Could the Jack Swagger 2010 World Title run have worked out?

[The Rick Jericho]

Most said he wasn't ready, especially considering how soon he cashed in the MITB.

He had the title for a very short time, but they were trying here to create a new star.

Could this run have worked out? How could you have made it better? Seems after he lost the title he went back to the mid-card and never recovered.

[Deleted]

Nah, not with his skill level and the gimmick they were going for at the time.



That Swagger? That could have worked.

[Lizuka #BLM]

It'd have helped a lot if he'd had, like, any turnaround whatsoever between jobbing to Santino and being able to beat Orton, or if he didn't have a personalityectomy when he won the belt. Pushing him in the lead up to Mania, waiting a bit longer on the cash-in, and playing to his strengths would've made it go far better.

[bob]

absolutely

[Nosnorb]

It wasn't supposed to work out. That year WWE decided to make Money in the Bank a PPV, and at 'mania Jake was the dude chosen to win what was a poison chalice.

The reign sucked because it was supposed to.

[papagiorgio]

"We the People" Swagger could have worked on a main event level. He screwed himself by getting arrested.

[Instant Classic]

I liked it for what it was. The weird Orton match even though Orton was on Raw, the little feud with Kane and then Mysterio randomly beating him for it. It was pretty much weird from the get go when he went from always smiling to having a cold stone face the second after winning it tho.

[kevin]

If they had given him the Soaring Eagle on day 1 then yes it could have.

[pinja]

Serious Swagger was awful in every incarnation. His patriot run was made by Dutch, his tag team was made by Cesaro. However: I have good memories of him being ECW champion, doing pushups on the entrance way, just being the goofy jock, a perfect Flash Thompson. I never understood why they changed that, because the gimmick seemed to be his calling, and ever since, Swagger/Hager himself never seemed to understand that it's best for him to play the dumb idiot.

If there is one guy that peaked early and only got worse, it's him.

[chazraps]

Quick refresher, here's who all was in that Money in the Bank match:

Jack Swagger
Christian
Dolph Ziggler
Drew McIntyre
Evan Bourne
Kane
Kofi Kingston
Matt Hardy
Montel Vontavious Porter
Shelton Benjamin

Swagger was the least interesting choice and it had the least compelling result.

What stands out the most about that reign to me was how many reshoots of backstage stuff they did those first few weeks of Smackdown. If you read the arena reports and then watch what eventually made air (with the several days between Smackdown taping and airing) there's some big differences in terms of tone. Like, scenes and segments would involve the same people, but by the time it hit air all the flavor would have been chewed out of the bubblegum.

So no, for whatever reason they couldn't decide what to do with him and how to present him. Had they done that, sure it could have worked, but looking at Spring 2010 WWE, that's a pretty big ask.

[Dub H]

Mar 13, 2022 0:56:47 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Quick refresher, here's who all was in that Money in the Bank match:

Jack Swagger
Christian
Dolph Ziggler
Drew McIntyre
Evan Bourne
Kane
Kofi Kingston
Matt Hardy
Montel Vontavious Porter
Shelton Benjamin

Swagger was the least interesting choice and it had the least compelling result.

What stands out the most about that reign to me was how many reshoots of backstage stuff they did those first few weeks of Smackdown. If you read the arena reports and then watch what eventually made air (with the several days between Smackdown taping and airing) there's some big differences in terms of tone. Like, scenes and segments would involve the same people, but by the time it hit air all the flavor would have been chewed out of the bubblegum.

So no, for whatever reason they couldn't decide what to do with him and how to present him. Had they done that, sure it could have worked, but looking at Spring 2010 WWE, that's a pretty big ask.

At the tiem Swagger was much more interesting and more or as over as guys like

McIntyre,Evan Bourne,Shelton, Kofi Kingston.


Dude had a lot fo personality and the later character work of his run(Liek the trophy showcase ) gotr reactions.

All they needed to do was not STRIP ALL OF HIS PERSONALITY THE EXACT SECOND HE WINS THE TITLE.

Would have been the best run possible, no but it could have worked.Personally i would have had MVP win, but that goes for every match MVP is in at the time

[Dub H]

Mar 13, 2022 0:50:46 GMT -5 pinja said:

Serious Swagger was awful in every incarnation. His patriot run was made by Dutch, his tag team was made by Cesaro. However: I have good memories of him being ECW champion, doing pushups on the entrance way, just being the goofy jock, a perfect Flash Thompson. I never understood why they changed that, because the gimmick seemed to be his calling, and ever since, Swagger/Hager himself never seemed to understand that it's best for him to play the dumb idiot.

If there is one guy that peaked early and only got worse, it's him.

Hager had flashed of the dumb goofy jock in AEW but I feel it needed to be more of it

(things like him reciting a really dumb poem and Jerigoat), never understood why most companies insisted on using him as a serious guy. His first incarnation as ECW Champion and push ups and dumb goofy smile is still his best version IMO.But he also worked very well under WE THE PEOPLE, maybe because he was very beliviable in that role and Colter could speak for him.

Also the choice of a big and muscular guy like Hager dropping the Powerbomb for an Ankle Lock is really dumb and he is dumb for keeping it after WWE

[A Platypus Rave]

Mar 13, 2022 0:50:46 GMT -5 pinja said:

Serious Swagger was awful in every incarnation. His patriot run was made by Dutch, his tag team was made by Cesaro. However: I have good memories of him being ECW champion, doing pushups on the entrance way, just being the goofy jock, a perfect Flash Thompson. I never understood why they changed that, because the gimmick seemed to be his calling, and ever since, Swagger/Hager himself never seemed to understand that it's best for him to play the dumb idiot.

If there is one guy that peaked early and only got worse, it's him.

YEah, Hager and I'll add Dolph were at their absolute best playing the 80's jock heel.


A big problem was they tried to replicate SRS Jericho with Swagger at first... they tried to return some of his jock doofuseness later (It's the Swaggie, it's delicious IT TASTES LIKE FREEDOM) ... but they'd already kinda made him ice cold.

[Bo Rida]

Yeah like others said he needed to be a goofy jock with a stable/entourage. Soaring eagle, his Dad, a coach, cheerleaders, whatever it took. By the time that nonsense started it was too late.

I feel the same with varsity blondes atm, being 80s style jock heels would be so much better.

[Mozenrath]

I know it doesn't work for everything, but most of the time, "Could WWE have made something work if they tried harder and didn't f*** up every step of the way?", usually the answer is yes. They've made a lot out of nothing a number of times, even if their usual speed is turning gold into straw and pissing a good thing away.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

It could've. A lot people look at it too much using hindsight because he didn't become a main event guy out and will be like "what were they thinking?" but people forget Swagger was a big time prospect in 08-09. At 6'6" he definitely had size, he got good in the ring really quick and could work a WWE main event style match no problem, and believe it or not back then showed a lot of personality. They also needed new main eventers. They had plenty of star power at the time but the problem was all their big stars had been top guys for like six years at the least. They also gave Sheamus a main event push and title win out of nowhere too around that time and I don't think he was any less then ready then Swagger was at that point both from a credibility and talent stand point, only difference is Sheamus' push stuck.

I think the problem like it is most of the time with most guys in WWE is just simply booking. Both before the title win and during it. From October through January he was booked kind of like a doofus. He failed to win the US title in a three way feud with Kofi and Miz, had a romance teased with Eve Torres that was dropped after like two weeks, promised to go undefeated the last three months of 2009 only to lose three weeks later to Evan Bourne instead, was a total non factor in both the Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble, and come the new year was mired in a lower midcard feud with Santino. I don't think anyone would've though that this was a guy who was going to be World Champion in three months with how much of a dope they were presenting him as. In February there were some subtle hints that he was probably getting reheated as he had a strong in defeat two segment loss to Triple H and completely squashed Santino in super short order to qualify for MITB but it felt like he was probably getting set up for a slow push starting after Mania. McIntyre seemed like the obvious favorite as unlike Swagger he had been pushed very hard and protected over the previous five months and almost all of the build up to the match was centered around him with him keep getting chances to qualify to being Vince's "Chosen One" before finally getting in by beating some no name jobber. Instead they gave Swagger the surprise win. I honestly thought he was the right choice of the guys in the match but they rushed his cash in. They should've built him up a bit with the briefcase and gave him some big wins to get his cred back before he won the title.

Then after he won the title they made him giant SRS Jericho and took away all his personality. Also sans a clean win over Orton at Extreme Rules he was booked like a loser his entire title reign dropping non title matches left and right even to midcard guys like Kofi Kingston who wasn't even a title contender at that point. By the time he dropped it to Mysterio nobody cared as was presented as such a lame champion who had constantly lost all the time anyways. He was basically given the booking that they usually give a US or IC Champion except he was the World Champion.

I agree that his We the People Run had more potential in 2013 as they fixed his two biggest weaknesses as a talent. Those being his speaking due to his lisp and the fact that despite being a big guy he wasn't very intimidating as he was always kind of goofy looking. However they gave him a manager to talk for him and by altering his look with the beard and his grown out he became much more menacing looking. He definitely looked the part of some crazed looking guy who looked like he could be in a militia. Also they started booking him strong during that stretch as he won Elimination Chamber and was wining all his matches leading to Mania. Unfortunately Swagger would end up screwing this push up on his own though with him getting busted with weed in his car which is just so dumb on so many levels mainly because of the timing and really I can't fault them at all for never giving him much of a shot after that.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

I get the feeling WWE thought they could replicate the success of the SRS Jericho character with out any of the thought that Jericho put into that particular character. That's how we get Jack Swagger losing all his personality when he cashed in his MITB on Jericho himself, AND THEN IN THE VERY NEXT SEGMENT, Shad Gaspard turns on JTG and is on TV the next week in suit talking down to the fans. They made everyone into Jericlones around this time.

[eJm]

As others have said, if he was still OTT patriotic Swagger with the Soaring Eagle running around the ring and pyro going off like he’s a debuting Kurt Angle, absolutely.

How they did it? Absolutely not.

[crowley1986]

yes, if they didnt turn every heel to be like SRS Jericho/angry heel in around that time

[Deleted]

I liked that someone random won it. They should do that with MITB and Rumbles every few years or so.

I'm not saying they should win the title, but say someone random like Swagger won the MITB and then had a great, compelling match with World Champ Jericho on a Raw or Smackdown and loses. (the longest sentence I've ever written) That would elevate Swagger and then you could put a midcard or tag belt on him.