This report will be pretty direct this week. I have a ton of things to do and not much time to do them in. So, let’s see what the news says to start.
Balancing Act
So we are through the first two shows where the new talent has appeared and done their thing. Dupree got punked out by Cena on the mic after a victory over Kidman, Shelton scored a major upset win as did Taijiri, only to be squashed like a bug afterwards. Edge saved the bug from additional squashing, the Dudleys beat the Bashams and Booker T fought well against Eddy Guerrero in the main event on SmackDown. Among other things.
HHH doing the job for Shelton seems like a good idea initially, but if you look at it more closely, it was another example of WWe blowing their load on a potential story to better mold Shelton’s character. We got a glimpse of his personality in this match (and the Little Things will certainly show this later on), but we got the upset win too soon before we could learn more. There was a story to be told in Shelton not getting any respect from HHH that needed to be dragged out and, preferably, ended at the Backlash pay-per-view. We certainly don’t need another damn rehashing of a match we just paid 50 bucks to see last month. I’m really getting tired of that because it paints the product as lacking in creativity in the fans’ mind when they recycle matches on television the next night and from ppv to ppv. A better idea would be to go ahead and tell the HBK/Benoit story as they are telling it (I am assuming this partnership will lead to an HBK heel turn) and let HHH put over Benjamin the proper way – without a fluke victory (and yes, that’s still what it is no matter how you slice it) and with a good story that let’s us see both HHH’s cocky side and the cocky upstart in Benjamin.
There are certain little things I’m seeing that indicate the creative process is going forwards at times and backwards at another. For example, Taijiri is sucking up to Bischoff. I guess he has to take a number behind Coach and Johnny Nitro? How many times can you recycle the Bischoff lackey roll before it gets old? Granted, Bischoff has a great side of coattails to ride on and has room for at least one passenger to move plots along and develop their own personality at the same time. But one is enough guys. Coach does it better than anyone anyhow.
Booker T’s character, on the other hand, is in the right spot. He can go back to being the badass he was before he met Goldust and get into some good programs against the SmackDown faces. I’m especially interested in what a Cena/Booker feud would look like. At the same time, I don’t like where Dupree is at all. He needs to work a program against someone who is both different from him (to generate entertainment) AND can actually put him over. Cena is not that guy. Cena needs guys like Booker to make him look stronger for the down the road. A perfect candidate for Dupree would have been Austin, but that didn’t happen. When was the last time Austin put anyone over, by the way?
I still don’t like what they are doing with Edge, but if they are going to put him in a traditional heel/face feud at Backlash, Kane is the best choice to put him over. They just need a better story than another Bischoff mandate.
One thing I won’t moan about is the Bradshaw push. The new Bradshaw character is rooted in truth, one Bradshaw can play naturally and comes off as irksome to most people. If he is able to add any personality or elbow grease in the ring to it, it could actually work. This is a risky investment opportunity, so we’ll see how this works next quarter. Can’t say that the little things aren’t there potentially, though. His finisher could become the Bottom Line, he could use clips of his media appearances, make fun of the audience he already added that annoying hat and suit.
Hey, I’ve seen dumber stuff work.
I guess at the end of the day, things are different but they are still the same to me. You can almost feel the two week pop mounting and getting ready to burst.
House Party
One thing that did spur my interest this week was the new Dinsmore character, Eugene. Apparently, they are going to green-light this bad idea and ruin Dinsmore’s career before it even starts. The question is, how can they give this the green light based on house show reactions, yet leave something golden like Shelton calling HHH Toucan Sam off of our televisions? Talk about a little thing that would’ve done wonders for Shelton in his fight against HHH. You have a chant waiting to happen and a chance for Shelton to coin a phrase yet, this might not make our television sets.
I can’t figure it out.
The Little Things
Let’s do this.
1. Sympathy Pains
If you ever wonder what made HBK into the star he is today, take a look at the end of his tag match last night. When Benoit goes to apply the mandatory beatdown on Nitro, HBK doesn’t just stand around gloating or pointing at Nitro while he suffers in the crossface. No, HBK makes sure to make a scene by floundering around on the mat, mocking the kid while he suffers. That stuff right there tells us so much about his personality and, simply put, not a lot of guys do little things like this. It’s what makes him stand out. It’s also funny as hell to watch him do it.
2. By That Much
Reader Duane Morin checks in:
Maybe it was a big little thing, but HHH’s “I almost had ya, you were *this* close” was one of the best things I’ve seen out of him in a long time. Was the perfect “I’m toying with you, you’re way out of your league” gesture fitting his character. Fittingly, when Benjamin did it back to him I thought “Oh crap, now the kid’s cocky and HHH’s is gonna beat the hell out of him.” Which is probably exactly what i was supposed to think.
Those exchanges and those little hand gestures were great because they told us a story and revealed the personalities of both HHH and Benjamin. We expected (and the audience reacted) to HHH’s love taps because he is a cocky jerk. When Benjamin returned the favor, we learned that he was a bit of an upstart with a cocky streak of his own. The same applies to both men telling each other how close they were to losing during the match. It’s great stuff that you don’t see enough of in matches today.
I still believe that there was more of this to be had and that if they had dragged it out to Backlash, these little gestures would’ve meant that much more. Still great stuff, though.
3. Going Up
I’ve probably mentioned Ric’s top-rope attempt/failure a number of times in this column. Last night, however, something was different. When Ric went up, Batista motioned his arm up as if to signal that The Man was going up to actually hit his move. I found this to be very funny that anyone, let alone Ric’s tag team partner, should think that this move would connect. An excellent touch from someone that really needs to show us more little things in and out of the ring.
4. Spray Painted
It was funny enough to see Coach get sprayed and run around screaming like an idiot. The really funny part was he came in the door full of enthusiasm and ready to introduce himself to the buzzsaw before he actually got sprayed.
Coach is awesome.
5. Bottom Feeding
I definitely missed Jericho’s mastery of catchphrases and, more specifically, his enthusiasm. Letting him run wild on Trish was a good start to re-establishing the cocky Jericho that we all enjoy.
Readers’ Picks – Look What I’ve Got
Joe L sticks up for Benoit and his mastery of the little things:
When he made his entrance for his match against Rhyno, he turned towards
Paul Heyman and gestured towards his championship belt. We didn’t get to see Paul’s reaction, but that was a brilliant touch in light of the reasons WHY Benoit jumped to Raw to chase that belt instead of the WWE Championship. He was rubbing it in Heyman’s face that he could succeed and be the best of a brand in spite of Heyman’s promise to “make his life a living hell.” It was a split-second blowoff to an angle that’s been dormant for two months, and I enjoyed it.
Reader David D also picked up on that. My favorite mention, however, came from ST3 who noted the following during the lottery:
My favorite Little Thing from the draft was seeing Ultimo Dragon, in full costume, wearing a hat and T-shirt. It just struck me as hilarious to see the hat perched on top of the little spikes on top of his mask.
I can’t believe I didn’t mention that one last week.
And that’s it for me this week, sorry it’s a bit thin. Keep the comments coming.
Haley
