I know we all, including me are a fans of Daniel Bryan. I know how much we all love him. But, I watch his match, and I can barely say he is even ‘wrestling’ anymore. He was a great wrestler in Ring of Honor, and to this day some of his matches in ROH, with the likes of Samoa Joe and CM Punk, are considered to be the best ever. Bryan Danielson came from being a indie sensation to the biggest stage, and than to be named the WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
But, as much as I love him, it’s pretty sad to watch his wrestling matches this days. They took everything away from what made him great, and turned him to a generic ‘WWE Superstar’. He still gets lots of pops, and crowd reaction, don’t get me wrong, but I used to love him for what he does in the ring. For the ‘excellence of execution’ he had in ROH. And now he is just a ‘Cena type’ wrestler, who does five moves at best, and if he does something extraordinary, it’s just for shock value.
To me it’s still proves that the WWE mindset will never change. A wrestler doesn’t get a top spot based on his wrestling ability anymore. It’s all about the crowd reaction, but in the end of the day, in few years (if Daniel Bryan still be the champion), we will get sick and tired of him just like we were sick and tired of seeing John Cena as champion.
So, what I’m wondering is: “Does it worth being a WWE Champion, but get your wrestling abilities nullified?” Because this is what it comes to. Daniel Bryan let the corporate machine take everything that made him popular in the wrestling business, and make him a generic WWE Champion. He let the machine dictate his career, instead of him. He let the machine control what he does in and out of the ring, instead of him.
The frustration of CM Punk becomes a bit clearer, in a sense that, you are the top guy, but you are going to have to live under the ‘WWE Rules’, or else if you try to do something different, you will be taken out of the picture.
Let’s take Matt Striker for example, he was innovative as a color commentator, and he did a lot of things that the ‘WWE Machine’ didn’t like. So, basically after saying he was ‘marking out’ to Kevin Nash’s appearance in the 2011 Royal Rumble, he was quickly taken off the commentary table, and was a backstage interviewer who got insults thrown at him by everyone backstage, and ended up getting fired. Another proof that if you don’t go by ‘WWE Rules’, you got nothing to do at that company.
Dolph Ziggler will never get the same recognition, because he dares to ‘challenge’ the WWE, and keeps putting on great wrestling matches, but in the end, he will never get the recognition, because he never went with WWE’s rules, which brought that terrible attitude out of him, and now he is just a guy that puts a great match most of the shows his in, but will never get anything in return (kinda like Chris Jericho in WCW).
So, I realize that it’s either you give your career to the WWE, or forget about it. It’s like signing a deal with the devil, only difference is, that the WWE does actually exist, unlike the other one…
