As one of the most respected and outspoken wrestlers of all time, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin is someone many young grapplers seek advice from on a regular basis. During one of his regular guest articles in the pages of FSM, the legendary superstar shared his opinion on current WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Sheamus.
“Sheamus is a big talented dude, no doubt about it. Can he get to where the company wants him to go? That remains to be seen, and there's a lot of work required from both him and the company in order to jump to that superstar level. He's doing fine for the amount of time he's been in the business, and there is no disrespect intended, but there are so many aspects that go towards making a guy draw money with the title”, said the WWE Hall of Fame inductee.
With the subject matter at hand being Austin's opinion on World Titles, and how their importance level has never been lower, there are few better qualified to discuss being a championship-level player than the former 5-time World Champion. Also sharing his view that the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Titles should be unified as soon as possible, the host of WWE's Tough Enough clearly still keeps a keen eye on the current product.
Having missed the 'RAW 1000' celebrations in late-July, due to undergoing major knee surgery, Austin has been quizzed by fans as to whether or not he will step foot in the ring ever again. The best way to keep in touch with the man himself is to follow on Twitter - @SteveAustinBSR or check out BrokenSkullRanch.com for more updates. Please also use the hashtag #FSM.
I am 100% behind unifying the titles. There is absolutely no (good) reason to have two World Champions and the label of World Champion is devalued and diminished when more than one person holds that title. (Remember when they had three by trying to put the ECW Title on that level? Yikes).
I never felt like he had a main carder vibe, but then they also killed it by putting the WWE title on him just five and a half months after his debut. That's almost as quick as Brock Lesnar, and Sheamus isn't Brock Lesnar.
Not a Sheamus fan. I like his ring work but his character is just too corny for me.
I don't see them getting rid of the world heavyweight title. It isn't as good as the WWE title but it still has meaning. It's not like the US Title that no one gives a crap about these days. Being able to advertise world heavyweight title matches may also help them promote events that the WWE champ doesn't work. Too many reasons to keep it around.
And he's still the superior World Champion at the moment. They really need to unify the titles. There are about 5 people who are worthy of the main event spotlight and two titles is just overkill which will lead to bland midcard-at-best guys ruining the World Championship's prestige.
Do you decide what my opinion should be? I think Sheamus is the better champion and I'm entitled to that. Just because there's an unwritten rule within forums that says everything Punk does is perfect and Sheamus should be hated and spitted on doesn't mean I'm going to follow it. Personally, I enjoyed Sheamus in that debate segment with Big Show (which everyone here hated) more than anything I've ever seen Punk do that didn't take place in the summer of 2011.
As for Punk doing everything better than Sheamus? Funny you say that, because given what Punk has been handed (everything that a push consists of) the average person by this point would have made it work. But he's still 100% miss and 0% hit ever since his face turn last year (and that includes everything post-heel turn, to his credit he's been in some good matches, though). Sheamus has been given SHIT and he's still made it work in some magical way. Which is rare for a guy that plays a superman character that smiles all the time and runs over every opponent like a bulldozer. Yet Sheamus has made it work and I feel he deserves FAR more credit than he's getting.
I am a honest guy and always give credit where it's due. If Punk does something worthy of praise, I'm ready to do just that, problem is as he is, I find him overpushed, stale and boring. I would rather watch McGillicutty's "this moment" promo on repeat for an hour than hear Punk talk on a microphone these days. Sheamus should be AWFUL given what he's got but he somehow makes it work.
It seems like I'm agreeing with Austin on several things in the current product. Sheamus just isn't where WWE wants him to be, which have become extra apparent in the few segments he's had with Punk where he's gotten outshined pretty significantly. He certainly isn't helped by the persona he currently has either.
I absolutely agree with everything Stone Cold said. "Sheamus is not ready," is just a nice way of saying he doesn't have the talent nor belong where he is right now. 10 years ago Sheamus would either be in an unsuccessful tag team or wrestling for the European Title on Sunday Night Heat or Velocity, he's just not special at all.
WWE should totally unify the World Titles. The WHC is a 2nd tier belt now and everyone knows it. There really isn't enough main-event calibre talent to justify 2 world titles as there were when they split it. They could just go back to treating SD like it was '99-'02 when everyone worked both shows. It might actually help SD ratings if they continue Raw stories on SD, people would watch it because they don 't want to miss out on what is going to happen to the ONE World Champion.
Steve Austin isn't the greatest of all time for nothing. Guy has a good mind for the business. Vince should call up some of his former wrestlers with creative minds and get their input onto how to fix the product.
Unlike past stars who have no grasp of the current product,Austin is the most sensible of them with a great mind for how business works.Sheamus is a decent babyface but i hate his no selling of feuds smiling 24/7.
When I use "making it work" I mean it as in entertaining me personally. It's all opinions so when I say something I never pretend that it's an indisputable fact. Punk may have been able to get himself hated by fans which, fair enough, is something he deserves credit for and I give it to him. He also is one of those that's comfortable with a mic in his hand and never needs to memorize a script but I just don't really enjoy listening to him because he's way too whiny. Whether it was his SES promos or his current "I want respect" shtick. Same goes for his brief "shooting" period but I enjoyed that because I shared the same frustrations with the company at the time.
As for Sheamus, I really am a fan because I get a kick out of his goofiness so I never take things with him seriously. When he does something enjoyable, I enjoy it but if it's something that the rest of the forum wanna crucify him for, I'll enjoy it just by going off the goofiness that often surrounds him.
Punk's whininess antagonises me in a way I enjoy and haven't experienced for a long time watching WWE. Sheamus seems very forced and unconvincing to me. But like I said, differences.
Oh and also DesoRow made a very good point earlier in the thread (when does he not?) Sheamus was getting organically over for a while last year before they singled him out to be 'the one'. I had my eye on him as a potential big game face as soon as he was drafted to Smackdown, and his slow turn did wonders for him as well as him going up against Mark Henry, who at the time was unstoppable. Do you know what was refreshing about that? Not only did Sheamus lose, he got thrown through a barricade, and he was all the more over for it. He only suffered afterwards because of a lack of any good opponent for him afterwards, and later on they began the superman push.
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