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CALDWELL'S BLOG 4/15: Draft coverage today, Who could break Taker's Streak?, Jury Duty Apr 15, 2009 - 10:41:44 AM
10:45 a.m. I'm currently sitting in the jury duty holding room blogging and waiting for the WWE Draft to start. Apparently I'm in the last potential group or not being picked for anything this morning.
The district clerk cut a nice promo thanking everyone for showing up. He was a nice fellow in his mid-30s, but would make a great heel manager with his soft talk and motivational-speaker-type tone to warm our hearts. Trying not to sound jaded here, but I kept thinking the guy could be a heat-magnet for today's wrestling fans who simply don't want to be encouraged or given soft talks.
As of right now, I'll be covering WWE's supplemental draft from the jury holding area barring a call to be on a jury panel. We'll see how this goes as the legal system takes it course.
-- We ran a poll this morning on who would most benefit from ending The Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania among the younger stars on the roster.
The thought came to me for the poll idea because WWE's roster seems to be in limbo. There's a group of older veterans who are on the way out of wrestling and a group of younger wrestlers who are on the verge of becoming stars. Randy Orton and John Cena fall in-between, but Torch readers aren't strongly behind them as candidates to eventually break Taker's streak.
Right now, Torch readers have voted 38 percent in favor of no one on the current WWE roster being qualified to break the streak based on the options we listed. I wanted the criteria to be younger wrestlers because I simply don't think a tenured star like Triple H would benefit from ending the streak. I was looking for a younger star who could get three-to-five years of mileage out of the victory.
Right now, John Morrison is leading the votes when removing the "no one qualifies" option. Morrison has all the physical tools to become the next Shawn Michaels. The only thing holding him back is people perceiving that he has a "too-laid-back, whatevs" attitude.
It was inevitable WWE would split up Miz and Morrison, and now Morrison has an opportunity to become break-out singles star. He started on the right foot with a four-star-quality match against Evan Bourne on last night's ECW TV.
My pick is Jack Swagger, who is just behind Morrison in the Torch voting. Perhaps the issue will be Taker retiring before Swagger is ready for the responsibility of taking the Streak, but Swagger proved himself on the big stage with his match against John Cena on Monday night.
When next year's Draft rolls around, Swagger could be prime for a jump to Raw or Smackdown to begin a program that would set him up for Taker at WrestleMania 27. That is, if Swagger maintains his current pace, Taker is still wrestling, and all other variables hold true.
The other top picks from Torch readers are Randy Orton and C.M. Punk. I think the psychology behind Orton not being a top pick is that he already lost to Taker at WrestleMania 21. He is much-improved since then, especially in the TV character and out-of-the-rng discipline departments, so it will be interesting to see if WWE builds to a second match against Taker at WrestleMania.
Punk is interesting because he's gone through some ups-and-downs on WWE TV since winning the World Hvt. Title after last year's Draft. WWE hasn't given him that one significant push just yet, as his World Title reign was treated like a fluke, but he could still be a major star for the company.
A strong program on Smackdown with WWE really getting behind him, including a possible heel turn, could lead to a match against Taker at WM26.
Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
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