The prophecy of Ezekiel…..Jackson's career

He started off as a stoic bodyguard/associate of the off-kilter, bizarre, and arrogant Brian Kendrick. He would interject himself into matches when provoked, or not. He would show off his raw power in the ring at the whim of Brian Kendrick. He would also intimidate Kendrick’s opponents with just one menacing stare. Then, as things progressed, his effectiveness at Kendrick’s side started to fade. Before that could be answered for, he was drafted to ECW as of April 14th, 2009 as part of the WWE Supplemental Draft 2009. It’s been one month, and we have yet to see or hear from Ezekiel on his new brand. Why is that the case? Before we answer that, let’s look at Ezekiel from the inside and analyze his career.

Once again, I give thanks to Wikipedia for this info. Ezekiel’s real name is Rycklon Stephens. He was a professional bodybuilder and wrestler before signing up with the WWE through their farm systems. There’s no elaborate history on his career, no special things that might have happened, and no other organizations worth mentioning that he wrestled for, I suppose. So, as a difference for once, we have a wrestler without a storied past to write about (well, Kozlov didn’t have much either, but the fact that the father of the owner of WWE’s chief competitor brought him over here speaks volumes). Long story short, Stephens lifted weights, wrestled, then got picked up by the WWE, was sent to their farm systems in Florida, and was called up after one year of training to be Kendrick’s bodyguard/associate.

Wow, that’s a pretty short story. Sadly, it will be an even shorter career. You see, just as Ezekiel might be a product of his own environment, he’s also a victim of his latent success. He’s big, he’s buff, and he’s a brute of a man. That’s what Vince likes, if not, loves about a wrestler. Vince will always love big men as wrestlers, and Ezekiel is just another person to fit Vince’s very specific standards. There’s just one problem: many others have as well and still do. What happened to them? Some aren’t used, some are being pushed, and most have been fired. Sadly, Jackson might not be far behind. The sad thing is: his bodyguard/associate schtick was done already. In fact, it was being done at the start of his run on Smackdown by Chavo Guerrero and his bodyguard Bam Neely, a big man from Minnesota who was shown the door no more than 3 or so months ago. Ironically, Bam was also part of ECW while Chavo regulared both SD and ECW as brands. They had a televised end of their partnership, which put Chavo at Vickie Guerrero’s side as her assistant. As for Bam, well, he lost about 2 key matches, and then, he was fired from ECW. I suggested that he be put with Ezekiel as a pair of bodyguards for Kendrick, but, it seems the latter portion of my prediction (12/28/08’s analysis) ended up true. And, like it or not, Ezekiel is next.

I can just hear it now: Ezekiel Jackson was released due to a lack of creative ideas for him thanks to the creative team in WWE not trying to find anything. Yet, looking back at it, there really isn’t anything creative about Jackson. He’s big, buff, and a brute, but so are Mike Knox, and Kane, and the Great Khali, and Vladimir Kozlov. Perhaps, nothing creative can be found for Ezekiel Jackson because his character had been made to not look creative. And, with a shortage of actual wrestlers he can actually bodyguard on ECW, there isn’t much he can do except have some hard-hitting matches, which he will probably lose to Finlay, Evan Bourne, or even Mark Henry or Jack Swagger. This was Bam Neely’s problem and Ezekiel just assumed his place until it is time to make the seasonal cuts to the roster.


Now, creatively, you could attempt to do things with him, however, the ideas might be slim, if you’re trying to be politically correct as well as logical. I did have two ideas that came to mind over Ezekiel’s career that I’d like to share.

First, pair him with Mark Henry and Tony Atlas. You can bill them as “The World’s strongest men”, a dominant tag team of immense power that can be a legitimate threat to not just ECW stars, but to the Unified tag champs, the Colons. As it turns out, the easiest thing you can do with a person with a stagnant career is tag them up with someone whose career is also stagnant. If you’re going to tell me that Mark Henry’s career is going somewhere with nothing to show for it other than a few videos about his antics with Tony Atlas, you’ve got another thing coming.

Another idea involves a recently released superstar who was changing his look and persona for a future push of sorts. See, Elijah Burke, the wrestler in question, was planning to go from a world-class athlete to something of a cult leader. He would be known as “The Dark Prophet”, Elijah Burke. He’d carry around a goblet and wear prophetic clothing, preaching about how his movement is the right choice in life. Throw in Ezekiel Jackson for the ride, and you’ve got an idea going. Both Elijah and Ezekiel are names of prophets recognized by the Bible. I feel the WWE would have acted on this instantly, making them the group, “The Dark Prophecy”. They would preach about how their movement is the way to glory, or beat down those who don’t believe. It would seem like the whole “Reverend D-Von/Deacon Batista” thing, but how many of today’s wrestling fans remember that? Not the vast majority. That’s why the WWE can go with it. Wrestling is cyclical, as most pundits would say. What worked or didn’t work about 7 years ago could work now since it’s no longer prevalent in today’s society, but can be again. That's why the Boogeyman existed for so long and why Santina Marella is working now.

The political correctness of each idea is under great fire, along with the logic and effectiveness of each idea, when assuming the WWE’s mindset about creativity and Ezekiel Jackson. Ezekiel is strong, but not Mark Henry strong or Tony Atlas strong. So, instantly, that would be a minus. As for the “Prophecy” idea, well, cults, religion and all forms of those types of sects always lead to something negative in the end or along the way. This is why religion and wrestling, like politics and wrestling, should never mix. There is another area of political correctness you can talk about when considering the WWE , but I’m not going to even approach it because it’s been discussed to death, and, as an African American myself, I’m sick of talking about it. It's been a problem in wrestling for years. I don't see it getting solved soon.

The point I am wishing to make in this blog today is that Ezekiel Jackson’s career is sort of on “death watch” right now. With the ideas I posed, I wanted to say that, creatively, you can do something with Jackson. However, it might be rather late for that at this juncture of his career, since he’s already been pushed as just another big and brutish wrestler. I wouldn’t suggest going with my ideas and my ideas alone as there are a slew the WWE might consider. Then again, there might not be. At the core of these problems, though, there’s an inconvenient truth as to why Ezekiel’s WWE career might be in severe jeopardy. That truth deals with Brian Kendrick.

Brian Kendrick’s foolishness backstage when dealing with the WWE’s substance abuse policy has put him in the crosshairs of just about every WWE official to the point where they will bury his career until they openly decide to fire him for not following suit with the policy. What do I mean by foolishness? He smokes marijuana, despite the fact that the WWE fines all marijuana smokers, and, despite that fact, he’s been warned a number of times to stoop. Because of this, his involvement with any major titles has been curtailed. Also, in an attempt to keep an eye on his progress and chastise him with suspension without having to pull down Ezekiel with him, they drafted Kendrick to Raw, and Jackson to ECW. This is starting to help Kendrick, albeit a little, but Jackson got the short end of the stick as he has yet to debut on ECW, let alone win a match there. Thanks to his association with Kendrick, Ezekiel Jackson might not get the upward movement he needs.

It would seem that Ezekiel’s time in the WWE is about to come to a screeching halt, as he has yet to debut on ECW. When that’s the case after a draft for any brand, it’s more than likely a sign of your departure. It started with his association with Kendrick getting him demoted, and continues with his lack of character keeping him from being pushed. Sadly, his character is set to be something of a silent, brutish, powerhouse that only destroys. The problem: it’s been done and is being done currently. What do you do when you’re proven to be expendable by the organization that made a star out of you? You get that resume ready, call some friends, and hope for the best. You don’t have to be a prophet to see that the aforementioned is the right thing to do.

(*Editor’s note: I humbly apologize to anyone offended after reading this blog. It was not my intention and I will make any and all changes to remove the offensive material. This, I do promise. Thanks for reading.)