April 03, 2004 
Hello and welcome to another edition of The Final Cut. The clocks have gone forward, or back, the weather has turned for the better and Millwall Football Club are on the verge of an FA Cup final slot at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff!
I was going to write about the recent draft lottery that World Wrestling Entertainment held only a week or so ago but then I read the column of a certain Scottish “column writer” and decided that if I did I would run the risk of being called a cheat and a charlatan or even a mountebank.
So whilst looking over my little list of suggestions for my topic of choice for this week’s column there was one subject that just leapt out at me from the page, OK word document if you wish to be picky.
Every year there is a crop of wrestlers in World Wrestling Entertainment who make a noticeable push upwards, not necessarily the main event tier of the company but the rise is still very much detectable.
Rene Dupree – It does not take a rocket scientist or anyone with little intelligence for that matter, to realise that Rene Dupree was the most talented member of the French stable La Resistance, no disrespect to Rob Conway or that other one who got too big for his boots and was sent to OVW with a tanned hide.
Rene Dupree has already become the youngest tag team champion at the tender age of 19 and couple this with the split of the stable and his subsequent move to Smackdown; I see great things for this guy.
By the end of the year I can see this guy holding the United States championship after a good long feud with John Cena. A Frenchman holding the United States title? That would generate a hell of a lot of heel heat for him.
Shelton Benjamin – It was not long after Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas separated from Kurt Angle and Paul Heyman that people started to realise that Shelton Benjamin was the more talented out of the two wrestlers, Charlie Haas is a very talented kid but Shelton Benjamin just steals it in my opinion.
Soon people started talking about separating the two guys and letting them loose on the mid-card titles. But how were they going to do it? My money was on yet another lame storyline where two best friends become enemies and fight and then go their separate ways and have the storyline surface whenever they met on pay-per-view.
But the split was amicable, simple and very out of the blue when Shelton Benjamin’s name was pulled out of the lottery draft draw and that was it he was going to Raw. No rubbish storyline built up over months of airtime. Probably for the best.
So what do I predict for Shelton Benjamin over the next nine months? Judging by the reports of his matches against Triple H I predict a title run with the Intercontinental championship at the very least for this talented blue-chipper….as Jim Ross would say!
John Cena – At the end of last year, just before his push came, I predicted that this guy was going places with his current gimmick, as I write this he stands tall in the wrestling world as the United States champion and one of the better talents on Smackdown
The gimmick that looked goofy when he first portrayed it in front of a television audience has worked so well for John Cena, in fact the last time a gimmick went along the same line as his was ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin’s persona shortly before he exploded all over the wrestling industry.
A nice long run with the United States title is just what he needs to build himself up for the inevitable world title run by the end of this year. Remember you heard it here first folks!
Sean O’ Haire & Mark Jindrak – I first saw these two guys as a tag team in World Championship Wrestling and along with Chuck Palumbo and Shawn Stasiak and I thought that they had real chemistry in the ring that some of the older tag teams lacked in abundance.
When Sean O’ Haire & Mark Jindrak were broken up in World Wrestling Entertainment Sean O’ Haire seemed lost as he wondered from one bad storyline to another, even being forced to get involved in the laughable Zach Gowen storyline.
Mark Jindrak on the other hand had a little bit more success as a rookie tag team duo with Garrison Cade, sure they put on some entertaining matches but to me they just lacked that extra little something to make them stars.
With the Garrison Cade & Mark Jindrak tandem was broken up as Mark Jindrak was shipped off to Smackdown I can see a team up once again with his old tag partner Sean O’ Haire.
If the booking team sees as much sense as I do then they will push both wrestlers together again and let them loose on the boring tag team division on Smackdown. The Dudley’s and Too Cool v2 (thanks Tony!) are the only contenders to the Smackdown tag team titles right now.
I predict a tag team tenure or two for this team if World Wrestling Entertainment sees sense and pairs them together again.
Randy Orton – About two years ago when Randy Orton first appeared on Raw television portraying his rubbish 1980′s babyface persona I was singing his praises stating that if he dropped his babyface persona and took a heelish approach then he would become a star.
Fast forward to today and we are looking at a man that dropped his babyface persona and took a heelish approach and is now considered one of the top young stars in the company today.
He was pushed into Evolution and he has managed to learn from Ric Flair and Triple H and has come out of that group a hell lot slicker on the microphone than when he first went in.
The man just oozes confidence; he just needs to wrestle a few more matches on his own without the interference of Flair and Batista to convert a few of the non-believers.
By the end of this year I can see Randy Orton challenging for the world title, he may not be given the strap but he will be a legitimate threat to it, maybe against Triple H?
Well, I think that is about all for this week, I have to get things ready for my trip up to Manchester to witness the mighty Lions thrashing the Black Cats! If you’re in the United Kingdom you can watch the match on Sky and watch out for a mad 26-year-old journalist going nuts when Tim Cahill scores the winner!
Until next time.
