For as many years as most fans can remember, when you were a big man coming up to WWE there were a few specific wrestlers you had to go through. You have to match power with Mark Henry. Figure out a way to lift the massive Big Show. Avoid being dragged into the hellfire and brimstone by Kane. Tire out The Great Khali by making him walk more than two steps without a moment to rest. You get the picture.

Not every big man has to weather the storm of each one of those guys but generally, they pretty quickly find their way into the path of plodding destruction.

Mark Henry is ever nearing retirement (you can believe him if he’s not wearing the salmon jacket). Great Khali was mercifully sent away and somehow became Dixie Carter‘s pawn in his native India. The live crowd can’t generally be bothered to care about Big Show, which is a shame because when motivated he might be better now than ever due to his experience. Kane has actually held up surprisingly well and can put on a good performance in the right situation, but he doesn’t tend to get booked into the right situation very often.

The point is that WWE needs somebody new. Well, not necessarily new, but someone different. A guy who can be fresh to the singles ranks, who can talk as big a game as anybody and who is big enough to believably back it up against pretty much anybody. That guy is Bubba Ray Dudley. They don’t have to use the Bully Ray name (although I bet Bubba owns it, not TNA) but get him out of the dopey camouflage, which they should have done when the Dudley Boyz turned heel in the first place and let him go at it.

He has expressed interest in putting over younger talent during this run and even though they haven’t set the world on fire, he and D-Von have essentially done that. Bubba Ray on his own (or with D-Von as his partner who also lays some beat downs and tags with him occasionally) can be a gigantic force to be reckoned with. He can also have better matches than any of the aforementioned big men that WWE still parades around.

This is also probably a role that WWE should slot Sheamus into eventually as well, as he has probably reached his apex and isn’t likely to move back up to the top. They have to figure out a way to get people to care about him again — which at this point probably means going very dark with him. Not quite sure how they would go about it… I wonder if jet black hair would work for him. Maybe he just gets rid of the big mohawk. Something to make him less stale.

Chris Hero would fit well in this spot as well if WWE would be willing to give him a chance, maybe a number of years down the line. Luke Harper, since WWE doesn’t appear to want to do anything substantial with him, could be the standard bearer for the veteran big man in the future.