Make Movement: Pivoting Toward WrestleMania

Archive

Back on February 13th, 2006, I attended a taping of WWE RAW in Greensboro, NC and brought a “Mickie Is My MVP” sign to show my support, and now Mickie James has proven she was the MVP of last night’s RAW. Not only has she made this psychotic character her own, she did one fantastic heel promo without missing a beat, including kidnapping Ashley and had the crowd in the palm of her hands. For those of us who were disappointed the turn wasn’t as well done as it could have been on Saturday Night’s Main Event, we got a great, hot part of the throttle-forward storyline when Mickie and Trish engage in some fist pounding outside the ring, Mickie ends up with a bloody nose, and delivers her trademarked swinging DDT to a nice crowd reaction, screaming at Trish, “do you love me now Trish Stratus!?” and gave her a four-second kiss as blood dripped from her nose onto Trish. Mickie then gets up, smiles and blows her another kiss for some incredible heel heat. That’s how you get a crowd at the edge of their seat and get them to react. I’m very excited to see how Mickie and Trish deliver for WrestleMania and I hope they will not make it the opening match of the night because they’ve done a fantastic job giving them the proper storyline attention for once (not since Lita versus Trish Stratus has their been so much build up for the Women’s Championship) and I think it deserves to be higher up on the card.

Meanwhile, the highest man up period, Vince McMahon once again makes the McMahon Family the other showcase of RAW. There is a fine line between exposing yourself for storylines and overexposing to the point where the viewer can’t wait until the next segment starts. The work with Shane McMahon and Shawn Michaels has been on point but how many times can Shawn Michaels get out-matched? There comes a point where the audience is just tired with that concept. I felt the use of John Cena rebelling against Vince McMahon as a “finally, HBK has friends!” but at the same time, before the Shawn Michaels storyline came to be, Vince treated and protected Cena like “his boy” when it came to John Cena and Eric Bischoff’s friction. I think it would be much more shocking if Cena turns heel with McMahon after Triple H becomes WWE Champion. As the fans no longer believe in him, Vince could have been the only one left to believe in Cena, and they could have explained how Cena was the Corporate face, the Corporate pick by the WWE and really get on the audience for rejecting their champion.

Since this looks like it can’t happen thanks to Cena helping Michaels at the end of RAW, Cena is actually protected by not being put in a position where the heel is going to more cheers than himself as the baby face. There’s no doubt about it that Vince McMahon can generate heel heat naturally without asking for it but they have to be careful to not make every hybrid of “you’re either with me or against me” generate into a Austin versus McMahon hybrid because these type of storylines should not be overdone or become the wrestling storyline exercise 101 for the creative writing staff. Since this storyline has gotten a lot of attention, reaction, and heat, I expect a big pay off at WrestleMania. Can Vince McMahon out-perform his son, Shane McMahon’s suplex from inside the ring onto the outside and through the table?

Back to wrestling that doesn’t involve a heel McMahon: the finish for Rob Van Dam versus Ric Flair versus Shelton Benjamin was well done. Triple Threat matches can be sometimes hard to execute, however, the use of Flair putting RVD in the Figure Four made him look strong and Shelton covering him during that, worked well because the audience was lead to believe that Flair might indeed win the Intercontinental Championship but instead got a convincing sneaky but legal victory from Benjamin. I’m excited with this dynamic coming into the Money in the Bank Ladder Match.

Thankfully it’s going to be Mick Foley’s Cactus Jack in the Hardcore Match against Edge for WrestleMania. He was on point with his promo, that should have been the Mick Foley we had gotten all along but for whatever the reason, we got the watered down version of Mick up until Saturday and Monday. I hope it’s not too late but fans who remember and respect Foley’s career, not letting this latest run overshadow his latest attempts, will support him no matter what but the fact is Edge has been strong and consistent within his character from the very beginning of this storyline. The last RAW should be one last time before “go time” that should sell fans to buy WrestleMania for Edge and Cactus Jack, because if it were to be sold on Edge and Cactus alone, I think it wouldn’t be a easy sell.

We all know how pointless Playboy Pillow Fight matches are in professional wrestling (and how usually they are a total flop, T&A or not), so unless they are topless (being labeled a Playboy Pillow Fight, it wouldn’t be a horrible decision) does it really matter? It’s definitely going to be the “break” in-between two far more important feuds then this one. The only hope is Stacy Keibler does a run-in to collect what will probably be her last WrestleMania check since professional wrestling is her stepping stone since Dancing With The Stars and attack Candice Michelle for taking a shot at her recently on RAW.

The tag team split match with Big Show versus Chris Masters and Carlito versus Kane, in a way felt more like filler than a reason to be excited about their match up at WrestleMania. Carlito has a Rock like appeal and has been consistently popular with the audience by selling merchandise and having little kids copy his look, but Masters doesn’t quite catch on like Caribbean Cool. The WWE can play this correctly by letting Carlito and Masters get a sneaky win, then in a few months either lose it back to Show and Kane if they are able to stay together or to someone else entirely, though of course, WWE lacks tag teams so that means WWE would have to actually have another tag team on RAW for longer than three weeks giving the audience a chance to actually care about them as a unit. Since WWE is inducting The Blackjacks in the Hall of Fame, maybe they can remind Vince how once upon a time the Tag Team Titles meant something in professional wrestling and to the wrestling audience.

Thanks to all those who tune into the Big E Sports show at rocklandworldradio.com every Tuesday between 7-8 EST to hear hosts Erik Fenton, Dave Lagreca and I to discuss professional wrestling and whatever else is going on! This week we discussed the NCAAs, WrestleMania, RAW, the Jake Roberts DVD, the Hall of Fame process and Alexis Stewart. You just never know what we’re going to talk about next! Always remember, for things to change, you have to make movement. Thanks for reading and for all the feedback, feel free to contact me anytime at Bam@4sternstaging.com.