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"Part of coming up with a gimmick in wrestling is throwing stuff at the wall, and seeing what sticks. What sticks is usually not altogether that different from the person throwing it, but I was too green to see that at the time." -Mick Foley, Have A Nice Day

For those of you (the four readers! YEAH! You guys rock!) that read me regularly, you know I've not quite been the king of column-rate lately, as I had some health problems, and my columns of late have been humorous or offbeat (my wacky adventures with Itty Bitty & T, and my poetic side), but I think, for what will be most likely be my last column of '99, ditch the humor and go back to what "brought me to the dance", so to speak, and that is my analytic rants, dating back to my most popular one to date, The Three Faces of Kayfabe (psst Chris ...link? YOU cool! -T), which discussed the logical problems with the pseudo-shoot angles going on at the infancy of the "Powers That Be" era.

Ever since the gruesome twosome packed their backpacks, and bolted for Atlanta, WCW has obviously never been the same. From the sudden disappearance of Hogan & Ric Flair, to mud wrestling, to the appearance of the Mob, to the recent reformation of the nWo2K, the guys from New York have been shaking things up quite a bit, but as of yet, the effect on the ratings and buyrates has been minimal at best.

Stepping back to the debut of said era, it began one Nitro with the proclamation of new management in town. Many wrestlers did "Shoots" against the new management, and the Walls of Kayfabe (as I so cleverly named them) came tumbling down as Curt Hennig was told that if he was pinned, he lost: but Madusa, Buff Bagwell, and others came out on air in 'anti-scripted' shoots, angles that were self-contradicting: but logically leading to a factional war similar to WCW vs nWo: so the first wrestlers to join Russo's side were ...CREATIVE CONTROL? Yep, the Blu Brothers were involved in the top promotional storyline as the "bodyguards" of Bert & Ernie.

"There's a difference between having a "top" storyline that dominates a promotion's TV and doing what WCW is doing (namely, burying all other talent at the expense of that singular top storyline). I mean, Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon is every bit as important to Titan as NWO vs. NWO is to WCW. But the WWF has tempered that nicely; while Austin's been the top dog, we've seen guys like DX break out on their own as major stars. Rocky Maivia has developed into a top heel. Kane's worked out better than anyone could have ever expected. Mick Foley has been given the ball, and I honestly don't know how many touchdowns you should credit him for. Maybe it's out of necessity that the WWF has kept their talent in better rotation (afterall, they NEED to create stars, where as WCW already has all the stars they need already under contract)... but either way, it's proof that you can have a promotion-dominating storyline without neglecting the rest of the promotion." -Rick Scaia, 6-19-98, nWWWo.com

It was pretty clear that the Powers That Be angle was the promotion story, but what else was happened outside of that? An insipid fued between the Revolution and the Filthy Animals aside, and Goldberg chasing the "we're working the retirement angle" Outsiders, the angle swallowed the promotion nearly whole. If you hated the angle, or didn't care for the extras, such as T&A, that were brought in, there was very little else around the edges to appeal to the other fans. Still, it seemed to be building to a fractional war, with the unfornuate casualty being the cruiserweights and most of the good wrestlers.

So we cruise towards the Mayhem PPV, and confusion mounts. The Nitro Girls are split up, and a lot of time is devoted to segments with the "mob" chasing Disco for debts owed, and the only wrestling members of the PTB side are Jeff Jarrett & Creative Control. Chavo Guerrero is made into an Amway salesman. Hacksaw Jim Duggan becomes a janitor. Meanwhile, the vacant WCW Title becomes the focus of a tournament angle where Jarrett is the "Chosen One", building against huge babyfaces Chris Beniot & Bret Hart, and semi-heel Sting. We have some focus in the topcard at least, while the midcarders get stuck in embarassing backstage vignettes: some attribute this to WCW needing to adapt to the Crash TV style.

"Cutting through it all, it sounds like a "don't look behind the curtain!"
defense. We're not supposed to even think out them the twenty or thirty
times per show the words "Powers That Be" are said, or they're involved in a
skit. We're just supposed to look at who they're interacting with and be
interested in them. Chavo Guerrero selling Amway, Duggan mopping toilets,
Juvi getting deported--this is the new WCW."

"The problem before Vince Russo is how does he write a storyline where the
stars of WCW fight back and overthrow the Powers That Be? That's a tough
thing to do, and even tougher when you realize that we're never going to see
Russo himself out there in the ring. Or so he says.

Just imagine what a flop the Austin/McMahon feud would have been if Austin
never got his hands on McMahon himself." -John Petrie, Slobberknocker #210 (11/22/99)

Bert & Ernie are firing older wrestlers left and right: Bagwell drops out of sight for a little while, to fued with Jarrett, and the "shoot" era is abruptly ushered out, as Hennig joins Bert & Ernie, Bagwell's push vanishes, and we go into high gear story mode, with the invention of "Screaming" Norman Smiley, the megapush of the "Mob" story involving Disco/Lash, the return of the Outsiders to the ring, David Flair: super-psycho, and even the elevation of Chris Beniot. Very little is done to hype the title match between Hart and Goldberg in the weeks leading up to Starrcade. The TV Title belt is thrown in the trash by Kevin Nash.

"Now I said I wouldn't mention Bert & Ernie (thanks, T!) anymore but I have to comment on a recent interview. In it, Russo blamed Standards & Practices for tying his hands, which is why WCW's ratings are still low.But then the things he mentioned weren't even ratings-grabbing things!!! 'Oh, they wouldn't let Roddy Piper call Rhonda Singh fat!' Oh yeah, I'll watch that!! I think in this fast food world, they expected instant results and now those same people who kissed their asses when they came in are ready to kick them to the curb. I thought it would take longer than 3 months for the backlash to begin though. " -Sharon Austin, Sharon's Edge, 12-21-99

This brings us to the Starrcade PPV proper, and present day, with the "Montreal" finish, and the reformation of the nWo, with Charlie hailing it as the big master plan of the Powers That Be. In the face of the failure of WCW buyrates & ratings not rising, Russo was hunting a scapegoat (including accusations of (gasp) counter-programming by WWF, and the Standards & Practices of WCW), and IMO, finding every reason but the most underlying one: the crap they were putting out there was NOT entertaining.

"UH OH: The screwjob ending being used as an angle, with references to Russo as having scripted the original match in WWF. This is a car wreck waiting to happen. I don't know how they can write their way out of this one gracefully.
HOW CONVENIENT: Just as Tony is talking about Nash's concerns about last night's match, here comes Big Sexy. Yeah, yeah.

BAD: Nash talking to the smarts. These insider angles are getting to be too much. How many of the people in the audience know what the hell he is talking about?" -[Slash] columnist Michaelangelo

In addition, the fanbase of WCW has never, to paraphrase Kurt Angle, "been known for it's third I, intelligence". The Internet or "Smart" population makes up but a scant percentage of the whole wrestling spectra. The idea of marketing smart angles to a definitely mark-dominated audience may have been doomed to failure by principle, but no one can fault B & E for trying.

Here's another hitch - clearly, a lot of the programming is similiar to what the WWF put on under B & E [and continues to do so], so is it worth the "rub" you get from mocking them to give them all the free publicity?

"*A LOT* of us grew up as big fans of old school, and it pisses me off to see two writers step on us for the newer fad audiences. So hear me now: The lack of the alternative offered by "old" WCW will result in the loss of the fans that, for whatever reason, do not/can not watch "Attitude"-themed programming, and a general downshift of the popularity of wrestling in general." -Mr. T, You CopyCat! column, 11/10/99

Have you noticed the columns, letters, decrying the death of wrestling? Wrestling Is Dead by Jim Raggi (http://www.crz.net/wrestling/guests/raggi.html) right here on Slash is a perfect example of a growing Net Trend -- just as I predicted, a little less than a month, prior.

"But my tolerance for the re-creation of an old favorite ends when the "Powers That Be" explain the whys and wherefores. They say that this was their grand master plan all along. Everything that was set up from day one was implemented to result in an NWO reunion.
In other words, they meant to do that.

And I don’t buy it for a minute." -Excerpts from WCW Ringside, Steve Anderson, Wrestleline, 12-29-99

Main BLAH	DON'T QUOTE ME ON THAT! "Part of coming up with a gimmick in wrestling is throwing stuff at the wall, and seeing what sticks. What sticks is usually not altogether that different from the person throwing it, but I was too green to see that at the time." -Mick Foley, Have A Nice Day My book is out on loan, so that quote may not be EXACT, but it's close ...and quite true. For those of you (the four readers! YEAH! You guys rock!) that read me regularly, you know I've not quite been the king of column-rate lately, as I had some health problems, and my columns of late have been humorous or offbeat (my wacky adventures with Itty Bitty & T, and my poetic side), but I think, for what will be most likely be my last column of '99, ditch the humor and go back to what "brought me to the dance", so to speak, and that is my analytic rants, dating back to my most popular one to date, The Three Faces of Kayfabe (psst Chris ...link? YOU cool! -T), which discussed the logical problems with the pseudo-shoot angles going on at the infancy of the "Powers That Be" era. "If the wrestling sells, you have a company that no longer needs scriptwriters." -CRZ Ever since the gruesome twosome packed their backpacks, and bolted for Atlanta, WCW has obviously never been the same. From the sudden disappearance of Hogan & Ric Flair, to mud wrestling, to the appearance of the Mob, to the recent reformation of the nWo2K, the guys from New York have been shaking things up quite a bit, but as of yet, the effect on the ratings and buyrates has been minimal at best. "All storylines are based in logic." - Vince Russo Stepping back to the debut of said era, it began one Nitro with the proclamation of new management in town. Many wrestlers did "Shoots" against the new management, and the Walls of Kayfabe (as I so cleverly named them) came tumbling down as Curt Hennig was told that if he was pinned, he lost: but Madusa, Buff Bagwell, and others came out on air in 'anti-scripted' shoots, angles that were self-contradicting: but logically leading to a factional war similar to WCW vs nWo: so the first wrestlers to join Russo's side were ...CREATIVE CONTROL? Yep, the Blu Brothers were involved in the top promotional storyline as the "bodyguards" of Bert & Ernie. "There's a difference between having a "top" storyline that dominates a promotion's TV and doing what WCW is doing (namely, burying all other talent at the expense of that singular top storyline). I mean, Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon is every bit as important to Titan as NWO vs. NWO is to WCW. But the WWF has tempered that nicely; while Austin's been the top dog, we've seen guys like DX break out on their own as major stars. Rocky Maivia has developed into a top heel. Kane's worked out better than anyone could have ever expected. Mick Foley has been given the ball, and I honestly don't know how many touchdowns you should credit him for. Maybe it's out of necessity that the WWF has kept their talent in better rotation (afterall, they NEED to create stars, where as WCW already has all the stars they need already under contract)... but either way, it's proof that you can have a promotion-dominating storyline without neglecting the rest of the promotion." -Rick Scaia, 6-19-98, nWWWo.com It was pretty clear that the Powers That Be angle was the promotion story, but what else was happened outside of that? An insipid fued between the Revolution and the Filthy Animals aside, and Goldberg chasing the "we're working the retirement angle" Outsiders, the angle swallowed the promotion nearly whole. If you hated the angle, or didn't care for the extras, such as T&A, that were brought in, there was very little else around the edges to appeal to the other fans. Still, it seemed to be building to a fractional war, with the unfornuate casualty being the cruiserweights and most of the good wrestlers. "Our job is to go in there, and get wrestlers over." - Vince Russo So we cruise towards the Mayhem PPV, and confusion mounts. The Nitro Girls are split up, and a lot of time is devoted to segments with the "mob" chasing Disco for debts owed, and the only wrestling members of the PTB side are Jeff Jarrett & Creative Control. Chavo Guerrero is made into an Amway salesman. Hacksaw Jim Duggan becomes a janitor. Meanwhile, the vacant WCW Title becomes the focus of a tournament angle where Jarrett is the "Chosen One", building against huge babyfaces Chris Beniot & Bret Hart, and semi-heel Sting. We have some focus in the topcard at least, while the midcarders get stuck in embarassing backstage vignettes: some attribute this to WCW needing to adapt to the Crash TV style. "Cutting through it all, it sounds like a "don't look behind the curtain!" defense. We're not supposed to even think out them the twenty or thirty times per show the words "Powers That Be" are said, or they're involved in a skit. We're just supposed to look at who they're interacting with and be interested in them. Chavo Guerrero selling Amway, Duggan mopping toilets, Juvi getting deported--this is the new WCW." "The problem before Vince Russo is how does he write a storyline where the stars of WCW fight back and overthrow the Powers That Be? That's a tough thing to do, and even tougher when you realize that we're never going to see Russo himself out there in the ring. Or so he says. Just imagine what a flop the Austin/McMahon feud would have been if Austin never got his hands on McMahon himself." -John Petrie, Slobberknocker #210 (11/22/99) Bret Hart captures the WCW Title at Mayhem: and Ric Flair and Hogan are written out as well. Bert & Ernie are firing older wrestlers left and right: Bagwell drops out of sight for a little while, to fued with Jarrett, and the "shoot" era is abruptly ushered out, as Hennig joins Bert & Ernie, Bagwell's push vanishes, and we go into high gear story mode, with the invention of "Screaming" Norman Smiley, the megapush of the "Mob" story involving Disco/Lash, the return of the Outsiders to the ring, David Flair: super-psycho, and even the elevation of Chris Beniot. Very little is done to hype the title match between Hart and Goldberg in the weeks leading up to Starrcade. The TV Title belt is thrown in the trash by Kevin Nash. "Now I said I wouldn't mention Bert & Ernie (thanks, T!) anymore but I have to comment on a recent interview. In it, Russo blamed Standards & Practices for tying his hands, which is why WCW's ratings are still low.But then the things he mentioned weren't even ratings-grabbing things!!! 'Oh, they wouldn't let Roddy Piper call Rhonda Singh fat!' Oh yeah, I'll watch that!! I think in this fast food world, they expected instant results and now those same people who kissed their asses when they came in are ready to kick them to the curb. I thought it would take longer than 3 months for the backlash to begin though. " -Sharon Austin, Sharon's Edge, 12-21-99 This brings us to the Starrcade PPV proper, and present day, with the "Montreal" finish, and the reformation of the nWo, with Charlie hailing it as the big master plan of the Powers That Be. In the face of the failure of WCW buyrates & ratings not rising, Russo was hunting a scapegoat (including accusations of (gasp) counter-programming by WWF, and the Standards & Practices of WCW), and IMO, finding every reason but the most underlying one: the crap they were putting out there was NOT entertaining. "UH OH: The screwjob ending being used as an angle, with references to Russo as having scripted the original match in WWF. This is a car wreck waiting to happen. I don't know how they can write their way out of this one gracefully. HOW CONVENIENT: Just as Tony is talking about Nash's concerns about last night's match, here comes Big Sexy. Yeah, yeah. BAD: Nash talking to the smarts. These insider angles are getting to be too much. How many of the people in the audience know what the hell he is talking about?" -[Slash] columnist Michaelangelo In addition, the fanbase of WCW has never, to paraphrase Kurt Angle, "been known for it's third I, intelligence". The Internet or "Smart" population makes up but a scant percentage of the whole wrestling spectra. The idea of marketing smart angles to a definitely mark-dominated audience may have been doomed to failure by principle, but no one can fault B & E for trying. "REPEATEDLY MENTIONING THE WWF WILL TEND TO MAKE PEOPLE INTERESTED IN THE WWF AND NOT YOUR COMPANY." - CRZ, WCW Nitro Recap for 12/27/99 Here's another hitch - clearly, a lot of the programming is similiar to what the WWF put on under B & E [and continues to do so], so is it worth the "rub" you get from mocking them to give them all the free publicity? "A LOT of us grew up as big fans of old school, and it pisses me off to see two writers step on us for the newer fad audiences. So hear me now: The lack of the alternative offered by "old" WCW will result in the loss of the fans that, for whatever reason, do not/can not watch "Attitude"-themed programming, and a general downshift of the popularity of wrestling in general." -Mr. T, You CopyCat! column, 11/10/99 Have you noticed the columns, letters, decrying the death of wrestling? Wrestling Is Dead by Jim Raggi (http://www.crz.net/wrestling/guests/raggi.html) right here on Slash is a perfect example of a growing Net Trend -- just as I predicted, a little less than a month, prior. "I meant to do that" - Pee Wee Herman, after falling off of a bicycle "But my tolerance for the re-creation of an old favorite ends when the "Powers That Be" explain the whys and wherefores. They say that this was their grand master plan all along. Everything that was set up from day one was implemented to result in an NWO reunion. In other words, they meant to do that. And I don’t buy it for a minute." -Excerpts from WCW Ringside, Steve Anderson, Wrestleline, 12-29-99 Amen. And I cannot think of a more appropriate analogy - and you CAN quote me on that. Mr. T [slash] wrestling Email the author	BLAH
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