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The 8-Ball: Top 8 WWE Wrestlers Who Reached for the Brass Ring in the Cena Era

December 22, 2014 | Posted by Mike Hammerlock

Top 8 WWE Wrestlers Who Reached for the Brass Ring in the Cena Era

It’s a bit of a deviation this week for the Magic 8-Ball. I’ll be looking backward for one installment only, and thanks to APinOz for suggesting this one. The reason why I’m looking backward is because, as everyone who’s reading this surely knows, during a podcast with Steve Austin Vince McMahon accused his entire roster over the last decade of not particularly reaching for the brass ring. According to Vince, John Cena was the last guy to do it. That’s beyond preposterous. The WWE has been chock full of wrestlers reaching for the brass ring during Cena’s PG reign of terror.

First some criteria. To make this list, a wrestler had to make significant moves up the roster after Cena’s first WWE title win at WrestleMania 21 in 2005. That doesn’t mean guys who were around before Cena are ineligible, just that their big brass ring pushes (at least most of them) need to fall after Cena’s ascension to the top. Working this rope line is more art than science. For instance, Chris Jericho doesn’t qualify. Rey Mysterio does, though he doesn’t make the list.

To be honest, I easily could have made this a 20-man list. Zack Ryder, the poster boy for getting over by yourself only to have Vince McMahon squash you, doesn’t make the list. Surprised me too. Dolph Ziggler, Wade Barrett, R-Truth, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Mark Henry, Christian, Bray Wyatt, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger, Umaga, Cody Rhodes, John Morrison, Damien San/Mizdow, RVD, Bobby Lashley – all excellent choices. None of them made the list. That’s how absurd Vince McMahon’s comment was. The WWE is loaded with guys reaching for the brass ring (women too, not that they’d ever get the respect or booking to seize upon self-created momentum). Some have even been allowed to paw it momentarily, but Vince McMahon keeps snatching it from them and handing it back to John Cena. With that, here’s the top eight.

8. Sheamus

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In 2009 he hit the WWE like a sledgehammer. The big Irishman beat John Cena for the WWE title just 166 days after his official WWE debut. During his initial heel run he got a number of clean wins over both Cena and Randy Orton. Then he supposedly kicked HHH into oblivion. Then he won King of the Ring. In fact, technically speaking he’s still the King of the Ring. Getting squashed by a returning HHH blunted his momentum a bit, but Sheamus kicked so much ass that he became a face, eventually winning the Royal Rumble in 2012 and taking the WHC belt off Daniel Bryan at WM28. He put together an amazing 2014, churning out quality matches every week and returning some luster to the U.S. title, which had been treated as little more than a prop when Dean Ambrose held it. Sheamus fairly gets some stick for letting his face character grow stale. We get it, you like to fight. Yet the main problem is we all know there’s a glass ceiling on every face on the roster. You have to smile and be content with consolation prizes. It kills them all. Even so, Sheamus has run with every ball the WWE ever handed him.

7. Alberto Del Rio

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Another guy who burst onto the scene like a comet, won a Royal Rumble and both the WWE and WHC titles. Del Rio got himself a Money in the Bank win too. He was the third man in the WWE title intrigue during the Summer of Punk 2.0. Del Rio reinvented what WWE fans expect from a Mexican wrestler. He was tough and capable of folding opponents like a pretzel. Del Rio was entitled and more than a bit malevolent. After his initial push, he lost a few too many feuds. They also botched his face turn. He became a generic “land of opportunity” foreign face. After he turned back to the dark side, he recaptured the WHC belt, where it died around his waist. Maybe Del Rio was to blame about his failure to progress beyond his initial category buster. Hard to say because when the WWE finds something that works, it runs it into the ground.

6. The Miz

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No, I don’t care much for his ringwork either, but the guy’s entire career has been built on wanting it more than everyone else. He was an MTV Real World goof who came in through the Tough Enough door and succeeded where piles of trained wrestlers failed. Miz should have had a Scotty 2 Hotty ceiling. Instead he’s held seven singles titles and six tag titles. Miz has been the least talented guy in every tag team he’s ever been in (and don’t assume Miz will wind up taking a backdoor to Mizdow down the road), yet he managed to headline WrestleMania. Movies? Commercials? TV appearances? Miz works the media circuit more than pretty much anyone else on the roster. Call Miz a C- ring talent. Call Miz an annoyance. Yet no one can say that guy hasn’t grabbed for the brass ring.

5. Batista

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His skinny jeans return earlier this year did not go well, but this is still a guy who came from nothing to achieve wild success. He grew up in poverty and amidst violence. He didn’t get into the wrestling business until he was in his 30s. He debuted as Reverend D-Von’s pet muscle, Deacon Batista. Eventually he went on to headline WrestleMania twice and, oh yeah, become an A-List movie star (next up he gets to be a Bond villain). He did some fairly legendary stuff in 2007, feuding with the Undertaker and Edge throughout the year. Batista was a bodybuilder, but the man made himself into damn fine wrestler, especially for a guy with his kind of size.

4. Daniel Bryan

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Bryan started in NXT with a losing streak gimmick. That should be the kiss of death. He got released for working too rough during the Nexus debut segment. He was part of a sex bet between the Bella twins (Brie won) and leveraged being a vegan into a heel turn. He infamously dropped his WHC belt to Sheamus in 18 seconds at WM28. Then he spun an anger management gimmick into gold to form Team Hell No with Kane. He got screwed seven ways to Sunday during 2013, only to become an organic star of such magnitude the WWE had no choice but to build WrestleMania XXX around him. The man has worked his tail off. Technically he doesn’t have the WWE size or look. Yet he got over as much as anyone in the 21st century.

3. CM Punk

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Only third? It’s a tough list. You didn’t need three hours of Colt Cabana podcast interviews to recognize Punk wanted the brass ring more than pretty much anyone on the planet. He got in the business with the goal of being the best ever. That whole “Best in the World” gimmick wasn’t hype. Punk wanted to PROVE he was the best in the world. People can argue how great Punk actually was. Longest WWE title run of the modern puts him among the elite. He won almost universal respect for his ringwork in the wrestling press. He’s topped all the lists and been named wrestler of the year so many times in so many places it’s impossible to count them all. I still think the WWE made a grievous error when it made Punk’s title run the warmup act for John Cena’s feud with John Lauranaitis.

2. Randy Orton

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Some might be inclined to toss rotting fruit at this selection, but is there any real argument that Orton hasn’t reached for the brass ring? I’ve got 12 world titles that say he has (yes, I know his first one came before Cena’s first title, but Orton still qualifies here). Orton has been the top heel in the company a few times and in 2010 he even vaulted over Cena briefly as the top face in the company. I think people forget just how molten crowds were for anti-hero Randy Orton. Like Punk after him, that did not get the follow up it deserved (e.g. headlining WM27). One video here to illustrate a larger point. Below is a match from June 17, 2011 between Christian and Sheamus. Randy Orton is ringside. All three guys are in brass ring mode and the crowd is loving it.

That’s what happens when fans are allowed to believe guys can grab the brass ring. In fact, that’s a crowd convinced that it IS the brass ring. I’m not here to defend Orton against his critics, but the past decade has also been the Randy Orton Era. He’s reached for the brass ring and grabbed it. Orton vs. Seth Rollins could turn out to be the feud of 2015 if the WWE gets behind it enough.

1. Edge

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The thing that bugged me most about Vince’s “brass ring” comment was that it ignored that Cena damn-near failed. Fans turned on Cena as he feuded with Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle. What saved him was Edge using the first Money in the Bank cash in. Edge was the heel Cena desperately needed, the bad guy who turned their matches into must-see affairs and made crowds unite behind Cena. We just saw the TLC PPV last night. Edge defined that. He defined MITB. He won more titles than anyone in WWE history. He headlined WrestleMania 24. You could see during his farewell the night after WM27 how much this business meant to him and how much Edge meant to the fans. Reached for the brass ring? Edge had two fists full of brass rings.

I take requests.. The purpose of this column is to look forward. What could be? What should be? What is and what should never be? What would make more sense? 411 has plenty of columns that count down and rank things that happened in the past. This is not one of those columns. The Magic 8-Ball is here to gaze into the future. If there’s someone or something you think should be given the 8-Ball treatment, mention it in the comments section. I might pick it up for future weeks.