Ryan's Reaction: Daniel Bryan continues to turn heel, The Funkasaurus makes his debut, Edge to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and more


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Kester Editorials


Ryan's Reaction: Daniel Bryan continues to turn heel, The Funkasaurus makes his debut, Edge to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and more
Jan 16, 2012 - 10:40 AM


By Ryan Kester

Welcome to the Reaction. In this weekly editorial, I take a brief look back at the previous week in professional wrestling and determine what I liked, what I didn't, and then explain what I want to see happen in the coming week. Without further ado, let's get started.

What Went Right

- Daniel Bryan and Big Show continued to deliver memorable exchanges on Smackdown. Daniel Bryan still shows a certain level of discomfort when he's delivering a promo to the crowd, but he is showing a much greater comfort as a heel when interacting with other wrestlers. By extension, Show's pure dismay after he ran over AJ was exactly what that segment needed to work.

- Kurt Angle and James Storm, and Bobby Roode and Jeff Hardy put on a great pair of matches to close out this week's Impact. The finish to the Roode and Hardy match still diminished Roode's credibility as a champion, but that's not enough not to praise the work that all four men put into their respective matches.

- Despite my initial reservations, Brodus Clay assuaged my feelings about his new Funkasaurus character. Brodus Clay proved that even if you're given crap for a gimmick, if you go all out with it you can still entertain people.

- Edge and the Four Horseman are going to be taking their rightful places among WWE's Hall of Fame. Edge was one of the greatest wrestlers of my generation, and the Four Horseman is arguably the greatest wrestling stable of all time. It's still early in the announcement cycle, but the 2012 class of the Hall of Fame is already shaping up to be quite historic.

- TNA has harkened back to the storyline involving Kazarian playing middle man during AJ Styles' and Christopher Daniels' feud. We don't get a lot of storyline continuity in this day and age of wrestling, and it's always nice to see a company take advantage of such an underutilized yet effective aspect of episodic storytelling.

What Went Wrong

- TNA, despite the quality of its Genesis rematches, still ripped off their most loyal customers that actually parted with their hard earned money to support TNA. There is only so long this can happen before they burn out what little PPV support they currently have.

- Hornswoggle is once again getting involved in matches. I like the guy and he has his place in some comedy segments, but it's absolutely annoying to have him getting involved in wrestling matches that were working fine without his presence.

- Due to the hectic nature of Monday Night Raw, some key components of the show felt left in the dust. Among them was Chris Jericho's latest stop in whatever storyline he is going for. WWE made what felt like the biggest deal of the previous week utterly forgettable by the end of the show. That's not how you want a viewer to feel about something that was hyped for an entire month before its reveal.

- Kane's stalking and attacking of John Cena and Zack Ryder rings hollow for this viewer. The mystique of Kane's character doesn’t last far past his entrance at this point, and I can't shake the feeling that WWE left a lot of money on the table when they opted to have him talk rather than finding a suitable mouthpiece for him.

- R-Truth and The Miz continue to flounder in the upper midcard with a feud that is geared more towards comedy than it is towards getting either man over. As a result, the crowds seemed to have checked out a bit and I can only hope that this feud will end sometime soon.

What Needs to Happen This Week

- WWE needs to continue to continue what they are doing with Daniel Bryan. The man is getting massive heat from the crowds he's been in front of, and if they keep the slow burn at the pace he's going he could easily sell several WrestleMania buys against a credible babyface opponent.

- Chris Jericho needs to be given more emphasis than he was this past week on Raw. Jericho was given several weeks of strong hype and it's essential that they keep people talking about his new character.

- Notice how I didn't mention CM Punk, Dolph Ziggler, and John Laurinaitis yet? That's because, like Chris Jericho, they were lost in the shuffle on Raw and need to continue to be given a push. I understand John Cena will be selling WrestleMania, but Punk's title reign needs to be treated like a bigger deal than it has been if the title is going to mean much heading into WrestleMania.

- Brodus Clay needs to be given more exposure. He has shown an ability to make a considerably terrible gimmick work and now he just needs adequate time to make his gimmick connect with the live crowds.

- Hornswoggle needs to be kept to short backstage segments and away from wrestling matches. The man can provide humor here and there, but the less we see of Hornswoggle, the more his antics can be endearing.

If you have any questions or comments or just wish to chat with a fellow wrestling fan about whatever, then feel free to email me at ryan.kester@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter at @TheRyanKester. Have a great week.

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