Looking to the future of the WWE

Hey, Readerland.  How we doing, my friends?  Well, I hope.

Hopefully this will my last wrestling blog for a while, as I think I'm a little oversaturated with wrestling at the moment, but with Wrestlemania over with, I want to look at the future of the WWE.

Already, there are four potential co-main events for next year's Wrestlemania.  John Cena vs. The Rock is already booked and there's the potential for another Undertaker vs. Triple H match.  That's two, plus you have the matches for the WWE Title and the World Heavyweight Championship.  Four potential co-main events.  That's a lot, consider the show is only four hours long and there's the need for backstage segments and promos and whatnot.

Here's the thing about me, though.  I've always been more interested in the midcard than the main event of the WWE.  There are so many talented athletes that, at least to appearances, will never get a shot at the main event scene.  There are a few I want to talk about specifically and an idea I have for them.

The first is one of my personal favorites, Trent Baretta.  He's a young guy (24) and exciting to watch.  He has a large arsenal of moves and he can wrestle and use the high-flying stuff as well.  I think he has potential to be in the upper midcard some day, but he doesn't seem to be getting much of a chance.  He hasn't had a whole ton of time on the mic, either, so his promo skills aren't necessarily that great.  His finisher, the Dudebuster DDT, is a nice solid move.  I like it.

The next is The Party Starter, Curt Hawkins.  Again, a young guy (25) and he is fun to watch.  He's not the high-flyer that Trent Baretta is, but he has a nifty trick or two up his sleeve.  His mic skills seem to be fair-to-middling, as he made the few promos that were done by the team of Hawkins and Vance Archer.  He has an intensity that is almost palpable when he's in the ring and again, he has some unique moves like the hangman's facebuster and the Taste of Pain, a leg-hook flipping release belly-to-back suplex.  His Heat-Seeking Elbow is pretty to watch.  I'll be honest and say that for a while, I didn't like Curt Hawkins, but I think that had more to do with his partnership with Vance Archer, who is just bland and Hawkins had to go that extra distance to make Archer seem credible, but it came off as too much, I think.

Finally, we have Long Island Iced Z, the Long Island Loud Mouth, the Woo Woo Woo Kid, Zack Ryder.  25 years old and the most vocal of the three that I'm talking about.  He's got the best mic skills of the three and has gotten the highest up the proverbial ladder, having been the number one contender to Christian's ECW title and having a number of good matches with Christian.  I love the Zack Attack and the Rough Ryder leg lariat.

Now, here's the thing about these guys.  I think they have the potential to be THE future of the WWE and I know that you don't want to just throw them into the main event scene.  I get it.  But really, what do you have them do in the meantime?  Well, here's a thought.

All of these guys are what you could call "tag team specialists."  Hawkins and Ryder came into the WWE as the Majors Brother, Brett and Bryan.  They moved from there to becoming the Edge Heads or the Rated-R Entourage, Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder.  They were a team from 2006 to 2009, where they were split up in the WWE Draft.  Hawkins has since been since been in a tag team/stable in FCW (WWE's farm system) with Caylen Croft and hey, look at that...Trent Baretta.  Ryder is currently in a tag team situation with Primo..  Honestly, I can't see Primo sticking around after the coming rounds of layoffs by the WWE, so that would leave Ryder without a partner.

Both Ryder and Hawkins have their own webseries up on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/LongIslandIcedZ and http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCurtHawkins) and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Trent Baretta has one up soon.  He's already been Broski of the Week on Ryder's vlog.

These three guys have one more thing in common:  they're all from Long Island, New York.  Hawkins is from Glen Cove, Baretta is from Mt. Sinai, and Ryder is from Merrick.  There have been numerous instances where the announcers have talked about how Baretta and Hawkins lived together and trained together in New York.  All three were trained, in part, by Mikey Whipwreck.  These three guys have way more in common than a lot of the tag teams that get throw together.  So, why not make a stable out of them?  It would give them a chance to perform, especially with The Corre running around on Smackdown and The Nexus on Raw.  Three young guys stepping up to fight the bad guys.  It makes sense.  You could even call them The Long Island Sound.  Okay, that's kinda lame, but you get the idea.


Now, this next paragraph may be sacrilege to a lot of older wrestling fans, but I could see these three guys as a newer version of The Fabulous Freebirds.  Now, before your panties are too far bunched, I'm not saying they should be "The Freebirds 2K11" or anything like that, I'm just saying use that archetype as a stable for Hawkins, Baretta and Ryder.  Let's look at a comparison, using that archetype.


In The Freebirds, you had Buddy "Jack" Roberts.  His job was to be fast and agile and to enrage opponents.  In this new stable, you could hand that role to Trent Baretta.  He's the lightest and most agile of the three, so he could go with the quickness advantage.

In The Freebirds, you had Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy, who was the muscle.  He would beat people down.  Now, Curt Hawkins is no Bam Bam, but Hawkins could use that intensity and aggression to accomplish much the same result.  He would have to use some bigger moves than Bam Bam would, but still, I think he could do it.  Or just use a lot of double team moves to do this.

Finally, you had Michael P.S. Hayes.  His job was to be the face, and mouth, of the Freebirds.  He did most of the talking, as well as inciting the crowd.  Who better for that than Zack Ryder?  He can talk on the mic, he knows how to push buttons and he can go in the ring, just like P.S.


Now, here's the kicker:  Michael Hayes works for the WWE as a producer or writer or whatever they're being called these days.  Have him mentor these three kids.  Have him talk about the Freebirds and what they did and said and how they came up with ideas.  I'm not saying they have to dress alike or talk alike or act alike.  They just need a common purpose and some TV exposure.


The reasoning I have for all of this is that the WWE keeps trying to throw people into the spotlight to see if they have the "it" factor that will make them an instant star, like The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin, neverminding that neither of those two were actually an "instant" star.  They need to work on building these stars, like they've done with Dolph Ziggler and John Morrison.  They need time and guidance and most of all, they need to be given a chance to show what they can do.


The Undertaker and Triple H and The Rock and Stone Cold aren't going to be around forever.  NOW is the time to start making new stars, while you still have them to pull in some ratings.  They wait too long or cut one or more of these guys, then the WWE is making a mistake.  These guys can be and will be the future, so give them a chance.

Okay, that's it for now.  Like  I said, hopefully my last wrestling blog for a bit.  Until next time, take care.  Woo woo woo.  You know it.