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/wrestling /guests /Doomsday |
| Guest Columns | Dan Doomsday |
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THE DEVICE Well, I booked Nitro, and then WCW booked Nitro, and I don't think there's much of a doubt as to who did a better job. Is there? No, I didn't think so. Hello everyone, this is the most electrifying column in sports entertainment today, THE DEVICE. I am the writer of this weekly masterpiece, the World's Most Dangerous Columnist, Dan Doomsday. And judging from the feedback I've gotten, Doomsday Nitro beats Monday Nitro hands down. But I guess I shouldn't gloat too much over that victory, since a retarded monkey could put together a better show than the WCW booking staff. Oh well, I can always gloat over this... DOOMSDAY 5, SHANNON 0! That said, there are those who think that the only "end of an era" we've seen in these past couple of weeks has been Chris Hyatte ending his little war against Sean Shannon (By the way, should I end mine? E-mail me). Well, I beg to differ, and I do so in this week's Device, entitled... Vince McMahon, We Hardly Know Ye It's kind of funny. As soon as the main event for Fully Loaded was announced, every single Internet "smart" picked the Undertaker to defeat Stone Cold Steve Austin in the main event. Oh, except for me. I knew that Stone Cold would be the champion at Summerslam, as the thought of Jesse Ventura raising Stone Cold's hand, with their bald heads gleaming side by side is just too great for the WWF to pass up. Anyway, the Internet was proved wrong, as Austin made the Phenom bleed. The next day, it seemed that everyone was guessing as to how many weeks it would take for McMahon to find his way back on camera in the WWF. Once again, I am the exception. Two weeks of RAW have come and gone, and still no Vince. Two more weeks will go by, and Vince will still remain unseen. Then another two, and another two. The point is this: I may be going out on a limb here, but I truly believe that we have seen the last of Mr. McMahon on WWF TV. Oh, we may see Vince McMahon in his official capacity at a press conference or two. We probably will. But the evil boss character "Mr. McMahon" is, in my ever-so-humble opinion, gone forever. The fact of the matter is that Vince McMahon is the smartest man that the sports entertainment business has ever seen (besides me, of course). He didn't get to where he is by being anything less. As such, Vince learns from mistakes. He learns from his own mistakes, and, in this case, Vince McMahon learns from the mistakes of others. More specifically, Vince McMahon learns from the mistakes of Eric Bischoff. Most wrestling fans agree that in the battle for supremacy between the WWF and WCW, the tide turned around the time of Mike Tyson's involvement with the WWF. This is true. However, most fans attribute the WWF's ratings boom to Mr. Tyson's appearance at Wrestlemania 14. This is not entirely true. What am I talking about? It's very simple. We all know that there was a time when WCW won the Monday Night ratings, week in and week out, for 86 consecutive weeks (or something like that). During that time, WCW's big storyline was the struggle between WCW and the NWO. Every week, fans were tuning in to see Lex Luger vs. the NWO, Sting vs. the NWO, Diamond Dallas Page vs. the NWO, heck, even Roddy Piper vs. the NWO was bringing the ratings in. Well, we all know what happened after that. The WWF, refreshed by Mike Tyson's involvement at WM14, and strengthened by a hot new angle pitting Steve Austin against Vince McMahon, retook control of the ratings war. But that's not the whole story. As the WWF got stronger, the battle between WCW and the NWO was losing its appeal. It had been running strong for more than two years, but time was ticking on the angle that helped make wrestling hot again. Unfortunately for WCW, Eric Bischoff, incompetent shmoe that he is, didn't realize this. He and his booking staff let the NWO truck on. He had no choice. Nitro had become so dependent upon the NWO that ending the angle would have sent WCW's ratings straight into the toilet. In an attempt to keep things fresh, WCW's booking staff came up with the NWO split, augmenting the super-cool NWO Wolfpac with two of WCW's top faces, Sting and Lex Luger. Heck, it got me to buy a Wolfpac shirt. But the damage had been done. WCW fell behind in the ratings, and one last attempt at reviving the angle failed, thanks to injuries to Hogan, Hall, Scott Steiner, and Lex Luger. Since then, WCW has scrambled to come up with something, but to absolutely no avail. With Terry Taylor, the inventor of the NWO, working up north, WCW has been...well, you've seen it, haven't you? Anyway, Vince watched the whole thing unfold, and there was a lesson to be learned: no matter how hot an angle is, there comes a time when it has to end, and if you don't end it, it will get old and stale, and you won't know where to go next. Austin vs. McMahon was a great feud. It's carried the company for a long time. However, it had to end. Vince knew it, so he let it end. Maybe there was another motive, as by now, the WWF's initial public
offering is common knowledge. Maybe "Evil Vince" had to die to support the
WWF's IPO. IN any case, I'm sure that Vince knew that he couldn't milk this
angle forever. Maybe Fully Loaded wasn't the best place to end it, but that
could have something to do with the IPO. In any case, the WWF seems ready to
move into the next phase. We have a nicely developing feud between Austin
and Triple H, with the Undertaker and the Big Show waiting in the wings. We
have the new and improved Hardcore Holly, and his latest foes, the Acolytes.
Test is amazing, and his feud with Shane McMahon kicks ass. We have Kane
doing some of his best ring work ever. We have D-Lo getting a major push
(and Wallace is missing it). Steve Blackman is starting to get over. Does
the WWF need Austin vs.Vince? No.
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