The booking of the company's current champion has definitely been the most serious issue in the downturn of quality television since WrestleMania XXX. Imagine Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Rock being placed in the goofy situations that Bryan has found himself in throughout April and May. Furthermore, Brie Bella is great, and it is perfectly acceptable for the company to acknowledge their marriage on television, but there is no reason for her to be involved in Bryan's story lines at this point. In fact, the inclusion of Brie has been a detriment to Bryan's booking as champion. None of the other Total Divas are positioned with their real life love interests on WWE television, this seems to be exclusive to Bryan and it is a problem. Go back and watch Bryan's crowd reactions prior to WrestleMania, and then take a look at his most recent crowd reactions before getting surgery, the contrast is shocking. The feud with Kane just hasn't been working. With Bryan defeating Kane at Extreme Rules, the feud should have ended. Yet, the WWE was set on continuing the feud into a Buried Alive match at Payback (until Bryan's injury prevented the match). The reason for this is likely something that was discussed earlier in this piece, a lack of top talent heels to work with. However, as the storyline continued on in early May, Bryan was being treated like a second tier star, with Kane even dragging an unconscious Bryan out to the entrance ramp. Again, imagine Austin or Rock being continually one upped by their heel rival week after week. When Bryan returns, hopefully in late June, the direction his character is headed needs to make a swift change. Bryan needs to be portrayed as dominant on television, out for revenge with a vengeance, as the continual beat downs by Kane have done his momentum no favors. There is still time to fix this before the title reign as a whole is tarnished and deemed forgettable. Should the problem not be fixed, though, the WWE may have blown a golden opportunity in crowning the next mega superstar of the reality era.
