What’s the Direction for the WWE After Night of Champions?

After Night of Champions, Eve is the Divas champion, Antonio Cesaro is United States champion, Miz holds the Intercontinental champion, Kane and Daniel Bryan are the Tag Team champions, Sheamus holds the World Heavyweight champion, and CM Punk is, of course, the WWE champion.

You have to be pleased overall with the champion selections at the moment.

Punk is known as maestro both in the ring and on the stick, Bryan is a technical wiz whom, resonates well with the crowd. Kane is a perennially underused and underrated worker who seems to have a knack for matching himself with oddball teammates and making a successful go at it (see Hurricane, X-Pac and RVD). both Miz and Sheamus are constantly improving and cementing themselves as the future leaders of the company. Eve is a standout amongst the current, overall lackluster crop of lady wrestlers in the WWE. And finally Cesaro is highly touted from his indie and ROH days and thus far has been living up to the hype.

So what’s the problem?

There are a few actually.

John Cena undergoing surgery, and thus taking a hiatus, throws a potentiall
interesting monkey wrench into WWE’s title hunt. This might be a bit far-fetched, however, but it would be intriguing if Zack Ryder could be injected into the picture with Punk, at least for a few weeks.

Ryder would start showing more and more signs of frustration at the matches he’s being put in, despite the ever-growing swell of fan base he has. Punk comes out, and starts bashing on Ryder, saying he’s put in the matches he’s put in because “That’s the best he can do.” Ryder, tired of hearing this from someone whom is already lacking in vocal support and yet, in his eyes, receives special treatment. Ryder snaps, blasts Punk with the Zack Attack, and tops it off by holding Punk’s title belt aloft, showing it to the fans for their approval and support.

Sounds crazy, but it would elevate Ryder to a new level and wouldn’t hurt Punk, since once they had a match, Punk would show him who the boss was, after Ryder showed they belonged in the same ring.

Punk would be a great way to truly help Ryder finally come into his own in the spotlight, and they’d both be great foils for each other, Punk being the gritty, serious competitor and Ryder, being the fun-loving, catchphrase-spouting fan favorite. This isn’t even a program for Punk to lose the title. This would be all about truly elevating Ryder, while further cementing Punk, using fresh blood at the same time. It’d serve as well as a nice holding program for the title while Cena recovers from surgery.

One big problem with the WWE is, of course, their tag division. They seem to have made a habit of simply throwing two wrestlers together and calling them a team. It’s sad, seeing as how there are multiple ready-made teams already in place. The Usos, The Prime Time Players and Epico and Primo could easily make for a solid foundation for an improved tag division. Perhaps an older team could reunite and work with the young, new teams to further elevate them in the fans’ eyes? These teams, coupled with the potential reunion of a well-known duo and some proper, organically formed teams, could lead to a revitalization of WWE’s tag division and its rebirth. The fans need this. WWE’s main title and mid-card title scenes have enough variety to them. All they need is a proper tag division and the product would definitely shine much more.

For the future, potential feuds and programs could bubble up between superstars. Perhaps Punk tries his hand at Lesnar? Be interesting to see two Heyman guys go at it. Or may be these two start a new faction? Or Taker and Lesnar reigniting their former red-hot feud (taking advantage of their well-publicized heat). Maybe Stone Cold could throw a challenge out to Punk? No title on the line, just a match of pure and utter respect. Who knows? All we know for sure is that the times they are a ‘changing.