Now, before we get started, I’ll just keep you up to date on what’s been happening with SmashWrestling - the site’s been down for about a week due to a problem with some techie thing called DNS servers - I’m not even going to pretend to understand it, but I do know that for once, it wasn’t our fault! As I write this, it seems to be fixed, so fingers crossed, we’re stable again.
Anyway, on to the meat of this week’s column, and what a horrible week it’s been for the WWE - injuries to Randy Orton, Batista, and Bubba Ray are bad enough, but the crowning moment has to be the news that Kurt Angle has a neck injury, and as such, is not only out for a year, but will miss WrestleMania also.
That’s a huge blow, not just for the Kurt himself, but for the WWE too. Angle was just getting into his stride as the most legitimate heel in a long long time, and you get the feeling that the Angle vs. Lesnar match at WrestleMania would have been something incredible.
But, alas, it’s not to be, and so the search for a replacement competitor for Brock (and probably the WWE Championship too) has begun. Seeing as every man and his dog has an opinion on who should be slotted in, I figured I’d take a look at the likely suspects for the Smackdown main event at “The Showcase Of The Immortals” and for what it’s worth, add in my thoughts.
Chris Benoit seems to be the obvious choice, but how should he be aligned? With just a few exceptions, face vs. face matches rarely capture the imagination like a heel vs. heel match. Benoit’s ring work is exceptional, and with Angle now gone, Benoit is the premier in-ring talent in the WWE - something that will not be lost on the powers that be.
A Benoit vs. Lesnar match hasn’t been seen before, as far as I can remember, certainly not on the scale that a WrestleMania main event usually brings out of people, and the two have the capabilities to pull off a classic match in the ring, but can they pull the crowd into a face vs. face match on their own? Neither man is exactly charisma personified.
Much as I’d love Benoit to take to the WrestleMania main event he so richly deserves as a face, the only way I can see this match being a rip-roaring success would be with Benoit as a heel. Benoit is over as a face right now, but a heel turn would be deceptively easy in my ever so humble opinion...
The Benoit / Angle matches were built up and bookended by a series of promos from Benoit about how much the WWE title meant to him, and how the chase for the belt had cost him the chance of a settled family life. All that needs to be done is another promo from Benoit about how he came so close to the title and he was denied by Kurt Angle, and it hurt him more than anything else, so he was forced to turn to the one man that could make his dream come true... Paul Heyman.
Pairing ANYONE with Paul Heyman means instant heeldom, and having Heyman at ringside would give the crowd something to focus their hatred on, as well as furthering the Heyman / Lesnar angle that’s been built up over the past year. Not an ideal solution, but one that would get the job done, and lend some extra heat to the match.
Looking further down the card, and presuming the creative team would be willing to run with two “first year” rookies in the main event, John Cena is as over as any heel on Smackdown right now, and has a ready made reason to go after Lesnar. He has the ring skills to hang with Lesnar, as his matches with Jericho and Angle have shown, but the biggest factor against him is his place on the card.
Much as Cena may deserve the main event, and based on his promo work on his freestyle assassinations of Brock he does, but he’s still a midcarder, and I just can’t see Vince handing a main event slot to him just yet. I definitely think that a Cena vs. Lesnar showdown will headline a PPV at some point, but not at WrestleMania.
The other name being bandied about is that of Bill Goldberg. Containing my laughter as best I can, I can really see the WWE agreeing to Goldberg’s likely demand that he win his first match on PPV, and that would see him take the WWE title... that’s as likely as Goldberg doing the job for Brock Lesnar. No, Goldberg and his three moves of doom can be discounted from this one.
Of course, someone could jump over from Raw to fill the gap - Trips would no doubt demand to go over clean and reunify the titles, so he’s out. Rocky is busy learning his lines and filling time with Steve Austin, and Chris Jericho, in between finding the most tasteless tights known to man, is busy bumping around like a pinball for Shawn Michaels, so who does that leave?
One man on Raw has heel heat by the bucketload, and isn’t doing anything at WrestleMania yet - Scott Steiner. One solution would be to jump him across to Smackdown as a heel and slot him into a feud with Brock. Of course, the match would probably suck, but it would have heat behind it. I don’t think Brock is quite ready to carry a Steiner to a good match yet, despite his efforts with the Big Show, and to be honest, Steiner just doesn’t deserve a WrestleMania main event.
The other two options I see really don’t fill me with joy at the thought of them as WrestleMania main events - Big Show or Undertaker. Big Show might just be slotted in as he’s part of Heyman’s ever-growing stable, and Undertaker... well, just because he;s The Undertaker. Either way, it just doesn’t ring true.
Show and Undertaker still have “issues” and the addition of A-Train and Nathan Jones into their little dispute looks more like there’s going to be a tag match between the four at WrestleMania than any one of them getting a title shot. I suppose putting one of them into the main event would pull the plug on what could be the worst tag match since Taker & Kane downed Kronik, but it’s still not something I would look forward too!
To me, it looks like an open and shut case - the only option that really makes sense is a Benoit vs. Lesnar main event. The only grey area is who (if anyone) will be playing the heel in that match? Tuesday’s Smackdown tapings are very important for the WWE - WrestleMania’s well being depends on the direction the WWE take on Tuesday night. Here’s hoping they choose well.
Until next time, have fun, go mad.
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