Guest Columns | 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
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ECW
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 |
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