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Matt Wilson

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There's one thing WCW are good for these days. No, don't stop reading, I'm trying to be serious with you here. They may be turning out a despicable in-ring product, disastrous angles and inconsistent storylines, but their collective backstage politicking is pretty interesting. These days you don't even have to read the sheets and the internet to find examples of their backstage shenanigans; They're right before your eyes on TV! You want the most recent example? The Stenier-Page-Nash triangle. WCW won't punish either of these guys for three closely related reasons. Stenier is the world champion and, thus, is immune to punishment in much the same way that Shawn Michael was after the MSG incident. Nash is, well, Nash. He has friends and shit, but more importantly he has a contract where WCW can't cut his pay. This is a contract which he has openly gloated about before. Page is reserved to give Bischoff "favors" when The Bisch comes into WCW in full force. I dunno, maybe giving Bischoff "favors" is Page's punishment, anyway.

I have a simple solution to this problem, which WCW fail to acknowledged. Instead of punishing each guy separately (as we've seen in the past), why not punish them all together? It could work. Why not have a triangle match between the three at the next PPV? That means that they'll all have to put up with each other's bad workrate, and the good thing is we won't have to put up with them stinking out matches with good wrestlers. The good wrestlers will wrestle matches with the other good wrestlers, and then the problem's solved. Well, then you've got to deal with Duggan.

Just think of the no-shows.

North American Wrestling Wishlist 2001

Here's my North American wrestling Wish List for 2001. Some things may have been said before, but, hey, what the hell. This is kinda a blue print of what I want to see in 2001. But, Vince Russo, don't try this at home.

WWF

  • Get rid of Billy Gunn, or at least de-push him.

  • Get rid of Chyna as a wrestler, and have her return to managing. Then again, all the marks would be pretty pissed off and wonder why Chyna is back to managing as opposed to wrestling. I suppose the WWF could say she has an injury, or something. Alternatively, they could get Eddy to assassinate her.

  • Austin with the title, after a long run trying to capture it. It's got to happen sometime.

  • A definite, and this applies to all North American companies; More focus on long and good wrestling matches, and the pushing of wrestlers who can work and have heat.

  • The pushing of Tazz and Raven. Start Tazz off in the Hardcore division. Have him "break through" that division, and then move straight to the Intercontinental running. What can I say, I'm a mark for his suplexing. I'd also like to see Tazz back to his ECW-esque working. For Raven, a strong push as Hardcore champion and some decent Falls count anywhere brawling. He's the best damn garbage wrestler they've got, and when I'm watching WWF brawling, he's the guy I'm going to want to see. They should run a Flock angle, with Perry Saturn and a few others joining Raven. Maybe they could run an angle where Raven can't be beaten for the Hardcore title, so he abdicates it and goes onto greater things. Obviously he's not a great worker, by any stretch of the imagination, so you could give him a Cactus Jack style push, with plenty of barbed wire, bats and brawling.

  • Of course, I'd like to see Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko and Saturn pushed, some more than others, but isn't that what everyone wants? Benoit going onto a WWF title reign, and, thus, becoming only the sixth (?) man to win both a WCW/NWA world title and a WWF world title. Guerrero pushed back to the top of the Intercontinental division (there are still divisional lines in the WWF, right?), maybe a feud with Tazz. I don't know what on Earth they feud about, but I just reckon it'd be a good one. Stop this shit with Chyna and Eddy, it's just not paying off. Give Malenko another big Crusierweight push and see how the fans react to him. Don't give him too much hilarious gimmickry, but find ways for his wrestling to get him over. Saturn should be given a long European title reign, and the Radicals should be pushed as a super power team. This should lead to a break-up, and the Radicals once again going their separate ways. See Raven for what Saturn should go onto next.

  • Continuation of the Regal push. That's what all the kids are talking about. He's not only a funny guy on the mic, but also a solid worker. I, for one, would like to see more of him. He's been treated badly during his career, so this WWF push should just about make up for the lumberjack thing a couple of years ago.

  • Crash Holly as a serious wrestler. Hey, it could work, and as a heel no less. Let Molly Holly go it alone, maybe managing Hardcore Holly, as well as doing a bit of wrestling. Maybe a Molly Holly women's title reign is on the cards, although I'm not too keen on the current WWF women's division scene. It, quite frankly, sucks.

    WCW

  • More wrestling. Less Russo shitty gimmicks and angles. Come to think of it, less Russo, period.

  • Major Lance Storm push. He's won virtually everything apart from the world title in such a short period in the WCW. I'd like to see a Lance Storm world title reign, although that may not happened just yet.

  • No more stupid names for wrestlers. I don't care about sexual innuendo in wrestling. If I want that, or full on porn, I'd watch pornos. Which, incidentally, I do.

  • Bring back the famous WCW Crusierweight division. It's great. It kicked ass. Maybe even bring back Bischoff, also. He made WCW big from 1995-1998, so why can't he do it again?

  • Tone down Scott Stenier's gimmick. I don't like it. I think it stinks. I want to see the original WRESTLING Scott Stenier. There are probably more WCW wishes, but people have bashed them into the ground over the last year or so.

    ECW

  • I'd like to see Heyman actually pay the boys some wages. You know, like on time.

  • ECW get a TV deal!



    ECW is dead, long live the Innovators

    As far as I'm concerned, ECW is dead or at least dying. But it's important to remember that ECW played a huge part in the growth of wrestling in the 90s. It was ECW who originated the table cracking, beer drinking, blood spilling sports entertainment that we know today, and that the WWF made hundreds of millions of dollars with these concepts in the late 90s. It was ECW who trained and gave a chance to many up and coming wrestlers who have gone on to greatness in WCW and the WWF (Chris Jericho, Tazz, Lance Storm, Shane Douglas, Steve Austin and others). Granted, Austin is a slight exception to that statement, as he'd already made it big in WCW before he came to ECW, but it was in ECW that he took the next step with regarding his character development. ECW created the bad mouth Austin who would rip Hogan and Bischoff way before the WWF created the beer swilling Austin who would rip Vince and Shane McMahon.

    It was also ECW who showed off the crusierweights for the first time in North America. ECW put on classic lucha libre matches with the likes of Rey Misterio Jr., Psicosis and Juventud Guerrero months before WCW did the same thing. It was WCW and Eric Bischoff who copied the whole crusierweight blue-print. And if the remember, it was the WCW crusierweight excitement which would keep people interested in WCW's wrestling product whilst all the nWo storyline based stuff played out. To a certain extent, the crusierweights kept WCW many ratings points, and to an even further extent, in that same vein, it can be said that ECW kept WCW ratings points.

    Now it's different. ECW have a close relationship with the WWF, even to the extent of talent sharing at times last year. There's even talk of the WWF hiring Paul Heyman as a creative writer, which seems the right thing to do after the WWF have bought out just about every wrestler worth buying in ECW. It reminds me of the AWA downfall, where you had the NWA and the WWF scrambling to buy out the remaining big names in the companie's last days. You can hardly compare ECW's product to the AWA's, but the downfall similarities are there.

    I'm sad that it has to end this way for ECW. There's nothing worse for a company than it's crash, but losing wrestlers as it's crashing and burning makes it all the more sad. ECW gave us so many great things, and although it's easy to let the most recent Heyman mistakes cloud the previous success of the extreme innovators, we've got to remember ECW for what they once were and ensure that another wrestling company do not make the same mistakes as ECW did.

    That's just about all I've got time for this week. Maybe you'll read me again next time, when I might actually have something intelligent to say. Until then, please e-mail me with your thoughts, questions, comments, keep watching wrestling (incase you forgot, it fucking rules), and I'll see you next time.

    Matt Wilson
    ShootAngle.com

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