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| The definition of booking into a corner? Photo Credit: WWE.com |
However, Cena was clearly the best choice, hell, the ONLY choice to win and make the WrestleMania main event mean something more than just a hastily thrown together match featuring smark favorites or a guy who may have had history with The Miz but is nowhere near ready to carry a WrestleMania main event program with another first-timer. I mean, CM Punk winning the match would have been great, but at this point, his destiny lies with Randy Orton, and unless you're going to put the WM main event as a four-way match for the title, then it doesn't fit. Morrison hasn't been in a program where he's done anything outside of the ring to warrant getting the ball. I mean, he's cut maybe two or three good promos in the last year. Miz cuts that many in a single show sometimes. If it were still August, I could say the same about Sheamus. They brought The Rock in to promo on both Cena and Miz, and that's the match he's enhancing. To make it not for the title would not only undermine everything Cena's been talking about since being freed from Nexus, but it would put too much emphasis on yet another non-title match, leaving now two title matches out in the cold and all the focus being on Cena/Miz and the inevitable Undertaker streak match.
If you're going to criticize the WWE, and by all means, you really should be putting your energy into this avenue rather than raging against the physical act of Cena winning last night, then you need to criticize them for not putting enough guys in position to headline WrestleMania. The fact that Cena was the only one who could win the day and have it make sense should be the offensive part to you, not that he actually won. They could have spent time getting Morrison or Kofi Kingston ready for the spotlight, but instead, they passed in favor of panic booking over ratings, putting Cena and Orton and Edge and Rey Mysterio over everyone with no regard of building a future star. So now, instead of having a lot of guys to choose from and build a card filled with main event caliber matches, they have to rely on The Rock bringing in extra viewers just to host the show.
This is the exact same problem they ran into in the Attitude Era. They kept pushing Steve Austin and The Rock so hard that they either didn't build up anyone to take over for them or the guys they did pick were given up on way too fast (or in the case of Billy Gunn, may not have had the talent to match the push anyway). Of course, Triple H got over by hook or by crook, and they lucked out by having Shawn Michaels come back, but they lost a lot of business before they got off their asses and pushed guys like Eddie Guerrero and Kurt Angle in earnest.
The thing is, there's nothing that can be done to undo the pass. Cena winning was the only way they could have gone. However, they really do need to get on the ball and start telling some great stories with guys not named Cena, Orton, Edge, Mysterio, Triple H, Undertaker and Big Show if they want WrestleMania to be a big deal every year without having to resort to scrapping for a big outside name. Elevating Alberto del Rio, The Miz and CM Punk is a start. Getting on the ball with some faces, or renewing pushes for guys like Jack Swagger and Sheamus would help a lot more.
That way, when Elimination Chamber *sigh* rolls around again next year, maybe there won't be so many lamentations on Twitter about who the winner is, because the winner would have been someone fresh and exciting, not overexposed like Cena.
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