The Little Things 07.30.03: Shane, Y2J, Goldberg & More

Archive

Let’s do this.

Not ExZachly What We Had In Mind

Post-Vengeance, I got into a brief discussion with my good friend Bill of the Harvard education. It got me to thinkin’ as those conversations with Harvard kids typically do.

Shouldn’t this Zach Gowen kid be a much bigger deal than he is currently?

Remember when you first heard about the kid? Those of us that hadn’t seem him work on NWA:TNA wondered what the fuss was all about when WWe plucked him out of their hands. Could he really wrestle on one leg? How exactly does that look? One-legged moonsault? – Get the hell outta town! Regardless of what you had heard or seen, there was one unmistakable fact – WWe had us interested in a new talent. They had created some buzz.

Several weeks removed from his debut, the buzz has all but dissipated. We have seen just about everything this kid can do in the ring, he has wrestled both on television and in a pay-per-view, and has been involved in a long-running feud with Vince McMahon that has been given a lot of air time. Yet it doesn’t seem like we have felt the phenomena that could have taken professional wrestling back to the mainstream and produced the ratings of the late 90’s. The SmackDown ratings certainly don’t speak to a WWe renaissance, at least. Why did this can’t-miss phenomenon become just another wrestling angle? Let’s take a look, Little Things-style at what could have been done better from the Company’s standpoint to make this guy the star he should be.

1. Promotion, Promotion, Promotion

This is probably the most striking difference between the late 90’s prosperity of wrestling and the current landscape. Eric Bischoff had a lot of liberty, not to mention money, to market WCW to a wider audience. He had ambition too, and he sought to bring a celebrity appeal to his product, which in theory would bring in casual viewers and make them watch on a weekly basis. KISS, Karl Malone, Dennis Rodman, Jay Leno, Master P and others were all enlisted to get publicity and segments on late night TV hyped the main events in which they were involved. This costly, high-profile strategy differd significantly from the traditional advertising employed by WWe for Zach. Indeed, the extraordinary Zach was treated in a very ordinary manner – ads on select television stations, hype on SmackDown and not much else. In fact, most of the ads I myself was able to see didn’t feature Zach at all, but instead featured Kurt Angle and his recovery from neck surgery.

How this company advertises has been a little thing that has repeatedly rubbed this columnist the wrong way and it has happened again. To be fair, Vince in today’s economic climate probably does not have the advertising budget that Eric had under Ted Turner. But then again, you have to take risks to make a return. There was one other little thing though that may have hampered a more ambitious attempt at hyping the kid

2. The McMahon Factor

Chris Biscuiti’s most recent column raised the point that there may be a problem with McMahon viewing himself as the most effective heel in getting Zach over. While his point related to the brand extension, I argue that he is not the most effective heel in promoting Zach Gowen. Even if a more ambitious method of hype had been utilized, Zach vs. Vince would have been the wrong feud to hype to the mainstream and draw in those oh-so sought after casual viewers. Simply put, the casual viewer would find such a feud too over-the-top to buy into because they know that the real life owner of the fed would not dare harm his meal ticket. A traditional heel with some visual appeal or an opponent like Big Show, who would have made for a great David vs. Goliath story to pitch to the mainstream, could have produced far better marketing opportunities.

The conclusion we are led to, then, is one that the IWC has been trumpeting quite frequently as of late – Vince is more concerned with getting McMahons over than the kid. Or to be more exact, Vince has slighted the upside in Zach by developing a McMahon-centric wrestling feud at the expense of developing Zach Gown, mainstream superstar in the making. Seems pretty counterintuitive doesn’t it? But let’s face facts – to get the most of out this guy, Vince should be less concerned about whether the fans cheer him or boo Vince and more concerned with who is paying to see one of the most unusual talents in wrestling history. Yes, develop a decent, safe wrestling story for the kid, but for crying out loud, let people know about it because it is truly remarkable. Trying anything, in my opinion, would be preferable to playing it safe because the safe route has not produced any significant buzz.

You can say what you want about Master P and Eric Bischoff. It was a grand failure that produced a reaction in his audience that was 180 degrees away from what he had envisioned. But at least the dude tried.

Readers’ Picks: Rated Double A

Yet another great surprise winner this week. Jeff Smith picked up on a legend’s great attention to detail at the end of last week’s show:

Double A had been k.o.’d by Kane when he tried to intervene. When he came to, he rushed over to check on the fallen CEO and after calling for EMTs (always a good touch) asked one of the other officials “What did he do, chokeslam her?” The old veteran still working to make the suspension of disbelief easier-you gotta love it!

That pretty much says it all as he did not see the tombstone and had no real reason to believe that Kane had broken the tombstone out of the mothballs. He also probably didn’t know he was going to be audible on the broadcast, making it that much sweeter for this column. Not the most popular submission of the week, but the best catch by far.

Now, let’s take a look at the Little Five for the 07.29.2003 edition of RAW:

1. Good As Gold

Something I have always liked about Bill Goldberg, although I don’t believe he did it to Stevie on Monday. Before he delivers the jackhammer, on occasion, Bill will flip up his finger to indicate that his opponent is going up for a ride. See, HHH, every badass finisher tends to have some warning sign that trouble is on its way.

2. Back For The Attack

This was very interesting, although I cannot personally account for the veracity of it. However, Matthew Legare seems to have a really fascinating observation about Shane, so here it is:

Anyway, the retun of Shane McMahon reminded me of one really nifty Little Thing: Shane’s apparent Total Lack of Technique when he wrestles. Now think about this:

In theatrical combat, as in wrestling, there’s a set of fairly standardized moves used to convey a sense of danger and violence, but in a controlled, theatrical manner. The techniques are, themselves, fairly easy to learn. The *hard* part is to perform the moves without it looking totally, hopelessly artificial and boring.

In other words ‘the art is to conceal the art’. Shane McMahon, for all the time he’s been hanging around wrestling rings and (one would assume) training, *acts like a total non-wrestler in the ring*. Every hit, every move, every god-help-me-if-I-screw-this-up dive is performed with a total *apparent* lack of technique. Instead, he gives the impression of someone doing something totally insane and dangerous with 100% commitment.

To wit: His dive at Kane, knocking both men over the ropes. When he ‘took off’, he didn’t go horizontal, didn’t point his toes, spread his arms, or do any of the standardized ‘cross body block’ things. His move *looked* like someone just flinging himself at the guy
who Just Hurt His Mom. Watch tapes of him going after Big Show with a chair – he’s not swinging the chair, he’s hurling himself *and* the chair at Show, and (again) God help him if he misses because he’s going to be pizza.

It takes a lot of technique to be able to do stuff that looks dangerous and out-of-control without actually *being* dangerous and out-of-control, and I think Shane has that little thing

3. Kane And Able

A submission from one of my favorite reader handles, Oooga Chucka reminded me to include this:

Hey, I hope you include Eric Bischoff’s hiding behind that security guard
(“Okay, now I’m ready”) in your little 5, that was hilarious

Consider it done. I am quite surprised with all of the detailed work they’ve put towards making Kane a legit badass heel. I think the shackles, the towel on his head and what I believe were contacts have all given him a different feel over the past few weeks. I, for one, am looking forward to that gasoline can to become to him what the sledgehammer is to HHH. Of course, Eric taking a massive chokeslam and saying things like this only help.

4. Millionaire’s Club

Shawn Michael’s has always been an underrated promo guy in my estimation. The line where he proclaimed that he IS a millionaire because of all of the stiffs that have tried to kill his legend sets up perfectly a feud between he and the legend killer. That line was absolutely priceless.

5. Cutting Room Floor

Sorry Test fans, Y2J has easily been the most consistent performer in WWe over the past few months, so he gets the nod. My favorite things this week were the Sanctimonious SOB comment, which I think is both a good demonstration of word choice and alliteration, the part where he explained to Randy that he would have given him a Y2J shirt, but they were all sold out and the debut of Heartbroke Joke to describe Shawn Michaels. Good stuff, once again.

See you guys next week and keep the comments coming!