Having already mentioned Edge's La Familia member Bam Neely on this list, the mid-2000s were an era of WWE television that oftentimes had fantastic in-ring action, but not-so-fantastic characters for very talented wrestlers and charismatic personalities. Thus was the case with "The Cabinet," JBL's "presidential" 2004-2005 stable involving then-WWE Champion Layfield, Orlando Jordan, The Basham Brothers, and either Amy Weber or Jillian Hall. Similar to Edge's La Familia, The Cabinet allowed a developing tag team (Doug and Danny Basham) the ability to have a prominent spot on television. As well, similar to then-unseasoned in-ring performer Vickie Guerrero, Amy Weber (and later Jillian Hall) were given a space to shine. As well, similar to Chavo Guerrero, Orlando Jordan was pushed as the number two in-ring performer to the "Wres-stle-ing God," putting a wrestler in a position that the fans maybe were not entirely to accept. Though well supported creatively, The Cabinet was not cared about because they again, featured too many under-prepared talents for top-of-the-card spotlight. If the crowd doesn't eventually accept the presentation of a performer of being deserving of the level of spotlight they're being given, then they're highly unlikely to care.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
