The idea's definately a good one, and would come off really well if they played it right. When reading that, I thought of Shelton Benjamin for some reason. He might have too much upwards momentum, though.
Anyway, if you did use Benjamin, you could have him keep stumbling on the ropes, and eventually hurt himself badly (storyline-wise), which forces him to miss a title match against Carlito. Benjamin wants another match, but Carlito being the shit-stirrer he is says Shelton's already had his shot. Bischoff comes out and says Shelton does have a match, so we get Carlito vs. Shelton V or VI, or whatever. The match is looking in Carlito's favour, but Shelton battles back. He eventually goes for his suicide dive move, but misses completely, and Carlito just throws him back in the ring and rolls him up for the 1-2-3.
The next week, Shelton Benjamin is facing a jobber, whih is in all actuality a stuntmant, and as Benjamin is going to finish him off with the Exploder Powerslam, he stuffs it up, and the jobber lands awkwardly. The referee calls off the match, and awards it to Shelton Benjamin, who goes to the back upset that he's hurt someone. There he is confronted by Stone Cold Steve Austin, who tears into Shelton asking him what's wrong. Benjamin just tells Austin to "fuck off", which pisses off Austin to the point he slaps Benjamin and reminds him that it was Stone Cold Steve Austin that helped Shelton get accepted on RAW. Shelton just walks off and Austin calls him a "little bitch". Benjamin snaps and assaults Austin, which leads to him getting suspended for two weeks.
In that time he goes down to OVW and works some matches there where he continues his slump, helping some talent down there to get over. They can even show these matches on WWE.com or Sunday Night Heat.
Have him return against Val Venis, and have him lose cleanly. Benjamin then walks out of the ring, but when he gets to the back you have Eric Bischoff there with some road agents, having found some drugs or something in Shelton Benjamin's bags. Eric Bischoff fires Shelton on the spot, which Shelton doesn't seem to accept, and we see Shelton the most let down we've ever seen him.
A few weeks after this Kurt Angle is having a Kurt Angle Invitational. Matt Striker coems out to answer the call again, but a masked guy in full-body attire comes out and assaults Striker. Angle thanks this guy, and asks him his name, and where he is from. The masked guy just attacks Angle and lasts the whole time with him in the ring. The masked man now has Angle's medals, and is retreating up the ramp. Angle grabs a microphone pissed off and asks the man to take off his mask. The man obliges and we see it is Shelton Benjamin. Over the next few weeks, Angle talks about how he's lost to drug addict, and he doesn't quite live it down. Benjamin uses the medals to get back in the WWE, and we have Angle vs. Benjamin at a PPV, where Benjamin gets the clean win and goes on the rise, again.
Personally, I think this angle would have been great for Charlie Haas. Haas is a great wrestler that is constantly held down, seen as the lesser of his tag team, and is stuck being second to Hardcore Holly. He's never had his shot, and he's failing to really live his brother's dream. Hopefully Haas gets another shot in the WWE.
Paul London and Val Venis could benefit from this, too. Hell, even give it to Scotty 2 Hotty, Funaki or Nunzio to develope them further.
Personally, being a Venis mark, I'd love to see them do something with the guy. Have him lose a match to Carlito or something, and have Jonathan Coachman remind us that Val Venis is really talented, but he never gets the job done (pretty much what he does when Venis is wrestling, anyway). After the loss, Venis is visibily upset that he lost one of his few matches on RAW, and he walks off to the back where he is greated by Bischoff.
Eric addresses Venis as Morely, and instantly Val knows something is wrong. Eric says that they've had their clashes in the past, but when Eric fired Sean as Chief of Staff, Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff decided you are too talented to let go, and the fans love your Val Venis character. The fans mark out for you, and that's why we kept you, to give the fans Val Venis. Eric then says that he's discovered Venis is on drugs, or he's becomming too much like the Val Venis character, and he's giving into his vices. Venis then snaps and says he's only giving into them because Eric Bischoff doesn't give him a chance. Eric then simply tells Sean to go home.
That's not the last we see of Sean Morely, though, as he returns to beat-down Edge, screaming "You cheated on my sister!". Of course no one actually knows if Edge did, but just for storytelling purposes. Morely answers the Angle Invitational, wins, but has the medals taken off him by the security guards when he reveals who he is, adding more of a scripted feeling to the Angle Invitational. We just see Morely do crazy stuff like that, with Bischoff trying to control him and get him to take some time off to refocus himself and his roll in the company.
I dunno. I just really want to see Venis get a shot.
