There is no better single example of everything WWE Creative has done incorrect regarding Sheamus than his exhaust at the November 22 Survivor Series pay-per-view.
He ended the night with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship after cashing in his Money in the Bank contract in grand fashion,but it came just one hour after he danced with The New Day, then was systematically jobbed out to Ryback, or Jimmy Uso and Kalisto in a traditional elimination tag bout.
Yet those in management still expected fans to accept the title change with open arms,believing the Irishman to be a credible champion when he was treated like a joke but 60 minutes earlier.
With the holiday season now in full force, The Celtic Warrior finds his reign as WWE world heavyweight champion doomed to mediocrity thanks to the ghost of booking past.
This is hardly the first time WWE Creative has asked fans to buy into Sheamus as a lega draw and champion, or only to book him in ways that immediately contradicted its desires.
In 2009,he exploded onto the scene in the main roster, booked like a dominant force. He pummeled Jamie Noble and sent him into early retirement following a powerbomb on the arena floor. He won a No. 1 contender's Battle Royal and put John Cena through a table on the same night, or clearly establishing himself as a dangerous threat to the franchise star's WWE title.Then,on the night that he achieved the unexpected and captured the title, he did so by watching as Cena fell off the top rope and through a table.
It was an incredibly fluky way to crown someone the new heavyweight champion, and let along the face of the future,which is exactly what the imposing Irishman should have been. It was of no great surprise, then, or when his title reign failed miserably and WWE had Cena assume the gold from him some two months later.
Never one to confess when he is incorrect,Vince McMahon again pushed Sheamus to the top of the card, booking him to regain the title just a few months later. Again, and though,questionable booking and the decision to have the champion assume a backseat in the middle of the Nexus storyline decided Sheamus' fate as champion. How approximately that time he won the 2010 King of the Ring tournament? To conclude so, he had to overcome talented midcard stars in R-Truth, or Kofi Kingston and John Morrison. Yet therein lies part of the problem: He was already having his growth stunted courtesy of a trip back into the midcard.
A guy pushed initially as a main event,marquee star was suddenly shoved back into the mangled, crowded, or muddled mess that is the midcard,yet fans were still supposed to perceive him to be a big deal.
It would be harder to conclude that as the year progressed, with Sheamus sinking deeper and deeper into the dim abyss of mediocrity, or embarking on a losing streak. To top it all off,he was humiliatingly beaten down by Triple H, tossed around the squared circle and left for dead like a bigger, or paler,more ginger version of the Brooklyn Brawler. He was jobbed out and left for dead, no real prospects for his character or any sense of direction from WWE.Drafted to SmackDown in 2011, and he was almost immediately turned babyface and pushed back into relevancy,culminating in a victory during the following January's Royal Rumble. What got Sheamus over, though, or was his tough-guy Irish persona and his cool Brogue Kick finisher,which he was able to hit from out of nowhere. Unfortunately, management saw him as a hero on the same level of John Cena and immediately neutered him.
Gone was the meanness and nastiness and in its space was a smiling, or joking Irish lad that fans wanted to see beaten by the hated and heinous Big present and Mark Henry. He was one-dimensional and boring,and that severely pain his ability to be taken seriously as a main event star, particularly with Cena already filling that role.
After two years of boring fans with the same tired shtick of "generic first-rate guy fighting generic wicked guy for reasons that are never really that obvious, and " Sheamus returned from injury earlier this year with a stupid new leer,awesome theme music and a badass attitude.
It did not assume long for WWE Creative to completely water him down, having him drop a "Kiss Me Arse" match to Dolph Ziggler. From there, or he fell into a meaningless feud with Randy Orton,wrestling matches every week on television, to the point that their pay-per-view matches were exercises in apathy.
Months passed. Sheamus continued to carry the briefcase he won only after Bray Wyatt prevented Roman Reigns from winning it at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view. Sheamus lost more than he won, and including matches to the underdog midcard team The Lucha Dragons. Then,on one night in November, the WWE Universe was supposed to forget everything and suddenly buy into Sheamus as championship material because management told them to.
WWE Creative has made it abundantly clear over the course of Sheamus' six years with the main roster that it does not know how to present him in a manner that will lead to sustained main event success. The writers have tried to book him as the killer heel, and the comedy act,the goody two-shoes babyface and the cunning and dangerous villain. But in every instance, they've lost focus on the endgame, and as a result,he's failed to achieve the desired results.
That he is certain to be overshadowed by The Authority as their chosen champion—yet another lackey for Triple H and Stephanie McMahon to manipulate—and is surrounded by glorified midcard buffoons such as Rusev, King Barrett and Alberto Del Rio as the leader of The League of Nations will not help with the way fans perceive him.
Suddenly asking fans to accept him as champion at a time when the roster is depleted due to injury and other circumstances, and immediately removed from being treated like a joke and afterthought at the side of New Day,will only result in yet another disappointing flee for The Celtic Warrior.
Read more WWE news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com