Note to Keith Bussy: Great ideas, but I don’t see it happening, simply because it would require more than a month of planned storyline. The WWFE just doesn’t do that anymore… they don’t even know their ppv layout until a week before.
Note to Robert Bemis: OK, three belts that count for anything.
The Week In Wrestling is going to be quite short this week, as Unforgiven sucked any and all desire I had to do a column this week. I was saving the Reader Response column for next week as I waited for more responses to filter in, but I decided to just run it this week. Couple of comments on the week that was first, though:
JR and the King did a MUCH better job announcing this week. I don’t know if someone finally said something to them or what, but JR was calling play by play like the good old days, and the King was actually analyzing the match rather than promoting other things or screaming like an overactive 13 year old on Acid.
HHH is still all over Raw, and I don’t see that letting up anytime soon. Now that he beat RVD with a Ric Flair turn, he’s definitely going to be all over Raw again, if for no other reason than a Flair explanation. I smell (I hope) a set-up for a Survivor Series HHH/Flair match where Flair gets the WCW Title one more time before drifting off into the sunset.
Van Dam and Jericho would have had a fine match with no interference. I guess HHH had to just be on another segment. I thought this match was just fine and they need more of them on Raw.
Steph on Raw didn’t surprise me in the least, as I in no way thought she’d let Bischoff having one up on her go. Bischoff’s sneak onto Smackdown was amazing because it was unexpected. Steph’s you could see coming a mile away. 1) because she can’t let anyone be 1-up on her and 2) it was a gang of women.
Matt Hardy is quickly becoming the most compelling thing on Smackdown.
Unforgiven was not worth the celluloid it cost to tape it. They decide to bump the Rey/Noble match and give Rey a match on Smackdown. I guess we needed to see the “payoff†to the HLA.
Eddy gets a face pop for pinning Edge. Go figure. Guys are already starting to hate Edge.
Jamal and Rosie won the big interpromotional tag team match, condemning Steph to a night of HLA. If anyone didn’t think that Steph was going to get out of this and come out on top, you are no longer allowed to read this article or this site for that matter.
Yes, I did steal the preceding line from Hyatte. It was good enough that it needed to be recycled.
HHH beat RVD. If anyone didn’t think that would happen see two paragraphs ago.
If I’m going to steal from him, I may as well steal from him TWICE! The Flair turn only makes sense if it’s a set up for down the line otherwise, he has no reason to help HHH win.
Why they had a dude from Y&R (That’s Young and the Restless for all you non-soap-watching types), I have no idea. Other than to make me the butt of a thousand gay jokes (because I knew who he was). All I have to say is: guys who watch soaps are a novelty, which works out well. Also, chicks learn about sex from watching soaps, while guys learn about sex from watching porn. Know what they expect, know how to score. That’s my philosophy.
So, the HLA began, and Bischoff decided that Steph wouldn’t be doin it with two hot lesbians, but instead with some really ugly lady that’s done time. About thirty secodns after the new “lesbian†came out, everyone except Bischoff knew it was Rikishi. Which is even more funny because, for this to work, Rikishi must have went up to Bischoff in drag backstage and convinced Bisch he was a chick who wanted Steph Bisch must not have noticed the goatee or anything. And, big surprise, Steph comes out on top, cops out of the HLA, and embarasses Bischoff with the Stinkface. This was stupid on so many levels.
And speaking of cop-outs the ending. What, now we can’t even have clean finishes on PPVs? A double-DQ? Gimme a break. They want to extend this feud for another month? Why?
Anyway, that’s about the extent of my thoughts on wrestling this week. The clear cut winner of when the WWE jumped the shark is given below, as sent to me by you folks. Toward the bottom you’ll see some of the responses I got.
This is a reader response column to last week’s “Jump the Shark Column.” This is when some of the folks who read this think the show started sucking. The winner, far and away, was Wrestlemania 17 when, against all odds, Austin goes heel instead of Rocky… and that’s when they stopped booking for the fans, and started booking for the McMahon’s… well, more than normal, anyway.
- Wrestlemania X7, Austin turns heel: 9
- Invasion?: 6
- Hasn’t Jumped: 3
- Vince McMahon crushes the Alliance at SS01: 2
- Three letters: HLA: 2
- Get the F Out: 2
- Wrestling become Sportz Entertainment: 2
- Mick Foley’s first run as commish ends: 1
- ECW reforms… but Steph’s in charge: 1
- Higher Power Introduction of Stephanie to WWE programming: 1
- Triple H’s mega post-quad push: 1
- Vince McMahon is the higher power: 1
- All of 1995: 1
- NWo: 1
- Mick Foley left on the airplane: 1
– Sean: to be honest–i expected them to blow the invasion i’ll have to say the nwo but not that specific moment when vinnie was talking to himself in the mirror or when the semi hit rock’s ambulance i think the leader in buildup only to fizzle like a roman candle during a
foley/funk japanese deathmatch is——nash’s return MAJOR HYPE–hell, i was looking forward to it–promo after promo-‘his hair was perfect'(aawwwooooooooooo!) TAG TO NASH STEP STEP STEP OVER BODY—-and rrrriiiiiiiiipppppppp!!!! punk couldn’t even gut it out HHH-style
the ref crosses his wrists-evidently this is the ‘shoot’ symbol and the set goes dark
– Ralph: The WWE has not only ‘Jumped the Shark’ (do you know where the phrase came from? When Fonzie on ‘Crappy Daze’ jumped a shark while on water skies while wearing a leather jacket—I’m sure ya know that, but I JUST had to remind ya), but has harpooned, filleted, fried,eaten, digested and shit that poor shark. Vinny Mac has his empire crumbling, but can’t/won’t do anything to save it. Vince has now become outdated and obsolete; the Verne Gagne of the 2000’s.
– Shane: After WCW’s initial invasion being so disappointing, bringing in ECW was one of the most exciting things they could have done. Then they announce Stephanie as owner of ECW and it was doomed. Instead of promotion vs. promotion, we had McMahon vs. McMahon…AGAIN. They have given us moments since that time, but no program has been as compelling as previous ones had been (on a consistent basis, no less).
– Joswald: I think if they dressed any wrestler in a leather jacket and sky blue shorts and made him ski jump over a shark, I may be more interested in watching..
– John K: I’d have to say the closest WWE has come to jumping the
shark was when Mick Foley’s first run as Commissioner ended. Seems like
a lot of the fun and unpredictability left with him.
– Todd: I think they should actually have live sharks that wrestlers should get to jump over for real.
– Will: The gimmicks the ‘Fed bought out in that above mentioned time period were awful to say the least, but to see a Michaels/Hart iron man match, or Hart/Hart family feud match, or a Hall/Michaels would make me forget about Duke “The Dumpster” Drosse, or the Repo man, or Isacc Yankem……. God, they were awful! But the amazing work put out by the few guys who worked their asses off to make a match mean something and have a bit of psychology made us watch no matter what! You talk about guys like Kane and, let’s say Test having an audience eat every move like it was a roast meal out of their hands for over an hour, and everyone would laugh! Shawn and Bret did it, and did it damn well! (I still say it was the best Wrestlemania match ever! Bar Bret and Austin, 97)
Right now, the fed’s lacking Star Power and originality. They need to realise it took 5 years to get Bret, Shawn and co some credibility due to them not looking like a superhero. The “HBK2k’s” need to be groomed, and they need to work on the guys like Edge, RVD, Jericho and Guerrero (i’ll skip benoit, i think he missed the boat……. butmaybe i’m wrong!) for now, and Rey, Cena and Brock for in 5 years time. And MAYBE, if they can walk the fine line they did in 98 of having 5 Star WRESTLING matches, and also throwing in some meaningfull story with a solid mid and lower card that also have background, they might get that core “rasslin” audience back, and keep the current entertainment seeking guys too.
– Peter: The gay wedding and HLA angles are an admission that the ideas
cupboard is bare.
– Allegedly Jerry Lawler: You are the fool. I just say what the writers write and what the owner of the company wants me to say, you idiot. Pardon me, but I guess you are one of those who still believe that wrestling is “real.” It’s sports/entertainment, imbecile….with little emphasis on the sport and a lot on the entertainment. So before you make an ass out of yourself again by sitting in front of your computer and venting your foolish frustrations, just realize that what you saw and heard on Raw was exactly what the owner of the company and the
writers of the show wanted. (But I guess I could say, “Screw them,” and
do what you want….NOT!) And, by the way, I hope you Don’t get fired
from your job…hell, then who’d get us our Slurpies? In response to someone telling him his announcing sucked the night of the HLA… someone’s a bit touchy, if it’s really him
– Matt: I’ve always believed that jumping the shark entailed a show getting bad and getting worse until it is cancelled/finished. This is why I think WWE (and Saturday Night Live, but that’s another matter altogether) has not jumped the shark
– Sean: everything the WWF has tried has failed from Stone Cold’s heel turn to the Invasion to the nWo to the split to the new GMs….it’s mind-boggling that they are still getting a 3.4 rating. In retrospect…it was all done when Vince ruined the end of the best pay-per-view of all time and it took until this summer for even the core wrestling fans to give up. The fringe fans left after Stone Cold turned heel. I call the GM things somewhat fun so far… I like Bischoff.
– Mike: The best way to keep me watching wrestling is to keep Triple H and the Undertaker off my f*cking TV. Wasn’t the ratings having improvements? Weren’t the crowds more lively when good wrestling was on? The gay wedding and HLA were embarassments that tried for controversy and ended up making you ashamed to say you are a wrestling fan.
– Mark: I think the WWE jumped the shark when Vince McMahon
and the WWF crushed the Alliance at the Survivor
Series. The casual fan could have tuned in the next day
and seen WCW Nitro and been like “What the F!?!”
Instead, Vince had to put himself and his product over.
Too often it seems like the WWF is nothing more than a
means for him to stroke his own ego. Not good.
– Brian: The definitive answer to when the WWF jumped the Shark is Wrestlemania 17 and the following Raw on 03/01. All they had to do was let Austin and the Rock have a great match and tear it up in the main event. Instead, they first turned Austin Heel and had him sell out to Vince McMahon. While the idea was to piss of all the fans, this pissed off the fans too much and many of them tuned out for good. The next day after Wrestlemania, Austin gave a lame explanation as to why he turned heel. Even worse, he turned into a cowardly heel.
– Dave Scherer: Symantec give you the W32.Elkern removal tools
W32.Elkern is a dangerous virus that can infect on Win98/Me/2000/XP.
For more information,please visit http://www.Symantec.com…. Hmmmm, someone has a virus
End Transmission
