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KELLER'S TAKE
KELLER: Jericho the Savior? (PWTorch Newsletter #992) Oct 1, 2007 - 4:48:09 AM
End Notes editorial
Headline: Jericho the Savior?
By Wade Keller, Torch editor
Originally Published: September 29, 2007
PWTorch Newsletter #992
WWE could, perhaps more than at any time I remember, use a fresh, established, main event wrestler to inject some life into the product. There may not be a time where there were fewer "dream matches" in WWE than there are at this time. Are Hunter vs. Cena or Edge vs. Batista or Undertaker vs. Hunter "dream matches" that people see as being a level above what they get on a typical monthly PPV?
When Shawn Michaels returns, Michaels vs. Undertaker is perhaps the most anticipated match I can come up with as having that mix of clashing icons who have rarely wrestled each other, who can still "go," who are still over, have shown chemistry in the past, and would draw against each other.
Over the past 25 years, WWE has always had the benefit of another rival promotion (or dozens of other regional promotions) grooming stars, who when acquired and matched against WWE's long-time stars led to a "dream match" situation. WCW has been out of business for years and its top stars who haven't been in WWE, with the exception of Sting, have either since joined WWE or are long retired.
TNA should be a place where WWE could look to for future dream matches. Problem is, in TNA's five years, they have yet to create or cultivate anyone as being on par with WWE's top stars. Samoa Joe, obviously, is the only arguable exception, but he has been neutered by TNA's booking to a degree. TNA's ratings are not at the level of even ECW, much less Raw or Smackdown, so top stars on TNA Impact are seem by only a fraction of WWE's stars. So even if TNA had cultivated or created stars from scratch, it wouldn't matter to two-thirds of WWE's audience who never see them.
Christian, Kurt Angle, Matt Morgan, Rhino, Ron Killings, B.G. James, Kip James, Kevin Nash, and Team 3D have all been on WWE's roster and are now getting TNA TV exposure, but none present obvious dream matches were they to jump to WWE now or soon. Christian would return to a high-second-tier role (if for no other reason than Vince McMahon not wanting to admit he was wrong, although Christian hasn't exactly advanced his in-ring style to main event credibility since arriving in TNA, either). Angle, under fantasy-land ideal circumstances (healthy body, clear head, stable emotions) would be a nice addition, but he hasn't been gone long enough to present any dream match-ups since he's wrestled everyone getting pushed in WWE right now already. I won't even entertain the notion that Jeff Jarrett's five years pushing himself (until recently) qualifies him as a "dream opponent for anyone in WWE; even more so than with Christian, if Jarrett signed with WWE he'd be treated as a second-tier player, feuding with Carlito or Matt Hardy).
Brock Lesnar is more likely to sign with TNA than WWE, were he to chose to leave MMA and return to pro wrestling. He'd present the best dream matches in WWE from an in-ring potential (yes, more than Jericho), but on the mic he'd be a bit one-dimensional (good at that dimension, but still one-dimensional). Goldberg is a few years past being a big deal and at best would take part in a one-shot or two-shot brief run. Hulk Hogan is really beaten down physically and doesn't have any obvious "dream matches" left (Hogan vs. Batista doesn't exactly conjure cha-ching sounds from the fantasy box office).
That means, as WWE looks ahead to WrestleMania next spring, or in the short-term just boosting PPV buyrates and TV ratings, they have few options. That's where Chris Jericho comes in. The code games played over the last week have......
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