Big E. Langston's Wins over Alberto Del Rio Sends on His Way to a Bigger Push

It wasn’t even two months ago that Big E Langston made his in-ring debut in the WWE, but he’s already picked up two signature victories over former WWE and World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio. 

The current World Heavyweight Champion, Dolph Ziggler, has been out of action for the last several weeks after suffering a concussion, and his bodyguard has surprisingly reaped the benefits.

The WWE has thrust Langston into a series of matches with Del Rio during Ziggler’s absence, and even though the creative team doesn’t usually book its heels very strongly, it has apparently decided that it wants to book Langston pretty well. 

The series between Langston and Del Rio is knotted up at two apiece, and even though neither of Langston’s victories were 100 percent clean, it’s undoubtedly a good sign that he’s winning matches over a former World champion and the current No. 1 contender. 

Scratch that—it’s a really good sign.

What has really plagued many of the WWE’s recently debuting stars is that, quite simply, they lose too damn much. Damien Sandow, Ryback and Antonio Cesaro are prime examples of creative killing of a superstar’s momentum before it could really even get started. 

All three of those superstars proved to be incapable of winning once they jumped up to a higher level of competition. Now, Sandow just seems to be making his way back up the card while Ryback generates crickets these days, and Cesaro is struggling to even get on TV.

The WWE can’t afford to make that same mistake with Langston, who’s shown a lot of potential early on, and so far, the company hasn’t. 

There’s a right way to push a new star and a wrong way to do it.

The right way? Just look at The Shield, a trio which is still yet to lose a tag team match by pinfall and is currently holding both the United States and WWE Tag Team Championship. 

The wrong way? Just look at Ryback, who mowed through the easy competition early on but literally has never won a big match in his entire WWE career. 

Now, it’s probably too early to tell which route the WWE will take with Langston. But at least so far, there are reasons to be optimistic. 

Mainly, Langston has done something that Ryback still hasn’t done: Beat another top superstar.

Whether you like Del Rio or not, you can’t deny that he’s a top guy. It hasn’t mattered if he’s been a face or a heel. Either way, ADR always finds himself at or near the very top of the company.

And the fact that Langston has beaten him twice—while he’s the No. 1 contender for the World Heavyweight Championship—speaks volumes.

It says that the WWE realizes that it can’t do with Langston what it did with Ryback if the company truly wants to push Langston and get him over as a top superstar.

So far, so good.

Langston may not be making the type of impact that The Shield has made. But hey, at least he’s not being given the Antonio Cesaro treatment.

Rather, the WWE seems to have found a happy medium with Langston: The company is pushing him but isn’t doing it too quickly. 

He’s still a secondary performer in the story of the relationship between AJ and Ziggler, which is exactly what he should be. He’s seen. He’s heard. He’s noticed. But he’s not being shoved down our throats. 

That’s the right approach you want to take with a new talent, and if the WWE keeps this up, then it should have no problem with getting Langston over as a top guy and truly getting his push going. 

Having Langston beat Del Rio twice is just a small step, but it’s a step in the right direction—one that shows that it’s only a matter of time before Langston becomes a serious threat to anyone who gets in his way.

Drake Oz is a WWE Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter!