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Marvellous Martin

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Talking about WCW again?

Hello fans, I hope you have been staying out of trouble. It is I, writer of great fake emails and 'The columnist the other columnists read'. Thanks to Mr. T and Richard Craig for the mentions, read their stuff coz they are great. Anyway, on with the crap:

I see Edge (Adam Copeland) has made an appearance in Highlander. Interesting to see him in a badly acted show with hackneyed dialogue and terrible story lines. Was I just talking about Highlander, or the WWF?

Its that time folks, time for:

I HAVE BEEN RECEIVING EMAILS

A note to anyone who wants to mail me, I like mails like this:

i just read your column about Al Snow and Steve Blackman. it was freaking fabulous and easily one of the best things i've read on [slash].

keep it up,

fab glitter

You know, its nice to get a bit of encouragement sometimes. Making me feel its worth me doing this shit. Check out Jim Gramze's latest column to see what I mean.

This weeks big topic is not terribly original, but when you look at what has happened in WCW recently, a certain amount of reassessment must be made. Seeing as the ORIGINAL FUTURE OF WCW have more or less all gone to the opposition, I present to you my vision of:

THE NEW FUTURE OF WCW.

I saw something on WCW over last couple of weeks. It reaffirmed my faith in what the future will be. It was wrestling. Goddamn down to earth wrestling with clean finishes and actual crowd reactions to the wrestling dangnammit! Vampiro and Kidman, I love you........

The WWF roster is probably the strongest it has been for quite some time due to the gaining of so much of WCW's talent. Guerrero, Benoit, Malenko and Saturn, as well as Chris Jericho and Paul Wight. Who are we seeing on WCW TV to counter this? Dale Torberg taking up Bryan Adams' role as THE DEMON. What the hell were they thinking? Did they think we wouldn't notice the Demon has lost muscle mass and more importantly height? Why Dale fucking Torberg? Sullivan and Nash should be hanged.
Anyway, despite their losses, WCW can recover (in terms of putting on a good show) because of the sheer size and depth of the roster. They have talent ranging from Lucha stars, classic beefed-up American guys, fine technical wrestlers, and a bunch of other guys who don't really fit into any category. The first thing that needs to be done is for a bunch of wrestlers to be phased out, such as your Nash and your Hogan etc. They suck and provide nothing new or positive to the proceedings. Some of these guys you could keep around, Flair can stay because he is Flair, basically. Arn Anderson is just begging to make a great heel manager for someone, I reckon Scott Hall could too because he hasn't lost his ability to entertain as badly as Nash. The Steiners have to go, they are grotesque mutant shadows of their former selves and as someone who watched them when they were one of the greatest tag teams EVER, I find it painful to watch them now. Sid can stay for now because he is a means to an end until Goldberg comes back. DDP could stick around because he does work hard in his matches, even if he is incredibly annoying on the mic. Any other old guy can get taken out back and shot, then made into glue.
The future of wrestling is going to be the actual wrestling. You just have to look at the WWF to see who the up-and-coming athletes are - The Hardy's, Edge, Christian, Chris Jericho, the 'Radicals' (that name SUCKS by the way). All these guys can put on great wrestling matches and the WWF would be foolish, nay, CRETINS not to take advantage of these guys skills. The Tag Ladder Match was match of 1999, Jericho is getting VERY over, these guys are the FUTURE. Even The Rock is capable of wrestling when he is against a decent opponent. WCW cannot be left behind again. WCW has got to go into the mid card and elevate some of their talent. The most important of these are:

BILLY KIDMAN

Kidman is as accomplished an athlete as you will find in the mid card and is set for big things. He is popular, especially with Torrie at ring side wearing small outfits. As well as this, Kidman is a great wrestler, with a finisher impressive enough to get the crowd pumped with anticipation. Kidman will have to be a face because he sucked as a heel in the Filthy Animals, Kidman is not great on the mic but that does not matter because with a greater scope on wrestling, this will not be important. The only other thing Kidman must do is stop incorporating that power bomb reversal into every match. It is okay to have signature moves to get the crowd going but that move is incredibly contrived and I'm sure he can come up with something more convincing. Keeping Kidman out of the Cruiserweight division is the best course of action, he should be pushed towards challenging for the US Title or a reinstated TV Title, that way he will at least be top-mid card which is what he deserves for now.

VAMPIRO

Vampiro is by no means a conventional wrestler, but he is the dark horse of the mid-card and has been under-appreciated during his WCW tenure. He already has a cult following (myself included) and he is more than capable in the ring. He can put on a great match when allowed the chance to get in some offence, he proved this with his programme against Kidman which will undoubtedly be the highlight of Superbrawl 2000. He can mix up his wrestling with his martial arts and he fights very stiffly, which has made him unpopular with some of his colleges but has made him some fans too. He is the 'alternative' choice and though right now I can't see him winning any titles, he is certainly good enough to get a push towards one of them, probably the US Title, or the TV Title if they bring it back (they SHOULD). I could also see Vamprio making waves in hardcore matches, seeing as his style is so stiff, I expect he could take some great bumps.

LENNY AND LODI (IDOL?)

With these guys seemingly moving back towards their old ways, they should once again become the most entertaining tag team in WCW. Lenny is great, both in and out of the ring, and Lodi is an underrated talent who desperately needs to finally shed his image as a jobber-for-all. These guys are going to be at the head of a real tag team revival in WCW, their style and character has and will continue to win over fans and these guys could see a strong push towards the tag titles.

THE MAMALUKES

I know this might be an unusual choice, but these guys have a surprisingly convincing image and are a great tag team. Their strengths lie in their size, strength and the ability to use devastating looking double-team moves. They have impressed me and their size makes them a good choice for tag champs. Why? Well their size (did you see them throw around Three Count? No you wouldn't have, it was on Thunder) make them very formidable opponents for a smaller tag team. If a team (Lenny and Lodi?) were to feud with them and win the belts, that team would seem all the more impressive for managing to take on and beat two such large individuals. Big guys are really good for getting the smaller guys over. Chris Benoit and the like have gained credibility by cancelling out the size difference. It's a simple yet effective idea. Keep the belts on the Mamalukes and make them look good, then put them in a stellar feud with a popular young team and watch WCW reap the benefits.

GOLDBERG

Like it or not, once this man is back in action and at full strength, he is one of the premier choices for world champion. Detractors complain that he has too few moves, but this is a moot point. If you look in the WWF, the main event talent have the fewest moves. Steve Austin, injuries accepted, would repeatedly punch and stamp on his opponent and get as much, if not more, crowd reaction as a Hardy Senton Bomb. The Rock and Triple H have actually taken moves out of their arsenal as they hit main event status. Mick Foley just has to stagger around like he has half a brain and throw a few punches to be over. Anyway, the amount of moves Goldberg does is not important, he is impressive and scary enough to make whoever he feuds with look good too. Give him the belt for a while but don't over expose him like last time and WCW are on to a winner until one of the younger guys develops enough to compete.

KANYON

Kanyon is another mid-carder who is terribly under-appreciated. His title of 'the innovator of offence' is not an accolade that has been thoughtlessly thrown in his direction; he is a very skilled technical wrestler. WCW must get rid of Kanyon's horrible 'Champagne' because it stinks worse than Meng's toilet. Let him be plain 'Kanyon'. With the right push, such as giving him the reinstated TV title and putting him in some decent feuds, he could be one of the most over heels in WCW. Remember the "who's better than Kanyon?" bit? It may have been a bit cheesy but it was really over with the fans, especially when he'd throw a tantrum when the crowd answered with "EVERYBODY". Kanyon is great on the mic and oozes heel charisma. Make Arn Anderson his manager and you have MY WRESTLING DREAM. Kanyon is a great prospect for the future, he combines wrestling and mic skills confidently and effectively. Misuse of this guy verges on the criminal.

STING?

I admit that Sting is in the same group as those 'old guys' I mentioned earlier, but Sting is an exception. Turning Sting heel was a mistake, Sting is one of the greatest faces in WCW history. Even when Sting was heel, the crowd still cheered him when he appeared. Sting could easily be the man to bring in the younger guys into the upper echelons of WCW, whether they were his allies or his enemies. Sting can still cut it in main event matches and he is one of those guys who could make a classic heel character look good. His matches with Ric Flair were wonderful, Ric playing the cowardly heel to Sting's unstoppable baby face power. I think Sting gave Hogan more credibility when they feuded, Hogan playing a similar cowardly heel role. Sting makes such a convincing hero, and if he can still swallow his pride to put the younger guys over, he will be of tremendous use to WCW.

SABU

You never know..........

Take these main players and add a backing cast of grade A jobbers and you have a damn good wrestling show. Wrestling, because there is no way WCW could ever compete with the WWF on a sports entertainment level. WCW's strength has always been wrestling rather than story lines or high production values, whether they are owned by a massive multi-national company or not.


That's it for this time, dear reader. Just remember to mail me and the other people who spend time, energy, and in most cases thought writing these columns for our lucky, special and valuable readers. Make our lives worth while and tell us that we are wonderful human beings and that your lives would be that little bit emptier without us. Well I didn't say you had to tell the truth did I?

Please note that due to the utter mess that I call my mail box, please send your [slash]-related mail to deadontheinside@bolt.com. This also allows me to mail people at university rather than just from home which I couldn't with my other mail server.

Valentines Day cards to the same address please ladies :)

Bye, I'm off to watch The Crow: Stairway to Heaven.

Marvellous Martin
[slash] wrestling

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