It only took them a week to do so but WWE finally addressed the whole Brad Maddox dirty-ref thing and I’ll say upfront that I’m a fan of the angle they decided to run with. This entire time that Maddox had some sort of spotlight, I have been wondering exactly how this would transition him into his actual in-ring career. Of course, the easy answer that WWE has always been more likely to choose would be to completely ignore it, sweep it under the rug, wait a long time and then repackage Maddox with a completely different look and name. However, that scenario is never really all that fun to talk about…
So there’s the typical WWE option (particularly in the PG era) of how they would explain it: Brad, Punk and Paul would deny deny deny that the three of them are working together in any way only for to reveal a month later that they were working together this entire time (or just flat out admit they were working together from the beginning). This tactic is an old favorite of Vince’s, there’s the surprise element when the act occurs and you come out with your heel looking more heelish (I’m reminded of Edge and Vickie using Hawkins and Ryder) but it’s played out to death.
INSTEAD, what we got was an underdog story of a guy that was willing to be a ref if it meant that he could be in the WWE (in spite of his dreams of something more). Now the delivery itself wasn’t all that great (reminded me more of the whiny moments of Sam Weir from Freaks and Geeks and the prepubescent pitch at some times) however the point being was more important and I’m generally pleased. I don’t know if this current time in WWE really counts as the “PG Era” anymore or what it should be classified as and it’s more likely this is a transitional time but it feels like WWE is a little bit more willing (not hugely, just more) to pull back the curtain be more transparent about the business. That being said, we have a 3rd guys now (behind Punk and Bryan) that has gone on WWE television and openly talked about how he had a rough road because he didn’t fit the hugely muscular mold that WWE wants in a superstar. And essentially, he nervously bumbled through this story about how being on this road has made him resent guys who did fit that mold (Ryback) and be in favor of Punk. The one hole is this situation would be when Brad called the match between Punk and Cena in which he didn’t see Punk’s foot on the rope and Cena won. However, a lot of people argued that Maddox screwed over Ryback to make amends to Punk but all that is a minor quibble of mine.
This story for Maddox sounds like an idea the writers had because of the real life stories of Punk and Bryan but both of those guys already had established characters so they had to use it on somebody that had little recognition and may have real application to that person’s experiences.
Also, this choice of story line makes it easier for Maddox to transition into ring competition as we learned that Vince will give him a contract if he can defeat Ryback on Monday. Now, I don’t believe WWE is willing to have Brad beat their new heir apparent but I’m sure another fold will be made in the story where he still ends up in the company. Or, of course, WWE says “screw it” and Brad loses, disappears and returns a year later under a new look and name.
WWE may be dipping into the Brodus Clay well one more time, even if they aren’t too big on Brodus anymore. I say this because we saw a short video of a new character that will debut soon called Fandagoo that featured bright dancing music (I’m guessing tango?) and the guy’s silhouette. Since then, we’ve pretty much all learned that the man behind this is Johnny Curtis and he has worked a few dark matches under this new character. I watched a few bits on youtube and the character literally just looks like Johnny Curtis wearing sparkly purple pants and jacket. I don’t know where they are going with this and my initial thoughts are the same as when Brodus debuted his new character, I completely hated it but rewatching it later that night, I found out that I loved Brodus (then, now I’m bored that they haven’t done anything at all with him since). I haven’t seen enough of Fandangoo to really know how I feel about this character just yet. However, Curtis was completely magic in NXT and his creepy character and if this is a heightened version of that, I’m game. But if this character is a complete opposite direction from that character, I’m willing to see where it goes because I’ve seen what he’s done in the past.
I’m not gonna over-plug myself like I did last week but I will say that go follow our podcast on twitter @CRAttire and check out the podcast later this week!
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris
The Answer: Kane, the wrestler, wants to demolish anyone in the ring, Glen Jacobs, the Libertarian wants to get rid of the refs.
