Brian Damage
Sometimes in pro wrestling, the toughest opponent you face isn’t in the ring, but behind the scenes. That was the case of the self proclaimed ‘Captain Charisma’ Christian in WWE. What made Christian’s case tougher, was the fact his biggest opponent was none other than WWE’s head honcho Vince McMahon. Having the boss of the company not liking you or your look certainly spelled doom for Christian despite his ever growing popularity.
Now for years prior, Edge and Christian were pushed as a top tag team in the promotion. The end game of course was to eventually split the duo up with Adam ‘Edge’ Copeland becoming the breakout star. That did happen, but instead of Christian becoming the so called “Marty Jannetty” of the team and eventually fading into the doldrums of the lower midcard as a singles wrestler, something else happened.
Christian started getting over on his own. His natural born charisma, ability to cut a great promo and his gifts as a wrestler were enough from WWE’s fanbase to take notice and cheer him more and more. In 2005, Christian’s growing popularity was becoming too hard to ignore, and WWE creative were taking note. While on Vince McMahon’s private jet heading from Toronto back to Connecticut a discussion started on how to really capitalize on Christian’s popularity.
Vice President of Talent Relations Jim Ross along with newly hired writer Alex Greenfield pitched ideas to elevate Christian to main event status. One of those ideas was to actually put the World Heavyweight title on him. According to Greenfield, that idea was immediately shot down. Vince simply did not see Christian as a main event superstar for WWE. Jim Ross said that Vince’s biggest gripes with Christian was his appearance. McMahon was not a fan of Christian’s physique preferring larger, more well-conditioned wrestlers as his top attractions. That wasn’t to say that Christian was out of shape, no quite the opposite. He simply wasn’t big enough to Vince’s liking.
Secondly, McMahon also didn’t like Christian’s face. Vince felt that while he wasn’t ugly, his face still looked “ratty.” It was after that comment from Vince, where he formalized a gimmick for Christian. McMahon actually suggested that every time Christian was shown whether it be in a backstage promo or in the ring for a match…that a blue dot cover his face. At first, Greenfield and Ross laughed at the idea feeling it was more of a joke than anything being seriously considered. Soon enough, they realized this was no joke. Vince justified the idea by comparing Christian to an anonymous witness in a court case and has his identity covered or blurred to protect him or her.
Since Greenfield was just hired by WWE, he knew that he had to tread lightly in trying to talk Vince out of going through with something so preposterous. Jim Ross felt that Vince was way out of line for suggesting something on a wrestler who was naturally over with fans. JR felt that it was simply Vince trying to emasculate someone he didn’t have any faith in. Both Greenfield and Ross were able to talk Vince down by saying the production of such an idea would be very expensive and too hard to maintain on a person wrestling.
Thankfully the Blue Dot idea was forgotten by McMahon, but not before reaching the ears of Christian himself. While years later, Jay ‘Christian’ Reso laughed at the idea and often poked fun at it…when he initially heard the proposed gimmick was a different story. Having the boss of the company you work for have less than favorable things to say about you is one thing. Christian knew it was an uphill battle that he simply wasn’t going to win to prove he was more than worthy of a push. A few months later, Christian made the choice not to re-sign with WWE instead joining their opposition in TNA.
It was his four years in TNA where Christian Cage proved his worth immediately becoming one of TNA’s top stars. Distancing himself far away from a ridiculous Blue Dot gimmick and proving he could hang as a top singles star.
