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| Dan Wahlers talks the return of Christian to WWE |
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Christian’s Return On ECW: A Positive or Negative? This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Christian made his long awaited return to WWE last night on the live ECW broadcast from Fresno, Calif. The fact that he was coming back to WWE was one of the worst kept secrets in wrestling over the past few months. It was merely a matter of when, not a matter of if. The fact that he made his return on WWE’s least watched television show was a huge shocker, however, since it’s certainly not the way most people would have booked his return. After all, Christian didn’t leave a relatively high position on the TNA roster to come back and curtain jerk as part of the ECW roster in WWE did he? You wouldn’t think so. To understand how we arrived at what happened last night, we have to go back and look at the evolution of Christian’s return to WWE. Since Christian would be the first talent to jump to TNA from WWE, and then return back to WWE. There were a lot of questions about how he would be treated by Vince McMahon upon his return, since it was widely reported that McMahon was very unhappy when he initially made the decision to go to TNA back in 2005. But early reports indicated that they had plans to involve Christian in one of the top storylines in the company, as he would be revealed as the guy that had been behind all of Jeff Hardy’s accidents and mishaps on Smackdown. That would be an instant main event level program for Christian, something he never attained during his first tenure in WWE. There was talk about linking Christian and Edge on TV again, which only seemed natural based on the history they have together. While Christian went to seek what he thought would be greener pastures in TNA, Edge had risen up the ladder in WWE to become one of the top main event stars and best heels in the company. Everything seemed to be lining up for Christian to make a huge return, and set himself up for a big money match at Wrestlemania 25, and a significantly higher position on the card in WWE than he was at when he left. There was a huge expectation that Christian would be making his return at the Royal Rumble in Detroit a few weeks ago, where he would cost Jeff Hardy the WWE Championship against Edge, and the storyline would be off and running for Wrestlemania. Christian was never advertised as being on the show, obviously, but there were a lot of people disappointed when he didn’t appear on the PPV. But one thing everyone forgot in all of this is we’re talking about Vince McMahon here, a man that is known to change his mind when it comes to booking on an almost daily basis. That’s one of the reasons why there is very little long-term planning in the company, Vince is always changing his mind. And he apparently decided that too many people had found out about their plans for Christian, choosing to subscribe to the Vince Russo theory where you book to swerve the internet wrestling fans. That may have been a novel approach in 1998. The only problem is its 2009. It’s the same thing they did with the return of Chris Jericho in late 2007. Everyone on the internet had figured out that Jericho was returning, and instead of bringing him back when the excitement and interest in his return was at its peak in October, they decided they had to hold it off a few more weeks to swerve everyone. When Jericho finally did make his return in November, the impact was a lot less than it would have been, and he got off to a very bumpy start during the first few months of his return. Booking to swerve the internet fans is something I’ve just never understood. They make up such a small percentage of the overall paying audience, it’s always amazing to me how much attention is paid to what they know, or what they think. It’s a mindset that began during the Monday Night Wars, and has continued into present times long after they’ve ended. Because the internet smart fans had found out about the plans for Christian, the whole thing was dropped in the week before the Royal Rumble. They decided to go with Plan B, which was of course, the Matt Hardy heel turn. I think Matt’s heel turn has been done very well so far. I loved the promo he did to start Smackdown two weeks ago. I know a lot of people didn’t like it. But I thought the post production with the eerie background music, and the old pictures of Matt and Jeff flashing on the screen while Matt talked about how Jeff was no longer his brother, was some fantastic stuff. It was unique and different, and I think Matt showed himself to be up to the task of delivering a main event level promo, which is something people have been saying for years that he wasn’t capable of doing. I’d like to see how the storyline plays out, but so far I think it’s off to a good start. That brings us back to Christian, and after his planned storyline with Jeff Hardy was aborted, they needed to come up with something else for him to do. You figure someone the caliber of Christian would be a welcome edition to the roster on either Raw or Smackdown. But neither one of those shows is where they decided for him to make his big return. If you’re one of the 1.5 million or so people that watch ECW every week, then you were probably as surprised as me when Christian came walking out at the beginning of the show last night. It was the first time in a long time that I’ve been genuinely surprised when watching wrestling. WWE certainly got the surprise factor they wanted, because I don’t know anyone that saw that coming. But they also chose to do it on the ‘C’ show that the fewest number of people watch. It’s a very curious and head scratching decision to say the least. You can look at Christian on the ECW in several ways. You can say that Christian helps boost a very weak roster, and makes ECW a relevant show again. You can say that Christian gets the opportunity to be a big fish in a small pond, and be himself on a show that is free from a lot of the political mine fields and creative meddling that you have on the other shows. You can also say that Vince McMahon is making a statement with this move. The statement is that Christian left the company in 2005, and he didn’t like that, and he may have welcomed Christian back, but he’s going to have to start at the bottom again and work himself back up. This could be his payback to Christian for leaving, and a signal to any of the former WWE wrestlers that are in TNA now, and may be considering a return to WWE: “We’ll take you back, but you’re going to do some time in purgatory first.” On the surface, Christian being on ECW is nothing but a positive for the show. It gives them someone to replace Matt Hardy as the top face on the roster. The interest in his return may help boost the ratings for the show. He gives Jack Swagger an established name to feud with. Plus with wrestlers routinely appearing on all three brands with no rhyme or reason, Christian will certainly be on Raw and/or Smackdown sooner rather than later. But I also can’t help but imagine that fighting for the ECW Title on WWE’s ‘C’ show isn’t quite what Christian had in mind when he made the decision to leave TNA. It’s certainly quite a demotion from reuniting with Edge on Smackdown, and getting involved in a high profile feud with Jeff Hardy, and wrestling in one of the top matches at Wrestlemania. Now, he’ll be lucky to get on the Wrestlemania card. It all kind of goes back to what Vince McMahon said about him a number of years ago. Christian’s name was brought up at a creative meeting as someone that was over, and that they should consider elevating, and giving a bigger push. Vince’s response was that he didn’t see Christian as anything more than a midcarder. I don’t think his opinion has changed much in the three years since Christian was gone. They had a chance to do something big with him, and take advantage of the buzz that his return was creating. Instead they stuck him on ECW, and whether it was designed to boost the sagging show, and get people talking about it again, or a punishment, or a combination of both, remains to be seen. He’ll make the show better, and he’ll get regular PPV and house show bookings, and I’m sure he’ll make a decent paycheck. But ultimately, it’s still ECW, a show that not a lot of people watch or care about, and proof of that is in how shockingly little coverage this is getting in the wrestling world today. Had he returned on Raw or even Smackdown, there would be a huge buzz going around today. Oh, people are talking about it, but it’s nothing like the buzz I felt around the time of the Royal Rumble, when everyone was sure he was coming back. I don’t sense that feeling today, and I think this will go down as yet another in a long line of wasted opportunities in WWE history. It’s up to them to prove me wrong. I will be back later in the week with a preview and predictions column for the No Way Out PPV on Sunday. I didn’t want to include it today, and make this a super long column. So I hope you’ll come back and check that out. Thanks for reading today. Until next time, take care and be well. You can send feedback to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/danwahlers |
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