the Rise and fall of the Smark Champions

[Guest Trivia247]

It seemed so promising.

 

At the start of the year Chris Benoit's win at the royal rumble cementing his Main event position at Wrestlemania. Eddy Guerrero on Smackdown winning the World title. then Chris Benoit at Wrestlemania finally achieving the Status of World's heavyweight Champion in the Last Major Federation on North America and hell anywhere really. and the touching moment, Chris and Eddy Guerrero, Hugging at the end of WM. Two Champions beloved by us for their Skills their long years of paying dues to get where they were. And we finally thought that the WWE woke up.

 

 

So what went wrong?

 

Chris Benoit was in my opinion finally given the Concrete nod that he is in Fact a Main eventer with or without the belt. His very manner in the ring before his matches just before winning the title and while he was champion Showed him to be unaffraid of the odds (since they felt the need to triple threat him twice) And despite HHH seemingly Stranglehold of his Spot as Champion, Benoit didn't blink. Then what happen? Actually better question what was the excuses they started to give? Benoit needed HHH needed HBK to Give him Credibility as Champion when they did it all over again at the next PPV. then at the next Raw PPV Benoit wasn't even the Main eventer...the Champion NOT the main eventer because HHH needed to take on HBK for the fourth Billionth time this time in a HIAC OooOoo AHHHHH. Once again the excuses was that HHH's star power was necessary to keep him in the top spot, and if Benoit isn't in a match with him, then they will have to settle with the Double Main event crap.

 

The Double Main event concept began I think in 1990-92 era when Hulk Hogan lost the World title, but was still active in the ring. His star power demanded his spot to the point where in almost an gross action of Tarnishing the Championship. Hulk Hogan took on Sid Justice at WM 8's Main event while the World Heavyweight Championship, Randy Savage vs then Champion Ric Flair was the MIDDLE of the Card match. But they call it a Double main event. This concept extended to later Champions or anyone that the WWF/E would consider bankable.

 

Benoit's Legitamacy as a Champion and Main eventer should have not been as tarnished as they set it out to be. One championship, then two championship title matches both mid lining the card as HHH keeps his Main event status. Till Finally, they sacrified Benoit like a lamb to the Alter of a Heathen Cult, but losing to Randy Orton. Benoit, who they had beat HHH twice in order to Gain and Maintain the World title, lost the belt to Orton in a single match in order just to Make Randy Orton a guy not three years into the Company World champion and legitamize it.

 

After which Benoit was Relegated to Low card bullshit matches and Heat matches as we probably can still see Benoit after this week.

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Eddy Guerrero is entirely different story however,

 

Eddy Guerrero's rise came midpoint of last year, primarly because his popularity grew even beyond the fuctions of him suppose to be a Heel at the time. the WWE's and Smackdown's motivations in making him champion wasn't really as noble. True Eddie Had all the tools, had the look the style and could truly be a World champion. However SD and the WWE made him Champion I feel, because the Latin community was heavily watching Smackdown in their figures. They saw Eddy Guerrero at the top as a Cash Cow for them. Now I could be absolutely be wrong, but we all heard the rumors last year and up to his title win that the Smackdown and UPN caters or tries to cater to the Latino community that regularly watches their programming. Eddy Guerrero, Rey Mystero, Chavo all got bumped up in visability for it. Nothing exactly wrong with that. Just the motivations aren't as noble as we would like.

 

Unfortunately, Eddy Guerrero's stress level grew beyond his control. He felt as champion at least from what we heard that he was the one holding the whole of Smackdown on his back and trying to carry the load of the success or fail of the show. Any drop in the ratings translated for him a failure on his part. I believe, and once again I could be wrong, that the WWE saw these as warning signs and agreed to releave him of the burden of being Champion, right or wrong, perhaps the decision had some justifications there. A few months have gone by since his Loss to JBL. Hopefully between then and now Eddy has relaxed more and just went with the flow, being a Champion isn't like what they had put out there in the 80's where Champions comes the responsibility the extra money and other perks they would like us to believe as if the Industry was real.

 

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We started the year and deep into it with Two Champions who have earned their spots and were Not Hosses.

 

by the end of the year. HHH and JBL is Champions. Excuse me, HHH's title was vacated, but he'll win it back by next PPV.

 

Did the WWE do us Internet Rabid Dogs a Bone to make us shut up? Or did they believe in making Benoit and Guerrero Champions? That these two men were in fact Main event material now and forevah? Its a debate you can be sure of that.

 

What do you all think?

[Jericholic82 0]

I think that in Benoit's case , they wanted a big babyface win at wm to end hhs title reign of course. choosing benoit was a big gamble for them, since he had to make the move to Raw immediately after winning the rumble. It was a gamble since not all of Raws audience was also watching sd. But his reception upon arerival probably quieted their fears. more than just because he deserved it and loyalty or whatnot. And they finally idd make him a permanent main event guy in the average fans minds. His pops have stayed continously loud and I have seen lots of Benoit and signs and shirts that I have only previously seen from a few smarks at the events. case in point I went to the 8/23 Raw in anaheim (kane-lita wedding) one week after main eventing the second biggest show of the year, Benoit was main eventing heat of all things. But he got the biggest pop of the whole night.

 

My point is the fans do buy Benoit in the top spot and as such they may continue to leave him in the mix with evoultion and other top heels.

 

 

Eddie is a different story. They probably did give him a shot at the top to attract the latino market, but thats nothing new. ethnic champions have been used since the beginning of the wwwf (bruno,Pedro, rock, etc) Eddie did seem to not be able to handle all the stress in addition to concentarting on staying sober and healthy. Wwe might have taken the burden opff of him to make sure he didnt fall off the wagon again.

 

Then again they only gave him 2 major opponents during his reign. Angle, who was an obvious choice . then JBL, an exmidcarder attemptint to bust into the main event scene right away and failing miserably at it.

 

But whoda thunk it, by hook or crook or majic or something we havent thought of JBL has become a believeable heel champion to the fans.

 

 

Anyhow, Eddies reign was less than stellar due to bad booking imo

 

So in the end, WWE took a big chance with both of these guys

 

and at the very least they made eddie and chris "big" in the fans eyes

[Papacita 0]

With Benoit...I think they could've got a lot more out of him than they did, but either a lack of faith or lack of desire to see him succeed is what ultimately did him in. A lot of people cite his lack of mic skills as sufficient reason for him taking a backseat to HHH, HBK, Eugene and others in the summer, but I've never agree with that because one, his mic skills aren't THAT bad IMO (he's not Rock or Flair, but he's shown himself capable of projecting emotion so the potential of connecting with the fans is there), and even if they didn't trust him on the mic, they could've built his matches as major attractions, and outside of his work with HHH and Shawn, they never attempted to do that. I personally think that they never intended for him to get over and he was only given the belt in order to keep things fresh between Mania and the HHH/Orton program.

 

As for Eddie, I think it was more a case of him not having anyone to work with. I think he was definitely meant to be a long-term champ (or at least a more significant one), but their roster got raped in the post Mania draft, and while I think they probably could've gotten something out of an Eddie/Booker program, Bradshaw was the only real option short of building up scrubs every month for Eddie to knock down. It just made more sense to have the belt on a heel.

[natey2k4 0]

Benoit I could see being a World Champion again.. Even in the near future (2005)... As for Eddie.. I dont see him being a Champ anytime soon.

[The Niggardly King 0]

I'd like to see Eddie beat Bradshaw for the belt at Wrestlemania, and finally put a proper ending to that feud.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Benoit had a nice run as champ getting clean wins over practically everyone on RAW aside from Orton. Benoit is now treated like a main eventer by and large and remains in the title picture even now. He is the most credible face on RAW due to HBK's numerous jobs to HHH and Orton's relative suckiness. For a guy who isn't the greatest on the mic and is getting up in years, Benoit has done very well for himself.

 

I don't know what is wrong with Eddy. Perhaps he is just broken down from the years of abuse on his body. He is certainly good enough and over enough to be champion again, but whether he is both physically and mentally able to deal with that strain is a question.

[Guest JMA]

I'd like to see Eddie beat Bradshaw for the belt at Wrestlemania, and finally put a proper ending to that feud.

You're not the only one.

[SuperJerk 0]

I'd like to see Eddie beat Bradshaw for the belt at Wrestlemania, and finally put a proper ending to that feud.

You're not the only one.

Word.

[humongous2002 0]

I'd like to see Eddie beat Bradshaw for the belt at Wrestlemania, and finally put a proper ending to that feud.

You're not the only one.

Word.

I'm inclining more for a title change @ the Royal rumble, I just can't stomach another month of that Velocity midcarder JBL as a champion.

[JN News 0]

IMO, the reason why Eddie's title reign crashed abruptly is because he didn't have a top heel like Triple H to feud with, and help him make Smackdown! a success. Vince was so obsessed with making RAW better than Smackdown!, that he didn't even care about letting his son in law help Eddie on Smackdown! A HHH/Eddie feud would have done wonders for Eddie, IMO.

[Guest JMA]

I'd like to see Eddie beat Bradshaw for the belt at Wrestlemania, and finally put a proper ending to that feud.

You're not the only one.

Word.

I'm inclining more for a title change @ the Royal rumble, I just can't stomach another month of that Velocity midcarder JBL as a champion.

I wouldn't be opposed to that. But it looks like Vince wants JBL to still be the WWE Champion going into WrestleMania (which is a bad idea, IMO).

[SamoaRowe 0]

I'd like to see Eddie beat Bradshaw for the belt at Wrestlemania, and finally put a proper ending to that feud.

You're not the only one.

Word.

I'm inclining more for a title change @ the Royal rumble, I just can't stomach another month of that Velocity midcarder JBL as a champion.

I wouldn't be opposed to that. But it looks like Vince wants JBL to still be the WWE Champion going into WrestleMania (which is a bad idea, IMO).

Ouch... I don't want to even guess what types of buyrates that is going to draw...

 

I mean, JBL has become an okay WWE Champion... but Eddie should've still beat him in that cage match last year. It would've been a perfect end and it would've put Eddie over big time. He could've feuded with Booker T after that. We didn't need six months (and counting ) of Bradshaw as champion.