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Matt Talbot

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THE OUTSIDER'S EDGE
Top Ten Time

And now it is that part of the show where I trot out the funny Top Ten List. As the case may be funny might not be the best modifier there, but Top Ten and List are pretty good as far as nouns and adjectives go. I think I will do the Top Ten Reasons Why I Dig the New Nitro.

10) Somehow, Somewhere, in some ungodly manner they were able to make Jeff Jarret moderately interesting. Vince Russo must have sold his soul to the devil or something, but Double J is actually entertaining, kinda. I sorta like the fact that he is playing Mankind in this year Title Tournament, even if it is really not that original. Last year they had Mankind be the golden child of Vince McMahon as he pushed Mick through the WWF Title Tourney. Rock was the anti-golden child. That job is being filled by Buff Bagwell, one of the worst casting decisions of all time. As you may or may not know, Mankind lost to the Rock in the final as they turned Rock heel and made McMahon more heel by screwing Foley. I do not know i they will redo that this year, but so far I like him in the Mankind role. He is not doing it as well as Mankind did (i.e. calling Vince father or getting a tux to wrestle in), but at least it is entertaining to see how Double J will get screwed.

The part that I like the most about his character is the Liz/Luger part. They are playing off how he always beat on the women in the WWF, so when he came to WCW and they saw a woman with a guitar smashed over her head, everyone said: JJ. He denies the whole affair, which seems implausible. How many guitar toting misogynists are there? I am digging that story line, because it winks at kayfabe by noting his WWF tenure and I love it when they wink at kayfabe. Also, if he did not hit Liz, then who did? It would be smart for JJ to try to continue his woman hating tactics in WCW, because it was part of his character in WWF, but it would also be smart for JJ not to mess with Luger. That last part was somewhat kayfabish. Unless the devil is instilling some undead curiosity in me, I actually do want to see how this angle is going to unfold.

9) On the same wavelength, they were able to make David Flair interesting. Most people view him as the un-charismatic Flair and they would be right, but that is what V/E stressed with him. They did not make him this Flair-like character that does a lot of talking and gets his point over with promos, but a rogue. David Flair is playing the character of a vengeful thief in the night. He comes in with his crowbar and beats on anyone and everyone. He slammed DDP and then wasted the FAs. He really did not say all that much, but just pounded, thrashed, mauled, sliced, and, to a lesser extent, diced. Usually in WCW, the face has to wait like a month until the next PPV to get revenge and they do not really build to that revenge well at all. In the new WCW regime, DFlair got his revenge in about the first week and did not stop there. The next week he was back to bludgeon the Filthy Animals, only to get run over. Now that the precedent has been set for fast vengeance, we will wait and see if he can match his record of one week. Plus, the storylines around the revenge have been good. Before it was like you hit me with a hummer four months ago, let's go at it. Now the storylines are: "You tried to seduce me and then my dad beat you, so your husband was mad at him. I am his guardian angel." or "You took my girl." Complex and yet simple. The not-waiting-months-for-revenge part is also helpful. So, take good storylines and add a strong character and you have an interesting DFlair.

8) This one really is not about WCW itself, but the new Nitro is making life a lot more interesting when it comes to Internet chats. Before it was really easy for the WWF fans to stand all high and mighty, which made for not too interesting message boards. Usually the only big threads on the WCW board at 1Wrestlingtalk.com were something to the effect of "Ten Ways WCW can improve" (except for the Streak Streak Streak Streak Streak). Now that Nitro has interesting, controversial material, the message boards, at least the ones I frequent, have interesting, controversial material. Even with staunch WCW defended DocAwesome leaving (I'll miss ya), I think that business is about to pick up. People will be doing tons of Why I like Nitro or Why I don't like Nitro, making me just a face in the crowd. But for a good TV show and good message board discussion, I will take being just a face in the crowd. When I am your president and I send Paco to Australia, I will remember being a face in the crowd and it will still my growing ego.

7) They are becoming competitive and that can only help Raw. When you have one show beating the other badly, there is no reason for that show to work hard. I am not saying that Raw has been coasting, but if and when Nitro starts breathing some fire down Raw's neck, the WWF will have to step it up and that can only benefit us, the fans. When Raw started to come upon Nitro, WCW stepped it up last year and started the nWo Wolfpac angle, which was pretty good. Now, Nitro is not at the level where they will make Raw sweat, but probably soon they might be. Then, we should see some quality Sport Entertainment on both sides of the ball. Of course if the entire WWF creative staff goes to WCW, then maybe Raw will crumble sooner than later. Since wrestling is cyclical the shows tend to enjoy long periods of popularity. Nitro has 80 weeks and Raw is up to 50 or so. There is a period of time between when the streak begins, when either show could win. That is the best time to be a wrestling fan, because that is when both shows have to rock or lose their footing. Maybe around 2000 or so, we could reach a new renaissance of both wrestling shows. The direction of the new Nitro is on that path towards that renaissance. Only time will tell, I guess.

6) The push of the Filthy Animals is one of the reasons why I like the new Nitro. Three out of the fours guys are interesting, but were always on their own in random angles. The Rey/Kidman feud of early '99 was legendary, but there was little story behind it. Now they have the guys together and actually doing stuff, important stuff. Stuff like stealing Torrie from DFlair or beating down on Dean Malenko. Plus with the move away from wrestling in WCW, these guys are one of the last bastions of great wrestling. There is one thing that I do not like. They are tweeners, but should be faces. Turn them face because their main feud is against the Revolution. They are faces against them, but heels against Flair and Sting. Of course the last part with Sting is about the failure of WCW to turn Sting heel, but they should pick one side and stick. Faces they should be, because it is hard to boo good wrestling. That is why it is hard to turn RVD heel, because you can't boo a tope or HuriC. Except for this little tweener problem, I think that the FAs are on their way to the top of the WCW ladder.

Once people have good wrestling with good storylines, there will be one less knock against WCW. People used to say that they were holding all the good wrestlers at the bottom, because of the egos at the top. Now, that V/E are in control, they are breaking the glass ceiling of WCW. Not only will this set a good example for other wrestlers in ECW or WWF or even WCW, but give people like the FAs their time to shine. I do not think that anyone will be angry if the FAs have a good run at the top.

Okay, the first five were a lot of writing, so I will save the rest for the next column. It'll be a cool two part cliffhanger, with perhaps the cool not being so much. There are still a lot of problems with Nitro, especially the tech side of the show, but I think that there have been many good improvements since V/E started writing for WCW. I can only wait to see what happens in the future.

Anyway, if you have any comments, concerns, criticisms, questions, or just wanna talk about Milhouse Van Houten was the greatest Sidekick of RadioactiveMan, then please email me at talboito@uclink4.berkeley.edu.

Matt Talbot
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