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THE CRITIC'S BALCONY
The Other Shoe Drops

SO...it seems the other shoe has dropped for WCW. First it was announced that Bret Hart ignored his doctors' advice and worked with a concussion for nearly a month - when it was determined he was too injured to even fly to Souled Out, he was pulled from the card. Jeff Jarrett was the next to fall, also from a concussion, meaning that the three potentially show-stealing matches with Chris Benoit had to be rebooked. Now, it seems, the ringmaster himself is in serious hot water.

Mr. Logic (known to most wrestling fans as Vince Russo) has been essentially relieved of duty as the booker for WCW. A committee will be reformed to handle the book for the short term, at the very least. Apparently this decision was made even before Russo came up with the boneheaded idea of rebooking Souled Out as a title tournament, putting the WCW title on Tank Abbot. Oh - did I mention the committee will include (besides Russo & Ferrera) Kevin Sullivan, Terry Taylor and - wait for it... - BIG POOCHIE KEVIN NASH (tm CRZ).

Here's the thing...while Nitro and Thunder! haven't been great over the last month or so, the Russo-era shows have been eminently more watchable than the crap they put on the air early-mid 1999. Cutting Nitro down to 2 hours was also a good idea, as generally the 8-9 hour was filler and prelim matches that no one cared about anyway. (Actual quote from around March or April of '99: "If I see Konnan's Music Video one more time, I'm gonna fly down to WCW headquarters and punch Eric Bishoff in the teeth.") But Russo seems to have missed the point - that point being, cutting the hour was for cutting the crap, not for entertaining yourself. Anyone here remember when Scott Steiner actually used to wrestle? The most action I've seen him get into recently was with those...ahem...working ladies...on Nitro. Anyone remember when Disco Inferno was actually a competent wrestler, instead of an unwilling enforcer for Tony Stereotype and his gang? And what's the deal with Chavo? And "Three Count"??? And the whole fucking CRUISERWEIGHT DIVISION????? (I mean, MADUSA? Come ON!) I think I made my point.

WCW, at it's heart, has always been a good wrestling company - it's only when they try to WWF-style "Sports Entertainment" that the promotion falls flat. (Witness the "Who Drove the Hummer?" angle.) So in comes Russo, who everyone expected to cure the ills that haunted the company in the "Sports Entertainment" department. And while he's made some improvements to TV, I still wouldn't watch the entirety of Nitro or Thunder! on a dare. (CRZ, you have my utmost respect...) If anything, this backs up the WWF argument that Russo/Ferrera were only small parts of a larger creative team, and two men could not a promotion make.

For my money, Bill Busch's decision to return to a more traditional "wrestling" program is a good desicion - I've always felt the only way for WCW distinguish itself from its competition was to return to a more conventional, yet entertaining style. (They have a really talented locker room, and could probably wrestle rings around WWF, but the WWF knows how to package their people to get them over.) I have a couple of suggestions for WCW, as they reconstruct themselves YET AGAIN:

1) Don't try a family friendly, watered down version of WWF programming. You've already tried that, and it failed. Take a hint from the Von Erich's "World Class Championship Wrestling" of the 1980s. For anyone who didn't get this show, it was a one hour weekly program (probably syndicated, but I saw it on MSG network) which featured nearly all in-ring action, stopping only momentarily here and there for promos. The action was good, and the pace of the show never lagged. WCW should try the same type of the show, minimizing the lame angles and focusing instead on quality in-ring action. Lose the Crappy-Vignette-Series-Of-The-Week and stick to personal feuds. The smart fans will dig it, and the casual fans will tune in because the product is different from the WWF or ECW. (Although, in my humble opinion, hang on to the Nitro Girls. A little eye candy never hurt anyone.)
2) If Russo is not happy with either the booking committee or the redesign of the product, WCW should let him go. If they're not programming sports entertainment anymore, they shouldn't hold him to his contract. (Hey Vince - I hear Rupert Murdoch is looking to start a wrestling promotion...)
3) For god's sake, DON'T GIVE NASH TOO MUCH CONTROL OVER THE BOOK! Didn't WCW learn their lesson earlier this year? I can't say this often enough - KEEP NASH AWAY FROM THE BOOK!

Souled Out looks to be the weakest PPV in recent memory, with a Sid-Benoit match for the WCW Heavyweight title (stripped from Hart) headlining the card. Apparently the Triple Threat Theater matches will still happen (probably because WCW spent the money for the "Caged Heat" cage), but they're not going to announce the participants until an hour or so before showtime. I'll be passing on this one. But it will be interesting to see how WCW recovers.



The Critic books for the WWF

...yeah, in my dreams. But after the developments on SmackDown! this past Thursday, I've been giving some thought about how I'd book WWF for the next 2 months. Here's how I see it. (Bear in mind, your mileage may vary.)

  • The Royal Rumble
    This is the point where I will not mention that I stood on line for nine hours to get primo tickets for the Rumble....D'OH! Oh well.

    The two noteworthy matches (of the three announced thus far) are the Rumble itself and the championship match. I'm not thinking about the tag title match, only because the tag division is so unpredictable right now.

    The Rumble itself should prove to be an entertaining match, and with 28 of the 30 participants announced, it looks like the WWF has enough sub-main event and mid-card wrestlers to fill out the 30 spots without having to drag out prelim guys or imports. Granted, the Rock and the Big Show will be 2 of those 30, and it makes the end of the Rumble a forgone conclusion, but the rest of the roster will make it interesting. In the end, though, I'm looking for the Rock and Show to be the last two men standing, with The Rock SOMEHOW dumping Show over the ropes, winning the title shot at WrestleMania in March. Show will not be pleased, leading to a minor Rock-Show feud to fill out the time between major PPVs.

    The title match will be a brutal match, being a no-holds-barred streetfight, but like the HHH/Rakishi match on SmackDown! last week, it will be close. In the end, HHH will do the job (either out of respect for Foley or out of sheer loss of blood), and Foley will walk out of MSG the WWF Champ. The Fed has done a great job pushing Foley - this past Thursday, Foley was over big with the Chicago crowd, even without the Rock's assistance. Undoubtedly, the hometown crowd at MSG will also pop like crazy for Mick taking the title.

    I'm hoping that a Jericho-Chyna match will be announced for the Rumble, mainly to bring an end to this screwy co-Champion thing, but also because I would really like to see Jericho put over clean at MSG. (The last time he was there, he was teamed with Too Cool against the Hardys ,and not only did Too Cool lose the match, but he ended up getting an up close and personal look at Rakishi's hinder.

  • end of January through the St. Valentine's Day Massacre

    The McMahon-Helmsley era will come to an end and Vince and Shane once again take control, but not before HHH announces a match for StVDM, with a stip that if he wins, he's in the title match at WrestleMania. I'm thinking the match may be against Skippy, with the reverse stip being that if HHH LOSES, Stephaine gives up her stake in the company and annuls her marriage to HHH.

    Meanwhile, Cactus Jack will get caught up in a mini-feud that will eat time until after StVDM. I'm thinking Undertaker, who should be healthy by then, and could set up a cool reprise to the Hell In The Cell match for the PPV. Doubtful, but still possible, is Taz(z), who should be in action around the time of the Rumble. (As much as I think this might make a neat feud, the Fed will probably save Tazz something else - like for a feud with Jericho for the newly-recombined IC title. It could happen! Hell, Jericho did it in 4 months!)

    Oh yeah - the Rock and the Big Show will continue the rivalry we saw begin on this past week's SmackDown!, although it should be noted that Show doesn't want to turn fully heel - he just wants to work a program with the Rock, or so says this week's Ross Report. Look for a match ending this feud at StVDM also.

  • St. Valentine's Day Massacre
    HHH carries Skippy to a good match. That's not to say that Shane can't hold his own, but HHH just has more technical expertise and can make Shane look like a better wrestler than he is. (Look for Benoit to do this with Sid at Souled Out this weekend.) HHH wins, and the title match at WrestleMania is now a three-way dance.

    Cactus Jack retains in a brutal match with the Undertaker. Look for the trademark Foley Crimson Mask, some wicked bumps and generally stiff shots from both men. Since neither is in top physical shape (Mick from his injuries, UT from...well, being UT), look for more brawling and few actual wrestling moves, but an entertaining match nonetheless.

    The Rock and Big Show settle their feud, with Rock pinning Show clean after (what else?) the People's Elbow. One year after arriving in the WWF, Show now respects Rock's abilities, but he still doesn't like him - leaving the door open for a heel turn if necessary. This could be decent if Show comes to work, and if his last few matches as champ were any indication, he has been lately.

    And, oh yeah, Jericho retains.

  • end of February through WrestleMania XVI
    Cactus Jack and the Rock begin cutting promos against each other (both of them cut promos against HHH), and we'll see any combination of HHH-Rock-Jack matches as Raw/SmackDown! mains during this period. Look for mutual respect between Rock and Foley, despite the title match. Also, somewhere in here (pending his status following surgery) Stone Cold Steve Austin will be added to the main at WrestleMania as the guest referee. He will also surface to cut promos, do commentary, etc.

    Look for a Show-UT feud in here somewhere. I'm only thinking this because there needs to be some reasonable conclusion to the problems these two had back in the fall.

    Hopefully, somewhere along the line there will be a tag title change and the Hardys will step up.

  • WrestleMania XVI
    Bringing the 3 month Cactus Jack arc to a conclusion, Steve Austin will count a clean pin for the Rock over Jack. Even money says HHH somehow gets doubleteamed and tossed from the match, leaving a contest between the two top (and most beloved) faces in the company. Foley hands the title to Rock, they hug (or exchange a meaningful handshake - the Rock seems kinda touchy about personal space), and the People's Champion becomes the World Champion, also setting up a potential Rock-HHH program for the title.

    Following WrestleMania, look for Foley to be installed as a figurehead leader of the Fed (commissioner, maybe, since HBK seems to have his hands full) - Mankind may have retired, but they won't retire his music...

    I know that Mick's dream is to walk out of WrestleMania the champion, and I suppose they could have Mick go over the Rock, only to do the job the next night on Raw, but that would cheapen both the title and the retirement. He should go out as a hero at the biggest PPV of the year - the best way to do that is to put Rock over.

    Yeah, I know that a lot of this favors Foley over everyone (except maybe Jericho), but I'm a big Foley mark.

    Anyway, that's about it from the Balcony for now. I'll probably be back soon with a show report from the Rumble, and of course, more opinions. For now, I leave you with this question to ponder: With Goldberg and Sting out of commission (for now, anyway), could WCW pull off Benoit as the top babyface?

    We shall see soon enough!

    Oh - one final thought. If you haven't already, check out Iron Chef on Food Network. Good stuff. Good night, everyBODY!

    M-D November
    (aka The Critic)

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