Five years ago today I published an article entitled, “Whoo!” This article was about both the freak collapse that Ric Flair had while in a WCW ring (not the second, staged one) and the McMahons on WWE TV. I only bring this up because it’s sorta cool that I’m writing today’s column on the same date as the one referenced above (even though they have absolutely nothing to do with each other). Take a read!
Today I have to write about the one thing that strikes my mind about the RAW brand beyond my utter disgust for Triple H’s bastardization of the World Championship’s legacy. No, it’s not Jericho’s awkward new “whatever” gimmick and no, it’s not the classless Edge and Lita relationship.
It’s Big Vis!
Come on! You guys have to be enthralled by this guy! Here we have a Barry White wannabe who has gone from being a man on a mission to a WWE king to a black leather draped Undertaker cronie to a sex machine. Dude, there is no greater character evolution than that!
But seriously, one of the hallmarks of WWE during the Attitude era was compelling storylines that dealt with love, working class ideals, and sometimes even the macabre. Well, Viscera certainly didn’t fit nicely into any of those categories (nice pun, huh?), but WWE gave him a shot with the macabre deal by pairing him with the Undertaker and making him part of the Ministry of Darkness. Let’s face it folks, the whole Viscera gimmick sucks.
Let me digress for a moment. For those of you who are newer to WWE, you should know that Viscera (once known as Mabel of Men on a Mission) is a former WWE King of the Ring. He didn’t get too far after winning that accolade beyond a WWE Championship match with then-champion Diesel (which he lost). Part of the reason why he didn’t get too far was that he was known as a rough worker and as someone who unintentionally hurt other wrestlers in the ring.
Also, Viscera was let go from WWE during a time when Jim Ross was going wild as the Vice President of Talent Relations and pretty much firing anyone who was overweight or not in prime physical condition. Pretty dumb move on his part, but Ross’ intentions were well.
Back to the present…
I look at WWE’s RAW today and I see a morally deplorable ending to RAW (Edge & Lita) and I see the World Championship being made a mockery of by a legend-hungry Triple H. I also see a pretty repetitive anti-American gimmick with Hassan and Davari (which, by the way, they are EXCELLENT at) and I see a stale Women’s Division. However, I look at Big Vis finally being given a chance to perform and pretty much “taking the ball and running with it.” Or walking with it. Whichever you prefer!
Viscera is a success story and his crowd reaction shows it. A few months ago, when people saw Viscera come out, they knew that his opponent was going to win. These days, when Viscera walks out of the back, well, there’s a good chance that he’s not just going to win the match, but that the crowd is going to be with him throughout. Listen, no one can deny that there are better wrestlers than Viscera. No one can deny that he is not the cleanest of workers (though he has improved exponentially since the mid-1990’s). And no one can deny that he is not in the same physical condition as Randy Orton, Batista, or Chris Benoit.
But the one thing that Big Vis brings to RAW that Orton, Batista, and Benoit do not is an infectious personality. Batista can raise the roof with his crowd reactions, but his performance on the microphone has been mediocre at best. Benoit can out wrestle anyone in WWE, but his charisma is sorely lacking. And Orton might be the total package…but not yet. Viscera cannot and should not compete with these guys for the top spot on RAW. He just can’t hang with them.
But Viscera can do something that these guys can’t do: he can make a casual viewer flip to RAW on Monday night and stay on the channel until his segment is over. Viscera’s sex machine gimmick brings the perfect mix of hilarity, irregularity, nonsense, and extreme ludeness to a program that has been excelling (in my mind, at least) in all aspects of sports entertainment, except in low-brow entertainment.
I might be a weirdo because I just have to watch Big Vis torment Lillian Garcia. And I might not be “cool” to the kiddies of the internet wrestling world today because I don’t like Triple H one bit. But you know what? If I have to be classified as a weirdo because I enjoy being entertained by a sports entertainment – well I can deal with that!
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