A lot can happen in a year..... part 2
Ok so in similar vein to my thread in the TNA section which can be found; HERE I figured after a year of solidly watching and really getting back into the wrestling again that I'd pass comment on various aspects of WWE throughout 2010.
As it turns out as far as the main event scene goes the WWE Title is in a very similar standpoint in terms of who holds it. This time last year it was the young up and coming Sheamus and of course currently it's the young and still unproven at the top level The Miz who holds arguably the biggest title in professional wrestling.
It's not surprising either, WWE have openly been attempting to push up a number of young talents over the last year with mixed results it would be fair to say.
Sheamus has been impressive, having started the year out with me on a completely clean slate as I hadn't seen him previously. He's a solid enough worker who's carried himself well and handled his heavy push impressively well, noticeably improving throughout the year and putting on some very good matches against Randy Orton in particular.
Conversely the episodes of Raw building up to the Royal Rumble PPV 2010 featured the now expected lame jobber storylines involving one seemingly laughable jobber, Jack Swagger running his mouth only to get dumped on by an actual laughable jobber in Santino Marella.
It seemed that despite having an impressive physique, Swagger was going to be one of those guys that was rarely afforded an opportunity to perform to potential. Fast forward a few months and the very same Jack Swagger (only now sporting ring attire strikingly similar to Kurt Angle circa 2003 and using the ankle lock as a finisher) won the newly prestigious MITB match at Wrestlemania 26 and cashed in his briefcase successfully less than a week later on Jericho to become the World Heavyweight Champion.
His reign as champion was fairly short lived but annoyingly it was as if WWE had just made a snap decision to give him the strap as they still wanted to have him as a laughable jobber, despite him being at the forefront of Smackdown (which it was repeatedly claimed throughout the year was on a par with Raw as WWEs flagship show).
Come the summer and the very well hyped but overall disappointing NXT had just finsihed it's first series and went straight into another.
The winner of NXT series 1 Wade Barrett would appear on Raw with all the other contestants and attack the WWEs top name, John Cena, in what was billed as a shocking invasion.
It continued in a similarly impressive fashion with the group, latterly named as The Nexus, attacking a host of legends and other personalities, including the chairman of the company Vince McMahon.
They'd get their first official match at Summerslam in a 7 on 7 tag team match against several WWE stars including initial Nexus member Daniel Bryan, whom was bizarrely "fired" for an innocuous incident but re hired again.
The match itself was pretty impressive overall but it was after this point that the WWE would shoot themselves in the foot a bit at times having Nexus become a faction that when it actually came down to it in official matches going up against their target (usually Cena) they'd lose. We'd be told how dominant they are but they'd rarely get to show it when it counted.
Still an impressive singles match between Nexus leader Barrett and WWEs saviour Cena at HIAC saw an improvement with McGillicutty and Harris from NXT 2 joining the group and of course a hit and miss angle where Cena had to join them.
He never actually even remotely acted in a heelish way of course, and was latterly "fired" whilst not missing a single episode of Raw and was re hired within a matter of weeks ready to to completely dominate Wade Barrett in a match given preference over both the WWE and World Heavyweight Title matches at the TLC PPV.
There is strong potential for WWE to recover themselves and to re-assert a convincing dominance by Nexus with them now being led by CM Punk so I'll be watching in hope of consistency.
Superstar Of The Year - Randy Orton
A tough one to call to a certain degree as in terms of a push WWE have given a hell of a lot to The Miz this year. Aside from some decent promo work and heat generating though he has quite a way to go yet in terms of his in ring work to convince me personally. Sheamus as I mentioned previously has been steadily impressive this year and has the storylined scalp of being "the man who retired HHH" as well as becoming the latest King Of The Ring.
It is Randy Orton though who is a bonafide main eventer and whom has received a strong and steady push almost as an alternative face of the company for those who aren't keen on Cena. For all of Cenas pandering to the young fans of the "WWE Universe", Orton is that guy who's a bit on the edge. He's there to be the top guy and, whilst he's a face, if you are in his way or piss him off then he'll take you out.
An honourable mention also for Kane whom did a great job with his promos in the angle against The Undertaker although unfourtunately the matches didn't quite live up to the build and the feud was cut short due to Taker receiving yet another injury.
Misused Talent Of The Year - The Tag Team Division
Wow! Just simply wow! WWEs attitude to tag team wrestling this year has been absolutely shocking. Starting out the year with the mis matched Miz and Big Show carrying the Undisputed Tag Belts whilst the only actual tag team of note was The Hart Dynasty. Michaels and HHH split up to build for Wrestlemania and the SES were never really used towards the gold.
Enter in some more mis matched/mis used pairings including, Miz and Jericho, Mark Henry & Evan Bourne, Vance Archer and Kurt Hawkins whilst splitting up those teams that actually worked like The Hart Dynasty, The Dudebusters and Cryme Tyme.
The tag titles are currently held by the mis matched pairing of Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov whilst the only actual tag team left on the roster is The Usos who's seemingly former manager Tamina is receiving more of a push than they are.
There is hope at least, although slight that the Tamina/Santino angle is a work to get The Usos a title shot and perhaps Gabriel/Slater will be used as a solid tag team for a while but it really is clutching at straws stuff.
I couldn't do a misused talent "award" without mentioning of course, Chavo Guererro whom I can only assume has a cushy job behind the scenes as an agent or something waiting for him once he retires as his treatment on air is absolutely abysmal.
Match Of The Year - The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels @ Wrestlemania 26
An easy one to predict really. Two of the industry's top performers of the last couple of decades in a rematch from the 2009 match of the year at the biggest show of the year. If for whatever reason you haven't seen it yet then I won't spoil it for you but needless to say it's well worth getting your arse into gear and watching not only this match but the previous encounter at Wrestlemania 25 as well.
It does say a lot about the overall quality of WWEs product that no matches compared to that one and due to a steady improvement throughout the year it wasn't until August and then October before any other genuine candidates even happened.
7on7 Nexus vs WWE @ Summerslam, Cena vs Barrett at HIAC,
Ziggler vs Kingston on Smackdown in November, Ziggler vs Bryan at Bragging Rights, Morrison vs Sheamus @ TLC, Sheamus vs Orton @ Summerslam
Swagger vs Kingston on Smackdown in early December.
Are my other highlights from the year in WWE.
All in all whilst the WWE is still obviously the much bigger company and it does produce at times the following year overall has been enjoyable yet frustrating. Hit and miss to say the least.
If you must compare it to TNA then as far as weekly shows go WWE is vastly superior, a stronger viewing figure, brand name and more enjoyable weekly shows make it firmly in the drivers seat.
When it comes down to PPVs however there's a quite a bit of work that needs to be done. For whatever reason, be it having way too many, competing against UFC, TNA and other big events during the viewing times a lot of WWEs PPVs are said to have not sold as hoped/expected and for the most part this year in terms of quality match ups and wrestling on PPV that is the one area where WWE are actually behind TNA. I for one would argue that a companies PPV events should be their strongest point and that certainly isn't the case for WWE atm.
It's not helped when your owner comes out publicly in the media to claim that his product is not a wrestling show. It's in the business of entertainment instead of 'rasslin'.
Still there is a lot of reasons to be optimistic for 2011.
Ok Cenas predictably gonna be in the main event at Wrestlemania and will probably leave there the WWE champion again, Undertaker is struggling to be fit in time for 'Mania and the tag division needs some serious work to it but it can all be sorted out with some common sense and getting back to focussing on an entertaining WRESTLING spectacle.
The youth kick from 2010 has brought up a lot of talent whom should shine in 2011. The likes of Alberto Del Rio, Daniel Bryan, John Morrison, Evan Bourne, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston, Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus, Cody Rhodes etc etc.
The womans division is showing potential, much like TNAs to be vastly improved in 2011.
Melina, Gail Kim, Natalya, Beth Phoenix and Awesome Kong can all put on solid womens matches, Eve Torres seems to be ever improving and even Layla has vastly improved throughout 2010. If they drop the irritating LayCool shit and aren't used at the top of the division then her and Michelle McCool should also be good assets to the division.
With a bit of luck Chris Jericho will return to the company, Christian will get properly pushed when he returns from injury, Edge will be kept in the main event scene and Drew McIntyre will find that extra something to move him onto the next level also.
Undertaker can still go brilliantly if he can avoid injuries, Mysterio will hopefully stay injury free, Orton continues in similar vein to 2010 and CM Punk becoming Raws top heel should make for a great 2011.
Here's hoping :)
