Now, if they continue to Book him like this...

[Guest ArchoanJB]

Don't forget all the people coming back, his feud with Brock can concievably last up till KOTR and if they don't want to hotshot another match have Angle throw Brock challengers till he decides it's time for him to take back his title at Summerslam.

 

Team Angle right now is just golden, how logn it'll last, nobody really knows, but it's good to see a awesome stable that actually makes sense.

[Guest Army Eye]

Fair points. I think with Jericho it was a different situation though. They didn't book anything long-term at all. With Jericho it was more, well, it just so happens we haven't had him lose the title yet, and WrestleMania's the next PPV, I guess he's in the main event then! How about that! Day to day booking at its worst.

 

At that point the WWE had NOTHING and had to bring in the NWO just to save the buyrate. Let us hope they learned from this ugly mistake.

 

The point is I don't think they were ever grooming Jericho to be the next perm-main eventer, or if they were, they panicked midway when they didn't like how it was going. It sure looked to me like the logic was just, hey Jericho would be a cool surprise winner at Vengeance, nobody would see it coming, BUT they had no idea what they were doing after that.

 

So the question with Angle is

1) How well do they book him in the next few months, how strong does he look, does it look like they have a master plan in place. I would say SO FAR SO GOOD but there's still much to be done. I can refer to Angle's first brush with the main event, and Jericho's undisputed title run, see that they were booked very weakly and with no decent long-term feuds, and see some warning signs that they were purely 'transitional' and could be shunted back down. (in hindsight. not trying to say that I predicted all this). With Angle right now, nobody should expect him to start beating other main eventers clean, especiallly as a heel, but it would go a long away to make him look strong, as opposed to getting dominated and win by total fluke/huge run-ins. He also should put away mid-carders clean with relative ease. (remember when jericho couldn't beat Rikishi clean?). They've actually been doing this over the past several months to some extent, with the exception of the various losses to Edge. It was correct to put him over Mysterio decisively. He has been semi-protected for the first time in WWE that I can remember. Not Brock-protected or Bubba Ray-protected, but at least something.

 

2) is business decent in the meantime. The trouble with business being down (and this is what may have killed Jericho) is that they're much more likely to panic when reacting to day-to-day business. Fair or not, Angle's ratings and first couple buyrates will probably be closely scrutinized. I can't underestimate Vince McMahon's proclivity to put the hosses back on top when in doubt.

 

Another thing to think about is to take a look at three guys who are fixtures as main eventers, Austin, HHH and Lesnar. (Rock is harder to pinpoint here). Those three all got the huge push of course but there was one match for each in particular which really elevated them to the top tier. HHH had RR2000 vs. Foley, Austin had WM13 vs. Bret, and Lesnar had SSlam2002 vs. Rock. For HHH and Austin, it was a combination of a CLASSIC match and good rub from an established main-event opponent. Brock's match was only pretty good but Rock had a lot of rub to give, not jobbing clean in years. Plus they made up for it by feeding him Taker too. Beating those two cleanly was a huge deal.

 

So another factor could be, does Angle get that match. If Angle/Lesnar is a really good, instant classic, maybe that's the final stepping stone for Angle, win or lose.

[Secret Agent 0]

I could see Angle walking out of WM with the title. Triple H did it in 2000 and everyone was betting on a Rock victory then.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Angle MUST lose the title at WrestleMania. It's the only payoff this feud can have. The only other options are simply having Angle win for the sake of having Angle win, not booking what makes the most sense. After that, Brock should hold the title for a *significant* period. His first reign was cut short just as it was becoming the best in years, and I want to see what he can do with an Austin in 2001-esque reign. That said, by all means keep Angle strong. In fact, trade him to RAW where HHH can't hurt him since he's Vince's boy, and let him be champ there so Brock can become the #1 Babyface of this era, and Angle can be it's #1 Heel. Then at WM 21... rematch!

[Guest Vyce]

I don't know if they'll continue to push him this way after Mania.

 

I don't know if they'll continue to push him this way next week.

 

But last Thursday? Angle going absolutely fucking postal on the ring announcer?

 

Brought a tear to my eye. It was THAT beautiful.