A winning streak in sports doesn't always end on a night when the nation is watching. It's part of the charm of athletic contests. Usain Bolt loses a race not at the Olympics, but in some random meet in Rome. The Miami Heat don't get deposed of their winning streak in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Spurs. It comes in a regular season game against a Bulls team missing its best player and with the rest of its roster looking like a MASH unit. It's a boon for the guy who wins the race or for the fans of the team who wins and ends that streak, but in terms of overall story, well, it could have ended more dramatically.
Wrestling is not a sport. Wrestling may be an athletic endeavor, but it is just as much creatively-licensed story as it is bones, skin, and sinew being pushed to their limits. Winning streaks in wrestling aren't happenstance. They are deliberate, and they have meaning. A company should not engage a winning streak for a wrestler, a tag team, or a stable unless they're willing to make sure its end comes on a big stage, against a big opponent, with a big story.
There was a big deal made about The Shield, as a three-person entity, not losing a match. This was mentioned and mentioned and mentioned some more. One might think that it would have been a pot of gold at the end of a long, arduous rainbow. Think Rainbow Road in the various Mario Kart games-arduous. Endgames happen at landmark episodes of Monday Night RAW. They happen at pay-per-views.
They aren't supposed to happen as typical, WWE Creative-laid tropes to build for matches that are less special.
This is something that points at flaws that run deeper than wins and losses. Honestly, it's not a big deal if any collection of three wrestlers who happened to hold gold lost a six-man tag the show right before they would split up and wrestle in separate matches for said belts. It's certainly not as big a deal as an Intercontinental Champion who never defends his belt, and who always seems to be on the losing end of the matches he's in. But this streak, man, this winning streak, was a pear plucked from the fruit bowl long before ripeness. Sure, it might taste faintly of sweetness and have a somewhat pleasing tart flavor. But it's nowhere near as sweet as it could have been.
I feared that The Shield would end up running into a team of randomly put together wrestlers and lose a decisive fall. For as much as I love Kane and Daniel Bryan, teaming them up with Randy Orton is a random mashing. If they were going to beat the Shield, it had to be with Undertaker, or they had to go through some kind of emotional proving with Orton, one they had not gone through yet. Fuck, not one week ago, Orton RKOed Bryan out of his goddamn beard. All of a sudden, they could beat The Shield, end their streak?
This is the wrestling equivalent of that Chicago Bulls team ending the Miami Heat's streak. It adds "realism," sure, but who the fuck said that at least I wanted that kind of realism in my wrestling? I watch a show where Rey Mysterio can fell giants just as easy as he can tie his shoes. I long for a show where a woman the size of, say, Saturyne, can get into the ring with a guy the size of, say, John Cena, and be considered more than a longshot to win. I want WWE to use the best thing it has available to it as a pro wrestling company to its advantage.
A fluke end to a streak is something that David Stern or whatever administrator in sport can get rid of. IT should not happen in wrestling, especially not as the same ol', same ol' trope that this writing staff and its head (be it Vince or Stephanie McMahon or both) use to set up "intrigue" for a pay-per-view match. Keeping me guessing who's going to win by telegraphing a result, false or otherwise, before the show doesn't intrigue me. Story intrigues me.
And it's a goddamn shame that I have to uncork this kind of rant tonight, because the end result is helping to build a foundation around my favorite wrestler in the entire plane of reality right now. Daniel Bryan is about as close to a rockstar as anyone will get on the WWE roster right now, and that includes a guy whose side job right now is fronting a rock 'n roll band. I can get lost in a moment with the best of them, and believe me, there's a battle going on inside of me between raging critic and doe-eyed fanboy over the result of tonight's match.
That being said, Bryan tapping Rollins tonight wasn't going to help him any more. That's like dumping a red Solo cup full of brine into the Pacific Ocean. The man is solid gold right now. The only person he could tap out and get a bigger rub from is John Cena (and that is something that should happen, no ifs, ands, or buts). Meanwhile, the emotional jackpot that was waiting for someone, a real, honest-to-God functioning unit beating The Shield on a well-hyped episode of RAW or at a pay-per-view? That would have been like sending a deluge the size of the Pacific Ocean back into that minuscule plastic cup.
Every time I want to praise this company for a narrative, they go and fuck it up. I am waiting for the other shoe to drop on Kaitlyn vs. AJ Lee, and thankfully, it hasn't yet. Could it be for lack of attention, or are they waiting for the build to their inevitable end-of-trilogy match at SummerSlam to go full harebrain on those two? I just can't hide my cynicism anymore when it comes to the booking. Side note, don't ever confuse my annoyance at booking for distaste for WWE. I love the wrestling, and I love the character acting (most of the time). You don't have to love every aspect of a company to enjoy it. It helps (CHIKARA!), but it's not a prereq.
But yeah, this beautiful thing they had with The Shield, this chrysalis they were taking such exquisite care of, they went and tried to yank the butterfly out of it before it was ready. Of course, the group isn't completely ruined. Nothing in wrestling can ever be completely ruined, at least in my empirical observation of it over the last 25 or so years. But a missed opportunity is a missed opportunity. And having The Shield's first six-man tag loss come on a throwaway Smackdown, just to create a little bit of doubt as to whether they'll lose the Tag Titles or the United States Championship? That's a goddamn whopper.
When you can bend the story to your will, there's no need to imitate the kinds of things where they don't have that luxury. Why whoever is in charge of these kinds of things in WWE can't see that just boggles my mind.
Wrestling is not a sport. Wrestling may be an athletic endeavor, but it is just as much creatively-licensed story as it is bones, skin, and sinew being pushed to their limits. Winning streaks in wrestling aren't happenstance. They are deliberate, and they have meaning. A company should not engage a winning streak for a wrestler, a tag team, or a stable unless they're willing to make sure its end comes on a big stage, against a big opponent, with a big story.
There was a big deal made about The Shield, as a three-person entity, not losing a match. This was mentioned and mentioned and mentioned some more. One might think that it would have been a pot of gold at the end of a long, arduous rainbow. Think Rainbow Road in the various Mario Kart games-arduous. Endgames happen at landmark episodes of Monday Night RAW. They happen at pay-per-views.
They aren't supposed to happen as typical, WWE Creative-laid tropes to build for matches that are less special.
This is something that points at flaws that run deeper than wins and losses. Honestly, it's not a big deal if any collection of three wrestlers who happened to hold gold lost a six-man tag the show right before they would split up and wrestle in separate matches for said belts. It's certainly not as big a deal as an Intercontinental Champion who never defends his belt, and who always seems to be on the losing end of the matches he's in. But this streak, man, this winning streak, was a pear plucked from the fruit bowl long before ripeness. Sure, it might taste faintly of sweetness and have a somewhat pleasing tart flavor. But it's nowhere near as sweet as it could have been.
I feared that The Shield would end up running into a team of randomly put together wrestlers and lose a decisive fall. For as much as I love Kane and Daniel Bryan, teaming them up with Randy Orton is a random mashing. If they were going to beat the Shield, it had to be with Undertaker, or they had to go through some kind of emotional proving with Orton, one they had not gone through yet. Fuck, not one week ago, Orton RKOed Bryan out of his goddamn beard. All of a sudden, they could beat The Shield, end their streak?
This is the wrestling equivalent of that Chicago Bulls team ending the Miami Heat's streak. It adds "realism," sure, but who the fuck said that at least I wanted that kind of realism in my wrestling? I watch a show where Rey Mysterio can fell giants just as easy as he can tie his shoes. I long for a show where a woman the size of, say, Saturyne, can get into the ring with a guy the size of, say, John Cena, and be considered more than a longshot to win. I want WWE to use the best thing it has available to it as a pro wrestling company to its advantage.
A fluke end to a streak is something that David Stern or whatever administrator in sport can get rid of. IT should not happen in wrestling, especially not as the same ol', same ol' trope that this writing staff and its head (be it Vince or Stephanie McMahon or both) use to set up "intrigue" for a pay-per-view match. Keeping me guessing who's going to win by telegraphing a result, false or otherwise, before the show doesn't intrigue me. Story intrigues me.
And it's a goddamn shame that I have to uncork this kind of rant tonight, because the end result is helping to build a foundation around my favorite wrestler in the entire plane of reality right now. Daniel Bryan is about as close to a rockstar as anyone will get on the WWE roster right now, and that includes a guy whose side job right now is fronting a rock 'n roll band. I can get lost in a moment with the best of them, and believe me, there's a battle going on inside of me between raging critic and doe-eyed fanboy over the result of tonight's match.
That being said, Bryan tapping Rollins tonight wasn't going to help him any more. That's like dumping a red Solo cup full of brine into the Pacific Ocean. The man is solid gold right now. The only person he could tap out and get a bigger rub from is John Cena (and that is something that should happen, no ifs, ands, or buts). Meanwhile, the emotional jackpot that was waiting for someone, a real, honest-to-God functioning unit beating The Shield on a well-hyped episode of RAW or at a pay-per-view? That would have been like sending a deluge the size of the Pacific Ocean back into that minuscule plastic cup.
Every time I want to praise this company for a narrative, they go and fuck it up. I am waiting for the other shoe to drop on Kaitlyn vs. AJ Lee, and thankfully, it hasn't yet. Could it be for lack of attention, or are they waiting for the build to their inevitable end-of-trilogy match at SummerSlam to go full harebrain on those two? I just can't hide my cynicism anymore when it comes to the booking. Side note, don't ever confuse my annoyance at booking for distaste for WWE. I love the wrestling, and I love the character acting (most of the time). You don't have to love every aspect of a company to enjoy it. It helps (CHIKARA!), but it's not a prereq.
But yeah, this beautiful thing they had with The Shield, this chrysalis they were taking such exquisite care of, they went and tried to yank the butterfly out of it before it was ready. Of course, the group isn't completely ruined. Nothing in wrestling can ever be completely ruined, at least in my empirical observation of it over the last 25 or so years. But a missed opportunity is a missed opportunity. And having The Shield's first six-man tag loss come on a throwaway Smackdown, just to create a little bit of doubt as to whether they'll lose the Tag Titles or the United States Championship? That's a goddamn whopper.
When you can bend the story to your will, there's no need to imitate the kinds of things where they don't have that luxury. Why whoever is in charge of these kinds of things in WWE can't see that just boggles my mind.