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Chris & Nick Discuss Lawler/Miz And The Road To WMania

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 By: CMBurnham

The following is an email coversation between WZ's Chris Cash and Nick Paglino. It has been formatted into an exclusive WrestleZone column.

Nick Paglino: So another big topic in pro wrestling right now is Jerry Lawler finally getting to have his WrestleMania moment that he's been deprived of for so long. As we reported last week, we know that WWE will be booking him on the big PPV this year and it seems the plan right now is for him to finally get his hands on Michael Cole in some capacity. I'll be the first to agree, as I'm sure many wrestling fans would, that Lawler deserves to be on a WrestleMania card. He's a legend, a pioneer, a Hall of Famer, and has earned the right to be there. The issue I have, however, is they way WWE is booking him to get there. Lawler is not a main event player, and we all know that whatever happens between now and 'Mania that his participation in the PPV will have something to do with Michael Cole, so why does he have to be main eventing The Elimination Chamber PPV against the WWE Champion?!? The Lawler/Cole feud is fun enough as a small story line on Raw, and it will culminate in a fun, albeit less important moment at WrestleMania, so in the meantime who really wants to pay to see him main event a PPV in a title match against The Champ? WWE has treated The Elimination Chamber PPV in recent years as an unpredictable event, but who honestly thinks Lawler is going to beat The Miz and headline WrestleMania? So my question is, how can WWE turn this predictability into spontaneity and excitement?

Chris Cash: I don't expect the WWE to turn the Lawler/Miz match specifically into anything. It is what it is: a feel-good moment for everyone. I agree that it shouldn't be headlining the Elimination Chamber match as I always felt having the two major championships on the line in the gimmick matches was part of the overall mystique of the pay per view. However, Lawler doing the job to Miz will at least give the former MTV star a "little" bit of some much needed credibility heading into the biggest show of the year.

WWE could have given Lawler his "day in the sun", so to speak, by simply having him wrestle Alex Riley at 'Mania. That's probably the direction they'll go anyway, so why have him headline the only pay per view left before April unless it's for the reason I stated above?

Nick: I'm just not so sure that a young, "in the prime of his life" Champion defeating Jerry Lawler is really anything to brag about. I don't see The Miz gaining any credibility by defeating a 61 year old man. In fact, it only makes The Miz look worse if he can't handle him with a certain degree of ease. Imagine if this were John Cena facing Lawler. He'd beat him in seconds. And you know WWE isn't going to book The Miz to look strong here. It'll be in a similar fashion to the TLC match he had with Lawler in that both A-Ri and Cole will somehow help screw Lawler out of the title. The Miz needing the help of an announcer and a wrestler to defeat Jerry Lawler doesn't speak very highly of the Champion at all. I understand this is how WWE wants to book The Miz, but his staying power as a believable top guy/champion won't last long if this booking style continues.

Chris: I agree with you completely, which is part of the reason I don't feel the Miz will stay as a top, "main event" level guy (cheap plug for my recent "Top Five WWE Stars "Most Likely To Succeed" article). He can't win clean and I think there's a reason for that: even Vince McMahon doesn't think it's believable for Miz to get solid victories over his opponents.

The one good thing coming out of all this is that this match and storyline will result in a payoff for Lawler at 'Mania and more importantly, the end of the "heel announcer" gimmick Michael Cole has been giving us lately. Personally, I think Cole pulls it off rather well, but I think it's getting in the way of the announcing at this point. Either let him go full-blown heel in a manager or general manager type of role or allow him to go back to straight play-by-play at the booth.

Nick: I say just let him go back to being a straight play-by-play guy. I don't buy him as a heel. In fact, and I think this is the reason why most people have never liked Michael Cole, I don't buy him as an announcer period. He has no passion for his job and it's apparent in his announcing. He goes through the motions, spitting lines that you can really tell are being fed to him or written. Listen to him try and sell the WWE Studios movie trailers. You can honestly tell he's never seen any of the movies that he claims are "so good." Listen to him call "The Chaperone" this year's "field trip comedy." He's reading it off a non-existent teleprompter. It completely lacks passion. Cole is the Ron Burgundy of wrestling announcing.

People loved Jim Ross because whether or not he saw the movies, he made you believe he did. He made you believe that the current WWE product was must-see, and he made you believe that he was genuinely into and affected by the product. So I think the reason why there are so many mixed feelings about Cole's current "persona" is because people don't dislike Cole because he's a "heel," they dislike him because he simply isn't good at his job. Which is a shame because I'm sure there are thousands of talents out there who'd pour their own real passion into doing what Cole gets to do.

Chris: Well, don't sugarcoat it brotha! While I can see where you'd come to that conclusion, I really don't agree. I think Cole does have passion for the business and it comes through every week. His skill level isn't where it should be yet, but come on, anyone taking the place of Jim Ross at the time Cole did simply didn't have a chance to win fans over. J.R. wasn't ready to give up announcing; therefore, the fans weren't ready to see him go.

Back to the original point about Jerry Lawler, why is everyone dismissing the idea of him actually winning the title at Elimination Chamber? Remember: not only has Lawler not wrestled a match at WrestleMania; he hasn't won a WWE Championship either. There is plenty of time between this pay per view and 'Mania for Lawler to drop the title back to Miz (24-hour title run, perhaps?), so it's not far-fetched to assume "The King" wins this one. Which, I guess would end up answering your first question. How could the WWE turn this predictability into spontaneity and excitement?

Have Lawler win! Hell, it can't possibly hurt the Miz any further than they already have, right?

Nick: Ya that's the exact plan I can imagine to legitimize this feud. The unpredictable nature of the Elimination Chamber PPV would lend itself to Lawler winning the title, and honestly, it would be very easy for WWE to pull off. We know that the company is building to Lawler/Cole and Miz/Cena at WrestleMania, so with the mix of Alex Riley, The Miz, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and John Cena all involved in some way during the title match at Elimination Chamber, WWE could pull off a title switch without burying The Miz.

This brings us to the Smackdown Elimination Chamber match. If WWE ran a title switch during that match too, and had Ziggler come out on top, then the February PPV could really end dramatically. This would then set up a Triple Threat match at 'Mania involving Ziggler, Edge and Del Rio. Like you said Chris, Lawler can easily drop the title back to Miz a week after he wins, and the current WrestleMania plans are still very much intact.

Chris: Regardless of the Miz/Lawler outcome at Elimination Chamber, I don't think it's a bad idea to give Ziggler the strap. If WWE plans on establishing him as a top star, I don't see how they can do it anytime soon if he loses "yet another" title match. And what would his role in 'Mania be if it's not in the Heavyweight Championship match? I think John Cena is practically a lock at this point to regain the WWE title at 'Mania, so rather than having multiple title changes in the course of a month and a half, let Ziggler retain at 'Mania in a triple-threat with Del Rio and Edge. Del Rio still has plenty of time to get over before he wins his first Championship and Edge can go on to continue giving younger stars a rub before he retires.

The predictable and more likely route is for Miz and Edge both to retain at Elimination Chamber and go on to face Cena and Del Rio, respectively (with the possibility of Ziggler still being thrown into the latter match). However, it's definitely not out of the realm of possibility for one or both of the titles to change hands in two weeks at the ppv. The fact that neither titles changed hands at the Rumble is reason enough to assume it's possible.