wrestling / Columns
High Road/Low Road 08.03.07: Hornswoggle as Cruiserweight Champion
Welcome back to the High Road/Low Road! A brief explanation of the column: Uncle Trunx takes the Low Road (negative view) on angles, gimmicks, and other wrestling related “stuff” while Sat takes the High Road (positive view).
The Results for The Great Khali as the World Champion:
High Road: 38%
Low Road: 54%
Both Roads: 09%
The Sandman Column:
So some of you may have noticed that our spare column went up on Wednesday by accident. It was too late to take it down, so it stayed up. We received a bunch of e-mails to that column and they will be included in next week’s column.
E-Mails:
These are all of the e-mails that we received this week. We do not respond to the actual e-mail, but the reply to your e-mail will be below.
Luke Davey Writes:
I am absolutely voting HIGH ROAD for this. Although I often agree with Uncle Trunx and respect his opinions, this time around I don’t believe his criticisms hold much water.
First of all, I’d like to mention that Andre the Giant DID have a world title reign, albeit for a couple of minutes before he sold the belt to DiBiase, leading to the tournament which Savage won. And Andre beat Hogan to win the belt, so that’s pretty decent. By that point, he couldn’t really move so it’s understandable he wouldn’t be champ for long, though I haven’t seen what he was like in his physical prime so I can’t say whether he was willing of a longer reign during his heyday.
As for British Bulldog, I’d love to have seen him win a World title. In fact, technically he should have because he had Triple H down for the three-count in 1999, but The Rock stopped at two. But you must remember that Smith was runner-up (and pre-swerve winner) of the Royal Rumble and was Intercontinental Champion when the title was considered almost as big a deal as the World Championship, as well as European champion when it meant something. So it’s not like Bulldog has nothing to show for his troubles. Same goes for Owen Hart – though he should (and would) have won a World Championship, he was one of a smaller list of King Of The Ring winners instead, so he made his mark as well.
Now, onto Khali as champion. First of all, I must say that I was not initially pleased to hear he was champion (though I was kind of pleased for HIM because I hear he’s a good bloke), so don’t go thinking I’m some sort of Khali mark or someone who’ll defend anything, because that’s not me. By the way, I also fully endorse Hornswoggle being Cruiserweight champion, so take that for what it’s worth. 😛 But there are logical reasons for both (I won’t go into the Hornswoggle stuff because that’s not the issue at hand). The main (only?) reason I have in regards to your comments is this – I think it’s downright irresponsible to go for the “couldn’t they just get someone from Raw?” argument. For the longest time, people have been complaining that Raw guys go to SmackDown unannounced and win their titles ahead of their workers, making them look like chumps. For the last year, the brand split has been considered a joke because people would just chop and change as they please. Now that WWE has finally decided to use the talent they have on each show, it’s being criticized because Khali is a limited worker. I don’t like this level of flexibility, and I find it hypocritical and detrimentally subjective.
On top of that, I happen to like his crappy promos and he’s MORE than competent in the ring. He’s still rubbish, but he’s at least become safe and he’s working things out for himself at last. He’ll never be an in-ring general, but it’s impossible to deny he’s stepped his game up considerably since he entered the world title scene. Cena certainly helped with that, but Khali has looked good in both the battle royal and the Great American Bash. As long as he’s consistently with decent-to-good opponents and doesn’t have a reign that lasts beyond Survivor Series (I would say he should drop the belt at SummerSlam, but I desperately want Orton to win there and Punk may well take the ECW title so it’s not likely the three belts will change hands in one night), he should be a decent champion. One final thing to remember is that the best ‘champion’ isn’t always the best ‘wrestler’, and vice versa. That’s why the useless (most of the time) Hogan is the immortal one while Chris Jericho is considered a bit of a flop. Just give him time, and if he fails then so be it.
Sat: You make some good points. Hogan was a great champ and he sucks as a wrestler. Plus, Khali has improved ten fold since his arrival and he has been putting on a ton of good matches. And we’ll probably get another e-mail from you because this week’s topic is Hornswoggle.
Uncle Trunx: Indeed, you can now address the Hornswoggle issue!
I’m never sure whether or not to include André’s 30 seconds with the belt; some do, some don’t. Either way, it certainly wasn’t a title reign like Khali is getting. I’m also all for keeping people on the brand they’re assigned to, but WWE is clearly not sticking to this policy so if it’s going to be utterly disregarded, why not do so here instead of putting it on a guy who isn’t ready, just because he’s huge?
Khali may have improved a lot but I still don’t think he’s world champ material yet. As I said, he’s now got to carry the brand, something he’s not ready for even if he is significantly better than he was.
JBBTHWK Writes:
in Response to the stamina remark. it is believable for a well trained athlete to win a long one-night tournament, remember when Ken Shamrock won that tournament for the IC title by beating 3 men in one night? btw I’m going High Road because it makes sense for Khali to win, 1: in a Battle Royal the Giant should win, I mean Andre the Giant in his entire illustrious career never lost a Battle Royal that he participated in. and 2: Khali unlike Kane,Batista & Henry has proven to be durable. I mean unlike 2 of the other 3, he has only had what……1 or 2 injuries in his career. and Khali unlike Kane has been built up to be a “Maul the world” Monster. he was really the only conceivable aspect to win since they were doing a whole angle with Batista not being able to get another Title shot for them to just hurry up and put the title on him.
What about a column on Upper-mid card guys getting a title shot. like do one for TNA and one for WWE. like the WWE one could be about Matt Hardy as to while he should and shouldn’t get a title shot. and TNA could be about Chris Harris or James Storm. or perhaps about how TNA has really botched their angles thus far this year.
Sat: As I wrote last week, SmackDown is cursed and the best thing to do is to put it on the guy that is the least likely to get injured. And your suggestions have been noted. No guarantees on if they will happen, but we will try to make an effort.
Uncle Trunx: I’m not convinced that Khali is any less injury prone than anyone else. I suppose there’s some logic in it, given that he doesn’t sell, doesn’t take bumps more than once a decade and only does three moves. However, I fail to see how that makes him a great champ.
I
like the idea for a Column. I’d like to see guys like Finlay and Regal getting into the main event mix, mostly because whoever they’re up against, they make look good.
Jarkota Writes:
I picked Both Roads because I can see both positive and negative things happening here. Khali as Champ will give guys like ‘Taker and Edge time to recover from their injuries and give everyone in the title scene, both heel and face, a monstrous challenger to have to overcome. However, as Trunx said, it could also reinforce the negative view of the WWE and wrestling in general that non-fans seem to have. I mean, having a huge, monstrous, freakish Champion almost screams “Steroids!” to some people.
All that said, I will finish by stating that, in my own opinion, as long as they keep throwing challengers at Khali that can make him look good, this may not be as bad as some think. (And if they can consistently make Cena look good, they can probably pull this off.)
Sat: I agree with you that positive and negative things can happen here, but I think that the positives outweigh the negatives.
Uncle Trunx: I think the negatives outweigh the positives. I do accept that there is a ready made challenger in Undertaker for when he comes back but I fear that’ll be too long to keep any interest in Khali squashing folks. Khali vs Batista is a match made in Hell.
Jeff in Toledo OH Writes:
I am definitely taking the high road on Khali. I like him because he’s different. Give me Khali any day over the same old crap, like Umaga, Batista, Chuck Palumbo. I think people are judging Khali by the wrong standards. J.R. in his blog referred to Khali as an “attraction” like Andre. Of course he should not be judged in the way that you would judge HHH, Edge, Cena, etc. Khali’s appearance is his appeal, he’s a monster. You don’t see guys like that on the street (at least not around here).
Speaking of Andre, no offense to him, but I think a lot of people are looking back at his in-ring work through rose-colored glasses. Khali is much more agile than Andre was. And who’s to say that he is allowed to use all the moves he knows? We know that most of the wrestlers’ movesets are being restricted by WWE management.
Khali can’t talk? Neither could Andre and I think he did alright. I think Khali is funny already. I watch the shows to enjoy myself, to have a few laughs. Seeing Khali toss around people like ragdolls is entertaining to me. Of course your mileage may vary.
I think it was a great point about Khali drawing Indian fans. Don’t underestimate the economic power of that. If he ever becomes a face it will be interesting to see if his appeal takes off internationally, at least in Southeast Asia.
I know I’m probably in the minority but I’d rather watch Khali than most of the other talent. He’s just more interesting to me. I’m not saying he should have a long, HHH-type reign, but I don’t think short title runs here and there are anything to complain about. He’s different. Different is good.
Besides, the haters shouldn’t worry since Rey Mysterio is coming back, undoubtedly to be put over in his second death push (Eddie, Chris). Maybe they’ll have Rey beat Khali all by himself. Then the low roaders will be happy.
Sat: Man you make some great points. First, I have seen a few of Andre’s matches and they suck. It’s like the guy gets better with each passing year. The reason that I put the Indian fans thing in there is that I think that it is a legitimate point. India has the second largest population in the world and it is place that hasn’t really been targeted.
Uncle Trunx: André in his prime was 1,000 times the worker Khali is now; he was agile and fast as well as being a monster. Judging André by his ‘80s work is like judging Ric Flair by his past year or so. It’s by no means the whole picture.
Mr. Katapat Writes:
For months I have heard all of the condescending remarks about Khali: slow, immobile, can’t cut a promo, etc. He needs a manager…yes. But the WWE is sour on those mostly (e.g. Umaga).
He is supposed to be a monster who basically beats people up. It is pretty believable to me. To have him win a battle royal is completely believable. I would have personally loved to see Matt Hardy win the big one, but they don’t seem to have enough faith in him…yet. If they didn’t believe in Batista or Kane, Hardy certainly was not going to get the nod. With Edge and the Undertaker on the mend, the WWE needed someone who the casual fan would believe as a world champion. I think they concentrate more on them since there are so many more of them to manipulate.
The bigger question is how are they going to get the title off of him. I am really interested in how that is going to unfold. Kennedy has been moved to RAW. Batista is swimming upstream. Kane has not been a threat in a long time although I would have loved for him to get another title reign as a good “company man”. That leaves, in my opinion, Hardy or MVP.
I do not have enough faith to think that the writers will wrap this up in a logical manner. Khali could enjoy the title until Survivor Series and maybe until the Rumble losing the title to a returning Edge or Undertaker. I would hold my breath for anything that makes sense.
Thumbs up = high road
Sat: The Great Khali is perfect at what he is supposed to do and that is beat people up. He is not supposed to be a technical wrestler. I think the one concern that you make is valid, but the one thing that I am sure about is that the person that beats him will become a star.
Uncle Trunx: He’s great at what he’s supposed to do, no question. However, I don’t think that what he does is suitable for the main event, at least not yet. I accept that whoever beats him will become a huge star, but he didn’t need the world title for that to be the case.
LEAON PENSINGER Writes:
the hulkster couldn’t and still cant wrestle but he is my favorite of all time! khali is being branded in that same way. not a hero but a monster who doesn’t have to wrestle and will dominate
Sat: Excellent point. Somebody else also mentioned this. It would have made a great High Road.
Uncle Trunx: Hulk Hogan had a presence and a charisma about him. Hulk Hogan was also able to wrestle a bit when he needed, and had considerable more versatility to him. I’d compare Hogan to John Cena rather than Khali; not the greatest worker in the world, but a ton of charisma and the “it” factor.
James Jackson Writes:
Gentlemen I’ll try to keep this one short. I went Low Road on the Great Khali as Champion, particularly if his title reign is scheduled to last past SummerSlam.
The Great Khali, while a huge dominant monster heel is not the person you want to represent the WWE to the public as champion right now. With all the problems the WWE is going through with the backlash from the Benoit tragedy, Congress now demanding documentation of WWE’s Wellness Policy and testing procedures, low ratings for WWE programming, idiot’s working in creative and the injury bug (Edge, Lashley, HBK, HHH). The WWE needs all of their champions to have clean “Wellness” records and Khali doesn’t. They need their champion to be able to articulately represent the WWE in the media. They need a champion who can work with a more fully composition of the roster. Whether you like him or not John Cena is articulate, great on the stick, can wrestle gimmick or standard matches. Cena is good looking and has a steady fan base, even it if is women and children. Last I checked women and children are paying customers, order PPVs, buy t-shirts, posters, and merchandise.
I think a short reign won’t hurt if they use it to elevate a talent like Matt Hardy, Mark Henry or even MVP. If necessary put the title back on Batista. I think giving the ball to Matt Hardy is the boldest and most risky proposition but what do they really have to lose, they’ve given the belt to Khali already. Hardy isn’t a Wellness victim, he’s a mainstay in the WWE and it could set-up the big baby face finally gets a break after all his hardship story (like Rey Mysterio). It would also set-up a natural rematch between a returning Edge and Matt Hardy with all of their backstory and history. Matt Hardy wearing the belt also gives you the opportunity to put the title on Mark Henry, MVP and even Rey Mysterio at some point in the future.
Okay maybe this isn’t going to be short.
Hardy wins the belt in a gimmick match against Khali at SummerSlam. Then Hardy beats Khali in a rematch via DQ (either Hardy gets DQ for something or Khali gets DQ for freakign out and destroing his handler, referee and Hardy). This will allow the fed to suspend him for 30 days or something to move him out of the picture. Now we set up Hardy and Finlay, where Hardy goes over because of Hornswaggle not doing his job well enough. Next we look at Hardy and MVP with maybe a champion vs. champion match to settle their rubber match. This will test the drawing power of MVP and Hardy. Depending on Edge’s recovery he can pop up before Survivor Series to mess with Hardy. Maybe even have Edge save Hardy’s title in a rematch with Khali again or against MVP. Edge challenges Hardy for Suvivor Series to win his title back. Edge can use the Lita stuff, with something like I made your “bitch” my “bitch” now I’m going to make you “my bitch” and get my title back!However it works out you can take the title off Khali and elevate MVP and Matt Hardy at the same time, all the while waiting for Edge to get back.
Anywho…there are other guys who should be given the ball to run with on SmackDown who look better than Khali, can wrestle better than Khali, can talk better than Khali and would represent the brand and the Company much better during this time of recovery. I don’t think anyone thinks Khali is the future of the fed, but guys like Edge, Hardy, MVP maybe so why not give it a test run now, when there isn’t much more to lose.
Sat: I sent this to Uncle Trunx late Wednesday, so he probably didn’t download the correct version. Anyways, both of our replies will be included in next week’s column.
Hornswoggle as the Cruiserweight Champion
High Road:
One of the things that I keep hearing about Hornswoggle as the cruiser weight champion is that his win has devalued the cruiser weight. I have to completely disagree with this. The title was devalued before he won the title. Jacqueline had a run as the cruiserweight champion. Chavo Classic had a run with the cruiserweight title. And Funaki won the title out of nowhere. The title has already been devalued and I would say that Hornswoggle is a better champion than all of the competitors that I named.
Low Road:
David Arquette won the World title. Does that mean that it’s acceptable to throw it on anyone? Surely what has to be done to make the Cruiserweight belt mean something is for it to be fought over by wrestlers who value it, for it to be the subject of an intense rivalry between great wrestlers. Treating it as the title they can throw on anyone means it will remain worthless.
High Road:
Nobody has cared about the cruiser weight title in a long time, but if you watch Hornswoggle’s first title defense, it shows that people are caring about Hornswoggle’s run as champion. Hornswoggle’s run as champion can create some excitement for the fans and get the fans interested in the cruiser weight title.
Low Road:
Yes, fans are interested in the same way as they were interested in the Hardcore title when the Headbangers fought for it in a children’s play area. The title of any given division is the ultimate aspiration of wrestlers in that division; being contested as a comedy belt makes it a little bit of comic relief, and thus all Cruiserweights are seen as such.
High Road:
Chavo Guerrero needed to lose the title because he is going to be feuding with Rey Mysterio. You can’t have them feuding over the cruiserweight title because that is going backwards for Rey Mysterio. The WWE needed to get the title off of Chavo Guerrero and Hornswoggle was the best option.
Low Road:
How on earth was Hornswoggle the best option? Did they somehow forget that they’ve got a division of cruiserweights and think that they’d put it on Finlay’s comedy sidekick to kickstart the Cruiserweight division? Is this somehow supposed to add legitimacy and prestige to the belt? All I can think is that it shows what WWE really thinks of Cruiserweights. Whether this is deliberate or not is irrelevant; the sad truth is that Cruiserweights will always be seen as a throwaway part of WWE programming.
High Road:
Jamie Noble is a great wrestler, but I have never seen a reason to be interested in him. Before Hornswoggle pinned Noble to become the cruiser weight champion, Jamie Noble was one of those guys that would show up once in a blue moon and nobody would care. Now with his losses to Hornswoggle, Jamie Noble is an interesting character. I think that with Jamie Noble chasing Hornswoggle for the title will help both people. So far, I think that Jamie Noble has not lost any credibility because the two losses were questionable. If anything, Jamie Noble will become an interesting character when he finally beats the crap out of Hornswoggle. Hornswoggle’s title reign will help start getting the fans interested in Jamie Noble.
Low Road:
To me, Jamie Noble is now the guy who lost to the comedy sidekick of Finlay. That, to me, is not a positive career move, it’s a step down the career ladder to “job boy”.
High Road:
The WWE does not have that many wrestlers that can be considered legitimate cruiserweight. Sure they could have taken the road of having a guy win the title out of nowhere, but we have seen that multiple times and that helps nobody. With Hornswoggle’s title win, it helps to create some excitement and the guy that beats him is really going to benefit because Hornswoggle is over with the fans and the fans will hate the person that beats Hornswoggle because they technically beat up a midget.
Low Road:
Hornswoggle won it out of nowhere! If they’re trying to re-use the King Kong Bundy booking from Wrestlemania III to get someone over as a bad guy who beats up midgets, they really need not sacrifice the Cruiserweight belt to do it. Surely the way to create interest in a title is to book good feuds around it, not to throw it onto a comedy character and hope people get a bit of a laugh out of it.
High Road:
I was reading Fact or Fiction and Andy Clark made a great point. He said that the cruiserweight title is going to be on TV a lot more than it was and I think the reason for that is that Hornswoggle is always on TV because of Finlay. Before, we would see the title not defended for three weeks and then miraculously returning for a week or two. If anything, Hornswoggle’s title run get the cruiserweight title some deserved television time.
Low Road:
I’m all for getting the Cruiserweight belt some TV time but not like this. If WWE really cared at all about the Cruiserweight division, they’d put some attention into it, they’d play to its strengths and they’d not book it with a Comedy Character as the champion.
Are you taking the High Road or the Low Road?
High Road/Low Road Plugs
We are taking the high road on these articles so you should read them…
Alex Mattis’ The Best of the Rest
Andy Clark’s The Shimmy
Ari Berenstein’s Column of Honor
Bayani Domingo’s Truth B Told
Buy or Sell
Daniel Wilcox’s Schmozzes and Screwjobs
David, Alex, & Zach’s The Triple Threat
Fact or Fiction
J.D. Dunn’s Kayfabe Chronicles
Jeff Small’s The Thursday Small For All News Report
Joe Estee’s Keys to the Game
John Meehan’s MeeThinks Saturday Spectacular
Jordan Linkous’ Why I Love Wrestling
Julian Williams The Top Ten
Larry Csonka’s 4R’s, 4R’s PPV Edition, & Wrestler of the Week
Leonard Hayhurst ‘s The 10th Day News Report
Mathew Sforcina’s Evolution Schematic
Matt Adamson’s Destiny
Matt Short’s Navigation Log
Michael Weyer’s Shining the Spotlight.
Mike Minotti’s Can They Be Champ?
O’Dog’s Forgotten Goodness
Phill Feltham’s The Quick Talkdown
Prag-Thomlison’s Hidden Highlights
Rob Halden’s You’re An Idiot and Here’s Why
Ron Gamble’s Just S’pose
Ronny Sarnecky’s The Piledriver Report
Ryan Byers’ The Custom Made News Report
Samuel Berman’s The Independent Mid-Card & The Box in the Attic
Stephen Randle’s Wrestling News Experience
Steve Cook’s Ask 411
Stuart Carapola’s Friendly Competition & That Was Then,
Wilcox-Halden-Adamson’s The Fink’s Payload
Zac Calhoun’s The Ripple Effect
There are other articles that we didn’t list, so check them out as well.
E-mail us your reasons for taking the High Road or the Low Road and suggestions for future High Road/Low Road at [email protected]. Your reply will be included in next week’s column.
