For those of you who have read the first two parts of this article, you would have noticed how I refer to particular stars as an elitist and how these men are usually discussed and/or treated in a different context to other main event talent.
In the first part of this article, I briefly mentioned several things that an elitist could expect – these include (but are not limited to) being included at the years biggest events, being involved in the biggest matches and the biggest feuds, constantly being selected to challenge a champion or have a championship reign, being selected for films and finally, and some may say, most importantly, a spot at the biggest event of the year, Wrestlemania.
When you consider the past several years, many would consider the following stars to be in the upper echelon of WWE: John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, Edge, Triple H, HBK and Undertaker. Today, id also put CM Punk in this category.
Jericho is someone that I would also consider an upper class elitist but his long absences make it difficult to classify him as one doesn’t know what may have happened had he stayed.
Let’s consider a few benefits of being one of these men…
Lets begin with the biggest event of the year, Wrestlemania – the show which features the biggest matches of the year and in most instances, the climatic match to some of the years biggest feuds. After taking injury and retirement into consideration, none of the elitists have missed the event and in most cases, they have been given a match of high significance at the event. For instance, let’s consider the three big matches of the event. Firstly the Streak Match which, since 2005 has only featured 1 star who was not an elitist, that being Mark Henry. As for the title matches at the event: every single title match in the past seven years has featured an elitist and only seven other stars have had a spot in a title match at Mania, two of which were stars of the previous era, another three are what I like to consider lower-elitists and one final star has since become a member of the elite crowd.
After taking stars who were injured or had retired out of the equation, only 1 star has missed a Summerslam event, the second biggest PPV of the year – that being the Undertaker in 2006, who only missed the event because presumably nobody wanted The Great Khali on the card. For those who don’t know, Taker’s match with Khali took place at the following Smackdown. Interestingly, the PPV prior to that years Summer event saw Khali removed again to be replaced by Big Show.
The Royal Rumble is the companys third biggest PPV of the year. Since 2005 (taking into consideration, the injured and retired stars) none of the elite have missed an event. Furthermore, they have been involved in a big match at the event or have been at the centre of a particular moment during the marque match of said event. Additionally, four of the past six rumble winners have been an elitist, the others being Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio. Interestingly, this years rumble was the first since 2005 that featured non elitists as the final two rumble competitors. In fact, since 2005, Rey Mysterio is the only other non elitist to reach the final two.
I could go into how monthly PPVs featured a combination of these stars as their main event for well over a year but I’m sure you get the picture by now so let’s move on and discuss the lower elitists.
The lower elitists have exactly the same benefits as the upper class. The men I would consider in this bracket are Mysterio, Big Show, Kane and JBL. For those interested, I’d currently place Miz in the lower class, simply because he hasn’t had enough time to cement himself in the upper as of yet.
For the most part (when able to compete) all of these men have been involved in the top three events of the year in some manner – the exceptions being Big Show vs. Bam Nealy being dropped to the Summerslam dark match and Big Show again at Summerslam when the giant was in the middle of his feud with Snitsky, although that’s understandable when you consider the man was no better then the aforementioned Khali who was also dropped from the PPV.
As for their feuds and matches: at some point, every man has held or challenged for a top title, every man has been featured in a top feud, whether against Batista, CM Punk, or Undertaker (in the case of Rey), Akebono or Mayweather, Undertaker or Edge again (in the case of Kane) and John Cena and Rey (in the case of JBL).
Furthermore, when these men hold or challenge for a lower title – it’s considered a big deal. For instance, Rey holding the US Title, Big Show and Kane holding the Tag Titles or JBL and the IC Title. Similar to how the Tag Titles suddenly meant something when Rated RKO or DX held them.
Why these men haven’t been classed in the same category as the prior seven (or eight if you include Punk) could be for a number of reasons – be it taking time off, being to small to feature highly regularly, being unable to produce high quality matches often or even just being at the tail end of their career. However, the difference lies in how the men are booked.
An upper class elitist is always the dominant and over the long haul, will never be truly challenged, unless by another upper elitist. Lets be honest, was Rey Mysterio ever a major threat to Batista or Undertaker? No. Furthermore, he was used as a mere transitional for John Cena this past year.
Was Big Show ever a threat to Cena or Edge?
Was Kane ever a threat to Edge? How about John Cena? If the feud that started recently continues, can you imagine Cena coming off the weaker of the two?
How about JBL? He was never a real threat to any of the upper class.
The only exception where someone lesser then an elitist got the advantage over the former is when Kane ended his most recent feud with Undertaker. Albeit with some assistance from Nexus. However, that feud did end rather abruptly with absolutely no resolution so I’ll attribute that exception to bad story telling.
Basically, the lower elitists are good fall back guys should a roster be infected with numerous injuries. They are more commonly used as additional draw cards or as stepping stones to elevate up and coming stars – or rather, the general main event talent.
I’ll discuss the main event talent in the forth and final part of this article.
