The Piledriver Report 02.02.12: WrestleMania Unification

Posted by Ronny Sarnecky on 02.02.2012

The WWE shocked the world by having Sheamus win the Royal Rumble over favorites Chris Jericho and Randy Orton. Ronny Sarnecky takes a look at who the WWE should have made the surprise winner of the biggest battle royal of the year.

SHEAMUS TAKES ON THE WORLD

Surprise, surprise, surprise! Well, to me anyways. Leading up to the Royal Rumble, I felt it was a two team race as to who would headline WrestleMania, Chris Jericho or Randy Orton. Just as the NFL, or more specifically, the media that covers the NFL, felt it was a two team race for the NFC Championship Game. Most expected the New Orleans Saints vs. the Green Bay Packers for the right to go to the Super Bowl. Instead, we got a thrilling matchup where my New York Giants beat the San Francisco 49ers to headline the NFL's version of WrestleMania. While Chris Jericho did make it to the final two, the man left standing in his way, Sheamus, surprised me. After a thrilling mini-match between the two wrestlers, Sheamus eliminated Jericho, and his now headed to compete in a World title match at WrestleMania.

Looking back, I probably shouldn't have been surprised. After all, a lot of people were predicting Sheamus on wrestling message boards. It's not like these fans had any "inside" knowledge or anything. It's just that when so many people start to make a certain wrestler the dark horse, you need to take notice. Add this to the fact that Vince McMahon likes to throw a curveball when outcomes are too predictable, then it should have been pretty obvious that Chris Jericho and Randy Orton would not win the Rumble. Even so, it wasn't until Jericho and Sheamus were going toe to toe in a pretty even contest that I finally came to the realization that Sheamus was going to walk out of the Royal Rumble as the winner of the 25th Anniversary of the event.

This sets up the angle of "who will Sheamus take on at WrestleMania?" After last Monday night, it became pretty obvious that it will not be CM Punk. Following Chris Jericho's attack on CM Punk during the champion's match against Daniel Bryan, it appears that the WWE is still going to stick with Punk vs. Jericho at WrestleMania. That's a good thing, as I believe the two can have a terrific match on the grandest stage of them all.

Despite the fact that we should be getting a Jericho/Punk match for the WWE World title, I was hoping for something different. For the longest time, I was hoping for Jericho/Punk at WrestleMania. I am going to WrestleMania this year, so I want the best card possible, especially since I had to turn down Super Bowl tickets this year because I have been giving Vince McMahon a ton of money lately. I want this year's WrestleMania to be at or near the level of WrestleMania X-Seven, arguably the greatest WrestleMania of all time.

When I started to hear Rumblings of the WWE switching up their main matches, I was getting nervous. As much as I think Chris Jericho versus the Undertaker would be worthy of being a WrestleMania match, I do not want to see CM Punk vs. Triple H. I'm not saying that they would have a bad match. However, I saw them fight on the Night of Champions pay per view, and I don't think a match between them two at this point in time would be special enough for WrestleMania.

MY SURPRISE WINNER TO HEADLINE WRESTLEMANIA

As the Royal Rumble match was going on, about three quarters of the way through the match, I started getting a thought. I was hoping that the #30 entrant would be the World Heavyweight Champion, Daniel Bryan, and that he would win the battle royal to take on CM Punk in a title unification match. This isn't a Ring of Honor fan boy thing. I haven't watched ROH in years, and when I did follow it, I was more of a casual fan than a diehard. There are three reasons why I wanted to see a CM Punk/Daniel Bryan title unification match at WrestleMania.

CHAMPION VS. CHAMPION



I am a mark for Champion vs. Champion matches. I remember watching the WWF in the mid/late-eighties, and it seemed that every February the WWF presented World Champion vs. Intercontinental Championship bouts. Even if just the World title was at stake, I couldn't wait to see these contests. The first of these matches that I remembered was Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage. I was always a Randy Savage fan, and his first series of matches against the Hulkster were awesome. I few weeks before they were scheduled to fight in a lumberjack match at Madison Square Garden, Savage beat Tito Santana in Boston for the Intercontinental title. This made their lumberjack match even more special for me.

In 1988, Hogan fought the Honky Tonk Man at the Meadowlands Arena. It was the first of two wrestling events that I attended with my dad. He was a Hogan fan, and I rooted for the heels. This would be the first show that I ever attended where I would not only see Hulk Hogan, but also the World Wrestling Federation title. I was so mad when Hogan dropped the title to Andre about a week before that show. Gone was champion vs. champion. Gone was seeing the WWF World belt. At least I got to see Hogan during his peak. I will always remember this night, and will always argue with people who try to say that Steve Austin or The Rock were more popular than Hogan. I wasn't a Hogan fan until his 2002 WWE run. However, I immediately recognized back on that February night in 1988 that Hulk Hogan was the most popular wrestler in the history of the business. I still stand by that claim today.

In 1989, the WWF gave us the Ultimate Warrior against Randy Savage in the Garden. This match took place shortly after the "Macho Man's" heel turn against Hogan. When the match was first announced, both the Warrior and Savage were faces, plus they were the top two champions in the company. I couldn't wait to see this match, which I did courtesy of the MSG Television Network, who used to air all of the monthly WWF MSG house shows (man, do I miss those days). The match was really good, and you got a glimpse of what the two would later do in the classic feud less than a year later.

Finally, you had the ultimate champion vs. champion match in 1990 when the Intercontinental Champion the Ultimate Warrior took on the WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan in the main event at WrestleMania VI. It was probably the greatest match the Ultimate Warrior had in his career after his Mania VII match against Randy Savage. Unlike the previous matches that I talked about this match was for BOTH belts this was a true champion vs. champion match. The Hogan/Warrior match will go down as one of the most epic moments in WrestleMania history.

Since 1990, there have been other champion vs. champion matches in the WWF. Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart, Ric Flair (with the WCW belt) vs. Hulk Hogan, amongst several other quality match-ups. However, for me, nothing will beat that era between 1986-1990 in regards to champion vs. champion encounters.

This past Monday, the WWE gave us Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk in the latest champion vs. champion contest. WOW!!!! What a great little television match between the two. Can you imagine what kind of match they would be able to have at WrestleMania, where they are given twenty-five to thirty minutes with the added drama that the two belts being unified? The WWE would be getting ready for an instant classic. It would probably be the greatest WrestleMania match in the last fifteen years that did not include Shawn Michaels. Don't get me wrong, I think CM Punk and Chris Jericho have a chance to have one hell of a match and steal the show. While that's a great thing, and I'm glad that I'll be there to witness the match, I just think that Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk would be amongst the best of all-time.

BYE-BYE BRAND SPLIT

The final reason why I would like to have seen a Daniel Bryan/CM Punk title unification match at WrestleMania is because I hate the brand split. If anything was taught to us during the Royal Rumble is that the WWE current lacks depth in the talent department. In 2001, when the WWE was loaded with former ECW and WCW to go along with their current crop of WWE wrestlers, the brand split made sense. You needed the company split in order to give everyone enough television time. Slowly, the brand split has become a "brand split" in name only. SmackDown! wrestlers frequent RAW and vice versa. The only reason that you know that there still is a brand split is because of the "Bragging Rights" pay per view, and that there are two separate sets of singles champions.

I think it is time to finally end the brand split. If the WWE still wants two brands, then they should at the very least unify the two World titles, and the two secondary titles. I believe the biggest negative to come out of the brand split is that the titles have become watered down. When the World title changes hands, if it is the new champion's first run with the belt, there is still something special about the moment you hear the words, "and new World Champion……………………." However, once a guy like John Cena or Randy Orton wins his third World title in the last year, it will draw a pop from the live crowd, but the momentum of the title switch doesn't last.

The secondary titles are even more meaningless. When a wrestler won the Intercontinental championship, he was looked at as the #2 wrestler in the company. When a performer held the Intercontinental title for the most part, you knew that it was a stepping stone to be used for an eventually main event World title run. In today's WWE, the United States and Intercontinental championships are nothing more than mid-card titles. Sure, occasionally, someone like Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler will hold those titles, and you know that it is only a matter of time before they would break through to the main events. However, for the most part, these are belts used to keep the mid-card talent busy.

Unfortunately, it's very obvious that this is not the direction that the WWE is going. Instead, Jericho will take on Punk. That would leave Sheamus to battle Bryan. It's funny to see that sentence. I remember watching WrestleMania last year, and one of the most anticipated matches for me was the Sheamus/Bryan United States Championship match. I couldn't believe that a title match would be relegated to a dark match. A dark match for a championship match is ridiculous to even think about, especially won that had the potential to be one of the better WrestleMania matches. To have them face each other a year later in a World title match is mind boggling. I would have never predicted this after last year's WrestleMania. Of course, there is one monkey wrench that could be thrown into the mix.

COULD THE VIPER SLIP IN?

That would be Randy Orton. Does the WWE have enough confidence in Daniel Bryan that they would have him participate in one of the top WrestleMania matches? The run that he has been on the last couple of months would tell me that if they did not believe in him, the WWE should believe in him now. He is showing people that he isn't just a great worker in the ring, but a great performer outside of it as well. Is he the main event staple that Randy Orton is? Of course not, but he hasn't been given the opportunity either. There is still the Elimination Chamber pay per view left to take place, and Randy Orton could easily win the World title on that night. This would either create a Randy Orton/Sheamus World title bout at WrestleMania, or a Triple Threat match featuring Bryan/Orton/Sheamus. I hope that's not the route they go, because with the exception of a few, I'm not a big fan of Triple Threat matches. Plus, the Royal Rumble winner should be put in a one on one match at WrestleMania, despite the greatness that was the Shawn/Triple H/Benoit WrestleMania XX classic.

This all comes down to whether the company has faith in Daniel Bryan as a top star. Even if they do not, this pay per view isn't going to live or die on Daniel Bryan's drawing power in a World title match. That honor goes to John Cena vs. The Rock. The WWE can take a chance on Daniel Bryan, like they did with The Miz last year. The WWE isn't going to give me the Punk/Bryan unification match at WrestleMania. Instead, we have CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho and (hopefully) Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus. Not too shabby, let's hope it stays that way.