a non-factor. He entered a feud with Chris Jericho that saw Jericho win at Battleground. Wyatt evened the series at SummerSlam, but most of the damage has already been done. So much damage has been done to his momentum that he basically has to start over.

If I told you a guy that, since Royal Rumble, had singles victories over Daniel Bryan, John Cena, and Chris Jericho, and had competed in the MITB ladder match for the WWE WHC, would basically be starting over, you'd have to realize just how bad Creative has screwed up.

Seth Rollins: Heel

Rollins, the man holding the Money in the Bank briefcase, has the full protection of the Authority. How do we know? Because he’s yet to face his nemesis, Dean Ambrose, cleanly. Their first potential match was a bit of bait-and-switch by WWE. The match was advertised, but it was canceled under the pretense that Triple H threw Ambrose out of the building. The two brawled several times that night.

Rollins trying to rip Ambrose's head off...

At SummerSlam, they finally fought. Ambrose had won a “Beat the Clock” challenge to name the stipulation for the match. In their infinite wisdom, WWE Creative decided that the best bet for this feud was a Lumberjack Match. Most fans scoffed at the notion, but once in the ring, Rollins and Ambrose delivered a fantastic show.

Of course, even with the ring surrounded by other wrestlers, the two fought into the crowd, they brawled outside the ring, and they took out several of the lumberjacks. And, of course, Kane interfered in the match, allowing Rollins to win.

At this point, Seth Rollins is one of the most protected stars on the roster. Sure, he recently lost to Heath Slater, but even that was used to further elevate his feud with Ambrose. Rollins and Ambrose once again fought on Raw, and once more Kane interfered, but this time it was more vicious, and it probably means we’ve seen the last of Ambrose for a while.

Dean Ambrose is due to film a movie, which means WWE had to write him off of weekly programming. They probably did this by having Rollins hit Ambrose with the Curb Stomp while Ambrose’s head was lying on a pile of concrete blocks. It was a vicious assault that makes the audience sympathize with Ambrose while realizing that Rollins is now one of the top tier heels on the roster.

Brrrrrrrrrrrock! Lesnar!

John Cena was the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Was. He was not on Raw. Brock Lesnar gained a shot at the title on Raw a few weeks back. He entered the ring at SummerSlam and basically destroyed John Cena. It was the single most lopsided victory I think I’ve ever seen anyone score over Cena.

Former enemies, now (apparently) friends

It’s rare that John Cena puts over anyone cleanly. Actually, to be more accurate, it’s rare that Creative allows someone to go over John Cena cleanly. The fact that Lesnar not only went over clean, but truly demolished Cena speaks volumes. What it says, though, is confusing. Is the Cena era over? If so, why replace Cena with a part-timer who is the same age?

We now have a WWE World Heavyweight Champion that is only contracted to work a few days per year. It will be up to Paul Heyman to build any feud Lesnar is in. But who challenges him? Sure, John Cena will get a rematch, probably at Night of Champions in September. But it’s unlikely Cena regains the title. That would cheapen Lesnar’s build. After ending the Undertaker’s streak at WrestleMania, the only thing left for Lesnar was to challenge for the title. Destroying Cena the way he did further builds the myth of Brock Lesnar.

WWE is in the process of building Roman Reigns into a main event challenger, but I don’t think Reigns will actually main event a pay-per-view until WrestleMania 31. Daniel Bryan is an option, but he’s still out with an injury. Randy Orton is an option, but most fans are as tired of him being in the main event picture as they are with Cena.

We'll see where this goes. Rumor is that WWE is already discussing Brock Lesnar's role in WrestleMania 31. According to this rumor, Triple H is pushing for Roman Reigns to take on Lesnar. Vince McMahon, however, wants Lesnar to face The Rock. While that will draw in the casual viewers, having Rock vs Brock as a main event of WrestleMania will do nothing for the future of the industry. Reigns may be ready for a main event by then. Right now, he simply isn't.