Sheamus' WWE Title Reigns Slowly Turning Into a Farce

WWE SummerSlam 2010 was marred by disqualifications and questionable finishes. 

Among the many unsatisfactory conclusions of the night, one match featured a finish we have become all too familiar with. 

At the conclusion of the WWE Championship match between Sheamus and Randy Orton, Sheamus was booked to be disqualified, thus allowing him to once again retain his WWE Championship without actually beating a top star. 

The reasoning behind the booked disqualification completely defeats the purpose of Sheamus being WWE Champion in the first place.  And on a pay-per-view (the second or third biggest pay-per-view of the year) where the stipulations mandated that nobody could interfere on Sheamus' behalf and that this would be Randy Orton's last shot at Sheamus' WWE Championship if he lost, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility to ask for a clean finish .

In fact, a clean finish was all but implied and following what was an entertaining contest leading up to the finish, I felt duped.  As should you.  

After suffering through yet another tainted Sheamus victory, I thought long and hard about the last time Sheamus defended his WWE Championship and went over clean.  

Further research revealed a head shaking, if not unacceptable answer.  

Sheamus has captured the WWE Championship on two separate occasions.  During those two occasions, Sheamus has defended his title a combined seven times.  Of the seven times Sheamus has defended his WWE Championship he has never scored a clean victory by pinfall or submission.  

When I think of great champions, I naturally think of great championship reigns such as Rob Van Dam's historic ECW Television Title reign that saw him successfully defend the title for almost two years (clean victories and all).

Goldberg, as part of his famed Superman push during the late 90's in WCW, almost always went over clean when defending his title during the most decorated undefeated streak in wrestling history. 

Say what you want about Hulk Hogan, he never needed help retaining his heavyweight champions (primarily as a babyface) and that simple fact has helped him become synonymous with pro wrestling royalty.

Granted, the aforementioned examples were all babyfaces, and it is more common for the heel to win using 'heel tactics' thus tainting their victories in order to gain more heat. 

Ric Flair perfected this art during his Horsemen hey days. 

However Sheamus is a different animal.  Sheamus is a young, upstart heel champion who needs clean victories, especially in championship situations against a top guy where a loss will not hurt the opposition in terms of popularity, in order to be built up as a credible champion.  As a result, Sheamus' title defenses would become more meaningful.  

Many compare Sheamus' early rise up the WWE ranks to a similar monster heel in Brock Lesnar.  The difference between Brock Lesnar and Sheamus, a difference that carried a lot of weight in me ranking Lesnar ahead of Sheamus as having a better rookie year in WWE history, was that Lesnar was booked to defeat his opposition cleanly both before and during his eventual WWE title reign. 

Sheamus, on the other hand, has not received such backing from the powers that be.   The proof is in the booking.  The following slides depict all seven of Sheamus' WWE title defenses since first winning the WWE Championship at WWE Tables, Ladders, and Chairs. 

Big Nasty is the editor of The Big Nasty Athletic Dept. Log on to twitter at twitter.com/bignasty247 and follow him until he presses charges!

WWE Tables, Ladders, and Chairs: Sheamus Def. John Cena (c) Via Tables

After experiencing a meteoric rise up the WWE roster during a time where the same names and faces were headlining pay-per-views, Sheamus shocked the world with an improbable WWE Championship victory over reigning champion John Cena. 

Sheamus' victory marked a dawning of a new era of sorts, as the upstart champion would conquer the WWE's top babyface in an unlikely coming out party that crowned the first Irish WWE Champion in history. 

Despite earning a victory that allowed him to lay claim to the WWE Championship, Sheamus' win was overshadowed by controversy as the victory came in a tables match where Cena had been pushed off the top ropes through a table which resulted in his immediate loss. 

Either way, the WWE was doing the right thing in giving a fresh face the ball, thus creating a new star with a handful of stars from the old guard either retired, past their prime, or on their way out. 

There would be no pinfall that decided this title match, but it could be safely assumed that Sheamus would have many clean title victories going forward to give his championship reign some much needed credibility. 

Or so we thought. 

{Source: WWE.com }

WWE RAW: John Cena Def. Sheamus (c) by Disqualification

Just two weeks after his shocking win, Sheamus was presented with his first chance to show the world that his title win was not a fluke. 

He did the opposite. 

Suffering a disqualification loss to the very superstar who he needed to beat in order to earn the most legitimacy, Sheamus' Irish parade was somewhat deflated by a finish that had "how do we get out of this?" written all over it. 

While stuck in the midst of an Attitude Adjustment attempt, Sheamus grabbed a referee thus forcing his own disqualification. 

A minor bump in the road, but Sheamus was still the champion nonetheless. 

{Source: WWE.com }

WWE Royal Rumble: Sheamus (c) Def. Randy Orton By Disqualification

This would be the first pay-per-view title defense for the young champion since his improbable win at WWE Tables, Ladders, and Chairs. 

Matched against a more than formidable opponent in top star Randy Orton, Sheamus would now have a chance to further solidify the legitimacy of his WWE Championship reign. 

At one of the major WWE pay-per-views, Sheamus was victorious.  By disqualification. 

Outside interference from Orton's Legacy group had not only cost Randy Orton the match, but it cost Sheamus some much needed credibility points. 

Still, Sheamus could lay claim to the fact that he was still the WWE Champion and had gone through contests with the likes of John Cena and Randy Orton without dropping it. 

Moral victories count for something, don't they? 

{Source: WWE.com }

WWE Elimination Chamber: Sheamus Drops WWE Title, Cena Regains WWE Title

In the vaunted Elimination Chamber, Sheamus was presented with a viable opportunity to retain the WWE Championship with no outside interferences, no excuses, and no tomfoolery. 

Instead, the WWE took this opportunity to have him drop the title before the final pinfall, with the veteran Triple scoring a clean pinfall victory over the champion, leading to their Wrestlemania 26 match (which he also lost). 

At this point, Sheamus' initial title reign, while impressive and helpful in his development as a top star, was far from a success as he had not earned one single clean victory by pinfall or submission  in defense of said title. 

There's always next time. 

{Source: WWE.com }

WWE Fatal 4 Way: Sheamus Regains WWE Championship With Help From Nexus

Sheamus' return to, um, prominence came at the failed WWE Fatal 4 Way pay-per-view. 

Booked in a match with three other WWE Superstars (Randy Orton, Edge, John Cena), outside interference from the Nexus stable allowed Sheamus to quickly capitalize by pinning John Cena following the Nexus' attack on the former champion.  

Controversy had once again reared its ugly head during the result of a Sheamus WWE Title match.  But we were used to that by now. 

{Source: WWE.com }

WWE Money In The Bank: Sheamus (c) Def Cena With Help From Nexus

Although it was a different pay-per-view and a different match, we still saw essentially the same result as Sheamus required help from Nexus in order to defeat John Cena in a WWE Championship match. 

Presented with a duplicitous Cage Match stipulation, where the implication was that there would be no outside interference, the Nexus' thwarting of John Cena's escape from the cage provided Sheamus with enough time to escape himself, thus winning the match without having to pin or submit Cena.

The escape from the cage did not allow Sheamus to escape growing criticism and doubts that had been facilitated by the simple fact that to this point he had still never won a WWE Championship match sans controversy.

{Source: WWE.com}

WWE SummerSlam: Randy Orton Def. Sheamus (c) By Disqualification

Dating back to last night, it is still a legitimate claim that Sheamus has not been able to successfully defend his WWE Championship in an honorable fashion that would easily establish him as a legitimate force in the WWE. 

Sheamus' assault on a referee at last night's SummerSlam resulted in yet another disqualification at the expense of the champion keeping the "no clean win" streak alive for Sheamus in WWE Championship matches. 

Sheamus has done everything right to this point, and it seems that his main problem is a factor that is out of his control. 

Sheamus is a heel, so he does not have to win every match decisively. However given the type of heel he is (a large, seemingly unstoppable, monster), he needs his share of clean victories, especially in WWE Championship matches, in order to be taken seriously as the company's champion and face of the next generation. 

Vince McMahon recently addressed failing pay-per-view numbers by saying the WWE was taking the appropriate steps in infusing new talent in the main event as veteran talent healed and/or departed. 

While the WWE has done a commendable job establishing new stars, now is the time to take that extra step in giving stars like Sheamus their vote of confidence. 

Legitimizing Sheamus' current WWE Championship reign with decisive title wins will only help in the furthered development of this young superstar.  Otherwise, a title reign being defined by such controversy will eventually degenerate into a farce. 

{Source: WWE.com }

Big Nasty is the editor of The Big Nasty Athletic Dept. Log on to twitter at twitter.com/bignasty247 and follow him until he presses charges!