ON TO THE NEXT ONE…
[NOTE – this column appears on LordsofPain.net. Check out LOP for excellent news, notes, and columns from around the world of professional wrestling.]
After every wrestling pay-per-view over the last few years, people seem to line up so they can ask me what I think is going to take place at the next pay-per-view. Wrestler A just defeated Wrestler B and successfully defended his title, and he needs a new challenger, so who do I think that new challenger will be? I try to answer questions as best I can, but I figured I’d do it in a different way this time.
If people want to know what I’d do for the next pay-per-view, I’ll tell them.. in column form.
There’s two “catches”, though..
1. These aren’t going to be full-fledged predictions. Perhaps I’m wrong, but if I were reading a column, I’d find it more interesting to read about what the columnist would do if he had any say, instead of just what he thinks is going to happen. That’s what I’ll be doing here. These won’t necessarily be the matches that I think will be taking place. These are just the matches that I would be putting together if I was in charge of that kind of thing.
2. I’m going to base things in some sort of realism as much as possible. For example, I’m a big fan of Tyson Kidd and his in-ring abilities. I’d love to see a match between Kidd and CM Punk. However, even Tyson Kidd himself would tell you the idea of him main eventing a pay-per-view next month, competing for the WWE Title, is insane. I’m not going to do things like that. I’m also not going to bring in eight random big names from the past like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Batista, Goldberg, etc to perform at an event that the WWE Universe views as a “second-rate” event, especially with no real promotion beforehand.
With that said, I think it’s time to get this show on the road. Shall I proceed? (Yes, indeed.) Less dew eet!!
I’ve said time and time again that the tag division in WWE is something that really needs to be boosted. There’s actually a decent amount of teams in the division right now, with room for more teams to be thrown together, but the next step is to actually give people reason to care. We just saw the team of Darren Young and Titus O’Neil, the Prime Time Players, become the brand new #1 Contenders for the WWE Tag Team Titles, currently held by Kofi Kingston and R-Truth. The “easy” route would be to give Young and O’Neil their title shot soon, perhaps even tonight on Raw, but I don’t like that idea. Not in this particular situation. Young and O’Neil aren’t exactly veterans to WWE television with large followings. There are 27 days until WWE’s next pay-per-view, Money In The Bank, which means WWE has 27 days to build Young and O’Neil up and give people a reason to care about them. On top of that, R-Truth is currently dealing with a broken foot, and is selling a storyline knockout at the hands of Big Show’s right hand. Those 27 days can be used to help him recover, both with his real injury and with his storyline injury. With Abraham Washington now on the side of Young & O’Neil, you have someone that can be the “talker” for the team. Now you can let the group have a promo or a backstage segment or two, plus some matches to make more of the WWE Universe say “yeah, those guys belong on pay-per-view”. You could put Kofi in a singles match against either Young or O’Neil. You could give Kofi singles matches against both men, since there are multiple episodes of television each week between now and Money In The Bank. In the final week of television before the pay-per-view, have Kofi receive a beatdown from the challengers, allowing for the triumphant return of R-Truth to save the day. Booyakasha. Now you have heat for the Tag Team Title match, and it’s something that people actually want to see instead of Random Team #1 taking on Random Team #2 for no apparent reason. Simple.