wrestling / Columns
Can They Be Champ? 01.20.08: Big Show’s Big Return
It’s the most wonderful time of the year for wrestling, if you ask me. The Royal Rumble, my favorite wrestling event of the year, is just around the corner. After that, we’ll be right in the thick of WrestleMania season. Thank god, too, because WWE writing is always significantly improved around this time of the year. Feuds get developed well (just look at the great job they’ve been doing with Jeff vs. Orton, or even HBK vs. Kennedy), and silly non-sense is at a minimum. Well, minus midget filled mini rumbles, but at least even all of this Hornswoggle/Finlay stuff seems to be going somewhere.
Speaking of the Royal Rumble, remember when I said that HHH was going to win it, even when he was supposedly “out” of the Rumble after he lost his match against Regal? Yeah, looks like HHH is just about as good as back in the Rumble. All he has to do is win some match against some mystery opponent next week (Big Show, maybe?). Anyways, I feel just as good about my HHH prediction as ever.
For those keeping track, let’s also bring up my WM24 main event predictions from a bit back:
WWE Title Match: Orton vs. HHH
WHC Title Match: Edge vs. Undertaker
I’m sure people will call these safe choices, and a lot of people were calling for Edge vs. Taker as early as last April, but these are the two main events that make the most sense.
Well, let’s plug the podcasts real quick. After that, I’m going to talk about a certain returnee that is rumored to be on him way back to the WWE.
Larry and the Wife talk about many of the current wrestling hot topics, including Big Show and Chris Harris. Don’t forget to check out Attack of the ROHbots as well.
And hey, I do have that lovely Exploding Barrel Video Games Podcast.
TO STREAM: Simply press the play button on the podcast player.
TO DOWNLOAD: Right click on the DOWNLOAD HERE link below and then save the mp3 file to your computer.
Welcome back. If you listened to the all the podcasts I just told you to listen to, then you should be reading this 3 hours after you read the intro. I hope you paid attention, because there’s going to be a quiz at the end.
Now, let’s talk about Big Show, shall we? He’s supposedly going to be returning to the WWE soon. Many were caught of guard by this, especially considering a comment Paul Wright made in the past about “Big Show” being his slave name, burying the WWE. Luckily for Show the WWE is one of the few places where you have to try a bit harder than that to burn your bridge.
I’m glad to see Big Show coming back. Yeah, he doesn’t put on the greatest matches in the world, but he’s always been a good character. I think he’s one of the best WWE guys who can go from playing a great face one night to suddenly being a great heel the next.
Also, I actually enjoyed Big Show’s ECW title run quite a bit. That was actually when I was really enjoying the new ECW. They had a compelling storyline going on where Paul Heyman did everything to protect his champion, while guys like RVD and Sabu fought for opportunities to fight Big Show for the title. This was also when we had the debuting CM Punk, and we also had that RVD/Hardcore Holly extreme rules match were Holly’s back was cut badly on a table.
Of course, then December to Dismember happened, Big Show and Paul Heyman were soon gone, and Lashley was the new ECW champion. Shortly afterwards, I lost interest in ECW. Although Morrison’s title reign was somewhat amusing, if only thanks to his downright crazy promos. I remember laughing my ass off once when he was doing some promo about CM Punk. It was something like “And just like God created a new reality when he formed the world, I too created a new reality for CM Punk.” Lawl.
Anyways, back to Big Show. Supposedly he’s lost a hundred pounds, so he should be in decent shape. Hopefully his past injuries don’t bother him too much. Still, if Big Show was prepared to box, I’m hoping he can handle wrestling again. It should be fine as long as the WWE doesn’t push him as crazily as they did during his ECW Title reign.
Big Show can be used as a great tool to help put others over, and I think the WWE desperately needs some over talent to feed to the up and the comers. Guys like MVP and Kennedy need a monster to conquer to get them over, and since the WWE is usually to protective of their top-level guys (like Taker and HH), they’re not getting the kinds of wins they should be in order to be taken as real threats. Wins against Big Show can fix that.
Considering the nature of my column, I guess I should ask if Big Show Can Be Champ. Well, I don’t see that happening. The WWE is in a place where a lot of younger guys are about to break out onto the main event scene. They don’t have time to give the belt to former world champions who are already over (unless your name is Undertaker or HHH). Besides, like I said before, I really want to see Big Show feuding with mid-card guys to help push them to the main event. I don’t really want to see Big Show himself in the main event.
I guess I may as well go on predicting things. Which show do I see Big Show on? Well, I doubt we’ll see him back on ECW, since they have their own giant in Big Daddy V that they want to get over. Sure, they may want Big Show to eventually feud with or put him over, but knowing the nature of ECW these days, they can do that no matter what show Big Show is on. So, Raw or Smackdown. Well, I could guess, but it wouldn’t really be founded on anything. Still, I said earlier that I think Big Show may be HHH’s mystery opponent at next week’s Raw. I still think that’s a possibility, but I’m not going to be the farm on it.
I guess we’re just going to have to wait and see.
I want to thank everyone who writes comments on my column. I try to respond to everything, so keep them coming.
Of course, if you’re still looking for that personal touch, you can stillemail me your questions or comments, and I’ll respond to them on next week’s column.
Thanks for reading, everyone.
