WWE: Will Jack Swagger Be Anything More than a Punch Line?

Jack Swagger has essentially become a complete joke in the WWE. 

Of all the guys in the company who actually have talent, he might be booked worse than any of them. In recent months, Swagger has primarily served as Sheamus’ personal jobber, RAW’s resident loser mid-carder and the heel who loses to comedic babyfaces like Santino Marella. 

Swagger’s undeniable plummet down the WWE totem pole has many fans questioning whether he will ever be anything more than a punch line. 

Will he always be used as a mid-card jobber? Will he always play second fiddle to guys like Dolph Ziggler? Will he always be pushed to the side in favor of other younger stars? 

My answer: No, I don’t think so. 

While I could understand why Swagger fans may be worried about his current position in the WWE, I point you to the last time Swagger was in the very same position he’s in right now. Leading into WrestleMania 26 in 2010, Swagger was arguably booked worse then than he is being booked at the moment.

He jobbed week after week after week, and unlike he did recently, he wasn’t getting any shots at the WWE Tag Team Championship. Swagger was in lower-card hell, and it looked like he might never get out of it. 

Then, WrestleMania 26 came around, and Swagger was one of the participants in the show’s Money in the Bank match. In one of the most surprising MITB moments ever, Swagger actually won the bout, and soon after, he cashed in his briefcase on an episode of SmackDown to become the World Heavyweight Championship. 

No one saw that coming. 

Though Swagger’s subsequent title reign was booked like absolute crap, the fact remains that he indeed won a world title, and at least for a brief period, he was one of the WWE’s top stars. In many ways, however, it was that Money in the Bank win that set Swagger back so much. 

He was booked so terribly during his run with the World Heavyweight Championship that it hurt him more than it helped him, and he now finds himself back where he started before he cashed in his briefcase. 

I have faith, though, that Swagger’s slump won’t last forever. 

We have to keep in mind a few things about Swagger that should lead us to believe that he’s not going to be in his current position for the remainder of his WWE career. 

For starters, he’s only 29 years old, and most WWE stars enter the prime of their career in their late 20s and early 30s. See guys like Randy Orton, CM Punk, Sheamus, John Cena and Alberto Del Rio as examples. 

Thus, Swagger has time on his side, and he also has something else that Vince McMahon loves: size. Standing at 6’6”, 260 pounds, Swagger is basically the prototypical star that Vince McMahon likes to push, someone who the fans could believe in as a monster heel because he’s so damn big. 

And, last but certainly not least, Swagger can wrestle his tail off. 

Aside from The Undertaker and maybe Sheamus, there is no big-man, powerhouse type of wrestler who I would take over Swagger. He’s extremely agile and athletic, and his background as an amateur wrestler gives him a leg up on most guys on the WWE roster. 

If the WWE wants another guy to build its future around, then look no further than Jack Swagger. He’s some slightly improved mic work and some better booking away from becoming one of the biggest stars in the company. 

It’s up to the Creative team to treat him like he’s more than just a punchline.