Kings Reign Supreme: What I Hope for a Possible WWE Arrival for Claudio and Hero

Kings Reign Supreme!

If you believe the scuttlebutt, Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero, collectively known as The Kings of Wrestling, have an offer on the table for a WWE contract. The no-brainer answer would be to take it, but stranger things have happened. Hopefully, they will sign, because as much as I like watching them in the indies, I would rather see them every week on WWE TV and as a fan of theirs, I want to see them get paid as much money as they can get.

That being said, there's always that tricky question of "usage" that makes people take up the insane thought that they'd be "better off staying in ROH". Granted, there's almost nothing that would make me think staying in the indies is a better idea than going to WWE. However, I am a bit skeptical as to whether they'll get a good shake in terms of exposure. They could end up like CM Punk, exceed expectation and rule ass, they could be like Daniel Bryan (and admittedly, I don't think we've scratched the surface as to what we'll see from the former American Dragon) and get TV time but not get to the main event, or they could end up like Colt Cabana and be out of the company within a year. If they end up like Bryan, and again, Bryan's story in WWE is only beginning, then it's all good. However, there's one superstar whose career trajectory... well whose PROJECTED trajectory was exciting, fresh and totally game-changing for an entire division.

Yes, if the Kings make it to WWE, I would love to see them take on the Kharma role for the tag division.

Before she stepped away from WWE due to her pregnancy, Kharma was set to turn the Divas division on its head. She wasn't presented as your normal model-turned-wrestler who had silicone implants, and because of that, she got a genuine reaction. All signs pointed to a more "serious" women's wrestling division, one where Kharma would destroy the chaff and set up for a hero, be it Nattie Neidhart, Beth Phoenix or Kelly Kelly, to take her down and maybe establish that the Divas were deserving of more attention than, as Razor and I talked about last night, which of the males they were dating.

Of course, there's no stigma attached to the tag team division in terms of sexism, but it seriously is lacking of teams that could be considered legitimately over as a tandem. I mean, the only two that I think come close are Kane and Big Show and the former Champions of Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater. The former are a mongrel team of two fan-favorites-because-they've-been-around-since-the-dawn-of-time, and the latter got their overness more because of the groups they were associated with rather than a build as a team. Even then, with the dissolution of Corre, they even seem floundering. And at this point, neither team has the titles. In what may be the lulziest Tag Team Champion tandem in WWE history, Michael McGillicutty and David Otunga hold the Tag Pennies right now. Even though the Divas division had and still has its own problems, at least they have attention paid to them.

That's where the Kings should come in. Let them debut and destroy the Usos, Slater and Gabriel and then earn a title shot, where they win. Build them up as an unstoppable force whose teamwork is unmatched. Let them defeat Show and Kane, maybe not in short order, but convincingly enough. Give them mic time so they can develop their characters as more than just a win streak. Let them become the tag division so that when you build up a new set of challengers to them, be they an existing team like the Usos (who have potential but haven't had great opportunities to develop heat) or Slater and Gabriel, or another new team, either of guys who are on the roster or of a new team from FCW that's built up. That way, when the Kings lose the titles, it's a big deal. When they lose, they don't lose their heat because Hero and Claudio have been developing their characters through feuds and promos. It's all a matter of smart booking and attention.

Of course, this may very well be a pipe dream. Given that the failed TV writers have shown no desire to build a midcard or a tag division past a token "feud" that involves either bullshit parity decisions from week to week or a series of matches where it's a series of clean victories by one party while the crowd is expected to care when the result is never in question and there's no other factors making the losing party seeming like he's still got a story to tell. That being said, if they can try to revolutionize the Divas, why not tags?

That is, of course, if the Kings sign with WWE. There's still a chance that they might opt to stay with ROH, or that the scuttlebutt is just something that was sensationalized through being passed down the grapevine. Still, there's no doubt that Claudio and Hero deserve a chance to be in the top company in their field. Hopefully, the people potentially signing them know what they're getting.

Because it has the chance to be special.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

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