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Micnificent
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Sin City
Posts: 6,218
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Shawn Of The Dead By Some Dude Over At Prowrestlingtorch.com
Shawn of the Dead
The Raw brand has received most of the critical kudos in recent months, with Smackdown playing, as is often the case, second banana. Fans and columnists alike point to the excellent Batista storyline, but even Raw's supporters are hard pressed to come up with much else outside of that one storyline. I'm not saying that Smackdown doesn't have its own problems, but their main eventers still have far more life in them than the lackluster Raw main event scene. Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, and even the Undertaker, still have the faith of the fans when it comes to their chances at winning the WWE Title. Meanwhile, on Raw, almost all potential challengers have been systematically taken down a peg. Don't believe me? Let's run down the list.
Chris Benoit: Remember where Chris Benoit was at this time last year? He was winning the World Title at WrestleMania, forcing Triple H to tap out, albeit in a triple threat situation. In 2005, he just got done wrestling a TV feud with Muhammad Hassan, another in the line of John Laurenaitis approved stiffs. After that, he's been put into the obvious "what are we going to do with these guys?" match, against the rest of the lower first/upper second tier guys who no one thinks will win the title anytime in the near future.
Chris Jericho: Chris Jericho had one of the most politically undercut world title runs in the history of WWE, and he's gone on to cut goofier and goofier promos that don't have an ounce of intensity to them. He also proved that having a zillion catch phrases can backfire when you have so many that the fans stop caring about any of them. He's been made to look like a fool on numerous occasions, and even fellow Canadian goofball Edge recently mocked his silly running man dance on the way to a knee in the ropes. Jericho used to make fans laugh with him, but now they're laughing at him.
Edge: It's his gimmick that he constantly gets screwed out of the World Title. If he wins said World Title, the aforementioned gimmick will be over. Ergo, he will not win the title. He's probably the brightest light amongst the embers of WWE's main event scene, but he has yet to prove he can deliver a strong main event style match as a solo performer. His character finally clicked, but his matches all blend into one another, and that's not what fans want from a potential world champion.
Kane: Kane's a bad guy now. Or maybe he's a good guy. I really don't know. His storyline got so contrived and confusing, that he doesn't even talk anymore, and the announcers do their best to avoid mentioning any of his background unless absolutely necessary. He hasn't shown much of any interest in the World Title since around the time he had sex with a dead girl. The announcers did mention that he was still married to Lita, but the two haven't even acknowledged each other since Lita came back. WWE thinks fans are stupid and forgetful, but this has been absolutely ridiculous. Kane gets the opportunity to wrestle Batista on Raw this week, and I'm sure we'll get plenty of run-ins since WWE isn't going to put either man over completely. However, Batista will still be the one who they leave coming out of the match smelling like roses, while Kane gets knocked down a notch once again.
Randy Orton: Do I even need to explain this one? Even Jack "The Snake" Roberts had to point to the obvious fact that Orton lost the title, and made Orton sound like a joke at the same time. Orton's face character was one of the most disappointing face turns in recent memory. He went from being a cool, arrogant heel, to a jerky babyface that the fans didn't care about. As Torch columnist James Guttman likes to point out, he only became a good guy because his friends beat him up. Why should the fans like him anymore than Evolution did? His character is such an unfunny joke that they need to let Orton end the Undertaker's twelve and zero WrestleMania streak just to give Orton a semblance of credibility.
Wait, aren't I forgetting a couple people? Oh yeah, Batista. It's to the point where the only man who could even conceivably win the World Title is someone who has had to be artificially backed up by a Goldberg like push, crushing all opposition and keeping his mouth shut. He's not even as good in the ring as Goldberg, and when push came to shove, he has failed to deliver a money promo. WWE has pulled the wool over the eyes of the fans, but once Batista is forced to wrestle in main events that are more than squashes, he will likely be exposed as a poor in-ring talent. He also won't be able to win the fans back on the mike.
The only man left who could take the World Title from Triple H in a believable fashion, someone who doesn't seem like a second tier player, someone who can actually deliver in the ring and on promos? That man is Shawn Michaels. He may not wrestle a full time schedule anymore, but he needs to win that World Title in the not too distant future and start wrestling some competitive matches against the rest of the current main eventers and the midcarders. Doing so will give those men back their credibility in a way that won't happen with Triple H or Batista as champion.
Triple H has proven time and time again that he isn't going to go out of his way to leave his opponents with any credibility once his feuds with them are over. He builds them up and shuts them down. He's not afraid of losing to Batista, because he knows that Batista isn't the total package, and when push comes to shove, the company will come running back to Triple H to lead the Raw brand.
It's time for Shawn to step up to the plate and keep the Raw brand strong. Shawn's already a legend, but giving some credibility back to the Raw main eventers would be a wonderful legacy to leave in the twilight of his career.
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