I love Daniel Bryan, but The Miz has a great point. As the great Trent Dilfer says, "the best ability is availability". When Daniel Bryan gets hurt, comes back, gets hurt again, then has to retire, he's cost the company and the fans years of entertainment. But he's not the only one.
Remember the Attitude Era? It was characterized by an ever-more-dangerous sequence of matches. And the fans ate it up. Of course, they were really sad when many of their heroes had to take extended leave due to injuries, but hey, it's just the price we pay, right? But think about what we missed.
Lita is amazing, but how many years did she lose due to injuries? Granted, at least one of them took place out of the ring, but still. Her reckless style was entertaining, but wouldn't 50 more matches have been more entertaining?
I'm a huge Edge fan, too. But I would've preferred another 5 years of the Rated R Superstar. Just this past week, we had two WWE champions, Finn Balor and Sasha Banks, drop their belts due to injury. But hey, we'll give them a big round of applause when they return!
It's our fault. Fans demand more crazy stunts. Back flip into the ring? Now backflip to the outside! Make it a 450! Knocking out Sting's final run by throwing him into the turnbuckle? Let's throw the next champ into the ring barricade! Put a man through a table? ONE MORE TIME! ONE MORE TIME! This isn't a video game, the human body is injury-prone.
The Miz shows up every day, does whatever the need him to do. Would Daniel Bryan have wrestled in a chicken suit? Most importantly, he's available for every storyline. If I was the WWE, I'd push stars that aren't getting hurt, and aren't hurting other wrestlers.
I grew up on NWA and Mid-South Wrestling. The feuds in that era were AMAZING. One big reason for that is the length of the feuds. Dusty and Flair went at it for months at a time. The big injury that put Dusty on the shelf? An attack by the Horsemen, of course.
Instead, the WWE has to scrap story after story as wrestlers go on the shelf. Hey, let's make Daniel Bryan buck the authority, then put the belt on him! Then... well poop. Oh well, let's break up the SHIELD, and put the belt on Seth Rollins! Until he gets hurt. Sasha Banks is back! Time for a long title run - oh, but her back is hurt again. Sami Zayne should get a title shot! Never mind, he's on the shelf. Wait - give it to Finn Balor! Where is that guy, anyway? Neville should have gotten a longer run - oh yeah, it was ended by injury.
Who's on your Mount Rushmore of wrestlers? Rey Mysterio and Jeff Hardy? Mine are Hogan (grudgingly), Austin, Flair, and either Dusty or Ricky Steamboat. Ricky Steamboat's move set is probably the closest to indie style among my faves, but he was pretty tame compared to today's risk-takers. Of course, it's harder for the risk-takers to make it onto my Mount Rushmore, as they tend to have less time at the top.
Wrestlers have gotten hurt since there have been wrestlers. But clearly some styles are safer than others, for the talent and for their opponent. Right Seth Rollins? And when injury puts your favorite guy on the shelf, the WWE product suffers.
No comments:
Post a Comment