[DesolationRow]

Well, Christian's pec injury apparently took a major step back a couple weeks ago or something, and the rumor mill stated that he wasn't likely to return to WWE TV until after Wrestlemania altogether.

Nevertheless, I don't think WWE ever really cared about a potential Christian/Del Rio feud at all. Christian was there, back in September, to be a sacrificial lamb to the cause of getting Del Rio more over while Mysterio was out at the time. That's all. Christian was apparently going to be Del Rio's first PPV opponent, at Hell in a Cell, but Christian suffered his injury shortly before that, and so they just wrote in the angle of Del Rio "taking Christian out" in the final days of September.

Del Rio just went into another proverbial weight class, so to speak, with his winning the Rumble match. An actual, multi-week feud between Del Rio and Christian just doesn't seem to be in the works. I could see him being utilized as part of the Del Rio/Edge program, though--like Quarrel was utilized in Dr. No. He's probably destined to be cast as the doomed buddy of the hero.

 

[DesolationRow]

ADR is gonna sadly beat the shit outta Christian just to hype his match with Edge.

(in Emperor Palpatine voice), "And so the IWC's heel turn on Alberto Del Rio will be complete!"

 

[DesolationRow]

For a lot of posters here, when they say they want a new guy to win it, they mean a guy who's entering his late thirties and is currently injured named Christian.

 

[DesolationRow]

As a 'Peep' I can tell that I'm evn more negative than I was before. Had Del Rio been eliminated I wouldn't have give much thought to Christian having a major match at Wrestlemania.

Exactly. Del Rio winning the Royal Rumble match makes Christian more insignificant than ever before, aside from the point of interest involving Christian's relationship with Edge, which Miz touched on last night on Raw.

To make it a simple mathematical formula, Del Rio was already like, a 5 in WWE's way of thinking back in September when the feud between he and Christian (which was only going to last a couple more weeks at best, everyone's acting like they were going to build it up to Wrestlemania or something), and Christian was, oh, let's be charitable and say he's a 3. Well, Del Rio, after winning the Royal Rumble and having a shot at a world championship at Wrestlemania, is now like, oh, I'd say he's safely an 8.

And Del Rio is now beginning a feud with Edge, who, let us say, is a 10 (meaningful number for him, too).

Nothing has happened to increase Christian's numerical value, aside from being mentioned in the program a little and a little there (and note how Striker called Christian Edge's "buddy," which immediately makes you think of a practically-defenseless sort of friend taken out by a bad guy, and last night on Raw, Miz called him Edge's "little buddy"--good grief).

8 > 3

Del Rio and Christian are on different levels now enitirely in WWE. They very well might cross each other's paths, I'd say it's safe to say there will probably be a match (on TV) between them, or maybe WWE makes Christian Del Rio's indentured servant after we discover that Christian took a bad risk in the stock market (I can't think of any storyline like that one), but the point is, they're hardly equals now, and they really weren't back in September.

Christian being inserted into this program as an equal out of the blue would be one of the biggest cases of charity from WWE that I've seen in a long time. Somehow, I don't see it happening. Christian was there for Del Rio's benefit, as Matt Hardy was there for McIntyre's benefit, as MVP was there for Miz's benefit (all by the time of these respective storylines). It was never about an actual battle of equals feud. It was about older wolves being eaten by younger ones.