Five-Star Conversation 02.23.10: A Discussion on the State of America’s Wrestling Youth

There was so much more I had intended to get to this week, but a work emergency combined with recovering from a two-week long sinus infection had me in a few different places over the last few days. Hopefully things will settle down such that I can really address some things in a more appropriate fashion next week. At any rate, this week, we dip our toe into a conversation about the state of youth in American wrestling.

COMMENTPALOOZA!
Jericho, not Punk, is the reason Truth is over well right now. That win over Punk was a long time ago, and nothing happened for almost 3 months with Truth, until he faced Jericho
Posted By: AJ

Props for the R-Truth love. One reason for him being over is that the crowd loves to be involved. His “WHAT’S UP!” lend itself to that perfectly. Even the biggest smark would love to have a mic shoved in their face so they could say something on tv. His main problem is his age. Just imagine if he were 5-10 years younger.
Posted By: The Great Capt. Smooth

I’ve ranted on this on other articles, but I can’t stand the constant complaint about WWE giving new guys “lame names” Yes, Scotty Goldman was an awful name, but if Colt Cabana had any real talent (he hasn’t done squat on the indys since leaving WWE) he would have gotten over.

Let’s take a look at some of the names on the current ROH roster:

Roderick Strong
Eddie Edwards
Kenny King
Rhett Titus
Silas Young
Grizzly Redwood
Alex Payne

All of these names are “lame”. This doesn’t include the fact that Brian Danielson was also a “lame name”

But what makes a good name? first-firsties? Shawn Michaels, Davey Richards, Joey Ryan, Steve Austin, Christopher Daniels?

Does originality, something unusual make a good name? CM Punk, Claudio Castagnoli, Chris Jericho

There are some pretty successful guys in the game today with pretty bland names. How about Christian, John Morrison, Kurt Angle, keep going.

Fact is, talent gets a guy over, not his name. Is Vance Archer a good name? No. But neither was Lance Rock or Lance Hoyt. If He was named Hulk Hogan, that doesn’t mean he’d get over. The man is big without much talent, little promo skills and a generic look with his tramp stamp.

Colt Cabana is a fat, slow boring act that couldn’t get over in WWE as anything more than a low-card comedy character.
Posted By: Guest#6802

I’m not meaning to diss Jericho here; believe me, and regular readers know this to be true, I’m always willing and ready to praise Jericho and I know he certainly did his part to help provide R-Truth with a crucial leg-up in the credibility department. I just wanted to follow up on something I said back when Truth scored that first junk victory over Punk a few months ago, because I smugly crowed that it wouldn’t lead anywhere and, three weeks later, the whole affair would have been forgotten about by McMahonagement. For as much as I shoot of my mouth and make accidental and careless mistakes, and as often as I’ll gleefully toot my horn when I’m right about something, I feel obligated to keep a complete scorecard on myself and admit when a prediction I make in false confidence goes another way. If I screw the pooch, I’ll own up to as much, whether the puppies resemble me or not.

The thing to remember here, though, is that, even if it was his audience-inclusive entrance theme that initially caused fans to take notice of R-Truth, he’s an engaging and charismatic enough performer to maintain those fans’ interests long after their chance to shout “What’s up” over the house mic has passed. That’s a great thing in Truth’s favor, because, as we’re beginning to see, it appears McMahonagement is perking up and taking notice, allowing him the opportunity to run with the big boys, thus evidenced by his inclusion in The Elimination Chamber match last Sunday. No one expects him to win, but, as is the case sometimes with Oscar nominees, the nomination is a certain victory all its’ own.

This is what I mean when I discuss talent WWE brings up from its’ farm league, often at least a year before they have any right to be pushed into such a high-stakes position (we’re seeing this in increasing intervals, it seems to me, and this is no fault of the talent, this is McMahonagement all the way). This actually offends me personally, and I’ll tell you why. For one thing, it’s unfair to take kids who are as green as some of these youngsters are and place such a responsibility upon them so early in their careers, especially when they know how this company works; they know they’re wearing a leash, but can’t quite tell how much freedom it allows before they end up yanked by the neck back to the side of the house.

What that leaves us with is a bunch of indie-level performers (and not in the complementary manner in that respect) with a bunch of watered-down/ill-conceived/poorly-assigned roles/characters that, without a flashy move-set, whether zippy high-spots, devastating power moves or amateur-derived chain wrestling, talent is going to have put on their thinking caps to come up with a way to make fans remember who the hell they are. It strikes me there was a time that this was considered part of Creative’s job, to come with an identity, a character for incoming performers, whether well-known and established in other franchises or not. Hell, it’s been a WWF/E tradition to work overtime in that respect. Even a former NWA World Champion like Lex Luger got the mid-card treatment as The Narcissist when he jumped to The WWF. We couldn’t allow Barry Windham to collect on his considerable success in both WCW and The WWF, when he returned in the mid-‘90s, he had to be re-packaged as “The Stalker”. WTF?

So where are these overbearing writers now? It seems quite the opposite now, doesn’t it? Whereas we used to have the doting mother slathering sunscreen on the child at the beach, laden with life jacket, floatees and a raft before he even touches the water, now we seem to have a Creative department that is fine with chucking the kid over the side of the pier in a life preserver. Granted, a truly superior talent is going to find a way to take that which is given him and turn it into something, and if that shit ends up sticking to the wall, hey, so the better. But if given even just a little bit more, a good young talent can figure out a way to make that situation a great one. Remember, even Michaelangelo needed a paintbrush and a canvas.

Ladies and gentlemen. We have…a Homewrecker! siting.

I agree that the Hard-core title would be a fun way to show-case mid-carders (without the over-the-top street sign, garbage can crap) just extreme rules… fun times.

The TV Title I always thought was a good idea (as discussed on weekly basis with Angry Bear) because it could show a “TV” interview with both challenger & champion building to each match… a quick “what’s this character’s story” type thing, it could equal a cruiserweight title, without a weight limit, for the new guys or repackaged, or ready to ‘get out of their slump’ & it would flesh out the characters a bit better so fans (mostly non-IWC & young, forgiving/forgetting types) a new look on the cats strugglin to get a spot-light, no matter how small, could build to better things, especially if the character is defined, if not yet “over”… HBK toured Tag-team & Mid-card duty before his first IC title reign a hell of a lot longer than the IWC expects a guy like Morrisson to be Heavyweight Champ. Flesh out the characters, give them… character… most are talented performers despite what Guest#6802 says, so a “Total Package” must be acheived whether it’s Tag-teams, IC, US or Heavyweight champions, it’s Pro-wrestling.

I know you hate Ryder but that guy is Honky-Tonk Man 2010, such hate on a guy needs to be rewarded… he needs to be on Smackdown beating the tar out of R-Truth & Kane… that guy has a character down & has skills (that, or he’s reminding me of every male in my family… ) but anyway, I like the guy, his character has been built well yet sand-bagged by Rosa.

the wrestling fans will remember a guy like Koko B. Ware, Samao Joe, Duke the Dumpster, Sandman, Bastion Bogger, Macho Man, CMPunk, Ravishing Rick Rude, Kane, & the Undertaker long after guys like Strong, Titus, Goldman, Daniels, & whoever else who’s name I can’t remember (but they’re current guys…) so there is something to be said for the “total package” of skill, character, acting & character growth… that lies in the talent & the bookers.

In closing I would like to say if Christian makes the jump to Smackdown or Raw, he should take a few months off to hit the juice… roid up big time!! needle in keister is what’s keeping that guy back! get it 😉

Good column, bud!
Posted By: theHomewrecker!

Always a pleasure, Homewrecker!

I have to opt out of the return of the Hardcore Title. Look, we just shut down ECW; if we wanted to do Hardcore, we had a whole friggin brand with which to do it, but no, let’s piss away that whole option. It’s just as well though, which is reason #2 why I’m opposed to even addressing The HCT, WWE never got how to do hardcore above the “Extreme LCD” level of hardcore of, say, New Jack. Do I like New Jack? Absolutely not, although my bladder certainly owes quite many moments of relief to his showing up on an original ECW broadcast. New Jack is a hardcore one note who, once his cat of slamming vacuum cleaners into the splayed crotches of his opponents became benign, took to jumping off of increasingly-higher indoor platforms to maintain fans’ interest. Do I like New Jack? No. Do I respect for twisted brand of bravery? Absolutely. But neither do I want to see some guy kill himself to continue to be relevant in a world in which he clearly doesn’t belong, lest he have to reach to such extremes.

Back to point, though, New Jack’s original concept of hardcore, it would seem, became indelibly tattooed on Vince’s brain of what it meant to be “hardcore”, and so that was how hardcore action stemming from around The HCT was to be performed, the clowns at his proverbial circus. Uh-oh, it’s a WWF Hardcore Title match…see, I can tell because [name of curtain-jerking wrestler here] is bringing a trash can full of actual-to-ridiculous-on-garden-gnome-level weapons to the ring! Don’t even bring up the 24/7 rule, and if you liked it, goodie for you, keep it to yourself. It just displayed further how little respect Vince had for those who were actually working solid, more-than-garbage-match hardcore matches at the time and was a harbinger toward how out of touch the creative genius was becoming from the emerging times and trends of the business he would soon monopolize.

If WWE could, would and felt comfortable with producing hardcore old school ECW-influenced matches the likes of the classic Rob Van Dam/Jerry Lynn series, the likewise-classic Little Guido/Yoshihiro Tajiri/Super Crazy series, Lance Storm versus Jerry Lynn from Anarchy Rulz 1999, the King Of The Streets match between Yoshihiro Tajiri and Steve Corino at Hardcore Heaven 2000 or the Tommy Dreamer versus CW Anderson “I Quit” match from “Guilty As Charged 2001, I’d be mega-stoked to see the belt and the division back on TV, because, that’s the kind of hardcore that appeals to me, personally. It might not be your proverbial cup of tea, and that’s fine, too. It just seems to me that these matches tell a deeper story than simply “bring three-pound Stop sign to ring, hit opponent with said sign, hope opponent sells it well” quality of hardcore, which is largely what I always felt we got from Vince’s vision of hardcore.

Besides, now that we’re marketing to children, there’s no way WWE would allow a resurgence in hardcore beyond that which we see more of than I ever considered we might, even if it is approached more along the lines of “last resort” than status quo.

I had duplicitous intentions in suggesting the metamorphosis of The ECWT into a WWE TeleVision Title. Obviously, this is an idea I support because of all the reasons listed last week, but I also was foolishly visualizing a Creative meeting where the writers realize en masse how much easier it is to write a basic wrestling angle where the competitive drive and the desire to be a champion is enough to urge on a conflict between/among the performers who would be The WWE TVC, and collectively palmface themselves as they recognize it doesn’t have to be as hard as all that. Perhaps we’d see more of it as a consequence…? Yeah, I know…lemme dream.

Your “total package” concept is exactly at what I was getting when I bemoaned the place WWE currently finds itself as a result of its’ owner’s seemingly-obsessive desire to play god of his own autocracy. This has been mentioned here before, but it still rings true and is a key point with respect to why the quality of WWE
has undergone a fundamental downturn; when WWE bought it’s competition into non-existence, it also shot itself in the foot because it lost it’s feeder system, ie, the process by which rough, indie talent comes to hone his craft until such time that he deserves the spot on the roster of the largest professional wrestling company in the world. No, The WWF made WCW redundant at the same time as ECW went bankrupt and, in short order, realized the abject necessity to begin sowing its’ own seeds, though discovered this process entailed quite a bit more than sowing seeds and hoping the sun shines. Thus, we find ourselves with the need to fatten up a roster by reason of Wellness-related suspensions, injuries, a poorly-realized Draft, etc., only to discover that, for various reasons owing to various sources, he who may have looked ready to jump to the big time is unfortunately stalling as opposed to impressing.

This, for whatever reason(s), leads to a decrease in overall standard of quality in the company’s televised product, and that, in turn, to me, hurts the integrity of the business’ name. WWE is the place where I want to turn to see performers do their thing who have already been down that “worked out the kinks” road and have their best work boots on, ready to play whatever character they bring to the company and have been allowed to keep, or to turn on their own individual brand of seasoned magic to bring alive in these new waters.

(It should be mentioned that, many of the performers who have fallen into this category in the last decade have, since their initial, premature opportunity on WWE-TV, have gone on to flesh out and season significantly their act and have emerged as hopefuls in other franchises, or even been allowed somewhat prodigal status in WWE.)

Along these lines, allow me to tell you the origin of the “Woo Woo Woo” Zack Ryder character, as was related to me by Larrold last week, and only because it’s a great illustration of what we’ve been talking about this week thus far and kinda brings it all together:

We recall when The Major Brothers were brought into the Edge/Vickie fold as The EdgeHeads, Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins, and we also recall when the team slipped into obscurity after their place in the grand scheme of Edge’s World Title run had played its’ course.

WWE Creative suggested to the two of them that, during their hiatus from WWE-TV, they go home, chill out and try to come up with something they could do, someplace they could either take their existing personas, or to create something else altogether and that they’d evaluate what they had once they returned.

Ryder was trained by former ECW Triple-Crown winner Mikey Whipwreck, so he went back to his mentor and explained his dilemma, asking for advice. It turned out, and I’m paraphrasing and compacting the process here for brevity’s sake, they were hanging out brainstorming and they ended up noticing a bunch of stereotypical Jersey Shore-type guido douchebags and a light bulb went on over Ryder’s head. As it turned out, Ryder could manage a pretty decent imitation of those types of guys, put together a suitable outfit and cut his hair, such that, when he reported to FCW as requested, he was so entrenched in such a different character, John Laurenitiis had no idea who he was and had to be re-introduced to Ryder (make your own joke about Laurinaitis not recognizing contracted talent…I sure did). In fact, WWE personnel was so impressed with the metamorphosis, the same thing went down when Ryder was brought in front of Vince McMahon, the boss had no idea who Ryder was (again, make your own joke).

The fact and the point of the story is, this is an example of Creative giving an assignment to its’ performers (and if you wanna call it passing the buck, you won’t get an argument from me) and seeing two different things happen – Ryder creates a new identity for himself completely indistinguishable from his last persona and makes it onto TV whereas his partner, Hawkins, came up with nothing and is apparently hanging by his fingernails still down in developmental.

Abyss should keep his mouth shut he reminds me of eugene he is no longer intimidating. Desmond Wolf had a fantastic debut he should really be in the main event. Aj Styles has progressed a lot since being under the tutelage of ric flair he isn’t ric flair lite more like Aj stylin and profilin. The TNa originals really do deserve to have a platform to showcase their talents on. To me TNa is Styles, Daniels, Lethal Consequences, Beer Money, Samoa Joe,Eric Young, MCMG, and Amazing RED. WWE is also full of talent taking a backseat to more established stars. TNA and WWE are both guilty of holding down younger talent. Jack Swagger, Shelton Benjamin, Christian, Ted Debiase,Evan Bourne, Dolph Ziggler, even the Miz and JOhn Morrison to a degree. These are the guys that should be holding world championships. John Cena and Batista accomplished too much too quickly. They reside in the same category as triple H and Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker. These are men that under no circumstances should be interacting with eachother. Guys like Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, Edge,Cm Punk, and even Kane and the Big Show are second rate to the triple H’s, Shawn Michaels, John Cena’s and Underttaker’s of the company and why? because the writers are just resting on the laurels of past success. Its easy to give the undertaker the belt and let him strike fear into his opponents. Its easy to throw triple h in the ring with whoever and call him a superstar because he battled the rock and steve austin ten years ago. Jack Swagger needs new ring attire. period. Evan Bourne needs a new haircut.period. Shelton Benjamin needs a whole new gimmick.new character, new look. New agenda. Make him title hungry.Keep his words to a minimum and he could be a poseable threat. Just give christian an oppurtunity. if he is given the ball he will run with it.
Posted By: the rest’ler

Wow, that’s a lot to digest…here, friends, is a man with opinions!

I agree to a point in Abyss’ case. He came to TNA in a sort of (early) Kane/Mankind classification to more of a Eugene/Missing Link classification once the company decided it wanted to diversify and expand upon his character. I understand the desire and need to flesh out a somewhat static character for the long haul, but this always comes at the risk of toying with the whole “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” POV, and, as we’ve seen in Abyss’ case, taming the beast to a degree. This will intrigue some and alienate others.

TNA appears to have taken pains to draw parallels between Mick Foley and “Chris Abyss”, one would assume to afford Abyss the same quality of loveable transformation from monster to teddy bear the Mankind character enjoyed a decade or so ago in The WWF. The question is, can they pull it off? Does the man behind the mask have the same personality that will be seen as loveable, as did Foley? Considering the fact that Hogan has gone on the record and said that Abyss is “his own personal Cena”, there are some definite plans in the works for this character, it would seem, so this is an experiment that is far from over.

I agree that Wolfe is a spectacular talent. I, too, agree, that he should find himself circumnavigating the top of the card as one of the franchise’s top performers, but I’m getting mixed reports concerning exactly how well-valued he is to the current TNA regime. Time will tell if his swerve to sign with TNA will pay off for him.

I was discussing the Styles/Flair connection last week and we both pretty much agree that Styles is going to have to go way overboard in the whole “Lil Naitch” gimmick before he finds a happy mid-point to settle into. Given that Styles has always allowed his exceptional ringwork to do the majority of his speaking for him, the fact that he’s doing as well as he is in becoming Lil Naitch has been fun and impressive thus far, for the most part, although there have been some rough patches. I’m confident that he’ll settle in to this new role, I jus wish we could have found something a little more organic and immediately well-suited to Styles if we wanted to turn him heel than yet another “TNA gimmick inheritance” angle.

I think we all have our own list of personal favorite individuals we’d like to see spotlighted in the “new” TNA (and, for the record, rest’ler, our lists sync up pretty closely), and many of us still believe those performers who busted their asses to help keep the company on the map should be featured among them. The sad truth is, that’s juts not how it’s going down, and it strikes me that the current regime is very well aware of that fact and, frankly, doesn’t care. I don’t think it’s really anything personal between ruling body and performer, I just think they have an idea of what they think, in their experience, will help to get TNA to the next level and they just don’t think certain performers have what it takes to hang under their reign. As I can hear them saying, “It’s just business.” Of course, as fans, it doesn’t mean we have to like it.

In fact, if you have a look at the current TNA roster, it strikes me that, of the 45 contracted, active performers, a mere 25 of them are being used regularly, and only Abyss, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and Eric Young really “count” as being TNA “Originals” (and I stretched it there in Joe’s favor). Make of that what you will.

While TNA appears to have its’ own game plan in place, it seems to me that WWE is more interested in focusing on new stars these days more than it has been over the entire past decade. Let’s have a look at the young WWE talent you mentioned:

Jack Swagger – I’m with you on this one, brother. I think the guy’s got a great upside, notwithstanding that whole vanilla gorilla thing he does on his way to the ring that makes him look like a retarded little kid about to get poo flung at him at the monkey cage. But somewhere along the line, Swagger offended the powers that be in Titan Towers and that’s seen his stock plummet in WWE. If I recall correctly, the issue was with his ring work, which just completely befuddles me, because I’ve always found him to be quite proficient and able. What sucks is, if it’s not his character or some other such piece of the puzzle, that it comes down to his work, he may not get another chance to rise above and re-prove himself, especially considering his whole gimmick is the fact that he’s such a well-decorated collegiate athlete.

Shelton Benjamin – Benji has been a stop-start talent since he was first prematurely broken out of Team Angle way back in the day. Just as he’d get on a roll, he’d wank a high-risk move that would endanger either/both himself and/or a fellow performer and that encouraged McMahonagement to reel him in some which has never done his forward momentum any favors. The fact that he’s traditionally uneven on the mic hasn’t served him well, either. One week, he’d lie down a solid little promo, then the next join the commentators at the desk and be awkward and uncomfortable to listen to, again prompting a slow-down on any push he may have been enjoying at the time.

While ECW is popularly known for being as WWE’s televised developmental, it also became the home for established names who needed a restart/boost, which is why Benjamin ended up there. With ECW now down the tubes, something will have to be done with Benjamin and, what McMahonagement decides to do with him will be quite telling with respect to exactly where he stands in today’s landscape.

Christian – Period, point blank, Vince McMahon does not see “STAR” when he looks at Christian, which is why he never got the fair shake so many of us felt he deserved before bailing to TNA in an attempt to find the stardom WWE was apparently not going to allow him. Having made it to the top of ECW appears to have done little to rattle Vince’s belief that Christian has no place at the top of the card, although, again, with ECW done and Christian managing to hold onto The ECWT for virtually his entire second WWE tenure since having returned from Orlando, it should be interesting to see what happens in his regard once he joins SmackDown! (if the rumors prove to be correct, which I hope happens, because he’ll be lost on Raw).

Ted DiBiase – If it’s a push for this fellow you want, hold onto your replica belt, wrestling fan, because Legacy is THIS CLOSE to splitting and the rumor since Hogan had hair is that DiBiase is coming out the big winner.

Evan Bourne – There’s one huge reason why Evan Bourne currently plays the role he plays (you know what I’m talking about), and that’s because he’s a regular contributor to Vince’s Wellness Green Tax. Bourne enjoys the herbage, friends, and Vince will not push anyone with the entire Cheech & Chong library downloaded to their iPod (never mind the fact that he’ll happily sign them up to co-host his flagship show). This is the same thing that happened to Brian Kendrick’s solo career in WWE and a large part of why Booker T bailed out to TNA at the hottest point of his WWE career. I’m just going to end this now before I start off on a rant.

Dolph Ziggler – Here’s another guy who finds himself sitting next to Swagger in the back at supershows and for apparently the same reason. Furthermore, Ziggler is one of those guys who was given the lamest name/gimmick combination of them all, yet still managed to get over (to a degree) because McMahonagement apparently believed in him enough to push him. Even I, looking at this Spirit Squad refugee, was not excited about seeing him again, and especially when the most interesting thing allowed him to do to set him apart was to introduce himself to people backstage ad nauseum. However, Mr. Ziggles is a scrappy performer and I love the fact that he can hang with a guy named Kane using honest, bah gawd rasslin. That makes me look forward to seeing the guy on TV, and, of course, once I’ve been won over, it’s then that McMahonagement decides he’s the neo-Billy Gunn sans the periodic retooling and re-push. I don’t know what to say.

The Miz – The Miz, IMO, has graduated from the bottom rung and into the “genuinely pushed talent” category. The kid’s been a continuous project on the flagship show since last year’s Draft and he’s delivered. Love him or hate him, you have an opinion about him. You’re either stoked to see him as a duel champion or it pisses you off. Guess what, friends? THAT’S good booking backing a good character. The Miz has arrived.

John Morrison – I think we can accept Morrison as having been successfully pushed into the fan favorite mid-card, too, although, did anyone else notice that, once The Undertaker returned to SmackDown!, that Morrison’s meteoric push cooled significantly? And I’m really wondering what’s up with this whole ankle thing…? If McMahonagement didn’t want to go the route of replacing Morrison in The Elimination Chamber match with Shawn Michaels, as was Spanky Hamm‘s prediction last week (and one I found to be absolutely BRILLIANT, by the way!), then what’s going on with this faux-injury? Although it feels fairly obvious that Morrison’s being pushed out of the way in favor of the McMahon-approved Drew McIntyre, I still believe Morrison is pretty well on track, if not fairing quite as well as his former Dirt Sheet partner.

And that brings up another issue in terms of who gets what and how much when Chef Vince is dishing out a bowl of Push; virtually any youngster will get a shot to prove himself, but only those whom Vince himself identifies with will really be allowed the keys to move up the ladder. This is why we see so many carbon-copies coming from developmental these days, because Vince has a very specific idea of who he wants to see heading up the ranks in his company, how they are to present themselves, how they talk, what kind of moveset they possess, and, this is just personal speculation, it’s my hunch that it all stems back to what kind of wrestler Vince wanted to be when he first started with the company under his father, but dad disallowed his son from getting in the ring. There’s no one to tell Vince no now, but, as he ages to the point such that even he has to realize he can’t get in the ring and go to a satisfactory end (outside of the odd WrestleMania Sports Entertainment Bonanza), he’s now heading into “stage mom” territory, hyper-doting over young talent he means to groom to send to the top, whether the fans necessarily are on board or not, preferring to fritter away their time cheering “nobodies” like Christian and Evan Bourne.

I expect this issue to get worse the longer Vince is “in office”, because he’s clearly not getting any better along these lines and has managed to create a hierarchy of yes people surrounding him to make sure he feels comfortable in his decisions…that, and, anyone who dares oppose his grand scheme generally finds themselves future endeavor’ed. And now that The Hogan/Bischoff Regime is firmly in Dixie’s ear, if a performer doesn’t fit the mold in either camp, they’d better hope they can make it in RoH or have a taste for Japanese or Mexican cuisine.

Funny how, in having given fans and the boys more options, we’ve seen a dual hierarchy of hyper-control created to further tighten the grip on what it takes to make it in the American market.

Great article as always I liked the format this week looking at the three big shows of the week.

I think you would have offered up a different opinion of the Wolfe Dinero match if you had seen Dinero beat AJ in a spectacular match the week before.

And with the Bischoff thing I like it. He is not a heel or face right now. He and Hogan seem to be doing a good cop bad cop routine of sorts. Bisch comes in with some baggage in regards to Jarrett and Foley and I like that they are toying with it.

Posted By: Carnivore

The thing with the whole “Good cop/Bad cop” scenario, though, Carnivore, is that they both take a different route to find the same end, just that the dual psychologies work one way or the other to achieve optimum results. What it seems we’re seeing in Hogan and Bischoff’s regard thus far since having taken over the reins in TNA, is that Hogan’s on-air character appears to be doing whatever he can to assure the performers on the roster that he’s in it for them and the betterment of the franchise overall; juxtapose that with Bischoff who appears to be using his position as a means to lord his newfound power over those whom he never liked in the first place, have gone on to achieve success since having been forced to deal with him the last time he held such power and have talked a ration of shit about him ever since. It feels as if he’s the cat delighted to have these self-same mice with which to play and it’s his intention to make it as uncomfortable and humiliating as possible before he finally cuts them loose.

One wonders if Hogan is aware of the things Bischoff is doing and the way he’s doing it while he’s holding court in Hogan’s office? One wonders of we might see a split between the two of them on-air as a result, leading to a certain amount of faction warfare with the old allies against one another…?

I want to support TNA in concept, because there are a lot of talented wrestlers who would never get their shot with WWE. And without decent paydays, there is no next generation of wrestlers. And competition could improve booking.

But I have a problem with a company that has the Nasty Boys go over anybody. I can’t support a company where the Nasty Boys can make fun of guys backstage, questioning if they will even have a job soon. Of course, they only felt secure enough to do so because they were standing next to Hogan.

There should be no universe where guys like the Nastys feel secure enough to make fun of anybody. These guys couldn’t even hold jobs on their own.

So it is kind of a conundrum. I like Daniels, Styles, and Joe (when he cares). Some of the new direction is interesting. Ken Anderson is a positive for now, although how much remains to be seen. Yet a company that gives airtime to ‘The Band’ and Nastys should suffer.
Posted By: Guest#8737

Oh, my bruh-thuh…TESTIFY!!!

That’s all for this week, unfortunately. Thanks for reading!
RESPEEEECK!