WWE Survivor Series 2013: Smart Booking Decisions for Company's Top Stars

After the major booking flub that was the Daniel Bryan main event push, World Wrestling Entertainment finds itself in a position it likely wishes it did not.

It is once again relying on the same tired, established stars it has relied on for the past decade rather than riding a hot, fresh, over babyface into WrestleMania.

Big Show, Triple H, Randy Orton and John Cena have been cornerstones of the company for a very long time, and it is highly unlikely that anything involving them will significantly spike television ratings or pay-per-view buyrates at this point.

With that being the case, the booking plays an even bigger, more important part in the event.

At this point in time, the success of Survivor Series cannot be measured based on how many buys it does. The company simply does not have the star power or fresh, new and exciting matches to pop huge numbers.

Rather than making up for it by throwing nonsensical swerves and cliffhangers at the audience in hopes of scoring big ratings for Raw the following night, the company should take a page from Paul Heyman's book and accentuate the positives while hiding the negatives.

The creative team should be worried about crafting angles that make sense within the context of the stories being told while the booking team focuses on the high quality in-ring work fans have become accustomed to in 2013.

The result will be a show that pleases more audiences than the overbooked messes that were Battleground and Hell in a Cell.

It sounds a lot easier than it actually is. Booking top stars, especially with the road to WrestleMania right around the corner, is tricky and requires a great deal of forethought.

What are the smartest booking decisions to be made involving the top Superstars in World Wrestling Entertainment, you may ask.

Let's take a look.

Randy Orton

The WWE Champion has spent the first three months of his heel turn stuck squarely in the shadow of Triple H. The few times he was able to escape, he showcased the ruthless, despicable tendencies that made him one of the most hated villains in the company in 2009.

The way he tormented Brie Bella during the rivalry with Daniel Bryan and his vicious assault of The Miz in front of his own parents were, to borrow from Michael Cole for the first (and hopefully only) time in my life, vintage Orton.

Those flashes of brilliance have not been enough for Orton to overcome the fact that he is but a fringe player in the larger Authority storyline.

The focus has been on Triple H and his vendetta with Big Show rather than Orton and what should be an important title defense on November 24. Smart, strong booking will not change the fact that he has been floundering as a supposed top heel, but it will go a long way in helping to rebuild him as the year comes to an end.

Orton needs to leave Boston with the WWE Championship, however possible. Traditionally, wrestling heels cheat to win big matches, so I am not implying that he needs to go over Big Show clean.

Considering that Show is as hot as he is, that would be a mistake.

The best scenario is one in which Triple H interferes and leads to Orton retaining his title. It would set up a major match between Show and The Game at December's TLC pay-per-view while allowing the WWE Champion to get as far away from the conflict between them as possible.

He needs to get involved in his own feud, one outside the center of The Authority angle, so that he can continue to grow into the top heel the company wants him to be.

The Big Show

While many may not be thrilled with his involvement in the top angle in the company, the giant's performance in his new role has been outstanding thus far. As a result, live audiences are supporting him in ways they never have before.

As recent ratings suggest, however, viewing audiences are not. Considering the weight that WWE puts in those numbers, it most definitely cannot afford to give Show a run with the WWE Championship and expect him to improve business.

Giving him the title would also do a great disservice to Randy Orton who, as mentioned above, is already in a delicate position of his own.

The smartest way to book Big Show is to keep him strong without giving him the win. He can lose the match, either as a result of a belt shot to the face or interference from Triple H, but still recover and end the show strong by laying out Triple H with a knockout punch and setting up a big main event match for TLC.

He would leave Survivor Series keeping up the momentum he and the company had built for himself. Until the booking plans for WrestleMania begin to unfold and Superstars make their returns to the company, WWE can use as many strong main event stars as possible.

John Cena

The World Heavyweight Champion is the easiest Superstar to book come Survivor Series.

On November 24, he will take on Alberto Del Rio in a rematch of their bout at Hell in a Cell. The outcome then should be the same as it was a month earlier as Cena cleanly defeats the Mexican-born Superstar and brings their feud to a definitive end.

It is too early in Cena's reign to begin trotting out repetitive monthly rematches. Those rematches and the lack of story surrounding them are what aided in the devaluing of the title in the first place.

He needs to wrap up the story with Del Rio as soon as possible and turn his attention towards elevating new faces to the title picture.

He can start with Damien Sandow, who he had an incredible match against the night after Hell in a Cell and who has risen to the occasion over the last month or so.

A post-match beatdown by Sandow could resume the rivalry and set up a title match between the two as soon as December's TLC pay-per-view.

Alberto Del Rio

After holding the World Heavyweight Championship for the majority of 2013, it is time for Alberto Del Rio to leave the title behind and move onto something completely unrelated.

At Survivor Series, he needs to lose to Cena and get out of the World Heavyweight Championship picture and stay away from the WWE Championship.

One of the reasons he has become as stale as he is as a character is because he is essentially the exact same person he was when he entered the company three years ago. He has been involved in the title picture for so long that his character never really had to evolve. Sure, he was a babyface for a short time, but he was still a champion and it was still his destiny.

Fans have grown tired of that boring shtick, and if Del Rio wants to remain relevant in their eyes, he must demonstrate that he can be more.

He can start by counting the lights on November 24.

CM Punk and Daniel Bryan

If his losses on pay-per-view in 2013 have taught fans anything, it is that CM Punk is essentially bulletproof at this point in his career.

No matter how many times he lost, he remained as popular and over as he did prior to the match.

That makes him an incredibly valuable performer to World Wrestling Entertainment because it means they can utilize him to help put younger talent over without worrying that accumulating losses will somehow hurt him in the eyes of the audience.

Bryan, likewise, is over enough with the audience that a loss can be forgiven. Unlike Punk, however, he is not so entrenched at the top of the industry that he can withstand a long series of them. That limits how many times they can sacrifice him to get another act over.

Based on the last two weeks of programming, it appears as though Punk and Bryan are headed for a showdown with the Wyatt Family.

The opportunity exists to put Bray Waytt, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan over two former World Heavyweight and WWE Champions and instantly make them into legitimate main event-caliber characters.

How the creative team and bookers go about doing so is the question.

Punk, even in defeat, has demonstrated the ability to recover the following night on Raw with a strong promo. His connection with the audience goes above and beyond a catchphrase. Unlike other characters on the show, Punk is essentially playing himself and because of that, he does so with great conviction.

Bryan does not have that luxury. He is an outstanding wrestler and he has a fun catchphrase that fans enjoy chanting, but he is not the strongest promo man in the industry. The major flub that was his main event push over the last three months has damaged him as a viable marquee attraction for the company.

The Aberdeen, Washington native needs to be protected in a way that Punk simply does not.

That is why the creative team should resist the urge to book a traditional Survivor Series elimination match around the feud and go with a straight-up tag match featuring Punk and Bryan taking on Rowan and Harper.

Late-match interference from Bray would lead to Punk taking the big discus clothesline from Harper and the Wyatt Family scoring the biggest win of their WWE careers.

It would instantly make them into major threats to the top stars in the business, while giving both Punk and Bryan an excuse for their loss and protecting the vulnerable Bryan at the same time.

Conclusion

More so than in any other year, it seems as though the theme of this year's Survivor Series will be "protection." With such a lack of legitimate star power and a failure to elevate fresh, new faces to top spots in the company, the creative team is faced with a situation in which it needs to preserve the talent it has and not make any irrational, lazy or stupid booking decisions that would potentially diminish any of the above-mentioned stars.