Anatomy of a Championship Era: Rob Van Dam vs. Jack Swagger

On Monday, April 19, 2010, TNA fans around the world rejoiced as Rob Van Dam defeated A.J. Styles to become the 10^th TNA World Heavyweight Champion.  In fact, Van Dam’s victory over Styles served as the cherry on top of a beautifully crafted banana split that a lot of fans justifiably believe was the best episode of TNA iMPACT since…well…ever!

The Van Dam Era is a well-needed, life saving penicillin shot in the backside for TNA at this point, as we can all now clearly see supporters and detractors more invested and intrigued in what’s going on in the Impact Zone in Orlando (as evidenced by the ratings points).

However, everything that is capable of producing great light is also capable of producing an even greater shadow.  In the case of Rob Van Dam’s run as TNA World Heavyweight Champion, there’s not enough ganja smoke in the world to cover up the company’s biggest problem with pushing Robert Szatkowski to the stratosphere so quickly.

Meanwhile back at the ranch in Stamford, CT, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Jack “Remember Me” Swagger continues to cement himself as a leader of the WWE’s main event future…God the future looks bleak for this company.

As the current holder of the World Heavyweight Championship, Swagger has yet to really solidify himself as someone deserving screen time with superstars the likes of…well, the superstars he’s been in the ring with.

This isn’t to say that Swagger isn’t deserving of a championship run.  He definitely has the athleticism, charisma, and look to be a champion, but he also has the same fan appeal as former WWE Champion Sheamus, who was and is about as popular as a dirty diaper on hot Georgia asphalt.

Given the current state of mainstream professional wrestling today (i.e. the top two companies), these champions will only satiate our hunger for fresh and exciting action inside the squared circle for a brief moment in time. 

Speaking on behalf of those looking over the horizon for brighter days, I do believe both TNA and the WWE are struggling to find a solid and firm creative direction for the future of their companies and their stars.

Simply put, these two stars are literally the faces of their respective companies, but they are so for all the wrong reasons.

Please allow me to be the proverbial bumblebee in your buttermilk.

Rob Van Dam and the TNA World Heavyweight Title

TNA iMPACT this past Monday started off with a bang and continued with this momentum throughout the live broadcast.  Several TNA stars, including Samoa Joe and Rob Terry, were elevated to new levels by rubbing shoulders with the company’s top stars and establishing themselves as serious threats to anyone who dared to trespass in their paths to the main event brass ring.

The “high”light of the night was the crowning of Rob Van Dam as TNA’s World Heavyweight Champion.  Earlier in the show (wisely placed around the time RAW was coming on), Van Dam had a stellar match against Jeff Hardy to determine the new number one contender to then champion A.J. Styles’ title.

Van Dam won that match and went on to face Styles at the end of the night.  The Impact Zone erupted at the sight of Van Dam’s victory, and they even dropped confetti from the ceiling as all the superstars celebrated the victory by lifting the new champion on their shoulders and parading him around the ring.

For the life of me, I can’t help but feel that all of this pomp and circumstance for Van Dam distracts us from TNA’s biggest problem to date…

TNA cannot create its own identity!

Regardless of Rob Van Dam’s status in the minds of pro wrestling fans, he’s still largely seen as a “former WWE superstar.”  So in effect, TNA has once again put their most valuable championship around the waist of a former WWE superstar, which inevitably makes everyone else in the company look like crap.

To TNA’s credit, a lot of fans will counter that argument with the fact that the same isn’t said about the WCW stars that rose to astronomical levels prominence in the WWE. 

To my knowledge, no one has ever complained that stars such as Eddie Guererro, Booker T, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, HHH, Edge, or The Undertaker were former WCW stars or jobbers that got main event pushes over more deserving, home grown WWE stars.

But that argument holds very little weight in the discussion due to the fact that it took years for all of these men to make it to the main event, which is probably one reason why you really don’t hear people complaining about all the former WCW stars in the WWE.

By the time those stars make it to the big show, they’re WWE Superstars and not ex-WCW wrestlers.

That’s what we love and hate about the WWE.  Daniel Bryan, for example, is being buried unnecessarily (in my opinion) each and every Tuesday night on NXT . 

On Tuesday night, Michael Cole flat out called the man a loser, when the truth of the matter is that he’s probably the most seasoned, decorated, and athletically gifted “rookie” on the entire show.

Let’s not forget the perceived mindset of Vince McMahon, however.  By changing his name to Daniel Bryan, by having him lose matches and competitions, and by exposing how green he really is on the mic, the WWE is literally telling fans, “He’s nothing until we make him something.”

Please don’t be fooled; the WWE sees the same potential in Bryan that most of us have seen in his work outside of the company, which is one of the main reasons they finally picked him up from ROH.  The WWE knows firsthand that Daniel Bryan is a big deal and they are carefully positioning themselves to ride his gravy train until it starts skeetin’ water.

But, and this is important to remember about the WWE, they must make him a WWE Superstar before his train leaves the station.  To do so, they have to erase from our collective memories everything we thought we knew about Bryan Danielson and introduce to the world Daniel Bryan.

The WWE wants to make money off of WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan, not Independent Wrestler Bryan Danielson.  This is why Monty Brown was slapped with the horrible Marcus Cor Von name, because the WWE wanted something they could market that had not already been marketed.

It also may take years before Bryan is given the ball to run with.  The WWE has mastered the art of separating a pro wrestler from where they came from in order to give a somewhat clear picture of where they’re going. 

It took Benoit, Guerrero, and Booker T around six years of hustling in the WWE before they won their first major championships.  In Booker’s case, he left WCW as a heavyweight champion and was brought into the WWE as a little more than a bad punch line to a joke no one wanted to hear.

If you can remember “Yeah I got yo’ pendant, sucka! ” as vividly as I can, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

TNA doesn’t do the same with the wrestlers they pull from other organizations, particularly the WWE.  The company has become notorious for hiring former WWE Superstars and thrusting them immediately into the limelight at the expense of their own homegrown talent.

Remember how mad you were when Christopher Daniels went to jobbing to Sean “Dead Gimmick” Morley after coming from an intense feud with A.J. Styles over the TNA World Heavyweight Championship?

Remember how pissed off you were when Christopher Daniels lost to Kurt Angle in a few minutes after jobbing to Morley?

Were you even disgruntled when you found out that TNA had let go of Christopher Daniels?  Were you mad when they let go of Petey Williams and his sick, flip piledriver?  Did you get slightly unnerved when Gail Kim and Awesome Kong, two of the pioneers of the Knockouts Division, left the company?

All of that so we could watch Orlando Jordan suggestively squirt lotion on his chest?

The same thing is happening with Rob Van Dam.  He is a huge asset for the company, undoubtedly.  No matter how many times we hear him referred to as a free agent he’s still remembered for his incredible run in ECW and his brief championship stint in the WWE. 

Paul Heyman gave Van Dam the opportunity to gain a cult following, Vince McMahon spent millions of dollars making him a superstar, and he’s yet to separate himself from either of those stigmas.

Six weeks into his TNA tenure, he beats A.J. Styles for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship on his first try.  Styles spent the last six months beating everyone imaginable in the company, including Sting and Kurt Angle.  But apparently, those athletes pale in comparison to Rob Van Dam, who managed to luck out and defeat the Champ after being in the company for only six weeks.

To put this into perspective, Sheamus debuted as a RAW superstar on October 29, 2009.  Seven weeks and one day later, on December 13, 2009, he defeated John Cena at the TLC: Tables, Ladders, Chairs pay per view to become the WWE Championship.

Fans hated this, and even to this day despise Sheamus for winning the championship.  They dislike his meteoric and mediocre rise to fame because they feel as if he should have worked his way up through the titles, giving the fans a chance to really hate or love him as well as giving him a chance to further develop his character in their eyes.

So…Rob Van Dam does the exact same thing in TNA, and we’re all excited about it?

Maybe we’re okay with Rob Van Dam’s victory because he’s a stellar and phenomenal athlete who’s already proven his worth and thusly deserves to hold the crown.

That line of thought just further proves my point.  Fans are excited for Rob Van Dam because of what he’s done outside of TNA, not because he’s worked his way up the TNA ranks and has proven he can go toe-to-toe with the most innovative and exciting roster in pro wrestling.

Would it have hurt the company or A.J. Styles to continue his feud with The Pope?  Could the company have benefitted from throwing Samoa Joe into the championship title race?  Hell, when will Robert Roode get a chance to run with the ball?

As long as the company refuses to promote, push, and put money behind their home grown talent, or at least work to separate their newly acquired talent from what they’ve done in the past, then all they’re going to do is continue to coast off of the fumes of the WWE’s former superstars.

They’ve got to learn out to market and brand their stars and TNA athletes/pro wrestlers/whatever.  Personally I liked “Generation Me” as Max and Jeremy, but the moment Taz and Mike Tenay referred to them as Max Buck and Jeremy Buck, I knew instantly that they were trying to connect the young stars with their prominence in ROH in an effort to win over some of their competition’s diehard fans.

That’s just tacky.

Jack Swagger and the WWE World Heavyweight Title

Jack Swagger’s reign as the WWE’s World Heavyweight Champion has been quite pedestrian thus far to say the least.

When cashing in his Money in the Bank opportunity against Chris Jericho, Swagger shocked the entire pro wrestling community.  Most fans predicted incorrectly that he would be the first person to win the opportunity and lose the actual championship match when he cashed in his briefcase.

At this point, the only thing Swagger’s run has accomplished is keep irate fans from complaining about how boring and stale the product is.  No one spotted his reign, not even from a mile away on a bright and sunny morning.

But where are all the people that once yelled and complained that Swagger deserved to be a heavyweight champ?  Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like all of these fans disappeared faster than Hade Vansen.  Perhaps they’re hiding somewhere with Hade Vansen, who knows?

However, Swagger is being billed as a champ that has to fight to prove his worth.    His attack on an already injured Chris Jericho was very “Edge-like,” in the sense that he capitalized an opportunity to defeat a wounded champion.  To me, that opportunity seemed more cowardly than opportunistic.

Then Swagger’s entire demeanor changed.  Instead of being this loud, braggadocios, obnoxious five-star caliber athlete, he turned into this stoic, emotionless drone that talks more than he really wrestles.

After that, he’s booked to flip-flop between RAW and Smackdown , even though he really should have brought the title to RAW seeing as he’s assigned to the brand.  That logic was thrown out of the window, seeing as the title trumps one’s allegiance to a given brand and he is now a Smackdown superstar.

When a number one contender’s match for his title between Chris Jericho and Edge went to a double count-out, did perennially on-probation placed GM Teddy Long have a tournament on his brand to declare a new number one contender? 

Nope.  RAW guest host David Hasselhoff awarded that Smackdown title to Randy Orton—a RAW supersta—after he defeated Swagger in a non-title match.

Why was Swagger back on RAW in the first place if he’s the holder of a Smackdown championship?  Why did Teddy Long deem it more important for Edge and Chris Jericho to end their feud than find another number one contender for his brand’s major championship?

Is Vince Russo moonlighting and ghost writing for the Hollywood writers in the WWE?

Jack Swagger’s reign is exactly one of the problems the WWE faces as we push towards the upcoming Draft, and it really has nothing to do with Swagger and his abilities.

Given the ratings for RAW , the WWE seems to be tapped creatively and they’ve neglected to groom their rising stars for the future.  If anything, they’re actually using their rising stars to elevate the veterans that dominate our TV screens and the pay per views already.

I believe that in order to shake things up momentarily, Jack Swagger was slapped with the burden of carrying the company as the champion until they can figure out what to do next.

Look at the situation objectively; as a fan, I find myself more intrigued with Edge and Jericho’s match at Sunday’s pay per view.  I also feel as if it’s confusing as to who is getting “the push,” as Orton’s face turn is gaining great momentum while Swagger’s just beginning to walk into the main even limelight.

Swagger benefits from the rub he’ll receive by facing Orton, but if he loses, he’ll be your least favorite wrestler’s favorite transitional champion by the end of the night.

If Orton loses, on the other hand, he’ll stand the chance of looking extremely weak to (a) a lame duck champion he’s defeated twice before, (b) to the “younger” stars that he’s already proven he can beat (Rhodes and DiBiase), and (c) to all the fans that are anxious to see the return of “The Viper.”

This may be overanalyzing the situation, but it’s right there in our faces as fans and we can’t ignore the subtleties of Swagger’s reign.  The World Heavyweight Champion is supposed to be the best in company, let alone the world.

He defeated Edge and Jericho in a Triple Threat Match after Edge and Jericho beat the hell out of each other.   He got bested clean by a top star TWICE (Orton and The Undertaker).

This is the man that is our current WWE World Heavyweight Champion…way to push the young stars, Vince.

But this is still very typical of the WWE’s current problem with creating new stars for the current legion of fans that are disenfranchised with the product. 

We’re teased with the promise of the younger or new stars being pushed and given opportunities to shine (DiBiase, Kingston, MVP, Henry), only to have them tossed down the rabbit hole of obscurity while the creative team scrambles to get Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog to agree to host the company’s flagship show.

Swagger’s reign exemplifies this to a tee.  Much like Sheamus, he’s been tossed to us as a sacrificial champion while we’re prepared to witness Cena’s/Batista’s/Orton’s/Triple H’s/Edge’s 900^th run as champion.

And that’s the anatomy of these two companies’ current World Heavyweight Title eras today.  On one hand, we have a champion that makes the company’s home grown stars look like crap.  On the other hand, we have a champion that makes the company’s young stars look like crap.

Great time to be a pro wrestling fan, ain’t it?