Sherlock Holmes had Professor Moriarty. The Batman had The Joker.
Hulk Hogan had Roddy Piper. Stone Cold had Mr. McMahon.
I have Addie.
The WWE is solidly behind The Miz, but he’s hurt because he has no one, and no one is on the horizon. It’s starting to look to me like WWE eventually wants Miz as a babyface champion, but how his title run is going to be perceived will in large be reflected by who he faces.
If you don’t a strong nemesis (and seriously Addie is a bastard) you can do what they did with Bruno Sammartino & Hogan after he was done with Piper, give the champion someone strongly pushed for a significant period of time who’s now over with the audience & seen as a threat to the champion.
Sounds simple right? But obviously it isn’t. Want proof?
R. Truth
So let’s break down Miz’s potential challengers.
John Cena – Miz will defend against Cena & Truth at Extreme Rules. The problem is a few things. Miz getting the title hasn’t freshened up the main event as much as people hoped because he’s still facing Orton & Cena who are always in it. They can’t have Miz beat Cena clean because he’s being protected for The Rock, & Cena can’t beat Miz because then what Rock did to him at mania wasn’t a big deal if he gets the title a few weeks later. That’s why Truth is there to take the pin. Hopefully Miz & Cena will be kept apart for a long time after.
Randy Orton – See above. Also, seen it. Only good if this time Miz gets a decisive win to help establish him, but obviously they aren’t going to do that.
R. Truth – Forget about how he’s even been booked leading into this, that’s obvious, you don’t need me to tell you he hasn’t been made too look strong. He’s an athletic & charismatic guy, but despite that I can’t think of one even 3 star one on one no gimmick match he’s had in all the years I’ve been watching him, which is plenty. He’s a shallow act, with a one-line catch phrase and apparently only one song people like
Triple H – Hunter hasn’t really been in the title picture much in the last few years, you just think he has because of how he dominated it for so long. It’s obvious he’s a part time wrestler now; so it’d be great for him to put over Miz clean to make him. Problem is, doing so takes away from Undertaker’s mania win & that big money rematch
John Morrison – This was a match people wanted. It seemed Morrison would challenge Miz at the rumble, and people seemed positive on that fresh match up. But John Morrison behind the scenes is an immature man with in Melina an immature girlfriend, and that’s hurting him
Dolph Ziggler – Dolph could be the next breakout star, but he’s a heel stuck behind 2 better ones in Miz & Punk. The way they book he’s not getting a heel on heel shot anytime soon, and still needs a winning streak on RAW
Jerry Lawler – Sorry King, this ship has sailed
C.M. Punk – I feel a little sorry for Punk. He’s a better worker than Miz in ring by quite a bit. His character is at least as well established as Miz’s and I would put his talking skills up against anyone working in the company, but he doesn’t have a look WWE feels is as marketable as the must see champion. Still, if they turn Miz face Punk would be a great first opponent
Great Khali – I only include him because Miz really does need to get his win back. And shouldn’t Khali show some babyface fire for all the chair shots he took? Just have Miz beat him in 2 minutes on RAW, that’s all I can take
The rest of the mid card – Mark Henry, Daniel Bryan, Santino, Sin Cara, Sheamus, etc. It’s just not going to happen soon for any of these guys even if I want to see it, and how to get any of them to the point you can take them seriously challenging for the title is another blog, but they do need to build one of them up first, again, see R. Truth.
