On this week’s TNA Impact broadcast, we saw “The Whole F’n Show” Rob Van Dam beat A.J. Styles for the TNA World Heavyweight Title. While I am not going to say that RVD is unworthy of the belt, I am going to question the timing of such a move.
Rob Van Dam has been in TNA for all of two months now, if that long. Yes, he is a veteran of the wrestling business, and he is a former world champion—not that his one title reign really counts for that much since he got screwed out of it anyway. Well, Styles is also a former World Champion, Tag Chhampion, X Division Champion. A.J. Styles is also an eight year veteran and loyal employee of the TNA brand. So why is it that without any fued, any publicity, any respect for him as a champion, the backstage geniuses in TNA took the strap off of him?
In TNA, in the last three to four years, I’m not sure there is another wrestler who is as damn good as Styles that has been treated with such casual disrespect by the bookers and creative staff. Christopher Daniels is up there pretty high, but not at the Styles level. It is taken for granted in TNA that A.J. Styles will grin and sell any crappy angle they toss him into. Do we all remember when Styles was Kurt Angle’s bitch? How about his crush on Karen Angle—as if she had any friggin business being on Impact to begin with.
Even Styles himself finally got pissed off at Vince Russo and complained about how poorly he was being booked as the TNA Champion. I, for the life of me, cannot understand why the hell A.J. Styles continues to be loyal to a company that has strayed so far from it’s original style and purpose. I cannot see why he continues to grin and put up with the garbage he is asked to do. I don’t see any career benefit for him to stay in a company that does nothing but bitch him around.
While I am also unenamored with the WWE product as of late, I will admit that the opportunities in WWE may be greater for Styles than the ones he is being given—or rather not being given—in TNA. A.J. does not need Ric Flair as a sidekick to get him over. Styles is already over, and he’s a better wrestler than Flair could have ever hoped to be in his prime. Maybe he doesn’t have the Nature Boy strut or the level of mic skills that the Nature Boy does, but he is far from bad on the mic. He’s better than a lot of guys in TNA as far as mic skills go. Let’s count them: Matt Morgan, Abyss, Jay Lethal, alex Shelley, Chris Sabin. Do I need to continue?
Another point I’d like to make is that RVD apparently thinks he’s too big to be wrestling guys from TNA. Last year in a radio interview, RVD wondered how people could possibly want to see him wrestle guys like Christopher Daniels after he was wrestling and beating guys like Booker T and Triple H. Here’s a newsflash. Those guys are old news. Yes, they are respected veterans, and rightfully so, but the future is coming. The wrestling business has to evolve, just like any other business. You can’t stay on top forever, so why not try to give a push to somebody who deserves their shot. Terry Funk did it for years.
I understand that RVD has always been openly arrogant about his skills in the ring, and ten years ago he could do that and get away with it. For the last three years however, RVD has been picking and choosing where and when he wants to wrestle, which is certainly a privilege of being as big a name as RVD is. The fans—or rather the marks—haven’t seen him unless they are “smart marks” and follow him on the internet and in Europe and Japan. I suppose that’s part of the reason he can just come back and be handed a belt after so little effort or time in a company he has never previously worked for.
My view is that if you’re going to be the champion, you need to put in more of a full schedule than the one RVD is signed to, and you’re matches need to be of a better quality than Van Dam’s have been up to this point in TNA. Much like the Dudleys—or Team 3D if you prefer—he looks a bit complacent in the wrestling ring, but if you’ve seen any of the matches he’s been wrestling in Europe or Japan, that shouldn’t be a surprise to you. Also, he’s not doing any house shows at all. Does it make any sense to be doing house shows all over the country and not having your World Heavyweight Champion at any of them? Of course it doesn’t.
I don’t think I’d be anywhere near as pissed about this if Styles hadn’t been bitched around so much in the past few years, and if the TNA braintrust had given RVD and Styles a well publicized and well-planned fued that culminated in RVD beating A.J. Styles. As it stands, I hope like hell that Styles is going to get more time in the ring with RVD to show that he is every bit as good as RVD. This is a dream fued for any wrestling purist such as myself and for it to be a one shot deal would be not only a disappointment to the fans, it would be a blatant show of disrespect to A.J. Styles. It would be another instance of TNA disregarding and mistreating guys that have been with them and stood behind them for years now, but that’s something that TNA has gotten extremely good at in the last couple years, so it wouldn’t be at all surprising.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Kevin Kelly Wants to Punch Drug Abusers in the Face?
In a recent addition of his blog, current ROH announcer and former WWE announcer Kevin Kelly (that’s right, the ugly hermaphrodite himself) had some extremely harsh things to say about drug abusers in the wrestling business, and drug abusers in general. Kevin mentioned that he had been watching an episode of Intervention on A&E (marvelous name dropping by the way Kevin) and said of the subject of the episode, “I didn’t feel sorry for her. I wanted to punch her in the face.” I sincerely hope I’m not the first person to say to Kevin Kelly, what the holy freaking Christ is wrong with you? He went on to say that anyone who abuses drugs “needs a kick in the ass and a push in the right direction.” While it is true that drug abuse is inherently negative and that people who fall into such a cycle do sometimes need a strong push in the right direction, saying that you want to punch them in the mouth is far beyond callous.
Let’s examine the state of the wrestling business and see if we can better understand the drug problem that has made itself evident in the media over the last few years. Maybe we can come up with something a bit more critical as a solution other than punching random people in the face like some sort of self-righteous idiot.
The wrestling business, despite the ignorant assumptions of the uninformed, is real in that these guys do get hurt. They take bumps and they get injured. That part of the business is absolutely not fake. I don’t think Vince McMahon is sitting in his ocfice chair in Stanford and saying, “Let’s put our biggest star on the injured list for nine months with a fake leg injury. Let’s do it for posterity, and maybe to liven things up a bit.” Folks, if you’re dumb enough to think that these guys “know how to fall”, then maybe somebody should drop you on your head a few times on top of a sheet of plywood covered in a scant inch of canvas, and see how you come out. I’ll bet it won’t be too fun.
All digressions aside, the wrestling business has a high incidence of injuries, and severe ones at that. In the wrestling business it is not uncommon to see torn ACLs, torn PCLs, torn tendons, shattered bones, broken backs, broken necks, even ruptured testicles—just ask tommy Dreamer about that one. It’s true that these guys get paid pretty well for their troubles, but money itself does not relieve pain. What does relieve pain you ask. Well according to just about every doctor practicing in our great country, pills relieve pain. What’s the first thing they do when you go to the ER experiencing sever back pain, sever neck pain, severe leg pain, severe abdominal cramps, severe rectal bleeding? They send you home with a bottle full of painkillers. Of course people are going to get hooked on them. Doctors hand the damn things out like they were M&Ms on Halloween for Christ sakes.
With that being said, let’s acknowledge the fact that there is no system set up for wrestlers after they get let go from one of the big companies. If you get fired from WWE or TNA, and you don’t get hired by the other company, what do you do? You take bookings in the indy feds, and the indy feds can’t afford to pay the kind of money that WWE or TNA does. So when you get injured, if you don’t have private insurance, which is expensive even for somebody who’s making a decent salary, you’re screwed. So you go to the ER and instead of getting some good long-term kind of solution to your pain, you get painkillers, because that’s the only kind of treatment you can afford with no pension or retirement benefits.
Now let’s get into this a bit more personally. As far as Kevin Kelly is concerned, I think what he said was incredibly sanctimonious. This is obviously a man who has no sympathy for another human being struggling with addiction. What I have found is that people that say the sort of things that Kevin Kelly said have almost never been in that situation. It’s easy for you to condemn others when you’ve never walked in their shoes. Addiction is not something that is easily combated. The people that kick addiction cold turkey are very rare. Hell, people who kick addiction with councelling are pretty rare as well. Oh yeah, councelling is another thing that the big two don’t offer to their employees.
So since Kevin Kelly can’t constructively express his disgust or disapproval for drug users, and can’t seem to manage to find any sympathy for them either, I won’t bother to express my contempt for his blatant ignorance constructively. I’d like to punch Kevin Kelly in his face and then stick a heroine needle in his arm so he can get a chance to understand just how screwed these people can be. Kevin Kelly, you’re an idiot. You should take some time and put forth some effort to express your feelings in some sort of intelligent manner, and maybe people wouldn’t think that wrestlers, wrestling fans, and anyone associated with the wrestling business are morons like you.
Let’s examine the state of the wrestling business and see if we can better understand the drug problem that has made itself evident in the media over the last few years. Maybe we can come up with something a bit more critical as a solution other than punching random people in the face like some sort of self-righteous idiot.
The wrestling business, despite the ignorant assumptions of the uninformed, is real in that these guys do get hurt. They take bumps and they get injured. That part of the business is absolutely not fake. I don’t think Vince McMahon is sitting in his ocfice chair in Stanford and saying, “Let’s put our biggest star on the injured list for nine months with a fake leg injury. Let’s do it for posterity, and maybe to liven things up a bit.” Folks, if you’re dumb enough to think that these guys “know how to fall”, then maybe somebody should drop you on your head a few times on top of a sheet of plywood covered in a scant inch of canvas, and see how you come out. I’ll bet it won’t be too fun.
All digressions aside, the wrestling business has a high incidence of injuries, and severe ones at that. In the wrestling business it is not uncommon to see torn ACLs, torn PCLs, torn tendons, shattered bones, broken backs, broken necks, even ruptured testicles—just ask tommy Dreamer about that one. It’s true that these guys get paid pretty well for their troubles, but money itself does not relieve pain. What does relieve pain you ask. Well according to just about every doctor practicing in our great country, pills relieve pain. What’s the first thing they do when you go to the ER experiencing sever back pain, sever neck pain, severe leg pain, severe abdominal cramps, severe rectal bleeding? They send you home with a bottle full of painkillers. Of course people are going to get hooked on them. Doctors hand the damn things out like they were M&Ms on Halloween for Christ sakes.
With that being said, let’s acknowledge the fact that there is no system set up for wrestlers after they get let go from one of the big companies. If you get fired from WWE or TNA, and you don’t get hired by the other company, what do you do? You take bookings in the indy feds, and the indy feds can’t afford to pay the kind of money that WWE or TNA does. So when you get injured, if you don’t have private insurance, which is expensive even for somebody who’s making a decent salary, you’re screwed. So you go to the ER and instead of getting some good long-term kind of solution to your pain, you get painkillers, because that’s the only kind of treatment you can afford with no pension or retirement benefits.
Now let’s get into this a bit more personally. As far as Kevin Kelly is concerned, I think what he said was incredibly sanctimonious. This is obviously a man who has no sympathy for another human being struggling with addiction. What I have found is that people that say the sort of things that Kevin Kelly said have almost never been in that situation. It’s easy for you to condemn others when you’ve never walked in their shoes. Addiction is not something that is easily combated. The people that kick addiction cold turkey are very rare. Hell, people who kick addiction with councelling are pretty rare as well. Oh yeah, councelling is another thing that the big two don’t offer to their employees.
So since Kevin Kelly can’t constructively express his disgust or disapproval for drug users, and can’t seem to manage to find any sympathy for them either, I won’t bother to express my contempt for his blatant ignorance constructively. I’d like to punch Kevin Kelly in his face and then stick a heroine needle in his arm so he can get a chance to understand just how screwed these people can be. Kevin Kelly, you’re an idiot. You should take some time and put forth some effort to express your feelings in some sort of intelligent manner, and maybe people wouldn’t think that wrestlers, wrestling fans, and anyone associated with the wrestling business are morons like you.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
The Reaction to TNA Reaction
Last week, I read on a wrestling news site that TNA president Dixie Carter—a person in charge of a wrestling company that knows jack about wrestling—had announced the premiere of a new TNA program on Monday nights to run consecutively with Impact. I believe the ridiculous tag line had something to say about “diving into the combustable backstage world of TNA wrestling.” That’s not an exact quote, but it’s close enough for government work.
In essence, TNA Reaction is a reality show, and I’m sure it’s just as scripted rigged, and pointless as every other “reality based” show on television right now. Why don’t they just call it Survivor TNA or Big Brother TNA Edition?
What TNA president Dixie Carter, Hulk Hogan, and the incomparable Eric Bischoff must be hoping this show will do is fool the blatant marks of TNA into feeling like they aren’t blatant marks. I’m sure I am not the only person that has noticed that Hogan and Bischoff have been showcasing some backstage discussion on Impact about who’s “getting over with the fans” and who’s “good for business”. Okay guys, Christopher Daniels was good for business. He was a solid wrestler with a wide range of maneuvers and a legitimate talent for in-ring and promo work, unlike the seven foot two inch tall man with one liquid ounce of brain matter that’s getting pushed as being good enough to take out Hernandez, otherwise known as Matt Morgan.
While there may be some prepubescent children, oblivious teens, and clueless forty year old men watching TNA that will buy this TNA Reaction crap, I—as an educated mark—will not. Call me pretentious. Say I’m no different than any other mark out there if you like, but the reality is, I know when I’m being condescended toward and when my intelligence as a paying fan of professional wrestling is being insulted. These backstage and boardroom jackasses ought to remember that if I stop paing to see their product, they start losing money. There is no wrestling business without the fans, and if you piss the fans off, your business goes down the old crapper.
Apparently, I’m not the only person who is turned off by TNA Reaction. At the very least, there are a lot of other people who just don’t care The first ever installment of TNA’s new show did a 0.3 rating. Which brings me to the ultimate point of this entry.
How the hell does TNA expect to compete with WWE, even with WWE’s newer less tolerable product, when they put crap like this on TV opposite Monday Night Raw? How do they expect to build up new stars, or rejuvenate the careers of old stars when they fire solid workers like Christopher Daniels? Most importantly, what in the blue hell (thank you Dwayne Johnson) was Bob Carter thinking when he put his Hollywood Hannah Montana promoting daughter in charge of the everyday workeigs of a freakingprofessional wrestling company? The wrestling gods (and I most certainly do not mean JBL) need to save us from this utter garbage that we are forced to watch on the national scale right now.
In essence, TNA Reaction is a reality show, and I’m sure it’s just as scripted rigged, and pointless as every other “reality based” show on television right now. Why don’t they just call it Survivor TNA or Big Brother TNA Edition?
What TNA president Dixie Carter, Hulk Hogan, and the incomparable Eric Bischoff must be hoping this show will do is fool the blatant marks of TNA into feeling like they aren’t blatant marks. I’m sure I am not the only person that has noticed that Hogan and Bischoff have been showcasing some backstage discussion on Impact about who’s “getting over with the fans” and who’s “good for business”. Okay guys, Christopher Daniels was good for business. He was a solid wrestler with a wide range of maneuvers and a legitimate talent for in-ring and promo work, unlike the seven foot two inch tall man with one liquid ounce of brain matter that’s getting pushed as being good enough to take out Hernandez, otherwise known as Matt Morgan.
While there may be some prepubescent children, oblivious teens, and clueless forty year old men watching TNA that will buy this TNA Reaction crap, I—as an educated mark—will not. Call me pretentious. Say I’m no different than any other mark out there if you like, but the reality is, I know when I’m being condescended toward and when my intelligence as a paying fan of professional wrestling is being insulted. These backstage and boardroom jackasses ought to remember that if I stop paing to see their product, they start losing money. There is no wrestling business without the fans, and if you piss the fans off, your business goes down the old crapper.
Apparently, I’m not the only person who is turned off by TNA Reaction. At the very least, there are a lot of other people who just don’t care The first ever installment of TNA’s new show did a 0.3 rating. Which brings me to the ultimate point of this entry.
How the hell does TNA expect to compete with WWE, even with WWE’s newer less tolerable product, when they put crap like this on TV opposite Monday Night Raw? How do they expect to build up new stars, or rejuvenate the careers of old stars when they fire solid workers like Christopher Daniels? Most importantly, what in the blue hell (thank you Dwayne Johnson) was Bob Carter thinking when he put his Hollywood Hannah Montana promoting daughter in charge of the everyday workeigs of a freakingprofessional wrestling company? The wrestling gods (and I most certainly do not mean JBL) need to save us from this utter garbage that we are forced to watch on the national scale right now.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
New WWE Stable on the Way
I read recently that WWE is considering putting together a new stable. With the breakup of Legacy—and wasn’t it about time—Randy Orton, Cody
Rhodes, and Ted DiBiase Jr. all have openings for new storylines. What I read is that WWE is considering forming a stable called the Fortunate Sons. The stable will be headed by Ted DiBiase Jr. and comprised of his younger brother Brett DiBiase and Joe Hennig (son of Curt Hennig), who are both currently working with each other in a well-regarded fued in the FCW developmental federation. Of Course, this idea raises a few points with me.
First, what about Cody Rhodes? It is my opinion—and feel free to disagree if you like—that Cody Rhodes may be the best wrestler out of the three men that formerly comprised Legacy. Randy Orton is no prize these days. He may be one of WWe’s top stars but the guyh is made of glass. Randy Orton’s in-ring style has noticeably changed in the past year or so since he returned from his shoulder injury. He spends less time in the rin wrestling and more time slinking around outside the ring jawing with the crowd. His matches are rarely exciting or entertaining anymore. And let’s not forget to mention the fact that the guy is an asshole in the backstage and in his personal life.
Ted DiBiase Jr. may be a very sound technical wrestler, but again, Cody Rhodes has him beat. DiBiase is solid in the ring, but not always very exciting and his promos tend to be long, labored, and downright boring. Which of course raises my second question, why have DiBiase head the faction? Honestly, if I have to endure him getting major promo time, I may shoot myself. He might actually be more boring on the mic than the “new and improved” chris Jericho, and Jericho makes me want to pour acid into my ears lately.
So here’s what’s going on. Randy Orton will be shoved into another high card or main event storyline with another wrestler equally as boring as him, probably John Cena. Ted DiBiase will end up heading the Fortunate Sons and cody Rhodes will get screwed over by the whole deal. This is yet again an example of WWE’s flat out incompetence in managing their roster. Talented guys like Cody Rhodes, Matt Hardy, MVP, and so many others get tossed into mid-card or low-card stories usually meant to push somebody else who’s on their way up, and old geezers and marginally talented hacks get all the damn attention.
Rhodes, and Ted DiBiase Jr. all have openings for new storylines. What I read is that WWE is considering forming a stable called the Fortunate Sons. The stable will be headed by Ted DiBiase Jr. and comprised of his younger brother Brett DiBiase and Joe Hennig (son of Curt Hennig), who are both currently working with each other in a well-regarded fued in the FCW developmental federation. Of Course, this idea raises a few points with me.
First, what about Cody Rhodes? It is my opinion—and feel free to disagree if you like—that Cody Rhodes may be the best wrestler out of the three men that formerly comprised Legacy. Randy Orton is no prize these days. He may be one of WWe’s top stars but the guyh is made of glass. Randy Orton’s in-ring style has noticeably changed in the past year or so since he returned from his shoulder injury. He spends less time in the rin wrestling and more time slinking around outside the ring jawing with the crowd. His matches are rarely exciting or entertaining anymore. And let’s not forget to mention the fact that the guy is an asshole in the backstage and in his personal life.
Ted DiBiase Jr. may be a very sound technical wrestler, but again, Cody Rhodes has him beat. DiBiase is solid in the ring, but not always very exciting and his promos tend to be long, labored, and downright boring. Which of course raises my second question, why have DiBiase head the faction? Honestly, if I have to endure him getting major promo time, I may shoot myself. He might actually be more boring on the mic than the “new and improved” chris Jericho, and Jericho makes me want to pour acid into my ears lately.
So here’s what’s going on. Randy Orton will be shoved into another high card or main event storyline with another wrestler equally as boring as him, probably John Cena. Ted DiBiase will end up heading the Fortunate Sons and cody Rhodes will get screwed over by the whole deal. This is yet again an example of WWE’s flat out incompetence in managing their roster. Talented guys like Cody Rhodes, Matt Hardy, MVP, and so many others get tossed into mid-card or low-card stories usually meant to push somebody else who’s on their way up, and old geezers and marginally talented hacks get all the damn attention.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Huge Talent, Horrible Booking
All right, it’s been a long ass hiatus. No doubt about that. To be quite frank, I’m not sure that the wrestling business, as far as the big two go, is even worth writing about now that I have the time again.
Today’s topic is, surprise surprise, bad booking. This time let’s talk about bad booking in WWE, since almost all booking in TNA sucks, we won’t even bother with them.
A few months ago, WWE signed Bryan Danielson, the self-proclaimed and very arguably “best wrestler in the world”. After he had signed his contract, it was made known that Danielson would be skipping the developmental FCW federation and going straight onto main WWE programming. I assumed that Smackdown would be a good fit for Danielson. He’s not exactly young, but his style of wrestling fits better with the style of Smackdown, which feels a bit more young than that of Monday night Raw’s cavalcade of old geezers. But no, that wasn’t their choice. Instead they let Danielson sit at home and collect a paycheck. Well, more accurately they let him train at Randy Cotour’s dojo in Las Vegas and collect his paycheck. When the word finally came around that Danielson was to show up on WWE programming, I was extremely excited. And then there was NXT.
Let’s digress to talk a bit about NXt right now. NXt is made up of a bunch of guyhs who have little to no experience under their belts, and it shows. I’m not sure who half these guys are. They sure as hell haven’t had any kind of tenure in the indies. The only established wrestler, and multiple time champion, is Bryan Danielson. These other guys aren’t even in his league. Yet David Otunga gets better friggin booking than Danielson because he’s dating Jennifer Hudson, and Vince wants to get her to work with WWE on some horrible Hollywood angle. What’s friggin new. WWE hasn’t been about wrestling for quite some time now.
So, up to this point, I don’t believe Danielson—or Daniel Bryan if you prefer—has even won a match on NXT. Hell, he hasn’t even gotten enough time in the ring to have a decent match, with the exclusion of his debut against Chris Jericho. So here’s a guy that’s wrestled and defeated guys like Jushin Liger, Takeshi Morishima, Nigel McGuinness (who isn’t being booked a whole hell of a lot better than Danielson is right now), CM Punk, and about a thousand other great guys, yet he’s being booked as a total loser.
Am I the only one who’s feeling the outrage here. Shaimus has the fraggin World Heavyweight Title and Bryan Danielson is losing every match. Shaimus is boring as hell. He’s not fun to watch, and he’s not a very damn good wrestler either. But still, he’s the push that Danielson deserves.
All I want, is for once, just once, to have the bookers in WWE get their heads out of their fat lazy asses.
Today’s topic is, surprise surprise, bad booking. This time let’s talk about bad booking in WWE, since almost all booking in TNA sucks, we won’t even bother with them.
A few months ago, WWE signed Bryan Danielson, the self-proclaimed and very arguably “best wrestler in the world”. After he had signed his contract, it was made known that Danielson would be skipping the developmental FCW federation and going straight onto main WWE programming. I assumed that Smackdown would be a good fit for Danielson. He’s not exactly young, but his style of wrestling fits better with the style of Smackdown, which feels a bit more young than that of Monday night Raw’s cavalcade of old geezers. But no, that wasn’t their choice. Instead they let Danielson sit at home and collect a paycheck. Well, more accurately they let him train at Randy Cotour’s dojo in Las Vegas and collect his paycheck. When the word finally came around that Danielson was to show up on WWE programming, I was extremely excited. And then there was NXT.
Let’s digress to talk a bit about NXt right now. NXt is made up of a bunch of guyhs who have little to no experience under their belts, and it shows. I’m not sure who half these guys are. They sure as hell haven’t had any kind of tenure in the indies. The only established wrestler, and multiple time champion, is Bryan Danielson. These other guys aren’t even in his league. Yet David Otunga gets better friggin booking than Danielson because he’s dating Jennifer Hudson, and Vince wants to get her to work with WWE on some horrible Hollywood angle. What’s friggin new. WWE hasn’t been about wrestling for quite some time now.
So, up to this point, I don’t believe Danielson—or Daniel Bryan if you prefer—has even won a match on NXT. Hell, he hasn’t even gotten enough time in the ring to have a decent match, with the exclusion of his debut against Chris Jericho. So here’s a guy that’s wrestled and defeated guys like Jushin Liger, Takeshi Morishima, Nigel McGuinness (who isn’t being booked a whole hell of a lot better than Danielson is right now), CM Punk, and about a thousand other great guys, yet he’s being booked as a total loser.
Am I the only one who’s feeling the outrage here. Shaimus has the fraggin World Heavyweight Title and Bryan Danielson is losing every match. Shaimus is boring as hell. He’s not fun to watch, and he’s not a very damn good wrestler either. But still, he’s the push that Danielson deserves.
All I want, is for once, just once, to have the bookers in WWE get their heads out of their fat lazy asses.
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