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WWE WrestleMania 29: Why Jack Swagger Must Beat Alberto Del Rio for World Title

Posted: Mar 22nd 2013 By: mikeiles

The rivalry between Alberto Del Rio and Jack Swagger hasn't been as hyped as some of the others heading into WrestleMania XXIX, but it has garnered the WWE some mainstream attention and pushed Swagger to new heights as a top heel.

The WWE must capitalize on this by having Swagger win the World Heavyweight Championship.

Del Rio has admittedly been much more interesting since turning face, but he just doesn't have the character necessary to be a top guy. I enjoy his in-ring work immensely; however, his promos are tough to sit through since they are quite repetitive.

He has been in the world title scene for most of the past year on SmackDown and it's time for somebody else to step up.

Swagger isn't a very good talker in his own right, but his gimmick is fresh.

He also has Zeb Colter to act as his mouthpiece, and Colter has proven to be very valuable thus far. There aren't very many top-level heels in the WWE right now, but Swagger could potentially be among the elite if he is afforded the opportunity to win the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania.

It's hard for fans to legitimately hate heels these days, but Swagger and Colter are controversial enough to generate some very real heat.

If Swagger loses to Del Rio at WrestleMania, then all of that could very easily go away.

Swagger wouldn't necessarily be entitled to a rematch either, so there's a chance he would have to move on and feud with someone on a smaller scale?although his options are limited since he targets foreigners.

Should Swagger win the title, though, he can have one more match with Del Rio and then move on to bigger and better things.

My preference would be a brief feud with Jericho, should Y2J stick around for a while following WrestleMania. Jericho wrestled through SummerSlam last year, so hopefully he is able to maintain a similar schedule during his current run.

Swagger and Jericho had a highly-entertaining match on SmackDown last week and will have another this week, so the foundation is being built for something down the line.

Also, while Jericho was actually born in the United States, he is Canadian as well, so Swagger and Colter can keep their gimmick going full force in a rivalry.

Perhaps Jericho could then beat Swagger for the title at Payback in June, only for Dolph Ziggler to finally cash in his Money in the Bank contract.

Ziggler has to cash in prior to the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, so his opportunities are certainly running out. Cashing in on Jericho would be the ideal scenario, though, as they could then have a match at Money in the Bank and maybe at SummerSlam as well.

Jericho and Ziggler had a very brief feud last summer that resulted in Jericho beating Ziggler at SummerSlam, and Ziggler getting revenge the next night on Raw. Despite the fact that we have already seen it, many fans wanted Jericho to face Ziggler at WrestleMania XXIX, but that isn't going to happen. Cashing in Money in the Bank on Jericho would arguably be an even bigger coup for The Showoff, though.

That would obviously be a lot of movement for the World Heavyweight Championship over a short period of time, especially compared to what we have seen over the past year, but that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

Swagger winning the title would give him some credibility and help establish him as a top heel.

Jericho winning wouldn't have a big impact on his legacy as he is already well established, but it would whet the appetite of his fans who have complained about his constant losing.

Jericho could then put over a guy who he respects, such as Ziggler. It is vital that Ziggler cashes in on a face like Jericho, rather than a heel, because there is a larger need for top heels than top faces right now.

Del Rio has done very well for himself over the past few months when you consider how low he had dipped as a heel, but he doesn't seem like a long-term champion for me.

I actually expected him to drop the belt to Ziggler soon after winning it, so he has already done much more than I thought he would. He is clearly more popular than he was, but he just doesn't engage the fans like John Cena, Sheamus, Randy Orton, Ryback and others.

Even if Del Rio loses to Swagger at WrestleMania, he should be established as an upper-mid-card face who can move up to the main event when needed.

He would be very much like Sheamus or Orton in that regard. If Swagger loses, though, he will probably fade back into obscurity and end up on the same level as the likes of Antonio Cesaro and Wade Barrett. It's blatantly obvious who needs the victory more.

Of the four supposed main events at WrestleMania XXIX, the world title match is really the only one with some uncertainty.

Most do seem to believe that Del Rio will prevail, but giving Swagger the win would be both the right decision and the surprising decision.