“My favorite wrestler is getting BURIED!”
Just so everyone knows, in the wrestling business, the word “buried” means to put something away to be forgotten forever. Chris Benoit has been buried. “That Jackie Gayda match” has been buried. The “Sin Cara penis shirt” was buried. But, for the sake of this post, let’s use the word “buried” as the IWC likes to use it.
Lately, people have been complaining that Antonio Cesaro was buried. Before that, it was Dolph Ziggler who’s been getting buried. Prior to that, it was Daniel Bryan. Currently, Daniel Bryan is one of the WWE’s top superstars, who spent most of 2011 being “buried” only to bring himself up to winning the World Heavyweight Championship and up until recently, one half of the Tag Team Champions with Kane. In 2012 and the earlier part of 2013, Dolph Ziggler was “buried”, having the Money In The Bank briefcase but seemingly never racking up a win, and if so, by some odd chance or by interference. That same Dolph Ziggler went on to defeat John Cena, the face of the WWE, in a ladder match no less, in the main event of TLC, to go on to cash in that Money In The Bank briefcase to win the World Heavyweight Championship, which he currently holds.
Do you know who else was buried? Triple H. Following “the Curtain Call” in 1996, Triple H was the guy who was punished for the incident. Despite the fact that Shawn Michaels was also involved, he was the champ, and at the time, he was one of McMahon’s boys so he was safe. Triple H, however, spent the next year of his career losing several shitty matches and even suffering a defeat to The Ultimate Warrior in a squash match at WrestleMania (yes, 1:45).
A great technical wrestler losing a squash match at WrestleMania to a supercharged muscular wrestler? Sound familiar?
Just keep in mind that the great wrestlers who the fans all appreciate won’t be “buried” forever. They’re just not the biggest part of the show right now. Sure, they deserve to be; I’m not disputing that at all. My problem lies in this idea that every wrestler deserves to be “THE GUY” because they can do one thing that John Cena can’t. Every wrestler has to earn their stripes in the company, no matter who they were in the last one. I think Goldberg is the only guy who debuted and went straight to the top, but WCW wasn’t ROH. Hell, I knew Dolph Ziggler was a talented wrestler in 2006 when he was in the Spirit Squad, but it took him 7 years to go from that to being the World Heavyweight Champion. If I can wait, you can wait.
It’ll happen… you just have to be patient.