Evan Bourne to Be Wild - WWE's Fast-Paced High Flier

The May 31 edition of WWE Monday Night RAW started with Evan Bourne finding himself at the receiving end of a beating by nine time World Champion Edge in the middle of the ring. Apparently Bourne had come out to declare now his time, though it seemed Edge had other plans. After a devastating spear from Edge, many thought Bourne had pulled his name out of the "weak looking face to get demolished by Edge" hat. It was on May's last episode of RAW however that Bourne seized the moment and shined in a match involving three of the biggest names in modern professional wrestling.

Before considering where Bourne is going, it may be beneficial to take a look at where he's been. Before debuting in WWE Bourne was an independent scene standout under the name Matt Sydal. As Sydal, Bourne was known best for his work in Ring of Honor and Japan's Dragon Gate. It didn't matter which promotion's logo graced the ring skirts though. Evan Bourne put on a wonderful display of high flying lucha-libre inspired wrestling inside of every ring he's stepped in.

Shortly after becoming the first non-Japanese athlete to win the coveted Dragon Gate Open the Brave Gate Championship from Masato Yoshino, Bourne would announce that he was signing with World Wrestling Entertainment in 2007. During this time in real life, Bourne had been receiving offers from not only WWE but also TNA Wrestling, ROH, and DragonGate. Bourne would wrestle his final Ring of Honor match against long-time rival Delirious before heading to WWE.

A lot of times when a new young talent is signed to WWE they have to first develop their skills in one of WWE's development territories (think minor leagues). Bourne spent relatively little time in development as some other stars, a true testament to the faith management have in his in-ring abilities. Before WWE had ended their working agreement with Ohio Valley Wrestling, Bourne had debuted in the territory and won their Heavyweight Championship three short months later. Bourne would lose the title two months later as he was being relocated to WWE's new territory Florida Championship Wrestling. Bourne would only wrestle one match there against Smackdown's Tyson Kidd before being called up to the main roster.

Bourne spent what was left of 2008 and 2009 in WWE's now defunct ECW brand of sports entertainment. Though he didn't win any championships during his tenure in ECW, Bourne did pick up significant victories over established workers and earned the support of the WWE Universe. It was the fans' reactions to Bourne's "Air Born" finisher, the previously banned shooting star press, that had won him the Slammy Award for "Best Finishing Maneuver". Perhaps more importantly though was the WWE Universe voting for Bourne to challenge Matt Hardy at the Cyber Sunday Pay-Per-View for the ECW Championship.

On June 29, 2009 Evan Bourne had been drafted to the RAW brand where he still wrestles today. Despite working hard whenever given television time, Bourne hadn't been doing much on WWE's "A" brand. It seemed that Bourne would win enough to keep himself relevant, but lose in the bouts that counted most. Bourne would end Jack Swagger's undefeated streak and pin United States Champion Kofi Kingston in a non-title match. When it came time though to challenge Miz though, for the same title, he was unsuccessful. Bourne would earn entry into other matches such as the annual Money In The Bank and ECW's "Homecoming Battle Royal" but was still unable to secure a much needed victory.

Bourne was losing momentum and whatever he had left was drained in an awful feud with Zack Ryder which ended on WWE's lowest rated program, WWE Superstars. That is where we left off with Bourne before turning on May 31st episode of RAW. Because of his lack of presence on RAW, seeing him being man handled by Edge wasn't so out of the ordinary. What was out of the ordinary was Bourne's reemergence later in the evening to fill in for the injured Randy Orton in a tag-team bout with Cena against Sheamus and Edge. On a night where we watched Edge brutally beat down a young superstar trying to seize his moment . . . Independent sensation Daniel Bryan defeated the Miz . . . and the Uso's made their presence felt in WWE . . . On this night of young superstars, our main event sees Bourne teaming with the top guy in WWE against two of the top evil heels in the company.

On this night, Bourne wins! 5'9 and 183 pounds, Evan Bourne soared off of the top rope using his Air Bourne on Sheamus to achieve victory for his team. With the "Best Finishing Maneuver" in WWE, Bourne pinned a former WWE Champion and top contender to the same belt. He showed resilience battling back from a heavy attack earlier in the night and enough heart that John Cena would choose him as a replacement for the 6 time World Champion Randy Orton.

The question now is, what's next for Evan Bourne? Providing WWE does not give us a squash bout with Sheamus completely demolishing Bourne next week, I think we could be seeing a major youth movement in the company. Daniel Bryan's promo on NXT a few weeks back about the WWE Machine is resonating in my ears right now. Bourne is the perfect example of someone riding the waves of change in WWE and providing he can stay healthy and opportunistic, has a bright future ahead of him. Who knows, perhaps sharing the ring with three stars who have close to 20 World Title wins between them will push Bourne to win some gold of his own!