Booking Swagger

Okay, I know most of my faithful readers don't like it when I talk wrestling on this blog. However, I was watching Smackdown the other night and a couple of things struck me, to the point where I want to discuss them some place, and here seems as good a place as any.

First of all, let me backtrack a little bit to tell you a personal story. While Smackdown may have aired on Friday night, it was taped on Tuesday. On Tuesday, as it happened, I was heading from Baltimore to London, by way of Chicago.

As it turns out, my arrival gate was on one side of the airport and the departure gate on the other, so I had to walk quite a ways with my carry-on luggage. (This piece of information becomes important later.)

Fast-forward to Friday night and imagine my suprise when it's announced that Smackdown was eminating from Chicago. I immediately began to wonder if I had just missed rubbing shoulders with a Smackdown superstar. I'm guessing probably not. I was walking through the airport at around 4:00 and the likes of CM Punk, Edge and Chris Jericho probably came in on an earlier flight.

And the Tuesday morning I spent with Kelly in Baltimore, having breakfast at Miss Shirley's (which I love so much, I want to take it out behind the Junior High and get it pregnant) and the book store near her apartment, is something I would certainly not trade for the opportunity to say "Oh my God, it's Dolph Ziggler!"

Still, it's kinda cool to think that, if someone like Drew McIntyre or John Morrison had taken a later flight, they might have been in that airport at the same time as me.

And now, on to Smackdown, which showed a replay of Monday Night Raw, where new World Heavyweight Champion, Jack Swagger, went down to a clean defeat at the hands of Randy Orton (in a non-title match).

Way to go, WWE! Way to make your World Champion, a guy who is not really as over as someone holding the gold should be, look weak! Awesome! Great job, writer monkeys! Next time, why don't you get him to job cleanly to frickin' Hornswoggle in under a minute?

Okay, here's the thing: Jack Swagger, his well-pointed out speech impediment and all, has really come out of nowhere in the last month or so. Yeah, he's been with the Fed for a year or so now, but he was basically a Dolph Ziggler-like jobber-to-the-stars, more likely to get Batista-bombed in short order on Smackdown than even get a cheap win that makes his opponent look good.

He was, to me, basically an afterthought for the Money in The Bank Match at Wrestlemania. Instead, he goes out, wins the match, tries to cash in the next night and, a day later (or several days, depending on whether you count the Smackdown taping or the broadcast) rushes in, pins Jericho and wins the title.

Some pretty heady stuff for Swagger. In fact, one could argue (and I am going to, because, since this is my blog, I can) that the majority of the WWE fans still view Swagger as the guy who will job to Rey Mysterio and Edge and be a "pick 'em" against Kane and JTG.

In other words, Swagger is still seen as a mid-carder who someone managed to become World Champion. And while the wrestling savant that is Vince Russo may see wrestling titles as just "props", I maintain that your World Champion should the most over guy (heel, face or tweener status matters not) in your organization.

Swagger is not the most over guy on Smackdown. Hell, he could be conducting a backstage interview and not be the most over guy in the segment.

There have been some angles where a champion will sit back and let his challengers tear each other apart in "Number One Contender" matches, so he can swoop in and pick up the pieces. That's not what Swagger is doing here. Swagger is, unless I miss my guess, a placeholder champion. Someone who is babysitting the title in order to make the Jericho-Edge matches a little bit more interesting.

Hint, Hint: The Edge-Jericho matches are already interesting and would be even more interesting if they were for the title, rather than a shot at the title.

And for a guy to go from mid-card afterthought to placeholder World Champion in a matter of days is not doing Swagger, the title or Smackdown any favours. This is not to say that the whole situation can't be recovered. Look at JBL, who won the Smackdown title (with all the title switches between brand, I can't remember whether it was the WWE title or the World title), and used it as a way to elevate his game to the point where he became credible as the top man on the brand. Of course, JBL's character and experience made that possible.

And as much as I applaud the WWE for pushing Swagger (and other younger talent, i.e. Drew McIntyre, Sheamus, John Morrison, the Miz and CM Punk), Swagger didn't need the World title to elevate him. He had the Money in the Bank (MITB) title shot, which could have been used for the better part of a year to slowly elevate Swagger to the point where, when he finally cashed in his title shot, he would have been seen as a legitimate contender to the title.

In a way, the WWE was off to the right start, with Swagger claiming he was cashing in his MITB title shot on a fallen John Cena, on Raw the night after Wrestlemania. Swagger would, however, back out when Cena recovered.

And THAT is the modus operandi Swagger should have adapted. Perhaps not every week, but every now and again, when Cena or Jericho (or future champions) had been beaten up by an opponent, have Swagger rush in and attempt to cash in.

Meanwhile, even when the champion wasn't hurt, have Swagger lurking in the background. For example, imagine this scenario on Raw, where Cena has been talking with a guest host about his upcoming title match on pay-per-view. As he does so, have Swagger steal into the scene, smirk on his face and briefcase in hand, to remind Cena not to over-exert himself, since "maybe this Sunday is when I'll cash in my Money In the Bank Title Shot!"

Now I'm not going to suggest the threat of Swagger challenging Cena (or whomever) would be the deciding factor for fans when ordering a pay-per-view but it would add just a touch more suspense to the proceedings. And again, it would help to elevate Swagger to a position where, when he finally did cash in his title shot and if he were to become champion, he would be in a better position, in terms of being a believable champion, than he is now: a mid-carder turned transitional champion who just jobbed cleanly to Randy Orton and is waiting to see whether Jericho or Edge beats him for the title.