Christian Vs. Jack Swagger: Does Anyone Care?

The crew and I were sitting back, discussing the world of professional wrestling on HTR and the topic of Christian's return came up. Which brought me to the thought, "Christian has returned to the WWE... but who cares? Do you?"

One of the guys, I think it was Demetrus, said that he was happy that Christian returned. Now he could capture the title he always dreamed of holding - the ECW world title. We all laughed.

But the truth of the matter is we've been on the edge of our seats waiting for his return. Many assumed that it was he who attacked Jeff Hardy, only to be shocked when he showed up unannounced on ECW.

Now that the wave of Christian articles have died down and we've had a chance to digest it, I have a lot of ill feelings with his debut.

WWE is once again going for shock, with the punting of the chairman to the quick changes in championship belts, but this one falls short.

It's one thing to shock everyone with a surprise appearance, but it should it happened where no one knows about it until they pull up WWE.com the next morning?

I mean, nobody's watching ECW, so his debut fell flat.

Some will say that "Christian will save ECW. Finally they have a credible champ." Bologna. The ECW title is lower than both the U.S. and Intercontinental straps because it has no history and its title holders have been a who's who list of mid-carders.

And to be frank, Christian's name won't be big enough to save the belt. Don't believe me? Just ask TNA. Just last week the program beat ECW in ratings, with ECW actually going DOWN a point when people actually knew Christian would be on the show.

Which brings us to Swagger vs. Christian. This is great for Swagger. He gets to rub elbows with an established guy, gain credibility and probably steal a win here or there.

But what does it do for Christian? Absolutely nothing. In fact, I argue it might even hurt him.

Right now it looks as though Christian was used as a pawn in the silent war versus TNA. The WWE stole one of their known top guys and threw him into a seemingly meaningless feud just because they could.

They could've thrown him in with the Hardys - Edge feud or even put him on Raw. But instead they chose to let the momentum fade as they put him on the show where old wrestlers go to retire.

Which leaves me to think Christian's return meant nothing at all. What do you think? Do you care?

To find out more, listen in to Hit the Ropes Radio. This week's special guests: WWE Harley Race, ROH's Brent Albright and Booker T's PWA.