At the beginning of 2011, Edge and The Miz were the WWE and World Champions. Both of their reigns, however, were really lackluster, as Edge's character was becoming really stale with many fans and Miz couldn't get a clean win over anyone while feuding with Jerry Lawler. Edge feuded with Dolph Ziggler to start 2011, a feud in which he actually lost the title for 10 seconds before winning it back. Bad booking! After retaining in their feuds with Dolph and Lawler, Edge and Miz began feuding with Alberto Del Rio and John Cena. Do their title reigns improve here? Well, not really. Edge and Del Rio's Wrestlemania match opened the show (yes, a world title match OPENED THE SHOW!), and Miz took a backseat to The Rock throughout his feud with Cena. At Wrestlemania, Edge retained in what would unfortunately be his final match due to all his injuries catching up with him, and Miz retained against Cena, albeit after a Rock Bottom on Cena. Miz still can't win clean... as a result of Edge's retirement, his best friend and former tag partner, Christian and Del Rio feud over the vacant title heading into Extreme Rules, while Miz and Cena continue their feud, with next year's Wrestlemania main event already announced in Cena vs. Rock. Cena wins the WWE title once again while Christian finally wins the big one. Things are great, right? Wrong.
On Smackdown, Randy Orton, who was drafted to Smackdown the previous week, gets a title shot against Christian. Orton defeats Christian to become the new champ, leaving many of the fans feel "trolled" by WWE. Over the next few months, Cena and Orton are booked as dominant face champs, rarely losing against anybody. The feelings of many of the fans was "same old, same old". Meanwhile, the other main storyline going on at this time was between two announcers, Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler. When NXT debuted in early 2010, Cole started to turn heel, as he ragged on Daniel Bryan for being a "nerd" and "internet darling". By the end of 2010, he started rooting against most of the babyfaces while rooting for the heels. However, unlike heel announcers before, he felt that he was above his broadcast partner Jerry Lawler, and mentioned how he and Jim Ross were washed up on numerous occasions. This culminates in a match at Wrestlemania, as Lawler has yet to have a Wrestlemania match in his career. Logical booking dictates that Lawler goes over and ends the feud. However, Cole won, and the feud dragged out until the Over The Limit PPV in May, with Lawler finally defeating Cole in a Kiss My Foot match. Nearly half of the year was wasted on an announcer feud that could have instead been used to get a few wrestlers who actually have a future over...
Orton feuds with Christian throughout the spring and summer, with Christian turning heel in early June and winning the belt back at the Money In The Bank PPV via DQ and losing it back to Orton at Summerslam. The feud lasted three months but felt like it lasted twice as long, as there were at least six matches between the two between May-August and Christian never got one convincing victory over Orton in those three months. Not one! Christian would continue to fall down the card, feuding with Sheamus and not being able to defeat him either, before getting injured. Cena's reign was ho-hum as it felt stale, despite an entertaining feud with R-Truth heading into the Capitol Punishment PPV, though that was mainly due to R-Truth's crazy comedy heel schtick. Cena would remain untested until after Capitol Punishment, when CM Punk became #1 contender. CM Punk in 2011 is a very interesting story. In the first half of 2011, he was the leader of the New Nexus, a stable consisting of David Otunga, Michael McGillicutty, and Mason Ryan. None of these guys had any charisma whatsoever and all of them were very green in the ring, making for a VERY boring stable. Punk was also booked as a "jobber to the stars" throughout this time and during all of 2010, not winning one PPV match for over a year even! There were rumors that he'd let his contract expire in the summer due to not being happy about his creative direction. WWE becomes smart and decides to give Punk a huge main event push and uses his contract situation in the storyline to create interest. On June 20, he wins a #1 contender's match, and mentions that when he wins the title at Money In The Bank, he'll leave WWE with the title. Interesting, right? But that's not the big promo. The next week on Raw, he cuts a worked shoot promo, bashing WWE and Vince McMahon until getting his mic cut off! To add even more realism, he gets suspended afterwards until the next Raw where Cena wants him reinstated or else he'll walk out himself. Punk gets reinstated, but if Cena loses, he'll be fired! Cena and Punk face off at Money In The Bank, and Punk actually wins the title, and leaves the arena with the belt! WWE took a huge risk, which is rare for them when there's no legit competition. Cena's fired right? Well, the stipulation didn't go well with the Board of Directors, as they had HHH replace Vince as COO right before he'd fire Cena. Rey Mysterio and Miz made it to the finals of a tournament to crown the new WWE champ, and they wrestled in a match the next week to open the show, with Rey winning. HHH grants Cena his rematch, and he defeats Rey to become the new champ. Punk returns after the match, with a new look and theme music (Cult Of Personality), as well as the WWE title! They have a match at Summerslam to determine who the real champ is, and Punk wins again, until Kevin Nash returns, jackknifes Punk, and Alberto Del Rio cashes in MITB to become the new WWE champ.
After Summerslam, the Raw product that gained so much momentum after Capitol Punishment, declined rapidly, with the majority of the shows being very poorly written and booked for the next few months. Del Rio feuds with Cena after Summerslam while Punk feuds with Nash. However, Nash isn't cleared to wrestle yet so Punk faces HHH, who he believes is secretly conspiring with Nash against him, at Night of Champions. HHH defeats Punk, despite Miz, R-Truth, and Nash trying to make him lose. At Hell In a Cell, Punk becomes #1 contender for the WWE title along with Del Rio, who lost the belt to Cena at NOC, and loses as Del Rio reclaims the belt. Punk starts losing even more momentum, as he and HHH team up against Awesome Truth at Vengeance, with Punk taking the pin. Punk then becomes #1 contender to Alberto Del Rio's WWE title, as Del Rio retained at Vengeance against Cena. At Survivor Series, Punk regains the championship and holds it for the rest of the year.
Smackdown, however, maintains its momentum for the most part, mainly because of Mark Henry being built up as a dominant heel. At Night Of Champions, Henry defeats Randy Orton to win his first world title in his 15 year career. Orton goes on to feud with midcard heels in Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett afterwards in very good feuds. Henry has a dominant reign, until he feuds with the Big Show, who he put out of action at Money In The Bank. Henry would never get a clean win over Big Show in a two month feud, that felt twice as long, that ends at TLC with Big Show winning, then losing to Daniel Bryan, who cashed in MITB after Henry attacked Big Show after the match.
Despite the lacking TV product for much of 2011, especially in the first half, 2011 is known for one major success story in Zack Ryder. In 2010, Ryder was a heel jobber, who rarely appeared on Raw unless he was getting squashed. In early 2010, he debuts his youtube show titled Z, The True Long Island Story to make a last ditch effort to get over with the fans. While he continued to be a Superstars regular throughout the first half of 2011, his crowd reactions get more and more louder, to a point where WWE has little choice but to give him a shot. By the summer, he turns face and then feuds with Dolph Ziggler over the US title throughout the fall and winter, getting numerous victories over Dolph to build him up. At the TLC PPV, Ryder wins the US title to a huge reaction, resulting in a very feel-good end to 2011 for him.
While both Raw and Smackdown were inconsistent for much of the year (especially Raw), 2011 was a very good year for WWE, as it served as a transitional year. Cena and Orton became less of a focus as the year went on and the likes of Punk, Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes, and Wade Barrett are all on a path to the main event or are main eventing as of right now. You could call it the second "new generation".
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