Jack Swagger - what happened?!

[OldSchoolWrestlingFan]

Jack Swagger at onetime was a world champ & was making a huge mark on WWE TV, he was even getting pretty good support/heat (depending on his booking) when he was paired with Zeb & now he is relegated to working house shows/jobbing to low grade talent & rumor is that he is on his way out of the door - So my question is: What caused the dramatic downfall of Jack Swagger?!

 

[rge2010]

I think Swagger simply got lost in the shuffle. I thought he was pretty over as a face with Colter but once Colter got injured then there was only one way for Swagger. Hogan and Angle could pull off the real american gimmick because they oozed charisma. Sadly Jack doesn't....

It would be a shame if he was released as I think he is a great wrestler but that isn't enough in the big leagues nowadays. Absolutely no reason why he can't be a success outside of WWE though. Del Rio seems to be doing fine, although he is a huge name in Mexico.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

He's Iron Mike Sharp except it took Vince too long to figure that out. He is the type of guy you can accept when he is being booked strong because of his look and amateur background but ends up losing all credibility the moment he takes a loss. He isn't and never was worth the time and effort to push significantly. He never was that good of a professional wrestler.

 

[BeastFromTheEast]

Jack Swagger is just boring. Point blank. There is nothing about the guy that makes people want to see him. When The Real Americans were getting crowd reaction it was for Cesaro not Swagger. If booked properly over the years it may be a different story but unfortunately for him his booking was terrible.

 

[MartialHorror]

The Rusev feud was interesting because Swagger was over with the crowd...However, I don't think Vince expected that and there wasn't enough time to really re-evaluate him with so many rising stars on the...rise...

With that said, I get irked knowing that Truth gets more screen-time. Swagger is an excellent wrestler, even if he isn't much of a talker, nor is he charismatic. The Bo Dallas storyline didn't help either, as it ended up demoting both men.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I don't think Swagger was booked particularly well, but I think he just doesn't have the "IT factor" that the tops stars have. He's deceptively big, but his physique doesn't show that- he looks long and slim rather than being bulky.

Plus, his lisp does limit him quite alot on the mic, and it's rare that someone can get to the top of WWE without being able to sell a feud on the mic and cut some solid promos. Zeb Colter definitely helped Swagger in this area, but without him Swagger has just gone back to where he was.

He's decent enough in the ring, obviously a good amateur wrestler and I love his Gutwrench Powerbomb but he screams "mid-carder" or "tag-team" guy to me...which isn't a bad thing. He's just not cut out for main event status, and WWE throwing the World Heavyweight Title onto him when it was painfully obvious that he wasn't ready (and booking him TERRIBLY as Champ) set him back alot, and he's never recovered from that.

 

[stingray11214]

Swagger needs a Manager if he is going to stay in the "E" as anything more than a glorified jobber. Let's face it: He was pushed to the Moon mostly because he was a JR guy, and JR LOVES his beloved Sooners, which Swagger was one (Wrestling and football at Oklahoma). If Swagger had gone anywhere else at the time, he would probably be trying out for NXT right now, if he was even still in wrestling. His mic work is a mess, and he is about as charismatic as a pet rock. He has the ring work, but so does Cesaro. So do a lot of others. Sadly, I think, with what you now have coming out of NXT, I doubt Swagger will be in the E that much longer.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

WWE forgot about him. It's a shame, but it happens to certain guys. I mean he shouldn't be WWE Champion, but he should at least be feuding with guys in the mid-card. Swagger was at his best when he was a heel managed by Zeb Colter.

 

[Aquaman6686]

Jack Swagger is one of WWE's best talents, but he was passed over in favor of younger guys. As others have said, it's a shame because last summer, Swagger was one of the most over babyfaces on the roster. Having him lose to Rusev a hundred times destroyed his career, and there's no coming back for Swagger. He should have been the guy to beat Rusev without a doubt. He's more talented than Rusev in every area, and should be a top guy in WWE. But it's never going to happen.

 

[Sundar]

I agree with Aquaman. Swagger really should have beaten Rusev at Summerslam. He had never been so over before that and it was the perfect way to reignite his career. Unfortunately, WWE seem to have given up on him and he is just a jobber now. Dean Ambrose is currently getting a similar treatment.

 

[Mustang Sally]

He's as dull as dishwater.

Yes, he can wrestle, but so can most everyone else on the roster. If WWE wanted someone to replace Kurt Angle, as many have speculated as the reason for Swagger's hiring, they needed someone who could talk a good game as well as execute in the ring. Jack failed as a heel because his facial expressions and herky-jerky body movements looked ridiculous when he was trying his level best to appear fierce.

We talk about pushes & mega-pushes, but I've never seen WWE try and put someone over as vigorously as they did Swagger. They stuck the world title around his waist WAY too early and kept shoving him down our throats long after it was apparent he just wasn't star material. Then, after keeping him off the road for a long time, they brought him back and tried it again (sans the world title, thank heavens)....and when that didn't work, they gave him a voice in the person of Zeb Colter, which helped but still couldn't give Swagger the shot of charisma he needed, but could never muster.

If WWE had originally aimed Jack toward the midcard, where he belonged, I think he could have enjoyed a serviceable career in the middle......but by trying to shoot him to the stars, they ruined the poor guy, relegating him to a career of mediocrity.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

I agree with Aquaman. Swagger really should have beaten Rusev at Summerslam. He had never been so over before that and it was the perfect way to reignite his career. Unfortunately, WWE seem to have given up on him and he is just a jobber now. Dean Ambrose is currently getting a similar treatment.

Dean Ambrose isn't a jobber, and he is in meaningful matches. I too think Ambrose has been booked horribly, but that's a huge overstatement.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Seems people are forgetting about the dumbass who got a huge return push into the WHC picture and decided to get a DUI anyways. Yep. I know I'd want to put faith in someone who's that careless Especially someone who hasn't proven to ever draw anything.

 

[ABMorales787]

Well, when you smoke pot in the middle of your push toward a Wrestlemania World title match following your reboot because you're quite shit by yourself as World Champion, US Champion and with Vickie Guerrero requiring the company to hire an ill 60+ year old war vet with a xenophobe gimmick to get you back on track just for you to fuck up with your bad habits, you kinda get the shaft for it.

Kinda deserving when you think about it.

 

[Messiah]

Dean Ambrose isn't a jobber, and he is in meaningful matches. I too think Ambrose has been booked horribly, but that's a huge overstatement.

Yes because his matches with Bo Dallas meant so much lately.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Yes because his matches with Bo Dallas meant so much lately.

That was one week. Before that, he was feuding with the WWE Champion.

 

[chuckmdubya]

I just think he's not all that great of an actor. That is a death sentence in modern WWE. Normally I'd say just sit him out for 6-10 months and bring him back a new gimmick. But what on earth would that be? Not big enough to be a masked monster, he can't play the mean character, like Mustang Sally said, dude just doesn't have a leg to stand on.
It sucks seeing a guy that by all accounts has never done anything wrong and has been a hard worker his whole life not succeed, but, as they say, that's the business.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

Wait a second, didn't he get arrested for drugs or something like that ? I thought that was the reason he's where he is on the totem pole now, he got in trouble with the law. He was already heading down the path to jobberville then he got in trouble, then he went past jobberville into less than jobberville where you don't even get an entrance on tv anymore.

 

[rbv13]

The DUI came at an unfortunate time but there have been many talents to cross the legal and moral line only to bounce back. When it comes to talents like Swagger the bottom line is he is right where he needs to be. There are a variety of roles that need to be filled on the card and Swagger fills his perfectly. He is a lower tier talent who on rare occasion can be built as a threat. He is seen by some as a failure because of that stupid second briefcase and the actual pretending the WHC was a worthwhile championship following the hard Brand split.

 

[therockiswwf]

Jack Swagger is just boring. Point blank. There is nothing about the guy that makes people want to see him.

This. Swagger was given plenty of opportunities and he failed to capitalize on any of them. He astoundingly got a DUI and got caught with drugs right after starting a massive push. His mic work has never improved. He is smooth but nothing special in the ring.

So he's boring and a dumbass. Not a great combo.

I don't think he was really over during that Rusev feud. I think it was more his character fit for that feud rather than him actually being interesting. I don't think he would have stayed over had he won that feud.

A promo he did with Cena might shed more light on this. Swagger gets the mic and said something really generic and Cena responds in a disappointed tone with "that's it?" Swagger just isn't special. No real mystery here.

 

[Navi]

With Swagger I think it was a multitude of things. He is boring, almost no personality or charisma. His lisp causes him to be very self conscious on the mic so this is an issue. He's a bit reckless and has caused a couple of injuries to other wrestlers, and he's just not that fantastic to watch. His matches are very one dimensional, and his catch phrase was just bad. His t-shirt reminded me of a chalk body outline at a crime scene. Not one I would buy.

When he was with Coulter and Cesaro, that's the most interesting I've ever found him. Might have been because of Coulters antics with the signs, and the fact that Cesaro could wrestle rings around him. When they split them up, and Coulter sort of faded away, Swagger again because just as boring as he was before.

Even in his feud with Rusev, Lana was the one everyone wanted to see. And I'm afraid that the USA chant was more over than Swagger was. I haven't seen him wrestle in forever, and don't expect to see him in any title hunt anytime soon. They've kind of forgotten he existed. It's a shame but there are so many more on the roster for the fans to get behind.

 

[OYDK]

What happened? Swagger didn't take advantage of the opportunities he was given, and he's been given a hell of a lot for some unknown reason. Obviously WWE had big plans in store for Swagger when they first brought him into the company, but he never improved. I think he sucks quite frankly, which is a word I don't use often when describing wrestling talents but that's really how I feel. He's one of the worst promo men in the business, he lacks any sort of charisma or legitimate intensity, and he's not that great at working a match... good wrestler? Sure, but terrible at working a match.

He's just not a very good pro wrestler, it's as simple as that.

 

[TDFG]

Hard to believe that he was a World Champ but that shows just how bad WWE was a few years ago.

He had his chance on more than one occasion and he blew it. Now, Swagger is one of those guys that very few people care about in a wrestling sense, nobody really cares if he wins or loses and the product hasn't been hurt any without him.

I can see him getting 'future endeavoured'.

 

[Mustang Sally]

He had his chance on more than one occasion and he blew it.

That's for sure, but have you ever seen anyone as deficient in charisma as Swagger that the WWE brass wanted so badly to make it big?

He started with that goofy countenance; it was ridiculous but resulted in him winning a world title much quicker than you'd think an unknown ever could.

Then, he got serious in his attitude but the fierce expressions on his face looked ludicrous and he kept getting demoted further down on the roster.

Then, he was put on the shelf for months....and when he came back, the promised 're-package' looked exactly like his original one. When management got the message that the 'new' Swagger was no different from the old, they brought in a mouthpiece; Zeb Colter. It was a good move and Jack's pairing with Cesaro produced some pretty good action, but when Cesaro moved on, it left Swagger with Colter and.......nothing doing.

Why WWE management has been so determined to keep Swagger on the roster baffles me. It seems that when Vince McMahon gets something in his head, it stays there and can't be shaken loose.

So okay, if they want to keep Swagger as a jobber who goes about his business seriously, that's fine with me. He can still manage a good technical job in the ring and there's always a need for a good wrestler, I suppose.

Just keep him out of the spotlight and let him work. His value as a talent enhancer is probably very low at this point but every castle needs people to handle the menial chores.

 

[HeyYo]

He sucks, that's what happened. He lacks any charisma, even though he is ok in the ring. He can't give an interview. He absolutely sucks.