Jack Swagger's Title Run a Waste?

[Cleavo77]

Watching the Survivor Series Pay-per-view Sunday, in the segment involving Jack Swagger saying he's the only former champion on the team, i couldn't help but remember how disappointed i was at Wrestlemania when Jack Swagger won. I was so excited to see guys like Kofi and Evan Bourne, MVP, Christian, and yes, even Matt Hardy getting the chance to win a major prize in the WWE. But no, in the end Jack "Thwagger" had to win, in my opinion out of nowhere. He went on to retain a few times, intentionally disqualifying himself once, and barely getting out alive of the rest. He wasn't ready to be champion.

So my question is, Do you guys think his title reign was a waste? Could it have been put to better use to revive careers of former champions like Christian or Kane? Or even the jump start of Kofi Kingston or Evan Bourne's careers? Let's hear it.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Watching the Survivor Series Pay-per-view Sunday, in the segment involving Jack Swagger saying he's the only former champion on the team, i couldn't help but remember how disappointed i was at Wrestlemania when Jack Swagger won. I was so excited to see guys like Kofi and Evan Bourne, MVP, Christian, and yes, even Matt Hardy getting the chance to win a major prize in the WWE. But no, in the end Jack "Thwagger" had to win, in my opinion out of nowhere. He went on to retain a few times, intentionally disqualifying himself once, and barely getting out alive of the rest. He wasn't ready to be champion.

So my question is, Do you guys think his title reign was a waste? Could it have been put to better use to revive careers of former champions like Christian or Kane? Or even the jump start of Kofi Kingston or Evan Bourne's careers? Let's hear it.

Not only was it a waste, but it was entirely predictable. I started a thread when it happened that basically said he was doomed from the beginning. I was glad that he won the MITB match, but when he cashed it in so quickly I knew it was over. A month prior he was jobbing to Santino. It was completely unbelievable, and I don't mean that in the good way. I'm pretty positive that they just had him cash in so quickly because the MITB PPV that was coming up and they didn't want multiple people carrying cases around. It's the same reason Kane cashed in the night he won it. And they also should've had him debut his use of the ankle lock while he was still carrying the belt and feuding with the Big Show. Talk about the perfect opportunity since he obviously cannot do a gutwrench powerbomb on him. Would've put him over much better. Honestly, his entire title run ruined him for me and now I can't stand him. They really screwed him up.

 

[Sora/roxas]

The only reason he won was it was a way for WWE to throw a curve ball at us. ANd the reason he cashed it in so fast was because of the MITB PPV. I dont think it was a total waste because in all honesty anyone else who was in it wouldnt have been any better. Christian isnt believable as a WORLD champion or WWE championship. I can see him winng any other title just not THE titles. Evan bourne isnt good on the mic and doesnt have any power or ground work. Mysterio has some power not alot but some and decent mat skills. Matt hardy, no matter how much i love the guy and no matter how much he deserves it wouldve held a reign similar to Swagger's. MVP see Christian. Kane was jobbing for the majority of the year and didnt really need money in the bank.

SO that leaves Kofi. He is the only one who might have done something with the title reign. granted the reign wouldve been the same as Swagger's almost useless as a reign, but Kofi couldve used it alot more because he has credibility already. Swaggers world title run gave him creibility but he didnt have much before the run.

 

[dman1373]

Jack Swagger isn't even close to over enough to be champion. This made absolutely no sense. You have so many other guys that are ten times more over then him. I remember a time when you had to be over to be a champion, not get a championship to be over. If their is one reason the value of the championships have gone down its because guys get it when their not over.

 

[darbare]

I do agree that he wasnt ready....Good Ole JR said that one cant really determine if someone is ready or not until after the reign, welp Swagger wasnt ready...just think of it as building his credibility for the future....he will without a doubt win the title again someday...it was just a test, just like CM Punks first reign which failed miserably....I do agree that the only other person capable of winning it then was Kofi....Kofi has always been mega over...Matt Hardy was fat and out of shape then and getting over injurys...Shelton got released....Christian would have also been a reasonable option to give him at least one title reign....Evan Bourne isnt ready for anything in WWE, maybe a cruiserweight title or light heavyweight title....Kane of course became champ anyways...and Drew McIntyre would have been a good choice then, but looking at him he seems to have regressed because he gets a lesser reaction than he once has...either Swagger or Kofi....but I liked him as champ so I guess he was doing something right

 

[AmericanDragonSW]

Make it unanimous. It was a waste and honestly, he was nowhere near ready for either of the world titles. I don't agree that Christian would be a bad pick. Considering the line up, I'd take him or Kofi. Either one of them would be better than Swagger. I mean his finisher is a gutwrench powerbomb. Given, Batista made a Sitdown Powerbomb work for the Batista Bomb but come on. And now they're trying to market Swagger like he's the next Kurt Angle. They moved Swagger past the IC and US Titles all the way to the world titles? It's worse than when they did it with JBL during his first title reign. JBL got out of the tag division and his first run he gets the world title from Eddie Guerrero. The difference is Swagger is a young talent, but I'm anything but impressed with him. I see something with Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston. Swagger, he's not ready now and wasn't then. So yes I agree, it was a waste giving him the belt having to have guys like the Big Show put him over.

 

[goukuma]

totally agree with your comments. it was just too soon and even STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN said so. DREW MCINTYRE was supposed to win MITB but agents started doubting DREW and i cant say that i blame them either, but giving it to SWAGGER i think was just stupid and it gets wasted on a guy who developed a beer gut and that belt around his waist didnt do him any favors. he is becoming more and more of a wanna be KURT ANGLE. SWAGGER needs to develop his own moveset.

 

[RatedRCodeezie]

Honestly I would say the World Title reign hurt Swagger more than it helped him.

Aside from statistics and him being able to call himself a "former World Champion", it really just exposed how green and not ready he truly was. Putting the strap on him that soon was a big mistake, done for shock value. Building him up with the briefcase (i.e. Edge, Miz) would have been very beneficial for him. Now he is floating around in the midcard with literally nothing to do. He's considered too good to wrestle for the IC title but still has no place in the main event.

 

[iamcountrymusic]

This is exactly how I feel. I saw him job to Bourne and Mark Henry a month earlier. Tagging with Chavo btw.

He could be a dominant powerful heel but instead they made him a joke. His feud with Edge was stupid especially the thing with all of his trophies being destroyed.

the only reason they gave it to him was they didn't feel Mcyntire wasn't ready. Both those wrestlers deserve great championship reigns. Not filler until somone comes back from injury

 

[goukuma]

Honestly I would say the World Title reign hurt Swagger more than it helped him.

Aside from statistics and him being able to call himself a "former World Champion", it really just exposed how green and not ready he truly was. Putting the strap on him that soon was a big mistake, done for shock value. Building him up with the briefcase (i.e. Edge, Miz) would have been very beneficial for him. Now he is floating around in the midcard with literally nothing to do. He's considered too good to wrestle for the IC title but still has no place in the main event.

thats one of the major problems with giving belts too early to these guys. rarely it does work like SHEAMUS for example, but most of the time it stunts their progression of a wrestler. basically if your rewarded a WORLD or WWE title you must doing something right so why improve. RANDY ORTON and BATISTA are good examples of this and it took both of them especially RANDY ORTON to improve all their skills and become the wrestlers we know today

 

[mrbrownstone]

The idea behind the title run was solid for the most part. The winning and cashing in of the MITB were both legit surprises, he is a great in ring talent, when given the mic time he is a lot better than people give him credit for and during the title run he drew some great heat. The problem with the title run lay in the execution, there are two main reasons for this.

First up, he was booked like complete and utter crap. When he was champion he either lost to or got DQ wins over the other main event guys, the only one who I remember him beating clean was Randy, this meant he could only get wins over mid card guys and even then he struggled losing to Morrison on more than one occasion. There was no way with this kind of booking that anyone would take him seriously as champ.

The second issue is that he had no major face to feud with and put him over. This is the major issue in my eyes, he wasn't put over by someone to get into the main event scene, he just showed up there. With the SD roster being so weak at the time with Jericho and Edge being drafted to Raw and Taker being injured the closest thing to a major face he has was Show and Rey, not exactly the two people you want putting you over as both are nothing more than jobbers to the stars.

I maintain that the title reign could have worked with the proper booking and a big face to put him over. To answer the thread title no it wasn't a waste, it was a learning experience for both Swagger and WWE. It gave Swagger a taste of what it is like to main event and it taught WWE how not to book a champ. I have no doubt that Swagger will get another shat at the main event one day and when that happened both parties will be able to learn from and improve on this title run.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

It was rushed, and it was wasted. Simple as

They threw the belt on a guy was was a low mid-carder a month earlier. He was in no way ready to hold the top belt, the character was not developed enough, he wasnt over with the crowd to the level that a champion should be. It seemed the WWE put the belt on him to GET HIM OVER, not put the belt on him WHEN HE WAS OVER. The world title should not be used to make a mid-carder a main eventer, the mid-carder needs to be built up to main event level through good booking, successful feuds etc, and then given the title when they are ready. Swagger damm sure has potential, and I think he will be champ again some day, but it was a stupid decision to give him the belt so quickly after winning MITB.

The Miz looks to be the next "first time champion" (apart from Barrett), and after winning MITB, Miz is biding his time before cashing in. This is smart booking from WWE as it allows Miz time to become a bona-fide main eventer in the eyes of the fans before he cashes in and headlines a PPV for the title. It is a shame that this wasnt done for Swagger, but maybe WWE have learned from their mistake.

 

[Ferbian]

I wouldn't necessarily call it a waste. Considering the fact that Jack Swagger barely got any time on the show prior to his World Championship reign. He spend time both jobbing as well as barely ever getting to cut a promo. Now? He gets both in-ring time where he gets to actually win, as well as have some of the better matches in terms of in-ring activity in WWE today. He has gotten to look dominant, both somewhat during as well as after his reign, and he has established himself fairly well in the upper mid-card.

Some think just because his reign didn't last too long, or because he was made to look defeatable against guys that wasn't main eventers, that it is automatically a failure. Yet let's not forget he defeated Chris Jericho and Edge in his first title defense, as well as Randy Orton in his first Pay Per View defend, both clean.

Swagger is noticeable now. We know that he's able to work the microphone even if he has a horrible lisp. We know that he's able to work good and longer matches. And ultimately, we know that he'd be able to pull it off once more when he gets the title once again - Ala Sheamus if you will.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

Well I think that Jack Swagger of 2010= Jack Swagger of 2009 + Anklelock + Mascot + A few more wins.

So yes I guess Jack's title run was a waste. But that is hardly a surprise because he was actually booked to lose against the likes of Santino before winning the MITB. Also there was hardly anything interesting about Jack prior to winning the MITB. All he had that made him stand out from the pack was his lisp and that's not something that would interest most wrestling fans.

I think the major factor behind his push was JR's backing. I think it might have worked to some extent had Swagger been a regular feature in the midcard prior to the MITB match instead of the joke he was.

Now I guess he is back to square one and has to start rebuilding his credibility from scratch. His title reign was completely forgettable. But then again the tag of a former WHC will be an addition to his character also.

 

[Isaac Kaye]

The idea behind the title run was solid for the most part. The winning and cashing in of the MITB were both legit surprises, he is a great in ring talent, when given the mic time he is a lot better than people give him credit for and during the title run he drew some great heat. The problem with the title run lay in the execution, there are two main reasons for this.

First up, he was booked like complete and utter crap. When he was champion he either lost to or got DQ wins over the other main event guys, the only one who I remember him beating clean was Randy, this meant he could only get wins over mid card guys and even then he struggled losing to Morrison on more than one occasion. There was no way with this kind of booking that anyone would take him seriously as champ.

The second issue is that he had no major face to feud with and put him over. This is the major issue in my eyes, he wasn't put over by someone to get into the main event scene, he just showed up there. With the SD roster being so weak at the time with Jericho and Edge being drafted to Raw and Taker being injured the closest thing to a major face he has was Show and Rey, not exactly the two people you want putting you over as both are nothing more than jobbers to the stars.

I maintain that the title reign could have worked with the proper booking and a big face to put him over. To answer the thread title no it wasn't a waste, it was a learning experience for both Swagger and WWE. It gave Swagger a taste of what it is like to main event and it taught WWE how not to book a champ. I have no doubt that Swagger will get another shat at the main event one day and when that happened both parties will be able to learn from and improve on this title run.

I couldn't agree more. Iit was clear they wanted to build him as a cowardly type heel, a bit like Ziggler was at the start of his IC reign with DQ's etc, but they had him lose clean to midcarders ALL the damn time. By the time he went clean over Orton his status as a weak champion was already established

One thing I will say though is that as much as a love Swagger he really struggled (and is still struggling) to nail down his gimmick. He adopted a very cold persona after he won the belt and I'm not sure this matched his personality. He seems to switch between roles all the time, almost to the extent that his expression is totally different each time he comes to the ring.

He needs some consistency here, otherwise he won't give the fans anything to associate with him in terms of style. The eagle seems to have been dropped all of a sudden and that was starting to look quite promising.

Still, he remains a solid midcarder who they have the option of elevating again if they think he is ready. It's untrue that he isn't over, he is VERY over as a heel and thats a big advantage for him. He will be champ again for sure. He is far too good in the ring and his mic work isn't too shabby either.

 

[Montague]

The only reason Swagger had the title in the first place is because they thought he could be the next Kurt Angle, but as we all know, like HBK and Taker, there is no OTHER Angle than Angle. WWE gave him the title, found out he wouldnt cut it, stripped him of it, and dropped him back down to Mid-Card Hell where he will probably never escape.

 

[LSN80]

It can't be viewed as a total waste, because he WON a World Championship. It doesn't matter when where or how, being World Champion is quite the achievement. But the negatives did outweigh the positives.

The biggest positive was that he had two legitimate title defenses against men with a combined total of 22 World Championships between them. He defeated Edge(9x) and Chris Jericho(6x) on the following week's Smackdown in a great triple threat match, then retained against Randy Orton(7x) with a clean win at Extreme Rules. Not too shabby.

However, he was booked horribly in almost every non-title defense. He was defeated by Orton(twice) Undertaker, and Rey Mysterio, all in non-title singles matches, and lost almost every tag match he was in as well. I know the names I listed were big names, but he needed wins over big names to legitimize his reign. He didn't get them, which killed his credibility as champion. His DQ loss against Big Show at Over The Limit hurt him even more, as he dropped the title in his very next defense, to Rey.

The other big problem was that he didn't have any real faces to feud with. Edge turned heel and moved to Raw, and evidenced by their two recent matches, they could have had a heck of a program. Opportunity wasted. Big Show destroyed him and his possessions week after week leading up to their title match, and Big Show just isn't credible anymore in large doses, so it was impossible to believe he could beat Swagger. Rey was stuck in his program with Punk, and the only face left they didnt explore was Christian, with whom he had excellent matches again in the past. Another opportunity wasted.

As evidenced by the clinic Swagger put on last night, he's a fantastic wrestler that was booked horribly as a champion. Was it a waste? No, but he was a weak champion.

 

[MizFit Brocko]

I definitely wouldn't call it a waste. We now know Jack Swagger is one of the 'Main' on the roster, i do however hate how quickly after he dropped the title, was he out of the picture altogether.

After the performance he just put in at SS, which was absolutely brilliant, i CANNOT WAIT until Edge wins the belt and Swagger hopefully gets in a feud with him. Swagger was amazing tonight, really was the highlight of the elimination match for me with all the ankle lock moves he put on, especially the stuff with Kofi.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Jack Swagger's title reign was anything BUT a waste. It established him as a main eventer. Look at where he was just a semester before that. On Raw he was humiliated on more than one occassion by Santino. SANTINO!!!! Then he won the MITB contract and cashed it in on Smackdown, suddenly he was a World Champion and he regained all of his credibility. Do you think he could have gotten any of that back without holding a world title? I would think not. Not only did that reign help Swagger when he badly needed to re-establish himself, but it also gave us another main eventer on Smackdown. Swagger could easily feud with the World Champion at any given time right now, due to being a former world champ himself. It was absolutely not a waste because without it he might still be jobbing to jokes like Santino. Swagger will be champion again.

 

[grandia]

Kofi's feud with orton and his great SS team win in 2009 was a great setup for him to win MITB, but noooooooo wwe had to make swagger win it. Swagger is a great wrestler but kofi byfar had the better buildup

 

[Disturbed]

Yes Swagger's world title reign was a complete all around waste. I don't see anything good that came from it. He went from wrestling Santino on superstars to winning the Money in the Bank in just a matter of a few weeks. I think Christian should have won the Money in the Bank and then have Edge beat Jericho for the world title and then Christian cash in on Edge but make sure he cashes it in just like RVD did which was ahead of time. Christian could say he is cashing in at Over the Limit so they could feud untill Over the Limit. Now if Swagger was built up better, then his reign wouldn't have been a waste. They should have started building up Swagger around the Royal Rumble time and then have him win the Money in the Bank and then use his World title reign for something good. Just like the Great Khali's World title reign, nobody is going to remember it.

 

[Rated Straight Edge]

Honestly, Christian should have become Mr. Money in the Bank with Edge outing Jericho for the World Heavyweight Championship that night followed with an immediate cashing in by Christian which would have lead immediately to a Triple Threat TLC match at Extreme Rules where Christian would retain and lead into a three-way feud until roughly Fatal Four Way where either man's victory would have been fine. Swagger's Money in the Bank and inevitable cashing in of the same was premature. Pushing someone so forcefully into the world championship scene was very faulty of the WWE's part.