WWE Official Defends Austin Theory's Recent Booking
WWE's handling of Austin Theory over the past few months has left a lot of fans scratching their heads. In the first three months after Vince McMahon's departure, Theory would go just 2-11 in televised matches despite being "Mr. Money in the Bank." He would then use the briefcase on the Nov. 7 episode of Raw on Seth Rollins' United States Championship, only to lose in about five minutes. The cash-in was widely panned by fans for its lack in logic (Rollins was hosting an Open Challenge, Theory was using the briefcase for a midcard championship instead of the world title, etc.) but Theory then debuted a slightly more vicious (and less selfie-obsessed) persona in the weeks that followed and lucked his way into winning the US Title back at Survivor Series this past weekend.
Brian "Road Dogg" James discussed Theory's booking on the latest Oh, You Didn't Know Podcast and defended WWE's decision to have him lose so often while holding the Money in the Bank briefcase.
"Sometimes, people get over through defeats. If you think about Austin Theory, working a bunch, having great matches, hadn't won any of them. I don't think about that. This is where I'm going to anger more people. Austin Theory is putting on some bangers. Don't you get over by having great matches? If wrestling is so good and profitable and marketable, then why isn't his ability to wrestle greatly getting him over? I would argue that it is getting him over. The kid is a stud athlete, good looking, and can go. Sure, he's losing some matches, so has Seth Rollins, so has everybody," James said (h/t Fightful).
"His character is getting established. He's going to put on great wrestling matches. He lost the briefcase, to me, that was the thing that kept his heat," he continued. "Now, I don't want to see him lose so much. When you have that briefcase, you can beat me every day until Sunday, but at the right time, when that champion is down on his luck just enough, here I come, and that's all you have to say in every promo. 'You got beat last week, how do you feel?' 'I feel I'm the youngest ever Money in the Bank winner and I'm going to cash this in and become the champion, how do you feel?' My point was, he's putting on great matches. I will watch next week when he has a great one, I probably know he's going to lose, but I don't care because he's going to have a great match."
Does James have a point? Or is WWE trying to recover from the mistakes they've made with Theory this year? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!