Looking back at the mid 1990s with such blemishes as Diesel’s nearly year long World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Title reign, dwindling attendance numbers, and unmentionable pay-per-view buyrates, it is difficult to imagine that the WWE will ever sink to such levels again. However, with Khali now acting as one of the company’s three world champions, the WWE looks to be making one Hell of an attempt to return to these sour days.
In order to fully appreciate the non-sense nature of giving Khali a world heavyweight title reign of any sort, one may want to backtrack to the year 1993. It was then that Khali’s early tag team partner, the Giant Gonzales had his first and only run in the then WWF.
While the two have obvious similarities such as the ability to debut by dominating the Undertaker in a way “never” before seen, a distinct lack of mic skills, and even worse ring ability, the two now have one distinct difference. The Giant Gonzalez was never close to holding a world championship in the WWF.
However, in order to give better insight into Khali’s current reign lets entertain the idea that Giant Gonzalez was allowed to run with the WWF title. As a result Yokozuna, a more talented in-ring performer would have been deemphasized, horrible big man versus big man matches would take place against the likes of Diesel and possibly Sycho Sid, and hot young talent such as Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels would have been stalled in their rise to the top of the card, if not stopped all together.
Out of all the wrestlers just mentioned only Shawn Michaels currently wrestles in the WWE. Still, it is surprising to see that despite how much has changed in fourteen years that the molds that each of these wrestlers fell into continue to persist.
For instance, instead of Yokozuna being undercut as a monster, Umaga will be undercut. Sure, Khali and Umaga are on two separate brands, but the lines between brands has been paper thin for well over a year and the recent attempt to create interest through a brand draft has not helped this matter.
Likewise, with such names as Batista and Mark Henry still gravitating around the main event scene, battles between mediocre big men look to be a given.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment that comes with giving the World Heavyweight title to Khali is that there are talented contenders present to carry the championship. Looking at the WWE Smackdown! roster alone Kane and Matt Hardy could easily have made passable champions due to their years of experience, great at best/viewable at worse ring work, and ability to garner a crowd response.
Aside from Kane and Hardy, even the members of the Smackdown! roster with slight shortcomings are leagues above Khali as a world title holder. Ric Flair may be well past his prime, but in recent years he has been in two world title matches with Edge and the Big Show, respectively, which brought out the best in both men and showed that Flair could still compete for a world championship. Plus, does anyone want to remember Flair’s last world title reign as being in WCW during the company’s downfall in 2000?
On the flip side of the coin, there is Montel Vontavious Porter, who while many may argue is too green to hold a world championship has had entertaining matches with Kane, Chris Benoit, and Matt Hardy, among others. Not to mention that giving MVP, who is the reigning WWE United States Champion a world title would give him the status of being a double champion. While having this honor is not always successful, MVP has the type of character that this status seems to work best with, that of a cocky heel. After all being a double champion has been among the career highlights of such wrestlers as Lance Storm, Chris Jericho, and Kurt Angle.
With all the negativity surrounding Khali’s world title reign, there is some justification for it. After all WWE Smackdown! has faced an abundance of loses in recent years, most notably with the deaths of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, but also to a lesser extent with the Undertaker, Rey Mysterio Jr., and most recently Edge being put out of action. After all when injuries as severe as those suffered by the latter three individuals are being mentioned as the lesser when compared to anything in the world of wrestling, the situation appears to be bleak to say the least.
Furthermore, not every issue floating around Khali’s title run is flawed. For instance by winning the championship in a battle royal, Khali was able to present his destructive nature to its fullest potential. While battle royals are typically a weak way to determine a new champion as there is no one-on-one confrontation between champion and challenger, given the situation, the right method was selected. Although some may have preferred a tournament for the title, even if just in the form of a quick one night affair, is anyone really hankering to see Khali wrestle three matches in one sitting?
True, Khali has shown some improvement in his time with the WWE. His matches with John Cena gave some much needed credibility to portraying Cena as a worthy champion and even his match with Kane at Wrestlemania 23 was viewable. However, rewarding someone for a handful of good matches and resting the direction of an entire brand on their shoulders are two different prizes entirely.
In an industry where countless big men have held championships, it would be difficult to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Khali is the worse. However, putting one of the most prized titles in the modern wrestling industry on someone that this question can be asked about without being immediately negated is a poor decision to say the least.
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