It’s officially the longest stretch of the year between PPV’s, as we will end up going over a month by the time the 2008 Royal Rumble comes to us live from Madison Square Garden on January 27th. It’s a time to reflect, get storylines for 2008 in motion, and start pushes for guys that hopefully will start to take it to the next level this year. There are plenty of guys on the list that look like they are in line for pushes this year, but in the end, they will be the ones to determine if they become stars or not. Here are a few guys that appear on the verge of getting pushed hard in 2008:
Jeff Hardy – This is the most obvious one since it’s actually already happening with his main event title program right now with Randy Orton. We’ve thrown around Jeff’s past enough to know that they are going to let him run with the ball, and if he can keep it rolling, I would not doubt a main event push all the way to a Mania main event in 2009.
Shannon Moore and Jimmy Wang Yang – This pair have put together some of the better matches recently on ECW, and it seems they are the next in line for tag belts. I can see them in the mold of the London and Kendrick team that dominated the SmackDown! scene for sometime before losing the belts and then being lost in the shuffle on RAW.
Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder – The company made a good move when they took away their “brother’ status as the Major Brothers and made them sidekicks of Edge. Remember when Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin were paired up with Kurt Angle and eventually they won tag gold? Look for the same thing to eventually happen here.
The Miz – Long term I think the Miz is going to make a great manager, and they should start to think about him more in the role of what they have made Matt Striker, a manager/wrestler. His mic skills are solid, and once he and John Morrison drop the tag belts, they should find a guy or two that he can pair up with that he can do the talking for.
Shelton Benjamin – To a man, many on the WWE’s rosters think that Benjamin has the most talent of anyone in the company. He’s been thrown around in various dead end storylines that tend to go nowhere, then gets the shaft with losing to someone they want to push. Look for an ECW title program with C.M. Punk that if done right can be one of the better feuds of the year in the company.
Maira – This is a slam dunk in the women’s department, as any diva in the company who takes their clothes off for Playboy automatically gets a push. That is happening here, as she will be this years flavor as she’ll bare all for the magazine in an issue that will come out right before WrestleMania. With that, look for a Mania match of some sort, or at least a big presence at the show.
Labels: jeff hardy, maria, shelton benjamin, the miz
