A Modest Response

Columns

The WWE has taken a lot of flack this year for a sub par product from the IWC, myself included. I don’t think that’s a fair assessment at all. They’ve been doing a lot more that’s right this year than often in the past. I’d like to go through both what the WWE did right in previous years to prevent this and what the WWE has managed to do right last year in the face of the much discussed unmitigated disaster of 2007.

The WWE currently has two major stars who have missed no time and been regular WWE superstars throughout 2007. Those are Batista and Randy Orton. CM Punk seems likely to join them as he is being consistently elevated at a good pace. Everyone else left or got hurt. That’s an amazing streak of bad luck and makes it difficult to blame the WWE for their disastrous year.

The WWE has lost numerous superstars that they had built wonderfully.

The first and most obvious sure main eventer that’s long gone and rarely mentioned anymore is the Rock. Does anyone honestly believe we’d have had to suffer through these wrestling doldrums were one of the biggest draws in the business’s history still lacing up the boots nightly? Would Cena have been rushed to the main event a year before he was ready? The answer is obviously no. With Rock headlining Raw, Cena would have developed into a major superstar more at his own pace with less backlash on Smackdown.

The next major loss to the WWE was ridiculous; Brock Lesnar. Brock was built perfectly, the monster of a new generation. He was a legitimate draw as a face or heel, an amateur who could go in the ring, and a man who certainly lacked the face for movies. Then he decided that after being a wrestling star, he really should play football. If anyone can answer how he thought this would be a good idea, I’d be interested. There were other major losses to the WWE, but besides Rock, none hurt like Lesnar. Brock is the one man who could replace most of what Rock gave you, though where with Rock it was on the mic and with charisma, with Brock it was everything else.

Kurt Angle was the yin to Brock’s yang. Kurt got wrestling faster and more completely than anyone has in a long time, then, when it looked like he’d be one of the best ever for a long time, injuries and, well, what appears to be a bit of insanity robbed him of his skill. His promos, once the heart of any program, began lacking inspiration. His matches began to feel like they were being done in fast forward. When WWE tried to give him time off to get his head straight and heal up, he refused, ended up released, and another major, long term WWE push was destroyed.

The fourth man on the loss list is a controversial one. He is JBL. While JBL could simply not buy a good match, his great mic skills and unbelievable hate-ability made him the centerpiece of Smackdown when he was healthy. Was he a detestable human being? Likely. But that only made fans more willing to pay see him have his brains beaten out. He’s back now, but the impact of that will be in 2008, not 2007.

Another man who returned, that badly hurt the WWE plans when he left, was Chris Jericho. Jericho might have been the perfect wrestler. He could talk, he had a great look, and he was amazing in numerous types of matches, as a face or a heel. Jericho, unfortunately, burned out. He decided to leave wrestling for years, leaving the WWE without this remarkable talent that they had made the very first Undisputed Champion ever. Alone he could have made a program watchable in the form he was in when he left. Hopefully the returned Jericho can regain that form.

The saddest loss on the list is Eddie Guerrero, who, as everyone knows, died after finally straightening his life out. Eddie was finally receiving his long deserved push and was one of, if not the very best at getting the crowd to react to him. Adding that in with his amazing in ring style and Eddie is doubtlessly one of the very best ever. His death was a tragedy for the world to mourn.

We all know about Benoit. No need to discuss that again.

Rob Van Dam and Sabu were in the midst of a great push with the revival of ECW when they got busted for traveling with drugs. Was it a surprise that these two had drugs? No. But it was still abysmal timing. RVD’s push stalled out and although he was still a giant draw, he was soon frustrated to the point of leaving wrestling. Another star down.

Then we have the injuries.

The Undertaker, in the midst of a career renaissance with a long title run, hurt himself and the push was scrapped. He was to be replaced by Edge, who also promptly hurt himself at the outset of what was to be a great push. That’s one of the best big men ever and the best heel currently in the business, gone. Rey Misterio, no panacea, but an accepted main eventer with a recognizable gimmick and great matches, missed several months and appears to be breaking down fairly badly.

Over on Raw, Triple H, finally in the mid-card, wrestling very good matches for a short while and selling a ton of merchandise with Degeneration-X, ripped his quad yet again. His DX partner Shawn Michaels, in the midst of a career renaissance himself, managed to miss several months. That wasn’t a huge issue with John Cena carrying Raw, putting on matches there was no reason to expect he was capable of. He was lost when the WWE appeared to finally be getting its legs under it in a cruel joke.

The rising stars fell like flies too. Matt Hardy and MVP were being elevated together, much like the Rock and Triple H once were, with Matt’s long awaited push paying off in spades… until Matt got hurt and the push was forced to be put off yet again.

Bobby Lashley was in the midst of a great, if far too rushed, push. I can’t stand Lashley, but everyone from Lance Storm to Jim Ross sees great potential. With a continued push, working with the best the WWE has to offer Lashley likely would have shown the fans what he showed the talent evaluators and become a star.

Ken Kennedy, in the midst of a likely huge push, is among the best mic men the WWE has turned up in a long time. Of course, not only was he hurt, but he had a drug suspension.

Other notable drug suspensions were the aforementioned RVD and Sabu, Umaga, Jeff Hardy, John Morrison and Booker T (who also left, but who’s departure was less of a blow). Each weakened the top to bottom strength of the show.

Even with all of this going wrong, the WWE managed to elevate and properly book several talents besides those covered above.

Jeff Hardy is now among the most over men on Raw. Through a feud with Randy Orton and beating Triple H, he has come look like a world beater, getting unforeseen gigantic pops and appearing to have a bright future as a main eventer.

Randy Orton himself has been pushed hard before, but never this effectively. He’s culminated a year long program, pushing him as a terrible bastard and hard hitting heel who can take out top faces. He’s a legitimate top heel now, even if the chinlocks are still too damn common.

WWE took a lot of heat for the Khali push, but while he’s a terrible worker, he’s huge, impressive and over. He was protected amazingly well, and looked like a legitimate beast. Now, as a former champion, he’s mildly carryable, while he can draw just by destroying guys and make faces by selling for them.

Umaga seems to have regressed as a worker (thanks for destroying him Hunter), but his push has been amazing. He went from a silly monster to an awesome brawler who could draw in top programs (thanks Cena!). His skill in making the silly gimmick with the WWE’s consistent push have made him the best used silly gimmick since Kane.

John Morrison has gone from athletic but greener than money, to a potential money maker in the upper card through hard work and an amusing Jim Morrison based gimmick. In ring he has figured out how to mix flash with still being a good heel and his smarmy personality makes him easy to hate.

Lastly, we have CM Punk. We all know I love Punk. He’s probably a top 5 talker on the roster right now and a top 3 worker. He’s over as anything and feels like a big deal, when he easily could have gotten lost in the Raw shuffle. On ECW he is the show, and that’s worked out great.

So, despite being built for years, for much of 2007 WWE was without The Rock, Brock Lesnar, JBL, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, RVD, and Benoit. To injury they lost Cena, Lashley, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Ken Kennedy, Edge, Rey Misterio and Matt Hardy. That first list alone dwarfs the WWE rosters currently and when combined you could almost fill out all three shows and have them stacked. Despite (or because) of all of this, they have made the Hardyz more over than ever, created a new monster in Umaga, two potential franchise guys in Morrison and Punk, and made a legitimate star out of Orton. The year was terrible, but the reasons (lack of talent) were mostly outside WWE control. At least in the process they made several new stars, seemingly going in the right direction. Of course all the leaving and injuries are likely due to schedule and Vince only pushing a certain style of worker, plus some terrible karma, so if you want, feel free to go right back to hating WWE for those follies, just don’t say it’s because they can’t make and elevate new stars.

Glazer is a former senior editor at Pulse Wrestling and editor and reviewer at The Comics Nexus.