Black Widow
07-20-2008, 08:47 PM
AT the end of Draft special on Raw a couple of weeks ago, Vince McMahon fell to the floor after apparently being victim of an attack by an unnamed individual.
This signalled the end of McMahon’s Million Dollar Mania, and it looked like WWE’s latest attempt to boost ratings was to be another ‘whodunit’ surrounding the chairman of the board.
However, the McMahon saga has been pushed into a back as the big surprise on the June 30 edition of Raw was CM Punk taking the world heavyweight title.
Raw ratings, in the short term at least, leapt up.
This may be coincidence, but it may also be as a consequence of wrestling fans sensing a change in WWE’s power structure.
Look at the current list of champions on Raw – CM Punk is the world champ, Kofi Kingston has the intercontinental belt, Mickie James has the women’s title and Ted DiBiase Jnr and Cody Rhodes are the tag team champions.
Four of the five picked up their belts within the last month, with the exception being Mickie, who we saw win the belt live in an excellent match against Beth Phoenix in London’s O2 arena in April.
Those champions are aged 29, 26, 28, 25 and 23 respectively. An average age of just over 26.
That’s a major shift towards the youth of the Raw roster.
Many wrestling promotions, from the doomed WCW to the modern day WWE, have been criticised for a lack of upward mobility. Today’s Raw brand roll of honour currently states that the next generation are making their mark.
Let’s look at Smackdown and ECW to take in the WWE as a whole.
WWE Champion Triple H is 39. ECW title holder Mark Henry is 37. Matt Hardy, US Champ, is 33. The tag champions are Mike Mizanin (27) and John Morrison (29).
This gives an average of about 33 for non-Raw champions, and brings the average age of belt holders across the WWE to a fraction below 30.
There will shortly be added a new champion – either Natalya Neidhart or Michelle McCool will be the new Smackdown Diva’s Champion. Neidhart is 26 and McCool is 28.
OK, it’s not a deeply scientific study of age and quality of the roster, but it does begin to point to a shift in momentum.
It is worth, at this point, taking stock of some of WWE’s leading names who are currently without gold.
Undertaker, “retired” in the storyline, is 43 years old. That is the same age as Shawn Michaels will be later this month. Hardly the Heartbreak ‘Kid’ any more.
Other notables are Kane (41), JBL (41) Batista (39), Chris Jericho (37), Big Show (36) Edge (34) Rey Mysterio (33), John Cena (31), Jeff Hardy (30) and Randy Orton (28).
Perhaps this is a clever ploy by the WWE creative team.
Taking several belts and placing them on talent will help them elevate themselves both as performers and in the eyes of fans, all the while showing that WWE is moving forward
If that is the case then it should be applauded. However, will the tactic pay off?
Looking primarily at the young Raw titlists, most have not been booked very strongly.
Leaving Mickie aside for a second, all other belt holders needed recent assistance to gain or keep their straps.
Punk cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase taking advantage of a helpless Edge, who had been left prone by Batista. Later that night he defended the title against JBL, but needed help from John Cena and Cryme Tyme to do so.
This week it took a count-out to beat Kane, then he was saved from a beatdown by Batista. The Animal then laid Cena out with a spine buster. Odds don’t look good for Punk to retain at the Great American Bash.
Kofi Kingston won the IC title from Chris Jericho, and indeed kept it after Y2J challenged the Jamaican superstar the following night on Raw.
However to get the belt Kofi was assisted by Shawn Michaels, and to keep it Jericho was disqualified for holding the tights, something no-one has been DQ-ed for in many years.
This week he got a clean win and more TV time, but it was only over Paul Burchill, who has barely had a win since ditching his pirate gimmick.
Cody and Little Ted won the belts from¿ well, Cody and Holly, so not only was it hardly a convincing, fair victory, it also made no logical sense.
The following night on Raw the new champs beat two unknown jobbers, and then were not even seen the next week.
Things did look up this week, because at least they got a decent promo in to develop character and were featured in the main event.
There is promise, but it is hardly premium booking to establish the new blood, is it?
One can’t help but feel that the way to go is to try to build up the young guns to make people truly care about them before thrusting gold upon them.
Before his own frailties meant it never came to fruition, think about how people were clamouring for Jeff Hardy to win the big one.
Chasing it and nearly getting there got him more over than simply having the thing did.
Just a few short weeks ago, Rey Mysterio told us at SunSport that he was booked to lose too often. He was right.
If Punk is not put clean over Batista on Sunday then he may eclipse Rey for being the least-pushed champ of recent times.
the sun.co.uk
This signalled the end of McMahon’s Million Dollar Mania, and it looked like WWE’s latest attempt to boost ratings was to be another ‘whodunit’ surrounding the chairman of the board.
However, the McMahon saga has been pushed into a back as the big surprise on the June 30 edition of Raw was CM Punk taking the world heavyweight title.
Raw ratings, in the short term at least, leapt up.
This may be coincidence, but it may also be as a consequence of wrestling fans sensing a change in WWE’s power structure.
Look at the current list of champions on Raw – CM Punk is the world champ, Kofi Kingston has the intercontinental belt, Mickie James has the women’s title and Ted DiBiase Jnr and Cody Rhodes are the tag team champions.
Four of the five picked up their belts within the last month, with the exception being Mickie, who we saw win the belt live in an excellent match against Beth Phoenix in London’s O2 arena in April.
Those champions are aged 29, 26, 28, 25 and 23 respectively. An average age of just over 26.
That’s a major shift towards the youth of the Raw roster.
Many wrestling promotions, from the doomed WCW to the modern day WWE, have been criticised for a lack of upward mobility. Today’s Raw brand roll of honour currently states that the next generation are making their mark.
Let’s look at Smackdown and ECW to take in the WWE as a whole.
WWE Champion Triple H is 39. ECW title holder Mark Henry is 37. Matt Hardy, US Champ, is 33. The tag champions are Mike Mizanin (27) and John Morrison (29).
This gives an average of about 33 for non-Raw champions, and brings the average age of belt holders across the WWE to a fraction below 30.
There will shortly be added a new champion – either Natalya Neidhart or Michelle McCool will be the new Smackdown Diva’s Champion. Neidhart is 26 and McCool is 28.
OK, it’s not a deeply scientific study of age and quality of the roster, but it does begin to point to a shift in momentum.
It is worth, at this point, taking stock of some of WWE’s leading names who are currently without gold.
Undertaker, “retired” in the storyline, is 43 years old. That is the same age as Shawn Michaels will be later this month. Hardly the Heartbreak ‘Kid’ any more.
Other notables are Kane (41), JBL (41) Batista (39), Chris Jericho (37), Big Show (36) Edge (34) Rey Mysterio (33), John Cena (31), Jeff Hardy (30) and Randy Orton (28).
Perhaps this is a clever ploy by the WWE creative team.
Taking several belts and placing them on talent will help them elevate themselves both as performers and in the eyes of fans, all the while showing that WWE is moving forward
If that is the case then it should be applauded. However, will the tactic pay off?
Looking primarily at the young Raw titlists, most have not been booked very strongly.
Leaving Mickie aside for a second, all other belt holders needed recent assistance to gain or keep their straps.
Punk cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase taking advantage of a helpless Edge, who had been left prone by Batista. Later that night he defended the title against JBL, but needed help from John Cena and Cryme Tyme to do so.
This week it took a count-out to beat Kane, then he was saved from a beatdown by Batista. The Animal then laid Cena out with a spine buster. Odds don’t look good for Punk to retain at the Great American Bash.
Kofi Kingston won the IC title from Chris Jericho, and indeed kept it after Y2J challenged the Jamaican superstar the following night on Raw.
However to get the belt Kofi was assisted by Shawn Michaels, and to keep it Jericho was disqualified for holding the tights, something no-one has been DQ-ed for in many years.
This week he got a clean win and more TV time, but it was only over Paul Burchill, who has barely had a win since ditching his pirate gimmick.
Cody and Little Ted won the belts from¿ well, Cody and Holly, so not only was it hardly a convincing, fair victory, it also made no logical sense.
The following night on Raw the new champs beat two unknown jobbers, and then were not even seen the next week.
Things did look up this week, because at least they got a decent promo in to develop character and were featured in the main event.
There is promise, but it is hardly premium booking to establish the new blood, is it?
One can’t help but feel that the way to go is to try to build up the young guns to make people truly care about them before thrusting gold upon them.
Before his own frailties meant it never came to fruition, think about how people were clamouring for Jeff Hardy to win the big one.
Chasing it and nearly getting there got him more over than simply having the thing did.
Just a few short weeks ago, Rey Mysterio told us at SunSport that he was booked to lose too often. He was right.
If Punk is not put clean over Batista on Sunday then he may eclipse Rey for being the least-pushed champ of recent times.
the sun.co.uk