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BRASS KNUCKLES WRESTLING

WCW

Chris Benoit vs. Sting pulled a big 3.6 going up against the opening of RAW. Considering that the over-run of the main event with Ric Flair and DDP drew an anemic and mystifying 1.7, what does that tell you about what the fans want to see? If I were WCW I'd definitely have a Benoit vs. Sting rematch and maybe even a Sting vs. Benoit feud. I'd also think really hard before I started whoring Benoit out again considering how over he appears to be right now....There's a rumor floating around that Tony Schivone will actually be doing some of the booking for WCW now. Personally, I think they should make him a full time booker. He can't do any worse than the guys they already have and hopefully he'd be too busy to get on the air :) Either Mike Tenay or Scott Hudson doing commentary would be a huge step up from Tony Scivone....Again for some unfathomable reason I was watching WCW Saturday night and they were having a rematch between two new guys named Kid Romeo and something Funk (Kid Romeo was at least somewhat impressive). But the really interesting part was that these huge boos would start when Funk would knock Romeo down or cheat. So I'm thinking, "Wow, I'm surprised the crowd is this into the match with two total unknowns" then I see the crowd behind the action and they are totally bored looking. I mean they are talking to each other, looking around, etc. So I realized they were piping in the boos. That's so pathetic......WCW is trying so hard to sell Sting as a bad guy after the fact. That promo they're running is as paranoid as the X- files. "Sting changed his face paint, he joined the the Wolfpack (who were basically a face group at the time), maybe he planted the fake Sting, maybe he drove the hummer, sweet mother of god why didn't we see it all along?!?!?!?! Yah right..... The show continues to improve each and every week but so far the lure of Sports Entertainment is still proving to powerful. I changed the channel at 9 and only checked back once. I felt guilty almost watching that long Rock and Mankind segment when there was probably wrestling happening in WCW so I changed channels and...nothing. Shrug..I did look at some of the over run on Nitro and I vomited when Hulk Hogan ran in to about the same sort of face pop D- Lo or Edge would get on Raw to save Flair and Hart. Cough, cough, Goldberg or Benoit would have drawn bigger pops...One thing I did notice is that Buff Bagwell is getting monster face props. He may be an arrogant son of a gun and he may not be the greatest wrestler ever but he's very over and they may want to start pushing him like it.....

WWF

I think that HHH vs. Billy Gunn main event a little while back was the last nail in the coffin for Billy Gunn's "main event" push. They did the right thing giving him the chance to be a main eventer but he just didn't have quite enough pizzazz in or out of the ring to get over at that level. However, the New Age Outlaws were very over and putting them back together and having them win the titles was the right thing to do......Also if you notice, Vince McMahon is going into "torture" mode on HHH just like he was doing before to Stone Cold. If Vince is the Bad guy then what does that make HHH (a face)? Also, if Jeff Jarrett is the heel in his feud with Chyna what does that make her (a face) ? Don't be surprised if you see a HHH and Chyna face turn and DX return along with them....I have to wonder, is this referee strike going anywhere? Is there a point? Does it add to a storyline at some point?....The word on the streets is that the WWF is not interested in Randy Savage if WCW releases him. I have to wonder why that is? They need some more guys to fill out their roster for Smackdown and Raw and he's definitely a main eventer. The Sunday show desperately needs some more talent to work matches. Plus I think Randy Savage would fit in really well in WWF. He can play the heel, Gorgeous George would be great there, his cursing, most dangerous man in wrestling gimmick, etc would go over great there as well. Personally I'd love to see him feud with The Rock or Mick Foley......Yes that's brillant WCW, job out the Dudley Boyz to The Acoylytes. Yes, job the potential future of your tag team division to two guys who will never, ever be over as tag team.....Curtis Hughes ='s an heavy chain fastened from the floor to Chris Jericho's neck. What has he done so far except frown arounf, wrestle badly, and screw up the finishes to Jericho's matches so they can justify him being around. Get this guy away from Jericho asap.....

ECW

I really question the wisdom of jobbing Taz out this early. His loss at the PPV had a final match feel to it. The fans were booing the Hell out of him, he gives over the belt and says a few words, and the fans go nuts. All the wrestlers come out and tell him how great he was in ECW, etc. But now I hear he'll be in ECW until Jan 2000. So why job him out this early when he's gonna be around for months? Why job him out to Mike Awesome instead Sabu or RVD? Mike Awesome seems to have a lot of talent but when someone no one had ever heard of (outside of long time ECW fans) wins the heavyweight championship with no real build up it makes you kind of scratch your head.....Super Crazy is really starting to impress me. He puts on a good show everytime he steps into the ring......ECW's production values are also getting better each and every week. Sure they aren't up there with the WWF and WCW yet but they are doing a 100% better than when they started...One other thing about ECW. Friday night is about the worst possible night to debut a new show (ok, maybe Saturday is worse). Then the show is on TNN which quite frankly is about as low down the food chain you can get on cable without doing 24 hour infomercials. To top it all off they haven't advertised at all on either WWF or WCW programming. Quite frankly, if you are a wrestling fan and aren't on the internet how are you even supposed to know they exist? I mean you have to spend money to make money and if TNN isn't willing to put at least some capital into the show so they can get that crucial advertising then they won't get the ratings the show could pull....ECW has another problem. They like to do these long 10 - 15 minute matches but they only have an hour a week of TV time. An hour long show just feels very cramped for them. They need to expand out to 2 hours but they have such a thin roster right now they really don't have the personnel to do so. It's an issue they will have to address down the line....

John Hawkins
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Guest column text copyright (C) 1999 by the individual author and used with permission