Yes, you’re reading this right; I have received yet another opportunity/ promotion to provide my opinion on the world of wrestling. DC’s Book Review, as the name suggests, will deal with discussion over aspects of the WWE’s booking, and as this week’s title suggests, this week’s column will deal with the main event scene on SmackDown, or more specifically, the world title race on SmackDown.
With the news that Jeff Hardy still plans on leaving following Summerslam I was a bit confused with the decision to put him over CM Punk at Night of Champions, but then things started coming together, cogs started turning and I came up with one (hopefully) foolproof idea. It’s safe to say that CM Punk will be getting a rematch at Summerslam, so why not turn it into a loser leaves WWE match? It allows Jeff to put Punk over and also gives him a reasonable on screen reason to leave instead of just getting buried and disappearing.
But after that lengthy Jeff Hardy/ CM Punk feud comes to an end, who else is there capable of stepping up to feud with CM Punk for the world title? One clear choice would be John Morrison, who has proven himself as a star capable of working high profile matches and also demonstrated that he can put on one hell of a match with CM Punk. In a feud over the world title these two could pull off some excellent matches and potentially show stealing segments. However, I don’t think Morrison is ready for the world title just yet. Morrison would benefit from a World title feud even if he is on the losing end, so give him the next shot at the title and have him lose, but then have him go over in another main event feud, preferably against someone like Chris Jericho or Rey Mysterio, and then have him come after CM Punk again, ready and hopefully capable of carrying SmackDown as its world champion.
Other than John Morrison there is a number of other stars who would make for an interesting challenger to the title. The biggest problem is, all of them are currently involved in big storylines. Chris Jericho is pre occupied with the Unified tag titles, in which I also see a resulting feud with the Big Show possibly on the horizon. Rey Mysterio is currently feuding with Dolph Ziggler, who is being primed to take the Intercontinental Championship. Kane is currently involved in a storyline with the Great Khali, a feud which is doing nothing to benefit Kane’s role as a monstrous heel.
There’s always the midcard to consider. SmackDown has a history of propelling previously midcard stars into the main event scene, so it would not be unbelievable for them to do so again. But who on the midcard is capable of taking that kind of shot? The only men that pop to mind that would even be considered are Finlay or R-Truth, and certainly only for a short feud leading in to one of the lesser pay per views. Finlay has shown he can handle the main event before and R-Truth is highly over with the current WWE target audience of young children and teenagers, but neither strike me as long term opponents. Then there is always Matt Hardy, a man totally deserving of a main event run but currently out injured, pretty much taking him out of the picture.
There is one man that hasn’t been considered, and is long due a return to the ring – The Undertaker. Just picture CM Punk attempting to get into the head of the deadman, a tactic which he has been using against Jeff Hardy for weeks now. The Undertaker has proven himself time and time again to be capable of putting on great matches with just about anyone based on in ring psychology alone. If Punk, or whomever is the world champion at that time, were to go over The Undertaker in a decent length feud then their title reign would gain in recognition significantly.
It’s become clear that SmackDown has the most versatile main event scene in the WWE right now, and with that it can be argued that anybody on their roster could step up to be the next challenger for the World Heavyweight championship. Its all down to whether the WWE booking team are willing to take a risk on a lesser known young star in the form of John Morrison or if they would feel safer in giving the main feud to a proven veteran like The Undertaker of Chris Jericho that will make all the difference in the coming months.
