WrestleMania Wrap Up – Rhodes vs. Big Show

Added by DieHard Derek on April 2, 2012.

The Big Show finally got his WrestleMania moment when he defeated champion Cody Rhodes to win the Intercontinental title.

I will go on record to say that outside of Rock/Cena and Triple H/Taker, this was the best, and most effective build up for a match on the entire WrestleMaina card. WWE creative has been hit or miss when it comes to building feuds in an effective manner. And, when they miss…holy shit, do they fucking miss!

WWE storylines can be plagued by having too much creative input. Sometimes so bad, that characters and their reasoning become far too animated to take seriously. The match itself becomes meaningless because the support system is strictly built on the promos and backstage shenanigans rather than the actual in-ring action. And, when creative isn’t lost in a comic book world where no one’s hair moves, they attempt to rehash old ideas in a way that is so pitifully bad, it makes you wonder if the people pushing the pencil were ever wrestling fans to begin with.

But in the case of the Rhodes/Show build up, I have to admit that it was one of my favorite original concepts of the year. Again, simplicity at its best! Another prime example of less is, in fact, more! The pillars of this match were simply hinged on how Big Show has been nothing more than a Big Joke during his entire WrestleMania career. For a veteran held in such high regard, and for an athlete with such size and stature – why has Big Show never really held a “giant” spot on the Super Bowl of pro wrestling?

Sure, his match with Floyd Mayweather made all sorts of media headlines, but that’s like saying, “that match was better than Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow at WrestleMania 11.” In other words, it’s not saying much. I could have had a better match with a broomstick.

What made this angle work is that most fans forgot how bad Big Show’s WrestleMania track record really was. He truly never had a real WrestleMania moment. Before this angle, if you were to ask a fan about any of Big Show’s matches at previous WrestleManias, they’d be stumped to answer you. Everything he ever did was forgetful and meaningless. All Rhodes had to do was call him out on it and expose him with a series of video clips. Amazingly, we, as wrestling fans, never really attributed how much of a fool Big Show had been. It’s like anytime WrestleMania season came around, Big Show got bit by the asshole bug.

Stepping away from the brilliant build for this match, you have to question if the payoff at WrestleMania was rightly done. And, from a business standpoint, it was. While I feel that Cody Rhodes has brought more prestige to the Intercontinental title than anyone else who has worn the strap in the last 15 years, I think he needed to drop it for Show to have his moment. The problem here is that Big Show doesn’t need the title as much as Rhodes does, and it would be wise for creative to put it back on him as soon as possible. Remember, this was never really about being a championship match. It was simply about Big Show having his moment.

Well, the moment happened. WrestleMania is over. Now we need to get the focus back on bringing value to the title and making Rhodes one of the top stars on the roster. Rhodes needs to regain that strap and continue another year-long run as IC champion. There has been talk of pushing Rhodes to main event level and having him feud with Randy Orton to set him up for a shot at the heavyweight title. In my opinion, it’s a mistake.

I’m not saying Rhodes is not deserving. I’m saying now is not the time. Rhodes is doing an amazing job dominating the mid-card spot and bringing back value to a title that had been lost and forgotten. Rhodes is the sole reason why that title had its own match on the Mania card. He needs to continue dominating and raising his stock until it blows through the roof. If he moves up to the main event position, he’ll be doing jobs for guys like Cena, Punk, and Orton. He’ll never be given a fair shot to carry the top title on his own. And then all this build will have been gone to waste for nothing. After becoming a glorified jobber to the roster elite, Rhodes will fall back down to the mid-card level as the guy who couldn’t cut it on top.

Case in point, look at Dolph Ziggler. Perhaps the most gifted athlete on the roster. Got his main event match at the Royal Rumble and has been main eventing house shows with CM Punk across the globe. But, after doing the jobs, where is he now? Part of the clusterfuck tag team match and a Laurinatis stooge. Now I have confidence that Dolph Ziggler will be one of the top five guys on the roster in the next few years, but pushing him to the top only to knock him back down makes no sense at all. And I fear the same fate for Cody Rhodes.

In this new WWE creative universe, valid history has no part. They may keep track of how many titles you’ve won, but your win/loss record is meaningless. When you’re wrestling every week and doing jobs for the sake of entertainment or cheap pops, matches become meaningless themselves.

It’s like WWE suffers from severe cases of A.D.D. and short term memory loss. They rush to put on a match and expect fans to pay top dollar to see it on pay-per-view after witnessing it 37 times on free TV, yet, if you’re chosen to be the flavor of the month, they’ll make a nice video package to make you look strong even though you’ve been clowning around and jobbing for the last year. The constant flipping of scripts and rebooting of characters doesn’t leave much to build a legacy on. The timeline of careers is so botched and flip flopped, you’d think you were watching a Republican GOP race.

Cody Rhodes is a star of the future and there is no need to rush him to fame. He’s been earning his stripes properly and effectively. So, please, put away the catapult. His legs work fine and he’s fully capable of climbing to the top on his own free will. Watch the match against Big Show at WrestleMania. It was “smart wrestling.” Big Show wrestled like a giant, while Cody wrestled like he was opposing a giant. They complimented each other’s size and style to perfection. In the end, Big Show finally won his moment. But now that WrestleMania is over, it’s time to focus on the future…and it starts with putting the IC strap back on Cody Rhodes.