Hello, I’m Flea. So far, so good for
the Wrestling Dead Pool. If you haven’t sent me your list, GO
HERE!!,
read the background and rules and PLAY! The only way to win is to play! Be the
first one on your block to have your pick come home in a box!
Good feedback for last weeks column
as I appear to have struck a nerve…however, you either get what I am talking
about or your don’t. One quick follow-up and I’ll move along…
This, as far as I can tell, will be
my standard answer when people still cry about ratings and house show
attendance…
PPV buys and house shows as
"core revenue streams" is, in my opinion, the "old way"
of thinking. Most people would MURDER for 300,000 buyrates. Yeah, it ain’t
500,000, but money is money…and most live acts would give their left nut
to draw 5,000 people without even really trying…
I’ve mentioned before that I believe the future of House Shows will be 4-5
Titan Trons showing Classic matches to an audience paying about $15-$20 a
pop. And as far as Vince / Linda are concerned, they went from a "pro
wreslting company" to "entertainment" when they got the
"F" out…and I’m not saying that’s a good thing. I’ve quit
looking at this from a personal, fan level and view it now as business…and
I like what they have and where they are going. Bottom line, as a *fan*, if
I want the wrestling I love, it will be available in the next few years at
FYE or Amazon, on DVD, for retail $25. I’ll get what I want, eventually. As
a *shareholer*, business is good, heading towards better and that’s what I
like.
– Flea, last week and from
here on out
If you disagree, that’s your
business. I think I’m and right on this and am putting my money where my mouth
is. I’ll also recap the WWE Shareholders Conference call for 411 next week, so
if you are interested, come on back.
And hey! The Ric Flair DVD comes out
next week and I’m all over it. I’ll have a review of some sorts next weekend.
Even better news – they are doing
another Foley disc, which will probably feature a TON of his WCW matches…the
Vader series alone will be worth it. Hopefully they include the two Tag Street
fights, which raised the bar for brutality and pretty much made Cactus into a
star. Or at least got him recognized. I have the ECW Cactus Jack disc, but if
they duplicate some of the promos and matches for the WWE DVD, I’m not
complaining. To me, that was Foley’s best work – Intense. And all that Socko
bullshit pales in comparison to the humor between him and Mikey Whipwreck.
Just another DVD to look forward to and one that’s gonna sell, sell, sell. Yee
haw!
Let’s get to it…
TOP STORY
The big story this week was what will
soon be known as the Great Freebird controversy, namely Michael PS Hayes
circumventing what’s supposedly good for him and going straight to Vince to
get an "angle" pushed. That angle was John Cena, who by all accounts
is in the middle of what the smart people call a "face turn",
propogatin an FU to Chris Benoit, getting all up in his area as a Stone Cold –
esque bad ass. Holy shit where to start with this
First of all, rumor has it that
everyone BUT Hayes was against this because it would confuse the audience.
Their thinking is that FACE Cena should not be subfruguixing his fellow
Survivor Series Teammate with such an act of nefarisoity – the crowd wants
to cheer him and therefore the match would have gone JUST fine the way it was
booked – Cena wins with a low blow and a steel chain to his opponent’s
(Big Show’s) skull. I know when I was growing up, that’s the way all
baybyfaces acted – by Cheating to Win. Yeah, that’s how it was done.
Which brings up the whole
"shades of gray" thing. Technically, and staying within the limits
of his "gimmick", Cena did the right thing and the crowd cheered gloriously
in support of His Cheatin Heart but COME ON! If you want to make the guy a
face, eliminate his need for cheating. The only thing Cena didn’t do is put
his feet on the ropes for the pin. That’s how the match ended in the eyes of
the viewing public – what they didn’t see is what WE know! The ending was
cropped as not to confuse people
That ending, as mentioned above, was
Cena playing the part of Lone Wolf and knocking Benoit for a loop, post match
and was wrong, wrong wrong, says everyone. Never mind continuity, as Angle and
Benoit both have no need for Cena and his Throwbacks / Rhyming, which would
give Cena the reason to Jap Smack the both of them…which I thought was made
clear – Cena was joining the team under duress and was none to happy about
it. What’s he supposed to do? Bake Benoit a cake? Just to recap – Cena is
being pimped as a FACE, Cheats to Win and then is prevented from maintaining
his Street Cred (which the last I checked means every man for himself – cept
for his "homies" – neither of which would include a White Bread
Gold Medal Winner or a Toothless Canadian) by creative editing. Creative
Editing meaning maybe the "boys in the back" with their excessive
whining about "what’s good for business" got * their * agenda
across, instead of an ulterior agenda pushed by someone who ain’t even a
writer for that show.
This is where it gets tricky – and
why I wish they would just pull the plug sometimes. If Heyman would have
thought of it, it would have been considered GOLD. But anyway, Hayes has an
idea, based on prior experience of "drawing money", for an angle
that he wants to see take place on TV. Good for him – at least he has the
balls to fight for what he wants instead of crying like a cunt to the Internet
about perceived injustices which is exactly what happened. ONE BIG
CONTROVERSY as people are pushing "their own agenda" vs. what’s
good for the company. A company, if I made remind you, is PUBLICLY TRADED,
therefore bound by rules set in place by The New York Stock Exchange and the
Security Exchange Commission. Time for Business 101
TRADING
Any buying and selling of securities
or commodities.
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE ACT OF
1934
The act which created the SEC,
outlawed manipulative and abusive practices in the issuance of securities,
required registration of stock exchanges, brokers, dealers, and listed
securities, and required disclosure of certain financial information and
insider trading.
INSIDER TRADING
Trading
by insiders;
or illegal trading by insiders who trade
based on insider information.
INSIDER
Any individual who has inside
information.
INSIDE INFORMATION
Material
information about a company which is known by the company’s board
of directors, management,
and/or employees but not by the public.
The SEC
forbids trading
based on such information.
TIP
Material
information about a company not known to the general public,
given from one investor to another.
MATERIAL INFORMATION
Information which would be likely to
affect a stock’s
price once it becomes known to the public.
Examples include a takeover,
a divestiture,
significant management
changes, and new product introductions.
Source: http://www.investorwords.com/
Got all that? That’s pretty much
entry level knowledge to anyone who trades stocks or deals with an assumed
reputable company in good faith as an investor. FLEA = Investor. I bought WWE
stock at the IPO, sold a large chunk of it as the market (not just WWE) took a
downward turn and then jumped back on when I thought the bottom hit. At that
point, I started buying again and have seen a reasonable amount of profit,
with expectations going up, not down. I have done the same with dozens of
other companies, which is the way to make money – and not short term money;
I’m no "day trader". I was just smart enough to bail on several
companies that were dropping faster than a stone (see Lucent) and when I felt
the time was right – reinvested. The only major stock I didn’t dump was
Cisco Systems, only because the penalty for a short sale, at the time, would
have been a worse move than holding the damn thing until times got better. But
that’s why the Taxman invented write-offs and it looks like I made the right
choice. My heavy hitters are Walmart and Microsoft – money in those
companies is safer than if it was in my mattress but all that is neither
here nor there. For now, let’s stick to WWE.
As a publicly traded company, any
employee that provides "inside information" ("material
information") that effects the business indicators or would cause
investors to lose faith in the stock and sell, thereby driving the price down,
is, by law and definition, in non-compliance with SEC regulations and
therefore could be sued and / or prosecuted. In essence, whoever the sources (WWE
employees) that are providing these "backstage rumors" are setting
themselves, Vince and Linda McMahon and the WWE Board of Directors up for a
possibly very serious legal ramifications. This is no longer Dave Meltzer
getting death threats for having the balls to "expose" the business
and publish accurate attendance figures at house shows, ensuring that
wrestlers get paychecks instead of excuses from crooked promoters this is
business – business that must abide by rules set by governing bodies, not
Piss-Ant Pawnshop Owners. And a very serious issue. Could this also effect the
"media" outlets that are providing said rumors? Would they be pulled
offline, assets frozen and dragged into court? Might be a question for them to
ask their lawyers and if they do not already have one, now might be a good
time. (Hint: when the legal counsel says "No way in hell", as most
"lawyers" do when asked something they don’t know – FLEA advice
says get a second opinion.). I’ll get back to wrestling now – I just briefly
wanted to bring this to more than a few people’s attention, as the shit just
may hit the fan in the next few years.
Okay Face vs. Heel. To me, Cena
will never be a face, as I hate him and his character. Not the
"person" – I have said before that I think Cena has all the tools
and enjoyed watching him develop from OWV
DREW DEUCE – WHERE ARE MY TAPES,
DAMMIT!
into probably the most well-rounded
and marketable talents of the Power Trio promoted to the Big Time. The other
two are Orton (the jury is still out due to injuries) and Brock Lesnar (who
has been jerked around since his initial push). HA! That’s my point! Well
one of them
WRESTLERS WHO HAVE NO BUSINESS
BEING BABYFACES
BROCK LESNAR
Bow Howdy have they dropped the ball
with Lesnar. He was a bonifide monster who ran roughshod through WWE, using
Heyman as a mouthpiece and taking no prisoners. Then the decision, based on
"fan opinion" was to make him a "face", which I think we
all agree that "Happy Fun Brock" is about as worthless as an empty
bottle. Okay – so the fans cheer him – fans nowadays are twisted fools who
have been trained to go apeshit when women are beat. That doesn’t mean he
would be any less over if you kept him as a badass prick who murdered everyone
who got in his way. Things might have been different if he had hit that
Shooting Star Press at Wrestlemania, who knows. Maybe it would have been
different if they hadn’t have made him a wuss going into Wrestlemania. But all
he is to me now is a big goof, no matter how many one legged punks he throws
down the stairs.
KURT ANGLE
I don’t even know where to start with
this one, so I won’t. The guy is great as a smug, arrogant asshole but for
whatever reason, he has a face turn about once a year. And no matter how ironic
"YOU SUCK!" is when chanted by the fans and embraced by Angle, it’s
100 times better when it’s pissing him off.
EDDIE GUERERRO
The absolute epitome of a heel. But
now, as mentioned above, "Cheat to Win" has become acceptable behavior
for the "good guys". That’s an outrage. Even though it is cool and not
too many more people are fun to watch when Eddie is a dick to everyone, it’s
like Flair – yes, he’s great, but play along with the f*cking game and BOO him!
Is it that hard? By cheering openly, you end up with moronic skits such as
"Eddie, you must RUN to the hospital". How tough is it just to let the
guy be a bastard? That’s why, for the most part, I am against Vince "giving
the fans what they want", like many people request – it always ends up
wrong. Just let these three guys do what they do best and properly book them as
such – everything will work out fine.
Cena is falling quickly into that
category. It shows how much times have changed when a lousy Wigger is
"cool" and "hip". These types of guys have been around for
about the past 20 years – remember Vanilla Ice? Difference now is it really
doesn’t matter if you ain’t from the street – all you need is a stupid looking
jersey and a pair of pants three sizes to big, pulled down so everyone can get a
good look at the boxers, naturally. And don’t forget the backwards hat and $200
sneakers. You know, we used to laugh at assholes like this – now it’s as common
as a cold. My best friend in life is a 300 pound Black guy – we have known each
other for about 30 years now and despite the fact he is a useless crackhead, I
still help him as much as I can. But not ONCE have I ever felt the need when I’m
around him, or around any other in black guys / girls, to "front" or
"be down wit dat". Much less walk around with my hand on my dick. I
have been known to scream BOYAAAA! but that’s only at Hy-Ape. So to me, Cena and
his Wigger act are despicable and there is no reason at all that he should be
cheered, but that’s the way times are now, I guess – it’s a good
thing to use a steel chain to win and then drop a dope rhyme. Bullshit, I say,
and I wish Cactus Jack or Terry Funk were around to do something about it…or
Tully. I remember Tully, do you? Or Arn Anderson. He would shove that chain up
Cena’s ass and the cut a promo on him, most likely telling him that "he’ll
have enough trouble sitting down so WHACK, might ass well just break your leg
with a pipe while I’m here." and to hell with each and everyone of you who
think this Wigger bullshit is "happening". Most likely you are a
Wigger yourself, attempting to find acceptance or identify with a community that
thinks you are nothing but a joke.
"Acting hard when you as pussy as
RuPaul", like the song says.
"Word Life" is Basic
Thuganomics, right? What’s Advanced Thuganomics and how are they going to top
two mismatched words that make no sense to anyone who ain’t a poseur? How about
this – GROW UP. Think about how ridiculous the "Mean Streets of
Greenwich" is and then realize that YOUR neighborhood isn’t Harlem.
So that’s why I think Cena should
remain a heel – but knowing how society is, it’s no shock that someone with a
gimmick like that would be cheered…if it makes him a big star, I’m all for
that, but I think they are going about it the wrong way making him a Babyface,
and I believe that Michael Hayes felt the same way, even though he kind of went
about it wrong in expressing his point. Fact remains that the whiny little cunts
who have no idea how to draw money themselves will continue to run to the gossip
columnists with tales of politics and Bad Bird Behavior…they are only hurting
themselves in the long run…
And remember this when Cena’s face turn
fails and your wondering why they screwed up a good thing.
HEADLINES
Looks like we can dispel a vicious
rumor!
"The way I did it was by
having sex with my girlfriend. She’s a remarkably sexual woman, and she
provides me with as much exercise as I could ever get in the gym."
– Paul Heyman, wwe.com
That was his answer when asked in an
interview how he lost so much weight. HA! See, Paul E. is no fag, regardless of
what you have heard. Wonder what other myths are wrong?
The Survivor Series is this weekend and
I will be watching. It looks like a good card and the results of these matches
should began to build the Road to Wrestlemania. Most people have made HHH
winning the belt back from Goldberg a foregone conclusion, which it may or may
not be. I hope it is, only because I’m all for Goldberg making as hasty a
retreat off of my television as soon as possible – if it takes HHH and his
"backstage antics" to do it, good. What I like is pending House Show
reports have Goldberg defending the belt – BUT THAT CAN’T BE RIGHT, WE KNOW HHH
IS GOING TO WIN!. What about those times when they advertised HHH as Champion
and you said SEE! HE’S GOING TO RETAIN THE BELT! THE HOUSE SHOW ADVERTISEMENTS
SAY SO!…Get a Clue. Also of interest on the show is (hopefully) the blow off
for Kane and Shane…although I don’t know if anyone really "won" this
one…depends how the match goes, I guess. The Vince / UT Buried Alive Match
should be fun…I like it when they roll around in the dirt like helpless little
pigs. All signs point to Vince winning this one – rumor has it UT will return to
his "Dead" gimmick, which I think is uncalled for, as no one appears
to be into suspending disbelief anymore. Best thing that could happen is for UT
to start hanging people from his "symbol" again…nothing like a
little Satan to liven things up. RAW is PORN, you know. Wait – UT is on
Smackdown. This just in! He’s going to have to move to RAW because the plan is
for him to fight Kane at WM! Flea Rules! Besides, Smackdown is Porn just doesn’t
roll of the tongue…
ROLL THE DICE
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.,
Declares Quarterly Dividend
STAMFORD, Conn., Nov 14, 2003
(BUSINESS WIRE) — World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE) announced
that at its November 14, 2003 meeting, the Company’s board of directors
declared a $0.04 dividend on all Class A and Class B common shares. The record
date for the dividend is December 31, 2003. The payment date will be January
9, 2004.
That’s good news! Even though Dave
Scherer says it’s disgusting that Vince is doing this, because he’s like Nero in
Rome…paying himself or "weasling" the money while wrestlers aren’t
getting paid. Who cares. Fire them all…Dave crows that the wrestlers are
bitching about it. So once again, the whining little cunts are bitching behind
Vince’s back. No wonder he’s looking out for Number One. And his shareholders.
…Kurt Angle has been feeling pain
in his surgically repaired neck recently. He had an MRI last week and the
results came back yesterday. He has a bone chip in his neck and a source close
to the situation told me that he will work the PPV tomorrow and is scheduled
to have surgery with Dr. Jho in Pittsburgh on Monday. The procedure is said to
be less serious and invasive than the surgery he had with Jho earlier this
year. I don’t know how much time he will be out of action after the surgery.
That’s bad news. Which is why I wish
they would let him be a heel so we can get the most out of him we can before he
has to call it quits. Hyatte did a nice break down in his column last week and
it looks like he will be right.
On the WWE’s hiring of two
consultants, it is not to evaluate the television show, wrestling and angles,
it is to evaluate the writing process and the creative department. The belief
is that Stephanie hired them basically to have an expensive report that would
vindicate her personally as being part of the problem.
This in non-news. Maybe I’ll explain
why next week…if these stories are going to be an "issue" week after
week, I might as well get some mileage out of them.
PAGE SIX
I’ll close this week with an article
from the news wires. I’ll let YOU decide what to make of it – that’s why it’s
called "free thinking". Don’t forget to send your WRESTLING DEAD POOL
lists to ryderfakin@yahoo.com! And the
Countdown is on for the IWC 100 NEW YEAR’S DAY list! Coming 1.1.04! For now,
check this out….
Wine Industry Urges Drinking and
Driving
By LAURENCE FROST, AP Business Writer
PARIS – France’s wine industry wants
drivers to know: It’s OK to have a drink for the road. Or three. The $18
billion-a-year wine industry is fighting back against a government campaign to
discourage drunken driving.
It claims the government is scaring
people away from ordering a glass when they go out and points to a 15 percent
drop in wine sales at restaurants.
"People are so afraid of the
police these days that they’re not drinking any wine at all," Pascal
Bobillier-Monnot, director of CNAOC national wine producers’ association, said
Friday.
Wine makers have always promoted
moderate drinking to comply with the country’s blood-alcohol limit of .05. But
they say the government is overreacting when it tells drivers that the safest
way to stay out of trouble is not to drink at all.
"We believe the government has a
duty of providing information which it has failed," said Pascal Rousseaux,
director of Afivin, an umbrella group for wine producers, distributors and
retailers.
Diners should know they can enjoy
"two or three glasses" with their meal and still be fit to drive,
Rousseaux said.
Since taking office last year, the
center-right government of French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has made
road safety a priority. Police have stepped up checks and toughened
punishment.
The government says road deaths fell
more than 20 percent to under 5,000 in the first ten months of 2003 from the
same period last year  still among the highest rates in Europe relative to
population size.
Amid the tightened enforcement and
government warnings, sales of wine in restaurants have also fallen by about 15
percent in just months, wine producers say.
"There’s no question about it.
The enforcement effort and the government’s rhetoric have led to a drop in
wine consumption in France," Bobillier-Monnot said.
Industry groups are planning their
own campaign to persuade motorists that abstaining isn’t necessarily the
answer. Afivin plans a $350,000 initiative to distribute alcohol breath tests
to restaurants across France starting next year.
By doing so, it hopes to convince
those motorists who have stopped drinking altogether that they don’t need to
be quite so worried.
Transport ministry spokeswoman
Emmanuelle Dormond defended the government’s stance.
"In case of doubt the easiest
way to be sure you don’t break the limit is to refrain from drinking,"
she said.
Thanks For Reading, I’m Flea
FLEA
I’m responding to your piece condemning people for "repeating the same
old B.S." and arguing they need to "show some creativity." Look,
I think anyone who believes something just because it is conventional wisdom is
pretty dumb. And they aren’t going to be very convincing, because they are going
to have weak rationales for what they say. Moreover, there are definitely a lot
of people with biases that tilt their writing. It’s obvious. I think the
standard of writing about wrestling on the internet is exceedingly low, and
certainly agree with you on that.
But that doesn’t mean, as you seem to suggest, that a lot of the conventional
wisdom about wrestling today is wrong. There are parts that are right and parts
that are wrong. There is conventional wisdom in writing about anything. Football
writers have ideas of what works in the NFL, based on what has worked. Social
sciences have traditional groups of thinking, based on what makes sense and
applies to the individual social science. It’s only natural when there is a lot
of thinking about a subject. A good writer won’t fall into the trap of just
repeating what others say. But a good writer also, and this is the key point,
won’t be different just for the sake of being different. That’s just a play to
ego. "I’m so much smarter than you because I understand the greater
picture" is the underlying current. The passe "HHH is killing
wrestling" column is less irritating to me than the "HHH is great for
the business" column that is written as an attention getter. Yes, the first
is an overstated and tired point. But it is a whole lot more accurate than the
exact opposite point.
I think the people who claim WWE is on a definite course towards oblivion are
mistaken. But that’s just an exaggerated version of a much more rational stance,
which is that WWE is in serious trouble. All major components of business have
collapsed. Buy rates, house show attendance, TV ratings have all dipped over 50
percent from the peak. Moreover, the company isn’t putting together consistently
good programming, so there is no sign there will be a turnaround. The audience
is very much disenfranchised from the product. You are absolutely right that the
growth WWF experienced in the late 90s to early 00s was unsustainable. I totally
agree with that part of your comparison. But the rebuilding you’re talking about
for the long term isn’t happening. The way to do that is slow down storylines,
focus on new stars, and stop hotshotting. They’ve done the opposite. They have
tons of gimmick matches, they go through stories as fast as ever. They haven’t
elevated nearly as much as they should, and they hotshot all the time. The one
big long term positive in my mind is the brand extension. That is the sort of
thing you’re talking about. Short term it’s going to hurt, but long term it puts
them in a better position. But that’s a big exception to most of the things
they’re doing.
Your point about Vince having the world market closed is your worst one. Vince
had nothing to do with WCW’s demise. They killed themselves. He had nothing to
do with ECW’s demise. He actually was helping them. Those developments are
incidental, and have nothing to do with the many problems with WWE programming
these days. And the point about global markets is just silly. WWF has been the
predominant worldwide wrestling company for well over a decade. That’s no new
development. ECW basically never ran internationally, and WCW ran infrequently
enough to where it didn’t make a damn bit of difference to WWF business. WWE is
in a worse position now, because they are putting on such a bad product it is
going to be harder to get people to come to international shows. Look at the
reaction in Australia over the past few years to bad shows. IF WWE puts on a
better product, the global market is wonderful. But the domestic market will
also probably be wonderful at that point too. And if the product doesn’t
improve, you’re going to kill off various foreign markets by going repeatedly.
The global market is no better shape now than it was in 1993.
"Do you know what the common thread in all this is? The WWE’s viewership,
for the most part, remained steady and WWE continued to make money. Granted,
it’s nowhere near the ‘boom’ period, but there are not too many companies that
have done much better."
This is what I was talking about earlier. In wanting to be different, to prove
your greater intelligence and sophistication, you take a stance that is much
more ridiculous than the stance you are countering. WWE viewership is steady?
Are you crazy? In 2000, with competition, Raw was averaging in the mid 6s. Just
3 years later, with no competition, it is averaging mid 3s. That is not holding
steady. Buy rates have taken a similar path down, and house shows have gone down
even further than the other two. What does "there are not too many
companies that have done much better" mean? Do you mean in wrestling?
Because if so, the whole premise you had is that they’re the only worldwide
wrestling entity. Doing better than nonexistent competition proves absolutely
nothing. If you mean in business generally, you couldn’t be more wrong. Aside
from the fact there are tons of companies that are still much more profitable
than WWE, WWE’s growth indicators are about as bad as they come.
The cash on hand they have came from the boom period. That has nothing to do
with what they’re doing now. They’ve already had their first money losing
quarter on wrestling. That’s a horrible sign for a company that was making tens
of millions of dollars in individual fiscal quarters just a couple years ago.
And there are no signs business will turn around. Wrestling doesn’t need saving
in the sense of some sort of messiah coming down from the hills. But when
business goes down in a steady collapse over a two year period and there hasn’t
been a prolonged leveling off period, to say it’s just fine is ridiculous. It’s
exactly what people said about WCW right before it bit the dust.
The problems you bring up about not pushing a Benoit or not using Heyman or HHH
over-pushing himself are in the big scheme of things, minor points. You’re right
that casual fans aren’t going to pick up on that. And it doesn’t matter. I grow
tired of people complaining about Benoit. Yes, they could use him better, but it
doesn’t matter in the bigger picture. However, casual fans stopped watching.
Ratings are down 50 percent. Something must have caused that, right? So it’s
just a matter of what that was, because your audience doesn’t cut in half when
you’re satisfying what they want.
You’re absolutely right that WWE has a lot of advantages right now. No other
company is a serious threat to McMahon. The archives could prove to be very
valuable. International markets can bail him out if the US continues to decline.
But this is irrelevant to the intelligent point you’re seeking to refute, that
WWE is putting on bad programming that is turning away viewers. WWE has tons of
advantages, but those will mean nothing if it doesn’t put on a product that
people want to see. WCW had Time Warner behind it, and they went under.
I would never write an extended piece like I’m writing to you right now,
because what I’m saying has been overstated. But unoriginal writing is better
than bad writing. Bad writing is in my mind writing that makes invalid points.
This last thing you wrote was different, but in the interest of playing devil’s
advocate, you missed the mark over and over again. How is that any better than
writing something bland and passe?
I don’t mean to come across like I’m attacking you. I have no strong opinion
of you either way. I’m not Mr. Doom and Gloom, and I agree that there are lots
of people who are irrationally negative about WWE. I think human beings in
general just like to complain. I don’t even view myself as a target of what
you’re saying, and what I’m writing isn’t meant as a “defense†of
anyone or anything. However, if you’re going to attack people for a perceived
tired conventional wisdom, you should at least pick only the points that are
wrong, rather than just a broad “things are going great†argument that is
even sillier than “chicken little.â€Â
Todd
