wrestling / Columns
Scripted Through Sin 7.08.08: A Summer Of Freshness?
As always, the article is written up prior to Monday morning, fixed for any errors in the links by Monday afternoon, and up in the system not long before it’s time for dinner. That particular week, the article had to undergo serious changes thanks to the results of Night of Champions going against some of my predictions, leaving me up for most of the night fixing it up to reflect those changes without completely changing the entire article. To say the least that event had left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, as well as fearful of ruining some good things they have going for them, again, by moving certain hot stars from their brands over to the live show, RAW.
The day went on like usual, only I had opted to sleep in the day. I had planned to remain in my coma like state throughout RAW as I knew I’d just download the show and burn it to disc later on, as has become my tradition while still trying to avoid overloading my DVR with more wrestling shows. That was until I was rudely awakened by the screams of my brother, and the stomping of the floor as he rushed over to the room to turn on the television. As I lifted up my head, my eyes still heavy and blurred, the only thing that welcomed me to the day was the sight of CM Punk pinning Edge in the middle of a ring. Confused, I just looked on, asking my brother with a slur in my speech what was going on, but before I could receive any answer from him the next thing I saw and heard was Punk being handed and announced as the new World Heavyweight Champion. I was beyond shocked, to say the very least.
After celebrating the victory, taking in the moment, what ran through my head then was, “shit, my article is fucked,” along with “shit, Punk’s going to get screwed by bad writing sooner than I thought.” As it stands right now the company is behind Punk’s title reign for the short term, which could leave a sour taste in mouths, but much like Bret Hart before him, Punk could surprise the company and prove to be the answer to their prayers. After all, ratings did spike last week with him as champion during his first defense over JBL. Maybe now the WWE will finally get the message of what it is we, the fans want: compelling television that features good characters, strong stories with a mix of good wrestling to pull it all together.
A Summer Of Punk?
We’re starting off the summer season with an interesting new twist, as the ring up in Connecticut has decided to try its luck on a different route. A new champion, a new direction on the show and a fresh route away from McMahon’s attempts to buy up ratings has got a lot of people buzzing about the WWE in a big and positive way, something that hasn’t been seen in a real good long time.
After months of dreading the idea of what the WWE would end up doing with CM Punk, the company has decided to try something new in him as a World Heavyweight Champion. Months of build to this moment saw Punk defeat current US Champion Matt Hardy, former Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho in the same night and coming incredibly short of becoming King of the Ring. But the road to follow would not be as bright or filled with nearly as much hope as fans noticed his absence from the Backlash card, a series of loses at the hands of Miz, Morrison, Chavo, Kane, Edge, [Matt] Hardy and a slew of other characters. The feeling was that the company had no faith in Punk to be a main eventer any time soon but was ruining his credibility to at least tease the idea of him cashing in his briefcase contract within the coming months. Everyone allowed Punk to fall under the radar as they lacked care in his build during his brief run-in with Chuck Palumbo that led to absolutely nothing.
Then came the swerve that some of us didn’t see: Night of Champions ended up sending RAW without a [singles heavyweight] champion on their show. Kofi Kingston looked to be the most important player of the show, a move that surely would’ve hurt his overall appeal as people would feel he was being pushed too hard, too far, too soon. Batista was never a thought for the World Heavyweight Championship as Edge was still too fresh from his victory over The Undertaker to simply drop the title once more, but the true shocker was that Triple H remained WWE Champion despite thoughts of him clashing with Cena at SummerSlam and potentially once more at Wrestlemania XXV where Triple H would have inevitably gained back his pin loss from John all those many moons ago.
An air of doubt hovered over RAW as to what the show would do without a champion for so much longer. Who really would’ve guessed that the company would’ve gone the route of utilizing a mid card talent that holds the key to a main event spot and has been rolling about with a mucked up record? Sure the element was there to pull a title back to the brand that very night but most over looked him as a factor considering his streak as of late had been unimpressive, to say the very least.
What was accomplished upon this night was a multitude of things. Punk became a champion, but the night also featured young talents getting air time in a big way. Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes got time to flesh out their alliance, though wasn’t filled with the kind of spark one would have hoped for; Kofi Kingston walked away looking strong despite being treated as the rookie talent who can’t hang with upper echelon talents just yet; and a lot of the focus around Punk’s title win revolved around John Cena and JBL. But despite some of those notorious flaws the reason this all ended up being good was the simple fact that it was new and different.
We saw some fresh things and that’s what was needed for this show all along. A union between John Cena and Cryme Tyme was formed, if only for the night, and that’s a spark Cena needs to reinvigorate his heat. All three men share a common trait within their characters, though for Cena his “thug” appeal has seemingly diminished over the past few years. That trait being their light hearted nature and influence of the hip hop culture in the wrestling world. It’s a tandem that needed to be made for a while but is only now surfacing and should be played up on in the future. Throw in a little Ron “The Truth” Killings and you’d probably have a faction worthy of killing off these ridiculous notions that we need a revival of the Nation of Domination. I’m serious here, enough of this “let’s team up the minorities with their own kind and make them the rebel group that everyone hates because they try to bring about change through radical, devilish means in a wrestling organization.” No one cared for the Nation outside of The Rock, so why even talk about that unit?
But the downside to this all was it came at the price of hurting Edge and his run as the top heel character of the company, a role that still belongs to him by default as there are no other contenders to his thrown. Now the focus of SmackDown! shifts away from Edge to that of Triple H and his championship run. Many will speculate it comes down to politics that will press Edge out of the picture in the coming months, but I’m still not sold on H’s politics taking over the entire brand during his time there but I could be persuaded if they continue to pull back on Edge and push forth Triple H, and the rest of the show suffers because of his presence. That means that guys like Umaga, Kennedy and [Jeff] Hardy don’t get the benefits of being on this show to the same extent that Orton, Edge and Cena had benefitted while on the brand – becoming bigger stars to utilize as the major players of the company. So if the show is unable to create a strong crop of young stars for RAW to pick up and potentially ruin.
And while that all goes on, talks of moving the title off of Punk are already in works. Creative is already looking to move the title over to JBL at the Great American Bash unless of course the ratings and CM Punk’s merchandise sales continue to rise. It’s along the same lines of thought that followed Bret Hart’s title reign in 1994 where he was scheduled to drop the strap almost immediately until numbers backed up the idea that Hart was, indeed, a draw for the company as champion. History certainly has the potential to repeat itself here as Punk certainly provides hope to the company to improve its figures. Punk already has a strong, loyal following behind him to start off his run of momentum, but he also has an appeal to newer fans because of his interesting look and the fact that he is new and fresh to the scene making the product, itself, feel new and fresh besides him.
One has to question if the fans won’t drop the ball on Punk in the same manner they dropped the ball on Eddie and Benoit all those years ago after so much complaining about them being deserving champions that never got their dues.
Invasion Of A Dynasty?
Two weeks ago RAW ended the show and the Million Dollar giveaway on the note of Vince McMahon being crushed under his own set. The question now becomes “who done it and why?”
It’s another summer of McMahon ahead of us with the creative having to focus their energy on getting us all to care more about the plight of Vince than the rest of the roster, much in the same way we saw last year with McMahon’s death and McMahon’s illegitimate child. The shame of it all is this has all been done before to try and boost McMahon’s ego and continue the ideal that he’s a draw of any sorts. Fans aren’t interested in seeing McMahon anymore considering the height of his appeal came at the hands of his rivalry with Steve Austin, and only during this rivalry.
It’s the same story with Vince, every year he tries to find a way and make himself the focal point of a storyline. To become the most important figure of the company and their direction while never taking over the main event spot or hogging up the title in the same sense other promotion owners would fall into. As bad as Verne Gagne was with his own push to the championship role McMahon at least tones it down enough to have limited his World Heavyweight Title reign and ECW Title reign to advance other talents to that role.
His nepotism sees no ends, though, as Stephanie, Linda, Shane and Triple H have all benefitted from some of his storylines in one way or another, gaining large amounts of air time and being the focal point of a pivotal storyline on a show for at least a week. Practically everyone [Vince] McMahon storyline involves another McMahon to some degree. Steph was involved in his rivalry with Steve Austin while he became the higher power of the Corporate Ministry, Linda got a heel turn that went nowhere after she fired Jim Ross, Shane’s been allowed to create his own pose and win titles over the likes of Test and X-Pac, and Triple H gets to try and relive the push that went to Steve Austin, instead. From playing the devil behind the Undertaker’s forces to battling Shawn Michaels and his faith, McMahon has always managed to get focus of his shows placed squarely upon himself, even if it’s all to better the product around him and strengthen his superstars appeals by beating up on the boss, a tactic that worked so extremely well that the formula has found its way onto every other superstar at one point or another.
This year the theme will be who paralyzed Mr. McMahon, or in actuality who attempted to paralyze Mr. McMahon as at some point Vince will have to reveal he is indeed fine and capable of all motorized functions downstairs – a display that will probably lead to more humor about his penis being the most powerful item in the world capable of pressing coal into diamonds, apparently.
Some ideas floating around as a possibility for this storyline would be the return of The Undertaker. The stage falling apart in a manner that almost felt more like mystical powers pulling the stage apart than just technical foul ups falls in line with something we’ve seen before with The Undertaker and Kane demonstrating their supernatural abilities. The only thing missing from this destruction course was a crash of lightning to give away any type of idea as to who was behind the attacks, but I’m grateful there was no actual push behind this story revolving McMahon and Undertaker clashing.
For me the selling point here is that this storyline will involve his family members to some capacity but why not try and pull on the one thing that fans have also been asking to see for many years: Shane McMahon takes over the company.
It’s the same story every year, people demanding that when Vince removes himself from power over his own dynasty corporation that the legacy of it ride off the back of his son, Shane, the man that many feel has the better mind for the industry than his sister Stephanie. Though Shane has made it clear before he has no interests in running the company when his father is through with the industry, many still voice for him to be the champion of the company – the golden boy to lead the company back into prosperity that it once saw during the Attitude Era. It also doesn’t help his case when reports are made about the type of ideas he has to run certain storylines and build characters and what matches to sell, as was evidenced when he stepped forth and proclaimed that Cena should turn heel. Items like that reaffirm the belief that Shane understands what fans want and are willing to pay for, as well as how to package up things so we’ll want to spend the money to see these items. Stephanie, on the other hand, is only now starting to come into her own and understand the wrestling aspect to the business a little more but isn’t winning over any big fans to back up the idea that the company will be fine in her hands.
The stage collapse could be a well constructed storyline to reinvent the brand extension and actually keep the brands separate. With Shane drawing the battle lines into the sand and proclaiming that his father had not only killed his desires and love of the industry but killed off his attempt to break away from his father’s shadow when he bought out WCW.
The introduction to this storyline could be easily established simply by stating how upset Shane has become with his father and the line of vision he’s had with the product and his scheme to buy ratings through bribery of the fans was the final straw for him. Shane’s desires for a more rich, wrestling based product that gave the fans what they wanted: a fresh product that gave them solid characters, tremendous storylines and excellent, quality matches. All things that are opposed by Vince’s vision of characters, gimmicks, image and shock value television.
Transforming from a bitter rivalry between father and son, once more, it becomes a rivalry between brands. A rift within the company leads to RAW and SmackDown! being the extension of this rivalry that stems as far back as 2001 and the InVasion storyline. Something that gives the fans their little cake of hope that one day Shane will truly become the saving grace of the WWE and provide forth quality wrestling shows that we fans have been craving for and demanding of the company for such a long period of time.
Of course there’s more to do with this all then create a face and heel entity between the two McMahon men, it can also create an actual rift between the brands keeping them separate instead of this farce that it’s become for the past few years. One of the biggest problems going for the brands is the fact that they still intertwine with one another and don’t actually separate the talents to be exclusive to their home brands. It all still feels like one company trying to create in-house fighting to create competition within itself. If it felt more like the company itself was splitting into two different factions that could actually lead people to believe that the company itself was branching off to represent Shane pulling his funding out of the company.
Through this you accomplish both things that a McMahon storyline always utilizes, it gives Vince his egocentric storyline while offering up some goods for his nepotistic ways as his son gets a huge spotlight placed upon him, but you also accomplish the one thing the brand extension has failed to create: that in-house fighting that looks more like direct competition once seen between the WWE and WCW Monday Night Wars exchange.
At least this way it would make the summer of McMahon a lot more tolerable this go around.
Pixel Sized Wrap Up
This week I really strained on this article. Not so much that I couldn’t get in a topic or pull this all together, but rather that I really wasn’t motivated until about Sunday morning to get started on this article. Usually I’m starting up my pieces on Thursday so they can be finished by Sunday, tuned by Monday and in the system by mid-afternoon. This week wasn’t so much the case as I’m literally typing this out on a Monday morning, while flipping back and forth between these thoughts for the column, planning out my next move in MMArmy and playing MapleStory. Grinding for Weighted Earrings is more of a bitch than I’d ever thought could have been, but heaven help me I’m going to grind it out.
But beyond that, this has been an uneventful event for me this week beyond the scope of CM Punk’s big title victory. I couldn’t tell you what else is going on in the wrestling world beyond that as I’ve been mentally out of it, again, for a while. I’ll try and rebound though, but until then, I’m back off to my crack – come my little pixel warriors, provide forth me gold, championships, and some weighted fucking earrings so I can be done with this stupid quest!
