That Was Then, Is This Too? 04.06.10: So You’ve Cashed In…

Welcome to yet another installment of That Was Then, Is This Too?, the column that looks for parallel lines in all the right places. Unfortunately I’m suffering from a spectacular bout of bronchitis, so I’ll have to be brief this week. As usual, we have comments:

ROH runs “intimate venues”….aka….really small places.

Posted By: Max Maverick (Registered) on March 30, 2010 at 05:19 PM

That’s one way of putting it, but ROH has managed to draw over 2.500 people into the Hammerstein Ballroom in the past, and regularly posts larger numbers in their home territories than TNA does in its house shows.

The worst part is, ROH’s message boards have been down since two weeks before Wrestlemania.

There’s no excuse for that, they’re having their biggest shows of the year right now.

Posted By: Guest#6826 (Guest) on March 30, 2010 at 06:02 PM

That’s something that’s been bugging me too, considering how important the ROH message board is for its fans. As far as I can tell, it’s the main place fans organize car pools and street teams, and I really feel ROH has lost out by taking the forums down so short before their big show.

“CHIKARA generally only has a fraction of the audience ROH has, but they still produce DVDs that outclass ROH in both video and audio quality and stage setup. Of course CHIKARA has the benefit of sponsoring from Smart Mark Video, but at this point that’s really no excuse.”

There are no words to describe just how wrong this is. SmartMarkVideo DVDs are DVD-Rs. Every single DVD I’ve bought from them (including CHIKARA DVDs) no longer play. They’re AWFUL quality DVDs. ROH DVDs are far from perfect, but at least they’re professionally pressed and actually work in the long run.

Posted By: Guest#8477 (Guest) on March 30, 2010 at 06:12 PM

The production values I’m referring to in this case are the video and sound quality. While I’m aware that Smart Mark Video uses DVD-Rs, I’ve never had any of the problems you describe.

great point about the higher quality presentation by CHIKARA. They really do a great job with alot less. Just compare the Podcast-a-go-go and the video wire segments. As someone who has been fully behind ROH for many years, its about time that they look at their product and realize that they can do so much better.

Posted By: tzmission7 (Guest) on March 30, 2010 at 07:59 PM

Yes, I’m curious why they aren’t producing regular video wires anymore, especially since they could easily use an HDNet studio to produce them.

Well doesn’t tat vid show that they are improving?

Posted By: Guest#2028 (Guest) on March 30, 2010 at 11:55 PM

It does, but most of the segment was produced in a studio, while it’s the video and audio of the shows themselves they need to improve. It definitely shows the positive influence of Jim Cornette though.

That leads us to Banner 2.0!

This past Friday, Jack Swagger shocked the world by successfully cashing in his Money in the Bank title shot against Chris Jericho, who was still reeling from the beating he had received at the hands of Edge. It was the shortest anyone had ever taken to cash in their title shot, with just five days having passed since he won the briefcase (two if you count the fact that SmackDown is taped on Tuesdays, which WWE rarely does). This places the young Swagger right in the middle of a title feud involing the two top veterans currently on the blue brand.

This places Swagger in an interesting position. While he is the champion of the blue brand, the actual feud for the title seems to be taking place between the contenders rather than a contender and the champion. As it stands, general manager Teddy Long has booked a match between the two Canadians for this week’s SmackDown, with the winner presumably getting a title shot at the upcoming Extreme Rules PPV, with a stipulation to be determined.

It will be interesting to see how Swagger’s first reign as world heavyweight champion develops. Will he be a paper champion that just holds the belt while Chris Jericho and Edge have the real feud, taking up the camera time and PPV main events Swagger needs to make him a credible champion? Or will he be an actual fighting champion, using his superior wrestling skills to prove the naysayers wrong and holding on to the belt for at least a few months, successfully fending off the blue brand’s best and brightest?

It’s certainly been one hell of a ride so far. As Jim Ross so often likes to remind us, Swagger was the last wrestler he recruited as head of talent relations. He came from a traditional background, having competed as both a football player and a wrestler in college. He became an All American, scoring a record-breaking amount of pinfalls in the process. He went to WWE straight out of college, spending two years in Deep South, Ohio Valley and Florida Championship Wrestling and holding the heavyweight championship of the latter.

From there he went to ECW, which had at that point become little more than a transitional program between FCW and the red and blue rands. With his amateur background and Oklahoma roots he immediately established himself as a heel, even borrowing the Doctor Bomb from fellow Oklahoman “Dr. Death” Steve Williams. His amateur credentials became the main motivation for his feud with Tommy Dreamer, who, as a hardcore icon, was the polar oposite of Swagger. Dreamer would take Swagger’s amateur challenge, losing by disqualification when he kicked Swagger in the head in frustration, before defeating Swagger in an extreme rules match. Swagger had his sights set on higher goals however, and he managed to start off 2009 by defeating Matt Hardy for his ECW championship. He successfully defended his title against Hardy at the Royal RUmble and Finlay at No Way Out. He was left off the WrestleMania 25 card, and lost his ECW championship to the returning Christian at Backlash. He got a few more shots at the title, but came up short every time.

When the draft came around, Swagger made the jump to the red brand. He made his debut by deliberately getting counted out as part of a gauntlet match, trying to impress Randy Orton. From there he went into a feud for the United States championship, coming up short against both Kofi Kingston and The Miz. From there he went pretty much straight to midcard hell, still appearing on television every now and then but never achieving anything of note.

That all changed when WrestleMania XXVI came around and he successfully captured the Money in the Bank briefcase. That was a shocker in itself, but I don’t think anybody could have predicted him cashing in and capturing the championship as quickly as he did. Still, the Money in the Bank briefcase has been around for six years now, and Swagger has plenty of former champions he can learn from…

That Was Then…

When Edge cashed in his Money in the Bank title shot, he had been holding on to it for over ten months. It was at the 2006 New Year’s Revolution PPV, with Cena bloody and beaten after a having survived a gruelling elimination chamber match, when Edge finally decided the time was right. Cena still had a surprising amount of fight in him, actually kicking out of the first spear, but in the end he lost the WWE championship he had held onto since WrestleMania 21. In the end Edge would provide little more than a bump in the road for Cena, as he lost the title at the very next PPV. Still, we got some memorable moments out of Edge’s brief title reign, such as the live sex celebration, and it would permanently establish Edge as a main event star.

Rob Van Dam was a special case among Money in the Bank winners. Not only was he the only babyface winner to cash in his title shot as a proper babyface, but he was also the only winner to be burdened with the responsibility of carrying an entire brand. When WWE relaunched ECW in the summer of 2006, it was RVD who would be the focal point of the new brand, carrying both the WWE championship and the newly introduced ECW championship. Of course his reign would last only a few weeks, as he was caught with marijuana in his car. While the offense was light, RVD was still the face of the company at that point, and WWE decided to have him drop both belts on back to back shows before suspending him for thirty days. RVD would never win the title again, and was gone from the company the next year.

CM Punk’s first run with the title had also been handled rather dubiously, from the way he cashed in his title to the way he lost it. Even though he was a babyface at the time he lost his title in a very heelish way, jumping Edge after he had just recieved a brutal beating at the hands of Batista. He would fight Batista to a double disqualification at the Great American Bash and defeat JBL at SummerSlam before losing his title by forfeit at Unforgiven after getting beaten down backstage and being left unable to defend his match in the championship scramble.

All in all, it seems that wrestlers who have cashed in their Money in the Bank title shots for the first time haven’t faired too well. CM Punk held the title for only 69 days, and yet he held his title longer than any of the other winners. Does winning and cashing in the Money in the Bank title shot truly mean nothing at all, or is that too pessimistic a way of looking at things?

…Is This Too?

So far there have been six Money in the Bank winners. Edge and RVD cashed in successfully, Mr. Kennedy lost his briefcase to Edge and CM Punk cashed in successfully twice. Now they’re joined by Jack Swagger, who looks to find his own place in the blue brand’s main event scene. At first glance his chances seem slim, as the other first time winners have made relatively little of their title shots.

But that’s an unfair assessment to make. Sure, the first title reigns of Edge, Rob Van Dam and CM Punk might have been disappointing, but in two out of three cases both men would go on to become established main event level stars, and the only reason RVD didn’t was because of his attitude. Both Edge and Punk would go on to capture multiple world titles, and both would cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase at least once more (although Edge won his second briefcase by defeating Mr. Kennedy rather than winning the match at WrestleMania).

Over the past few years, it seems that WWE has had serious trouble establishing new world champions as truly dominant. Not since WrestleMania 21, where Batista and John Cena captured the title, have we seen new champions go on long reigns where they defeated multiple serious challengers. A great example of this problem is Sheamus, who captured the WWE championship through a fluke win in a tables match and would go his entire reign without pinning any challenger outside of the elimination chamber match in which he lost his title.

I think that, if booked correctly, Swagger could actually be the right man to carry the title to SummerSlam and maybe even beyond. He certainly has a very unique look and style, something that the WWE audience hasn’t seen in a long while. His mic skills could use a little polishing, but at the same time he is getting heat. Things could be made a lot easier for him by pairing him with the right babyface challenger, and I think Edge would be perfect for this role. However, even if Swagger does lose his title at Extreme Rules, history has proven that it by no means has to be the end of his main event career…