The Piledriver Report 07.23.08: The Rise of the WWE’s New Blood

In April of 2000, World Championship Wrestling presented a unique storyline. Due to millions of complaints over the years of the booking committee always pushing the same tired old acts, WCW decided to freshen things up.

On April 10th of that year, the new booking team of Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff decided to declare every title in the company vacant. The duo decided to lead a group of under pushed and younger wrestlers that they dubbed the “New Blood.” This faction consisted of Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, Buff Bagwell, Bam Bam Bigelow, Chris Candido, Crowbar, Disco Inferno, Shane Douglas, David Flair, Goldberg, Juventud Guerrera, Horace Hogan, Jeff Jarrett, Mark Jindrak, Johnny the Bull, Kanyon, Billy Kidman, Konnan, Ernest Miller, Rey Mysterio, Jr., Sean O’Haire, Chuck Palumbo, Reno, Mike Sanders, Shawn Stasiak, Scott Steiner, Vampiro, Big Vito, The Wall, and Shane Helms.

Their main rivals were a group called the “Millionaire’s Club.” This stable consisted of older veterans who, it was believed, held down the wrestlers of the “New Blood” from rising to the top of the cards. The “Millionaire’s Club” consisted of Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Hulk Hogan, Diamond Dallas Page, Jim Duggan, Randy Savage, Terry Funk, Curt Hennig, Sting, Sid Vicious, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall.

The feud between the New Bloods and Millionaires ultimately failed, as the booking team failed to create many new stars from the New Blood faction. Creating new stars was the whole point of the rivalry to begin with.

In 2000, WCW tried to freshen things up due to lower ratings. Today, World Wrestling Entertainment finds themselves in a similar position. Before the WWE Brand Draft, the shows that the WWE presented felt stale and stagnant. You had the same guys being pushed in the same spots. Very rarely would someone new break through the glass ceiling. What was the WWE to do?

Luckily the WWE learned from the mistakes of WCW. Instead of creating an under pushed vs. veterans feud, the WWE tried to create a handful of new stars. There were a couple of errors that WCW made with the “New Blood” vs. the “Millionaire’s Club.” First, they exposed their veterans as being old and past their prime. Secondly, the “new blood” was made to look so weak in the past that even when a wrestler like Billy Kidman scored a pinfall victory over Hulk Hogan, it was accomplished in a way where Kidman picked up absolutely no momentum. The third mistake was that instead of focusing on a few new stars to try to build, the “New Bloods” consisted of just about EVERY under utilized guy in the promotion.

I like the way the WWE is pushing their version of the “New Bloods.” The fans aren’t being told “here are the young guys, cheer for them.” Instead the WWE is being more subtle. Look at the current list of champions that in the WWE right now. On RAW, the World Heavyweight champion is CM Punk, the Intercontinental Champion is Kofi Kingston, the Tag Team title holders are Ted DiBiase, Jr. and Cody Rhodes. The Women’s champion is Mickie James. On SmackDown!, the WWE World Champion is Triple H. Shelton Benjamin holds the US title. Edge’s lackeys of Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder just won the Tag Team titles. Michelle McCool captured the new Diva’s belt. Even ECW has Mark Henry capturing his first title as the new ECW World Champion.

What do most of the wrestlers on this list have in common? Aside from Triple H, Mickie James, and Cody Rhodes, this is their first run with the particular belt they are holding. Despite already holding the Tag Championship, Rhodes feels like a fresh face on the title scene. He has a new partner. Cody is still in his rookie season in the major league circuit. Rhodes new heel turn makes him feel like a fresh face, as well.

While Mickie is in the middle of her fourth title reign, her current reign and the end of her third reign are almost a year apart. Plus, she just recaptured the belt in April, so it’s not like she has had a strangle hold on the title for a year.

Aside from a two and a half hour title reign last October, Triple H was last called World Champion on April 3, 2005 when he walked to the ring in the main event at WrestleMania 21. Even though Triple H is a thirteen time World Champion, he hasn’t held the World title for a long stretch of time since the early spring of 2005. His current reign as WWE World champion just started this past April, so this reign isn’t as annoying as his previous runs where he had a death grip on the belt.

One of the great things that the WWE is doing with all of their new young titleholders is that these performers aren’t being shoved down our throats. They aren’t telling the fans “Here’s your champions. Root for them, because you better get used to them.” Quite the contrary.

This is not a case of the WWE giving a wrestler a belt, along with a top spot, before they are ready for it. There should be no “Die Rocky Die” chants. First of all, the belts do not mean as much as they did ten to twelve years ago. The WWE is using the belts to give these people a rub, to give them some legitimacy due to what the belts once represented.

Also, despite holding most of the championships in the WWE, these new titleholders have less pressure on themselves when compared to former champions of the past, like Hulk Hogan (WWF World) or Tito Santana (Intercontinental). The WWF relied on those competitors to help draw the gate, and bring the fans into the building.

Today, CM Punk may be the World Heavyweight champion. However, John Cena is still the main star of Monday Night RAW. In the past, once a person becomes the champion, especially the World champion, it is looked at as a “passing of the torch.” That performer usually is needed to carry the show/company. However, this is no longer the case. Punk doesn’t have to shoulder this burden on his own. There’s John Cena battling Bradshaw. Kane attacking Batista. Shawn Michaels going to war against Chris Jericho. I didn’t even mention Randy Orton, who will be back from his injury in several weeks. By having this main event players in key spots, without holding a title, it alleviates the pressure of the new titleholders. Guys like Lance Cade, who isn’t holding a title, gets a major rub from his associate with a top guy like Chris Jericho.

John Cena, John Bradshaw Layfield, Kane, Batista, Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, and Randy Orton (when he comes back from injury) can all be counted on to carry the load on RAW as wrestlers like CM Punk, and Lance Cade ease their way into the upper echelon of the RAW roster. Eventually, the addition of these new batch of stars will be looked at as true main event talent., where the fans will be popping for them as opposed to the established star they are fighting.

On SmackDown!, Triple H, Edge, and the soon to be returning Undertaker can carry the load while the WWE plants the seeds for guys like Ken Kennedy, Jeff Hardy, and hopefully Shelton Benjamin become permanent fixtures on the main event playing field.

This column has been finding a lot of things negative that the WWE has been doing lately. However, the way they are going about elevating performers like CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Ted DiBiase, Jr., Cody Rhodes, Curt Hawkins, and Zack Ryder has been extremely refreshing. Maybe I don’t agree with everything that they have done during these characters’ elevation, but I will give them credit for giving us something different to watch each week. I mean, can CM Punk get one clean pinfall victory? When a wrestling promotion tries to push a group of new stars, usually one or two break out and become hugely popular. If a couple of these performers can become the breakout stars that the WWE is hoping for, then the WWE will be able to present exciting, fresh match-ups that their fans have been craving for awhile. If that can happen, ratings and buy rates will go up due to the renewed interest in the product, and the WWE roster will be in great shape heading into the immediate future.

Maybe then the IWC, myself included, will no longer have anything to complain about. How nice would that be? Hopefully, we will finally find out.