Miz vs Daniel Bryan made official in a brilliant Raw promo

Wow. That was my first thought after watching The Miz and Daniel Bryan interact on Raw. I know that this was not the greatest promo in the world, but it is definitely DVD worthy. There was the occasional line slip up, but that is acceptable. I’ll go through this thing from beginning to end rig here and offer some opinions.

First of all, The Miz always looks great when he is telling the world that he was ostracized, and removed from the WWE locker room. His true anger comes through and his smugness at having finally made it comes across as real. The Miz is hungry to be the next world champion. I can not remember many wrestlers that have been as hungry as The Miz is right now.

He showed real emotion when he won the Money in the Bank ladder match in July and that emotion showed again on Monday night. The Miz revealed his new WWE Magazine cover and you could see how proud he was. The Miz’s introduction of himself at the beginning was even great.

Now we get to Daniel Bryan’s part of the segment. First of all, I hate his entrance music, but I’m sure Daniel Bryan himself hates it. His generic music quip was great. Daniel Bryan was not as polished on the mic as he seemed to be at then end of his NXT run. He seemed to be a little bit nervous and he definitely did not seem as confident as The Miz.

Of course the main things that Daniel Bryan said, aside from the overall challenge was that he was basically the anti-superstar. This is a phenomenal gimmick for him. He is not tall. He does not act in a completely cocky manner. He is not the image that people think of when they hear WWE Superstar. Daniel Bryan can be the opposite of everything WWE wants their talent to be.

Now as we get to the actual challenge, I have to say that the drama here did not really play out for me. Everyone assumed that this match would happen at Night of Champions, so everyone knew that either The Miz would say yes or the GM would make the match anyways. I am impressed that they allowed The Miz to be tough and actually say yes. Many times heels do not accept challenges or they act frightened of the babyfaces. Here, The Miz stood toe to toe with his rival.

What really excites me about this segment is the future of both of these men. My colleague at Inside Pulse Aaron Glazer compared these two men to Steve Austin and The Rock in the sense that this could be a career rivalry. Remember that feud built from their undercard days all the way to main eventing Wrestlemania three times. This is not to say that these men will main event Wrestlemania together on three occasions, but they are natural rivals.

This could just be the first chapter of a career long feud between these young wrestlers. In these moments they can elevate each other. The Miz is primed to break through to the next level in wrestling and Daniel Bryan is his natural rival. This is the opportunity of a lifetime for WWE. Think of how fondly we look at Austin throwing the Intercontinental Championship off of a bridge in 1997. That was one of the first moments of their feud. Could the magazine cover be that moment for Bryan and Miz?

Let me know what you think about this promo and the future of this program in the comments. Thanks foe reading!

Replacing Chris Jericho at Night of Champions

As of Monday night on Raw, Chris Jericho is no longer a part of the Night of Champions main event. This is a really interesting turn of events. He vowed to leave WWE if he did not win the championship at this PPV, but now he will not be on the show at all. Where does this leave him?

That is a question for another day. It was left largely up in the air at Raw as he talked with John Morrison on Raw.

Now, the matter of his replacement in this match is important. Who could take his place in this match? The first option must be Chris Jericho’s opponent on Raw, John Morrison. He is a great athlete who could wrestle the right style of match for this show. He would add some flash and excitement to the match and be a good wrestler to take the fall. Sadly, he has been pushed lately in a way that makes him no longer a true threat at the championship.

Who else could be in this match? The Raw mid card has been torn apart by The Nexus angle. In pushing seven, six and now five new heels the entire mid card has been deputed to make room for them. This is part of making new stars, but it makes it hard to elevate anyone but the new heels, who can only go so far. One of them is already in this match, and two would be overkill.

Now we must focus on the upper mid card that still exists. Will it be The Miz, who is already facing Daniel Bryan at that show? How silly would it be for him to cash in MITB at this show, to be one of five challengers? He would have to be portrayed as completely idiotic. Can they really have Mark Henry be plugged in? He is the anti John Morrison, in the sense that he would not ass to the match, but take away. His weaknesses could be hidden in this format, but he would be exposed as unathletic and not talented.

In the end, I believe that Jericho will win his way back into this match somehow on Raw next week. With this focus on his story, maybe there is a chance of him winning this match and actually becoming champion. I would not complain about that. Let me know your thoughs on Jericho’s replacements and chances of winning.

Elsewhere on my blog, check out my analysis on Daniel Bryan and The Miz’s promo and some random Sunday thoughts.