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/wrestling /guests /Chonofan |
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/wrestling /guests /Chonofan |
| Guest Columns | Chonofan |
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STOP! HAMMERTIME. Hello, folks. Let's rant, shall we? I know it's going to make me look bad by starting off my first column like this, but I am a big WCW fan. I always have been. That doesn't mean I don't like the WWF. The sports entertainment product has its good points, but there's just something about WCW, a certain..je ne sais quois.. Needless to say, for the past year or so, it has not been a good time to be a WCW mark. When WCW has been taking a thrashing in the ratings, I've always been hoping they could do something right to get back on top. Everyone and his brother in the Internet had an idea on how to improve WCW. Bitchoff sucks, let me run WCW, I can fix everything. How could they be so dumb? The solution is so obvious. Fix the storylines, nothing flows on Nitro. Why won't they listen to us?! Remember all this, kiddies, it'll be important later. Now, up until about a month ago, it looked like that may never happen. When I got the news that Vince Russo, head writer for the WWF and man in charge of Titan's magazine, was jumping ship, things started looking up again. I'm not going to be able to tell you anything here that you don't already know about the situation. The whole thing has been analyzed and ANALyzed to death. A majority of the smarts said he would be WCW's savior. Some of those said we would witness change overnight while others said it might be a little while. There were a few other smarts that said Russo had a snowball's chance in hell of improving the absolutely horrid WCW product. Then there are the marks who are just completely in the dark. They make up 80-90% of all wrestling fans. Remember this too, boys and girls. Then there was the first show. It was obvious that Russo and Ferrerre..ah, forget it - it was obvious that Russo and F. had their hands all up in WCW's area. Every other second, one of the wrestlers made mention of the "Powers That Be" (or, if you're Tony, the "Powers To Be"). I'm sure that maybe even a few of those marks knew what was going on backstage. Never before had writers or bookers been so important in front of the cameras. Kayfabe was being broken all over the place, and apparently, the Internet wrestling community was none to pleased. What an atrocity! Russo is killing wrestling! How dare he talk about the writers on TV! This is another "Secrets of Wrestling!" Russo and F. are the antichrist! Well, maybe it never went that far, but everyone was mad. And in addition to all that, the changes made in the product weren't good enough for quite a few people. In the eyes of many, the bookers became the center of WCW, and that just wasn't acceptable. I believe Russo has even come to be called Copernicus. WCW's "New Era" just became one big toilet for the smarts' collective pissing. Now, let's back up. What did everyone complain about during the reign of Bischoff? WCW doesn't listen to the fans. Why are they letting idiots run the company? Don't they ever learn? Well, now what has WCW done? They've actually started listening to the fans. Bitchoff sucks, huh? Well then, what should we do about that? I know, let's ditch him! And it's done. Benoit's being under-used, huh? So what should we do? Bingo, presto, give him the US strap. Storylines are dead? Nitro isn't half as good as RAW? Damn, this is difficult. I know, how about we hire the man that turned the WWF around and put the Attitude(™)into RAW? Good idea!! So World Championship Wrestling actually started listening to the smarts. Wow, this is going to be great. I hope Vince Russo can do something with that roster. He's bringing F. with him - this'll be better than RAW! Vince can do it! Maybe Russo will do this. Maybe Russo will do that. It's all about Russo. Russo, Russo, Russo! So, this time around, everyone was talking about Vince Russo. So what does WCW do? They make sure everyone knows Vince Russo is in charge. Last time they did this, they got a lot of critical acclaim. This time? No chance. Everything seems to be wrong. They're talking about Russo too much. This shouldn't be the Vince Russo show, it should be Nitro. They're pandering to the smarts. Let's back it up to the marks. What about them? They don't get it (no pun intended). The Powers That Be are being put over the talent, right? Wrong. What on earth are they doing wrong? Every damn wrestling fan on the Internet was talking about Vince Russo when he made the jump. You would think The Rock packed up his catchphrases and flew south to Atlanta with all the excitement that was going around. So if you're writing your first show, and you want to write about something that will keep a lot of people interested, and you know what everyone is talking about, is it really that hard to decide what you're going to do? It's a no-brainer, folks. You want Russo and F., we'll give you Russo and F. You've heard the expression, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Well, in this case it's, "If it works well, do it again." And so far, the ratings seem to be showing some sort of improvement. It's really too soon to say for sure, but if things keep going the way they are now, WCW will be competitive again by year's end. But now that so many people seem to hate the new kayfabe-breaking-Bagwell-ain't-jobbing-Russo-centric WCW, what's going to happen? Do you think they'll keep shoving it down your throats until you're forced to watch nothing but RAW and syndicated WWF programming? That's doubtful. They listened to the fans before, and I'm willing to bet they'll do it again. So things will change again. Russo and F. will take a back seat, some of the less kayfabe-friendly angles will disappear, and there will be less playing up to the smarts. Is this a good thing. Not necessarily, but if that's what we ask for, that's what we're going to get. Russo took RAW to where it is today by listening to what people want. He always has his feelers out there. I guess when people say it's not just the ratings that matter any more, they're not kidding. All the email and cynical recaps (hi, CRZ!) make a difference too. So watch what you say. You don't want Russo on Nitro? THEN STOP MAKING SUCH A BIG F'N DEAL ABOUT HIS JUMP! You want more wrestling on Nitro? THEN KICK AND BITCH AND MOAN UNTIL WE GET THE WRESTLING BACK ON NITRO! You want the Nitro Grrls to get nekked and fight in a pit of Jello? THEN TELL RUSSO TO..well, maybe that won't work. But I can dream, can't I? Disagree with what I say? Well isn't that cute..BUT IT'S WRONG!! I mean..email me, maybe you can change my mind. Later, ChonoFan freelance Mail the Author |
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