The state of WWE's main event

So I was talking to Sykesy earlier today about Smackdown's main event (and roster in general) and we've come to the conclusion that it is very shit at the moment. There are (if you count Big Show) 4 active main eventers right now, two of which are engaged in a boring feud. All of them (Kane, Edge, Mysterio and Big Show) have feuded in the past, fairly recently to be honest, and feuding again would be stale and boring. Swagger could still be main eventing but he's been pushed back to the lower card and is losing to mid card talent. Christian (I just barely counted him) and The Undertaker are both injured so they can't step up at the moment. Rey is currently engaged in a feud with another lower card talent. And Big Show isn't being featured as often as he used to be.

Raw on the other hand has a lot more active main events and are continually pushing newer guys up towards that level. At the moment they have The Miz, Randy Orton, Barret, Cena (he still counts dammit!) and Sheamus. One more than what Smackdown has but with Miz, Sheamus and Barret in the mix the feuds are fresh and interesting. To top that off there are also a returning Triple H and CM Punk to add to the scene when they heal. Unlike Smackdown most of these guys haven't had extended feuds with each other and there is enough versatility to maintain and healthy and fresh main event for at least a year or two.

Anyway to sum things up Smackdown's main event is shit, Raw's is excellent. That's my take on things. Discuss.

Good post.

I agree with Zach but to me it is not a major issue at the moment. Smackdown has always been about building new stars. MVP, Carlito, John Cena, JBL [Not Bradshaw, The JBL gimmick], Arguable Eddie Guerrero, Brock Lesnar. Yes Smackdown has a shitty Main event in its current state. Edge vs Kane is so boring right now and they desperately need fresh main eventers but to me its all good. WWE should have the smarts to make some current Smackdown talent Main eventers within the next few months. They have Kofi Kingston, Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, Alberto De Rio, R-Truth and Drew McIntyre. All of which I see as future world Champions.

Smackdown does suck prepared to Raw but I do think this will change eventually.

I don't know how many times I've said it on so many boards but this wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for this damn brand split they did after Wrestlemania X-8. In doing that, it cut drastically the variety of your possible main events and it didn't do any service to Smackdown during that time, when despite having the best wrestling, they were the red-headed stepchild of WWE before the "rebirth" of ECW. I understand that it was done to allow most people possible to get on TV every week but even there, whenever the time of the draft comes, it's not special because you mostly know who won't switch brands and who will. Even today, RAW vs Smackdown confrontations don't do it for me anymore. The brand split should've ended a LONG time ago and I won't stress it enough. It hurt WWE more than it helped it.

Furthermore, the brand split failed to do recently what it was originally meant to do: create new stars. WWE was so good at doing this during the Monday Night Wars: Stone Cold, The Rock, Triple H, Kane, the Hardys, Edge & Christian, etc. WWE officials complain about very few upper midcarders not being able to break the glass ceiling of the main event but how many really did get a chance to have a run as a solid main event? Of course, John Cena and Randy Orton can be considered successful but besides them, who else? Jack Swagger did. Sheamus had his shot. Now it's The Miz. Right now, they're considered main event but they're nowhere near the status Austin, Rock & Triple H got.

Basically, WWE is suffering from something they brought upon themselves and that's the monopoly in professional wrestling. They bought their whole competition and they don't have anybody else to force them to write a product that will appeal to their hardcore fanbase, which now has turned either to smaller promotions like ROH or the sport of MMA and UFC. Vince McMahon shall perhaps look himself in the mirror before pointing the finger at anybody asking who's to blame for the current state of the promotion.

Given the lack of main event talent and the plan being talked about which concerns merging their remaining titles on both brands like they have with the Tag Team and Diva's Championship, I predict a possible end to the Brand Split coming soon.

EdgeHead wrote:

Furthermore, the brand split failed to do recently what it was originally meant to do: create new stars. WWE was so good at doing this during the Monday Night Wars: Stone Cold, The Rock, Triple H, Kane, the Hardys, Edge & Christian, etc. WWE officials complain about very few upper midcarders not being able to break the glass ceiling of the main event but how many really did get a chance to have a run as a solid main event? Of course, John Cena and Randy Orton can be considered successful but besides them, who else? Jack Swagger did. Sheamus had his shot. Now it's The Miz. Right now, they're considered main event but they're nowhere near the status Austin, Rock & Triple H got.

Good post. I agree completely.

WWE constantly builds guys up to just right near main event level and then they get cold feet. Remember MVP, Matt Hardy, Christian, etc.

Even guys who made it to the main event like Swagger and Sheamus were never taken seriously. Here are two guys that should have been monster champions and instead we saw them squeak by with victories against the other main eventers.

MTM, Sheamus is a two time WWE Champion and now KOTR winner. He is being taken seriously. That is for sure.

Plus Swagger was not worthy of being taken serious after his World championship run. It was horrible to watch.

Winning the KOTR these days is like the equivalent to being the tag team champion and IC champion at the same time. It's a nice little accolade that will get you noticed, but it doesn't make you a top guy by default.

As for his championship reigns...If I'm not mistaken literally ever title defense either ended in a DQ or with interference by Nexus.

WWE realized that their main event was shit as soon as WM ended. HBK retired, Taker's age started to show, HHH went down with an injury, Punk goes down with an injury, Batista quits, Jericho takes time off, etc. Their established main eventers either left or went down with injuries and they had to make do with what they had.

IMO WWE is making do with what they have. They've begun to realize that not many people really care if the WWE Champ is some 6'7, 300 pound goliath with no talent whatsoever, but has "the look". No one wants to see two large motherfuckers go at it for 15 minutes every show because its slow paced and can get old quick. They've realized that your average 6'2 or 6'4 guy with talen and decent mic skills is who people would rather see and I think John Cena was an experiment to see if this was the case (6'1, 240 pounds)

After the Cena experiment turned into a huge marketing success, they began to look for guys that had a decent look, talent, mic skills, or a combination of the three. Notice how during the middle of the year, WWE went nuts with tryouts, signings, and releases. They signed/brought up people with talent (Danielson, Tyler Black, Kaval), a look (Otunga, Usos, McIntyre), mic skills (Alex Riley), or a combination of all three (Riley again, Barrett, Creed, Del Rioo).

Now with these signings, you can't just throw these guys into the main event. They tried that with Swagger and Sheamus and now their stuck with a joke character with amazing potential (sounds a lot like Santino...) and a guy creative can find nothing to do with until HHH returns (this feud with JoMo is a boring filler because Morrison can't compete with Sheamus, on the mic). They have to buld them up somehow. Barrett was built up quickly with Nexus, but he was bound to main event soon anyway because he won NXT and the winner got a, then, WWE title shot. But what to do with the other guys? Gabriel, Danielson, and, arguably, Slater were the most talented. Otunga and Sheffield had the look that VKM wants, and Tarver and Young didn't really have their chance to show much. Thus, the Nexus was born. It was a great idea because you got a main eventer, potential upper/mid carders, and some low carders that were fresh faces. WWE had a great idea, but really fucked it up because the only ones getting any time were Slater, Gabriel, and Barrett. Plus they were riddled with injuries and suspinsion. I'll give WWE credit because it looked as if they had a plan, but it just all went wrong.

Now, there were already a few established upper/mid carders that many were expecting to break into the main event, but WWE just sucks when it comes to pushing people. They kind of weasled the Miz in here and there and teased a few cash ins. When the time finally came for to to actually cash in, he'd already been in a few main events and was deemed ready by the WWE. The only problem is that it's the end of the year and you only have two or three new main eventers to show for all of this work (Miz and Barrett, sometime Del Rio). WWE is trying not to force these new guys down our throats, but they need to start determining who's going into the main event next year before you become TNA where almost everyone in the main event (in TNA's case, roster) has feuded with one another at least once. My picks on who should be pushed into the main event by Summerslam next year (that's more than enough time):

This list is not based on my personal prefrences per sey, but how well these wrestlers are over with the crowd, and the three main qualities listed above.

Kofi Kingston
Kaval
Daniel Bryan
Santino (stop wasting his talents. He has the talent and charisma to hang in there with the top dogs)
JoMo
Swagger (needs to stop being a joke because he one of those rare mixture of all three guys)
McIntyre
Del Rio (needs to solidify his presence in the main event)
Christian (never gonna happen, but it needs to)
Ziggler


Here's a list of people I think should at least be tasting the main event by the end of 2011:

Ted Dibiase
Cody Rhodes
Tyler Black
Mason Ryan
Richie Steamboat
Evan Bourne
Yoshi Tatsu (wayyyyy too talented to be in a tag team with Mark Henry)

Also, for the people talking shit about SD!, take a look at their roster, they have a very small roster. FCW has a much larger roster than them. It's no surprise that their main event is shit, they only have hree main eventers (Edge, Kane, and Mysterio) with a few people that creep into the main event every now and then.

Swagger's title run was, other than Kane, the best part of Smackdown all year. Why this man has been devalued to not even being able to win the IC title is un-understandable to me.

Because WWE isn't patient enough with their younger superstars: they expect them to be over instantly or they don't give them the tools to get over with the crowd. It all starts with the promos. Stone Cold Steve Austin said something crucial in his book about promos: for him, just let the talent cut their promos by themselves; give them the bullet points to follow, let them run with the ball and see what happens. If they don't believe in what the writer wrote for them, no way they're gonna be able to convince the fans of what they're saying.

I hate to say so but this probably wouldn't happen if WWE had some true competition in the business. That'd force Vince to get his head out of his ass and create an appealing product for the fan, not to himself.