Can They Be Champ? 7.10.07 The WWE Championship: The Next Six Months

Well, here we go again. Last week, I talked about where I thought the World Heavyweight Championship would be heading for the next six months. This week I’ll be giving the WWE Championship the same treatment. With the Raw roster so full of stars, it’ll be a bit harder to predict, but fear not, for I shall go there. I will boldly make predictions, opening myself to possible future criticism from my peers, all for my readers.

Actually, no one has ever called me out on a prediction before. I must either be really good, or my readers must be really apathetic.

First off, let’s address this whole Kane becoming the number 1 contender for the WHC. Now, I didn’t mention Kane anywhere on last weeks column, but I could hardly be blamed. The “Kane Effect” is random and hard to predict. They’ll job that character out for over a year, and then he’ll suddenly get a title shot out of nowhere. This isn’t the first time, and it probably won’t be the last.

I doubt this feud can last longer than one PPV. I still think Rey will become the number 1 contender for Summerslam.

Alright, with that out of the way…

The WWE Championship: The Next Six Months

First things first. John Cena vs. Bobby Lashley at the Great American Bash. Both of these men are current golden boys in the WWE, so this will be kind of hard to predict. The WWE clearly has already let Cena’s current reign last almost a year. Would they really just let it end unceremoniously at the Great American Bash? But the WWE is hot on Lashley. They went to extreme lengths to get him over, including a huge feud with Mr. McMahon. So I won’t be surprised to see Lashley win the title eventually. But this at GAB? I doubt it.

Cena is sure to have a harder time walking away with his title at Summerslam. Likely opponents include for Cena include Lashley, King Booker, Orton, and Mr. Kennedy, or any combination of the above. Most likely will be another match with Lashley, this time being some sort of gimmick match. The WWE seems to love repeating PPV main events these days.

The real question is not who Cena will face at Summerslam, but if he will win. I’m going to have to guess that he will. All of the guys I’ve listed are good challengers for Cena’s title, but I can’t see them taking the belt off of Cena.

After Summerslam, Kennedy, Orton, King Booker, and Lashley will be the main challengers for the WWE title, and will probably be involved in the Unforgiven, Cyber Sunday, and other PPV main events. That is, until Trips returns.

And Triple H really is the biggest factor here. After a feud or two reestablishing his dominance (probably against Orton and Mr. Kennedy), I imagine HHH will challenge for and eventually win the WWE title, by Wrestlemania 24 at the latest.

So, who does the WWE want HHH to take the title off of? I doubt they would want him to take it off of Lashley. They’ve been building him as an unstoppable force, and a big loss to HHH may really hurt him momentum. A loss to Cena, who has had more than his fair share of title retaining, wouldn’t be as bad. Besides, we know that WWE wanted to do Cena vs. HHH at WM23 before Trips was injured. I’m sure they still want to do that match.

So I think that Cena is going to hold onto the title, until he loses it to HHH. It could be as early as Survivor Series or as late as WM24. The next most likely scenario would be Cena losing the title Lashley soon, either at Great American Bash or Summerslam. The Cena as champion video package they showed on Raw sort of makes me think that it just might help him. It feels like they’re building up Cena so that it’ll mean as much as possible when Lashley beats him. Or maybe they just showed the package since Cena couldn’t actually be at Raw.

Wait, Lashley just got the same video package treatment. This is what happens when you try to write a column while watching Raw.

Anyways, that’s what I think is going down, and I’m sticking to it.

Unless they do something crazy and have Snitsky challenge Cena. Hopefully that’ll wait until next year.

Hey Mike,

I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to watch RAW this week. I TiVo’d it, and still wasn’t sure. Finally I watched it this afternoon.

It is really refreshing to see a show based more on matches than on recycled soap opera plots. I dig Regal in charge, and think that was when he was a great character, and they should keep him in that role.

But one thing that I cannot let go of; How can Vince in any sort of mental state think that passing by a real talent like Sheldon for an obvious steroid user like Lashley is a good idea?

So much of the speculation is that steroids had something to do with what happened to Benoit, and if not the ‘roids themselves, maybe it was any number of the other drugs he was using. He murdered his own wife and son, and without any toxicology reports Vince has not only convinced himself that steroids were not a factor, he has ignored all the wrestlers on all the other shows in the last week, talking about how the only way to get ahead is to juice, and has made a man who looks like a character from He-Man the number one contender.

It is a slap in the face, and it is playing games with the people who watch the show, and with the people who are now set on regulating professional wrestling.

I may or may not watch RAW next week, but whatever Vince gets in relation to the Benoit case, he deserves.

-James Stovall

Trust me when I say I’m not one of Lashley’s biggest fans, and I agree that it’s a shame that men like him get more TV time instead of great athletes like Shelton. Still, its hard to blame him. The fans cheer for Lashley. They got into him in a way they never got into Shelton. Sure, some of it is due to the WWE’s booking, but fans have traditionally cheered very muscular faces. I think the fans that cheer Lashley for his mediocrity are just as much to blame as WWE creative is.

As for what Vince is going to have coming to him, it probably won’t be much. At worse he may be forced to enforce a stricter wellness policy. And I’m not sure if he should be punished anymore. I don’t really like blaming any other than Benoit for what Benoit did. Not Vince, not his doctor, just Benoit.

Thanks for your comments.

Well, the long and winding road has come to its end this week (what a dramatic way to say I’m done typing). I may continue this trend for next week and look at the future of either the TNA or ECW titles, or maybe both.

Keep the comments and such coming. Have a good week, everyone.