Five-Star Conversation 05.25.10: Bret Hart, Bryan Danielson and Vickie Guerrero’s Heat

COMMENTPALOOZA
Since Bryan Danielson wasn’t on Raw this week, he will most likely go to Smackdown then… smackdown is a better choice for Bryan..
Posted By: Guest#0618

Bryan Danielson gonna be on Smackdown.. i hear he will be pushed big time.. he will return as the american dragon Bryan Danielson..
Posted By: Guest#1155

I’m not sure whether SD or Raw is a better place for [Danielson]. On one hand, after this Harts-MeriJiz (my Jericho-Miz tag team name) plays out this weekend and Jericho moves on to Cena (hopefully) and the Harts move on to whoever, there is a ready-made feud between Danielson and Miz over the US Title. However, if Danielson does not win it, I fear he has a year of tagging with Bourne in meaningless matches. However, where does he fit in on SD? McIntyre-Kofi (and maybe Christian) are going to feuding over the IC title. Personally, I think he needs a title to validate himself. I’m just not sure where he’d be better off.
Posted By: Angry Bear

In the perfect world he would kick McIntyre’s fucking head in, take the belt, and he and Kofi would feud over it. A few months ago I couldn’t wait for Danielson to finally kick Miz’s fucking head in and take his title but now I want McIntyre to be the guy after the whole Kofi thing. It’s not that I’m a kayfabe immersed casual fan who’s upset about it the way a little kid would be. I’m upset because Kofi and Christian had just had a fantastic match making the IC title that much more important looking the way Mysterio and Morrison did last year (even though the Kofi/Christian match wasn’t as good as the Morrison/Mysterio match was) and out comes McIntyre who has the title handed to him and instantly like that the shred of credibility was lost again. McIntyre is a paper champion. Literally. He won the IC title with a note.
Posted By: Teddy

Teddy, I feel your pain over The Miz having lost his UST the way he did. In terms of continuing storyline, It makes a lot of sense, as this thing between Bret and The Miz has been brewing for quite awhile, plus, for The Harts, all four, basically, to be the ones to emasculate The Miz for his impertinence by relieving him of his 30 pound burden is a great rub on paper, I just question the logic of putting The UST on a 53 year-old stroke victim. Yes, it was an amazing moment that hopefully puts a lid once and for all on Montreal, such that we all can move on from it. However, with so many kids coming up in the system at the moment, it would have been a great moment for one of them to have been the one to take the belt from him.

However, let’s not get too up in arms just yet. We all know Bret isn’t in the best of shape, The Miz will likely have a rematch clause and if Jericho can somehow derail The Hart Dynasty, such that it’s a one-on-one affair, The Miz could end up with his second UST reign by beating the holy hell out of Hart, thus earning him nuclear heat, then, Danielson could appear on Raw to gain his revenge.

(I’m writing this on Monday and Raw’s new GM is set to be announced later tonight, Abraham Washington being the front runner for the slot. It strikes me that, as a result of his highly unpopular stint on ECW, he could come to Raw with a massive chip on his shoulder with the intention of making “The WWE Universe” pay for not giving him the adoration he’s so convinced he deserves, and this angle could be the first way he displays it.)

And, yes, I think it stands to reason that we’ll see Danielson on Raw, now that we have the animosity between Cole Slaw and him reaching physical levels:

I swear to Flair, that has to be one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen in my life.

Hart Dynasty…What Hart Dynasty.

Every time i watch WWE tv I see the old, limping Bret Hart on my tv screen, with a US title…How embarrassing for the WWE!!!

WWE, give up on Old Hart and push the young kids!!!
Posted By: Big Lou From The Bronx

As a great man once said, ouch, baby, very ouch. I get what you’re saying, Lou, and, yes, I agree with Larry’s take on having allowed him The UST, but I hope I look that good when I’m 53, stroke or no stroke. Really, the fact the guy can even walk and talk is pretty phenomenal.

I think we all know what this last run for Bret is all about – forgiveness, healing and respect (cue Booker T in the background saying, “RESPEEECK…!”). We can be cynical and suggest that there’s a lot of money to be made with The Hart name back under the WWE umbrella (although there still is major reconstruction to be done with Owen’s widow, Martha), but, the older I get, the more I see how age can influence us to reprioritize the things and relationships we have, have had and lost for whatever reason.

Maybe I’m just a big softie, but these last few months, seeing Bret on Raw has forced me, personally, to completely re-evaluate the way I feel about him and his legacy. One of the topics over which The Penguin and I initially bonded was our mutual disgust of Bret Hart and the way he left The WWF, believing his own need to be remembered as the hero, the stand-up guy who always told the truth and stood up for what was right was in direct opposition to the manner in which he carried himself.

From the manner in which his career was tragically cut short to the fluke stroke that closed the door on the chance of one last match for one of the best technicians ever to lace boots that would befit his legacy, Bret had a lot over which to be bitter, but that wasn’t what colored his view in so dark a shade; rather it was Montreal and his baby brother’s tragic death helping to fan the flames of his anger.

My hard-line view against Bret started to weaken during the aftermath of the whole Benoit tragedy when I saw Bret for the first time in years when he appeared live via satellite on The Larry King Show. He looked good, he looked poised and he carried about him an air of paternity that I think the wrestling world had been lacking at the time. Watching him, we knew he had to be upset, but he took it all I stride and offered, as I recall, well-measured and wise comments. At that moment, watching that program at a time when I knew I was gobsmacked and grief-stricken, I started thinking maybe there was more to Bret than we were all allowed, for this reason or that, we hadn’t really seen (and yes, I know the difference between kayfabe characters and the reality of a human being playing such a role).

It also stands to reason, why my opinion was such of Bret, considering that I was a big time Shawn Michaels/d-generation-X mark, and that the whole “Is it real? Is it scripted?” drama that unfolded between them became and remains my favorite feud for just those reasons. We knew there was a genuine distaste between Bret and Shawn, but how much was put on and how much was overblown for the cameras? However, when it all blew up in Montreal, I sided squarely with HBK, with HHH and with Vince, believing that Bret had, indeed, screwed Bret, especially by jumping to WCW, where it made me want to question his intelligence in believing that Bischoff had big things in store for him when all he’d managed to do was put himself right back in Hogan’s shadow.

But, as I said, priorities change with lessons learned and as the fire and brashness of youth diminish. I also might suggest Bret’s had a lot of time to reconsider the angles of his past, to see situations beyond his own pride and to reconcile with the notion that life isn’t always fair, no matter how righteously we live our lives. HBK has done the same, because I’m not trying to hold him up as if he was ever an angel, especially back in those days, where we all know now, as he will admit himself, that he had quite the capacity to be a raging, selfish, drug-addled tit.

All this to say, speaking just for myself, younger or less-concerned viewers likely were bored to tears over the Bret/HBK hugfest to which we were treated upon Bret’s return, and, having not been there to experience firsthand the drama that unfolded week after week, month after month, I don’t blame them for not having been as emotionally invested in what we saw as they buried the proverbial hatchet. But here’s what struck me about that – Bret talked for years about how important it was for him to be the hero his fans wanted and needed him to be.

My main gripe over his WWF exit, when he threw a tantrum of epic proportions in front of that Montreal crowd, destroying thousands of dollars worth of equipment then went backstage and cold cocked his former owner and friend in front of his son, that made me wonder if Bret really knew what makes a hero. At least Michaels had the temerity to state flatly and plainly that there wasn’t a soul in the dressing room kids should look up to. In having come back to WWE and been that bigger man and mended so many fences, not only have we, the fans, been allowed to see something we very rarely see, both in this profession as well as life in general, we have been shown the actions of a true hero, if we choose to see it.

Incidentally, I was looking for something Bret-related on YouTube.com (and didn’t find it, which is par for the course today), but found something else I’d never seen. I thought maybe someone else might find it as interesting as I did:

Finally, if you’ve not checked out the Hart & Soul DVD, at least the Hart Family bio on the first disc, I highly recommend it. I went into it thinking, Come on, how interesting could this really be? But was quickly pulled in to what is really an amazing story, full of triumph and tragedy. Check it out.

You’re a fan of Vickie Guerrero so you should be the last person saying anyone is getting X-pac heat. I have no idea why you think he is getting X-pac heat. The character and booking of Drew Mcintyre has made it so he would have to have very little talent in order to not be hated by the audience at this point. In fact, it’s refreshing to see a heel that doesn’t insult the audience every single week that’s over.

I honestly don’t get the hatred of WWE’s product from people now. Is it because people hate good storylines that have a lot of continuity and somehow both have surprises while still making complete sense or the fact that they are finally able to have more than one midcard story per brand?

It’s probably because they are too busy watching Dancing with the Stars or some shit.

People are fucking stupid.
Posted By: Detective Big Lantern Ghost

I think there’s a difference between the quality of heat commonly referred to as XPac heat and the quality of heat earned by Vickie Guerrero. When I think back to when fans really turned in a big way on Sean Waltman, it struck me that WWE was legitimately attempting to push him the ladder a rung or two by making him the leader of his own stable, X-Factor, with Justin Credible and Albert, and fans weren’t buying it. There’s a fine line between catching heat because you really earn the anger and scorn of the fans and catching heat because they just wish you’d go away.

Now this could just be me, and I’ll accept it if it is, but it seems to me that the heat Vickie gets is more akin to the quality of heat we saw Roddy Piper create back during the Rock & Wrestling years, where he expressed himself in as mind-numbingly annoying a manner as he could, his voice like two cats fucking on chalkboard, such that fans wanted to crawl through their television sets to beat the hell out of him themselves. Now, really, did Piper behave in such a manner after the show when ordering dinner at Waffle House? Of course not, but did we, as fans, care or even think to care about that fact? Of course not. Why not? Because he was so convincing, in our minds, he was what he wanted us to believe he was.

I think the same is true for My MooMooCita. I think the time we saw Vickie confront Eddie about his actions during the “Dominick Has Two Daddies” program with Rey Mysterio is a lot closer to what the real Vickie is like. People tend to forget that she was a loving, long-suffering wife who had the fortitude to kick Eddie out when he was using, facing losing the man she loved in favor of being a single mother, as opposed to staying with someone who was killing himself slowly in front of her and in front of their children. That, to me, speaks of a LOT of character and strength. To be able to pick up and move on the way she has once he did finally pass, to create a career of her own and to be so exceptional at it speaks volumes, too. She could have played up the widow factor and coat-tailed her way along with Mysterio to facedom, but she’s set up a heel character so much more nuanced and unexpected instead. It’s also pretty evident that she’s having a blast more often than not playing this evil bitch character, which tells me she knows what she’s doing to make her on-air persona the heat-seeking missile that it’s become, and that’s why I respect her so much.

As far as McIntyre, we’ll see where things go now that Kofi Kingston has managed to legitimately and honestly defeat him for The UST. It seems as if Kane is going to be moving on to feud with Luke Gallows and sXs, which should serve Gallows well and should be an interesting test of his upward mobility (and if you wanna talk legitimate just-the-way-you-want-it heat, sXs is as good as it gets in the business today), so it appears as if he’ll be laying off McIntyre. But Matt Hardy proved on Sunday he’s still not forgotten what McIntyre has perpetrated on him in the past (a tribute to some of that continuity you mentioned) and one has to think Kingston and his UST will still be in that mix, too, depending upon how Mr. McMahon responds, too. It’ll be interesting to see what happens now in terms of McIntyre’s heat (as well as the quality of Kingston’s run as USC) in the coming weeks, both of which will prove very telling about the near and far-reaching futures of both men.

Geoff, I think I heard it on Lords of Pain. It would make sense for the WWE to add a couple of wrestlers to SD before the move to get the biggest audience possible.

As far as Sheamus goes, due to SD going in the fall, they could start a face turn after Summer Slam. I can picture him being double-crossed and starting to go after everybody until it gets to the point where he has to get the heels and has no motive for attacking any faces. During this period, he notices more cheers and comes to find out that he kind of likes it. I can picture him becoming a face version of JBL: A guy that is a man of the people, but is a real bruiser. He goes full face on the first SyFy SD. Perhaps a challenge to Swagger, fella? (Good one.)
Posted By: The Great Capt. Smooth

Here’s is what was actually reported….Smackdown got raided in the draft because for remainder of the Blue Brand’s stay on MyNetworkTV, they’re really just a lame duck show. There is no incentive to draw good ratings between now and October. Instead they decided to take many (not all) of their big name talents and move them to Raw to utilize them more.

Come October when Smackdown jumps to SyFy, they will get some big name talents (back?) to help the shows ratings for its debut in the fall.

I will say though the idea of completely stacking Raw the way they did on a permanent basis and making Smackdown a pseudo-ECW is also a great idea. If Raw can actually utilize all the top tier talent on every spot of the card then Raw makes it huge.

Smackdown could then in return still churn out a good show with a few big names and be focused on more wrestling like it has been doing right now.

Keeping this move permanent wouldn’t be a bad idea to be honest….

But for the sake of Smackdown and WWE’s brand presence it’s probably a good idea to beef up Smackdown in the fall so the ratings dont dip.
Posted By: Justin

It seems to me that perhaps WWE is going to take the downtime remaining with MyNetWork TV to use SmackDown! to repackage and rebuild some young and existing talent, from turning Jack Swagger into a credible main eventer (consider Orton as neo-Austin and Cena as neo-Rock on Raw, such that Swagger might become neo-Angle…?), to say nothing of Punk, firmly entrench Kingston and McIntyre, continue to develop Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler, as well. I’m not sure exactly where we’re going with MVP, JTG (are they really going to team, or was that…wait for it…a one-time deal?) or Shad Gaspard. This doesn’t sound like a bad deal at to me, especially, if all goes to plan, once SmackDown! jumps to Sy-Fy, there’s a pretty solid roster of familiar and fairly fresh talent with clearly-defined roles working on all cylinders.

Here’s a question I don’t think I’ve heard asked, though – How does anyone expect SmackDown! to perform as a continuously-running two-hour show on Tuesday nights?

But it strikes me that, before we go bringing anyone else onto SmackDown!’s roster, we should make sure we’re utilizing the pre-existing talent to his/her greatest extent. I’ll admit I haven’t actually sat down and watched last Friday’s offering, so don’t kill me if I muff this one up, but I don’t think we’ve even seen Tyler Reks or Finaly since The Draft. We saw the debut of what could be a decent tag team in Vance Archer & Curt Hawkins. And it remains to be seen if we’ll ever unmask sXs’ “Mystery Man”, even though he’s been tagging with Gallows on the house show circuit.

Schmoovester, a face turn by Sheamus followed by a jump to Tuesdays might be just what Our Fella will need at that time. I can see it occurring around the same time as SummerSlam, too, only that will be when HHH returns to repay The Gaelic Ghost for his sins, whereupon Tri will go over, but only after a rugged battle where, the next night on Raw, HHH hits the ring to announce he’s gained respect for Sheamus, because it takes a hell of a man to bring that much pain to The Game. He extends his hand and Sheamus warily takes and shakes it, but gets pulled back to a cold stare before Tri nods slowly and drops his hand. Then Sheamus is free to head to SmackDown! with something of a clean slate, but a clear and powerful rub in his history. I can see it.

I’m not a big HHH fan, but I hate how everyone misinterprets the World Heavyweight Champions’ introduction. On the night Lesnar was signed away to Smackdown, Triple H defeated The Undertaker to be crowned the #1 contender.

Stephanie signing Lesnar to an exclusive contract with the brand split meant he would not defend the belt against the rightful contender because that person was on RAW, denying Triple H his title shot.

The WWE Undisputed Championship indeed became disputed as a result. Therefore, Triple H was rightly awarded the World Heavyweight Championship. This is no different than the WBC making Lennox Lewis champion after Riddick Bowe refused to defend the belt or when they awarded it to Hasim Rahman after Vitali Klitschko continuously kept up with excuses before ultimately retiring.

If it’s legit for an actual, unscripted combat sport then it’s legit for the WWE.
Posted By: WilliamMorgan

Tournaments are the only legit way to introduce titles.

Yes its wrestling but so what. It did create heat on HHH getting the title handed to him but it also made Brock look like the “real champ”.

I think tourneys are the proper way to go. Second best way is top face vs top face jr. Sorta like a thank you to the fans.

Titles and title reigns should mean something ..but so should wrestling itself: long matches, clean finished, logical matchmaking, etc.
Posted By: MacDollarz.

This does make a certain amount of sense, William, although, if I were a boxing fan and all that went down, I’d be kinda pissed. Surprises me these guys are allowed by The WBC to behave in such a manner. Another reason I’m glad I watch a scripted sport instead.

However, I gotta go with MacDollarz on this one, although I’ll admit I’m a huge tournament fan. I can understand how such a situation as we had with HHH was designed to create heat…and did it ever…but considering this is a scripted medium, it strikes me as being almost deliberately lazy. I won’t question the outcome, just give me a good reason to get there. That’s something I’m asked often by those who “don’t get it” about why I watch professional wrestling, “If the outcome is predetermined, why do want to watch it?” First of all, I don’t know the outcome (duh!) and it’s like a road trip with your friends, it’s not so much where you’re going but how you get there that can be the best part.

Also, MacDollarz, considering it was Bischoff we were talking about in that situation, it makes a certain amount of sense that he’d go the opposite route of sending fans a thank you.

I still think that there should be one unified world champ, tag team, and women’s champ. They can float from brand to brand to spice things up. I think it would keep us from getting the same matches over and over and over for the ppvs. To compromise, I would get rid of any secondary women’s titles. There don’t appear to be enough talented women anyway (non-injured).

So in our new set-up:

Unified WWE World, Tag Team, Women’s Titles can float from show to show.

Raw has the Raw Champion and Raw TV Championship.

SD has the SD Championship and SD TV Championship.
Posted By: Angry Bear

I got a similar response via e-mail from Eric Dodson:

I still think that having an undisputed WORLD champion could and would work. You should only have 1 top man in the company. I can see having the WWE World Heavyweight Champion (with a new redesign or go back to the Undisputed title belt), then having a RAW belt, I’m all for allowing the spinner belt to stay on RAW with the RAW plate on the side. Smackdown would get to keep the WHT belt with a Smackdown 4th plate or something new added to it to distinguish it form the other WHT belt designs.

Bring the IC title back to RAW and the US title back to Smackdown. That way the IC title and WWE title (which is what the RAW title will evolve from) will be on the same brand and plus RAW is the A brand anyways have your most important titles on the A show. As well as allowing the WHT/Smackdown title to stay with the US title because they are tied together from the Mid-Atlantic days.

Tag Title, Women/Diva would be defended on both shows and PPV’s as a way to open the talent pool, and get rid of that tramp stamp lookin’ Diva’s belt.

Here is what my suggestion would be (which is pretty much the same as it was before with ECW and Smackdown turned into WCW)

Top title WWE World Heavyweight Championship – Defended on PPV’s only, leave the belt as a special attraction, the holder of the title will still wrestle on RAW/Smackdown but it would be non-title or to set up a feud or something like that.

RAW – WWE Monday Night RAW championship – RAW’s top title High upper mid-card to Main Event, Possibly automatic number 1 contender to WWE World Heavyweight Champion upon winning title at next PPV, he gets one chance no rematch clause, if RAW champion looses the match then he must defend his title a few times on PPV and RAW to get another shot at the Champion.

WWE IC Championship – Setup title to see how people would do with the RAW title. Same as before automatic number 1 contender to RAW title holder. Same stipulations as before.

Smackdown – Same thing but with the other belts.

This will give some sort of ranking system and setup PPV matches for titles without having to have some drawn out convoluted storyline. Plus if the Raw/Smackdown champ can’t beat the WWE champ then it will show them busting their asses to get another shot at the TOP title in the company, or loose their title trying, and the people they are facing have the added bonus of becoming number 1 contender to the WWE title. It would probably be lazy booking but I think it’s better then what is out there at the moment.

Pecking order would go;

WWE World Heavyweight Champion
RAW/Smackdown Champion (Number 1 contender to WWE World title)
Main-event talent/Upper Mid-card talent
IC/US Champion (Number 1 contender to Raw/Smackdown title)
Upper Mid-Card talent/ Mid-Card Talent
Superstars TV Champ (See below)
Mid-Card Talent/ Up and coming talent

Woman’s and Tag would be able to be defended at any PPV or Raw or Smackdown or Superstars. And if the champs loose on Smackdown or to a Smackdown talent they have to stay on Smackdown this will also allow wrestlers to be moved to other brands if need be.

I would also like to see a TV title made for Superstars, and it would Main Event every episode of Superstars, we are guaranteed a title match on Superstars and make it feel special. I think that they have dropped the ball with Superstars, at first it was filled with main-eventers but now it’s mostly lower mid-card to mid-card, and having a title exclusive to Superstars would make that show feel special.

I’m just throwing some ideas out there as a fan, as to see what could possibly happen. And with the way things are right now if WWE made the changes I am talking about it could make the brand split feel special or even like the regional territories back in the 70’s and 80’s when the champion would travel to each territory and challenge their top contender.

I have some conflicting thoughts about this situation, but I wanted to throw this out to the amazing 5SC readers to consider and weigh in on before I come to any concrete conclusions, so please speak your minds!

But even during the Attitude Era, no matter how short a reign was, the WWE at least seemed to put the IC title on wrestlers that at least had some real popularity with fans (most of the time). Yes, there was a time where people like Val Venis and Goldust actually had some popularity. Nowadays, the IC title is more like those participation trophies they hand out in Little League to all the players, no matter how bad their team sucked. Everyone gets one. The wrestler makes the title important, the title didn’t make the wrestler important.

In fact do fans today even care about wrestlers who aren’t at least upper-midcarders? I get the feeling that the answer is no. I get the feeling Vince could easily fire 25% (and maybe even half the roster, including all of the divas) and he would make the same amount of money with whatever is left over than if they kept them around. Heck, he’d probably fire more wrestlers, but he needs 30 men for the Royal Rumble (unless he starts doing it like the original 20 man one in 1988). People love griping about Koko B Ware being in the HOF, but at least Koko was able to do something as a jobber that even some of the midcarders today can’t do. He made fans cheer him and care.
Posted By: JLAJRC

That’s a great, albeit sad, analogy over the midcard belts, JLAJRC, although I really do think it holds truer in for The Attitude Era than it does today, the difference being that a greater portion of the WWF roster at the time was over a lot more than the majority of both of today’s rosters, so I think we’re both right. If you want to make that stick for today, I think you’d need to alter that to the tag belts, although much more so a few years ago than today.

In fact, it seems as if we’re starting to see a resurgence of tag wrestling in WWE ever since McMahonagement appears to have realized the value of having The UTTTs bounce between Raw & SmackDown!, therefore giving the belts and those who hold them greater visibility and purpose, while allowing Creative twice as much freedom as a result. Since The Draft, we’ve seen The Hart Dynasty fulfill Stop #1 of their destiny by unseating ShoMiz, plus Raw now has the following teams continuing/developing:

Chris Jericho & The Miz (Jizicho…? Again, kidding), Vladimir Kozlov & William Regal, there’s the option to keep John Morrison & R-Truth together, while on SmackDown!, sXs has the option to develop in the tag ranks, plus there’s The DudeBusters and Vance Archer & Curt Hawkins (who, like them or not, are a couple of young teams getting a shot to make something of themselves, which is exactly what The IWC has been crying about for years now).

This is what makes the notion of having a Unified Champion, as well as The Women’s Champion act as an umbrella champion over both brands…I just need to consider this stuff a bit deeper and I want to see what others think first, so get to commenting!

The last thing to consider, JLAJRC, is that not everyone can be stars, indeed, we need some of these folks to be known and familiar, but good enough to be a solid enhancement talent, with the intention of knowing how to make the true stars look as good as they can. Chris Masters may be a meathead with limited skills between the ropes, but his physic and that which he does know how to accomplish makes him look like a decent threat and it means something for someone, say, one of these NXT rookies (who, it seems, will be around after the show ends) to go over him. But I do see your point.

As a lifelong wrestling fan and avid iwc reader, I can’t tell you how please I was to read your piece this week. It seems like most websites push their own agenda in regards to what we, as fans, are supposed to consider “cool”, or the in thing to do. I applaud 411mania for not only staying agenda free, but also employing smart writers like yourself. It’s refreshing to read a site where someone can get their point across, be entertaining, and write intelligently.

I cuss like a sailor, and I don’t mind reading it. However, when every other word is “fuck” or whatever else, it detracts from the legitimacy of the writer, as well as serves to make the point seem uninformed and ignorant, simply because most intelligent adults should be able to carry on a conversation without dropping “fuck” every other word. Again, I’m not a prude, and I openly encourage free speech, it’s just that I expect people that write about wrestling for a living/major hobby to be able to get their point across without “working blue”. Again, that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy it or do it myself.

I agree with you 100% in your take on title belts. After all, pro wrestling is pre-determined, so it’s not like there are legitimate “fluke” wins. Rather, putting a title on someone is a good way to showcase that the management has faith in that performer to draw big money for them. I don’t like the PG stuff more than anyone else, but what we as fans fail to recognize sometimes that, to Vince and the other employees, it’s (as he always says) “just business”. When the market decides that we are ready for Attitude 2.0, he’ll give it to us. I know I’ll be the first in line to buy tickets.

Anyway, keep up the great work, and fuck Hulk Hogan.
Matt Baldwin

This was another e-mail I received over the course of the week and wanted to share it. Obviously, much gratitude and RESPEEEECK to Matt. It’s always great to be appreciated for one’s efforts, although, since having started writing this column here at 411Mania, it’s been a definite work in progress. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve settled into writing this column or that I’ve taken this whole turning 40 thing more seriously, or because the current product entertains to a point, though without causing me to become passionately involved in it, but I just feel as if I’ve mellowed out significantly. If nothing else, I can look at this stuff in a little more cerebral a fashion. I’ll still be wrong…LOL…but at least in so doing, I’m not screaming at the top of my voice.

Besides, hating Hogan and Bischoff has (FINALLY) come en vogue, and, ironically, for all the right reasons, so I don’t have to yell at anyone to make them understand, I’ve made peace with Bret Hart. Roddy Piper, Ed Leslie and The Nasty Boys have mercifully all gone away, so there’s really very little to actively, passionately hate. Everything else has been so conditioned over such a long amount of time or else is so futile and out of my hands to change (TNA) it just doesn’t make any sense to give myself an ulcer over it. Let the kids do that. My motto these days is to like what you like, dislike that which you don’t, hope for and exalt the best, prepare for and try to brush off the worst. Thanks again, Matt!

That’s all for this week…thanks for reading!

RESPEEEEEECK!!!