Daily DDT
Fansided

WWE Raw: How to Wrap Daniel Bryan-Roman Reigns Build to WWE Fastlane

By Mike Smith

facebooktwitterreddit

This Monday night, WWE will present the go-home edition of Raw, as we will be just six days away from WWE Fastlane. The main event of Fastlane will see Daniel Bryan take on Roman Reigns, the winner will go on to face Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 31. In case you hadn’t heard.

Of course, if you’ve watched any WWE last week, you definitely have heard. Of the three hours of last week’s Raw, Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns were on screen for almost 1/3 of that time. Then, they were on screen for over an hour on SmackDown. That is how you over-use and, more importantly, devalue two of your biggest assets.

More from Daily DDT

So as Vince McMahon sits down 15 minutes before Raw to rewrite the whole thing, I hope he keeps one thing in mind: the crowd already knows about this match. That can be a powerful thing.

The crowd will be expecting to see Bryan and Reigns be major parts of Raw, but they shouldn’t be. The main focus should go to The Authority, with Triple H preparing for his face-to-face with Sting, after Sting embarrassed him last week, and Seth Rollins, who after his great performance at WWE Royal Rumble, has no Fastlane match to speak of. Not to mention the fact that Big Show has some questions to answer, after he KO’d Kane on SmackDown. Meanwhile, the John Cena-Rusev feud could use some attention, with those two headed towards a big-time match that has no clear favorite.

All throughout the night, Michael Cole should be hyping up the big final segment of the night, a face-to-face encounter between Bryan and Reigns, and showing a highlight from last week, like Reigns’ spear on Bryan to end Raw, and the ebbs and flows from when they teamed together on SmackDown.

Then, around 10:45-10:50 EST, Bryan and Reigns will make their entrances, sparking some very loud reactions, since they will be seeing both guys for the first time in the night. Unlike usual main event segments of Raw, when the participants have already appeared in front of the crowd once, or twice.

Bryan and Reigns should start their face-to-face encounter, with tension between the two elevating until Paul Heyman interjects. Heyman’s role would be the same one he’s played for about a year: spoiler.

Heyman “spoiled” Brock Lesnar’s win against The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXX, and he “spoiled” Lesnar’s three title retentions over John Cena and Seth Rollins. On Monday, he should reiterate the point he made last week, which is that it doesn’t matter if Lesnar faces Bryan or Reigns at WrestleMania, because, either way, Lesnar is walking in as champion, and he’s walking out the same way.

Bryan and Reigns should start to respond to Heyman, then talk over each other, then turn back to each other with anger, all before Reigns spears Bryan, while Heyman smiles on from the stage.

This would be the ideal way to handle Reigns and Bryan this week, only giving them 15-20 minutes on Raw, a week after they dominated about two hours of last week’s five hours of WWE TV.

I’ve thought long and hard, but I still don’t have a guess for what the finish will be at Fastlane, in order to set up the rumored Triple Threat Match. However, I think with Reigns looking strong, and Bryan playing the underdog, there will be a million different possibilities for the finish, leaving fans on the edge of their seats. All the way up to the point where WWE goes with the worst, most anti-climactic option. Kinda like that time that Paul Simon’s singing ended a celebration for 40 years of a sketch comedy show.

How do you think Bryan and Reigns should be booked on Raw? Let us know in the comments section below.

For more on WWE and Fastlane, stick with Daily DDT. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

Home/Raw