There’s a difference between knowing you’ll be a fan and knowing someone will make the main event. I knew I was going to be a Jericho fan early on, but I honestly felt he was going to be one of those midcard guys. And you’d have had to be a fortune-teller to know that the Connecticut blueblood and that blond guy from the Rockers were going to be two of of the biggest stars in the business.

Getting back to Axel, I’ll agree that he hasn’t done anything that has wowed me. I didn’t watch Payback so I don’t know how he came across in that match. However, I don’t think they wanted him to look good in his matches against Triple H and John Cena. It felt to me that they wanted him to look overwhelmed and then win because of outside forces (and then crow about them as though he’d accomplished something great).

That said, the higher-ups see something in Axel. They’re going all out to try to see if it goes somewhere. Why did HE get to be paired up with Paul Heyman ahead of Barrett, Cesaro, Sandow, Miz, etc? Maybe that was Heyman’s call? He has a decent track record, so why not let him go with his instinct?

You don’t foresee paying for an Axel main event. Fluke matches against main eventers aside, they’re not putting him in the main event yet. He’s the Intercontinental champ and it looks like his first real feud will be against the Miz. By the time he IS in the main event perhaps you’ll buy into him more. Time will tell if he’ll get to that level or if he’ll just be another Jack Swagger that the WWE pushes to no avail because he’s too thick to succeed.