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CALDWELL'S TAKE
CALDWELL: What's next for Smackdown with Daniel Bryan as World champ?, examining potential scenarios

Dec 19, 2011 - 3:05:33 PM
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By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

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Going into Sunday's TLC PPV, the outcome of the World Title match between Mark Henry and Big Show seemed to be a sure-bet. Henry retains. Henry moves on to Orton or Sheamus. Simple enough.

Instead, a Mark Henry injury led to a quick title change to Big Show. Then, Daniel Bryan cashed in MITB to turn the Smackdown brand upside-down.

Throughout the year, it had been pretty simple, yet effective, on Smackdown. Edge vs. Del Rio led to Christian vs. Del Rio, which led to Christian vs. Orton, which also included Mark Henry and Sheamus, which led to Henry vs. Orton, which led to Henry vs. Show.

As Greg Parks and I discussed during the post-TLC Livecast Sunday night, there are any number of ways Smackdown could go now. Here's a break down of potential scenarios that could begin to play out on tonight's WWE Raw.

(1) Bryan pulls a "Christian." The pessimistic view is that Bryan will hold the title for two days and drop the title at Tuesday's Smackdown TV taping, just like Christian did after his first World Title victory. Who would be the Randy Orton to this Christian analogy? It could be Big Show. Perhaps Sheamus. It could even be Orton again.

(2) Bryan fends off challengers for a sustained run. The optimistic view is WWE actually gives Bryan a chance to sink or swim as World champion. Can WWE translate an opportunistic MITB cash-in into a legitimate title reign with legit victories that tells the audience to take Bryan seriously as champion? If WWE gives Bryan a chance, it could lead to the Bryan-Henry title match at WrestleMania that was in the works before Henry's injury, just with the challenger and champion roles reversed. But, more likely in this scenario would be Bryan dropping the title in Elimination Chamber before Mania.

(3) Bryan turns heel. In 2009, babyface C.M. Punk cashed in his MITB briefcase on top face Jeff Hardy, leading to Punk turning heel. Could Bryan turn heel after cashing in on Big Show, especially after Show helped Bryan over the past few months? Smackdown has a nice group of top faces - Show, Orton, and Sheamus - who Bryan could have good matches with if he were positioned as a heel.

(4) Brodus Clay becomes Laurinaitis's hand-picked champion. If Laurinaitis can't beat C.M. Punk on Raw, perhaps he turns his attention to Smackdown. Although it's more likely WWE would slot Clay against C.M. Punk on Raw to continue Laurinaitis's feud with Punk, WWE could put Clay in a program with Bryan, who never has a bad match and could help develop Clay in the ring. It would keep Bryan an underdog babyface working with another monster heel replacing Henry.

(5) Santa Teddy Strips Bryan of World Title. "Dirty Old Man" Teddy Long, drunk during the TLC broadcast, voids Bryan's MITB cash-in again, holds up the World Title, and books an eight-man tournament to determine the new World champion. Anything is possible on Smackdown right now.


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