The Piledriver Report 07.26.13: Summer Angles Turning Up the Heat

*****Before I begin this week’s article, I just wanted to apologize for the lack of articles lately. Due to personal issues, and a medical emergency, I was unable to write over the last few weeks. In the next few weeks, I will continue the History of the WWE series of articles. Thank you for understanding.*****

KICKING OFF THE SUMMER WITH A BANG

In 2010, the WWE kicked off the summer with a revolutionary angle when the group of Wade Barrett, Daniel Bryan, Skip Sheffield, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Michael Tarver, Darren Young, and David Otunga attacked John Cena, CM Punk, Luke Gallows, Matt Striker, Justin Roberts, Jerry Lawler, and several ringside officials. The storyline kicked off, what should have been a ground breaking angle. Instead, the storyline quickly started to lose momentum. The WWE would learn its lesson when they debuted The Shield last fall.

In 2011, CM Punk delivered his “pipebomb” setting off Punk’s rise from upper mid-card/lower main eventer, to the number two performer in the company. Besides the promo heard around the world, the “Summer of Punk” gave us one of the best matches of John Cena’s career, and the hottest WWE crowd in several years. Not only did CM Punk capture the WWE championship, but Daniel Bryan won the Money in the Bank briefcase for the World Heavyweight title. It was an Internet fan’s dream.

Last year, the WWE delivered their big summer angle on the 1,000th episode of RAW. On the show, CM Punk turned heel after his match with John Cena where he attacked The Rock after the contest. This led to a partnership between CM Punk and Paul Heyman. The Punk/Heyman union delivered some of the best television segments throughout most of the past year.

After three straight years of the WWE delivering a big summer angle, the question being raised was what would the WWE do this year to heat up the hottest months of the year? While the WWE hasn’t given us that potential game changing angle this year, they have provided two solid storylines that have the potential for making the summer of 2013 the highlight of the year.

A FRIENDSHIP DIES

Ever since CM Punk and Paul Heyman where paired together, it was only a matter of time before the duo would break up. It was inevitable. CM Punk was so great as a heel that the WWE was probably itching to turn him face, because in the land of the WWE, the more popular you are, the more people would be willing to purchase your merchandise. However, the WWE has always felt that to fully capitalize on a cash cow, you need to make sure that the “cow” is a babyface. It’s a shame really, because the WWE had a lot more ground to cover with the CM Punk/Paul Heyman union.

CM Punk and John Cena always have terrific matches against one another. However, the two have yet to battle in a full-fledged feud with one another. With CM Punk being a heel, and John Cena on the face side, the WWE could have easily pulled the trigger on a feud btween the two. Another untapped resource that the WWE left alone by turning Punk back to the land of the faces was a tag team of CM Punk and Brock Lesnar. This dream team could have headlined SummerSlam against John Cena and Daniel Bryan. Having the two team up would have given the fans the opportunity to see a fantasy tag team. It would have given the fans more of the awesome heel version of CM Punk. Finally, Punk and Lesnar could have created a competitive rivalry that would have eventually led to the team’s breakup.

Instead, the WWE turned CM Punk face a year after his 2012 heel turn. Even though the WWE could have done more with a heel Punk, his face turn has been terrific. CM Punk and Paul Heyman had great chemistry as a duo. Heyman played the dotting father-figure, bragging about CM Punk’s reign as champion. Punk played off of him with equal bravado. As great as the two were together, they are even better feuding against one another.

Every promo battle between the two has been must see TV. Paul Heyman has been terrific in his role. He takes credit for Punk’s success, while at the same time he states true facts about being the only one in the WWE who believed in Punk years ago. In the manner that Heyman delivers his diatribes against Punk, he comes across as genuine, but at the same time very heelish for trying to say Punk would be nothing without him.

Punk has done a tremendous job in his promos as well. Heyman brags about Brock Lesnar. CM Punk, not only puts over wanting to beat Brock Lesnar, but he also continues to put heat on Heyman by saying that he will get his hands on Heyman. A pissed off Punk is a great character. When you look at CM Punk, and you look at Brock Lesnar, Brock should kill him. It shouldn’t even be a contest. However, when you add Punk’s rage into the equation, you believe that he can beat Brock because he is determined to get his hands on Heyman.

With Brock Lesnar having a limited schedule, it is completely up to Paul Heyman and CM Punk to sell this storyline. While both have been doing a tremendous job, it was Brock Lesnar’s participation that really turned up the heat on the storyline. His attack on CM Punk a couple of weeks ago was fantastic. It was extremely brutal. Due to their size difference, Punk was being thrown around like a rag doll. Punk was bouncing around like he was Spike Dudley against Bam Bam Bigelow in ECW. The beating really set the tone that Brock Lesnar was a serious threat to CM Punk, and that Punk would be in trouble at SummerSlam. The card is about a month away, but the storyline is already going strong. With CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, and Paul Heyman involved, there is no fear that the angle will peak too soon. Instead, the storyline should only build up more steam until it explodes at SummerSlam.

A BOYHOOD DREAM

A little more than sixteen years ago, Shawn Michaels was about to fulfill his boyhood dream by becoming the WWF champion. In August, the “Heartbreak Kid’s” most famous protégé, Daniel Bryan (aka Bryan Danielson) tries to capture his boyhood dream by winning the WWE title at SummerSlam.

Over the past several months, the Internet darling Daniel Bryan has picked up some serious momentum. His in ring work was never a problem. Bryan was also fantastic in the ring. Over the last year and a half, Daniel has developed a hell of a personality as well. His run as part of the Hell No tag team with Kane showed that Bryan can be comical, as well as serious. He became the complete package. If Bryan was seven inches taller, he’d be Vince McMahon’s wet dream. While proving to be one of the best, if not the best, performers in the business, Daniel Bryan was stuck in the role of sidekick. However, once Team Hell No dropped the tag belts to Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan’s stock has sky rocketed. He is the most over wrestler in the company. The pops he gets from the crowd are Austin-like. Everyone, from the fans to his fellow wrestlers rave about his talent. They say that talent cannot be denied. Daniel Bryan is proving this to be the case. Despite his size, Bryan cannot be ignored any longer.

After being rumored to face John Cena at the Money in the Bank pay per view, the WWE changed the plan to have Cena defend the belt against Daniel Bryan at the second biggest pay per view of the year. Since Bryan was riding a huge wave of momentum, you figured that he would have won the Money in the Bank briefcase and announced that he would face Cena at SummerSlam for the belt. If not, he would at least win a mini-tournament to get the shot. Instead, the WWE had John Cena and the “WWE Universe” pick Bryan as the number one contender. That wasn’t the best way to build up a match at SummerSlam. However, this past week, the WWE had Daniel Bryan wrestle three opponents in a gauntlet style match. I thought this was perfect. Daniel Bryan has beaten The Shield members and Ramdy Orton recently. Now, he wrestled three matches against Jack Swagger, Antonio Caesaro, and Ryback back-to-back-to-back. It highlighted his true talents.

So far, there is no heat to the Daniel Bryan/John Cena match, unlike the Punk/Lesnar feud. However, with a month to go, I expect there to be friction built up heading into their SummerSlam match. When comparing the two angles thus far, Lesnar/Punk is this summer’s top angle. While their match should be really good, and one hell of a brawl, it won’t beat out the Daniel Bryan/John Cena match as the best match at SummerSlam. This is why I believe that the WWE has two hot summer programs, instead of one. Even if the WWE treats Bryan/Cena as a respectful match where both guys love each other, just the anticipation of their match at SummerSlam puts them on the same level of Punk/Lesnar.

After three summers that featured a huge historic angle each year, this year doesn’t look like we will be getting that ground breaking, change the industry, program. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Instead, we get two programs that are sure to be the highlight of 2013. In the long run, we may look at the Summer of 2013 as one of the best summers of the decade. It all starts now.