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| Where the awfulness of the overrun was born from Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Triple H and Randy Orton by themselves are heat ciphers. No one reacts to them in a vacuum. In a way, they are the weirdest wrestlers in WWE, because the people facing them blew roofs off the arena. Daniel Bryan and The Shield tapped into cultural zeitgeists that transcended the idea of needing a strong canvas upon which to paint. But no one boos them when they come out. They boo Stephanie McMahon, maybe for reasons most of those goobers in the crowd only want to admit while wearing fedoras and trolling r/MensRights. They take the bait of whatever cheap heat WWE tosses their way. Tonight, that easy meat was attacking the Indiana Pacers. Vince McMahon fucking loves using the NBA as topical humor, doesn't he?
But promo segments aren't good spoken to silence, and the only wrestler who got any kind of heat in that group was Batista. Poor, magnificent Dave Batista, a man who does his best work with one foot out the door. Obviously, this hiatus won't be nearly as long as his prior one, and the seeds have already been planted for his return once he's done doing press junkets for his bonkers-ass Marvel movie coming out soon. Even Batista, however, didn't get heat because of anything he did, but because of who he wasn't. OR maybe part of it was because he had an awesome habit of breaking color scheme in pay-per-view trios matches. I don't know.
Seth Rollins drawing insane heat for ending the best stable in WWE history answers that problem. Rollins was also the least likely to abandon his post as a Hound of Justice. Dean Ambrose was too sneaky and devilish, and Roman Reigns has just enough of a narcissistic streak to buy into his own hype when sold by his boss and the youngest grizzled old vet in WWE history (Orton's younger than Antonio Cesaro, by the by). But Rollins? The best possible Jeff Hardy? Nah, no one would see that move coming.
Of course, no one did see it coming, but that doesn't mean it was a good move. Then again, that episode of Monday Night RAW was so wretched that a segment dedicated to pure exposition in awarding Alexander Rusev a fake Russian state medal could be considered a high point. It deserved a crown of shit.
Rollins doesn't have the mic skills to stand on his own as a top heel, and the only top heels who get by without good mic skills are the ones like Rusev. He had no reason to turn and join the losing side when he and his brothers have made Evolution their personal court jesters. Much like every bit of escalation in the John Cena/Bray Wyatt feud, nothing about this turn makes sense.
Furthermore, The Shield was dismantled when it still had so much gas left in the tank. One might say that it's better to say "too soon" than "finally" for a group breaking up. However, the core of the Four Horsemen never broke apart for any reason other than retirement or Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, or Tully Blanchard taking the money to spend with ol' Vince Jr. for a tour or two. The answer for The Shield breaking up "too soon" was all the time, and the answer for when everyone would say "finally" for a dissolution would have been the ｈｅａｔ ｄｅａｔｈ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ Ｕｎｉｖｅｒｓｅ. This group could have stayed together forever.
Now, unless this whole story is meant as having Rollins as a plant within Evolution to tear it asunder for good (a possibility, to be honest), that possibility is out the window. I've been wrong before on these things, but everything about Rollins breaking The Shield felt wrong. Then again, nothing good can ever remain forever. Maybe it was for the best that DEFCON 1 happened tonight and not at the end of one of those "BEST RAWS EVER" that WWE seems to be withholding from the fans at worst and saving for the pay-per-views at best anymore.