Jeff Hardy vs. John Morrison is taking place at the Smackdown tapings tonight. While its unlikely that Morrison takes the title, in fact, its far more likely that CM Punk interferes, setting up a Summerslam 3-way for the title, I argue against giving Morrison the title any time soon. This isn’t a knock against Morrison, who is a good interview, quite over, and a very good wrestler, but merely a note that he could certainly use more time before getting to the top.
Morrison just isn’t great yet. A big problem that holds back a lot of new main eventers is that their skillset isn’t quite rounded yet. Given more time in a top feud, coming out on the losing side wouldn’t be a negative at all. This would let Morrison get his face promos from good to great, where they need to be to be a permanent WWE main eventer. Further, as good as he is in the ring, he could use some extended programs in front of a national audience (i.e. more people than watch ECW) to build a following and fain momentum. With these two come a greater fan demand for the wrestler to be on top. Recent huge surprise success Jeff Hardy waited years before fan demand forced him to be put on top. Now, that same fanbase has kept him a top merchandise seller and made him a fixture atop cards. The fans demanded Hardy be on top over time, just as they did wrestlers like Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero. Now, I’m not suggesting that Morrison needs to wait as long as the aforementioned did for his chance on top, but merely that he develops a following the size to merit being kept as the top face of the company’s Smackdown brand.
