I thought I would do this little write up and explain 2014 to you in a simple explanation in WWE for anyone that maybe hasn’t been watching or just wants to look back on it. This has basically been the year of the fans raging against the machine and it has worked in 2014. You’ll want to read this recap.
Here is how we started 2014. We have the fan base behind Daniel Bryan and CM Punk. Same old thing. Bryan is over huge and has been for a couple of years. Let’s all remember back to WrestleMania a couple of years ago where Bryan was over huge and he gets squashed by Sheamus in 18 seconds or whatever it was. That fan base about rioted that night over that finish which was a title match in the opener. The next night on Raw, the fan base voiced their displeasure over it with Cena in the ring cutting a promo. Yes chants broke out and they were roaring loud. So, they turn Bryan heel. He gets watered down and eventually gets teamed with Kane. Whether you liked the Bryan/Kane tag team really doesn’t matter to the grand scheme of the story cause that is that the fan base continued to want Bryan pushed. They would not give up on him. Let’s get into 2014. Bryan is a baby face. He gets put into a feud with Bray Wyatt. The two have an awesome match at the Royal Rumble. The crowd in Pittsburgh is just going nuts for it. Bray is starting to get over at this point too. A couple of weeks before the Rumble, Batista returns. He gets a pretty good pop upon his return on Raw. He announces that he is going to be in the Rumble match. The Royal Rumble PPV was where the raging against the machine started. Bryan was over huge in his match and the fans continue to want that guy pushed. We get to the end of the Rumble match. Batista is in there and we get down to number 30. The fans are holding out hope for Bryan to be a surprise entrant. When number 30 is announced, it is Rey Mysterio who gets booed bad. The fans wanted Daniel Bryan and they didn’t get him so Rey gets it taken out on him. Punk gets eliminated by Kane who returns to ringside to eliminate him. That takes Punk out of the equation which is met with a very bad reaction. We get down to the final three which is Batista, Sheamus, and Roman Reigns. I am not kidding that the Pittsburgh crowd looked at that final three standoff in that ring with who was left and also saw who was winning. They rejected it and turned on it completely. Keep in mind that this isn’t a crowd like a New York crowd or Chicago crowd that is known for this kind of reaction. This is a random crowd in Pittsburgh, PA. This crowd was angry at how this booking was going to play out and they were going to be vocal. They started chanting Daniel Bryan and they took over the show. The chants were loud and the boos were loud. Batista wins and the crowd is booing so loud that they turn his music up to try and drown the boos out on the live broadcast. Not exactly the reaction you are looking for when you brought a guy back as a baby face comeback hero. The reaction of this crowd turned into the story of the Rumble PPV. Not the booking of the show. Not the winners. The talk was this crowd that had seen what was going to happen and they turned on it on live TV letting their voices heard. The next night on Raw was more of the same. Daniel Bryan chants getting louder and louder. Fans had been wanting Daniel Bryan for years and years and fans weren’t taking it anymore. The talk turned to how is WWE going to deal with this cause fans are looking to hijack the shows now as their only way to voice their frustration at the product. This was the time to where CM Punk walked away from the company.
CM Punk had been still fighting his behind the scenes battle with one goal in mind and that was headlining WrestleMania. Punk is a very goal oriented guy and he talks about that in his DVD documentary, Best In The World. That was his last goal as a wrestler. Punk starts to get pushed into this angle against Triple H. Basically a battle the authority deal. However, Punk ends up walking away. Punk has yet to comment publicly on why he left and there are many in the company that he hasn’t even talked to since he left. The general consensus seems to be that his body is beaten up, he’s mentally worn out, and he didn’t like the direction of where he was going so he said forget this, I’m out of here. WWE sees Triple H as a big money main event type match. Punk always sees the title match as the big money main event. Punk has said for a long time that he is not going to be a guy that wrestles into his 40’s. He was going to make his money, accomplish his goals and dreams of a wrestler, and then get out. He wasn’t going to wrestle just to wrestle. That caused another problem for WWE. Not only do you have fans raging against the machine over Daniel Bryan but now you have the fans battling over the news that CM Punk had left and picking up his cause on why. Batista ends up taking a lot of the backlash over this from fans because he is seen in the main event at WrestleMania which is the spot that Punk’s goal was. So, Batista’s boos are getting louder and louder and including the infamous Boo-tista chants from that Pittsburgh crowd. Batista is forced to turn heel cause you can’t have him out there getting booed. Now, you have the fans looking to take over shows in support of him. WWE didn’t seem to know how to handle this situation with matches in the ring and then suddenly Punk chants drowning out the commentary. It wasn’t going to get any better with Chicago right in the road to WrestleMania. The question turned to how is WWE going to deal with an angry fan base in Chicago that is going to look at taking this show over. Everyone knew that this had potential to be very ugly on a live Raw in Chicago. WWE had yet to comment publicly on Punk including not mentioning him on TV. WWE took it head on in Chicago sending out Paul Heyman first thing to do a promo and let the Punk fans just scream it all out. It was pretty awesome. Heyman was able to tie Punk’s history with him into a promo for Brock and Wrestlemania. Heyman’s first task was just grabbing that mic and pointing it to the audience letting them scream the Punk chants. Later in the show, Daniel Bryan comes out to a huge pop in Chicago and inadvertently draws Punk chants with a comment he makes. He even laughed with a look of oops, I messed up feeding those lions. So, Triple H and Stephanie make their way to the ring during the Bryan segment. Now, these fans have someone in power to be vocal at and they were. Triple H stands on the ring apron with his music playing and the CM Punk chants are so loud that it is drowning his music out on live TV. Triple H of course takes it head on and smiling and posing at the crowd. Taking the heat of it. Stephanie gets on the mic and the crowd is booing her so loudly that you can barely hear her talking. Triple H starts talking saying that he doesn’t understand the mentality of this generation and how they feel like they deserve this and that. He is obviously referencing Punk without saying his name and that gets the crowd fueled and they start chanting Punk chants trying to drown out Triple H. We have a full out stand off on live TV between WWE and the Chicago crowd. This was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. To WWE’s credit, they handled this situation as great as you possibly could. They didn’t back down and went full steam at it. Putting Triple H out there to deal with it was probably a good plan as well cause he can take the heat and go back at them. This Chicago crowd was also battling for another guy and that guy was in the ring, Daniel Bryan. This was when the Bryan/Triple H match got momentum.
At this point in 2014, fans were carrying on with what started in Pittsburgh and drowning out segments with Daniel Bryan chants. Anything they didn’t like, Daniel Bryan chants. Let us not forget the two championship belt retirement ceremony where they had all former champions in the ring that had held either belt to recognize it. The segment turned into chaos cause Bryan was in the ring and the fans chanted for him. He was just standing there. Big grin on his face too. Finally, Mark Henry improvised and went over and raised his arm just to see if they could get the crowd to settle. It was funny watching them try to go through as business as usual with this segment with what they had ready to say but the crowd doesn’t care and is chanting Daniel Bryan. The shows became a lot of having to book segments around these chants and not letting them gain momentum. The fans wanted Daniel Bryan and they weren’t taking no for an answer. The story of WrestleMania’s early booking was fueling things as well. Batista and Randy Orton was set for the main event of the show. Daniel Bryan was apparently going to be down on the mid card against Sheamus. The fans wanted Bryan in the main event and were going to fight for it. The talk then turned to seeing what WWE was going to do. They remembered what happened in Pittsburgh. The fans remembered. Are you going to risk 70,000 of your hardest of hardcore fans that travel to WrestleMania every year looking to take over your super bowl show? Hope you realize they are going to chant Daniel Bryan chants all through it and that main event of Batista and Orton is going to be useless. Fans are going to boycott it and drowned it out. It was going to be Pittsburgh times 70,000. Your move, WWE. Bryan was given the chance of getting into the main event title match making it a triple threat match. WWE even used the fan hijacking of shows and made it into the storyline. It was kind of funny watching WWE kind of try to put a spin on the story like this was something they had planned. It wasn’t planned. If it was planned, Bryan would have been nowhere near the main event of WrestleMania. WWE wasn’t happy with all the fan backlash and they were having to react to it. The fans weren’t going to accept for anything less than Daniel Bryan. WrestleMania rolls around and his match with Triple H is the opener of the show. The stip was that if Bryan won the match with Triple H, he would get to compete in the title match making it a triple threat. Seeing 70,000 chanting yes as Bryan made his way down the aisle was a visual. Now was the waiting game. Hoping that they had booked Bryan to win cause if not, this crowd was going to turn on this show quick. Bryan was booked to win and they had an awesome match. Bryan ends up winning the title in front of 70,000 and we have our awesome victory moment of Bryan as champion. Why WWE had to have their hand forced on doing it, who knows? Why would you not want that moment to close your biggest show? 70,000 chanting yes in unison. WWE didn’t see Bryan as their top star. What the storyline was was basically how they felt behind the scenes. Great talent but not a top guy to represent the company while the fans are badly wanting this guy as the top guy.
I didn’t think they did Bryan many favors booking him in a feud with Kane as his first program as champion. Not someone he has had good chemistry with. Bryan ended up having to drop the title due to having neck surgery done. WWE waited as long as they could before making the decision. They played it into the storyline of that Brie Bella who is now married to Bryan had stood up for him. Either give up the title or she would be fired. It built up to an awesome segment on PPV where Brie stood up to Stephanie saying she quit. Then, she slapped Steph hard. It was awesome and Brie had such momentum after this where she was the one that was going to get pushed around by Stephanie. Best that the Brie Bella character had ever been. Of course, Bryan later had to be written out because of his recovery time taking longer than expected. So, basically they stuck themselves in a storyline problem having Brie quit for really no reason cause of this bad real life recovery situation.
The Wyatt Family had built momentum all year. The Shield had also built a lot of momentum. These two young hungry groups had been built up as monsters. Then, these two faced off after months of not crossing one another. The build to it was so awesome with these characters that the fans chanted “this is awesome” just at the entrance before they even went at it. How often do you see that? The crowd went nuts when they did go at it. The result was amazing matches. The Wyatts and The Shield had all sorts of momentum. Bray was put into the feud with Cena. The fans jumped behind Bray cause he was this very different monster kind of a heel character. He didn’t back down from anyone. Incredible entrance and music. So different from anyone else. Cena was basically the heel in the feud. It happened at WrestleMania and again at Extreme Rules. The build to the cage match at Extreme Rules was incredible and the fans were so into it. Just felt like such a big fight feel to it with this monster heel that was building a Steve Austin 1997 heel type fandom. Then, the cage match booking went off the rails sadly and just kind of ruined his momentum. The Wyatts have been an awesome group and I just hope they can somehow salvage it all.
The Shield ended up going face and they got over huge as well. They were the no nonsense team that would come through the crowd and destroy everyone. When they showed up, fear would ensue. They wouldn’t back down from Triple H and the authority trying to hold them down was their storyline. Evolution was reformed with Triple H, Batista, and Orton together again against The Shield and it was greatness. The two PPV matches that they had tore down the house and was some of the best matches in WWE in a long time. Especially that first one. Between The Shield and The Wyatts having these incredible matches, things looked great for spring. Then, WWE split up The Shield which was a big gamble and turned Rollins. Rollins joined with the authority. Ambrose took the fight to Rollins which has been awesome to watch with Ambrose as this loose cannon character. Reigns went toward fighting the authority with Kane as their henchmen which watered Reigns down a bit. Now, Reigns is faced off with Rollins while Ambrose is off TV for a little bit. The talk of The Shield split was a hot topic. Was it too early? I think it was. That group was over huge and that was the one face group that had really gotten over so I don’t think you break what wasn’t broken. Reigns is eventually going to be the top guy more than likely. That was how it was being built when they were together. I like that guy. Just a destroyer.
Paige debuted on Raw the night after WrestleMania in front of that post Mania crowd which is always amazing. She got a surprise win on AJ to win the title. AJ was off TV for a while as she was looking to take time off for her engagement. She married CM Punk while she was off TV. Paige is awesome in NXT but creatively they just dropped the ball with her after the win on AJ. AJ returned and won the title back. Paige turned heel and now they have a who’s crazier feud going. AJ and Paige was a dream feud going back to Paige’s NXT days so this has been great. AJ is now also drawing the CM Punk chants from fans as they look at her as another way to voice the Punk chants.
2014 has been a rage against the machine type year with WWE and the fans. Fans voicing their displeasure with the product and taking matters into their own hands. As you can see, there have been a lot of great things in WWE in 2014. The fans have shown what they like and don’t like. They’ve fought for it. The fan backlash changed the whole WrestleMania landscape. Always remember that because Bryan was not winning that title if it hadn’t been for that fan base saying, enough is enough. We want this guy and you’re going to give us this guy. WWE keeps getting close on lining things up but then go off the rails. Frustrating as a viewer cause there is so much potential with this product. Then, they go a different route. If they can get on this route and stay on the route, things could get really good fast. I don’t know if Vince just gets scared getting away from what he is comfortable with or what. One thing that has been discussed is what if Triple H was in power instead of Vince. Tough to tell and I think there are times that you can kind of feel a little frustration in Triple H with seeing some of what goes on. He is over NXT so the talent there are like his kids and he has said that. When he sees them get on to WWE TV, he feels like a proud father. He has spoken in the past about how it is a gray area when you see someone get over with something in NXT and then they move up to creative on the main roster. Creative differences with what was working and what they feel will work on the main brand. Triple H is a very old school guy and I think he has shown what he can do with NXT. NXT is the best hidden secret out there if you aren’t watching it. Bottom line, everything in WWE goes through Vince. He has that track record of not wanting to change unless he is forced. The Network has a lot of pull on WWE right now and they know that. I think SummerSlam was an answer to that. The youth movement is there and there is a LOT of talent on this roster.
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