Christian: career midcarder or budding main eventer

They could push Xtian and give him a stable of lackeys to make him look more important (like they did with JBL), but they haven't (and it looked like they were headed in that direction before his back injury, when he had Trish and Tomko at his side).

Essentially, everything I want to say is covered in Scott Keith's SmarK vs the Glass Ceiling essay, which states the case much better than I could. IIRC, it was written in April or May of 2001, right after HHH and Austin got through burying the Hardyz and right before the failed Jericho/Benoit pseudo-megapushes.

Seriously, has he ever won a feud?

Jericho. Lost.
RVD. Lost.
Shelton Benjamin. Lost.
Michaels. Lost.

But even if he had won all those feuds, he'd just be Randy Orton. You have to back it up in the ring by being good (Benoit), intense (Goldberg, Batista), different (RVD in his initial WWE run, heck even UT), passionate (Foley, Eddie) or just seem like a total star (Austin, Rock, Triple H, Brock). Christian seems to lack all of the above. At least Booker T can pull off *looking* like a star and Matt Hardy is somewhat more of a passionate and interesting in-ring character (well, during his Smackdown heel run anyway).

There are glass-ceiling victims that I can see becoming main eventers, given the chance: Booker T, RVD, Rey Misterio Jr., Matt Hardy and list goes on. I just don't see Christian being one of them.

I think alex is right.. Theres just this intangible thing about Christian that doesnt let you take him seriously. Perhaps that why he was so great in his tag team run with Edge - a couple of dipshits who will fuck you up with chairs.

This is exactly the sort of thing SK was talking about in the article I linked. Before Edge started that run on Smackdown, how many memorable singles matches did he have? Or going back a little further (before his IC and US title reigns in 2001), before the Edge-Xtian breakup, how many memorable singles matches did he have? None, more or less. Same as Xtian.

Later on, he had some great matches with Angle and Eddie, but who's to say that Xtian wouldn't have had great matches with those same guys, if HE had been given the chance? I think he would have, because I think E&C are about equal as workers.

Also, Xtian resorts to choking and stuff because he's a heel, and has been for most of his career. It has little to do with the extent of his moveset. Edge is also doing a lot more spazzing and choking now that he's a heel again.

While he hasn't gotten the *same* quality opponents as Edge did, he did have feature feuds with Chris Jericho and RVD, and to a lesser extent with Michaels and Benjamin, all close in terms of talent to Angle or Eddie. The thing is, Edge went down with an injury after his Smackdown feuds, but do most people remember who won those feuds? Not really, it was just that he competed in great 15-minute TV main events. Christian main-evented RAW against RVD and had a few decent length matches with Jericho. And while Eddie + Angle > RVD + Jericho (>, not >>>), it just remains that Christian's matches aren't *memorable*. Blame it on Pat Patterson or Johnny Ace, I don't know, but this contributes to my feelings about his in-ring "aura" (not skills, because I know he can bust out the swanky jackknife elbowdrop).

MindInRewind, I'm curious though; do you see Edge and Christian at the same level inside the ring? I know you've stated that they have more-or-less the same style, but sometimes it's down the execution (give someone the same moveset and wrestling style as Benoit, but if he can't match the snap and intensity, it won't work).

I still maintain though that if this feud delivers only solid but unspectacular matches, all the push in the world won't help Christian (not that he will be pushed against Orton).

I asked this question already -- name a **** Edge match from the pre-Smackdown Six solo megapush days?

I don't know if you guys read the article I linked, but your arguments fit the "self-fulfilling prophecy" conundrum to a tee. You're saying "Xtian got his chance with a guy like Michaels (who is a great worker), while Edge feuded with Angle and Eddie in 2002, had great matches and got over that way".

Except that Edge fought those guys on and off for the whole year, in 15-20 minute main events on free TV and PPV, and got to BEAT them CLEANLY. Xtian feuded with Michaels for two weeks in which he cheated to get a fluke pin on him in a tag match, which culminated in him getting squashed in an eight minute match on RAW.

Now, you're arguing "well, we would push Xtian, but we put him in there with Shawn and he's still not over enough to move up the card, so we have to keep him in the midcard". That's the self-fulfilling prophecy -- the WWE didn't want him to get over, because if they did, they could have booked him to look good against Shawn. So of course he's not more over. If he'd feuded with Shawn for three months and won the feud with a 20 minute match on PPV, then everything would be different.

A feud with Orton is a good idea, but Orton's not a guy who can put somebody over and bring him to the next level. That's a mid-card feud.

Christian isnt nearly as over as you think he is, and has no right to be word champion anytime soon.

Love,
Common Sense

On a side note, doesn't BG James kind of look like The Roadie who used to be my slapnutz roadie years ago? I should squash that slapnutz just in case he is, because "With My Baby Tonight was MY SONG dammit. SPAPNUTZ!!!