Can They Be Champ? 6.19.07: The WWE Championship Match at Vengeance
Posted by Mike Minotti on 06.19.2007
We have four men challenging Cena for his title at Vengeance. Who has a chance of one day holding some of Cena's championship bling? Come inside, and I shall share my wisdom with ye.
Crazy week, wouldn't you say? Angle has become the first TNA World Heavyweight Champion, we had a supplement draft on Sunday that could probably only be described as bizarre (I mean… Sandman to Raw?), and all of the madness surrounding Vince's "death".
And now we have begun the week that will lead to Vengeance, so I'm sure the craziness will continue. As I'm sure you're aware, the WWE has been billing this PPV as "the night of champions", where every title from all three brands will be on the line. Most interesting, however, is the match they have planned for the WWE Championship. Every person on Raw who was a previous world champion is eligible to challenge Cena for his title, and almost every eligible person has. The result is a match with some mismatched competition. We have everything from a hardcore legend to self-proclaimed royalty, and the whole lot of them will be coming after Cena's title.
So, who has a shot at winning? Who doesn't have a prayer in hell come Vengeance, but may get the title somewhere done the road? Can they overcome the odds? Can they dream the impossible dream? Can they…
Wait for it…
Alright, so we got five men in the match. That's four challengers. Let's run down the list.
Can King Booker be champ… again?
Getting drafted to Raw can be seen as a big vote of confidence for the king. And why shouldn't they be confident in him? Booker was able to turn from mid-card heel that the audience seemed to barely care about into a main-event player. He was given a gimmick that some would have felt beneath them, and made it work like magic. It worked so well that Booker finally became a six time (six time, six time, six time, six time, six time) world champion a little less than a year ago.
And now the king is on his way to the A-show. What does the WWE have in store for him? Well, I have a guess.
Jobber to the stars.
Hate it all you will, but I doubt King Booker would be allowed to be a world champion on Raw. The draft gave Raw two rising stars in Lashley and Mr. Kennedy, who both will need turns at the WWE title sooner or later to get further established. Let's not forget the soon to be returning HHH, who will be red freaking hot upon his return. The WWE will likely want to capitalize by giving him his 11th world title.
Simply put, there just isn't any time for King Booker to be champion. But he's a well established heel, so the WWE is going to use that to their advantage. I predict Lashley will beat Booker about a dozen times in an assortment of matches in the next few months. Sure, he'll get wins now and again to keep his threat level up, but he's been sent to Raw to make others' careers as his own begins to enter the twilight.
So, can King Booker be champ… again?
As John Cena said so fiercely in the opening of The Marine, "NO TIME!". Raw is home to future super stars who Booker will help make it to the title. As for himself… well, being a six time world champion was impressive enough.
Can Randy Orton be champ… again?
Randy, Randy, Randy… you won a world title in 2004. Almost three years ago. When is number two coming?
Well, probably not anytime soon. Randy has proven to be unstable in the past. The WWE doesn't want to have another Rob Van Dam situation on their hands (having to strip a current champion of his title… or titles… due to a suspension). Now, it does look like he's getting pushed now, but word is that he'll be feuding with HHH on his return. They've simply been building him up so that Trips can have a strong opponent to destroy.
Besides, once again, the WWE is more likely to push its newest main eventers to the title. I can't imagine they would give a title to Orton over one of the newer guys. Though they may need a heel to transition the belt. Raw is a little short on heels at the moment, especially if Mr. Kennedy comes back as a face.
So, can he be champ… again?
Unless they need him to move the belt from one face to another, it's not happening any time soon.
Can Mick Foley be champ… again?
Foley isn't a full time wrestler. That alone hurts his odds. Still, that hasn't stopped him from coming back for extended periods of time. He was practically apart of the roster for most of 2006.
Still, winning the belt would be pretty demanding on Foley. He would have to be the face of the company, and I don't really think he wants that responsibility anymore.
Besides, looking back on his 2006 comeback… he didn't win many matches. I mean… I don't think he won a single one. Wrestlemania? Nope. One Night Stand. Nah-ah. Vengaence and Summerslam? No and no. I think Foley is plenty content putting other people over these days.
So, can Foley be champ… again?
Maybe some day he'll get the belt one more time as a going away present. Of course, that would require Foley to retire… again.
Can Bobby Lashley be champ… again?
Well, he was champ up until last week. But being the ECW Champion is a bit different from being the WWE Champion. The ECW title is pretty much a glorified Intercontinental belt these days in that it's used to push stars rather than use stars to draw ratings.
Lashley has been pushed pretty hard for awhile now. He was in a huge feud with Vince, in which he pretty much got to walk all over him, Shane, and Umaga. Plus, the fans seem to be into him. No doubt the WWE is going to want to further elevate him, and that means that the WWE championship is probably going to be heading his way.
But will it be at Vengeance? It may be, but I imagine they'll want to spend some more time establishing him on Raw. Have him beat guys like Booker and Orton for awhile first.
A lot of it depends on how the WWE still feels about Cena. Is he still the guy to carry the company? If their answer is yes, then they'll be hesitant to have him drop his title cleanly to another face. I'm not going to pretend to know how the WWE feels about Cena. I can only say that they've spent a lot of effort building him to the place he has now, most notably having him cleanly beat HHH and HBK at Wrestlemania main events.
So, can he be champ… again?
It'll happen. When? I'm not sure. Probably not this Sunday, but it could be as early as Summerslam.
Remember when everyone cried about Cena being to green to be champion? They ain't seen nothing yet.
I got a lot of mail about the draft, so let's get to it.
Well, the draft was really dull, huh? Really, only Lashley, Kennedy, and Beniot mattered.
Lashley is a good pick for RAW. IC title legitamy, right here. Still needs a mouthpiece.
I like Beniot in ECW. With Lashley and RVD gone, Beniot is pretty much a lock for our next ECW champion. He has the potential to have great matche with CM Punk and Elijah Burke, and can make them legitimate stars. Oh, and now ECW matters to casual fans.
Kennedy on Raw. Hmmm...on one hand, he deserves to be on the "A" show and get the exposure, and will be a good upper midcarder (IC Champ that we care about) and future WWE Champ. But, the missed the boat for Kennedy vs. Edge. Of course, since Edge is losing the title at Vengeance, it doesn't really matter.
-Aaron Hubbard
I don't know if I would call the draft "dull". Benoit, Kennedy, Booker, and Lashley were all pretty big deals. Of course, crap drafts like Boogeyman and Snitsky sort of diluted the whole thing. A lot of the supplemental draft stuff was more important those picks, and should have done on TV. I mean, London and Kendrick going to Raw is huge for the Raw tag team division. Sandman leaving ECW is so crazy that would have surprised people. And remember when Nitro used to be a big deal? Now he just gets drafted to ECW with little to no fanfare. God, they really messed that one up.
Benoit will be good for ECW, but having him as the only real established main eventer on the show further cements its status as the C-show. Still, if it means that Benoit can be a world champion again, I think I'm for it.
Knowing the less strict nature of the brand extension these day, Kennedy vs. Edge can still happen. The Hardys were tag team champions while on different shows. There's no reason why Kennedy couldn't pull double duty for a little bit as well.
As for Edge losing his title at Vengeance… we'll see. I still think it would be silly to of brought Edge to win the belt over Batista only to have him drop the belt to the big guy.
u left out matt hardy. hes been clamoring for an edge program as of late, and his matches against mvp, kennedy and finlay have all been solid. hes as over as ever, and its a built in feud, and its not overkill seeing as edge recently came to SD, and hes rid of lita. i say now or sumtime soon is the time for a matt hardy run at the belt. hes a company man, solid and reliable, may not have all on the mic, but hes earned where he is today. if u let those two go at it, they could put on a hell of a match. they r both professionals.
-Sean OBrien
I think with just a bit more good booking, Matt can be a world title contender. But he's not there right now. Maybe by fall if they continue booking him well.
But I don't think he's one right now, and that's why he wasn't on the "list". But when he does make it, a feud versus Edge makes all the sense in the world.
I totally agreed about Smackdown getting a raw deal (heh) initally, but then
I looked at it from a different perspective.
If not for Taker and Michaels getting put on the shelf recently, I think
Orton would be on the Smackdown roster as we speak. The Undertaker would of
course still be champion while the returning Triple H would likely feud with
Michaels, meaning that for the draft Raw could send Orton to Smackdown for
his delayed "demotion" where he'd never get near the title.
This is all speculation but when you consider Smackdown possibly got Edge
instead of the "man of a thousand restholds", they made out fairly well.
Ron M
I don't think they were planning on moving Orton, since they most likely want him to feud with HHH on his return. I don't think the WWE is ready to turn HHH or Michaels heel, so a program between those two men is probably a bit longer off.
But I definitely agree that Smackdown is better off with Edge than they would have been with Orton.
The supplementary draft is on later today so I've given it a fair bit of thought. Having considered thing, I really hope Michaels goes to smackdown. Its unlikely, but since raw has so many new top-tier superstars, some of them are going to have to drop to the upper mid-card. I'm ok with that since it'll freshen up raw, so I think removing one main-events, and some mid-carders would do the job to balance things out. By moving michaels out, it frees some space up on raw, and moving him to smackdown would provide some good feds when he comes back that haven't been done (michaels batista, michaels-taker later in the yeat, one more time. hell even michaels-rey). Sure, michaels isn't back til later, but I don't think smackdown is in the trouble some think. Feuds with Flair, Hardy and a returning Rey would hold smackdown over til michaels has recovered, then setting up a great feud til taker is back, then they could do what they want.
In addition to moving Shawn, I think Carlito should go to ECW, unless they actually want to push him on raw or smackdown, now he's gone heel. Then I'd say move Jeff hardy to smackdown or probably better ecw, and Raw has been free'd up to enjoy its new stars, while some guys would could become very successful but will never break through the glut on raw have their chance.
My other lingering thought is to move Rey to ECW. If Michaels went to smackdown, and WWE had faith in a Flair feud or a Hady feud against edge, I think Rey could add alot of star power to ecw, bring some of the latino viewership, and well, he's extreme in his high-flying ways. Rey-benoit, Rey-punk, Rey-Burke anyone? Even Cor Von, it would make him look £100 bucks slamming Rey around. My only worry about that is Smackdown's Summerslam main event. Since Michaels and Taker are gone for awhile, Smackdown is looking at an Edge-Flair maint event, or a Edge-Matt main event. I'd buy those, but I'm not sure the general public would. Probably the Flair match if Raw had a strong main event too, but Hardy would definetely need to be built up for awhile.
Well, those are my hopes, and I think it would benefit smackdown alot to have michaels alot. Personally, if I had control, I'd widen the gap between brands by moving the cruiserweight title and all the cruiserweights to ECW, unify the tag belts and move the tag teams to Smackdown, and mvoe the women to raw and build a real division. Then we'd have Raw - three belts, with the women exclusively on their show (keeps up that whole image the main public have of raw - T&A), three belts on smackdown, with the tagteams being built up and providing quality wrestling on smackdown ,which is thought to be their niche,and two beltas on ecw - since they only have one hour. Adding the cruiserweights means less guys than the tagteams would mean to fit in the hour, and again- cruiserweights? extreme!
Oh well. None of this is likely to happen, but thats what i'd love to happen, benefitting smackdown AND the all the shows.
-Jamie Fisher
Your draft picks would have helped make the three brands more balanced, but it looks like the WWE is mostly interested in bloating Raw with as much top talent as possible, while leaving the other shows with just enough talent to get by.
In a more perfect world, a lot of your picks would have been great. Instead, we have Deuce and Domino vs. The Major Brothers to look forward to.
Yay.
Wow, good week for mail. I really appreciate everything you guys send me, so please keep it up. I have yet to not feature a received e-mail on the column, so if you're looking for your five seconds of fame, you've found it.
Have a good week, everyone. Enjoy the PPV, enjoy the summer, and get ready to someday enjoy Bobby Lashley as the WWE Champion.
