The Min Report: Between Brock and A Hard Place – The Build-Up to SummerSlam
First of all, hiya folks, been a while eh? Has to be said us part-timers at Total Wrestling have been very slack of late not least yours truly. Personally I make no excuses nor apologies but that said life’s been pretty busy of late (moving house, getting engaged, generally being awesome etc) and just keeping up with our beloved men in pants has been a chore in itself at times. You know what they say though, if you can find time to write about wrestling you’re not having enough sex, so at least something’s been going ok for me I guess. But I digress…
Secondly I wanna credit by Miami buddy John Canton at TJR (www.facebook.com/tjrwrestling) for inspiring this little scribbling. He’s had some proper gayness from other ‘writers’ of late so even though I’m not directly plagiarising him here, credit goes to the big guy for making an issue of (and making me think more about) the Lesnar line on Raw this week to HBK of, “”And you, yeah you, I’ll see you before then.”
Now, we’re all expecting this to be some of sort of pre-cursor to Lesnar having a run-in with Michaels pre-Summerslam. Yes it keeps some tension going to the story for the remaining couple of weeks sure, but what if nothing happens…that we see at least. Let’s be honest, it makes no sense for Brock to hurt Michaels (at least not until SummerSlam or afterwards) – if he does it shows that he thinks HBK is a threat, and besides the match with he and Trip is on whatever. It’s not as if he needs to rile Trip in any way to force the issue. At the same time, bear in mind that Brock had ample opportunity to strike HBK this week and didn’t. Not the actions of someone who came back to fight for sure.
So, what if Lesnar seeing Michaels is about how they are going to ensure TOGETHER that Trip doesn’t get to walk out (or even carried out) of this one. Ok, so we’ve seen screw jobs between HBK and Trip a million times before but bear with me as I cast your minds back to a little show held a few months back called WrestleMania.
It was the night before the big return of Brock (I was there in Miami and it was a HUGE return even in the light that 95% of the crowd knew he was gonna be there), and we were given a truly great spectacle of a match between Trip and Taker, with HBK as guest referee…and just for good measure Hell in a Cell. The match was billed as the end of an era. Therein lies the issue. There was no specific loser retires stipulation, but the implication was clearly there in the build up – with Michaels retired, the winner of the match would be the last of their generation still going. Jump forward a few months and what has ended? Trip is effectively still an ‘active’ wrestler, as is Taker, even if we are both only getting them in small cameo doses. The bottom line? Trip lost at Mania, and yet is still booking himself in matches. This needs to be Michaels’ ammunition – as the guy who lost and held his word having a problem with the guy (his best friend no less) who lost and still refuses to admit he’s done.
So HBK costs (a still fighting but badly beaten) Trip the match. A simple Superkick into an F-5 would suffice, or even be the one to count his shoulders to the mat following a ref bump, or better still to actually stop the match (à la throw in the towel perhaps like Owen did for Bret?). Meanwhile Brock trundles on to another big pay day in another ultimately meaningless match for him a couple of months down the line. Hey, he’s only here for a while to sell PPVs, we DO have to just ignore some things…
The stage is set – Michaels is pissed that Trip just won’t quit, while Trip is pissed that Michaels continues to be the one to ‘cost’ him ‘big’ matches. Trip would then challenge Michaels to a final showdown between the two at WM29. Stating win, lose, or draw, this would be his official retirement match, but that he needs to know (much as HBK did against Taker) whether he still had it to be in the ring with the best. Personally I wouldn’t want to see Michaels come out of retirement for ‘one night only’, although I could see it happening and would assume that Trip would love his true final match to be against the greatest of all time.
But Michaels could truly stick to his guns and take the higher ground stating that he said was retired and he meant it…but if Trip really wants to prove he’s still got it, there’s no use wasting his minerals on old timers like him or Taker, why doesn’t he prove it against someone who can still ‘go’ at the pace they used to know, someone who maybe was even trained by the greatest of all time, someone like…Daniel Bryan. After the Bryan debacles of the last two Manias, what better rub and a passing of the torch could there truly be? Bryan’s work over the past year both in ring and out has proven that he IS the real deal we all knew him to be and no-one deserves it more than him. What’s more as a ‘clean’ guy, he’s a safe bet for WWE for decades to come. It would also be great PR on a personal level for Trip (not that I’m sure he cares) to show he can truly do the right thing ‘for business’.
If as some rumours go we expect Taker to hold on until WM30 to bow out (at 22-0), we could then have a long build for Taker v Bryan at WM30, where Bryan is the heel bragging that he did what Taker couldn’t do…make Triple H retire. The guest ref? You’ve guessed it. Triple H. The circle is complete with a story that mirrors the run up to WM28.
Granted, this would mean some sort of logic and storyline continuity at foot in WWE programming which we all know is a reach at the best of times, but surely a build towards a true retirement match at Mania next year would be better than just a boring blow off match at Summerslam that ultimately does nothing for either Brock nor Trip? Hey as always, it’s just my opinion…but you’re all entitled to it. I know I’d love to see it.
“Enjoy the ride”.
Simm ‘The Min’ Minogue.
The Min Report: You’ll superkick yourself when it happens – The Build-Up to SummerSlam (cont’) - WWE News, WWE Rumours, WWE Reviews, TNA Spoilers, Impact Wresting News - Total Wrestling
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August 15, 2012 at 8:56 pm