Sidekick: The Role of Alex Riley and His Future In The WWE

What is a sidekick?

According to Wikipedia, it refers a close companion that is generally regarded as a subordinate to the one he accompanies.

Unless you haven't been paying attention to anything going on in the universe of World Wrestling Entertainment since June 2010, you would know that WWE Superstar, and current WWE Champion, The Miz has had a lackey of his own for the eight months, and his name is Alex Riley.

Riley made his WWE debut on June 8th, 2010 as a Season 2 Rookie on WWE NXT. Similar to The Miz, the self-proclaimed "Rare Breed" was just as arrogant, cocky and as loud as his Pro. Always ready to put others down, "The Varsity Villain" not only knew how talk a big game, but could also back up his words in the ring. Riley proved to be the exact opposite of Season 1 Rookie Daniel Bryan.

While The Miz and Bryan never got off to a great start, and would remain bitter rivals throughout their season, the partnership between The Miz and Riley became a close friendship. Miz would do everything he could to help Riley win and Riley  would listen to any advice Miz gave him. In the end, Riley was eliminated during the Season 2 finale on August 31st, 2010. He finished in third place behind Michael McGillicutty and Kaval, with the latter winning the competition later that night.

Despite the loss, the paring of The Awesome One and The Varsity Villian was far from over. The following week on Raw, "A-Ri" attempted to help his former Pro get out of Bryan's submission hold, only to fall victim to the hold himself. He appeared again the next week, this time replacing The Miz in a losing effort against Bryan.

Finally, on the September 20th, 2010 episode of Monday Night Raw, The Miz took in Riley as his "apprentice" and revealed that he had signed him to a personal services contract. This allowed Riley to accompany The Miz wherever he went and made him an unofficial member of the Raw roster in the process.

Since then, Riley's job as The Miz's sidekick has been a memorable one, and a role that he himself takes very seriously. Riley frequently acts as a bodyguard for Miz, always ready to take a blow for Miz. This has ranged from substituting himself into a match (Old School Raw, King of the Ring) to using himself as a human prop (WWE Bragging Rights, WWE TLC).

He is also known for helping The Miz win his matches, especially when it comes to retaining the WWE Championship. Unfortunately, this usually comes at the expense of his own personal safety and health, and Riley is frequently shown knocked down outside the ring or holding his head by the end of a segment.

As the Road to WrestleMania XXVII begins Sunday night, don't expect Riley's role to change until at least April. But one thing is for certain, and that's at some point in 2011, Riley's partnership with The Miz will come to an end. It may be as early as the next draft. Who knows? I doubt even Raw's creative team has a plan for the split at this point. But it's going to happen, and when it does, Riley will have to stand on his own two feet.

At this point, I myself see Riley's future a 50/50 chance of success or failure. He's either going to end up a huge main-eventer, probably on Friday Night SmackDown (just a personal opinion, but he looks like he belongs on the blue brand), or a wasted talent rotting in Mid-card Hell (also known as WWE Superstars) that eventually gets future endeavored thanks to spring cleaning.

Jim Ross recently said that Riley's future is up to Riley himself, and that he would be as successful as he makes himself. For anybody that knows about the DUI incident...yeah, let's hope he learned his lesson. Management is obviously high on him, and why wouldn't they be? There is no doubt that the talent is there, but there has to be the opportunity for talent to be shown. WWE NXT Season 2 was a good introduction, and being The Miz's sidekick on Monday Night Raw has been a great way to allow casual viewers to get used to him. It's all been a slow-building process.

So who knows where Riley will be this time next year? For all we know, he could be the favorite to win the 2012 Royal Rumble, or he may not even be here at all. We can only guess. But I think that I'll let you, the reader, tell me your opinion. I told you the past. I told you the present. You try to tell me the future. For those of you wondering, this was my first article. I'm very pleased with myself, and I hope everyone likes it. Obviously, feel free to comment. Oh, and one last thing...

You're dismissed.