It’s good to be back. Thank you to my new Inside Pulse family for the opportunity to write about the sport I love. Just a little background:I’m turning 24 this year with double degrees in English – Emphasis in Professional Writing and Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and have written since I was 15 years old for great wrestling sites such as SCOOPS wrestling who gave me my start, Pro Wrestling Daily and my own site endeavor with Greg Ragland on Marking Out and Squared Circle Magazine. I’m currently working on a book project on the NWA, so stay tuned.
Now to the wrestling business of today. We all know about Triple H’s obvious influence behind the scenes in the WWE but it has now unexplainably crossed over onto TV with him being able to control who is in the match that he’s not even involved in. He’s not even WWE World Champion, but he’s so bitter and bullying that just because he says so, matches can adapt to his wishes? Eric Bischoff doesn’t care? The announcers didn’t even address this on the air but it’s hard to suspend disbelief in this case. He hit his “dreaded” Pedigree that Batista “fears” so much as Batista laid there and sold with his eyes open. Triple H stays in the ring and taunts the crowd by multiple poses and it’s obvious that Batista is far more ripped than Triple H has been in years. I feel this segment could have been milked further; Triple H should have gotten on the mic and rubbed it back in that he would be getting his belt back at Backlash and that Batista would be laying flat on his back for the 123.
The first segment of RAW was well done with Batista and Triple H both dressing the part as champion and Batista being clearly more comfortable on the mic. Batista is at hi best when he is himself and not having to recite lines that a writer came up with. Bringing JR out like a sad, beat up man who we would soon be reminded beat Triple H last week was I think an interesting juxtapose. Batista had to help boost JR’s ego by helping the fans chant JR and remind him he’s the best announcer with wrestling “skills.” Triple H does what he does best, reacting like the angry heel at losing to a WWE announcer. Batista did a good job rebuilding his creditability on the mic, “let me remind you who I am!” I think soon, with more practice, time and getting comfortable with his role on camera on being more than a Silent Assassin for Revolution, he will get there. This entire segment reminded me of when Shelton Benjamin had defeated Triple H months ago on RAW as his character was being brought up the ranks on WWE TV.
Speaking of Shelton, who is from a class of breakout potentials, is stuck in a angle where you are cheering between two people that are initially supposed to be liked by the audience – where someone should be the heel, and it becomes a matter of personal choice to the audience. The writers have done a poor job of building up this storyline properly, or helping making the line less blurred on who is the face and who is the heel. Chris Jericho’s matches are far too predictable and I can’t help but watch him look burnt out on his job as much as I look burnt out on watching his same move set each week. I thought the Highlight Reel is a good extension for his character but now it’s become so background doing nothing for no one, that he’s back to just being Chris Jericho, the man without a belt constantly. I’m excited and hopeful to what Shelton and Jericho can bring out in each other and in the best case scenario, be able elevate each other. Shelton has all the wrestling skills in the world to be in the top class of the WWE but something has to be done about his mic skills. Jericho naturally has a voice that belongs on the stick, but Shelton just sounds very every day in his delivery. I’m deeply worried that the prestige of the Intercontinental Championship is in deep jeopardy because the habit of the wrestling writers of today is to not build up a division, but build up the people only in the current hunt for gold. This is not only the case with the IC belt but with the every championship belt today in the WWE. This is a topic I want to deeply address in complete detail in another In Perspective.
Without a doubt, the MVP of the night was Captain Charisma himself. Christian was able to become main event and not just someone’s mid-level jobber, by putting Ric Flair in his place in Christian’s dressing room and taking a shot at Triple H suggesting he go to Smackdown and face Michael Cole. Christian has always been a great performer and I think has found his niche in the state of his character today – the hood, the music, the peeps. There was no doubt he was going to put Batista over, but knowing how entertaining and how confident he was before the match only served his character extremely well and losing to Batista doesn’t seem to provide a devastating blow to the longevity of his character. I can’t help but remember watching Christian tonight that this whole confident character building on the mic undertaking was thanks to his work with the Rock.
Viscera and Trish Stratus had some nicely peppered through segments of their date that provided some light moments throughout the show to have the viewer looking forward to each segment throughout the night. The condoms, eating one page of food comment, then Trish regaining control reminding Viscera who is boss and the job he must execute Sunday night by defeating Kane to experience some Stratusfaction was well done. This relationship is a pleasant surprise right now in how it’s able to be pulled off believably, despite how random as it seemed last week at MSG. There is no doubt that Trish has no romantic feelings for the Big Man, while Lita is now referring to Kane as her husband in such a casual and respectable way – it’s hard to imagine that this guy basically raped her character off TV and forced her into marriage! Yet another gem by the WWE Creative Department in consistency.
I’m looking forward to reading William Regal’s book which apparently has been released earlier in the United Kingdom – this is a guy who has defeated addiction odds and received a second chance. I’ve always enjoyed his tough man ring work and I hope this leads to an even better push for him.
Get Chris Masters off my TV. Someone’s a big Lex Luger mark backstage to keep forcing this down my throat. My solution to this storyline is to bring Kurt Angle in to punk him out and put him in his place for stealing his Invitation idea and if anyone could get out of that move and throw him into the ankle lock it would be Kurt. Sure it would have people popping as a face, but it would really be such a bad thing? I still want to see Angle vs. Michaels again but Angle could regain his heat by punking out HBK later.
Finally, I want to send out a shout out to my close friend Chris Candido. Get well soon, I know you will be able to bounce back from this temporary set back. And that’s putting it in perspective. Thank you for reading my debut here, my email address is bambi.weavil@gmail.com; I enjoy and would appreciate your feedback.
