WWE Botch of the Week: Failing to Push the Sheamus-Daniel Bryan Feud

The World Heavyweight Championship feud between Daniel Bryan and Sheamus is supposed to feel like one of the WWE’s biggest WrestleMania rivalries.

But it doesn’t. At all. 

On last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw, both Sheamus and Bryan competed in singles matches, yet you wouldn’t even know that they were feuding with the way the WWE booked those bouts. 

Bryan beat Zack Ryder in a 60-second squash match and then just left the arena without being interrupted by Sheamus. The Celtic Warrior then went on to beat The Miz in another short match, and he too left the arena without interference from Bryan. 

What’s going on here? Isn’t this, at least theoretically, supposed to be SmackDown’s top WrestleMania feud? 

Well, it sure doesn’t feel like one. 

The buildup to the World Heavyweight title match between Sheamus and Bryan at WrestleMania 28 has been pretty bad. In fact, I might go so far as to call it downright awful. 

The WWE obviously wants variety in its feuds, as we get something different out of Rock/Cena, Triple H/Undertaker and Punk/Jericho. But the creative team can still make Sheamus/Bryan different and make it seem important. 

Up to this point, however, this just hasn’t happened. The interaction between Sheamus and Bryan has been minimal to say the least. 

Whereas we can pinpoint some great moments and promos in the three other major WrestleMania feuds, we just can’t do that with Sheamus vs. Bryan. We can’t recall a great face-to-face encounter or even a great promo battle between the two. It simply doesn’t exist. 

Sheamus and Bryan have a ton of history with each other, and the WWE could easily capitalize on that. Yet instead of building up what appears to be genuine animosity between the two, it’s almost like the WWE wants to keep them away from each other. 

I get that this plays into Bryan’s cowardly character, but as evidenced by Punk/Jericho, you can still create some legitimate-looking hatred between two stars without them even being in the same ring together.

Jericho has made his feud with Punk 10 times better by cutting promos via Titantron, and it’s arguably the best feud currently going on. 

We don’t have to see Bryan and Sheamus cutting promos in the ring together like Triple H, Undertaker and Shawn Michaels are doing. But we do have to see the WWE do something, anything that makes Bryan/Sheamus seem like an actual rivalry, because right now, it doesn’t. 

It just feels like Sheamus wants to become the World Heavyweight Champion and that his pursuit of the World title is taking priority over his pursuit of Daniel Bryan. 

That’s a big mistake the WWE has made, and in fact, I’d call it the WWE’s Botch of the Week.

Note: As part of the new WWE blog, I'll be asking all of the B/R wrestling readers for questions for a new mailbag that I will post on Fridays. It will be a slideshow featuring 10-20 questions and answers on a wide range of topics. You can submit questions either through Formspring orTwitter, and the best ones will be answered in the B/R mailbag.