The Wednesday Wire 06.06.12: Disappointed in Being Thin

Short form this week. Not sure what next week will be, but I promise something. Let’s finish the formal stuff and move into the topic at hand.

Thin Is In, But Wasting Away Is Ugly

CM Punk recently spoke about the thin roster that WWE has, most specifically at the top of the card. He’s right about there being nobody at the top, but there’s a significant amount of talent on the current roster that is being wasted and it’s doing nothing but cause WWE money and giving Vince more agita than he can handle. Everybody is panicking about the recent 2.7 rating for RAW and somehow nobody in charge seems to know why it happened and/or how to fix it. Well…

Current Top Champions and Their Challengers
One of the best ways to judge a promotion is by looking at a list of the champions and the wrestlers that are on the short list to challenge them for their belts. WWE’s, as we all are quite well aware, is not looking too healthy at the moment.

WWE Champion: CM Punk
CM Punk is the current WWE Champion and is for all intents and purposes the #2 guy in the entire company behind John Cena. Punk has been relegated to being at least second on the totem pole at all times; he’s always behind Cena, and if guys like Triple H or The Undertaker are around, he’s below them too. Punk’s present top challengers are the two men that he will be taking on next Sunday in The Meadowlands, Daniel Bryan and Kane.

Daniel Bryan is the most recent former World Heavyweight Champion before current champ Sheamus, and he’s the number one contender for CM Punk’s WWE Title because there was nobody else. It’s not a bad thing in the realm of in-ring action because these two are a pair of the best wrestlers the business as a whole has to offer today and they have shown a great deal of chemistry as opponents. It’s a bad thing because WWE has two “World” titles and they just had to switch one guy from challenging from one main title to the other because there’s simply no-one else.

Kane is only in the upcoming match at No Way Out because they wanted to do something other than the 5th Punk/Bryan match in a short span of time.

World Heavyweight Champion: Sheamus
Sheamus won the World Title in 18 seconds (or so) from Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania. He defended it successfully against him the following month at Extreme Rules and then defended it against three other guys at Over The Limit, successfully again. One of the men was the most recent challenger for CM Punk’s WWE Title in Chris Jericho, one was the directioness (and now suspended for 60-days) Randy Orton and the third is Sheamus’ current number one contender, Alberto Del Rio.

Alberto Del Rio was gone for a few months due to injury and returned to immediately stake his claim to Sheamus’ title. Some people, myself included, find him to be pretty stale and no longer the near main-event star that he was before losing the title to CM Punk for the last time. WWE likely thinks a run with the World Heavyweight Championship will elevate Del Rio in the eyes of the fans and give them a new main event draw. They’re high on Sheamus though (reportedly), and the title is probably not going anywhere just yet.

The Stars On Top & The Sad Sacks Below Them
There aren’t any stars outside of John Cena. He’s the number one guy, public ambassador for World Wrestling Entertainment and the closest thing WWE has to a mainstream star on the active roster. CM Punk is a distant second, pushed back in the line and is a semi-star like I mentioned last week. We’re not talking about superstars, though, just main event tier talent. Here’s a list of the guys on the currently active roster (therefore Orton, Jericho, Henry and Mysterio do not count) that I consider to be legitimate main event talent that is primed and ready to be one of the top two champions in WWE.

– CM Punk
– Sheamus
– John Cena
– Daniel Bryan

That’s it. Two of them are the current champions, one is arguably above the titles and is the perennial top guy on the card whether the champions are there or not and the last was champion for a number of months and actually became true championship material during the span of that title reign. On the bubble I have this set of guys that I believe could get the WWE Title or WHC tomorrow and realistically hold it without looking way out of place.

– Christian
– Cody Rhodes
– Tensai
– Big Show
– Kane
– Alberto Del Rio

Christian is the current Intercontinental Champion and Cody Rhodes is the previous champ who is Christian’s number one contender. Tensai is only on this short list because he can play the role of monster “foreign” heel on the boss’ payroll that is a short-term title holder while the next champion gets sympathy while en route to overcoming the odds. Big Show is pretty much in the same role with the exception that he has the experience edge and is a multi-time World Champ over his 17+ year career. Kane is a guy who can have the belt tossed onto him and have it feel legitimate enough until somebody else can take it from him. Del Rio was pretty much at the status of the first list until his injury but since returning he hasn’t really done anything (or had the chance) to prove that he is a main event level contender.

It’s pretty grim, really. Embarassing, even. There are no superstars outside of John Cena and nobody can oppose him without having everybody and their mother helping. I’ll talk about who should be in the list with Punk, Sheamus, Cena and Bryan and who should be on the list below them next week along with some analysis of the other title divisions. Is it really as bad as we think? I think so. Do you?

Next week: Positivity?

– Nicholas A. Marsico