Welcome back to Week 10. First off, since I was out of town all week, I was unable to respond to the e-mail I got from last week’s column. First off, I want to thank the people who responded to a column that I thought was going to elicit more negative comments then positive. In fact, my column seemed to direct Grut over to Ringdivas.com so that he too could shine a light onto the absurdity over there. Folks, if you’re willing to shell out $500 bucks and write a script where SoCal Val gets beaten up for a half hour then you have way too much money. Seriously, that is a significant amount of money to pay to see a D-list Diva (that’s saying something these days) get pretend smacked around. Gas is at $4.00 a gallon and we’re still over a year away from being liberated from our current president so now is not the time to spend that much money on something that is probably less satisfying then porn. Maybe if it was $50 bucks and maybe if it was a better looking chick then you’d have my blessing, but $500 bucks is a f*ck-ton of money. Do you realize that most of the TNA roster doesn’t make that a week and they’re on national television? I gotta give it to Val, she’s a smart business person. She’s doing what all wrestlers do (pretend to get beat up) and she’s doing it for more money then she could ever be worth to any promotion. And she’s doing it without taking her clothing off. Yes, she has to pretend to get kicked in the groin, but the guys on Jackass do it for real and they probably need an ice pack after it. Yes, this might be the least classy thing a Diva has done (well done this month), but like wearing sweats to a strip club, this girl’s getting her money’s worth. Could be worse she could be part of Extreme Expose.
Now that I got that out of the way, I can get down to the brass tacks here. This past week was dedicated to getting Judgment Day over and that was a hell of a big card. I didn’t say good I said big. They gave the fans all of the big superstars they could handle on a non-big 5 PPV. You know what I think of the brand merging shows (if not, check my archive) and this yet again showed why.
A few Judgment Day thoughts:
The WWE rushed the Flair/Carlito feud they had been building for months and just sort of blew it off as a curtain jerker. Vince needs to realize that Flair ain’t going to be around forever and that these rushed botched attempts to use Ric to get someone over just don’t seem to work. Hell, why not give the fans one more Flair run at the belt instead of subjecting us to Khali/Cena? I’m not saying give Ric the belt, I’m just saying that it would be fun to see him chase one last time.
The ECW title match was shorter then most Mike Sharpe matches and just as satisfying. I still don’t get why the WWE wants to give us this crap over and over. I think the placement on the card and the finish shows just how much confidence Vince had in the damn match, but if they were going to just blow it off anyway, why the f*ck give it all that screen time?
Punk going over Burke was the right move and the match sounded like it was pretty damn good (still downloading the show, damn torrent is taking forever). Look, C.M. Punk needs to play a big part at ONS or else this buyrate should be about as low as December to Dismember (aside from the fact that people are salivating at a falls-count-anywhere Cena/Khali 2)
Hardys are still the champs and I still think it’s a mistake. They need to free Matt Hardy and let him go to Smackdown and blossom. If they have any confidence in the guy, they would let him take his chance in a singles push.
MVP over Benoit finally happened, and the reports this past week confirm what I’ve been saying for months-Benoit wants to use MVP to build his legacy. I, for one, am glad that Chris is going to help get someone over, and if the reports about Porter are true, then maybe he’ll be dedicated and try to make himself better. Unlike Carlito and Orton and Nitro.
Edge over Batista? Okay. I thought Edge was going to be a one-off transition champ, but Vince doesn’t want to see Batista/Henry. No one does. Keeping Edge the champ means that they could do Edge/Hardy at ECW oh wait, it’s not in Manhattan, it’s in Jacksonville. When I think of smart ECW fans, I think of Jacksonville (note: I have friends who live there, so spare me the angry e-mails).
Cena/Khali 1 was an excuse to have the sequel at ONS in a falls-count-anywhere match. The finish was lame but at least they gave the fans that paid money a finish. What I don’t get is that people were not ordering this show for Cena/Khali, so why put it on last? Why not give Edge the main event spot and let the supposed Smackdown PPV be headlined by their champ? Why not let the World Champion look strong for once? Fuck, I’m begging you.
RAW last night featured like 35 Lashley matches on one show. This is an indication that the roster is as thin as it could get, so Vince figured why not let Bobby get more screen time. The main event was Lashley versus Shane. Why the f*ck do this? Why not try something different? No one is buying a PPV because of Bobby/Shane. The WWE needs more superstars and they need them fast, so the answer is fire them?
For Your Consideration WWE’s Loyalty to Its Superstars
Every time the WWE has a series of releases, I get annoyed. I get annoyed because it’s often guys that were one good gimmick away from getting over. This column will not be all that long, but it’ll make a point. That point is that there are people who work for the WWE and work their asses off every day and still get shafted. They may not be the most popular, but they do the best they can with the gimmicks they are force-fed.
Rob Conway was a talented guy with a good look and a nice command in the ring. He was given a “hot†debut as an American turncoat and it went nowhere. He was a competent guy who could wrestle a decent match. He went out there on Heat in a lame Con Man gimmick and a cheesy theme song and tried his hardest to get whoever was in the ring with him over. He could have bounced back from his on-air firing in a number of ways, but instead he got snipped from the roster and cast aside. Rob Conway is a missed opportunity, and one that the WWE should realize they let slip away.
Ariel was not a Diva. She was a full-fledged character. She strapped on a vampire costume and went all out with it, giving her best at all times. Ariel got Kevin Thorn over. I’m going to repeat that. Ariel got the much maligned ECW Vampire over. She had the flair of Luna Vachon and thankfully not the looks of Luna, and unlike most of the useless Divas on the roster, Ariel worked her tight ass off to make sure that her man was the spotlight. The rumor is that she had words with Batista. We’re not in third grade, folks, and if Randy Orton still has a job for (allegedly) destroying a hotel room, then she should still have a job despite a few nasty comments with a 6’5 jacked up wrestler. This was yet another example of Vince killing what’s left of ECW. Paul Heyman liked Ariel, so Vince cut her. Unbelievable.
Sabu was one of those things that everyone saw coming since last year when he debuted. No one thought it could even last as long as it did. Sabu is an acquired taste, but you cannot say that he didn’t show up to work whenever he was asked to (until he decided to show up without his gear). Yes, he had the pot smoking incident, and yes you can say that he brought this on himself; but to have the dagger dangling for almost a year until it was dropped? I don’t think so. This was Vince’s spite job to ECW. Cut loose Sabu. Drop RVD. Job out Sandman and Balls and Guido. Sabu will land on his feet, but he should have at least gotten one last ONS to go out in a blaze of glory.
The cut that pissed me off to no end was Scotty 2 Hottie. Scott Taylor was the consummate professional. He had worked for this company for over a decade. He was a jobber. He was a cruiserweight. He was a tag champ. He got the lamest gimmick over. People don’t remember that Too Cool and Rikishi was probably the hottest act in wrestling for a short time. Since then, Brian Christopher blew it and Rikishi got dropped, but not Scott. Scott Taylor wrestled in the same broken down gimmick and still got a pop for his entrance and for the Worm. He worked every house show. He never gave less then 100%. He entertained the fans in matches that we all know no one paid to see but he didn’t care. This guy was as loyal a company man as you’d find. Much like Val Venis, Scott Taylor always gave a good show and never complained about his spot. He was just happy to perform. The WWE had a loyal guy that could fill any slot they asked him to and they returned the loyalty by cutting him. Helms is going to be out for a year, which leaves a pretty wide open Cruiserweight division. Now, with thin rosters, the WWE finally decides to cut Taylor? Part of me hopes that Taylor was cut because of something he did. I hope he got caught doing steroids or drugs or something. I hope so because I don’t want to think that the WWE would repay a decade of loyalty back like this. You give a guy like Scott Taylor a job for as long as he wants. He doesn’t cost much money on the f*cking payroll and he’s worth every penny he gets.
I understand that this is a business, but I really doubt that in the long run Scott Taylor was going to bankrupt the WWE. Instead, his release bankrupted their credibility.
This has been for your consideration.
