Winds of change. It’s not just a move by Wade Barrett. This past week has seen a near upheaval of change within the WWE. So many turns, people don’t know their heels from their faces. I thought it an opportune time to do a report of where we are right now.

– Daniel Bryan is carrying the company.

Who would have seen that coming? D-Bry has been stealing the show for a couple months now but WWE have not been subtle with how much they’re relying on him. Every week on both RAW and Smackdown the amount of focus and match time he has been getting has been unparalleled.

The crowd reaction has been insane too. I can’t remember a wrestler getting as big a pop as him since CM Punk dropped his pipe-bomb three years ago and even then it wasn’t as unanimous as the love for Bryan is. He’s got every arena in the palm of his hands and JBL is almost masturbating on mic during his matches.

It’s all incredibly deserved success and I hope it continues. With his match being called short on RAW I think it shows just how valuable the heads backstage think he is. They were more willing to cut a big match short and protect Bryan than risk injuring him. Daniel was clearly happy to carry on and I believe Randy has the experience to be able to look after him out there but backstage panicked and I think that speaks volumes.

It seems we’re all extremely glad he’s OK.

– Returns, Returns, Returns

There had been so many injuries of late, it allowed a lot of the younger talent to get some longer air-time. However, WWE still doesn’t trust (or like) some of its talent enough to give them any matches at all. I’m looking at you, Ryder. It seems they feel they need some bigger, more established names so I’m sure they were thrilled to welcome back Punk, Christian and Mark Henry from injury.

Mark particularly impressed me with his wonderful retirement fake-out. I didn’t know he had those acting chops in him! Pork chops, sure… Anyway, I jumped off my couch when he slammed Cena. Henry is one of my favourite heels and I wasn’t aware that he has never held the WWE title. I don’t think he’ll be able to pry it away from Cena right now but I can’t wait to see him fight for it.

Rob Van Dam is back in the frame too. Much like Punk, we will have to pay to see his return. I wasn’t particularly impressed with his work in TNA so hopefully he isn’t over-the-hill yet. I wonder if he’ll team up with anyone. It wouldn’t hurt to let Heyman manage him but I’d be surprised if they make RVD a heel on his comeback. These are just random thoughts on my behalf, folks.

– Good or bad?

Ok, so here are three major heel/face turns that I can gauge from the past week.

1) Punk is now a face.
2) Ziggler is now a face.
3) Del Rio is now a heel.

Of course, these things happen all the time, but those three particularly pleased me as they were crucial to moving the company forward.

Both Punk and Ziggler were too popular to continue as heels. If someone is going to be the bad guy, half the crowd cheering you on is a problem. This allows for bigger crowd reactions now as they utilize two of their best talents in a more sensible vein.

Del Rio never worked as a face. He was always best as a smug bad guy. Even when he smiles he looks evil. He’s much more enjoyable when he’s cheating than when he’s desperately trying to win over a crowd with terrible promos. I couldn’t be happier about the change.

– Do you believe in The Shield yet?

Much like Daniel Bryan, The Shield have been making the lives of the show writers a hell of a lot easier.

Don’t know what to do with a top wrestler? Feud him with The Shield.
Need a main event? 6 man tag match with 3 random wrestlers against The Shield.
Don’t know how to end a match? Send in The Shield.

They’re the Swiss army knives of the WWE. The bonus is they’re killing it in the ring. Amazing match after amazing match. It hasn’t hurt that D-Bry has been in most of those matches with them, but make no mistake, these guys can carry it on their own too. They’ve been a massive highlight this year, and while we’re only half way through 2013, its theirs as long as the writers don’t mess it up.

I noticed Zack Ryder’s web show almost purely by accident. In the same way that most people are found online, it was through a series of “related videos” clicks on youtube. I enjoyed it instantly. Not only was the wrestler not taking himself too seriously and seemed to be genuinely having fun with his flip cam but it was a genius way to try and push himself and find an audience.

The WWE creative team obviously thought very little of Ryder. He was being buried and Zack hadn’t been on TV in months. But numbers talk and when one of your roster is regularly getting 150,000 hits on youtube for something he makes in his apartment… you get attention. The thing is, he wasn’t getting attention from the WWE big wigs, but actually from his fellow wrestlers.

When CM Punk was causing ructions with his very vocal contract antics in the ring, one thing he mentioned regularly was “when is Zack Ryder going to be put on TV?”. CM Punk, who was airing all his grievances with the company, felt it was such an obvious move to push his fellow wrestler that he made it part of his protest.

And since then, to the company’s credit, they’ve started to push him slowly but surely to the point where he’s actually getting some big matches. This week on RAW, he was in the headline event.

WWE were in Liverpool and I was happy about this for a few reasons. I had spoken in my last report about how the crowds of the current WWE are a lot quieter than previous generations. While European crowds are even quieter than their American counterparts, they are however great gauges of talent. They tend not to root just for the baby-face but for the guy who is actually doing a great job, whether they be heel or not.

For example, Dolph Ziggler has been working some great matches and getting over guys for quite some time now. Especially our man Zack. Zack’s mini-feud with Ziggler has been great to not only give him some momentum but also to give Ryder the in-ring time he sorely needed (dude was looking pretty rusty once he stepped through those ropes). Has Ziggler been getting any love from the crowd in the states? Hell no. But Liverpool started it’s own “Let’s go Ziggler” chant during his match with Morrison. The slow death of Morrison in the WWE may be another day’s discussion.

So Liverpool, you know who is worth chanting for. I like that. The “who are you?” chant for Alberto del Rio was also a highlight of the night. While del Rio is great in the ring, he’s absolutely horrible on the mic. CM Punk seems to back me up on that point. I may be old school in my thought process, but if you’re going to be followed around by a non-wrestling flunky, they should be able to cover your bad mic skills, not just stand in the background and introduce you to the crowd.

I seem to be rambling off the point. Anyway, what I was tyring to get to is that the fact that Zack Ryder was getting louder chants than John Cena during their tag-team match in the main event… our little broski has come along way.

John Cena, by the way, has also been a big supporter for Ryder. And while we all love to hate the guy, he at least had the smarts to tag Zack into the match early when the “we want Ryder” chants started. You could clearly see it changed the game-plan and I appreciate any wrestler who is willing to give the crowd want it wants even if it means you do a little less on the night.

While this is all great stuff for Ryder the wrestler… his YouTube show is suffering. I wonder how long before he gives it up? When you’re on TV regularly, the web show is going to get pushed to the background. But, I think he can live with that.