Posted in: The Northern Star The Northern Star--Burning Down The House
By XanMan
Jul 26, 2009 - 9:26:34 AM
{Argument: Some of you may remember that I lost a bet to my new ETA partner, BeyondKnight, a while back that had the stipulation that he'd be able to pick the theme quotes for The Northern Star for three months. This is the start of that payoff, as I haven't written a "Star" since. Unfortunately, by coincidence, the topic I wrote on this week happens to involve a wrestler he loves to make fun of, so while it's my hope he doesn't go too crazy here, I have no control over that. You never know what BK might do; he's that kind of guy, so...beware.}
A few weeks ago, I finished rereading Mick Foley's first two books before moving on to a couple of others. Eventually I'll move on to the third one, Hardcore Diaries, which I have never read before. Despite the last chapter of Foley is Good being a complete bore, the two I've read are pretty good reads with a lot of useful information in them that also provides a lot of food for thought into both what has come before and what is happening now. That's probably as good a recommendation as I can make. It actually kind of prompted the idea for this column. I'm going to tell you a story. I'm probably a little rusty at it, because mostly what I do here is pontificate. While sometimes I find it necessary to look at a wrestler's past to look at what's going to happen(or could happen or should happen) in the future--past performance being the best estimate of present and future performance--I'm really not much of a chronicler. Today, however, I feel the need to be. And truthfully, our voyage isn't going to take us just through one story, but several, because they all intertwine and they all involve one man; a man who has been the subject of a lot of discussion over the weeks and months of this year.
The first story is from Foley's books, and how he wasn't able to get over as well as he should have because he wasn't given the help he needed from his partner at the time. By partner, I don't just mean his tag partner at the time, though he was. You see, because the sport of kings isn't truly a sport, the guys who are working a program are always more your partner in the act than they are your partner or opponent in the ring, and you have to play off each other, help each other, build each other, and trust each other, if the audience is ever going to believe that you're tearing each other apart. As most of you know, Duane Johnson is not my favorite person in the world right now, but there was a time when he was my favorite performer in wrestling, and it was during most of that time that he was also too green to know what was good for him and the business. Foley writes of how The Rock never came back to check on him after blasting Mankind 11 times in the head with a steel chair at Royal Rumble 2008 and how he felt that eventually he'd be able to use his real life disappointment and anger at that disrespect in order to create kayfabe friction and an eventual feud between the two.
However, his plans never came to fruition because The Rock was too busy being in character; too concerned with living up to his "cool" personality to let Foley get over enough so that he'd have the momentum and feeling from the fans to make his turn mean anything. There was never any real feeling on Rocky's side towards Mankind, it was all one way and there was no heat that could be involved in the feud because they wouldn't be equals, it would simply be Mankind trying to make The Rock respect him, even though he'd always been more like a lackey to him than a partner. Is it fair to blame The Rock for this error in judgment? No, in my opinion, it is not. As much as I'd like to jump on Johnson for any mistakes he made in his professional wrestling career(what's the point on jumping the mistake that is his film career again?--WHOOPS!), I always call 'em like I see 'em, and I call the actions of The Rock in these situations as youthful exuberance and I think the mistakes he made can easily be attributed to such, along with his quick rise to fame, and can thusly be easily forgiven. I can't blame Foley for his bitterness, either. After all, he gave and gave, and Rocky took and took.
"If you are tired of all this Rock bashing, head down to the forums and read my columns. In my latest one, I talk about how I once nearly punched a 12 year old for disparaging The Rock. Tread carefully Xan, you could be that 12 year old"--BeyondKnight, Beacon of Knowledge and Wisdom.
For the longest time, it seemed like that's all The Rock knew how to do. Others gave to him and he took from them--both the wrestlers and the audience--and made himself into one of the biggest superstars professional wrestling has ever known. In fact, as my constant readers know, I believe that he's still taking. He owes at least a portion of his success to the fans, and pretty much refuses to acknowledge that debt other than words, and talk is...as they say...cheap. If history repeats itself, he'll come back and atone for his actions toward us before his Hollywood career ends. You see, while he may have been a green kid ignorant of the need to put Foley over to help get what could have been a future money-making the emotion and heat it needed, he wasn't that guy as his in-ring retirement was drawing near. Eventually, he "got it." He elevated the up-and-coming heel Brock Lesnar cleanly at SummerSlam 2002 in MSG, dropping the WWE Undisputed Championship. He made Goldberg look like a million bucks in his debut feud and he even helped the Hurricane become a star. The bottom line is that eventually he gave back and he made other people stars on the way out.
As I'm sure you can imagine, this got the wheels turning a bit, but sometimes when those wheels are turning, it's a slow grind that takes some serious thinking and contemplating somewhere in the subconscious, so it's only just today that I had the realization that there's something similar going on right now with another young guy that's been in the WWE slightly longer than The Rock was, except it seems to be more insidious. It seems like maybe instead of naivete there may be a purpose behind it. A purpose that may consist of something as little as keeping his spot, which would be willfully negligent, but which could also go so far as to making sure other performers are denied theirs, which would be mean-spirited at best and pure evil at worst. Professional wrestling is cyclical in nature, by which I'm not referring to the up and down swings in popularity that seem to occur once per generation. No, what I mean is that like all forms of entertainment, new stars always need to be built in order for an organization and the business to continue, grow, and prosper. The next three stories are about superstars who should be the future of the WWE, but may not be and that may be the fault of this young superstar.
Probably the hottest rivalry in the WWE right now is CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy; and I think in addition to that, one of the most exciting things in wrestling right now is figuring out which way Punk is going to go. Is he going to remain on the side of angels, which seems like a stretch; is he going to keep walking down the middle of the road, which has been quite fun to this point, seeing as how the average fan seems to have a great divide to the way I feel about the issues between the two; or is he going to go full-fledged heel, filling the need that was left open by the career-threatening injury suffered by Edge? All this has come up in the span of a few months, folks. Despite a tremendous twelve-month period in which he held every title RAW had to offer, along with the ECW Title, and Money in the Bank, Punk was pretty much dead in the water until winning MITB again this year, and that's mostly because he was rushed into being World Heavyweight Champion, so they could get a major strap back on RAW. When he lost it due to a savage attack by four men he never got an opportunity to get revenge because a program he started with their ring leader was unceremoniously scrapped.
"People of Eternia! I stand before the Great Eye of the galaxy. Chosen by destiny by the powers of Greyskull! This inevitable moment will transpire before your eyes, even as He-Man himself bears witness to it. Now. I, Skeletor, am Master of the Universe! YES! Yes... I feel it, the power... fills me. Yes, I feel the universe within me! I am... I am a part of the cosmos! The power flows... Flows through me! Of what consequence are you now? This planet, these people. They are NOTHING to me! The universe is power! Real, unstoppable POWER! and I am that force! I am that power! KNEEL BEFORE YOUR MASTER! Fool! you are no longer my EQUAL! I am more than man! MORE THAN LIFE! I... am... a... GOD! "--Skeletor.
On the other hand, the hottest rivalry on RAW right now is between MVP and Jack Swagger. The WWE can try to hype up whatever combination of tired main eventers they're rotating in at the moment, or the Big Show as being a major challenge to Kofi Kingston's U.S. Title, but the bottom line is that we've seen it all before on the former and we know that Wight is nothing but the latest big guy RAW jobber to the stars, now that Kane has moved over to the blue brand. MVP vs. Swagger has heat though, and it's only going to get better, because those two guys could easily be the future of the company, and we're getting to see them perform against each other. It's a real treat...or at least that's one way of looking at it. The other way of looking at it is that MVP's character suffered for four months as he went through a storyline in which he lost every single week, even to jobbers, and when he moved to RAW it looked like he was going to get a major push to the top right at the jump, but instead he gets a one-on-one match with the WWE Champion one week and is back to working the midcard the next. They got us excited for some new blood at the top and then snatched it away from us the second it was getting good.
When I saw Mr. Kennedy at Wrestlemania, he looked like he had slimmed down a little, but like he was in excellent shape. He was joking around with the whole crowd, and even laughed when a couple of guys towards the back of the line yelled, "Misssssterrrr....INJURY!" I shook hands with him and asked him when he was coming back, and he said, "I don't know, man. Soon. I gotta run." Nine days later he was drafted to RAW in the supplemental draft, which surprised the hell out of me, since I don't think he ever even wrestled on Smackdown, but I figured they were just giving him a brand new start. They appeared to do just that, of course, as he returned to RAW and cut a scathing promo on the WWE Champion the night that the brand was displaced due to the NBA Playoffs. He participated in a 10-man tag the same night as the surprise entrant on the face side, and ended up botching a suplex in such a way that he could have injured both himself and his opponent. Days later, it appeared that may have occurred, as Kennedy was released, but subsequent video showed his presumably injured wrist was fine, leading many to believe the plug was pulled on him because he could have injured...Randy Orton.
"I HEAR VOICES IN MY HEAD, THEY LAUGH AT ME, THEY CALL ME FRED!!!"--Fred's stupid theme music.
When Orton first started, I thought he was a little bland, but talented, and I liked him from the start. He seemed to move around the ring pretty well, he was a solid technical wrestler for a young guy, and he was a bit of a high-flyer. In a lot of ways, he seemed more like a disciple of Ricky Steamboat than the son of Cowboy Bob Orton, Jr. And actually, come to think of it, that's also a lot like what The Rock was when he first debuted as Rocky Maivia. Do I draw parallels between the two because the parallels are there to be drawn or because Orton came in pretty much as The Rock was going out? I'll leave that to you to decide, but I don't think it's too much of a stretch. The difference between the two, I think, and the reason that my initial opinion of Orton was favorable, while Rocky's was "blech!" is because the latter was pretty much shoved down our throats, while the former was not. In fact, I remember him being one of Lesnar's many squashes that ended when Lesnar caught Orton's top rope cross body block, rolled over with him, and nailed the F-5. Soon after that, he was drafted over to RAW and subsequently injured, which, ironically enough started his push to the top.
I believe it was his shoulder he hurt, and he would come out each week in a sling with a parody of the "CNN" logo in the background that read "RNN" for Randy News Network, and he would relay his progress and thank everyone for the support in a very smug and arrogant manner. This approach got him over as a heel in a way that putting on stellar technical wrestling never got him over as a face, and soon there was a rumor that he and another new heel--Deacon Batista--would be joining Triple H and Ric Flair in creating the new Four Horsemen. That stable turned out to be Evolution, of course, and turned out to be a godsend for the two youngsters, while also creating the most dominant stable in the history of the WWE--as at one point Triple H was the World Heavyweight Champion, Orton the Intercontinental Champion, and Flair and Batista were multiple time World Tag Team Champions. They're also the only stable in WWE history to have two different guys hold the main championship while the stable was in place, although the night after Orton defeated Benoit for the World Title he was ceremoniously dumped in the "thumbs down" moment that has become infamous.
For the year+ that Evolution existed, Orton got a tremendous rub off of Triple H and Ric Flair, learning from two of the best that ever put on a pair of tights as it were, and between the time that it started and the time it ended, he had been put over by many of the legends of the business, earning himself the moniker of "The Legend Killer." During this period, he got to work with such greats as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, and, yes, The Rock. Foley even put him over in his own environment: a Hardcore Match at No Way Out 2004, and about 5 months later, Orton picked up that first World Title by defeating Chris Benoit at SummerSlam. He promptly lost the title to Triple H, but kept feuding with him until transitioning into a feud against The Undertaker that lasted many months and then formed Team RKO with Edge early the next year; a pairing that feuded with DX and, later, John Cena and Shawn Michaels and did a great job of getting both Edge and Orton over huge. Randy Orton learned from the best, by being allowed to compete alongside with and against the best, and--yes--being able to defeat many of those men helped push him to where he is now.
"If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now "--Zaphod Beeblebrox.
But, isn't it strange that it's always the huge guys that Orton is paired with? Oh, to be sure, he dropped the Intercontinental Title to Edge when Edge was just an up and comer himself, but, again, just over a month later he would claim the World Heavyweight Title. Randy Orton learned from the best, whether it be slapping Mick Foley, spitting in the face of Harley Race, or RKOing Shawn Michaels to end Steve Austin's career as General Manager. He got to wrestle the Undertaker on the grandest stage of them all, in the match that first really emphasized the streak, and came closer than anyone ever had to that point in ending it. In short, he's gotten an incredible rub from all the superstars--and I don't use that term as loosely as the WWE does--that were there when he arrived and even some that weren't and came back and worked with him. Every time he's dropped a World Title it's been to Triple H; and 3 out of his 5 championships have been won from Trips; another involved his former mentor. The only two guys I can think of that may have gotten a slight rub from his (third)title reign are Chris Jericho and Jeff Hardy, but it can easily be argued both guys were hotter than him at the time.
As I said, I was a fan of Orton at the start of his career, but I've been really up and down on him, and right now I'm definitely on the down cycle. His feuds with Shawn Michaels and John Cena in the spring and summer of 2007 were tremendous and were what really got him to superstar status, as his one-month reign as World Champ in 2004 really did nothing to solidify him as a main eventer; if anything--much like every other hot-shot reign they do--it slowed his progress down. Two years ago, though? Two years ago Orton was hot and probably would have gone over Cena to win the WWE Title anyway, but we'll never know since Cena was injured and Orton was just awarded the title before losing it and winning it back from The Game the same night. After that, his reign was magnificent: title defenses against Michaels, Jericho, Hardy, and Cena were great, he was doing a great job with his Viper gimmick, and it was certainly looking like a new superstar had risen. The Legend Killer gimmick was good, but that had been passed on in all but name to Mr. Kennedy, while Orton was developing the ice cold killer persona that would usher in The Age of Orton...until he was derailed at Backlash 2008.
It's really sad that Triple H is the guy that keeps ending Orton's reigns. Not because I think it's Triple H playing politics like so many people seem to think, but because it means they've had so many damned matches against each other, and nearly all of them have sucked. The only exceptions I can think of are the two at No Mercy '07 and the one at Wrestlemania XXV that was good despite the level of crowd burnout and having to be rushed due to Mickey Rourke's hogging of the spotlight during the ill-fated post-Jericho match encounter. They must have had matches at least 10 times on Pay Per View, though, which means we're looking at around a 30% success rate. Couple that with the fact that in their second of three--yes, THREE!--Last Man Standing matches Orton got his collar-bone broken and it seems senseless to keep replaying this feud. It isn't the great rivalry that Austin/Rock was, and it's never going to be. Triple H has a great character, and Orton did, but neither of them have the dynamic personalities that sparked that feud and were able to adapt just enough to make their feuds fresh each time out. It's time to pull the plug on trying to make these guys a fantastic rivalry.
"You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don’t help."--Calvin
That's yet another reason for Orton to start getting into programs with young guys that need a boost; he doesn't necessarily need to lose to them, but he should be involved with them so that they can get a rub from working with him while he's still got some status. Do I think Orton is the only guy that needs to do this? No, but the only ones that aren't--namely Triple H and The Undertaker(the one has built up young guys in the past and the other just had a mini-feud with Kozlov, anyway)--have earned their spots at the top through long years of service and making money for the company. Orton is riding on the coattails of a good 2004-2005, a great early 2007-2008, and the successful career of his old man. That needs to end, because Orton's been anything but entertaining since returning from his collarbone injury late last year. I was anticipating his return more than anyone, but it's been nothing short of awful. Whatever fire he had before the injury is now gone. I don't know if it was the injury, dropping the title, or continuously being booked to look like Triple H's fool and having terrible matches while doing so, but whatever it is, that Orton is gone and I've seen no signs that he's coming back.
Maybe that isn't anyone's fault. Isn't it just possible that Orton isn't as good as everyone assumed he was going to be? I think he has all the tools, but has only rarely been able to put them together. Sometimes that happens; sometimes a performer or an angle catches fire for a brief time but at the first obstacle it starts struggling and goes out. Orton will never be a cornerstone of the company; he can't be. He's shown in the last nine months or so that the juvenile behavior that's plagued his entire career is showing up in the way he interacts with other superstars. Do I know that to be true? I do not. Do I smell it, though? Aye, I do; it smells like smoke, and as the old saying goes, where there's smoke, there's fire...not the good kind; the kind that can burn the entire company down around it. So far three up and coming superstars have been caught in his flames and only Punk has had enough time to show that he could completely recover. Will Kennedy ever be re-signed and achieve the success his ability seemed to promise? Will MVP be able to use his feud with Jack Swagger to rise back up? Will Randy Orton ever learn to know his role and shut his mouth? We won't know until the smoke clears.
You can send any comments by email to me at XanManX@hotmail.com with the words "Northern Star" or "feedback" in the subject line; or, if you're a member of the LoP Forums you can click here to leave feedback, as well.
