|
/wrestling
|
|
|
/wrestling
|
Guest columns |
|
MainBLAH |
EVEN OFF It doesn't take a brain surgeon to come out and talk about how WCW could "fix" their problems, as though it is a broken sink or whatnot. And the answers are easy; put fresher faces in the angles instead of the old boy's club, get a better undercard that doesn't include boxing matches and kickboxing matches, make the titles worth something, and run better angles. Does anyone realize this same stuff hurts the WWF as well? It wasn't too long ago that the WWF was on the top of their storywriting games. Ed Ferrea, who has no prior wrestling experience, and Vince Russo, who the WWF hired during the Steroid/Sex scandal days to shut him up and to keep him from exposing Vince McMahon on his radio show, both these men were at creative peaks. The shift of McMahon to a sympathetic, and at times intentionally pathetic, face was nothing short of remarkable. The Vince v. Shane family fued was a blast. While it had the usual holes in the plot [some online columnists forget that wrestling is NOT REALITY, so small irrelevant gaps in storylines are acceptable, even expected], the story was woven like one of your grandmother's quilts. Then came the higher power. That moment, WWF completely channeled the magical powers of horrible booking. Having Vince be the higher power pretty much nullified 3 months of angles. The gaps in storyline, once excusable, are now chasms. This is as bad as any WCW gap in logic. So Vince did this all to screw with Austin's head? Because even if, as they state, the "masterplan" began after Wrestlemania, Vince thought it was necessary to allow the Undertaker to kidnap his daughter and sexually torture her on live TV by forcing her to be his bride? And to even allude to a "demon seed" angle, like they did that night they made it obvious that it didn't *appear* that anything happened to Stephanie except some facepaint from the Ministry. That is horrible. I can see them excusing Shane for going along with it, Shane is a moron in character. His ego gets in the way of his rational thought. But Vince is supposed to be cold, calculating.... And what happened to the Union? Why was Bossman face for one day? Who raised the briefcase at King of the Ring, and why didn't they lower it for the McMahons? It's like somebody took all the great writing and booking and such and decide "I wonder if we can do it again from scratch?" I won't even get into why Shawn Michaels, Shane McMahon, Vince McMahon, Steve Austin, and everyone else is allowed to book matches. And now the titles are getting pretty bad too. The world title still has credibility, thankfully, as do the tag titles, and to a lesser degree, the Intercontinental title. But the IC title seems to be the "contract-fulfillment" belt, nobody ever mentions the reigns of Shamrock or Road Dogg or Val Venis, it hasn't been used to get them over at all. And now Mideon is running around with the European title. I'm sorry, but this is worse than David Flair with the US Title. David's reign is the angle; with Mideon it just seems to be some sort of inside joke I am just not privy to. I watched the David Flair v. Sting mess on Nitro, and I have to admit with a slice of guilt, I was laughing like crazy. That whole scene was so hilarious, it served its purpose--it got Flair over as insane. Of course, the fact that Flair being insane and pushing David Flair is Nash's attempt to get Flair to retire is a column for another day. And WCW surely can put it on someone better, but at least it isn't Mideon. Remember the old Bobby Heenen joke about Tito Santana finding the IC title in a garbage can? Mideon found the Euro title in a bag. Meanwhile, I have a bag on my head in shame. Chris Jericho will defiantly help the "fresh faces" problem. Last year it was Austin v. Kane v. Undertaker v. Foley or some variation of that almost all year; this year it has become Austin v. Rock v. Undertaker. Jericho hopefully being thrust to the spotlight, plus pushes for Billy Gunn [who sells worse than David Flair, for the record] and Triple H, and the eventual huge push of Paul Wight, WWF will actually fix this problem. But this year, Austin has been opposite on 3 major opponents; Vince, Taker, and Rock. One thing that is good is the fact that every wrestler has a purpose for being on TV. Even Bob Holly has a gimmick. Compare that to WCW, where the undercard as a whole has no reason to exist. Regardless, the WWF is getting really lucky right now. They are in a complete upward spiral at warp speed. The Jesse Ventura news essentially erases the Hart tragedy and the Sable lawsuit, at least for now. WCW is at its lowest point since they banned moves off the top rope. But like a criminal, success makes the WWF sloppy. They are getting sloppy in the angles and sloppy in tying everything together. They have got an entire audience addicted to, and weaned on, soap opera storylines instead of wrestling. I'm not going to debate the merits of that; if the fans want it, I say give it to them. But once this boom period ends, and it may be September or it may be 2003, whenever it ends, the WWF better be damn careful not to have gotten so sloppy that the league can no longer rely on sheer momentum. That is when the actual soap opera product they have implanted in their viewers will be put to the test. And if they keep erasing 3 months of angles at will, and leaving canyons in storylines, they are screwed. John Reldman The Daily Fix Mail the author Visit The Daily Fix |
BLAH |
Main |
||