Every so often in WWE, there is that moment where a wrestler that is over with the crowd and with real wrestling talent comes to the reality that they are not in control. Sure, when they pin their opponents for that three count, the title reign begins. However, what happens when the fate of that wrestler is put into the hands of the often incompetent booking team? Here are five victims that succumbed to that fate.
People who missed the cut:
Alberto Del Rio (Booked horribly, but he had little charisma and he couldn’t get over as a babyface).
Jack Swagger (I mean, he had an eagle for a mascot…)
Mark Henry (Should have been given a longer reign during his monster heel run.)
Chris Jericho (During his undisputed world championship reign, he was Stephanie’s dog-watcher. Not treated seriously).
5. CM Punk
CM Punk has the sixth longest singular WWE Title reign in history at 434 days, when he beat Alberto Del Rio at the Survivor Series PPV in 2011 until losing it to the man to your left in the graphic above, The Rock at Royal Rumble. His reign was longest than some of the likes of Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. He set the world ablaze when he cut the pipebomb of all pipebombs on RAW in 2011. How in the world can he be one of the worst booked champions of all time? Simple. It was as if he wasn’t even WWE Champion. Since the beginning of CM Punk’s second WWE Title reign (from Survivor Series 2011 to Royal Rumble 2013), he was in the main event only five times (TLC 2011, Night of Champions 2012, Hell In A Cell 2012, Survivor Series 2012, Royal Rumble 2013). I wish I can say I was joking. Sadly, this was the harsh reality for the WWE Champion.To give you a deeper perpsective as to how much CM Punk was basically neglected as WWE Champion, here are some of the matches that main evented the shows that he was also on:
John Cena vs. Kane – Ambulance Match (Elimination Chamber 2012 – CM Punk’s WWE Title Chamber defense was FIRST ON THE CARD)
John Cena vs. The Big Show – Steel Cage Match (No Way Out 2012 – Stop laughing. I’m serious.)
John Cena vs. John Lauranitis – No Disqualification (Over the Limit 2012 – No seriously, stop laughing.)
You see where I’m going with this right? The five shows that CM Punk main evented met three conditions. He either faced The Rock, John Cena or John Cena wasn’t on the card. That really says all you need to know about how atrociously at times CM Punk was neglected. When CM Punk cut that pipebomb promo, he was an advocate for change as an anti-establishment figure, and his main point of ire was the wrestling manifestation of the corporate WWE, John Cena. Yet, he was unable to main event a show on his own without the help of John Cena or The Rock, both who are big stars and big draws at that. It was as if he never cut the pipebomb and nothing changed. He still wasn’t the main focus of the show until he turned heel in the summer of 2012, and even then, it was only with John Cena’s involvement that Punk reached main-event status. While CM Punk would steal the show with great matches against talented athletes such as Dolph Ziggler and Daniel Bryan, John Cena was involved in horrible feuds against tired veterans such as The Big Show and Kane. I guess I can’t wholeheartedly blame him for quitting the company, though I felt like he was going to when he lost the belt.
4. Christian
What the booking team did to Christian during his World Heavyweight Championship reign in 2011 is worthy of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Edge sadly had to retire abruptly after doctors concluded that he can no longer wrestle after his match against Alberto Del Rio at WrestleMania 27. The World Heavyweight Championship was then vacated and Alberto Del Rio would face Edge’s real life best friend Christian in a great ladder match at Extreme Rules. Christian would defeat Alberto Del Rio in hard-fought victory and won his first ever World Title in WWE, which quite frankly was long overdue. However, not even a week after on Smackdown that Friday, WWE, for some reason, gives Smackdown’s newest draftee, Randy Orton a match for the World Title against Christian. Just because. Then, Randy Orton pins Christian in the middle of the ring and he gets his 8th reign as World Champion. Just because. Orton would proceed to defeat Christian at Over the Limit and Capitol Punishment (two very good matches by the way), and all of a sudden, Christian starts to become a whiny, bitter sore loser. Why? Just because.
Christian would regain the World Title back on Randy Orton in a conveniently-stipulated match that would have Christian win the World Title on a disqualification, which he did when he pushed Randy’s button too often. However, at the next PPV, Summerslam, Randy Orton would defeat Christian in a No Holds Barred match after Edge previously abandoned Christian before their match. Which means the title reign for him was essentially pointless. Basically, WWE took what was arguably their most underrated wrestler, put the world title on him as a tribute to his friend, gives the World Title to a man who certainly didn’t need it at the time, turns heel, regained the title on a DQ and finally lost it, never to hold the World Championship again. Why? JUST BECAUSE!
3. Dolph Ziggler
Well, when he was first World Heavyweight Champion, he was awarded it on a silver platter until Teddy Long announced Edge was returning that night and Dolph would have to defend the title that very night. Guess what happened next. Moving on, Dolph was the internet darling of 2013 and now he’s known as Twerk Boy. Regardless, when he won Money In The Bank in 2012, there was huge anticipation for when he might cash it in. Every time that Sheamus, The Big Show or Alberto Del Rio was in a vulnerable state, fans constantly looked to the curtain or to the titantron to hear Dolph’s music. Month after month they were left with bitter disappointment. However, the anticipation finally settled when Dolph chose the night after WrestleMania 29, to finally cash in his briefcase. Dolph managed to defeat Del Rio and earned as loud a pop as you will ever hear in WWE. The future seemed bright for The Show Off.
However, WWE had Jack Swagger and Alberto Del RIo go over him before his next title defense, which was cut abruptly short due to Jack Swagger injuring him seriously and putting him out of commission until Payback. He would defend the title against Alberto Del Rio at Payback, and he would drop the belt to put it back on Del Rio for Vince knows what reason. Alberto Del Rio would continue with aimless feuds with Rob Van Dam and Christian while losing nearly every non title matchup he was involved in. So they basically gave the title back to a guy that was booked the same way as the guy previously holding the title. Only the former is more charismatic and just as great a worker. Ziggler is widely regarded as one of, if not, the one talent that WWE has wasted the most. It’s as if they know they have a star but don’t bother to give him a decent chance. Who knows if Dolph will ever be World Champion again? He just turned 35 this past July, so the door is still open, but with each passing month he is placed in the first couple of matches on each card, that door starts to close little by little.
2. Rey Mysterio
I loved Rey. Loved him liked the masked Mexican second cousin I never had. I first knew him through video games, and I was like “Wow, this little guy can fly and do all sorts of tricks”. Then I saw him wrestle Eddie Guererro at Halloween Havoc, and I was like “WOW, this guy is AMAZING!”. That’s what makes 2006 a great year for me. He won the Royal Rumble as the number 1 entrant over the likes of The Big Show, Kane, Triple H and Randy Orton. However, Randy managed to get in his head and forced him to wager his WrestleMania main event slot on the line when he taunted Rey about his deceased friend Eddie Guererro. Randy would defeat Rey Mysterio at No Way Out, but Teddy Long came back and gave Rey Mysterio his spot back, rendering Randy’s victory essentially pointless. Mysterio would then go on to defeat Randy Orton and the World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle in a short but energetic match and in the ultimate tribute to his befallen comrade, Rey Mysterio called himself World Heavyweight Champion. However, he started to lose his non title matches to the likes of Finlay and The Great Khali, the latter of which required only one foot to do. This is your World Heavyweight Champion. Tiny, yes, but he’s still the holder of the second biggest title. However, he would continue to lose and look like less and less of a man as opposed to his challengers.
With guys such as Randy Orton, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Mark Henry and The Undertaker on the roster, it started to become a point of interest as to why WWE chose Rey over all of those men? Is just for the sake of making it up to Rey for Eddie’s death? Rey isn’t exactly the greatest promo cutter in the world, but he can hold his own in the ring. Despite that, WWE didn’t see it that way and made him look like a paper champion, and the misery ended when King Booker won it from him at the Great American Bash. Everyone can appreciate an underdog because of your size, but if you don’t win your matches, how can you be taken seriously?
1. Seth Rollins
Last night was a welcome change as he put his title on the line (though they could have done without the whole opponent had to be under 6 feet and 200 pounds thing) and defeated Neville cleanly in an amazing match. However, up to that point, have you ever seen a WWE Champion look so…exposed, naked, weak and vulnerable without interference? First, Seth Rollins became champion by pinning the guy who was facing the champion at the time. Technically Seth defeated Brock Lesnar, because technically you beat the guy you don’t pin a triple threat. However, when you consider that Lesnar had Rollins up for an F-5 after all the punishment he took, it was sort of a microcosm of what was to come. Seth insists they are even since Brock actually pinned him at the Royal Rumble in another triple threat. Let’s look at his title defenses on PPV:
Extreme Rules – Defeats Seth Rollins in a steel cage match in which Kane and J+J end up inside the cage (Though if Randy Orton saw any steel cage match in the past couple of years, he’d know a steel cage is not the way to get rid of The Authority. Idiot.)
Payback – The Authority interfered as soon as the bell rang and was heavily involved in the finish as Seth caught Randy distracted from Kane.
Elimination Chamber – DQ’s himself and wasn’t able to kick out of Dean’s finisher even after a ref bump.
Money In The Bank – Yea, you can call this clean, but he literally had to yank the title out of desperation, as opposed to valiantly standing on top of the ladder holding the belt.
Battleground – Gets destroyed for 10 minutes and gets maybe one and a half minutes of combined offense. Title would not be on him had it not been for the Undertaker coming (and the referee and Seth Rollins used Instant Transmission that they picked up from Goku to leave immediately).
Not to mention last week he lost cleanly to John Cena via submission, especially considering after he broke his nose. See, what separates Rollins from some of the major heel champions in the past such as Chris Jericho, Edge and Randy Orton is that, yes, while they would cheat to win, they can be counted on to pick up major victories on their own power. With Seth, I just get the feeling that he can lose to anyone on the roster. When Seth first turned heel and joined The Authority, he was beating people on his own, but since WWE aligned hi with J+J Security and Kane, his credibility has sank dramatically. You also have to feel that Seth may be at the end of his title reign soon, due to the lack of main-event caliber wrestlers he’s already faced. Now there may still be time to fix Seth, and the first step is by giving him some convincing victories on his own. However, he is the world champion in times where WWE’s ratings have been putrid at times (though not it hasn’t been entirely his fault), and it feels like we go through the same routine with him every week. I’m not calling for him to go over talent clean all the time, but we need to see him rely on his own ability much more. Why WWE insists on doing this to arguably their top in-ring talent is anyone’s guess, but it’s time to fix The Architect before his foundation crumbles for good.
Did I miss anyone? Agree? Wish I’d go jump off a cliff? Let me know folks. Until next time.
