Going into this weekend’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, there was talk that Jerry Lawler might win the WWE Championship for a “feel good” surprise on the show.
Obviously, Lawler was going to lose the title back to Miz on RAW to assure a current Superstar would be in the WrestleMania main-event position, but there was definitely a feeling based on Lawler’s momentum and crowd reaction that he would be given a minor run with the title.
Ultimately, however, F4WOnline.com reports that WWE decided to give Miz the victory as there has been significant concern about the wrestler’s overness as the marquee champion. Though a one-night title change might have worked given fan support for Lawler, the feeling was that the risk was not worth the reward–Miz needed to look strong against a past-his-prime wrestler.
That also explains why WWE did not go with the other seemingly-obvious plan: having Michael Cole physically interfere in the match to setup a ‘Mania encounter between the two. WWE certainly seems to be going in the direction of having Lawler and Cole work a WrestleMania program, but in order to strengthen Miz’s win, WWE did not want to overshadow the title retention (and weaken Miz’s perceived power) with a Cole-Lawler program.