Was Jack Swagger the right choice for Wrestlemania?

If you watched this past Sunday night’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, you saw the WWE crown a new #1 contender to the World Championship (which Alberto Del Rio retained against The Big Show on the same night) at WrestleMania, and did so in an Elimination Chamber. The Chamber featured six former champions, including the surprise return a few weeks ago of the former “All-American American” Jack Swagger.

Although most didn’t give Swagger much of a chance, just like Money in the Bank at WrestleMania a few years ago, Swagger surprised everyone and won the Chamber match, and now moves onto WrestleMania to face Alberto Del Rio for the World title.

Swagger can definitely be considered a fresh face to the World title picture, something that has been lacking for a while. He has not had a title match in a couple of years, and before he won the Chamber, he had been absent from TV for quite some time following a long losing streak. His return was unannounced, and he proceeded to go on a small win streak, with a new attitude and a new manager in Zeb Coulter (aka Dutch Mantell or Uncle Zebekiah, for some of the older fans).

While it’s nice to see Swagger back and being taken seriously, my issue right now is, was Swagger the right choice for WrestleMania? I certainly think he could be a major player in WWE and a serious main event threat down the road, but consider the fact that he’s only been back after his absence for about a month, and before he left, he was an afterthought at best. Because of this, I get the feeling many fans are going to have a difficult time taking him seriously as a World title contender after being back for such a short period of time.

It’s been proven in the past that rushing a guy into the main event picture can backfire. It happened to Swagger when he won the World title a couple of years ago. Within a couple of weeks, no one was buying him as champion, and he dropped the belt after only a couple of months. The same thing happened to Sheamus when he won the WWE title in 2009, and it took him nearly 3 years to finally get taken seriously. Swagger definitely has the potential, but since returning, he’s had very little build as a serious threat. The addition of Zeb Coulter, who plays a right-wing militant conservative, certainly will help him get over as a hated man, but even with an angle like this, it takes time, and the WWE creative team has never been the most patient group of people.