A few things I missed.
One of my main disadvantages when discussing pro-wrestling is that I am not a die-hard supporter of anyone in particular. I have a short list of wrestlers whom I find more entertaining or watchable than others but in the main I mark out for the good stuff on a show no matter who is performing. Subsequently I am rendered a little distant when situations occur like the WWE releases of the last few weeks. I hear comments like “having their dreams taken away” and I wonder how so many of you make it in the cut and thrust of modern life. There seems to be this idea that the lower card ranks are a place where competent, credible wrestlers can exist, ad infinitum, casually sneaking under the radar of expectation until they decide to retire. I appreciate that performers languish in the under-card not of their own volition but through company edict but there are only a handful of guys who can ‘make it’ at any given time and the seedlings need to be changed every now and then to produce new blooms. I also think that WWE fans underestimate their role in the recent releases. Almost every breakthrough WWE performer over the last twenty years has emerged because of fan interest at live shows. WWE writers don’t ‘create’ superstars, they listen to our reactions at events and take their cue from our vociferous responses. So even though many might descry the cuts, it is our silence and indifference to matches involving Spike, Akio, Kidman etc that has brought about the doubt that WWE has demonstrated in their potential. With the exception of Goldberg, no one has walked straight into the main event scene in WWE and the regeneration of the gene pool from which tomorrow’s champion could come is a necessary evil.
I’m also having a hard time with the whole ‘balance’ idea. “Why not spend the money wasted on the Diva Search on more wrestlers?” “Why fire people just to pay Brock’s wages?” Ah if only business was as simple as left hand/right hand. If the WWE felt that any of the released stars were a sound financial investment then Vince would have kept them on regardless of how much he’s throwing at Lesnar. As for the Diva Search, what’s that got to do with the ‘wrestling’ parts of the show? It’s a non-wrestling segment. Whichever non-worker(s) wins the damn thing will then be held accountable to the process of paying some dues and justifying their wages but for now the ladies are secondary to the competition itself and, as a novelty/talking point, it is doing some sort of job. If only it was three times shorter and twice as interesting and then I might not hate it so much.
After the recent terrorist activities in London it seems as though the editing, or lack of it, regarding an angle on Smackdown has come under criticism. I want to make two points. Firstly, the issue of censorship. The WWE and Vince McMahon have the right to create and broadcast whatever they want within the criminal laws of a civilised country. It is too easy to afford this luxury to art or music, because they are elevated forms of entertainment, and not apply it to something as ‘low’ as professional wrestling even though the basic principle is the same. The only censorship necessary is the ‘off’ button on your remote control and it is exactly this type of freedom of expression that movements like Islamic fundamentalism are trying to stymie. Several years ago, at the time when WWE were running a feud between Big Show and Boss Man where Show’s father died of cancer, a family member of mine was going through the same ordeal and I found it too close to home to watch those segments. So I avoided them. Anyone who lost a friend or a family member in the London bombings will no doubt find the Hassan gimmick and his recent storyline very raw and potentially quite upsetting but, just like Manet’s ‘Olympia’ or Ice T’s ‘Cop Killer’, if the media shies away from that which is unpalatable or distasteful then we all might as well start watching nothing but Barney the Dinosaur. Be upset, be outraged, it’s a shitty world out there folks and you’d damn sure better feel something because it could end in a second and you’d have wasted it worrying about the social implications of guys pretending to beat eachother up. I’ve noted messages of support to the ‘people of the UK’ and, as a member of that group, I say thank you and wish to remind you that we are a predominantly realistic nation and we understand the difference between real life and a scripted television show. Of course, I don’t speak for everyone.
Secondly, please remember that these terrorist cowards are using Islam as a facade for their anti-western beliefs and atrocities. Now is the time that we need to come together to demonstrate that this type of barbarism will not dissuade decent people of all faiths and ideas from peaceful resolutions. To those who died in London, New York, Madrid, Bali and elsewhere, our determination will not betray your sacrifice.
I think it’s fairly safe to say that most of the concerns many of us had about the draft lottery being drawn out over the period of a month never came to fruition. Because each pick had to be a singularly important event on each week’s show and this meant that mainly big names were traded and the impact in their new homes was felt immediately. Most fans would probably change one or two of the draft picks if perfection were sought but the bottom line is that the rosters have been shuffled and the thing to watch now is how they are used. Oddly enough, despite being the Raw brand champion, and with HHH absent, John Cena is still not the main focus on Monday nights and I think that’s a mistake. Apart from the fact that Hogan shouldn’t be required to ‘carry the company’ at his age and condition, his return to the WWE will be occasional at best (thankfully) and it’s a temporary fix to have him in the main event of Raw two weeks running. I agree that Cena’s ring skills haven’t progressed as much as some would have hoped but I’m not into this whole ‘he was better as a heel’ thing – primarily because it was the same with Flair, Rock, HBK and HHH at various times and I enjoyed their face runs as well. My continuing concern is the WWE’s attempts to force a connection between Cena and the audience without paying any regard to the fact that it was his aloof charisma that drew most people to him in the first place. Right now Cena is the reason why the crowd pops more often than anyone else on WWE tv and that alone should be reason enough to cement his weekly and monthly main event spot. If the WWE intends to rely on Cena, we’d better find out if he’s up to it. On Smackdown, the spots haven’t been decided yet and it’s allowing a decent ‘mix and match’ of mini-feuds and one-off contests. It looks like Batista against JBL will be a good place to start but I’d advise against letting this stretch out into a long-term feud. Smackdown now has the opportunity to be the feeder brand for Raw, elevating Hassan to the US title and Christian to the number one contender’s spot over the next year in preparation for a move back to a Monday night show where the old guard have moved on and the new school has set up residence. Well, maybe.
The post-draft trades amounted to very little. Regal is a loss to Raw but luckily he’ll be an equal boon to Smackdown. Rene Dupree moved sideways when he probably should have moved down, if at least to receive a character revamp, and Steven Richards has moved to Thursday’s if only to let creative screw up another of Heyman’s good ideas.
I’m going to be serious with this one because I don’t want people to take me lightly on this matter. Presumably to push copies of the dvd, Animal from the Legion of Doom will be wrestling in a tag match with Heidenreich at the Great American Bash against MNM. I can live with that. Both these guys are popular and ultimately I have a remote control so I can reduce this match to an appropriate length but I’ve just never got the whole LOD thing. Even when the team was active I found them to be unimaginative, clumsy and not nearly comparable to teams like the British Bulldogs, the Hart Foundation and the Rockers. I don’t blame them for the ventriloquist’s dummy idea or the ‘drug/alcohol/Drozdov’ storylines because they were so obviously the work of Vince McMahon but a team would have to be pretty bad to make me not look forward to seeing Sunny in a sexy outfit. Apart from their efforts in Japan and Memphis, and a handful of watchable matches in WWF, I see no reason to place them at the top of the tag team tree. And that should be it. But unfortunately I still have the bigoted and disgusting comments made by Animal and Hawk during their RF Video interview ringing in my ears. In a world where it seems we’re not as accepting as we think we are, I can let them off with laughing like butch bitches at the idea of HBK and Vince McMahon having sex with eachother to cement their business relationship. What I cannot condone is them wishing that HBK had fallen to his death, during his rope descent prior to the Wrestlemania iron man match with Bret, rather than Owen Hart in his tragic accident. I will continue to promote this idea that “we can all say what we want” but it doesn’t stop me from recognising a couple of pricks when I see them. And unlike the Legion of Doom, I aimed no desire to wish death on anyone. Not even Hawk.
Even though I run the risk of dating this column, I want to address the Matt Hardy saga briefly and you can compare it to the facts if any emerge between now and when I post this. It seems the big question now is how much of a work this has been. I don’t subscribe to the idea that the affair and subsequent firing was a storyline. My best guess would be in the days before Matt’s video was played during the Edge/Lita wedding segment on Raw was when a deal of some description was determined. That was also when Hardy’s posts went from being blatantly bitter to more cryptic. Plus he mentioned something about ’hoping his fans would stick with him regardless of where he ended up’, which now sounds like a pre-emptive plea to understand why he chose to go back to the WWE. We may never know if Matt and the WWE persist with this ‘worked-shoot’ idea. As I said in my Raw column, the main disappointment for me in all of this is the perpetuation in Vince’s mind that money will ultimately solve all of his problems. Hardy, Lesnar, Sable, Lawler and Bischoff have all proved at various times that loud mouths can be silenced with a decent wage if you’re the only show in town.
In a surprising move, I’m not going to complain about Hogan. This doesn’t mean that I suddenly think he’s relevant or a good wrestler (because he’s neither) but at least HBK is the type of performer who can absorb Hogan’s nostalgia-laden appeal and turn it into an advantage. Recent worthless jobs by Hassan and Carlito unfortunately demonstrate that many fans and the WWE writers aren’t willing to sacrifice the memories of the past in order to create new ones. I refuse to believe that fans are registering their approval of a two-move wrestler with a trick hip. Instead I find it more likely that it reminds them of a time when the world’s problems could be solved by saying your prayers and eating your vitamins. Michaels will bump for Hogan, run for Hogan and most of all sell this feud like it’s the most important thing is his career. That’s why I’m interested. I guess I did complain about Hogan though. I’ll try harder next time.
I’d like to thank those people who enquired as to my whereabouts over the last month. My new house is very nice, even if most of my belongings are still like George Michaels’ penis (crammed into brown boxes). To those people who emailed me hoping my absence was permanent, you have my deepest sympathies.
Lee
