Jack Swagger: The Curious Case of an All-American American

As we all know, Jack Swagger became World Heavyweight Champion after cashing in his Money in the Bank contract on Chris Jericho, just two days after winning it at Wrestlemania 26. After one strong matchup against Randy Orton, he soon fell prey to what I call "First Title Syndrome," where he, as a brand new World Champion, could not live up to WWE's expectations of the title and decided to take the title off of him after a relatively weak three month reign, which featured Swagger competing first on Smackdown almost every week and losing. WWE was clever however, by keeping the World Title looking strong, by having it change hands only under extreme circumstances (since Wrestlemania, the World title has changed hands twice through MITB and once in a Fatal Four Way).

Though the "Youth Movement" in WWE still seems to be in effect, it hasn't had a good start. Both Swagger and Sheamus have suffered some humiliating championship reigns. Swagger, upon losing his rematch against Rey Mysterio, seemed to fall back into obscurity. However, upon closer examination, you'll see that Swagger may just be biding his time before he gets back into the spotlight.

Case in point: Though Swagger lost the World Title and hasn't had too many victories since that loss, he still appears on TV almost weekly and with something new everytime! He began his post-World Title stint by constantly complaining to Rosa Mendes about everything that's going wrong for him, until MVP ran his mouth, which began a feud between the two. Around the time of his rematch against Rey, Swagger began using the Ankle Lock as his finisher. He would still lose his matches, but this time under his terms; via disqualification. Swagger lost to MVP throughout most of the feud, but still had victories to his credit via Superstars. Enter Jack Swagger's dad, a new gimmick that helped fuel this feud further, when Swagger's dad was attacked by MVP, after his interruption of Swagger's "VIP Lounge" segment, which he earned by defeating MVP, via disqualification, the previous week. The feud culminated on Smackdown, surprisingly, and saw Jack Swagger decisively defeat MVP, putting an end to the feud once and, hopefully, for all.

After this less than impactual feud, Swagger fell back off the radar for a little bit, until Smackdown made its move to SyFy and Swagger debuted yet another new gimmick; The Swagger Soaring Eagle. Swagger came out, with his own personal mascot, and declared himself the "King of Oklahoma." Edge interrupted his segment, resulting in the current feud that we see Swagger in to this day.

Swagger is one of the lucky few midcarders that the WWE seems to like. Whenever he starts to lose the spotlight, the WWE puts the spotlight back on him. Though his mic skills were questionable at first, it seems he's getting comfortable in the position he is in and is starting to improve. Some would say Swagger's lack of mic skills may have cost him a good championship reign, but I would have to blame it on WWE's tendency to make all MITB winners look lucky, other than Kane. The WWE is keeping Swagger in our minds, through his various promos and even going as far as to put him and Edge in an unscheduled match at Hell in a Cell. Edge may be winning currently, but you have to keep in mind that Edge hasn't had a great run in quite some time. If I was a betting man, I would say that Swagger will come out on top during this feud. Either way, we've seen some great matches between Edge and Swagger lately. Let's just hope we don't see another Kofi-Dolph feud, if you know what I mean.

What's next for Swagger? Currently, he is feuding with Edge, which will probably end at Survivor Series (either one on one or team Swagger vs team Edge or whatever). The current World Title story has Undertaker and Kane feuding, which seems to be close to a finish, possibly at Survivor Series as well. My thoughts are that we will see Undertaker come out on top as the new World Heavyweight Champion and then Swagger will begin feuding with the Deadman. Some sources reported that the original plans for Summerslam called for Swagger to face Undertaker (lordsofpain.net and wrestlenewz.com). Whether this is true or not, the fact of the matter is, it didn't happen. If these reports were true, then I would guess that Swagger would be the number one contender once Undertaker wins the title.

And even if he didn't enter the title scene immediately, there's always the Royal Rumble. The past four Rumbles have featured former World Champions winning, with the past three failing to win at Wrestlemania. While this tradition could continue, with a Triple H or Chris Jericho possibly winning the Rumble, the current trend of the WWE to push younger talent seems to suggest otherwise. It is questionable as to whether the WWE would put someone like Swagger in the main event of their biggest PPV, however; this seems to be what Triple Threats are for. Looking back on Wrestlemania XX, you will see that Chris Benoit was the winner of the Royal Rumble that year. The WWE must have been skeptical regarding Chris Benoit's ability to draw in PPV buys, so they inserted Shawn Michaels into the match. The same can be done for Swagger.

And it doesn't stop there. The WWE has been talking about turning many superstars face/heel before Wrestlemania. Swagger has the personality that it takes to be a face and could turn and face Kane.

For now, Swagger is staying out of the main spotlight, but staying in our thoughts. A feud with Edge could be exactly what the All American American needs and it doesn't hurt that he has his own mascot either. The WWE may have rushed his first title reign, but hopefully, his next reign will be long and credible.

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