It’s funny because the two things that I want to talk about today seem to be on the minds of many of my readers. First, why is Vince keeping certain talent down? Certain talent meaning WCW/ECW guys and the second is, end the split or at least make things more interesting. And by making things more interesting we are talking about TRADES. Yeah these two subjects seem to be on many wrestling fans minds.
All right I hate to say this again, but my regular readers know that for a long time I have said that Vince will not push any WCW or ECW wrestlers like he’ll push his own. I’ll call that my Linda Robin Theory, or LRT. Sure there are exceptions, like Chris Jericho being the undisputed champion. But for the most part I think Vince still looks at his former competitors ECW and WCW, but mostly WCW as his enemies. So naturally he’s not going to reward either of those rosters with any major titles or major pushes. Let’s take this further. Vince signed Ultimo Dragon. A top talent and he spends most of his time on Velocity, Smackdown doesn’t seem to have a place for him. Look at Sean O’Haire, for months all we saw were ads hyping his return. The he appears on Smackdown with Roddy Piper as his manager. For a few weeks he’s on Smackdown and in a main story line, but now where is he? Again, a Velocity regular? I can go on, look at Kanyon. In the ring I think he does great work, but out of the ring, he has no build up, nothing going for him, and he’s thrown in out of the blue to job or to be made to look like a goof. Let’s go to Raw, yeah Booker is the IC Champion, but come on as thrilled as I was for his victory, what the hell has Booker done? He’s not in the Elimination Chamber match; all he seems to get is rematch after rematch with Christian. In fact The Book hardly talks anymore, yeah he got a push, a push that seems to be going nowhere.
Chris Jericho the first Undisputed Champion was made to look good for a few months, but after Triple H’s return Jericho played second fiddle to Stephanie McMahon. What about Tommy Dreamer, and Rob Van Dam? They certainly don’t have the power that they did in ECW. Now you have to top stars from WCW, Scott Steiner who doesn’t even get into main event matches. Sure he’s not exactly speedy in the ring, but was he really given a chance? And Bill Goldberg, well I guess because of his attitude and Vince’s feelings toward Bill, Vince has no plans on giving Bill the monster build up he had in WCW. Like I said Goldberg’s backstage attitude hasn’t helped, but I believe Vince never planned on making much out of him. What I’m trying to say is WWE comes first with Vince and that’s it. So for all the WCW fans that stayed away but then returned when some named WCW stars came back unfortunately get used to seeing your guys as nothing more than mid to low-carders. It’s the Orton’s, The Haas’s and Benjamin’s and yeah even the Basham Brother’s that will have a chance to move up, not the guys that came from the other companies. I’m starting to think Vince has them in WWE so they cannot sign on with other companies, such as NWA/TNA. Sad isn’t it?
Now as far as the split goes, if it ended tomorrow I would love it, but Vince isn’t going to merge both shows together for a very long time, if at all. So what about making things new, fun and interesting? How about some major trades? You know like trading RVD to Smackdown. Maybe trading Brock to Raw. I would love to see Eddie Guerrero back on Raw and the Dudley’s on Smackdown, then we could see some new tag team feuds. I’m sure you all could come up with your own trades and even better ones. But my point is it’s becoming the same feuds over and over again. Hey what about switching Stephanie to Raw and Bischoff to Smackdown? All I’m saying is it’s time to shake things up in a big way. And I really feel it can be done without hurting Smackdown and definitely making Raw a stronger show.
And speaking of Raw, it’s Kevin Nash’s night to decide if he’s going to take Chris Jericho up on a Hair vs. Hair match. Knowing Jericho this whole thing should come off extremely funny. And I can’t wait to see how the particpants in the Elimination Chamber Match come off tomorrow night. I expect a few tag team matches made with a few of the guys. And we know Kane will continue to cause major problems. I want to mention that I’m on vacation this week with my husband and son. I will be watching Raw and Smackdown, but I will not have any columns up. Look for my return next Tuesday with my Raw thoughts.
Email lvaccarp@hotmail.com
