The Piledriver Report 08.08.13: Three Play

SWITCHING ROLES

Looking back at the first half of 2013 in the WWE, I have noticed a trend within the company. It seems that the WWE has turned a lot of performers from heel to face, and vice versa. The list reads like a Who’s Who’s of the company’s personnel directory. CM Punk, Alberto Del Rio, Dolph Ziggler, Mark Henry, Ryback, Cody Rhodes, Layla, and now it looks like Randy Orton have all switched sides. Usually, you get a small number of turns in a calendar year. To have so many wrestlers switching sides in an eight month time period is pretty surprising.

Are all of these turns a good thing or a bad thing? I actually like the moves that the WWE did. Alberto Del Rio should be a heel. He’s not a natural born face. Despite the WWE trying to build up a Latino star as an alternative to the often injured Rey Mysterio, the face Del Rio wasn’t working. He needs to be a heel. Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler, and Cody Rhodes were interesting turns, because it has been a long time since each was a face. A run on the baby face side can really be used to freshen up their characters, and give them exciting new storylines and feuds. Ryback was a good turn, because the WWE kind of ruined him as a face by having him go from an undefeated run to jobbing on every pay per view. Ryback’s heel turn initially brought some of the momentum that he lost over the previous few months. I loved Layla when she was partners with Michelle McCool as part of Lay-Cool. I think her teaming with AJ Lee will help rejuvenate her career as she has been an afterthought in the Divas division lately. A Randy Orton heel turn has been in the works for about a year. That’s the perfect role for him. The Randy Orton character is a heel in nature. He’s very unlikeable, and should be a heel. Even Orton feels that way, as he has been wanting to return to the dark side for a while. The one turn I am undecided about is CM Punk’s. I loved Punk’s heel run last year. I actually loved all of his heel runs in the WWE. I felt that Punk had a lot more that he could have done as a heel. He could have teamed with Brock Lesnar instead of feuding with him. As a heel, he could have been inserted into a real, prolonged feud against John Cena. That being said, I love the latest Punk face run. He seems to have a serious edge that was lacking during his previous face run where he started to morph into John Cena-lite where he started spewing unfunny one liners. Since I like this Punk face turn as much as I liked his late heel run, I guess you can call it a good thing, just like all of the other turn moves the WWE pulled over the last seven months.

JOHN CENA’S PROMO

Normally, when John Cena grabs a mic to cut a promo, I cringe. I hate the smiling, happy go lucky, carefree, joke telling John Cena. I prefer the serious side to Cena. When Cena acts serious, he proves to be a championship performer, and is money on the mic. This past Monday night, John Cena delivered a tremendous promo where he rebutted Daniel Bryan’s accusation that Cena would stay in his million dollar mansion instead of working elsewhere in the business if he ever got fired. Cena agreed, not because he saved his money, but because of his love for the WWE. He put over the company huge by saying that he wouldn’t wrestle anywhere else, because that’s his passion.

The only part of the promo that I didn’t like was when he fell back into the usual “John Cena promo” pattern. I’m talking about the part where Cena started telling the audience how millions of people chant “You can’t wrestle” at him. When he brought this up, instead of hearing thousands of “you can’t wrestle” chants, you heard crickets. Then Cena killed the moment by telling the folks at home that the crowd was chanting “You can’t wrestle!” Luckily he recovered from this little blip on the screen, and continued to cut a really good promo that helped sell Summer Slam.

THE SHIELD VS. THE WYATT FAMILY

The moment I saw the first vignette involving the Wyatt Family, I thought to myself, “three Wyatt Family members. Three members of The Shield team. Eventually, the two units will have to cross paths with one another.” While the WWE hasn’t given one hint at a Wyatt/Shield feud, I still can’t help but get excited at the eventually war down the road. Comparisons between the two factions are sure to be made. Upon advancing to the main roster, both groups quickly made their presence felt. The Shield attacked everyone from John Cena to Ryback. The Wyatt Family brutalized Kane. The WWE booked The Shield brilliantly, as they had the trio beat main event level teams that included the likes of Kane, John Cena, Ryback, Daniel Bryan, and Randy Orton. It’s too soon to tell how the Wyatt Family will be booked. Their first big test will be at SummerSlam when Kane returns for a singles match against the leader of the Wyatt clan.

The WWE should book the Wyatts in a similar manner to the way they booked The Shield. Let them run roughshod through the big name WWE stars. Eventually, The Shield decides to encounter the Wyatts in the ring, and a three on three battle begins. I wouldn’t have this face off happen any time soon. I would wait until December. This way the six men could square off during different stages of the Royal Rumble to give the fans a taste of what is about to come. I would have their first official match against one another take place at WrestleMania XXX in a six man tag team match. The question would be who should be the face and who should play the heel in an eventual Wyatt family vs. The Shield feud. I would probably turn the Wyatt’s face. Their crazy, backyard attitude would probably make them easy to root for when they decide to turn fan favorite. While The Shield has the technical ability to work as faces, I don’t know how their gimmick would translate as a fan favorite. Their gimmick is that the numbers always favor them. Heels are supposed to be the aggressor. Faces are supposed to have the odds stacked against them. It wouldn’t make sense for The Shield to have a 3 on 1 or 3 on 2 attack on some heels.

Regardless of how the WWE books the match, The Shield vs. the Wyatts would be an eagerly anticipated match that would highlight some of the WWE’s top younger talent. That’s why holding off the feud until WrestleMania would make the most sense. Showcase this talent at the WWE’s biggest show of the year where more eyes will be on them than at any other time of the year. If the WWE follows this plan, the fans are in for a real treat. One that will be worth the wait.