Against The Grain with Anthony Cain #5: When Push Comes to Shove

Hello wrestling fans and thanks for reading another edition of “Against the Grain”. Last time around I backed away from my usual habit of highlighting some of the foolishness in the IWC. But I think one article away from that is more than enough. Now, before I carry on with this week’s piece let me quickly recap the topics that I’ve covered over the last few weeks. I started this series off with an article on the return to the “Attitude Era” and how the lack of star power is one of the reasons this is impossible. Then in the two weeks after that I discussed CM Punk and John Cena and how they now sit at the mountaintop of the wrestling business. Looking back at these previous articles, I think this week would be the perfect time to take a look at the current crop of up and comers, discuss the star power of the current roster, and more importantly, look at the IWC’s thoughts on who should be getting a push and how that may not be the best thing at this time.

Every time I read through the comment section of any wrestling news site I constantly see people griping about which wrestlers they believe need to be pushed and need to be pushed now! With so much built up frustration they charge the WWE creative team with “dropping the ball” for the 1,562 time. Any time one of their favorites loses a match it’s automatically assumed that he’s getting “buried” for no good reason. Of course this can all be attributed to the IWC never-ending need to complain about the state of professional wrestling. The question is, are their complaints in this area justified?

The current roster is loaded with potential in its mid card performers. At the front of the line, in my opinion, are Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler. As of late these two men have upped their games and have been putting on some of the better performances on Raw and Smackdown. You’d be hard pressed to find someone in the IWC who doesn’t believe that one or both of these men don’t deserve to be in the world title picture. But fans on the internet are demanding that these wrestlers be rewarded their respective pushes immediately! This is where my opinion starts to diverge from the rest of the pack.

While I obviously acknowledge both Sheamus and Ziggler’s tremendous ability, I don’t think the time is quite right for their time up front. For starters, with the ongoing feuds over both world titles already well under way, there’s a huge risk that both Sheamus and Ziggler could get lost trying to find a role to play in these storylines. This would ultimately drop them back down to their current mid card status as well as squander the momentum that both men have gained over the past few months.

 As far as Dolph Ziggler is concerned, his reign as United States Champion has been a relatively successful one. It’s this writer’s humble opinion that his talents and popularity would be better utilized at the moment in maintaining, or better yet, building the prestige of the United States Championship, much in the vein of Shawn Michaels or Mr. Perfect in regards to the Intercontinental title. Of course, this article will be published after Survivor Series, in which case Ziggler may not even be the champion anymore, rendering this point moot.

Another internet darling that is beginning to make his mark in the WWE is the reigning Intercontinental Champion Cody Rhodes. Cody is one of the athletes in the company that is burdened with having to live up to his family name. Ever since his debut a few years ago he had been floating around without much direction. It wasn’t until a few months ago when he found a new gimmick that he has gained support from fans that are eager to see him be raised to main event status.

Cody Rhodes definitely has a lot going for him right now. He’s young, he’s talented, and he holds one of the WWE’s most prestigious titles. But I don’t think Rhodes is ready for the main event spotlight just yet. It isn’t any of his fault; I just don’t feel that his character is quite as developed as it needs to be in order for him to be successful at the top of the card. It’s only been about a week since he’s ditched his mask gimmick and I think this where we will finally start to see Rhodes develop his in-ring persona more completely.  This guy definitely has the potential to be one of the top guys in the business one day, just not now. I wouldn’t worry about it though; he’s young so he has plenty of time to find his way to the top.

This next wrestler is currently enjoying the high point of his career, however late it may be. I’m of course talking about the current World Heavy Champion Mark Henry. He’s been with the WWE since the mid 90s and is just barely being given a chance to headline pay-per-views. Many in the IWC feel this push to the top was long overdue, which is a valid opinion. Though Henry hasn’t been the most popular superstar in WWE history, he has been loyal. However, I sense that Henry may not have much more time left in his career seeing that he has already hit 40, in which case I don’t see another reign as champion in his future. I do expect this one, however, to be a long reign.

All in all, the roster is filled with superstars that one day will lead the company in a new direction. Every week we are watching the potential new faces of the WWE. But there is still work to be done with some of them. While the internet community may think that the WWE is merely twiddling their thumbs or trying to sweep these wrestlers under the rug, they need to understand that forcing a superstar into the main event is counter-productive, both for fans and for the superstar. And frankly, this demand on their part seems a bit counter-intuitive seeing as they constantly complain about John Cena being “shoved down their throats”. It leads me to ask whether they want someone else shoved down their throats.

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