2014 Awards: Angle of the Year
This is a short list and that’s kind of a shame.
I’m keeping this one quick because there just aren’t enough options there.
Sami Zayn’s Road to Redemption worked like a charm with the blowoff making it worth the journey. You could argue this story started back when Sami debuted and started his feud with Cesaro. Over the last few months, Sami has gone back and defeated everyone that has given him a loss before finally capping it off with a title win over NXT Champion Adrian Neville. It’s a classic story and the matches working like a charm made it even better. Yet another reason to love NXT.
Shield breaks up, which ties into a bunch of singles feuds. You had the Shield as perhaps the greatest three man combination ever and there was only one way to get out of that: someone had to turn. In this case it seems to have been the best option, as Rollins turned on his brothers and joined the Authority as the new ace heel. He has since become the top heel in the company and looks ready for the heel push towards the stars. It was a shocking moment and kicked off one of the best set of stories all year.
That leaves us with one option and this really shouldn’t surprise anyone paying attention: Daniel Bryan’s Road to Wrestlemania. Bryan going from the tag team guy to the champ to being screwed over to a Wyatt for a little while to being the people’s choice to the WWE World Heavyweight Champion was one heck of a rollercoaster and the blowoff was in the main event of Wrestlemania. I really don’t think I can give it more praise than that and this might be the easiest winner of the awards all year.
The problem with the Rollins turn was that was never a logical reason for it. All we got was the “I didn’t sell out, I bought in” line and how he broke the team up just because he could. It wasn’t until Noble and Mercury came in that we saw any benefit to Seth joining the Authority because up to that point he was doing just as good as when he was with the group and as The Shield, they were clearly superior to the Authority.
Why WWE didn’t have Rollins be the only Shield guy who took a pin the night before is very mind boggling.
Wasn’t he saying basically how The Authority would always be on top, even if The Shield beat them over and over. There was no overarching power in The Shield, just three guys doing stuff for good or bad.
He ‘buys in’ and doors get opened. Those doors lead to he gets the Money in the Bank briefcase, he gets his own goon squadron and gets favoured over Orton as ‘the future’.
You say there wasnt any other way Shield could have split but werent you voicing your displeasure about it around when it first happened? I even read the raw review where rollins turned and even remember you screaming about it in the LD and saying why couldnt they just agree to go their seperate ways and reunite when the time is right
Back then I didn’t know how good Rollins was going to be. That changed a lot.