WWE Over The Limit

Two matches were announced for Over the Limit last night. One was resoundingly praised by everyone who likes wrestling in CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship. The other one? Eh not so much. Despite the fact that John Laurinaitis has extensive experience working in Japan and John Cena has gained the begrudging respect of people programmed to hate him, the overwhelming reaction to the announcement of their match was of the groaning variety. I get why that’s happening, but I also think that it’s a bit shortsighted. This match is a good match to happen for several reasons.

• It keeps John Cena away from the WWE Championship

Either John Cena is wrestling in the larger than life matches or he’s in the title hunt. It’s as simple as that. If he wasn’t wrestling Laurinaitis here and if Brock Lesnar was off the table, then where else would he go if he wasn’t taking injury time off? Yep, the WWE Championship. Everyone right now is loving the idea of Punk/Bryan for the WWE Championship, and the pending World Championship feud between Sheamus and Alberto del Rio is another fresh take, even if del Rio has been to the top of the mountain before. Cena being tangled up with the boss is a big enough thing to keep him away from the gold, and thus ensuring that we’re getting cool new matches at the PPV.

• It keeps him away from Brock Lesnar

The last thing WWE really needs right now is for Lesnar to become “just another guy”. Having him embroiled in a feud where he’s trading falls with Cena at a slew of PPVs in a row would do a lot to make him that. One might argue that having him lose to Cena at Extreme Rules did that but I’m not one of them. I just want to see where they’re going, but that’s a whole other post.

That being said, I’d rather see Lesnar mow through top opponents in the next couple of events before demanding his rematch with Cena at, say, Survivor Series. I’m sure most people would. Any way that we can keep the two apart until then would be awesome.

• It continues to freshen his character

Yeah, the top star vs. authority figure trope is kinda played out, but at the same time, whenever Cena’s been embroiled in it, it’s been because the person in charge wants more in-character goals. For example, Vickie Guerrero wanted to screw over Cena because it benefited Edge’s title hopes. This transcends the title and is more of a “Reality Era” storyline. Cena is the face of the company. Lauriniaitis is unhappy with that, so he’s looking to destroy him with “legitimacy”. If anything, this continues to freshen Cena’s character as a guy whose job it was to overcome the odds to one whose job is now in jeopardy. It’s not the heel turn that everyone wants, but in lieu of that, I’m down for something different.

• It will give a chance for Laurinaitis to expound on his new story of haranguing Cena

When Laurinaitis reintroduced Lesnar to WWE to take out Cena, it was a curveball. What beef did Laurinaitis have with Cena? Sure, he dicked around with him during the Kane feud, but that was attributed to Mr. Excitement’s middle managerial klutziness. This seems far more sinister. With this out and out attack, we’re more than likely to get a Bond villain monologue from Laurinaitis on why he feels Cena is no longer worthy of being the face of WWE.

• It’ll probably be a decent match

We know Cena can go, and while Laurinaitis may look goofy, he actually had a pretty great career wrestling in Japan, where he invented the Stone Cold Stunner/Diamond Cutter and was in several highly-acclaimed matches, including one that won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Match of the Year. I postulated on episode 50 of The Wrestling Podcast that wrestling was like riding a bike, that no one really ever forgets. With a guy as good as what Laurinaitis was, I’m sure he can still pull something out that would be worthy of a high-on-the-card PPV match.

I seriously think people are sleeping on something potentially great here. Obviously, the story potential is muddled because WWE Creative is at best inconsistent in how great their stories can be, but the set-up makes sense. The match will most likely be good too. I don’t know, maybe I’m being irrationally optimistic, but I’m excited for this match. Obviously, I’m not nearly as excited as I am for Punk/Bryan, but then again, that could’ve gone without saying.