Take up thy wrestling boots and walk #160 - 2007 in hindsight
Submitted by Pt2 on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 8:57 PM EST





Welcome once again to the column that says that the flames that are burning Hercules, only me and you can put out, Take up thy wrestling boots and walk. I’m the man who thinks there should be an Ultimate Warrior translation unit at every major institution of learning in the world, Pt2, back for the first time in 2008 to discuss anything and everything connected to the sports entertainment bonanza that is professional wrestling.

With 2007 passing, I think it’s time to look back on the year and appraise the WWE. Looking back to this point last year, The WWE lost HHH for a long spell with another quad tear that put him out until Summerslam. Heading into the Royal Rumble, John Cena, Bobby Lashley and Batista were the three world champions, and the WWE hit a masterstroke by having The Undertaker win the Royal Rumble. He then had a feud with Batista heading into Wrestlemania. This was inspired, and people were calling it both ways. I heard a number of people say that they thought Big Dave was going to be the man to end the Undertaker’s Wrestlemania winning streak, that he would be the man to whom the company would give that most massive of rubs. For my part, I couldn’t predict with any confidence, but privately edged towards Undertaker winning, which he did. Before picking up an injury and being out of action for several months.

On RAW, the big story at the big show was Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena. I think more people were sure about the outcome of this one than the Undertaker’s match, meaning the hype wasn’t quite so intense, but it still turned out to be a very solid feud and match. This even overflowed until after Wrestlemania, and we got a great rematch between the two in London, won by Shawn Michaels, in April. ECW started to sink downwards though. It’s champion became embroiled in a high profile match, but Lashley’s involvement in the Billionaire’s match at Mania ensured that the ECW world title was the only world title not defended at the event – ECW as a show was sacrificed to bring it’s star power to bear against stars from other shows. The writing appeared to be on the wall. At the event, Mr. Kennedy would continue his time in the spotlight by winning money in the bank – before suffering an injury that would keep him out for a couple of months. Notice a pattern emerging?

With the Undertaker out after winning the world title, Smackdown! needed to shift things around. Things were shifted and changed up, and former world champion Edge was selected as the man to carry the brand. A sound choice, as Edge had become one of the top heels in the business in his feud with John Cena in the past and had continued his development. Edge was moved across from RAW and took the belt until…. an injury forced him to relinquish the title in July. He was inactive until Survivor Series. Around this time, MVP began his rise as he feuded with Chris Benoit, and people began to notice the young star – primarily because as the feud grew, he didn’t look at all out of place with the experience, highly respected veteran.

The biggest blow to the company came in June, when the Benoit double murder suicide came. In the aftermath, a massive tightening of the wellness policy occurred, and wrestling in general came under more scrutiny than it has in a long time. As a result of the stricter regime, at least two stars have left the WWE. Wrestling news sites suggest that Booker T resigned after his suspension on drug related issues, while Chris Masters was let go for repeatedly incurring drug violations. Many more stars also served 30 day suspensions. From an on air perspective, the company lost one of its most talented stars, ECW lost its potential saviour, and a lot of people simply stopped watching.

The WWE did strike gold not long after (perhaps because of) all that negative attention, by putting RAW’s newly acquired Bobby Lashley up against RAW world champion John Cena. With both men considered McMahon favourites by the popular public, there was considerable debate as to who would come out on top in this match, much as there was for the Undertaker vs. Batista match at Wrestlemania. John Cena did eventually come out on top, leading some people to start questioning when on earth Cena was actually going to lose the WWE Championship. Around this time of the year saw the debut of a promising young talent, the son of Dusty Rhodes, Cody.

When Edge suffered his injury, the WWE made the brave decision of putting the World championship on the Great Khali. This was unpopular in a lot of quarters, but it gave Batista someone to chase for the world title – and someone that could believably beat Batista. It was a short reign, used mostly for transition with Edge out, and worked out well – Batista kept his momentum up and regained the title at Unforgiven after pinning Khali.

John Morrison and CM Punk emerged as the best thing ECW had going for it all year in the summer. Summerslam itself didn’t have the most inspiring of cards, but the return of HHH after an eight month absence was enough to generate some interest – no one would be foolish enough to put money on a Booker T victory that night, and predictably HHH was victorious in seven minutes. The following month saw HHH crush Carlito and Randy Orton continue to feud with Cena. However, before the feud could reach it’s natural conclusion, the curse struck again, and Cena suffered a long term injury and was forced to vacate the Championship. The belt ended up on Orton, and he has held it ever since – improving all the time, truth be told. He still isn’t the finished article, but he is getting there.

Towards the end of the year, the WWE began to get some of its injured stars back. HHH returned at Summerslam, The Undertaker at Unforgiven, and Edge at Survivor Series, but these returns couldn’t hide the fact that the WWE had been dealt body blow after body blow throughout 2007. Various world championships had to be forfeit three times throughout the year through injury. Kennedy, a rising star, was injured for a spell, and the company also lost Shawn Michaels for five months of the year, and HHH for eight. Lashley was injured in July, and is still MIA. No less than ten wrestlers served suspensions in 2007. The company was rocked by the news about Benoit.

My conclusion is, that the WWE actually did pretty well this year with the hand that they have been dealt. They’ve never really managed to keep any of their top angles running for too long without something throwing a wrench in the works. They have not managed to get all of their main event talent fit and working at the same time for more than a week in 2007. And yet, the year hasn’t been any worse than 2006, really. They managed a good Wrestlemania, and the standard of the weekly shows hasn’t exactly been poor, with the exception of an ECW show that looks bewildered and directionless on occasion, even with the assistance of the blue brand.

If anything, I think a lot of the big hits the company took in 2007 have forced them to up their game in many ways. They went out and rehired Chris Jericho, who generated something of a buzz, and adds a talented performer to the top of the roster. JBL, the man who carried Smackdown! through some of it’s darkest days, keeping the show afloat almost single handed, has returned. And they’ve also gone outside the company to find the talent, bringing back the Big Show, who is now down to around 440lbs – and is always going to be a top level talent in any company because of his reputation, his willingness to work, and his look.

The roster also feels much deeper than it did in 2006, even though a lot of the people on it are the same. Cade and Murdoch are much further along than they were last year. Ken Kennedy has continued to improve and is now genuinely not far from main event status. The same could be said of MVP. Jeff Hardy looks more likely to win a world title than at any other time in his career, and he looks more deserving of it as well – so much so, that I may have to take back my statements regarding neither of the Hardy boys ever winning a world championship. Jeff looks at the level now where he might just prove me wrong.

It wasn’t a perfect year. I know the Hornswoggle – McMahon stuff won’t go down too well with a lot of people, but its long term booking and could pay off come Wrestlemania, and I just look at what the WWE have had to put up with this year in terms of bad luck and think that they haven’t done all that badly. It’s been a fair year overall, and since they’ve taken bullet after bullet I don’t think that fair is unreasonable. They have been consistently good come PPV time despite several feuds/title reigns being cut off at the knees.

I’d be hard pushed to actually pick out a wrestler of the year, since so many of the top tier talent were missing for significant portions of the year. Instead, I’ll settle for saying that 2007 was an improvement on 2006. In 2006 the potential was there to right the ship and capture the imagination. In 2007 the company had no right to expect major success and yet somehow managed to turn out quality PPV’s much more consistently.

In 2008, I’m looking at the roles that will be played by Chris Jericho, Ken Kennedy, HHH and John Cena on RAW. These four and how they are used will probably determine how successful the brand is. On Smackdown!, you are looking to Batista and Edge, Undertaker and MVP – predictable, no? As for ECW, I think it might be heading for last chance saloon in 2008. If it fails to improve this year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it disappearing from television.

That’s it for my recap of 2007. If you want to contact me, you are welcome to do so at takeupthywrestlingboots@gmail.com. I make every effort to reply to all mail received.

Until next time, have a good 2008!

Pt2









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