Bourne To Main Event..?
After seeing Evan Bourne main event RAW this past week in a tag team match with John Cena, this gets my brain going as to could it be possible for Bourne to be a main event talent?
There are a few key factors (in my opinion) to figure in when trying to see if Bourne could stand next to the elite in the WWE.
- Size
- Ring Skills
- Microphone Skills
- Overall Believability
SIZE
Evan is only 5’7″ tall and a mere 160 lbs (approx). Now look at the other competitors in the RAW main event picture:
WWE Champion John Cena is 6’3″ tall and 260 lbs.
Edge is 6’4″ tall and 240 lbs.
Sheamus is 6’6″ tall and 275 lbs.
Randy Orton is 6’5″ tall and 250 lbs.
Now call me Captain Obvious, but there’s no real way to qualify Evan in the same league as these guys. Now I know what most people are going to say, “Rey Mysterio is a tiny guy, and he main evented PPV before!” Well let me get through this whole situation and I’ll answer that question for you.
RING SKILLS
There’s no denying that Evan Bourne has a phenomenal finishing move with the Shooting Star Press so lovingly known as Air Bourne. However, the key questions are could he hack it in the ring, specifically in a PPV setting where a match could go twenty minutes, and could he, in the grand scheme of things, actually be good enough in the eyes of the people involved with booking to go over in a one on one contest? I don’t know how many of you have seen Bourne’s matches on the indy circuit when he was known as Matt Sydal, but this guy can put on a great match. The one factor that I have to bring in though is of all the matches I’ve seen, it’s him against guys who are similar to him in style. They are with smaller wrestlers who like the frenetic pace and use high flying, lucha libre inspired maneuvers on a regular basis like him. If he were across the ring from someone like Randy Orton, would he be able to technically hang with him? I couldn’t say for certain.
MICROPHONE SKILLS
When it comes to his mic skills in WWE, we really haven’t seen too much to really form an opinion on if he’s good or not. You can draw conclusions that creative doesn’t have strong faith that he can talk well, or that he really needs to have a speaking role as of yet, but that’s really all that can be speculated. From what I can find on Youtube, he’s pretty average. I found a few indy promos he cut, and they really lacked a fire that makes a great promo.
OVERALL BELIEVABILITY
What I mean by overall believability is if Evan Bourne is a main event talent, would all wrestling fans, young and old, believe that this little guy has the skills and heart to overcome all adversity? I bring back the people’s argument of Rey Mysterio being a main event guy as an example. Mysterio worked as a midcard guy and made his name there against smaller talent for a number of years abroad and in WCW before he really got his big push in WWE. Mysterio and Bourne are not even in the same league talent wise. For awhile there with some fans, yes it was believable that Mysterio could manage to defeat all enemies big and small, but in my opinion, he having a good run and eventually winning the title was beyond my capacity for believability. Even now as he continues to win matches against guys the likes of Kane, it’s still unbelievable. Having said that, I do not think that Evan Bourne could be a convincing enough competitor to hang in the “land of giants.” While I hate having to say something like that, the awful truth about pro wrestling is that it’s a big man’s sport. Bourne may get a short term opportunity in the main event picture, but I don’t foresee him holding on to that spot for too long.
And so the debate begins as we continue to watch what Monday Night RAW brings over the next few months. In the grand scheme of things, my opinion doesn’t really matter much. It’s the collective opinion of the WWE Universe and the WWE creative team that will determine where Bourne’s career heads. I would love to see he and other small guys get more opportunities to show their stuff on the big stage, but I cannot help but be a little pessimistic of their chances because history is not on their side.