Wow, what a surprise. Elimination Chamber has come and gone, and once again one of the two big names in the company is the WWE Champion. For those that missed it, Batista is the new champion and will now be heading to Wrestlemania with the gold around his waist. Why am I not surprised.
Welcome fans to another edition of The Dog Pound; a place where your voice can be heard and your ideas come to life. In this edition I want to discuss what seems to be a truly endless cycle within the WWE. It seems as though there is a glass ceiling and only a select few can be on top of it, and anyone else who dare try and shatter that glass only gets punished in the end.
A couple of weeks ago I recieved an email from a loyal reader (Gerald I didn’t forget buddy) and we were discussing the upcoming MITB match at ‘mania and who we’d like to see battling it out. It was here that Gerald hit the nail on the head; the WWE stars we’d most like to see get the chance to shine, probably won’t. Why you ask? Because they are not John Cena or Batista.
This is where the glass ceiling starts and stops currently within the WWE. Vince McMahon has picked his two top guys to carry this generation, and his one golden child (John Cena) stands above them all. Now, let me just say that I can completely understand where Vince is coming from by doing this, from the business point-of-view; however that doesn’t change my opinion on why it hurts the company and its fans more then it seems to help.
So, what exactly am I complaining about? Is it just me, or does John Cena and Batista have to be involved in just about EVERY segement every week. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but it does seem that way does it not? The elimination chamber ppv was the perfect example with how the WWE markets both these men. It came down to John Cena and Triple H as the final two; John Cena picked up the win making him now an 8x World Champion in total. Eight times he has won either the WWE or World titles and he’s only been in the company since 2002.
Batista, a man who made his official debut not long before Cena, with his current reign stands as a 6x world champion. So, just eight years as a member of the WWE John Cena is already half-way to the legendary Ric Flair as a sixteen-time world champion. Does anyone else see a problem here?
For one, it tells me at least that the titles really mean nothing anymore. Think about it, there was no real reason to give John Cena the title at EC, only to give it right to Batista five minutes later. These “title reigns” do nothing more than pad the stats of both men who can now claim that they are 8x or 6x world champions. At the same time, where does title changes like this leave young guys like Sheamus?
Sheamus can now lay claim that he is a former WWE champion. However, the way it played out in the end, he was just keeping the belt warm for both Cena and Batista. How will this help him in the next year or so? Then, there are guys like Kofi Kingston. Kingston had a pretty nice program going with Randy Orton, but it seemed as though the WWE saw that he was getting bigger reactions than Cena or Batista and decided to slow him down. How dare he outshine our handpicked supermen!
What about guys like Christian, Matt Hardy, or even Kane. These guys have consistently gotten better reactions over the years than some others and yet they are continuously held down. Now, I know there is more to it than just pushing a guy over another, they do have to connect with the crowd after all, but why not give it a shot. Jeff Hardy was finally given a title after years of coming up short; he never had a successful title defense though as he dropped it the very next month to Edge.
To put it in comparison (with John Cena being an 8x champion) WWE great The Rock has been only a 6x champion during his entire career! Stone Cold Steve Austin also a 6x champion. How about “the headliner” Shawn Michaels; in total only a 4x champion. So what makes this era of “chosen ones” so different? Is it the PG rating, the marketing towards younger kids, etc.
All I know is it seems as though there is a certain criteria one must meet to be truly successful in the WWE at this momenr in time. It helps if your name is John Cena or Batista. But, if your a young guy getting a slight push (ala Kingston, MVP, Morrison) and you show any signs of outshining the chosen main eventers, that’ll be it for awhile! Tell me, is there not a glass ceiling?
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