You can say that this is a reward for Daniel Bryan becoming, arguably, the most over character in the promotion and you can also argue that the delay in setting up the match (which has been rumoured as a feud for many months now) is in order to give it it’s rightful place on one of the traditional “A” shows. But in reality there are two inter-locking reason’s for Bryan’s headlining spot; both he and John Cena are each dating a Bella Twin, Nikki Bella & Brie Bella, and E! Network’s Total Diva’s is in full swing.
The timing is no accident. I’m not privy to the discussions between the WWE and an external television network but I doubt very much that “can you hold off the TV show until a few weeks before SummerSlam” was part of the discussions. With the exception of WrestleMania (which is sacrosanct and as Daniel Bryan is a full-time performer with the company he couldn’t possibly main event there) this is a match which would have been used to headline any other pay-per-view that happened to fit in with the scheduling of Total Diva’s.
Although cross promotion between Raw and Total Diva’s is minimal, the WWE expect intrigue about the “real lives” of the Superstars to translate into increased anticipation for the “storyline” match. It’s even enabled the WWE to do away with much storyline reason for the two to fight. For one of the biggest shows of the year the build up of the World Champion being allowed to “choose” his own opponent for the title defence is hardly compelling TV (although you could argue that many a world champion has chosen his own opponents backstage…). Of course this thinking is flawed to say the least as I would reckon that approximately 0.0005% at best of the Total Diva’s audience don’t already watch the WWE “regular” programming, but logic isn’t always a strong point in wrestling is it?
I firmly believe that Bryan deserves his moment in the spotlight. He is the true “Best In The World” (sorry, Punk) in the ring and he is so incredibly over that it is without doubt the correct business decision to have him up against John Cena at SummerSlam. I also hope he not only wins the match, but also avoids the ignominy of dropping it two minutes later to a Randy Orton cash-in. (Though I would admit that that would be a logical storyline to pursue and I wouldn’t be apoplectic if it did come to pass). But to pretend that the biggest night of his career so far has come about because Vince McMahon and his booking squad have seen the errors of their previous ways and have decided to reward pure talent is a fantasy that simply doesn’t ring true.
In fact I’d argue that this kind of “happy coincidence” happens more often than you’d think in the WWE, but that’s another story for another time. Just be thankful that for whatever the reasons, this is one time that the cream has been allowed to rise to the top.
– Matthew Roberts