wrestling / Columns
411 Fact or Fiction 10.09.08: Bound for Glory, Vladimir Kozlov, Sting vs. Joe and More!
1. Sting will beat Samoa Joe for the TNA World Title this Sunday.
JP: FICTION. Although Sting has won the last two Bound for Glory main events and captured the title each time, this is not his year. TNA has decided to actually get behind the young guys and let them run with the titles. Sting and Samoa Joe can fight again, plus there are plenty of other contenders for Joe down the line. AJ Styles, meanwhile, still has unresolved issues with Sting that should get some PPV time. Besides, recently it was released that Sting verbally agreed to a deal through 2009 but that is hardly a contract. Without a contract, why would TNA put a title on a wrestler? Yes, I know they have given wins to non-contracted wrestlers in the past (see: Rikishi, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Rellik, Shannon Moore, etc…), but a title is quite a different story.
JT: FICTION. And they’d be making a huge mistake if they did. TNA was building a very enjoyable product with homegrown talent, and then there was a bit of an overshadowing by a bunch of ex-WWE’ers for a while. Slowly but surely, they have started to find a balance in keeping the bigger names involved, but making sure that more of their own stars are pushed and given time as well. The key here being titles: three out of the four titles are currently held by homegrowns, and that is important when trying to establish yourself as the “alternative”. It’s clear they want Joe to be the face of the company and him retaining at Bound For Glory makes the most sense.
Nick: FICTON. I guess. I haven’t watched or paid any attention to TNA in months, so I have no idea what’s going on. I think Sting’s a heel, but I’m not sure. I’m really not qualified to answer this, because, once again, I’m done with TNA for the foreseeable future, so I don’t know what the build has been. All I can say is that it probably sucked, and that I find it absolutely ridiculous (4 R’s throwback!) that Sting is main eventing TNA’s “biggest PPV of the year” in a World Title match for the third year in a row. He’s done nothing positive for the company in terms of ratings and buyrates, and he’s been back for almost 3 years now. ENOUGH already with Sting.
Geoff: FACT. It’s a sad fact that what was supposed to have been the virtual second-coming of professional wrestling nirvana was reduced to what we witnessed happen to Joe’s first World Title run. It’s pretty obvious TNA Creative had an idea of how to present Joe as the franchise standard-bearer…it just wasn’t a very good one and ended up backfiring on the company and, certainly moreover, on Joe himself. The once-dominant indie ass-kicker came off looking like a petulant rookie who was more concerned about Kevin Nash getting into his head as opposed to staying the course and being a proud, fighting champion. It might just be worth it to Joe, the belt and the company to write a mercy-killing on this disappointment, make Sting earn his money and give him one last world title run before he packs it up and goes home for good. Hopefully, TNA will learn from its mistakes and rebuild Joe before a second tenure on top.
Score: 1 Fact, 3 Fiction
2. You have no faith that TNA will actually enforce their new drug policy.
JP: FICTION. We don’t even know what the new drug policy entails other than it is “similar” to the WWE’s and possibly includes a 30-day no pay suspension for first violation. For all we know, that 30-day no pay time could also mean they continue to receive TV time. My belief is that TNA will enforce the policy to the respect that TNA has created it. There will be no public listing of names, no further identification of drugs, and people (at least main eventers) will not be fired. Heck, since this is a private company the details will most likely not ever show up so we’ll never even know if the banned substances are the same. Maybe a doctor’s note and a prescription from some online pharmacy is OK in TNA’s book?
JT: FICTION. I say that however only because at this point, I’m not sure I have any way of knowing. For one, who’s watching them? Is there anyone on the planet that is there to make sure things are being enforced? For another, “similar to WWE’s policy” doesn’t necessarily mean “similar to WWE’s openness about it”. For all I know TNA could very well suspend someone for 30 days, but then tell the world that wrestler is injured. If they choose to go opposite the WWE route and keep it in house, then how on earth would I know if it’s being enforced or not? I simply cannot say fact here because there are too many unknowns.
Nick: FICTON. It was tough to decide what answer I was going to go with here, but I think that, at least on some level, it will be enforced. Chances are it will probably be as flawed as WWE’s was at the beginning (and possibly still is, who knows?), but at least it is an attempt at something, so that’s one admirable thing TNA has done in recent memory. We still don’t know what the wrestlers will be tested for, nor do we know anything past the first strike being a 30 day unpaid suspension and that the next screw up will lead to something “much worse”. I’ll go into this with an optimistic viewpoint, though. Only for the wrestlers’ sake. Because fuck TNA. Seriously.
Geoff: FICTION. Although I don’t wish to argue semantics, I don’t want to suggest that I have NO faith whatsoever; hopefully a dramatic case will (and would have been already) addressed, weeded out and dealt with in according and appropriate fashion, official policy in the books or not. What troubles me is how vague are the details. When we’re told that “the policy is basically the same as WWE’s”, does that mean there will be testing for everything, pain killers included? Does that include marijuana, and, if so, will offenders be fined or suspended, as well? Will offenders be offered company-assisted rehabilitation? Most importantly, perhaps, will an outside company not related to TNA be executing and monitoring the testing, from the “Dixie cup” to the results, or will Karen Angle be standing there with a bucket and a smile?
Quite frankly, this seems to me to be the company knuckling under and implementing some vague lip service in a half-hearted attempt to cover its ass, just in case, Flair forbid. It’s my sincerest hope that this will never become an issue and that common sense and self-policing will prevent it from ever being such. I’m not concerned about Booker or BG James, who likely will be allowed to continue having a little schmokey with little to no reprisal; what I hope WILL be the focus is pain killer dependency, as that, to me, is the real enemy of the modern professional wrestler.
The REAL question, though, is will MVP’s buddy be supervising harvesting the specimens?
Score: 0 Fact, 4 Fiction
3. You are excited for Sunday’s TNA Bound for Glory PPV.
JP: FICTION. If I was there, I would probably be excited about going. Since I’m not, the most I can say is I’m interested and intrigued. Jeff Jarrett coming back to the ring is nice and he and Angle can put on a decent match, but I can’t say it is a dream come true. Sting and Samoa Joe I enjoy, but it does not hold my interest beyond wanting to see the storyline continue. The Knockouts match I think I’ve seen something similar. And thus far the two cluster matches in the tag team match and the Steel Asylum leave much to be desired. I was live at Lockdown and Hard Justice so I’ve seen a lot of cluster matches in TNA. The guys work hard but with so much going on you can’t follow the action or get emotionally involved. Besides, I’m still a little upset with TNA for messing up my tickets for the house show last week (see the Small-for-All News Report), so I’m not totally enamored with the company at the moment. But that’s a personal grudge, not a fan related one.
JT: FICTION. To be a little cliché’, I have simply lost my smile for TNA. They aren’t doing the things that made me a fan of their product to begin with. They are trying too hard, trying to do too much. I won’t bore you with specifics, but I have grown somewhat indifferent to the little promotion that could and therefore have no excitement for the PPV.
Nick: FICTON. Fucks no. Like I said earlier, I haven’t watched TNA in months. I stuck with them for much longer than I should have, but they finally frustrated me to the point where the show actually gave me headaches. The production is awful and the booking is even worse. I haven’t been excited about anything related to TNA in years, so I’m not going to be excited for a card that, last I saw, looked to be extremely lackluster and not worthy of being the “biggest show of the year”. I can’t understand what drove Mick Foley to join this company. He CAN NOT be serious when he says that he likes what he sees and thinks they have a real future. Unless there’s a drastic change, TNA will never, ever, be anything but a laughable and very distant second to WWE.
Geoff: FICTION. Honestly, I could care less. I don’t even know who’s scheduled to compete. I’ve tried so hard to follow TNA, SO MANY times, but the shitty writing makes me embarrassed for the awesome talent roster they’ve managed to assemble. Really, I don’t know how Larry does it. It’s SO FRUSTRATING and disappointing. Did anyone NOT see So Cal Val turning on Jay Lethal in favor of Sonjay Dutt? I saw that coming the first time I tuned in and saw that HORRIFYING Michael Jackson-esque deal where he had those little boys in Aladdin drag begging money for him. Really, you’ve got two guys with the talent of Dutt and Lethal and THIS is the best you can do? Fighting over a chick even Cook would turn down? I’m really looking forward to attending the house show next month, because Russo’s not going to be involved, it’s just straight action, but even a fascist like Cheney wouldn’t allow imPact! at Guantanemo Bay.
Score: 0 Fact, 4 Fiction
4. Vince McMahon should worry less about making wrestlers into actors, and more on putting out a consistently good wrestling product.
Nick: FACT. First and foremost, a lot of the acting on TV is complete shit. It’s not like television has high standards, so who gives a fuck? I mean, it certainly couldn’t hurt to help some of the struggling guys become more comfortable speaking on camera, be it backstage or in the ring, but I’m still, and always will be, on the side of thinking that all speaking in pro wrestling should be improv. Give the wrestler the gist you want him to get across, then let him say it the way he feels right, and let the person/people he is speaking to react the way they feel is the proper direction to go. These guys trained for years in order to be athletes working inside a wrestling ring, not to be mediocre actors. Because that’s the standard Vince is looking for if he wants to have his guys acting as well as people on TV. I will say, though, that I do have a high optimism level currently as far as WWE’s product and the future. They’ve been consistently good for a while, and this past week’s pay-per-view was stellar and they were able to, during the weeks of build, make me care enough to actually pay for the PPV live. In the grand scheme of things, this really isn’t going to be something anybody will notice anyway. Vince has always loved to focus on random shit that won’t end up panning out, and to me this is just another. There’s no reason to worry.
Geoff: FACT. I’ve mentioned this in Five-Star Conversation in the past, and part of the problem stems from when Vince stopped caring as much about telling stories that grow into legacies and started caring more about counting money. There’s so little excuse for the WWE product to be anything less than stellar right now. Look at the list of road agents and others working behind the scenes for the company: Arn Anderson, Barry Windham, Brad Armstrong, Bruce Prichard, Dean Malenko, Michael Hayes, Mike Rotundo, Ricky Steamboat and Tony Garea. How is it feasible that these legends aren’t writing the stories? How is it feasible that a bunch of Hollywood writers are being paid to write out of their area of expertise as if Hollywood were professional wrestling?
Furthermore, and closer to the crux of the question, why are promos now scripted? The performers who made the business great (many of whom are enumerated above) used to own their characters because they, themselves, molded and evolved them, improvising their own promos and, thus, connected with the fans on their own and on their own terms, as opposed to being given a stupid name with a blank page for a gimmick and handed a scripted promo by someone who used to write for Guiding fucking Light. “Austin 3:16 says, ‘I just kicked your ass'” came neither from a script nor a paid staff writer, but from Steve Austin himself when he was freewheeling a promo on the fly. The best and most successful characters are the basic performers themselves with the proverbial volume cranked to 11…why mess with that? Performers should have three things before cutting a promo: 1) a bullet-point list of that which needs to be accomplished in said promo, 2) a solid grasp of their character, and 3) a mic. That’s it.
Obviously, there will be Ric Flairs and there will be Greg Valentines. It’s the promoter’s obligation to his/her talent and paying public alike to amplify said talent’s virtues and mask its’ short-comings, not lay out an elaborate scheme of land mines on the way to the ring, but it seems that’s Vince’s true gift beyond 2001.
JP: FACTish. Vince McMahon is right in that wrestlers should be able to cut promos and be believable. You should look at a wrestlers and believe the gimmick is who the person is and not just someone pretending to be something they are not. When you watch a good actor in a movie, you can believe that they are the character and that in their head they are thinking what the character would think. Professional wrestling is more than just great in-ring moves, but a balance of characters, situations, and actions.
That said, McMahon spends too much time trying to re-create Hollywood in Stamford instead of trying to improve all aspects of the product. Wrestlers do need to improve their in ring performance to captivate an audience. He also needs believable long-term storylines that are in-touch with today’s entertainment styles. And wrestling is an art form, not a script! Wrestlers do not need to become better at memorizing lines; they need to be allowed to grow from bullet points and put their own voice into it. Without that, every wrestler sounds the same almost no one becomes something unique and interesting.
JT: FICTION. I believe that by trying to turn them into better actors, it will help to put out said consistently good product. At the height of the Attitude Era, you had guys like Kurt Angle, Triple H, Rock, Stone Cold, etc. Now, granted those guys were all portraying a character that was an extension of themselves, they were still playing a character, i.e. acting. You know what? Those same guys who had the WWE sitting on top of the world 10 years ago haven’t done badly behind the non-wrestling cameras. Rock stole every scene he was in, in Be Cool. Triple H was serviceable in Blade. Stone Cold was actually pretty bearable in The Condemned. Kane was no Oscar winner in See No Evil, but he did a fine job with what he was asked to do. I think at the very least a minor correlation between their acting abilities and success with WWE has to be acknowledged. There are a couple who will be talented enough to get by on wrestling alone (see: Chris Benoit) but for 98% of the roster, if you want to succeed you’re going to have to be believable both in and out of the ring.
Score: 3 Fact, 1 Fiction
5. You buy Vladimir Kozlov as a serious contender to HHH.
Nick: FACT. In a kayfabe sense. I don’t buy that he’s going to be holding the WWE title any time soon, and I don’t buy that he’s going to become a bonafide main eventer, but I do think he’ll end up finding himself exactly where Umaga and The Great Khali stand. He’ll always be a legitimate threat as far as the fans are concerned, but it’s highly doubtful that he’ll ever reach any higher level than that. Especially if they limit his speaking to very few words of English, and if he doesn’t know much English, then especially if he doesn’t learn to speak it at least somewhat fluently. So yes, I do buy that he could face Triple H for the WWE Title on PPV, but I don’t buy that he ever stands a chance at winning it.
Geoff: FICTION. Oh, hell no. Kozlov has grown on me, admittedly. I buy him as a much more talented all-around wrestler than I ever did Bobby Lashley, who was basically just a powerful suplex, and The Moscow Mauler was given a really solid initial build (as I was forced to admit after disapproving at first in The R’s); however, it appears McMahonagement lost its way with him. It’s my opinion that Kozlov should have had a healthy run with the United States Title (imagine the irony implicit in that pairing) before moving all the way up to the top of the card, especially in light of the fact that we just saw Jeff Hardy defeated by HHH at the last PPV. Droves of people are climbing the walls waiting for Jeff to make good and win the big one. No one gives a greasy fart about seeing Kozlov dethrone The Game. (Incidentally, am I alone in thinking a Bobby Heenan/Lou Albano-type manager would do wonders for Kozlov…?)
Besides, what a vast marketing mistake should Kozlov do what Hardy couldn’t. The Hardys, as I write this, have three of the five top-selling merchandise items on WWE.com. What will WWE sell on Kozlov’s name? A pair of those BVDs he sports in the ring? I’m joking, of course, I don’t personally believe a top performer has to necessarily be a flashy-splashy character, but from a merchandising POV, and, as I said before, Vince LOVES counting his money, it makes more sense for Jeff to have swiped the belt from HHH than it does Kozlov. Hey, though, if the ShopZone starts pimping Kozlov Vodka, I’d be all about it.
All that said, though, I think it should be a spectacular match, and one I didn’t think we’d see in a high-profile light.
JP: FICTION. They are doing the same thing they did with JBL before he won his title. JBL was fighting no ones and then suddenly he won a championship. It took JBL the better part of his entire reign to become a serious title contender (nonetheless a holder) and I’m afraid they might do something similar with Kozlov. I like that Kozlov wants more competitions and wants a higher level of challengers. Following the Goldberg path would be better for him where Kozlov slowly moves up the card defeating lower-mid, mid, and then upper-mid cards. This is a guy that the US/Intercontinental title was designed for! He can win a mid-level title to build credibility and continue his path. When he looks unstoppable, then you pull the trigger on some big-time matches. I know the WWE is need of some main event talent, but this could blow up in their face fast. If Kozlov does not gel in the main event scene, he’ll be pushed down the card and be forgotten and/or released before 2009 is out. Who has Kozlov beaten to deserve to be fighting the WWE Champion? No one! I was really interested in his match with Khali and the potential match with the Big Show, but those are not happening. But that is the most logical path to follow for him before challenging for the title (Khali, Big Show, Hardy, Triple H, Undertaker).
JT: FICTION. I don’t even buy Jeff Hardy as a “serious contender”, so I see no reason to consider this guy a threat. Look, I know that WWE has tried to be a little more unpredictable the last half year, but at the end of the day I think we all know that a new guy with a mean, Russian gimmick is not going to march into the main event after a few squash matches and take the title from HHH. I have a hard time thinking even the most naïve of fans are taking this seriously.
Score: 1 Fact, 3 Fiction
6. WWE made the right call Sunday when they had HHH retain the WWE Title over Jeff Hardy.
Nick: FACT. Yeah, I think so. I did buy the finish of the match — if it would have been Hardy winning with the Swanton, and I would have thought that it probably would be a fine time to let Jeff have the belt. However I believe that the performance both men put on this past Sunday was fantastic, and that the way the match played out will end up being a positive for Jeff in the future, not a negative. He lost, but he looked like an equal, not some upstart underdog. I’m also a huge fan of the finish, because it’s the exact same finish of the great Tyler Black/Bryan Danielson match from ROH’s Breakout event this past January. Black was treated as a bit less of an equal to Danielson than Jeff was to Triple H, but that match is what truly made Black’s career. It made him a star, and I think this will make the reaction to Jeff’s eventual title win even bigger, granted they handle the aftermath of Sunday’s match correctly. And I have faith that they will. Not a large amount of faith, but faith nonetheless. Triple H has been significantly more tolerable on SD than he was on RAW, both as a character and even more so as a wrestler, and I think right now it may be smart to keep the title on him for some time longer and really build to his eventual loss.
Geoff: FICTION. I really had to deliberate over this question and not allow my own fandom make the choice for me over that of reason. However, I fail to see how allowing Jeff the belt is a bad decision at this point. Aside from the recent airport incident, which, in the end, really was a non-issue (and I’ll stand by my statement in 5SC that this had more to do with Jeff’s appearance than his being actually too intoxicated to fly), Jeff was recently handed a bitter dose of reality when he was suspended for slipping up, then losing his home and furry companion, Jack to a fire. He’s on guard and is going to be on his bestest behavior, so if there’s a safe time for him to be given the belt, I think it would be now.
As I just mentioned in the above segment, fans are practically self-lubricating over the notion of Jeff Hardy as World Champion and there is serious bank to be made in the merchandising department as a consequence. Capturing the gold has been buzzing around Jeff’s head (no pun intended) for eons now…when the hell will they actually pull that trigger? Granted, both Hardys have been huge fan favorites for a decade now, but timing accounts for a LOT and I’m a little concerned that if the go-ahead isn’t given soon, fans might cool on the rabid desire they currently have over seeing Jeff be a brand standard-bearer, their loyalty shifting to some other, newer performer, the popular belief becoming that Hardy just can’t do it, such that, when he actually does, consensus reaction will be, “Oh, hey, I’ll be damned, he actually did it,” as opposed to the veritable nuclear (or, for you conservatives out there, nuclear) explosion it would have been at NO MERCY.
There’s also the fact that Jeff’s style is not that of an older performer, as even he admits on The Hardys’ DVD that came out a few months ago. He’s 30 now, his body is starting to age and isn’t as resilient as it once was. If Vince wants to cash in, it should be soon, even if it’s at the expense of Sonny boy.
JP: FACT. As much as I prefer to keep Triple H as far away from the title as possible, now is not the time for Jeff Hardy to win the championship. If he hadn’t had that second suspension, this would be a completely different story and I’d say it is time to pull the trigger. With that, though, Hardy is too loose of a commodity to trust with the championship just yet. The airport incident does not even bother me (Even though it still shows he has a problem with substance abuse in a different form. Replacing one addiction with another – even if that drug is legal – is still an issue), but this man could be fired tomorrow. The WWE and World Heavyweight Championships have been vacated five times in the past five years! That is absolutely atrocious and I would not want to see either title vacated again in the next decade.
JT: FACT. I like Jeff as much as the next guy but bottom line is he cannot be trusted. The last time they handed the ball off to a wrestler with similar issues, they were rewarded with a big fat pile of possession of marijuana charges. He has – at almost every turn – fucked himself out of a title run (assuming they were ever really going to give it to him in the first place) and I honestly believe that they simply do not want to take the chance of him having another issue/incident with heavyweight gold around his waist.
Score: 3 Fact, 1 Fiction
