By Greg Parks, Torch specialist

PWTorch VIP members have first-look access to all of Torch specialist Greg Parks's latest blogs in the newly upgraded VIP Forum. His blogs are published first in the PWTorch VIP Forum, and Parks interacts with other VIP members and Torch staff and contributors in the blog comments area afterward. Some of Parks's blog entries will be exclusive to the VIP Forum.

A tradition in the wrestling world is to put a young, up-and-coming talent with a main event star to give him some rub and have him work with the top guys without having the pressure of BEING the top guy. But that hasn't worked out so well in the recent past in WWE.

The Spirit Squad was brought in as henchmen of Vince McMahon to combat DX. The Squad had plenty of TV time and got to work with McMahon, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels. However, they were constantly squashed and ridiculed by the middle-aged Frat Boys. Now, only a few years later, one of the original five (Dolph Ziggler) is with the company, in a lower mid-card role.

Lance Cade was featured in the hottest angle of the year in 2008, paired with Chris Jericho against Shawn Michaels. Cade even got a pinfall victory over HBK. And yet, he was out of the company a few months later, which wasn't a big deal, as he had faded into the background in that angle anyway and hadn't really been pushed as being on par (or even close) to the guys he was with.

Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins were Edgeheads on Smackdown, brought aboard by the Rated R Superstar because they looked like him. They had future tag champs written all over them, but they seemed to break away from Edge too soon and are now barely hanging on in the company. They didn't get elevated all that much from hanging with Edge.

Now, Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes are in that all-too-familiar spot. Former tag champs already, they have sided with arguably the hottest heel in the company in the biggest angle in the company. Yet they're background players, brought to the forefront only when Triple H needs to extract revenge and can't get it against Orton.

That's the main problem - these young guys aren't getting the rub because they're the ones getting beaten up and losing constantly so as to prevent the two main players in the act from actually going at it (yet). But that's become a tired refrain, and the young guys being paired with hot veterans suddenly isn't a great idea anymore.

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