A lot has been written of late and many opinions posted about how the WWE needs to get its act right, especially with respect to handling mid-carders with talent and most importantly, in terms of getting its storylines in the right direction. One of the points, misconstrued to be a central aspect of WWE storylines, is the John Cena heat. The situation there is very clear - milk the cash cow. Kids dig him and he receives heat from the older audience. WWE does not care about him being uni-dimensional, as long as the merchandise sell.

The larger issue is with respect to two important stars on the roster - CM Punk and Daniel Bryan.

Daniel Bryan provides a sort of catch-22 situation for the WWE. He has demonstrated very high technicality in his wrestling, but nothing much can be done with him on his personality / gimmick. He was touted to be the next Benoit and he is so far in the right direction at least inside the ring. Lets be honest and give him due credit for doing his job right in the mid-card (easily the most challenging segment of the roster).

To bring Bryan up, he needs a feud with a larger star in the same mould. I am thinking that Chris Jericho would be an example here. CJ has nothing left to prove. Widely regarded as a brilliant mix of in-ring and mic ability, he has won every WWE championship and his debut (99) and return (07-08) have been regarded as top class.

Booking DB with CJ would offer a huge stepping stone for DB. After all, both have the right perception among the people and can easily shift between heel/face. CJ's mic ability is what should drive the rage in DB in the feud and this can be used to bring DB up the ranks. I am not getting into more details on the booking, but merely pitting a rising star (who needs it) against an established superstar would do wonders for the interest factor and may just offer promise for the future.

Now on to the other superstar. CM Punk. Was it just me or did I actually see a spoiler at the bottom of the RAW results page tonight which read "CM Punk joins with Nash and Vince McMahon to form the new NWO"? Now if that were indeed true, it offers a huge platform for a long series of interesting bookings. The beauty, though, is that it is more likely to do good to the underdog / solitary fighter on the other side.

Pitting a heel stable against one man is more likely to yield results for the man. When the WWE authorities pitted VM/Rock and the gang against SCSA, it did wonders for Austin. He kept rising to superstardom every week, irrespective of whether he got kicked or he kicked someone else. The same though, cannot be said about the Nexus/Cena feud, which was a huge load of bull. The stable was not authoritative enough and at that stage, Cena would have done better going one-one with a bigger star.

The current situation with Punk/Nash offers a great situation. Punk is the no. 1 star in the roster and HHH is still yet to demonstrate his abilities as an authoritative figure. At the drop of a hat, he is more likely to get into the ring himself than nominate a protege. It can be viewed as "this guy gets his hands dirty" in a positive sense or "he is good in the ring, but he is not administrative material". The point I am making here is, this line must not end up being a push for HHH!!

Utilizing stars like Punk, HHH, Nash, VM would call for very careful booking. The kill is to have the right underdog / fighter on the side of HHH (assuming the VM/Punk/Nash - NWO rumor to be true). If the rumor is just hogwash, then it would help to bring in DB in the feud.

DB can also be pitted against Punk to create interesting storylines. He can be the next big thing, and even HHH can be used to push him (assume a possibility where HHH screws DB and defects to VM, Nash, Punk). That would offer a big opportunity for the people to fully back DB and it gives him the right push. With his ring ability, he would work on his mic abilities as well and can be a superstar.

Of course, this is merely a loud-thinking and needs more detailing / fine-tuning. Do let me know your views and thanks for your time.