Sheamus vs. Kofi Kingston vs. MVP vs. R-Truth vs. Mark Henry vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Ted DiBiase vs. Randy Orton from WWE 2009

Post by TJ Hawke:

Jesse Ventura was the Guest Host of Raw and created a “Breakthrough Battle Royal” to give someone new a PPV title match. (For some reason, Randy Orton was also included in the match.) In the best part of the match, Jesse brought Vince out to do commentary. Vince and Jesse should do commentary every week.

I have now watched this match and Sheamus’ first two WWE Championship wins recently. After watching these three matches, I have concluded that Sheamus has probably gotten one of the rawest deals in recent history from the WWE booking team. Despite being a tough bruiser, he is booked here to be a sneaky heel who has to jump people from behind to have any success (and win the battle royal). This victory would lead to him practically winning the WWE title from John Cena by accident. After a terrible reign and getting dropped from the title scene come Wrestlemania, he would win the title again the next summer after the Nexus left the champ (John Cena) laying. If you want to push someone, actually push them. Put them in positions to succeed. Sheamus wasn’t ready for the pushes to the title he got in 2009-10, but he was absolutely put in positions to fail. By the time he got great in the ring, it was already too late to treat him as something special (as WWE has done a wonderful job cutting his legs out time and time again since his WWE title reigns in 2010). The idea that one of the best in-ring talents that the company has had in this century will not be remembered as such annoys me greatly.