what’s still quicker though? A year or over a decade?
All I’m saying is I’d atleast love the OLD WWE system where guys would work they way up..... like either Tag, then IC level, then world title.
When Rock broke from ND, they didn’t rocket ship him to WC status, they also didn’t waste his time for 8 years either
That's not a real thing. Look at the history of WWE main eventers: They're almost all pre-ordained and given the rocket push since the Bruno days.
Bruno: Hot shot into a minute squash over Buddy Rogers after years of being mostly a mid carder in Capitol/WWWF and losing to Buddy Rogers like literally 20 times over 2 years.
Pedro: A low card guy in WWWF in the early-mid 60s, leaves for 5 years, comes back and wins the title within a month.
Backlund: The decision for him to take the title off of Superstar Graham was decided before Graham actually won the title.
Hogan: Won the title and was made the face of the promotion within a month of returning to the company.
Randy Savage: Was working a program with Hogan 3 months into his WWF run. Main event guy basically his entire run before winning the title, even if it was headlining the B loop.
Warrior: Sure he won the IC title first, but that was a rocket push and flop at that.
Bret/HBK: Yes, those two are a examples of working up the card. These are really the only two guys to do the tag team to IC to world title progression.
Yoko: Won the Rumble 2 1/2 months after his debut, headlined WM and won the title 4 1/2 months after his debut, a PPV win over Hogan 6 months in, headlined every PPV from his debut through Wrestlemania 10.
Austin: In reality he was positioned as the future foundation of the company 6-7 months after his debut, despite the hagiography that Vince saw nothing in him. There was certainly no denying his role and focus by early 1997, and the wait until WM 14 to win the title is actually surprising in the amount of restraint and patience Vince had in pulling that trigger. He would be an example of this had he won the WCW Championship, though.
Rock: Huge plans for him from day 1, as a face if he hadn't flopped Vince would have given him the strap in 1997 for sure. As it was, he was IC champ within 2 months of debuting, got to take over his own stable, and once leaving the stable was world champ in about 2 months. Total time from debut to top guy: 2 years.
HHH: Won all the mid card titles and shyt, but his actual main event push was super forced and out of nowhere and felt very unearned in and out of character. Took a good 2 years of heavily pushing him at the top of the card before people bought into him being a real top guy.
Brock: Biggest rocket push since Hogan. Debuted after WM, beats The Rock by Summerslam, face of Smackdown immediately despite only 2 years of experience.
Batista: Spent all of his time as a heavy for HHH, then wins the Rumble with very little singles experience and wins the title at WM.
John Cena: The attempt was made to make him a main eventer 2 years before it stuck as a face. It didn't work, and instead of discarding him as a failure, Vince tweaked and made him the face of the company for a decade.
The Corre was stupid as hell and no one cared. Then he rebranded himself with Bad News Barrett I was sold again. They didn’t push it consistently and add to the injuries
it was over.
