This past week Jack Swagger may have possibly seen his push, along with his huge WrestleMania Main Event paycheck, go up in smoke (pun intended). In case you haven’t heard, Jack Swagger was arrested on Tuesday Night for marijuana possession, driving under the influence, and speeding. This arrest couldn’t have come at a worse time for him with WrestleMania only seven weeks away. It truly is a shame that he had made such a dumb mistake at such a critical moment. Before I talk about where the career of Jack Swagger is possibly going, we are going to take a look at where his career has been. I remember watching WWE-ECW the night of September 9, 2008 when Jack Swagger made his televised WWE debut. When I saw him come out for the first time under the name “The All American American” I had a feeling that he was going to be a major player within the WWE for years to come. After I saw him eat up a random jobber that night, I knew that it was only going to be a matter of time before he would win a major title. I decided to do some research on him after seeing him that night and what I found was a guy with an excellent amateur pedigree as a two time NCAA All-American at the University of Oklahoma. He also had a seal of approval from great wrestling minds such as Jim Ross and Danny Hodge, and if those guys say that you are something special then you truly do have what it takes to get to the top of pro wrestling. He was also labeled as the next big thing by the folks of Pro Wrestling Illustrated while he was still competing in developmental for WWE at Florida Championship Wrestling. I guess you can say that he was a blue chipper, a guy who could one day main event WrestleMania. Within four months of his debut in the WWE, Jack Swagger would win the ECW Championship in January of 2009 by defeating Matt Hardy. While he would eventually lose the ECW strap, it looks liked WWE had enough confidence in him to draft him over to the Raw brand. Swagger now had himself a spot on WWE’s flagship show. The major issue with Swagger is while he was excellent wrestling ability; he suffered from a lisp which caused him to come off as some type of goof on television. The good thing is that he was able to overcome this disability, and keep on stepping. I found myself as one of the few fans out there who actually supported Swagger because I hadn’t seen anyone with that much pure wrestling skill and ability since Kurt Angle. I felt that he just needed a little bit more polish and maybe someone out there to manage him and to be the perfect mouth piece. Fast forward to WrestleMania XXVI, Jack Swagger wins the Money in the Bank contract on the grandest stage of them all! I remember screaming to all of my other friends watching with me “I told you so!” With the briefcase in his possession it was only a matter of time now before my prediction of him being a World champion would come through. As luck would have it, Jack Swagger would cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase just two days later, and he would defeat Chris Jericho to be the new World Heavyweight Champion. I felt that with Swagger as champion, you had a fresh face at the top and he would just need some good opponents to legitimize his title run. But in the back of my mind, I felt that maybe It was too much too soon because if this title run was a flop, where would he go from there? My fears were correct, because after he lost the title, his career floundered to the point where he was running around with his own mascot known as “The Swagger Soaring Eagle”, and within a year of being Champion of the World, he was being paired with Michael Cole who was in a feud with Jerry Lawler in a move that did nothing for his career at all. It was clear that creative had nothing for him, and next they tried putting him with Vickie Guerrero and Dolph Ziggler. During this time, he would get a brief US Title run before losing the title a Santino Marella who most fans look at as nothing more than a joke wrestler. After failing to regain the belt, Swagger would take some time off from WWE June of last year. I thought for sure that he was going to end up on the future endeavors list, but that didn’t happen as he would return to WWE with more intensity than ever at the beginning of February. He was also paired up with Zeb Colter who a lot of fans remember as Dirty Dutch Mantell. Swagger, along with Zeb Colter, started to garner attention with their right wing views on America and Jack Swagger began to dub himself “The Real American”. Last Sunday, it appeared that Swagger’s career revival was complete when he won the Elimination Chamber, and earned himself a shot at the World Title at WrestleMania 29 against Alberto Del Rio in a feud that I felt had all of the potential to be legendary. This past week Swagger and Colter actually got the attention of Fox News and Tea Party bloggers who didn’t like fact that those characters had hit so close to home. I find the whole thing to be funny because neither Jack Swagger nor Zeb Colter ever used the term “Tea Party” in their promos, nor I also find it funny that a group of people who consider wrestling to be low brow and fake act like these characters being portrayed are real. This makes that Tea Party blogger and the folks offended at Fox News to be the ultimate marks! Wrestlers portray a character the same way actors do; it looks like some political pundits are having an issue understanding this. With a story-line that now had the attention of mainstream media which I am sure Vince McMahon had all of the intentions to milk, the sky was the limit! Then of course, Jack Swagger got into trouble for being busted with weed. I honestly feel that Swagger should only be hit with a fine, so that this story-line that has gained so much attention can continue on, but my opinion doesn’t matter. While I don’t think weed is that bad and that it’s a stupid thing to get fired over, that doesn’t excuse what he did. His employer has rules, and it is up to him to obey those rules as a WWE employee. If he does end up getting fired or pushed down the card and back to jobbing against guys like Zack Ryder and Santino Marella, he can only blame himself. SWAGGER SCREWED SWAGGER! Instead of his name being all over Fox News, his mug shot is all over the internet. Only time will tell what WWE is going to do about this. What’s your opinion on this? What do you think should happen to Jack Swagger? Email me at invidwarriorz@gmail.com or you can hit me up on Twitter @whosantcox.
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