And he put over Shelton because the fed needed another young star and Orton is a lump.
Can we really say that he put him over, though? Because absolutely nothing was sustained. Shelton scored the victory, and for that night at least, he looked like a million bucks, but since then, he hasn't really progressed much at all further up the card. He may be IC champ, but what the hell does that mean? He's feuding with MAVEN these days, and that feud is all about getting Maven over as a heel rather than elevating Shelton. Shelton's just kind of there, when in reality, they should be pushing him as a serious contender for the World title (as they should ALL IC title holders, if they want that belt to have any kind of prestige).
Was Benoit the center of any REAL storylines when he was champ? What was he allowed to do other than have good matches? Did anything on Raw really focus on Chirs Benoit during his whole reign as champ?
Of course not - because the focus was, and always will be, on HHH. Benoit was champ, but he was left to defend it against others (or to wrestle in about 9,394 different tag matches with La Resistance) while the focus was upon HHH. HHH vs. Michaels, HHH vs. Eugene, HHH vs. Orton, etc.
I think, ultimately, the Benoit title reign has to be considered as just a tribute of sorts to Benoit, as a thank you for all of his hard work over the years. Which is a shame, because as Benoit proves time and time again, Benoit can easily win over a crowd and get VERY over simply based upon his work rate and emotion in the ring.
As for Eugene, Eugene put himself over. That was something special when a gimmick should have tanked horribly but the fed managed to play it right. HHH had pretty much nothing to do with Eigene's success other than being his first real opponent. Him and evolution beat Eugene bloody and that was pretty much it.
It's my opinion that HHH kind of fucked over Eugene.
Granted - the gimmick itself has its limitations. It's primarily a midcard gimmick, but for some inexplicable reason, Eugene did get very over (probably owing a bit to The Rock, who actually did more to get Eugene over than HHH by far). And once that happened, who stuck his rather sizable nose into things? HHH.
Can anyone honestly say that the Eugene / Evolution confrontations would have happened if the gimmick didn't take off - or if it never got any more popular than just the midcard?
What happened was that the WWE stuck the Eugene character out there with Evolution, and Eugene got over-exposed (because they made his interactions with Evolution the focal point of every fucking RAW). He's rebounded a bit, but honestly, he never should have really been placed against HHH.
And when did HHH put over Maven? That invitation to join Evolution? It would have been nice if they had let maven accept. that would have put Maven over. But Maven didn't accept and thus is still a midcard jobber.
If he's talking about the match from RAW following Survivor Series, then he's really crazy to think that match was HHH "putting over" Maven, considering that match has Benoit AND Jericho AND Orton cheating like motherfuckers to help Maven win, with HHH STILL coming out victorious (not only NOT putting over Maven - at all - but making the other three main faces look like chumps. There's that HHH for you - man, he just LOVES the business!).
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Nov. 3, 2004 - It's official. Four more years!
There are those who said this day would never come.
What are they to say now? </center>