The Shimmy 07.13.09: SAVE_US.NOC

Over the past week one of the more talked about wrestling stories has been the recent injury of Unified WWE Tag Team Champion Edge. Overall this shouldn’t be seen as that surprising as Edge is clearly one of the hardest working wrestlers going today and this is the latest in a laundry list of injuries for him, but this is still a big blow to SmackDown, and possibly the rest of World Wrestling Entertainment. By the very nature of the Unified Tag Team Champions being allowed to wrestle on all three brands there seemed to be a definite possibility of Edge and Chris Jericho trickling down the awesomeness that they have been providing on SmackDown for the last few months. The team rumored to go by the name Team Ego had the skill to hang with the talented midcard tag team acts like The Colons and also the star power to match up with big name tag team acts, like possibly DX. There were even rumors that their union was set up in order to start a slow burn on an Edge face turn, and really if you needed a heel for an established heel to break away from Jericho would probably be your best bet.

Aside from the general headache of losing one of your top, and best, wrestlers for an extended period of time WWE is in another bind insomuch as they had already booked Jericho & Edge to defend their titles against Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes at Night of Champions. While normally you could just take the belts off of them before the PPV the fact that so many other matches have either been finalized or indicated severely decreases the number of appealing solutions. You also have the “no title matches until Night of Champions” decree to consider, although it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve ignored their own rules. In fact we saw Jericho challenge Rey Mysterio for the Intercontinental Title on SmackDown last week, although I suppose they could frame that as Jericho’s guaranteed rematch and not just an arbitrarily booked title bout.

The first option they could have is to just strip the titles off of Jericho & Edge and either award them to No. 1 Contender’s DiBiase & Rhodes, or schedule some sort of match for the vacant titles at Night of Champions. Edge has already had his surgery to repair his torn Achilles so there is no chance of him trying to work a match, if only to stand on the apron. A multi-team match might seem best for this sort of title vacancy, but with the recent breakups of The Colons and HornDust there are not many active tag teams left. DiBiase & Rhodes, Cryme Tyme, and the Hart Dynasty are the only regular tag teams that they could include, and given that many wrestlers have already been booked in other title matches it is doubtful that some makeshift teams (Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne, Jeff Hardy & Rey Mysterio, Tommy Dreamer & Christian) would actually work. I suppose you could look at the William Regal & Vladimir Kozlov team that worked pretty well of ECW a few weeks ago, or even the possibility of a Hornswoggle & Festus alliance but those combinations do not have quite the same appeal a match involved Jericho & Edge would have had.

Now there is one double booking possibility that I could see happening, especially if DiBiase & Rhodes somehow end up with the titles before the PPV. I had thought all along that John Cena & Triple H would be the perfect team to challenge Edge & Jericho at this PPV anyhow, allowing Randy Orton the opportunity to face someone new for the title and raising the Unified Tag Titles up a bit, if only for a month. The match might have even made a strong case to be the main event of the show as they could have booked it as a dream tag team match. Given Triple H’s and Cena’s issues with Randy Orton, facing off with Orton’s lackeys on the undercard of the show where they challenge for his title might make sense. It wouldn’t be an unprecedented scenario either, because five years ago at the Bad Blood PPV Chris Benoit fought in a World Tag Team Title Match early in the evening and then went on to defend the World Heavyweight Title later on. Given the thinning main event scene though (Edge, Undertaker, and Batista out with injuries; Shawn Michaels’ sabbatical; the release of Mr. Kennedy and Umaga; the impending departure of Jeff Hardy and possibly Rey Mysterio) I’m not entirely sure WWE would want to risk having their two biggest stars competing twice in one night. They did do it just a few weeks ago on the 3-for-All show, but Edge’s injury may have put things in a bit of perspective. I suppose a secondary option for DiBiase & Rhodes could be for them to defend the titles against MVP & Mark Henry, two men that have gone up against Legacy.

Probably the most thought about scenario would be that Jericho finds himself a replacement partner. Whether it be for the long haul or just until they can get the titles onto someone else the discussion of who could be Jericho’s partner is an interesting one. Here are a few options:

Dolph Ziggler

After watching SmackDown it is apparent that Ziggler attacked Rey Mysterio not necessarily to form and alliance with Team Ego but to declare himself the next challenger for Mysterio’s Intercontinental Title and set him up for a title match at Night of Champions. Still, of all the options his replacement as Jericho’s partner might make the most sense, especially over the long term. This would be a tremendous rub for a guy that is clearly a superstar on the rise and working with Jericho can be nothing but good for his career. Ziggler’s character fits in well with the whole Team Ego philosophy and I wouldn’t have been surprised to see him play a similar, if more successful, role to that of Kenny Dykstra with Rated RKO.

The finish to SmackDown show was actually pretty clever (albeit unintentionally) in that Ziggler was almost endorsed by Edge onscreen as Edge offered Ziggler to get his shots in on Rey Mysterio after the Team Ego beatdown. Many times in a situation like that the Ziggler-type would just stand there and watch as the two bigger stars did the damage and possibly even be spurned by his fellow heels. Here Edge was OK sharing the spotlight with the young guy and Ziggler took advantage. From a ringwork standpoint Ziggler already has a bit of experience as Jericho’s partner as he teamed with Jericho in a good match against Jeff Hardy & R-Truth on Superstars a few weeks ago.

The only drawback of using Ziggler is that now they would need to find a replacement for Mysterio to face for the IC Title. A face vs. face match with John Morrison could work I suppose. I would not be at all disappointed if somehow Legacy lost their title opportunity and they worked out some sort of double title defense deal with Jericho & Ziggler vs. Mysterio & Morrison at Night of Champions.

Christian

Ah yes, everybody’s favorite suggestion. The idea of getting Christian involved with either Edge or Jericho is quickly becoming the most frequent, and often irritating, internet opinion, right behind “Let’s put all the black wrestlers together to form a new Nation of Domination!” Truth be told a Jericho & Christian alliance would be interesting and no doubt provide some great matches but there are a few obstacles that they would need to get by in order for this to happen.

1) Christian is a face.
2) Christian is on ECW.
3) Christian is already booked in a match.

While none of these is completely insurmountable it’s a bit of a stretch to think that it would happen. ECW has already lost its fair share of talent thanks to the recent 15-person trade, and losing Christian would be a major blow. The fact that Christian is booked in an ECW Title Match indicates that they have no plans on having him leave the Tuesday night show; had Vladimir Kozlov won on Tuesday I may give this possibility more of a chance. If Christian did leave ECW it would need to be in a trade for another face (R-Truth perhaps? Or maybe Finlay gets shipped back) and it would likely need to be done after his title match. Since the Unified Tag Team Titles can be defended on all three brands I guess they could say Interpromotional tag team are acceptable, but that would be making up the rules as they go along. I suppose by having Christian lose to Tommy Dreamer in the title match they could use that edge him (no pun intended) to the heel direction so his pairing with Jericho wouldn’t be entirely random.

All in all while I do think there could be many good things to come out of a Jericho/Christian pairing I think that there are a few negative things as well (a big blow to ECW, turning Christian when he is actually finding success as a face) that would likely prevent this from occurring.

Kane

I’m not particularly fond of this idea as he and Jericho just wouldn’t look quite right as Tag Team Champions, but Kane is one of the top heels on SmackDown at this point so I could see them filling him in. This idea made more sense when I heard the reports that WWE was looking to blame Edge’s injury of The Great Khali (I don’t remember them facing off on TV recently but I could be wrong) and since Kane is Khali’s current nemesis it could have worked. Since WWE decided not to go that route I doubt we’d see an alliance between the two, but depending on how desperate WWE is come Night of Champions I suppose it could happen.

Rey Mysterio

I had seen this idea floating around with the concept of having a tournament to determine Jericho’s new partner and Rey winning it. It would certainly be an interesting spin on the whole “Tag Team Partners That Hate Each Other” gimmick and even with them feuding as partners I’d bet they could put on some hellacious matches. Again Rey’s Intercontinental Title would be a problem unless they also put it on the line in the match (likely against Raw competitors no less) or just have Mysterio, who tends to be quite injury prone as well, wrestle twice in one night. The concept is an interesting one no doubt, but not as likely one.

The Miz

Like Christian being on another brand would hurt this possibility, but they could use the titles to bend the rules if they wanted to. Much like Ziggler, The Miz would fit in nicely with the Team Ego mentality, but I’d see him probably be treated as more of a Kenny Dykstra than a Dolph Ziggler. Jericho and Miz have recently gotten in a Tweeting war, trading barbs back and forth in their Twitter messages. If they teamed together the dynamic could be very similar to the early days of the Miz & Morrison tag team. A run as a champion could also help build The Miz up some credibility after the conclusion of his feud with John Cena. Unfortunately I don’t think it would do either The Miz or Dolph Ziggler any good by having them hang around too close together considering they could lessen each other’s “arrogant young heel” heat.

So those are the most likely in house tag team partners for Jericho to choose from. I still have one more name in mind that I would personally like to see get the call, as unlikely as it would certainly be.

Lance Storm

This pick works on a number of levels.

1) Storm is already getting in good ring shape for his two Ring of Honor matches scheduled for the Friday and Saturday before Night of Champions in Toronto. Storm has said that he has no desire to return to the full time road schedule so this would definitely be the infamous “one shot deal” but it could be a nice capper for a big weekend.

2) You’ve got to believe that Jericho and Storm would both enjoy having at least one night as Tag Team Champions on a big stage. Jericho & Storm were critical hits as Sudden Impact and the Thrillseekers early in their careers in Japan and Smoky Mountain Wrestling but never had the opportunity to team on the national scene. In early 2002 Lance Storm & Christian served as Jericho’s lackeys as he was WWE Champion and later that year Jericho had a loose relationship with the UnAmericans which seemingly ended once William Regal broke the group’s Canadian exclusivity. They faced each other at the inaugural One Night Stand with their past mentioned on commentary, but that is as there relationship was every really taken on WWE television. Considering the freedom that WWE has allowed Jericho to have with his recent programs you would think they might be open to the idea if Jericho broached it with them.

3) Storm is not a huge star. Lance Storm is a great wrestler and a personal favorite of mine, but as far as mystery tag team partners go he’s no Hulk Hogan. This is actually good because assuming WWE would want to keep Jericho heel for the match (something I’m not entirely sure about if he does indeed face Legacy) they would not want a larger than life presence turning the crowd to Jericho’s side. Now you may be saying, “Yeah, but if he’s not a big star why would people care?” Well, that brings me to my next point.

4) The PPV is in Philadelphia. Admittedly, due to Storm’s star power and the younger WWE audience his return could potentially be met with apathy in many other markets (I remember Tommy Dreamer trying to get sympathy in California when Mick Foley turned on him in 2006). The fact that Night of Champions is taking place in the home of ECW, and a traditionally smarky city anyway, all but guarantees that there will at least be enough people that recognize and appreciate Storm so that he actually gets good crowd heat. I wouldn’t expect it to overrun the match (as I mentioned in No. 3) but it would be enough to perk the crowd up.

Storm could take the pin and Jericho could turn on him after the match, getting his heat back and writing Storm right back out. This isn’t a shaping the business type move but it could be a fun treat with a great match to boot.

So would I expect this to happen? No. But would I mark out like a little girl if it did? Certainly. Overall if I had to put money on it I’d say Dolph Ziggler gets the call and we get Mysterio vs. Morrison for the IC Title. I suppose things will become clearer over the next couple of days. I hope WWE decides to go with an interesting route here, and most importantly I hope Edge has a safe and speedy recovery.

The Shimmy Likes it Raw!

What’s on tap for tonight’s show?

Seth Green, of Robot Chicken and Family Guy fame (as well as one of my favorite teen movies “Can’t Hardly Wait”) is our special guest host for Raw. What kind of wacky and zany matches will he put together? Can we expect an Eric Murphy run in during the main event?

If that gets boring the Home Run Derby is also on. The All-Star break is normally when I start caring about baseball (as much as I can care for baseball anyhow) and the Home Run Derby is always fun, so hopefully Mr. Green books something good otherwise my eyes may be on ESPN.

And with that I’m out of here. See you all next week. Until then, don’t die. Clark…out.