When I used to play little league, we had a centerfielder who would drive us batshit crazy.
If there was a hard liner in the gap, he could dive from 10 feet away and make the catch. I also saw him scale the chain link fence -- in a pair of metal cleats -- and turn a homerun into a heartbreaking out.
But a can o' corn with nothing on it?
In and out of the glove every goddamn time. There was just no explanation as to why this kid could track down every insane hit, but them come up lame on the easy stuff.
That's kind of how I feel about WWE.
Watching them bungle the entire Daniel Bryan situation since it became a "movement" has been astonishing. That kind of crowd reaction is almost never handed to you on a silver platter, but because it wasn't according to the promotion's blueprint, they tried to fight it.
The result was a "hated" Royal Rumble, followed by a ball being taken home.
But while Creative scratches its head over CM Punk's (cough) "sudden" departure, while scrambling to figure out why Mehtista can't buy a cheer, our beloved Emma is tethered to the industry's court jester and trotted out on Monday Night RAW to do ... nothing.
Fortunately for the NXT newcomer, most of us forgot about her appearance by the end of the night. Not because it was forgettable (it was), but rather because WWE had managed to captivate the "Universe" with a program so brilliantly executed, the fact that it's heel vs. heel has nearly gone unnoticed.
It's one of the hardest feuds to pull off.
That's why most of the time it's relegated to short spots, like an on-the-fly HOSS FIGHT or a quick showdown inside a Battle Royal. But to have one as long and drawn out as we've seen with The Shield and The Wyatt Family is truly something to behold.
Why is it so difficult?
In a traditional face vs. heel match, you cheer the face and boo the heel. Simple. In the absence of a "good guy," however, the feud becomes the face -- but only if it's done well -- which is why the fans erupted during last night's epic staredown (video).
Not just for The Shield, but for The Wyatts, too.
It also requires you to overlook all the dastardly deeds they've done in the past, much of them to Daniel Bryan, the hottest face in the business. The means to that end falls squarely on the shoulders of the talent, who are charged with developing some type of "cool factor" that trumps the fact that they, essentially, are horrible people.
It's why movies like Freddy vs. Jason and Aliens vs. Predator were able to be commercially successful. You can't really cheer the former, because at heart, they make a living on the blood of teenagers. But like the latter, they've achieved a level of pop culture badassery that can help moviegoers forget they are mesmerized by rampaging murderers.
Not as easy as it looks.
And even harder to sustain, particularly in pro wrestling. When you have a protracted feud with nothing but villains, you invariably run the risk of turning one of them face. In this case, it's by design, but Creative's restraint when it comes to star-in-progress Roman Reigns has been admirable, considering the promotion's history of fast-tracking the next big thing.
Then abandoning ship a few leeks later.
WWE continues to fold on the easy hands, but appears to be all in with The Shield vs. The Wyatts, as do the fans, which will undoubtedly make the payoff at the upcoming Elimination Chamber pay-per-view (PPV) later this month in Minneapolis all the more sweeter.
Now, about that Emma problem...