So, Wrestle Mania wasn’t anything special! Not surprised because the build up was incredibly weak and on paper the three best matches have already been done. As it seems to be a new tradition for WWE the cards for Mania have often been three big matches and a bunch of filler crap that could be on RAW and not even main event the show.
Mania is a four-hour extravaganza but only the last two hours are worth watching. While lame, it isn’t that unexpected but what was unexpected was amidst the two hours of filler the US title and IC title weren’t defended. The show could have benefited from showcasing hard workers such as Kofi Kingston, Wade Barrett, The Miz, Damien Sandow, Cody Rhodes, Heath Slater, Santino, and in my opinion the best in ring worker over the past few months Antonio Cesaro. Mania had a true lack of high energy stars willing to go out there and throw caution to the wind for a Wrestle Mania moment.
In the past Money In The Bank ladder matches would fill this void but since MITB received its own PPV there has been a black hole in the heart of Mania. Maybe throwing more teams into the tag title match or booking a fatal four way or triple threat for the mid card titles would have taken this show from largely forgettable to something awesome. The Cesaro v R Truth v Kofi Kingston v Wade Barrett US title match from RAW a few weeks ago was one of the most entertaining matches WWE has put on in quite some time. Unfortunately, creative don’t seem to agree and if the titles won’t be showcased on the biggest stage then they probably shouldn’t even exist. If WWE were looking for a formula to determine if they should keep or cut a title I would imagine an easy formula would be to ask themselves “This title match or Puff Daddy and some homely chick mumbling through songs from 1998?” If they pick Puff Daddy then the title should be removed from TV quicker than Mordecai.
After all the IC and US titles used to be stepping stones for stars to ascend to World Title status but clearly this no longer the case. If you consider Kofi Kingston and John Morrison have held the titles what seems like a million times and have never gained any sort of ground from holding them. It seems like the mid card titles are little more than decorations put on jobbers putting over new stars so that the win seems to carry more meaning. Do they even carry that value anymore? Replacing the mid card titles are old wrestlers who instead use past accolades to put stars over. Jericho, Big Show, Kane, and the likes just use their names to put stars over and it is more effective than beating IC champion The Miz with or without the title, as Brodus Clay found out the hard way. While established stars putting over new comers is nothing new to wrestling, it seems recently the notion is being beaten to death. How many times can Jericho “put people over” before it begins to start hurting him more than it is helping them? We all know The Miz is trying to emulate Jericho and is failing but lately it seems like Jericho is trying to emulate The Miz by jobbing to anyone with a heart beat, unfortunately Jericho is the best in the world at what he does, and he is nailing his Miz impersonation.
Horrible booking, while the root of every WWE issue, isn’t the only reason the mid level titles are becoming extinct. Killing the brand extension has hurt WWE in many ways but primarily it killed the idea that WWE could experiment with up and comers as champions before having them come to RAW and try carrying the real WWE title. Smackdown made stars out of guys like Edge, Rey Mysterio, CM Punk, Alberto Del Rio, Jack Swagger, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan, and a bunch of others who were able to rule the roost for a period of time on the B show and appear important. Now that the brands are dead these guys are completely lost in the shuffle and the mid card acts that would get decent time on Smackdown to show off and make an impact like Dolph Ziggler no longer get that chance. Smackdown has become a glorified house show that sees the matches from RAW repeated or upcoming matches for future RAW’s given a test run. This has turned the World title into essentially the IC title, which is a shame because it did feel more important than the US, and IC titles before the brand extension.
Beyond cheapening the title and slowing progression of new stars the lack of a brand extension leaves little to no reason to watch Smackdown. I rarely watch Smackdown and never feel like I have missed anything by neglecting it. The only thing in the last year of worth to happen on the show was Del Rio winning the title over Big Show but luckily WWE realize nobody watches the show so they spoiled it and reminded us it exists and that we should watch it. The match was good but the rest of the show stunk so it didn’t convince me to start watching religiously again. It wasn’t too long ago that the show merited a weekly watch as it featured longer more exciting matches than RAW and often had a collection of internet darlings that would bait die hard fans into tuning in. Now all of those stars are on RAW and to make matters worse RAW is now 3 hours giving it even more time to use would be Smackdown talent and put on longer matches. The end result is a useless B show that no longer acts as a breeding ground for talented up and comers and is just a RAW recap show that takes place on one of the most inconvenient days of the week.
With that out of the way I had a few more subjects I wanted to touch base on but don’t think they merit their own column so I will include them here.
@WWE using too many “part timers.” – Yes, The Rock, Taker, HHH, Brock, and even Jericho aren’t going to be around constantly but the notion that WWE should use existing stars who work their asses off every day of the year over part timers is ridiculous. What Superstars could replace them? I know, I know, if creative could book they would have legit stars that could stand alone in big match situations. That may be true but a lot of the stars have nobody to blame but themselves for not breaking into the upper echelon of the WWE. Tyson Kidd is a perfect example. I love Tyson Kidd and his matches are always fast paced, technical, and brilliantly strung together no matter who they are against and what show they are on. Kidd clearly puts hour upon hour into training, planning spots, and studying matches. Lost in these hours of toil are the time spent to developing any sort of character and working on public speaking to cut promos. Wrestling is 50% in ring work and 50% storytelling and it boggles my mind to see some of these guys devote so much time to 50% of the business while completely neglecting the other half. Sure, creative couldn’t book a re-run of Friends without screwing it up but the wrestlers aren’t doing themselves any favors either. You can’t main event if you can’t wrestle AND talk to at least a certain degree, unless your name is Goldberg, who must have been a political mastermind back stage to get the push he received.
Another thing to consider is that the best in ring matches of Wrestle Mania the last two years included part timers, so they are bringing in casual fans with their star power, delivering the best promos leading up to the event, and delivering the best matches during the show. They might not be around all year but when they are they are relied heavily upon and they can be trusted not to crumble under pressure. I will take this a step further by saying that I buy the PPVs just to watch the Undertaker matches and his matches are not only the best on the show but usually the best of the entire year. That said if you don’t like the part timers and want to see the main stay guys get the spot light, skip Mania and buy Backlash when they all leave. Yeah, that is what I thought…
@ The Rock – It should be interesting to see what becomes of The Rock. There is little left for The Rock to do other than a potential tiebreaker match with John Cena. He is a busy dude and it will be interesting to see if he sticks around to have matches with lower billed stars, even the likes of Randy Orton. The days of watching The Rock in-ring might be coming to an end. Either way his return has been enjoyable and if he goes away for awhile it will make things seem a lot fresher when he returns down the line.
@Brock Lesnar – I don’t know about this guy. I was fired up when he came back and Brock and Cena had me eating out of the palm of their hands in their match. The Super Cena ending rubbed me the wrong way and really hurt Brock in my eyes. We all expected him to wrestle about 5 matches throughout the year however the number was only 3 and 2 of them were against HHH which wasn’t a feud I cared to see. I don’t know if resigning him for only 3 matches a year is worth it to WWE. It would be laughable to try and bill him as an unstoppable monster when he has had 2 opponents since being back and has lost clean to both. If he isn’t going to agree to do some RAW matches and at least 5 PPVs I don’t think he’s worth keeping around. To me the handling of Brock Lesnar is just WCW all over again. WWE had a cash cow but rather than milk money out of it they would rather flex their muscles and make an example out of anyone who rubs Vince the wrong way. The only things that truly pay for that type of business are the fans and the companies banking account.
Contact me on Twitter @DougGarbark or via email douggarbark@live.com to further the discussion or bring up topics you would like to see discussed. Until then, this is THE DAZZLER!
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