WWE: Five Reasons the Fans Overreacted to Christian's Title Loss
Christian's loss of the World Heavyweight Championship just two days after winning it has incited venomous reactions from fans across the Internet.
WWE's official Twitter account was flooded with anger-filled tweets criticizing the company for stripping the title away from him so quickly, only to give it to an established main event attraction whose title history is long and storied.
With the May 6 edition of SmackDown officially in the history books, the question becomes, did fans react too quickly to word of the championship loss?
For days, passionate fans of both Christian and the sport in general threatened to end their, in some cases, decades-long relationship with WWE simply because of a single match result.
Join me as I look at five reasons the heated reaction unleashed in WWE's direction was both premature and flawed.
1. The "Rey Mysterio Syndrome"
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In 2006, the WWE was still reeling from the unexpected death of Eddie Guerrero. Never one to allow a few extra dollars slip away from his cold, hard grasp, however, Vince McMahon immediately searched for ways to exploit the death and to create new storylines for his weekly programs. Enter Rey Mysterio.
It had been well-established in the past that Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero were friends.
Forgetting the entire program between the two that aired only the summer prior, McMahon made plans to push Rey Mysterio into the main event of the SmackDown brand, riding a wave of emotion and trumpeting the connection Mysterio had with the late, great Guerrero.
Rey even dedicated his victory in that year's Royal Rumble to Eddie.
At WrestleMania 22, the culmination of the build saw Mysterio win the World Championship following a fast-paced Triple Threat match against Kurt Angle and Randy Orton, then celebrate with Eddie's widow Vickie and nephew Chavo.
It was a legitimate heart-felt moment that, sadly, was the result of some booking meeting held earlier in the weekend.
The problem came a week or two later, when the novelty of celebrating Guerrero wore off and things reverted back to "business as usual."
Without the Eddie Guerrero factor to fall back on, Vince and company refused to push Rey as a credible champion and soon, the second most important championship in the entire industry was around the waist of a Superstar who couldn't win weekly television matches, let alone be expected to beat any main event talent on pay-per-view.
Rey's title reign was dead in the water and by July, some three months after his triumphant victory, the run was mercifully put out of its misery when King Booker rescued the gold from the abyss.
Fast forward five years and Christian found himself in the same position. A long-time crowd favorite, with the ability to perform in quality matches every night but without the support of the creative team, he found himself thrust into the main event when his life-long friend, Edge, was forced to retire as a result of a neck injury.
For weeks on SmackDown, Christian rode the sympathy from the fans in response to Edge's untimely retirement, and at Extreme Rules the Toronto native finally accomplished his childhood dream of becoming World champion in WWE.
With Edge at ringside, the best friends and former tag team champions celebrated Christian's highly photogenic moment, and the crowd ate it up.
While Christian's win at Extreme Rules proved to be the most emotional moment of the entire show, and one of the more unforgettable moments in recent history, fans fail to remember one fairly major fact: Before Edge's retirement announcement a mere three weeks earlier, there were absolutely zero plans for Christan to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
It may not be popular in this neck of the woods, known simply as the Internet, but Vince McMahon has proven time and time again that he has absolutely no interest in pushing Christian as a long-term main event talent.
As a result, Christian's long-awaited title win was destined to either end quickly or suffer the same slow death that Rey Mysterio's did in 2006.
Once the novelty of Edge's retirement had worn off, and the "Farewell Edge" T-shirts stopped selling, both the fans and the writers would have likely lost Interest in Christian. He would be left to struggle at the top of the card until the trigger was pulled and the decision to take the strap off of him was made.
This past Sunday, Vince McMahon saw the opportunity to create a buzz about his company, as well as milk the cash cow, by capitalizing on the retirement of an established main event talent that made him boatloads of money and momentarily giving his best friend the championship rub.
As in the case with Mysterio, McMahon had no intent on repaying a hard worker for his dedication and sacrifice.
He simply created a feel-good story he could pimp out on the company website and tossed it aside the moment he became bored.
The "Mysterio Syndrome," however, is not the only reason Christian was allowed the all-too-brief reign with the gold. The second reason is far more simple.
2. Right Place, Right Time
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It never ceases to amaze me how often we wrestling fans over-think and completely ignore the obvious.
The 2011 WWE draft completely reshuffled the Raw and SmackDown rosters. One of the more significant moves was Alberto Del Rio's departure from the Friday night brand to the more prestigious Monday night program.
With that move, there was little doubt as to what would occur at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view in the Ladder match for the World Heavyweight Championship. After all, Del Rio could not take the title to Raw and leave SmackDown without a heavyweight champion.
Christian was in the right place at the right time, just as he had been when Edge was forced to retire earlier in the month. This time, however, he was one of two viable babyface champions on the SmackDown brand and the only other, Randy Orton, was already scheduled to have a match on the card.
As a result, Christian was given the victory, thus keeping the World Championship on SmackDown. All was right with the world.
This, coupled with the "Rey Mysterio Syndrome," further illustrates the lack of long-term planning associated with Christian's win.
For fans across the globe to so quickly criticize WWE for stripping away Christian's opportunity, when that opportunity was created out of necessity and no apparent plans to run with him as champion in the first place, is evidence of at least some ignorance when considering the overall picture.
3. VERY Big Fish, VERY Small Pond
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The 2011 WWE draft reshuffled the rosters on both Raw and SmackDown and, as per usual, SmackDown was raided of a majority of its talent.
Former world champions Rey Mysterio, Big Show and Jack Swagger, as well as young talent such as Alberto Del Rio, Kofi Kingston and Drew McIntyre were drafted to Raw while SmackDown was expected to replace all of that lost talent with one single Superstar: Randy Orton.
Let's face it: When Edge was forced to retire, a major hole was left on the SmackDown brand roster. The Toronto native was the face of the brand and the Superstar trusted with carrying the show on his back.
During the draft, the major goal was to replace him with someone who was very popular with the fans and could be relied on to draw crowds for television tapings and live events across the country.
With a significantly weaker roster than Raw, it was only a matter of time before the biggest star on the brand captured the world championship. SmackDown is in its first weeks with its new roster and at this point, McMahon is putting the future of the brand in the hands of a Superstar he trusts.
Orton is one of the two most popular stars in the company. He sells a boatload of merchandise and receives, perhaps, the biggest pop of any Superstar in the entire company.
He is easily the most marketable star on the SmackDown brand and one people will forget their Friday night plans in exchange for turning on SyFy and watching the show.
How did Orton achieve this level of stardom? Why is he in the position he is in, to lead an entire brand with little support?
4. The Answers Lie in the Mirror
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Randy Orton is the second biggest act in the WWE because we, the fans, have made him that way.
For years, Vince McMahon and his writers did everything possible to make Orton a mega-heel Superstar who could carry the company and make every babyface he was programmed with that much more popular, not unlike Triple H in the early 2000s. But something happened along the way that would change the course of Orton's career.
Rather than boo every sadistic punt to the skull of Orton's hated rivals, we cheered. We cheered the dangerous RKO.
At the Bragging Rights pay-per-view in 2009, as Orton threatened to blow John Cena up with pyrotechnics during their Iron Man match for the WWE Championship, we cheered...some passionately...for his outrageously violent tendencies.
Every time the company tried to create this dastardly persona, the fans put up a wall of resistance. For whatever reason, we refused to fully boo the newly-dubbed "Viper."
Then, with his stable of second and third-generation stars known as Legacy disbanded, the writers saw no other choice but to pull the trigger and...*GASP*...give us what we wanted.
Orton became the anti-hero in the same vein as Steve Austin and received thunderous ovations that rivaled those for John Cena, The Undertaker and Triple H.
It is that undeniable popularity that resulted in Orton's placement on SmackDown and his rapid World Championship win.
As beloved a performer as Christian is, anyone who watched the May 6 edition of SmackDown can plainly see, and hear, that the pop for Randy Orton upon his entrance at the top of the show is far louder and sustained than that for any other star on the show.
Christian is a great in-ring performer. There is no denying it. He has also proven to be very entertaining. But for every strength Christian has displayed throughout the career, there is no denying the fact that he is not a marketable Superstar.
Randy Orton is, and it was the fans, the same fans who quickly rushed to judgment and scorned "The Viper" upon hearing the news of Christian's title loss, whose cheers and support allowed him to evolve to that level.
5. Wait for It...Wait for It...
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If there is any one downfall we wrestling fans are guilty of, it is a complete lack of patience.
When news of Christian's loss to Orton at the SmackDown tapings broke, fans across the Internet, myself included, were quick to lash out and direct our venomous reactions at a company who "didn't understand what we want."
Social networking sites were flooded with curse-laden rants and message boards saw entire pages dedicated to the great injustice WWE forced upon its fans.
Rather than taking the time to read the entire SmackDown taping report, we picked out one single match result and tore it to pieces, complaining to anyone and anything that would listen.
As is typical of wrestling fans, we refused to accept something we didn't like and wanted nothing to do with having to wait to see what resulted from it.
Had we read the entire report, we would have known about a promo before the match in which Teddy Long was asked if it was fair that Christian be forced to defend his title just days removed from a hellish ladder match.
Immediately, an excuse was set up to explain Christian's quick loss and there was an indication that there very well may be a program about to be launched between "Captain Charisma" and Orton.
We also failed to read about Christian's post-match display of sadness and frustration. The facial expressions displayed by Christian seem to indicate an obsession with the World Championship that, if history repeats itself, will lead to a heel turn and a sustained main event push for the Toronto native.
We did not want to see anything that came before or after the match itself because we wrestling fans have the inability to step back and take a look at the bigger picture.
We are so devoted and loyal to the performers presented on Monday and Friday that the very minute we believe one of them has been wronged by the villainous Vince McMahon or his merry band of idiots we call the creative team, we lash out against the product. They are wrong, we are right and there is just no getting over what happened.
There is little doubt, after seeing the way Christian left the ring and made his way to the backstage area at the end of the May 6 edition of SmackDown, that a elongated push for Christian at the top of the card on Friday nights is forthcoming.
Instead of spewing hatred in WWE's direction every time Orton executes an RKO on "Captain Charisma" or gets one-up on him, sit back and enjoy the show. Allow for the angle to play out, then criticize or applaud it at its conclusion.
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