Let’s do this.
The Influence Spreads
Mr. Josh Nason, the best darn indy scene reporter on the net, can count himself among the converted. From his weekly tablesetter, the Nason Report, that comes along with other great features like Flea-mail and Ashish’s Raw Thoughts when you sign up for My 411:
In a slow news week, NWA/TNA (the weekly Wednesday ppv for those of you that don’t know) deserves a Hooooo! for their homage to America this week by having Hacksaw Jim Duggan lead the crowd in a good ol’ chant of USA. The fed also handed out mini-flags to people that came in. It’s not much, but it’s pretty cool to see a major wrestling company try to please their fans in such a subtle way. Sometimes it’s not the big things, but the little ones that make a difference in how people view your product.
And from a marketing standpoint, this is very true. Whether you agree with the war or not, TNA understands who its fanbase is and what they believe. To make a simple gesture like that and have Hacksaw show up and do what he does best will keep people coming back to the fairgrounds both during and after the war.
And yes I realize that I went outside my RAW parameter again for the second straight week. But hey, I’m a company man. Meh.
Readers’ Picks: Apology Accepted
I was really impressed with this catch as, an admitted mark for Jericho, I usually catch everything he does. However, The Hollywood Cowboy, Derek Houck, caught something awesome that slipped my radar:
Secondly, Jericho’s heel character plays up to the crowd and his oppenents even while taking an ass kicking, as it was the a wonderful touch to cry out “I’M SORRY” as Test stalked him around the ring.
That is classic spontaneous humor right there. I didn’t even see it and I’m laughing over the thought of it. Jericho could do the slippery heel character in his sleep and it’s nice that this side of him still manages to surface even while he is concentrating on adding a more serious dimension to his persona.
The road to Wrestlemania is almost at an end, the ratings are falling and people are complaining. If you haven’t read Ken Anderson’s columnyet, I suggest you do so. It nicely sums up how I feel on that issue. As for now, let’s see how he and the rest of the WWe superstars fared in the 3.24.2003 edition of RAW:
1. America the Beautiful
Continuing from the theme set by Nason in the top of the column, it is a nice little thing for WWe to air Lilian’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. It also helps that she is an excellent singer.
2. Opportunity Arises
Lance Storm’s opportunistic attempt at pinning Test after Austin’s stunner was classic heel work. Austin attempting a 3 count unbeknownst to Lance was great dramatic irony. Austin stunnering him after he figured it out was a terrific payoff.
3. It Never Gets Old
Is any RAW where we get the strut, woooo!, face first flop, the false handshake to start the match and the always-appreciated thumb to the eye from Ric a bad RAW? That I hadn’t seen these things in awhile really made me appreciate them that much more. I don’t even care if he can’t get over the turnbuckle for the classic Flair flip, you takes what you can gets.
4. Blast From the Past
I really think creative has exhausted its resources in building the HBK/Jericho feud. Beatdowns, story twists, verbal confrontations and on Monday, an excellent face-to-face promo complete with video footage to bring Jericho’s motivation full circle. The time they put in to go back and find similar moves definitely paid off. It’s all up to HBK to do the right thing and put Jericho over.
5. The People’s Section
The amount of heat the Rock was able to generate from the Arco crowd was amazing. The Lakers commentary was an easy path but the Rock showed that he has a mastery of using the Little Things to his advantage by creating a Hollywood-type connection with Shaquille O’Neal to really frustrate the Kings fans. Comments about the “funny cigarettes†obviously goes over well with this column if you can remember my tirade on RAW ads, as did the bootleg t-shirts joke. There was also something about the Rock needing a music stand with notes to do his songs that struck me as very funny. I might just stop doing the column and watching RAW when he leaves – he is that far above everyone else.
Keep the comments coming and I’ll see you next week.
