King or Joker

Triple H vs. Sheamus: Wrestlemania 26

By Chad Smart

One of my self-imposed conditions when I started writing guest blogs here on My 1-2-3 Cents (cheap plug) was to never write something based on Internet rumor. Anything I wrote about had to somehow be something I could back up based on what was presented in front of the television cameras or in an authorized interview. That’s why when I write about my frustrations with TNA, I don’t mention anything concerning how much money the wrestlers make, or who has backstage power. Quite frankly, I don’t care about any of that. As a wrestling fan, I concern myself with what is being presented to me for my entertainment. So, I try to focus my writings are aspects that are inspired by what I either enjoy with the current wrestling product or am greatly annoyed by on a weekly basis. That said, the first item of discussion violates my one rule. But it’s something that has passed the point of oddness and gone to straight up baffling.

As I mentioned in my, It Doesn’t Matter if you Win or Lose blog, Sheamus has won only one televised match since winning the King of the Ring tournament at the end of November. I hadn’t really paid too much attention to Sheamus’ win-loss record over the last few months because he was still getting plenty of airtime and it seemed like only a matter of time until the self proclaimed King of Kings, Triple H return and we’d get a battle of the Kings. Well, Triple H returned and set his sights directly on the Undertaker. There was no mention of Sheamus putting him on the shelf for 10 months. A week after returning, Triple H started off Raw talking about why he wanted to face the Undertaker, no attention was paid to Sheamus.

During Triple H’s promo, Sheamus came out to confront H. Their confrontation led to a brawl and Triple H laid out Sheamus with ease. After a commercial break, the anonymous Raw General Manager informed Sheamus since he was scheduled for a match before Triple H laid him out; Sheamus was still going to have that match. Sheamus’ opponent turned out to be the returning Evan Bourne. If memory serves me right, last year when Sheamus was World Champion he beat Evan Bourne in a couple of matches that probably didn’t total 5 minutes combined. This time it was Evan’s turn to pick up a victory in about two minutes.

What is the reasoning behind Sheamus’ recent lack of victories? Rumor has it (again I stress this is Internet rumor and may not be accurate) WWE Producer Kevin Dunn (I think that’s his title) doesn’t like Sheamus and thus has gotten the creative team to not put Sheamus in any major angle or storyline. If, and I stress, IF this is true, do I have to mention how stupid it is.

Since his debut on Raw, Sheamus was presented as a big deal. After only two months, Sheamus defeated John Cena in a Tables match to win the WWE Championship. After a two-month reign, Sheamus lost the title at Elimination Chamber 2010. From there he feuded with Triple H for two months eventually "injuring" Triple so bad he wasn’t seen for ten months. Sheamus regained the WWE Championship and had another two-month title reign. So after two title reigns and putting one of the company’s biggest stars on the sidelines, someone in upper management decides Sheamus shouldn’t be a major player? I can understand that sometimes a wrestler gets more than he deserves and Sheamus was definitely at the point when he won his first championship. A lot of people would probably argue Lex Lugar is an example of someone who was continually pushed despite never living up to expectations. I would counter by saying Randy Orton was presented as someone bigger than he deserved for years until the fans finally accepted he was never going away and started to cheer him because they had no other choice. But I digress.

By the time he won his second championship and definitely by the time he won the King of the Ring, Sheamus was getting a solid reaction from the crowd. From a fan’s perspective, his in-ring work looked good enough to be credible. So what is the problem with Sheamus? Why has he been reduced to the modern day Pedro Morales? Or for you newer fans, a modern day Scottie 2 Hottie.

Sheamus’ devaluation is one of my reasons for disliking the trend of putting major titles on young talent. In the last year we’ve seen Sheamus, Jack Swagger, and Dolph Ziggler all become World Champion after being on the main roster for a relatively short period of time. The biggest problem with their winning is where do they go once they lose the title? How many people even remember Jack Swagger was champion? Now we’re getting into an area that would make for another blog. I’ll wrap this one up by simply asking, what did Sheamus do to go from top-level talent to jobber to the stars in the span of months?