Sheamus O'Shaunessy: Too Soon?

We've all been clamoring for a new main event wrestler to be elevated on the RAW side for the last year or so. While Smackdown gave us Jeff Hardy and CM Punk and looks primed to give us John Morrison sooner rather than later, RAW seemed to stagnate with the same Orton/Cena/DX merry-go-round, with a little Batista sprinkled in for good measure. Yeah, Cena and Big Show feuded, but once Cena won the title, that feud was dropped like it was hot.

So when Jesse "The Body" Ventura came out last night and said he was going to give us a new contender to one of the major World Championships, all of us, including the fans in attendance who popped at the notion of elevation happening right before their eyes, got excited. Would it be Kofi Kingston's next step in his kingmaking? Maybe we get to see what Legacy, either piecemeal or as a unit, could do in a singles program after shining in their tag feud with DX. Would it be The Miz looking to exact revenge on Cena for his summer humiliation, or maybe Jack Swagger looking to one-up Miz and give some payback to The Champ for beating him at the Draft?

Instead, we got Sheamus O'Shaunessy, the pale Irishman who wowed ECW crowds with his feud against Goldust, but who was just one month into his RAW residency. It is undeniable that Sheamus is a future player in the WWE. He's one of the rare size-fetish guys who has working ability and mic skills to be able to pull off a main event run for years to come. But right now? Is he really ready?

While I contest that he's heatless right now, you can't say that he's getting as much heel heat as even Batista, a guy whom fans still want to cheer. I laid out the positives last night, but while I won't kill the WWE for the decision, I can't praise them for it either. I can only go forward with cautious optimism and the precedents set with past guys, including Cena himself and Brock Lesnar. But even by my fuzzy recollection, both Cena and Lesnar had better initial reactions, didn't they? At this point, my only guide would be Youtube, and once I get off work, maybe that's what I'll look for.

Then again, for every Cena, there's a Mordecai, as resident F4W RAW recapper Todd Martin compared Sheamus to. Sheamus could be getting too much too soon, and I would hate to see someone as talented as the Irish Warrior get wasted because he got Ronnie Garvin'd. Still, I have my reasons to keep my optimism tempered. For that optimism to be rewarded, they have to tread extremely carefully. Sheamus needs to be protected, and the finish to the TLC match needs to be carefully laid out so as to keep Sheamus strong but have Cena get a decisive win.

The more I think about it, the more worried I get, but it doesn't change the fact that we're not getting Orton/Cena or Cena/DX again. It doesn't change the fact that RAW was great television for the first time arguably since the Dusty RAW. There's reason for hope, even if the WWE is notorious for destroying hope like their wrestlers destroy announce tables.