The Best Of The Rest 8.27.08: Volume 56 – The Pro’s & Con’s of the E’s Brand Champions Continued…

Hello all and welcome back to “The Best Of The Rest.” Hope all is well with everyone since our last meeting. Last week I discussed the Pro’s and Con’s of the E’s current brand champions. Referring to the WWE Title, World Heavyweight, and ECW Title. Well I received several comments and e-mail suggesting that some of you would like to
hear the Pro’s and Con’s of the E’s mid-card champions. Well I have never written a column based off of reader feedback, so I figure now is a better time to start than any other. So for this week’s column I’m going to take a look at the P’s & C’s of the Intercontinental, US, Women’s, and Divas champions. Let’s get down to it!

WWE Intercontinental Champion:
Santino Marella

Pro’s:
The Intercontinental Championship has always been used as a tool to often foreshadow that who ever holds to title may be destined for bigger and better things. I think Santino is bound for big things, with his unbelievable charisma and incredible mic skills it’s only natural that he could become a star in the E. His pairing with Beth Phoenix could lead to great thing. If Santino were to become the manager of Beth and speak for her, the duo could become of the main points of the Raw brand. Santino has impressed so much thus far in his short career and seems to show more and more potential every time we see him in a heel role. I think he is one of the few today that could literally draw old-school throwing trash in the ring heat when given the right platform. If used in the right role, I think Santino has a great future ahead of him.

Con’s:
Ever since the IC title was brought back several years ago it hasn’t seemed to have the same importance it once has. As of late it seems just like a belt to add on to someone’s wardrobe or an extra label to give an individual to make them seem more important. Chris Jericho’s latest IC reign is a perfect example. He is way above holding a mid-card title, but they put it on him just to make him seem more important. Now onto Santino… I think that the most apparent flaw of Santino is his in-ring skill. No one will question his ability to be entertaining, but his wrestling is the weakest facet of his game. I think he has a world ahead of him in a manger/personality role, but in the ring I just don’t see his work standing the test of time and I don’t see the need for him having the IC strap.

WWE United States Champion:
Shelton Benjamin

Pro’s:
Shelton Benjamin with a title and more TV time is always good in my book. Shelton is one of the best P4P wrestlers that the E has, and the fact that he has a new heel gimmick is just the kind of fresh boost that Shelton needed. Shelton was floundering on ECW, he just wasn’t doing much of anything. But since moving to SmackDown he has looked solid and won the title in an extremely convincing fashion over someone who worked incredibly hard to win said title. Shelton is an incredible athlete who can have a great match with most, and sell like murder for damn near anyone. Shelton has been, and will continue to be one of the strongest links on the E’s chain.

Con’s:
The United States title has meant very little since in debuted in the E. Which is a shame, considering that at one time it was very important in WCW. On the plus side, the title looks like the 4th of July. I digress. Shelton is the gatekeeper. Plain and simple. I don’t think he will ever reach above mid-card title holder status. He’ll always hold a lower-tier title, he’ll always have great matches, he’ll usually be in the MITB match, but I highly doubt he will ever win “the big one.” That is the main down point of Shelton, and I am not blaming this all on the E. Shelton has always been able to get over face or heel but has never seemed to have that “star status” around him. But of course the E can force anyone they want to be a star. See: Ultimate Warrior, Edge, etc. In the end, Shelton is an amazing wrestler but will most likely never get the green light to go to the next level.

WWE Women’s Champion:
Beth Phoenix

Pro’s: Obviously the greatest Pro about “The Glamazon” being the WWE Women’s champion is that she is undeniably the best female wrestler on the E’s roster, with Mickie James being a close second. She has shown time and time again that, when given the right amount of time, can have a good match with damn near anyone on the E’s roster (male or female). She can work the “I’m a beast and you ain’t got shit on me” story or the “Damn, how is this person getting the best of me?” story. She is a true practitioner of the craft. If she could add on Santino as her mouth piece and manager I think she could be the most over heel-female wrestler in the past 10 or so years.

Con’s:
My only knock on Beth is that her mic skills aren’t the strongest. But then again, that’s why she and Santino could make the perfect combination. Another problem that Beth could run into while being the women’s champ of the Raw brand is lack of competition… well good competition. Beth, Mickie, and Katie Lea. That’s it on Raw. We’ve seen her have some great matches with Mickie, and I eagerly anticipate a possible series of matches with Katie Lea. I think the E would be smart to put all the tag teams on one show and all the women on another. That way we can have all of each division constantly interacting. But until something like that happens the women’s division on each show will grow more and more stale.

WWE Divas Champion:
Michelle McCool

Pro’s:
The improvement that McCool has shown since the Divas search or whatever has been astounding. I hadn’t seen her work in sometime, and then I saw her match against Nattie Neidhart at the GAB and was very impressed. It looked like a different wrestler. Plus I totally dig her incorporation of the heel hook (one of my favorite MMA submissions). I think for her improvement and the fact that she is relatively over she was probably the best choice to be the “Divas” champion. I’m not sure how much of a title reign we can expect from her, but I’m for sure of fan of hers now and look forward to what her title defenses bring. (By the way: I could have found a picture of her holding her title, but when I found that one I stopped searching.)

Con’s:
Let’s start with the most obvious… the belt looks like utter shit. I understand and appreciate the fact that the E wants to establish a female division on both shows, but the title looks like a joke and referring to the champion as a “Diva” doesn’t really instill the toughest image. Another downer is the fact that there only about 5 women other women who wrestle on SmackDown that could be in “title contention.” So, like I stated earlier, we’ll get the same few matches over and over again. While I think that SmackDown has a richer pool of talented female wrestlers it could grow stale if the E doesn’t add on some more talented female wrestlers.

Well that’s all for me this week. Come back next week for the final installment of the P’s & C’s of the E’s tag titles as well of the TNA World Title and the ROH World Title. Until then, take care.

Remember feedback, as always, is welcome at [email protected]

*This Week’s YouTube Sendoff*

^Go see the movie!^

See you next week.
-Alex