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DVDVRMM: THE FINALS~! BRYAN vs. CESARO


DANIEL BRYAN vs. CESARO  

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  1. 1. WHOSE CUISINE REIGNS SUPREME?



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I'm reposting Matt D's comments from the general thread here: 

 

I know some people say that Brock makes them watch more closely because anything can happen. I kind of get that vibe with Cesaro. You almost certainly know you're going to see something special. Which in and of itself wouldn't put him over Bryan, but he's also on Bryan's level or higher on so many other things. 

 

I think a really key thing to do is look at the way they built and changed the matches in the Zayn/Cesaro series and then look at Bryan's series with Orton and while the latter two had good matches, does anyone really want to see another one? 

 

On the other hand, who here still wants to see more Zayn/Cesaro? Pretty much everyone.

 

 

If you haven't watched the series of Zayn-Cesaro matches, you really should, as they do an awesome job of building off of previous matches.

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We've talked so much about the Zayn series, like Johnny just reposted, but the Regal match is just astonishing too.

 

 

There's no better performance in the WWE all year than Cesaro in this match. The way he fights off Regal with one arm is amazing, both in how varied it is and in how believable and nuanced it somehow manages to be, and the "popping the arm back in" is the best spot of the entire year. 

 

There's no better middle ground between innovation and excitement and grounded storytelling. 

 

Bryan is coasting in comparison. 

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O yeah..

 

The big spin is a stupid, crowd-pandering spot that has no place in a heels offense.  The jerky camera bullshit makes it even worse.

 

It isn't Cesaro's fault he's so awesome he can't help but get over.

 

During Daniel Bryan's five moves of doom hot tag/comeback, he gets this awesome head of steam running between the ropes, dives out of the ring... and usually either gently shoves/lightly taps the outside guy in the face or crashes awkwardly into the barricade.  It almost never looks good.

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So Sami Zayn being fresher and more interesting than Randy Orton is a reason to vote for Cesaro?

 

No, but Cesaro having a better match with Orton than Bryan did is.

 

Also, piggybacking off Matt's mention of the Regal match, the build up to that match was amazing, and it was also better character work than Bryan has had this year.  Cesaro goes to apologize to Saxton, and it is clearly a trap, as Cesaro is just messing with Saxton to bait Regal into coming out, but Regal isn't there.  Cesaro's frustration slowly builds until he realizes that his classic trap isn't going to work and he just storms off.

 

Compare that with Bryan's stuff as a Wyatt, which was largely nonsensical and required them to hit the reset button to start over from scratch.

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It IS on Cesaro that he was only able to get over by using a face spot.  The dude has worked as a heel all year to mediocre heat at best.  

 

Bryan won last year.  The whole 18 seconds thing at Wrestlemania thing happened when he was a heel.  He couldn't get over as a heel and but still won last year.  Shouldn't hurt Cesaro this year.

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So Sami Zayn being fresher and more interesting than Randy Orton is a reason to vote for Cesaro?

 

It's things like the way they built up and paid off the chinlock (of all things) between matches that really makes them special. Yes, Zayn is impressive. Yes, he brings a lot to the table, but the Orton vs Bryan matches are still good. They're just not special. The Zayn matches just highlight what Cesaro's been doing all year, whether he was in there with Miz or Regal. Clever transitions. Big spots. Great feats of strength. Interesting finishes. Smart selling. Linking all of these together to tell a story. 

 

You can break down the things he does well so easily, things that are novel. It's not just that he has the spots. It's not just that he has the feats of strength (be it the neutralizer on Khali or the super spinning run around the ring before hitting the uppercut on Zayn or the crazy suplex from the bottom rope, outside in). It's not just that he sells well and smartly and controls a match as a heel to have his opponent do the same. It's that he links all of these disparate pieces together to make really, really good professional wrestling.. 

 

Has anyone made even one meaningful argument for Bryan in this whole thing? He's getting over on a blank stamp basically. It's just a given. 

 

Someone break things down. What does Bryan do well other than being Daniel Bryan? What does he do better than Cesaro? 

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Whenever Cesaro does his double stomp he makes a weird face like he's concentrating really hard. Takes me right the fuck out.

 

The alternative is not concentrating hard enough and pulling a Davey Richards on someone.  Advantage: Cesaro

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Bryan is coasting!?  COASTING!?

 

Literally the only reason not to vote for Daniel Bryan is that he's won all of these, and that's not a very good reason to vote against him.  He's had an epic year by any metric.  He keeps making shit from shineola like he always does.  

 

The Weak Link storyline was good, and led to him being a badass all the time with the gauntlets and underdog situations.

 

The hand-picked competitor storyline was awesome with John Cena saying "I know you're the only challenge that matters, I have to beat you!" and then losing.  

 

The HHH/Authority angle, from start to finish, is one of the most satisfying 6+ month storylines in a long, long time.

 

Daniel Bryan also won the WWE Championship TWICE in the voting period.

 

He has all the momentum in the world right now and is heading toward one of the ALL TIME biggest pops in the history of the WWE at the end of WrestleMania XXX.

 

Cesaro, while fucking amazing, is going to have a strong showing in a battle royale.  That's ultimately what we're comparing here.  Cesaro is a good hand, with a lot of potential, but he's a B+ player.  In all seriousness, he's going to be a frontrunner coming into the 2014 voting period (whether Bryan is eligible next year or not), but he's not there yet.  

 

Bryan doesn't get to have fun pure-wrestling matchups with Sami Zayn and William Regal because he's graduated past that.  He's doing the lord's work of trying to get something watchable out of Randy Orton...regularly.  And he does.  Regularly.  He's the winner and #1 best.

 

Vote for MAH BOY D. Bry.

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O yeah..

 

The big spin is a stupid, crowd-pandering spot that has no place in a heels offense.  The jerky camera bullshit makes it even worse.

 

Don't know how I forgot this part, but King yelling WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH as the cameraman has a seizure makes the spot even more terrible.

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Bryan is coasting!?  COASTING!?

 

Literally the only reason not to vote for Daniel Bryan is that he's won all of these, and that's not a very good reason to vote against him.  He's had an epic year by any metric.  He keeps making shit from shineola like he always does.  

 

The Weak Link storyline was good, and led to him being a badass all the time with the gauntlets and underdog situations.

 

The hand-picked competitor storyline was awesome with John Cena saying "I know you're the only challenge that matters, I have to beat you!" and then losing.  

 

The HHH/Authority angle, from start to finish, is one of the most satisfying 6+ month storylines in a long, long time.

 

Daniel Bryan also won the WWE Championship TWICE in the voting period.

 

He has all the momentum in the world right now and is heading toward one of the ALL TIME biggest pops in the history of the WWE at the end of WrestleMania XXX.

 

Cesaro, while fucking amazing, is going to have a strong showing in a battle royale.  That's ultimately what we're comparing here.  Cesaro is a good hand, with a lot of potential, but he's a B+ player.  In all seriousness, he's going to be a frontrunner coming into the 2014 voting period (whether Bryan is eligible next year or not), but he's not there yet.  

 

Bryan doesn't get to have fun pure-wrestling matchups with Sami Zayn and William Regal because he's graduated past that.  He's doing the lord's work of trying to get something watchable out of Randy Orton...regularly.  And he does.  Regularly.  He's the winner and #1 best.

 

Vote for MAH BOY D. Bry.

 

Damn it Yeti, there's a whole lot of nothing in that post. I mean it's okay. You like Daniel Bryan because you think a lot of what he did was awesome this year. I get that. It's there. This is subjective. But there's not a single analytic point in your entire post. This is almost exactly what I'm talking about. In round one, you can get away by saying DANIEL BRYAN WAS AWESOME IN EVERYTHING THAT HE DID. HE WAS INVOLVED IN THIS. IT WAS AWESOME. HE WAS INVOLVED IN THAT. IT WAS AWESOME. 

 

This is the finals and he's up against probably the easiest person in the world to break down and show someone what he does well, which people have done. 

 

At least Jrag threw out a couple of things, though I still think Goldust actually connected with the audience far better than Bryan in the time period, especially those dead audiences, but this is moot. I actually think Cesaro connects really well too. He's great at doing little things, working the crowd in all the ways that the WWE usually hates, whether it's knowing when to toss in the We the People or when to just slow things down and look out to them while grinding in something or basking in his fallen opponent. He's not Mark Henry level at using negative space (bingo?) but he's also very good at it, maybe better than Bryan who sort of lucked in to gold. 

 

The fact that most of you seem to think that bothering to try to break down and actually compare these two on any level other than WWE MAIN EVENTS ARE BIGGER THAN NXT MAIN EVENTS! isn't worth doing kind of defeats the purpose of this entire exercise. 

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To me, Cesaro is a better multi-tool worker at this point who works really good matches with lesser talents than Bryan has the opportunity to work with.  I feel like most of Daniel's best TV matches came against the Shield who Cesaro hasn't gotten to work yet.  With all the mutual opponents they've had, Cesaro has been able to pull off as good as if not better matches than Bryan.

 

Bryan just sort of seems as being in a bit of a rut match wise since the Team Hell No-Shield series where (at least in TV matches, I don't have money) he falls into a very similar pattern during his comebacks with the tiger wall flip, the duck under-clothesline, and the suicide dive.  I would also argue he is doing this because it gets a reaction, but it has lost steam with me personally.  On the other hand, Cesaro matches are much harder to plot out bit by bit.

 

From a striking perspective, I think Bryan is relying on his kicks too much.  They seem to come from the same direction the same way time after time.  I would like to see him get back to using other strikes more often.  Meanwhile Cesaro's uppercut continues to come from multiple angles and is usable any time in a match from beginning to end still get a reasonable near fall.

 

Bryan has more charisma and a deeper connection with the crowd.  Cesaro hasn't ever been able to tap into the crowd booing him rather than being so awesome that they have to cheer him.  By the same token, Bryan couldn't manipulate the crowd into booing him either.  

 

Bryan is also really good at playing underneath and I think he would be better served doing that than taking as much in matches as he is now.  I get the idea behind it, but I think it would make for better matches if his comeback came after extended beatings.

 

Bryan also needs to stop getting hurt doing his own offense (dropkick to Orton) or in dumb spots (why they decided to do a double backdrop superlex right before the Wyatt turn is baffling).

 

One thing I think people should consider is how both guys elevated their partners during the period.  Kane is the WWE definition of "unfuckable" in terms of heat in relation to his push and Bryan was clearly the star off the team.  But I never felt that Kane was getting any better out of the deal.  This isn't a knock on Bryan, Kane has been in the business for a billion years.  But I see the turnaround that Jack Swagger has made since teaming with Cesaro and it reminds me of the guy he was when he was first coming up in ECW and seemed like a major prospect.  Big Hoss has recaptured something while teaming with Cesaro and I can't think it has been a total coincidence.

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