Death of Wrestling: Respect My Authority!

Greetings to all… It’s David Davis with my weekly blog: Death of Wrestling. For all of those who read this regularly, you will know that this is not a blog about bashing wrestling; it’s a blog of a frustrated fan, who loves the business and wishes that each week it could be a little better.

I’m not sure that I’m okay with them busting Daniel Bryan back down to mid-card status. Okay, okay, the WWE claim to be using this as a way to elevate the Wyatt family, but something about it just doesn’t sit right with me…

Those of you who read my stuff regularly will know that my day job involves writing and script editing popular UK dramas, so when it comes to wrestling, it’s the storylines that I love the most, and as far as I’m concerned, the Daniel Bryan vs. the authority storyline was just bad story telling.

Imagine if Star Wars: Return of the Jedi had ended with Luke Skywalker getting his head chopped off and the Emperor reigning supreme??? This of course after the Empire Strikes Back when the bad guys came out on top… Star Wars is a simple good vs. evil story where ultimately good triumphs over evil…

I kind of see the Daniel Bryan story like a good vs. evil story and what has happened to Daniel over the last few PPVs was the Empire Strikes Back of the WWE. The Emperor (HHH) triumphed over Luke Skywalker (Daniel Bryan) in what would be regarded as the best film in the trilogy… BUT it’s only the best film because it’s the one where the bad guys won… If the bad guys won in Return of the Jedi then people would not be talking about Star Wars today – except to say what weird storytelling those films had.

It feels to me as if we’re missing the resolution to the story where the good guys ultimately triumph over the bad guys i.e. Daniel Bryan finally wins (and keeps) the big one. Without that crucial piece we just have a half told story. The optimist in me says that I just have to patient, but the realist/cynic in me tells me that ship has sailed.

Unfortunately for DB the ratings continued to decline throughout the run, and the top brass have allegedly put it down to him not being ‘big’ enough. I’m guessing they mean in size, but I also reckon they mean in star power. The trouble is, the ratings spiked when John Cena came back and so it’s hard to argue that they’re wrong; except for the fact that I think they are wrong…

It’s possible; likely even that the WWE universe stopped tuning in because they were annoyed with Daniel Bryan never getting the belt we all wanted him to have, and quite frankly the belt he deserves to have. It’s also likely that we knew he was never going to get it, and that they were dragging the storyline out for too long.

Of course, I also have to accept the fact that I might just be one of these internet wrestling community bloggers that I read about who doesn’t really know a thing about what it really takes to make the WWE run… I don’t believe that for a second, but I have to at least consider it as a possibility. Then again, the fact that the ratings declined so heavily for the overrun of Raw that didn’t feature Daniel Bryan, but did feature the ‘big’ athletes the WWE loves so much speaks volumes. If the WWE really thinks that we value size (Big Show, Great Khali, and Matt Morgan) over the IT factor (Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Austin Aries) then the DoW is right around the corner…

That’s all folks… As always, post your comments, thoughts and opinions below! Or message me on twitter and let me know what you think the ‘Death of Wrestling’ is and I might just blog about it!!! Peace and I’m out…