What in the world happened to this guy?!
He had all the tools to be a main eventer. But the WWE failed to push him correctly, and thus was thrown in our faces long before he was ready. He was clearly pushed too quickly, and now, he's a little lost, to say the very least. Three factors occured to favor his sudden push:
1) By WM26, Shawn Michaels was retiring, Undertaker's career's nearly done, and Batista was leaving. WWE desperately needed to develop new stars, and as a result, Swagger was given a meteoric rise from a midcarder to a world champion ina matter of weeks.
2) From what I heard, Drew McIntyre was scheduled to win MITB at WM26, but they changed their mins at the last minute, claiming disappointment at his lack of heat drawing abilities. So Swagger was given the win.
3) The reason they had him cash in so early (a few days later on Smackdown) is because the MITB PPV was coming, and they didn't want to have three MitB holders at the same time.
Now, I understand them being eager to develop new stars, but you can't expect a guy like Swagger, who was jobbing to freakin Santino Marella a few weeks before WM, to give him the belt and suddenly become a credible champion overnight. Now, not saying he wouldn't have become a champ eventually. He had all the tools, in my opinion. He just needed a solid midcarder run with him as US champ for 4-5 months. I think Kane should have won MITB at WM26, and cashed in against Jericho a few days later on SM!, since Kane already was a credible potential world champion at that point. He would go on to win the world title against Rey later that year, so giving hima few months earlier wouldn't have made a huge difference. In fact, it would have given a veteran like Kane his (final?) world title run he's been deserving for nearly a decade, while giving plenty of time for guys like Swagger to pay their dues, so to speak, and pushing him as a great midcarer as well as a credible main eventer (and make the proper adjustments to his gimmicks if necessary). Swagger should have won the Smackdown MitB in 2010, keep it for several months, lose the US Belt without making him look a total loser, have him face a credible main eventer at Wrestlemania 27 (Orton), and then, some time after WM, have him cash in. That would have worked.
What didn't work is too many of the big SD! stars leaving for Raw. Look at Jericho and Edge. They should have feuded for a few months with Swagger to make him look credible, but instead Jericho and Edge are being sent to Raw for some reason. He then gets to feud with Orton, a RAW Superstar. Then, his feud with Big Show made him look like a fool every single week. Then after losing the title to Rey, and failing to recapture the belt, he then fell into obscurity and never recovered.
It's as if the WWE creative team realized their mistake: he was pushed too quickly, and they know it. As a result, they don't know how to handle him anymore and, as such, has been without any direction for several months. I mean, Michael Cole's trainer? Really? (Really? Really? REALLY?...Ok, I'm done with my Miz impression here). And involved in a triangle between Vickie Guerrero , Dolph Ziggler and himself; an angle that has YET to be given a proper kickoff by the way. It's been anything but a good year for him.
It's funny, because the WWE missed several opportunities to make him credible again in 2011. After the conclusion of the Swagger/Cole storyline, I was expecting him to get a huge face push. It would have made sense, and I think the crowd would have enjoyed it. Heck, maybe he was promised a face push by the creative team, and thus accepted to go along with him being Cole's trainer. But alas , it never happened. Another missed opportunity was after a tag team match on Raw (don't remember the participants). If I remember correctly, he eliminated two guys, and was giving a hell of a hard time to Cena. In my mind, I thought that was it. They're finally making Swagger credible again, and may get a much needed and deserved push as a result. Maybe another title run, or at least a US championship run, which he'd won from Ziggler, thus initiating the feud between the two. That would have worked. But his sudden newfound credibility fell into obscurity, just like his main event status in 2010. A shame, really.
Doesn't help that he doesn't have the best mic skills, although they are nowhere as bad as people claim. I remember him getting some legitimate heat from the crowd occasionally during his championship run on Smackdown (his trophy segment comes to mind), so he still can pull it off when written correctly.
So I have no clue where this guy's headed into the year 2012. Knowing WWE and their failure to push people not called Cena and Orton, any hope I have for Jack Swagger's career receving a decent push would be wishful thinking. The same could be said for Dolph Ziggler, who's been stuck in midcard hell forever and should have won the belt in 2010/2011. At least they stopped making fun of Swagger's Speech Impediment, which, in my opinion, was childish (then again, this is a kids show now, right?).
It's not Jack Swagger's fault, to paraphrase Gene Snitsky here. I blame everything on the creative team.
What are your thoughts on Jack Swagger's future?
He had all the tools to be a main eventer. But the WWE failed to push him correctly, and thus was thrown in our faces long before he was ready. He was clearly pushed too quickly, and now, he's a little lost, to say the very least. Three factors occured to favor his sudden push:
1) By WM26, Shawn Michaels was retiring, Undertaker's career's nearly done, and Batista was leaving. WWE desperately needed to develop new stars, and as a result, Swagger was given a meteoric rise from a midcarder to a world champion ina matter of weeks.
2) From what I heard, Drew McIntyre was scheduled to win MITB at WM26, but they changed their mins at the last minute, claiming disappointment at his lack of heat drawing abilities. So Swagger was given the win.
3) The reason they had him cash in so early (a few days later on Smackdown) is because the MITB PPV was coming, and they didn't want to have three MitB holders at the same time.
Now, I understand them being eager to develop new stars, but you can't expect a guy like Swagger, who was jobbing to freakin Santino Marella a few weeks before WM, to give him the belt and suddenly become a credible champion overnight. Now, not saying he wouldn't have become a champ eventually. He had all the tools, in my opinion. He just needed a solid midcarder run with him as US champ for 4-5 months. I think Kane should have won MITB at WM26, and cashed in against Jericho a few days later on SM!, since Kane already was a credible potential world champion at that point. He would go on to win the world title against Rey later that year, so giving hima few months earlier wouldn't have made a huge difference. In fact, it would have given a veteran like Kane his (final?) world title run he's been deserving for nearly a decade, while giving plenty of time for guys like Swagger to pay their dues, so to speak, and pushing him as a great midcarer as well as a credible main eventer (and make the proper adjustments to his gimmicks if necessary). Swagger should have won the Smackdown MitB in 2010, keep it for several months, lose the US Belt without making him look a total loser, have him face a credible main eventer at Wrestlemania 27 (Orton), and then, some time after WM, have him cash in. That would have worked.
What didn't work is too many of the big SD! stars leaving for Raw. Look at Jericho and Edge. They should have feuded for a few months with Swagger to make him look credible, but instead Jericho and Edge are being sent to Raw for some reason. He then gets to feud with Orton, a RAW Superstar. Then, his feud with Big Show made him look like a fool every single week. Then after losing the title to Rey, and failing to recapture the belt, he then fell into obscurity and never recovered.
It's as if the WWE creative team realized their mistake: he was pushed too quickly, and they know it. As a result, they don't know how to handle him anymore and, as such, has been without any direction for several months. I mean, Michael Cole's trainer? Really? (Really? Really? REALLY?...Ok, I'm done with my Miz impression here). And involved in a triangle between Vickie Guerrero , Dolph Ziggler and himself; an angle that has YET to be given a proper kickoff by the way. It's been anything but a good year for him.
It's funny, because the WWE missed several opportunities to make him credible again in 2011. After the conclusion of the Swagger/Cole storyline, I was expecting him to get a huge face push. It would have made sense, and I think the crowd would have enjoyed it. Heck, maybe he was promised a face push by the creative team, and thus accepted to go along with him being Cole's trainer. But alas , it never happened. Another missed opportunity was after a tag team match on Raw (don't remember the participants). If I remember correctly, he eliminated two guys, and was giving a hell of a hard time to Cena. In my mind, I thought that was it. They're finally making Swagger credible again, and may get a much needed and deserved push as a result. Maybe another title run, or at least a US championship run, which he'd won from Ziggler, thus initiating the feud between the two. That would have worked. But his sudden newfound credibility fell into obscurity, just like his main event status in 2010. A shame, really.
Doesn't help that he doesn't have the best mic skills, although they are nowhere as bad as people claim. I remember him getting some legitimate heat from the crowd occasionally during his championship run on Smackdown (his trophy segment comes to mind), so he still can pull it off when written correctly.
So I have no clue where this guy's headed into the year 2012. Knowing WWE and their failure to push people not called Cena and Orton, any hope I have for Jack Swagger's career receving a decent push would be wishful thinking. The same could be said for Dolph Ziggler, who's been stuck in midcard hell forever and should have won the belt in 2010/2011. At least they stopped making fun of Swagger's Speech Impediment, which, in my opinion, was childish (then again, this is a kids show now, right?).
It's not Jack Swagger's fault, to paraphrase Gene Snitsky here. I blame everything on the creative team.
What are your thoughts on Jack Swagger's future?