This is our first fix that angle piece focusing on Cena Vs. Miz at WM27. Fix the angle is all about looking at a bad angle from WWE and giving it a rewrite that we think would have been better and easy to execute. We do not intend to rewrite any angle in a way that is a major reach, but if we do please feel free to comment to us and point it out.
We usually pick angles that we feel hurt the momentum or even in this case career of a Superstar for no apparent reason.
The Setup. The Miz is the World Champion going into WM27 and must take on John Cena in the main event. The two have a well developed story. The Miz is not over huge, but has garnered just enough respect to justify this main event. Cena is starting to grow stale on the WWE audience, but he's still the man at this point and this feels like a battle between the new guard kind of match. Remember the prior WM was headlined by Taker and HBK.
Miz really got put over in his entrance package when WWE did a throw back of his entire career. Cena did his usual big Mania entrance. The Rock loomed over the match as he had been feuding with Cena and the plan seemed to be that somehow have Rock and Cena conflict at some point before the night was over.
The match was nothing memorable, but it wasn't a bad match in the early and middle stages. Typically what you would expect between these two with a lot of back and fourth. They went to the outside at one point and Cena speared Miz through a side railing and they were both counted out. That finish felt very odd and flat, but the Rock quickly came out to restart the match.
The Rock then entered the ring after the match was restarted and Rock Bottom'd Cena costing him the match. Miz got the win. The Rock then entered the ring again and attacked Miz and then tossing him out of the ring. He then celebrated on the top rope as we cut away from the event.
The outcome. Cena and Rock had a a built in rivalry from a comments they had made over the years, so this was the major tipping off point to setting up their match the next year. Cena wasn't hurt by the loss and actually won the title a month later, but he wasn't made to look equal to the Rock at all the next night on Raw because he got sneak attacked.
The Rock was white hot. Despite openly costing the Cena the title in the main event of WM he was still cheered by the fans the next night. I don't think there is anything worse you can do to anyone then cost them the main event of a WM other than hurting a family member. WWE was so happy with the positive Rock response he probably could have taken a dump in the ring and people would have popped for it at that point.
The Miz was the casualty. He slowly declined after dropping the strap to Cena and has never gotten close to be considering a top contender. He was made to look so bad despite winning because of how he was disregarded. He looked like a flunky that was just in the way of something bigger. Although he's still a relevant worker and he appears to put a lot of hard work in to his gimmick WWE hasn't elevated him even close to as they did during this time.
So could this have been done better? Why yes of course.
First WWE wanted to really ignite their Cena Rock feud, which they knew was going to be a ways off at WM28. So, let's use that as the trajectory of the match. You probably don't have to have Rock involved in the main event at all. Instead let Cean just simply have the best match he can with Miz, but in the end have Cena triumph in a way that Miz looks really good. Have Miz kick out of some spots where it should seem well over and then have him look like a sure fire winner in a few spots. Really tease that Miz is going to win. Then just have a solid transition to a final sequence. Miz loses clean and in the end he and Miz exchange a show of respect like a forced handshake. Let the Miz walk off looking strong.
As Cena celebrates in the ring hit the Rocks music. Have him come down to the ring and stare down Cena. The crowd would go nuts for this. This is a major moment. Have them start trading blows and then run a bunch of WWE officials out there to break it up and end the show with a fury of madness. Off air you can have Rock get the mic and talk up the crowd, but to the viewers we would simply see that this is building to something huge. We get a massive WM moment when they are staring each other down face to face center of the ring before the exchange.
The next night on Raw you booked the WM28 match and don't have the awkwardness of Cena looking like a loser from the night before or Rock have acted heel even though the fans accepted it. Basically you have two guys looking strong ready to face off at years end.
The most important thing is the Miz doesn't come out of the event looking as bad as he did. A shitty main event win over Cena and then getting treated like he doesn't even matter by the Rock did nothing for him. A classic loss where he gave a massive effort builds him up for a possible face turn or just the fact that if you put him over a bunch in the coming months that he truly is a top guy.
You hardly ever hear the Miz treated or mentioned as a former World Champion. There's no reason he shouldn't be higher on the card even to this day. This match really hurt him and the subsequent booking did him no favors.
This angle stands out to me as the start of some really illogical booking by WWE that has only gotten worse. Later that year a white hot CM Punk would also get hit with a major dose of illogical booking we will look at next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment