Can They Be Champ? 5.01.07: Those New Breed Fellas
Posted by Mike Minotti on 05.01.2007
Four men, four futures. Who will be champ, and who will be stuck as a teacher and a vampire for the rest of their wrestling careers? Wait, I think I just gave it away...
As I'm writing this, Backlash is a mere three hours away (it will probably already be history by the time you're reading this). WWE PVPs are always a time I look forward to. Even if the actual PPV sucks, I know it's time I'll be able to hang out with my friends, eat some pizza, and watch my buddies perform unsafe wrestling moves on each other in my basement. Of course, the night also usually includes me spending thirty minutes on the phone with my cable provider trying to get the damn PPV to work. I'm pretty confident there won't be any problems this time.
Unfortunately, I couldn't convince those same friends to come watch a TNA PPV, so I usually watch those with just one other person, if at all. Spending $40 to spend a fun night with my friends is easily justifiable. It's a bit harder to justify when I'm just buying three hours of wrestling for myself.
But I suppose I better get to business before everyone gets here. This week, I'm going to be looking at the four members of the New Breed. All of these guys are pretty new to the WWE, so looking into their world championship futures will be a bit more… hazy than usual. But non-the-less, I shall dare to look into the depths of their souls, and once again answer…
Can Matt Striker be champ?
Unless I'm mistaken, Striker has actually been in the WWE longer than any of the other New Breed members. Unfortunately, he hasn't really shown much potential in that extra time.
Matt Striker is just one of those heels. You know, that kind that mocks the other wrestlers and fans, cheats to win, and does all of those other great heel things… with absolutely zero motivation. Well, I guess their's more to his gimmick than that. He's a teacher. But wait, he's a wrestler? Alright, I'm sure we all heard about how Striker was a teacher who lost his job because he was using his sick days to wrestle. And when the story was making national headlines, WWE took advantage by giving Striker a teacher gimmick. Which was a smart move at the time. But two years later? Come on, he's in ECW and a member of one its most prominent stables (out of all two of them). Do they really think the teacher gimmick is working?
As far as his wrestling skills, he's competent at best. Is he capable of putting on a four star match? I doubt it. A three star match? Well, I'd like to see him try. God knows when that will be.
So, will he be champ.
His gimmick is… dumb. I think it was Shawn Michaels who wrote how much he hates gimmicks that are jobs. You know, like dentist, farmer, or… teacher. The only difference is that this is 2007, not the mid 90's.
So no. He won't be champ.
Can Marcus Cor Von be champ?
Most of us know that Cor Von has some good ring skills from his earlier TNA work, but will he thrive in the WWE? Well, it's kind of hard to say right now. He's spent the majority of his time in the WWE as a member of the New Breed. He didn't get a whole lot of time to shine as a singles competitor. But he has shown a lot of promise in the shot time he's had (I love that pounce move he does).
So we know he's good, and given time, I'm sure he's going to be able to show more of what he can do. It's just a matter of when the WWE plans to push him. Oh, and did you see the poster for this years One Night Stand?
Looks like Lashley, right? But watch what happens when you take the two halfs of the poster and mirror the images:
Yep, half of that face appears to be Lashley, but the other half looks a lot like Marcus Cor Von. Maybe he'll be pushed to the title picture sooner rather than later.
So, will he be champ?
It looks like he may be challenging for the belt in the near future if that poster is to be believed. Of course, doing so probably isn't all that wise. Still, Cor Von is new to the WWE, but his potential is huge. I wouldn't be too surprised if he became ECW Champion someday.
Can Kevin Thorne be champ?
My initial inclination was to crap all over Kevin Thorne, but I have to give the guy some respect. He's one of the few people to debut in the early days of the new ECW to still be around. Others like Test, Mike Knox, and the Zombie (ok, maybe he doesn't count) are gone, but Thorne, despite his stupid gimmick, is still hanging on.
Still, a person needs more than staying power to be a world champion. Thorne may be a good addition to a heel stable, but by himself he just looks lost. Remember any of his pre-New Breed feuds? No? That's because they all lasted about two weeks at most. Why? Because they never made any sense. I mean, what motivation can a guy pretending to be a vampire really have? Unless they're willing to go all out and have him fighting other wrestlers for his blood.
So, will he be champ?
Nah. I mean… come on. Must I explain myself further?
Can Elijah Burke be champ?
Remember when Burke was a lowly escort for that Sylvester Terkay guy? It's hard to believe how far he's come in ECW. He's really playing the part of leader well, and has had some good matches in ECW (versus RVD comes to mind). He also has a good in-ring persona. Sure, he's no Rock. Heck, he's not even an Edge. But at least he comes off as genuine. How many wrestlers always talk in that "promo" voice? You know what I'm talking about. Anyone who can escape that and speak a coherent sentence has pretty good mic skills in my book.
Anyways, back to Burke. I think he definitely has a future in ECW. The New Breed versus the Originals angle has really helped him push his character to a near main event level pretty quickly. Hopefully the feud will continue; either with the Originals or with C.M. Punk. I'd actually really like to see a Punk/Burke feud. I think the two may have great chemistry. Perhaps they could help push each other to the title scene.
So, can he be champ?
I think it can happen. They just need to keep pushing his character with some good feuds, and he'll be a believable title contender by summer.
So, that's two no's and two maybes. Maybe there's a future for this new ECW after all. If they can resist to move everyone who gets over to Raw or Smackdown, that is. My prediction; they don't.
Anyways, let's get to the mail, all of which concerns last weeks Can They Be Champ? You know, the one where I tried to predict who the next world champs were going to be (and failed to mention Vince McMahon, who is now the ECW World Champion. D'oh!).
Hey Mike, great article! I have to agree with pretty much all your picks. I'd really love to see you do an article in the future about who you see being the next U.S., I.C., and X-Division Champs. Maybe wait until after MVP gets the U.S. belt cause we all know its just a matter of time before they finally give it to him.
Keep up the great work!
~Blake
Thanks, Blake. I probably will be doing such a column in the future. Of course, it's harder to predict who's going to win those belts, since you generally have a much larger pool of potential champions. Those belts are also subjected to some whacky booking sometime. I mean, who would have called the whole Santino Marella thing before it happened?
But fear not, I'll tackle it regardless and maybe even before MVP wins it. Though I do agree it is just a matter of time before he eventually holds the US Title, I kind of thought it would have happened by now. Can they really justify giving MVP another title shot against Benoit so soon? Well… I guess they could. It'll just probably be dumb.
This next one is from Joe, who felt that I failed to mention a particular contender for the World Heavyweight Championship.
"Those really do seem like the only logical choices. King Booker is injured, Kane hasn't been a serious title contender for a while, same with Benoit, Finlay usually puts other people over, MVP is still too new… I think that about covers it."-Mike Minotti
"Everyone seems to have forgotten about Mark Henry."-Mark Henry
First off, I have to say I'm impressed at how you were able to communicate with me just by using quotes. Ever watch Star Trek: The Next Generation? Darmak and Jelan at Tenagra? Have no idea what I'm talking about? Ok, ignore that.
Anyways, I admit, I forgot about Mark Henry. But if he gets pushed upon his return like he did before he was injured, he is a possible contender for the belt. I'll call him the dark horse of the Smackdown lot. Big guys usually get that distinction.
Well, that's it from me. I just watched Raw, and I'm kind of raging mad about Khali getting pushed to the title scene. I'm tempted to devoting my entire next column to "why the Great Khali should never be champ". Of course, if you really want me to do that, just let me know. Just a little encouragement and I'm very likely to.
