It’s a hard thing to make the fans care about a wrestling personality these days, much less a personality that they can only associate with a deep, warbled voice. The WWF has taken it upon their shoulders to try to disprove this theory with their current Undertaker –v- The Stalker storyline. In this commentary, I hope to show everyone what I think about this whole situation as well as possible choices as to who just might be the stalker in this whole, freaky storyline.
Let me begin by saying that I do not agree with this storyline. It took the WWF years to get Kane over as a monster and a true machine and whether anyone wants to admit it or not, that was only because the fans could not see his face. There’s something about being able to SEE someone and then being only able to hear someone warble that just makes a character. However, there are other reasons that I do not agree with this surprise storyline. First is simply because the Undertaker was finally putting on some very entertaining matches with this gimmick against Stone Cold and then the WWF pulls him out of it for the younger guys. Granted, the Undertaker is falling apart with his knees and all of that, but you just don’t rip someone out of the main event and put him in some poorly planned angle when they have been your top hand for the better part of 10 years. However, the main reason that I don’t agree with this angle is because the WWF owns the wrestling business. What does that have to do with it? Easy – the reason why these mystery men were so shocking and attention grabbing in the past was because there was the possibility that someone “made the jump” from a rival federation. Nowadays the rival federation is owned by the same company!
You see the fact of that matter is that unless Bret Hart or Roddy Piper of Hulk Hogan or Randy Savage is the stalker, there really is no one that would be sufficient in that role. Below are the top choices that I have for the stalker and what I think of each:
Vince McMahon: If there was ever a letdown in wrestling, it had to be when Vince was revealed as the Higher Power. I recently watched that tape again and while the storyline needed a conclusion, it could have gone a million different ways other than Vince. But this is about the stalker. Our technology savvy friends have already uncovered that Vince is the one behind the voice of the stalker, but that means next to nothing. Besides, why have Vince McMahon be the stalker when you could have…
Raven: This is the only logical choice for the stalker. Some people think that Rhyno is perfect choice, but with Paul Heyman as the creative man in the WWF, why would he NOT put Raven back in the role that made him a star (and I’m not talking about Johnny Polo either)? When ECW has in its heyday in the mid 90’s, Raven was the man who everyone knew was a little nuts up top. He was an intelligent man’s wrestler (or a psychotic man’s wrestler, one or the other). When he went to the WCW, they tried to re-create this feeling, but only a wrestling genius like Paul Heyman could put the perfect finishing touches on it. So with Raven and Heyman in the same company, it would only make sense to have the evil Raven return and feud with the Undertaker as a way to get him over as a star of the future while still having in a high profile feud right now.
Kane: I really don’t want to go into what a letdown this would be, but it would be the biggest joke if it really came true.
Rhyno: Another good choice for the Undertaker to fight with, but I don’t see any possible way that the WWF could justify taking this man out of the King of the Ring tournament and letting him focus on a feud with the Undertaker as well as his current feud with The Big Show. It just wouldn’t make any sense.
Shawn Michaels: Same as above – it doesn’t make a damn bit of sense and would be hell to try to justify.
WCW Star: What purpose would that prove? Could you imagine seeing Shawn Stasiak jump out as the stalker? Who cares about Stasiak in the WWF? Everyone who thinks it is going to be one of these thrillers really needs to realize that they are the future of the WCW, not the WWF.
Paul Bearer: Again, I don’t see the justification of having the Undertaker’s long time associate being the one who wants to get off in his wife’s underwear. This would be another disappointing let down to this angle.
As you can see, there are not really many great answers to this puzzle. The fact is that the WWF either has an extremely great game plan with this whole angle or they threw it together and have now dug themselves into a whole. I really want to know what you think about this all, so e-mail me and let me know! Thanks!
Thanks again for reading,
Joe
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I think It’s DDP