You have more faith than I do, lol. I’m well aware of the distinction between HHH and Paul Levesque, and I’m certainly aware that old Paul will always be determined to do what’s best for business – it’s that other thing you mentioned that I’m skeptical about. You said HHH/Paul understands the business and knows how to make a star, and while that’s probably true, I still have to wonder if Trips will somehow convince himself that going over Bryan might just perhaps be better for business after all. I mean, think about it. You say they want to build new stars, but they’ve had plenty of opportunities to do that over these last few years and they still haven’t done it. Not even due to failure, more like due to refusal. They don’t want to make new stars. They’re more eager to offer contracts to short term old stars, and maybe that’s the scariest thing. Batista winning the Rumble and likely headlining Wrestlemania is a perfect example of the skewed and borderline delusional business ethic that might very well leave Bryan fucked in the ass on the grandest stage of them all. After all, Triple H is a “huge star” too, right? Why should he roll over for Bryan? Couldn’t they make more money in the long run if he went over and maintained his mythical image? To perhaps headline another PPV with Brock? Think of the buys!
Ah, fuck it. I’m probably just being a mark, but I can’t shake the bad feeling. All logic and statistics suggest that HHH will do the right thing and job, I get that, but somehow that just seems ominous. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Great post. I have only one issue with it. The WWE has created several new stars in the last few years.
Punk, Bryan, Cesaro, Big E Langston, Dolph Ziggler, Bray Wyatt, Reigns, Rollins, Ambrose.
I hear the IWC rumble as I type this, because there's this fallacy that these guys "made themselves", which is an incredibly limited viewpoint, considering that, if they were really trying not to create new stars or focus entirely on older stars, these guys wouldn't have gotten the opportunities they got and wouldn't have been built up the way they have. I don't see you doing this, but I see too often folks on the Net who credit Bryan solely for his own success but blame the WWE for Jack Swagger's failure to get over. It's just an insane argument.
Yes, there is a reliance (even an over-reliance too often) on established stars (Cena, Orton, HHH) and on returning stars (Batista, Lesnar, RVD), but that's where the business argument comes into play. You rely on your established guys to build your newer stars, so it doesn't help when Orton takes on Cena for the 5,304th time, but when Cena jobs cleanly to Bryan, the impact is huge. When it takes HHH attacking Bryan from behind or Orton cheating to beat Bryan, even though he lost, he looks strong and the bad guys look scared. I mean, if they were real tough guys, they'd take him on in a straight-up, face-to-face fight. That's why Orton faced Cena for the umpteenth time and why he'll finally beat Batista (I don't know if that'll happen at Mania, but he'll win the feud). So that when he takes on Bryan in that Summerslam match and Bryan does the running knee to Orton's face and pins him to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion, everyone will realize that it was a big deal.
It's also why I feel that HHH will go down to Bryan at Mania. This is a feud that should end there. But, again, I understand your skepticism.
wk