Welcome fellow people of earth (and any alien life forms who get our internet) It’s the No Chance Column and I’m Joel Leonard. For those who are regular readers of the column you may notice that each week ends with an unrelated thought to the rest of the column. This is usually a topic that I want to cover, but one that never seems to merit its own special edition of No Chance. No these “Unrelated thoughts†tend to build up a lot faster than column topics and occasionally I need to run through a whole bunch of them before they get too old and I’m complaining about the unjust termination of Daniel Bryan long after he has been brought back, won titles and current holder of a MiTB briefcase. So without further adieu, I present a whole slew of “Unrelated Thoughtsâ€
The possible creative wasteland in the future.
It seems that every year, around the time that Monday Night Football starts back up, the creative aspect of the WWE product starts to fall apart. Maybe they’re taking the hit in ratings personally, or figuring that the only people left watching are the most devoted of fans who they aren’t at risk of losing, but every year, almost without fail it seems, that the time between SummerSlam and the Royal Rumble are always a struggle to get through. (Even the PPV Survivor Series seems to be a shadow of what it once was) Take last year for example. The only things I can remember about that time off the top of my head are the Nexus story going from exciting to tedious and a less than grand return for the Undertaker.
So what of this time around? We hear that the Rock will be back for Survivor Series. And Punk’s new found success as a top face seems to be going along just fine. Will it make it all the way to January? Time will tell
Can there be too much Punk?Â
Right now CM Punk can do no wrong. Every promo he cuts is impressive, entertaining, and effective. Every match he has is the best one of the night. WWE has certainly noticed and the guy who was at risk of leaving the company earlier this year showed up three times on Monday in three different segments. But how long can this magic last. How long can Punk come out three times a night before even he gets stale? My hope is forever but I suspect that even Punk can only be edgy and unexpected for so long. Hopefully WWE realizes this and won’t over push the new Punk effectively ruining the most exciting thing to happen in wrestling in recent memory.
Tag Team division.
The potential for an amazing new tag team was created on the past episode of Raw. And it wasn’t when Kofi and Evan won the belt. No, the best hope for the Tag Team division came from the duo promo from the Miz and Truth last night. Imagine, two guys, both talented on mic, both seem to be stuck in the mid-card territory with no real ability to successfully stay in the main event. Who better to revive what is right now, a more or less dead division. Their promo on Monday proved that they could work off of each other, showed that they can successfully work the crowd together, and actually have a single goal unifying them together. Yes they are two separate superstars, but now they both seem to have bought into the conspiracy theory angle of R-Truth. A single goal for them to both work toward actually give them a legitimate reason to form a tag team instead of the “form a tag team to form a tag team†mentality that the rest of the locker room seems to have.
Champions without a chanceÂ
I like Yoshi Tatsu. Why you may ask? It’s a reasonable question. Tatsu is usually only seen on Raw when wrestlers are needed to fill out the 20-man requirement in a Battle Royale and even then he is usually one of the first three to be thrown out of the ring. But I like him just the same. About a year ago, he actually had a singles match on Raw and I was impressed. Sure it was a short, time filler match but he seemed to be putting everything he had in the match, in an effort to impress. I know that there is no real chance of Tatsu ever being WWE champion or even United States Champion but I think it would be cool to at least see him on TV a bit more. I’ll bet that most people have a mid-card (or below) wrestler that the would like to see get some decent airtime. I know that Chris over at The Rager frequently championed Chris Masters and cried out against the injustice of his recent release. What other superstars would you like to see get some ring time. Stars that you never get to see on TV unless they are hi-fiving John Cena backstage while he’s on his way to his match.
Also be sure and check out the column of Rhett Davis, The O’Really Report, this week where your’s truly was a guest as we discussed the up’s and downs of SummerSlam with everything from The Main Event to the oddly high number of commercials the PPV seemed to have. It’s well worth your time.
