In Turn of Brilliance, WWE Crowns Jack Swagger Champion

Vince McMahon sure did not waste any time finding a new world champion. Chris Jericho defended the belt against a very game Edge at Wrestlemania. Then, on the very next taping of Friday Night Smackdown he dropped the Championship to Money in the Bank winner Jack Swagger. What does this really mean for the WWE?

The good news about this is that Vince seems to be willing to finally push some of his young superstars. Swagger has been on the cusp of moving up the ranks for a while now and it appears he finally is getting his push. Chris Jericho is no spring chicken and he is more than capable of making Swagger look good in a feud. That is the whole idea here, after all. Swagger has to be believable to be champion. Jericho will ensure that. The only real problem is, it is not clear who Swagger will be feuding with. It may be Jericho and it may even be Edge.

Regardless, the feud will elevate a once undercard performer to main event status, ensuring the future of WWE programming. With John Cena winning back the belt at Wrestlemania, many wrestling fans were becoming disenchanted with the same old thing all over again. Surely with Shawn Michaels retiring at Wrestemania, there is a new opening at the top.

Jack Swagger is an interesting choice by the WWE for elevation. He has always been an excellent athlete and has been champion before in ECW. That is nothing like the World Championship though. The World Champion has to be on top of their game all of the time and they have to be able to do more than wrestle. The knock on Swagger is the fact that he is not much on the microphone. Fortunately, his character is irritating enough without speaking to draw the appropriate heat from fans. Hopefully the WWE will keep him as a heel and not turn him into a good guy. He will not work as a face at all in my opinion.

Jack Swagger is the new World Heavyweight Champion and all of the undercard performers have got to be thrilled about it. That has to be one of the best bits of wrestling news in recent memory. Now the question is, how long can Jack Swagger remain the champion before Vince moves to someone else? Hopefully, for Swagger's sake that will not be for quite some time.