Five months since I wrote my last column here… and while watching WWE now versus back in October, it seems like nothing has changed. My last column was written the day after the WWE “homecoming show.” Since that show and my last column, let’s go through a quick rundown of a few things have happened.
Jim Ross gets fired, and gets re-hired (kind of, more on this later)… WWE hires Joey Styles, Vince McMahon turns heel… Linda McMahon makes her first heel turn in history… Linda makes one appearance via satellite, no one ever hears from her again… Vince turns face quickly after… Vince fires Eric Bischoff… Vince turns heel again… John Cena gets booed… John Cena loses the WWE Heavyweight title to Edge… Batista is hurt and forfeits the World Heavyweight title… Kurt Angle jumps back to Smackdown and wins the World Heavyweight title… Edge loses the title a month later back to Cena, despite bringing a fresh scenario and added interest to the fans as champion… Cena still gets booed… Stephanie McMahon gets pregnant… Christian leaves WWE, Christian Cage joins TNA… Christian Cage wins TNA Heavyweight title, Triple H gets hard for the WWE Heavyweight title once again… Sting returns to professional wrestling… Shawn Michaels kisses Vince’s ass… Marty Jennetty is slated to join WWE again… WWE breaks ties with Jannetty again… Michaels throws piss on Vince and Shane McMahon… and Chris Jericho still has not made any return since I wrote my last column, on October 4th of last year.
Wow…. Did I miss much??
Eddie Guerrero unfortunately passed away not too long ago, and I appreciated both the Raw and Smackdown tribute shows in his honor. I don’t appreciate the continued references to him by Triple H (the night after Royal Rumble when he wrestled Chavo Guerrero) and Randy Orton. What are you going to do though, it is Vince McMahon’s company, and he sure as hell will do whatever the hell he wishes… and he does.
I haven’t watched consistently through the last few months, but I have kept afloat the current storylines and happenings, at least on the Raw side (the Guerrero tribute was the first Smackdown I have watched entirely since WrestleMania 20). I don’t follow Smackdown in all honestly. I know that Undertaker is still around, Randy Orton RKO’s people, his pappy was released not too long ago, and Kurt Angle is their champion. That is it.
Through the last few months of watching Raw, if there’s one thing that did attract my attention, it has certainly been the announce team. As much as I would like to choose one extreme and just take it as far as I can go, I honestly have to say that the Raw announce team, consisting of Joey Styles, Jerry “The King” Lawler and The Coach, are just okay. They are not a bad team, but I still don’t believe the team has gelled together yet.
Ross and Lawler were stale, in my opinion. A change was needed in the announcing, however, I don’t think Ross was the one who should have left. Prior to Ross’s exit, they attempted to spice the announcing by adding Coach. It was awkward to listen to. I don’t think Coach is as bad as some other people have claimed. I think getting comfortable in any three man crew of announcers or broadcasters is always quite challenging.
I think the Coach plays a pretty good heel character. Unlike Lawler in recent years, Coach actually can get under your skin from his comments, and that is exactly what he is supposed to do. He doesn’t have the wit to produce one-liners or jokes that will make a viewer laugh in the way that Lawler has, but when you think about it, neither did Paul Heyman, when he sat next to JR.
I actually enjoyed the teaming of Ross and Heyman. Heyman is a natural behind any mic, and served well as an analyst. Heyman being hired forced Jim Ross to step up his game, which is exactly what he did. Together, they were a pretty good announce team. There seemed to be some tension among the two, and I thought it added to the broadcast. For the first time in a long time, Ross wasn’t 100% comfortable and at ease while doing his job, which I thought brought out the best in him. Nevertheless, Lawler eventually returned to WWE, and it was back to Ross and Lawler, which got stale again… fast.
Jim Ross is still at the top of his game. He should have never left. Speculation rang that Vince was bothered by Ross’s appearance and that prompted him to pull the trigger on his removal. In broadcasting, looks and the overall appearance generally play a role in one’s chances of being on television. It is typically common when referring to news casts and sports highlight shows. While “sex appeal” sells to the general audience watching the news and sports, it isn’t a “go” in wrestling, as far as who is announcing your show. Sex appeal already exists in wrestling, obviously with the likes of Torrie Wilson, Trish Stratus, Stacy Kiebler, Candice Michelle, etc. Why Vince is wasting his time and energy worrying about the appearance of his lead announcer remains beyond me.
If WWE wanted to spice up the broadcast originally, I would have tried the pair of Jim Ross and Coach. I would have moved Lawler to do interviews in the back room. That obviously was not the direction the company chose, and instead, removed Ross and hired Joey Styles. Like I said above, I think the current team with Styles, Lawler and Coach is just okay. One of the things that bother me is Lawler being a face announcer now and how it defies the past. Lawler would get hard during Chris Master’s entrance, along with Coach. Now suddenly, Lawler made a complete 180 degree turn in his opinons after one week.
Now you have two faces, Styles and Lawler, vs. one heel being Coach. Coach is the antagonist, yet, who is the protagonist between Styles and Lawler? That is the problem with the announce team. Because of the three man team, Styles is yet to really signify himself, since he is more embedded with Coach himself, or while Lawler and Coach go at it.
Six months ago, I thought Ross and Lawler were stale together. Now, I am looking forward more than ever to listening to them back together this Saturday night. Even though I think Tazz has done a good job on Smackdown (when I use to watch Smackdown prior to WrestleMania 20), I’m not too thrilled that he will be intermixed with Lawler and Ross, but I know why they have to do it. Regardless, it will be nice to hear the familiar voice, calling the action, even if it is only for one more night.
During the Eddie Guerrero tribute edition of Raw, I thought the broadcast really missed the voice of Ross. Since Ross was known by so many WWE fans, it seemed rather awkward that in only his second or third week on the job, Styles had to be the “voice” to help WWE fans cope with this loss. It is nothing against Styles, but it would have been nice if Ross was announcing that Raw show.
While I wish Styles well on Raw, I just can’t help but feel a bit slighted, knowing that the announce situation was “fixed” in the wrong way. The announce team is not better versus a year ago when it was just Ross and Lawler. Adding Styles to the team in place of Ross did not solve the problem, because Ross was never the problem to begin with. I’m not even sure Lawler individually was the problem. The problem was, Ross and Lawler together. The better move would have been to keep Ross, and replace Lawler with Coach, or even Paul Heyman.
It is in my most honest opinion that McMahon wishes he never tampered with Ross back in October. The fact that they called Ross to return for this night, and that the lead voice of Raw won’t even be calling this significant event on Saturday night is enough for me to believe they wish Ross was still calling the action on Monday nights. Perhaps, many WWE fans will agree after listening to Ross and digesting him once again on Saturday.
So far, Styles has received some criticism from fans on the Internet, but I think overall, the fans think he is doing a good job. However, if Ross brings his “A-game” on Saturday night, and does one hell of a job, the people who originally thought Styles was doing a good job, may all of a sudden, being willing to knock out Styles, for the man wearing the big black hat.
.:: Odds & Ins ::.
In a storyline sense, Ross had to be pretty stupid to agree to “come-back” and call the action for Saturday Night’s Main Event. After all, he was “fired” and kicked in the balls by Linda McMahon, right?? No matter how one loved his or her job, would they really be willing to so foolish to come back after being treated that way? And if the storylines were real, wouldn’t TNA have hired Ross by now?
In real-life, does WWE worry that it is possible that TNA might try and acquire Ross, as soon as his contract expires with WWE (which I believe is no later than the end of this year)? If I were Ross, I’d jump with TNA and go where you’d be treated a lot better.
I guess Trish Stratus is back to her old clueless self, as she must be the only person in the world, who has no idea that it probably was Mickie James who attacked Torrie.
Speaking of Torrie, I know she was suppose to be Trish’s tag-team partner on Saturday night and all, but why is Trish acting like Torrie is her friend? I mean, it was only since LAST WEEK that Torrie got ousted by Candice and Victoria. A little fast to let bygones be bygones I guess.
So Shane McMahon has a set of spare clothes to change into after being pissed on, but Vince doesn’t? Vince is the man who enjoys having his assed kissed, so maybe he also enjoys wearing piss stained clothes.
I know it would not make much sense with JBL’s character today, but wouldn’t it be a mark-out moment of sorts, if during the beer drinking contest this Saturday night, Faaroq were to make some sort of appearance?
For the better part of a year, Cena has been able to hold his own as champion against the likes of JBL, Jericho, Christian, Angle, and Edge. In each of those feuds, Cena was booked to look good, while none of those challengers (except Christian and possibly Jericho) came across any less. Now eleven months later, and Cena is made to look like a giant pussy, with no chance against Triple H. Does anyone think Cena has a prayer to survive at WrestleMania?
That will end it for this column? When will I write next? Talk to you again in August…. Just kidding. Actually, I plan on writing another column, probably within another week or two, in honor of TBL’s tenth birthday. Being a former webmaster (technically, the position was called Web Manager – to mimic the general manager thing in WWE) and an one-and-off columnist here throughout the years, I would like to share some of my fondest moments that I’ve had here at the site. Thinking back to 2002-03 bring back fond memories… Michael Blaszkowski’s “News & Spoofs,” Pardon The Ring with Adam Gorzelsky and myself, and of course, Eddie… just Eddie, lol. Gotta love Eddie. Anyways, that will hopefully be a fun column, coming up in the next few weeks. Until then, I am out…
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