Posted in: The Northern Star The Northern Star--Ultimatum
By XanMan
Feb 19, 2009 - 6:45:03 PM
"It can't be any simpler: the fairwell is going to be on the Champs-Elysees."
I've grown very disillusioned with the WWE lately and I'm really only following it still for two reasons: 1) I've been watching for so long that it's become a habit, possibly even an addiction; 2) Last April, when the travel packages were first announced, my wife and I made the decision to bring our family to Wrestlemania XXV and I want to at least keep watching the organization up to that point, so I can be fully hyped for the event. I don't deny that there are entertaining things going on with World Wrestling Entertainment; there clearly are, but a lot of it is just not my cup of tea at the moment. While it seems that they are trying to be more G and PG rated now, which is something that I suggested years ago, I find that some of the things that they are doing turn my stomach. I've been firm, and will continue to be so, that John Cena should not be WWE Champion, and in doing so, I'll emphasize again that I like Cena. The only good thing about Cena holding the strap and looking dominant was that it had the potential to make whoever defeated him for it look like a million bucks; now that Edge has won it, the reign seems completely pointless.
So, now where do they go? It's nice not even being able to guess, I have to say. While I wasn't able to watch No Way Out because of my fickle cable connection, I did follow the results as they happened, and I was amazed. I thought it was a cinch that the title would remain around the waist of the golden boy, but while I'm still not big on a Taker/Cena feud, maybe they're finally being smart enough to start embroiling him in feuds away from the strap so that there's multiple levels of main-eventing going on. Speaking of one such angle, how good has the Shawn Michaels/JBL angle been? While we've only seen one match between these two, the interaction between them has been nearly as good as that between Jericho and Michaels last year, and has been one of the reasons to keep on watching RAW when it seems like there's no good ones left. The Legacy/McMahon feud that is clearly meant to be striking a chord, has not yet done that, because it has been so poorly booked and Orton's promos since winning the Royal Rumble in a satisfying moment for yours truly, have been truly awful.
There are other enjoyable things on the red brand, of course, such as CM Punk becoming the new Intercontinental Champion in a decent feud against William Regal, and the continuing antics of Glamorella, but that's very few things to enjoy on a two hour broadcast. ECW has a small roster of wrestlers, and has just added a former two-time world champion superstar in Christian, but even with that addition, there really isn't a lot going for the brand. I mean, two of their most prominent wrestlers are Mark Henry and Tommy Dreamer, and two more, John Morrison and The Miz are almost always on either RAW or Smackdown instead. One of their wrestlers, whom I actually like, I can't enjoy without starting to feel nauseous because of his little pain in the ass of a "son." So, to me, they've got three things going for them: current champ, Jack Swagger, the recent addition of Christian, and their awesome color commentator, Matt Stryker(your teacher,) who can make anybody sound better and more important than they actually are. Once Evan Borne returns from injury--assuming he goes back to ECW--they'll have another, but right now, their hour is pretty damned bland.
Last year's draft firmly shifted the balance of power to Smackdown's court, as far as actual wrestling ability goes, and they appear to deliver week in and week out. They've got Edge, Jeff Hardy, Triple H, The Big Show, Shelton Benjamin, Porter, and The Undertaker and--other than the abuse of MVP--seem to use them all extremely well. Even the throw-ins of Brian Kendrick and Carlito to the roster have produced some interesting results. They have their irritants, also, with R-Truth's disgustingly annoying entrance and their newest face who is one of the worst workers I've ever seen, Kizarny, but all in all, they've been the best brand to watch for quite awhile, except for one thing. I still can't get used to watching wrestling on Friday nights. I fervently wish they'd go back to Thursdays, where they were for so long, so I'd have a wrestling show to watch there. What's that? Impact!? Hahahahaha. I thought about streaming their latest pay per view this past Sunday until I looked at the line-up and it brought an audible, "Ugh." to my lips. They had the fucking Dudley Boyz in a 4-way match for their World Heavyweight Title. TNA is going down the shitter with an incredible amount of speed.
"The riskiest thing you can do is get greedy."
If you're a regular passenger upon The Northern Star, you probably aren't surprised by any of this, but you may be wondering, "well, if you aren't into anything except Smackdown, and have trouble even watching that because of the night it's on, what the hell are you still doing writing about wrestling at all; do you even watch it?" I do, of course. It would be impossible to be this critical of something I wasn't actively watching, but the fact is that I devote a good portion of my wrestling(and television, in general) watching to Ring of Honor, nowadays. I'm still behind on it, of course, and always will be until it's broadcast on national television, but it's still new to me, has great storylines, and generally speaking has much better matches than the WWE puts on. I think the WWE is capable of better matches than they have, but the organization chooses to shackle their wrestlers with a style containing more punches and kicks than actual wrestling moves and further hinders their wrestlers by making them wrestle 5 to 7 minute matches that end abruptly and don't even have the semblance of telling a story for the most part; something I hope ROH doesn't fall victim to if/when they secure a TV deal.
I don't agree with the assessment of Bryan Danielson being the best wrestler in the world, but as I said in the series that marked my return to LordsofPain.net, he's very, very close. There's not very many people in the world that I consider to be better than him, but there are some; more precisely, four: Shawn Michaels, Austin Aries, Chris Jericho, and Triple H. As I said in The Man II, this is mainly due to the fact that I don't think Bryan Danielson's mic abilities and charisma live up to the level of the others. As far as in ring skills, he's pretty much unsurpassed, so if you're talking exclusively about in-ring performance, regardless of the fact that he's never wrestled for the WWE--except in dark matches--I do think he's earned the moniker "Best in the World." He's got such a varied style that I think a move to the WWE could possibly be a step down for him, because like everybody else that has moved there he'd wrestle the previously mentioned style the WWE currently forces their performances to abide by. The most successful workers coming over to the WWE are those that have been able to adapt that style to their own so that it appears that they haven't really changed in-ring at all.
There's no doubt in my mind that Bryan Danielson is capable of doing this and fitting in with the WWE very well in all areas. Is it possible to succeed in the WWE without having a large amount of charisma or being great on the mic? Yes, it is. Does it happen often? Nope. The thing is, though, that The American Dragon is one of those special talents that could make it happen. Like Chris Benoit before him, he lets his wrestling work do most of his talking for him, and in his own way, he's just as intense as Benoit was in the way he executes moves, but unlike Benoit, he's very good at getting the crowd involved in his matches, with some of his signature things he does. He may not have charisma in the traditional sense, and he may not be the best talker in the world, but he makes restholds exciting in a way I've never seen before. I thought one thing Brock Lesnar was great at was making restholds look incredibly interesting and painful. While I wouldn't say Danielson doesn't possess this talent, what I really like is the way that he'll have his opponent in a submission hold and once his opponent reaches the ropes and the referee starts counting, he yells, "I've got 'til FIVE!"
He also makes a submission move I've always enjoyed anyway, the surfboard, entertaining by yelling, "Whoa" louder and louder on each stretch back before completing the move. The guy is a lot of fun in the ring, and genuinely appears to have the ability to beat anybody at any time, despite his relatively diminutive size because of his wide array of maneuvers and his various in-ring skills. He's a master grappler, very good in the air, and can even brawl very well. Unlike Lance Cade, this guy took Shawn Michaels' lessons to heart. He could outwrestle the devil himself, and he's excellent at getting across the story of the match. What really sets him apart to me, though, is the feeling that he can win any match he's in at any time, no matter what the circumstance. Danielson's trademark finisher is a submission hold he calls "Cattle Mutilation," but another preferred way for him to win a match is to trap his opponent's arms and just keep whaling away on his head with elbows until the guy cannot defend himself. I don't think WWE needs to sign Danielson, especially in these economic times, because they already have someone on their roster that could embody some of his best traits.
"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever."
So, here's where I start to come off as a heretic to those of you who are ROHbots, and possibly even to those who just kind of like Ring of Honor. The conclusion of the WWE Title match at The Royal Rumble was a long time coming. I'm not saying that I was hoping and praying for a feud between The Hardy Boyz, because I really wasn't. It seemed to me when the reports came out last year that Vince was bound and determined to keep the Hardyz on separate shows specifically so there wouldn't be the temptation to put them back together as a team, it was one of the dumbest things I'd ever heard. After all, while the WWE has been very, very lax on developing new stars over the years, there was still a huge crowd at the top of the single's card, with hardly any tag teams on any show, and if there's any honest-to-God tag team since The Legion of Doom that could seriously be considered a main event level tag team, it has to be The Hardy Boyz. They're not my favorite pairing of all time, but they're close, and they've always been hella-over with the WWE crowds, because they produce visuals that are flat-out amazing eye candy.
So, making sure that The Hardyz were put together only as "event" television, seemed like kind of a weird way to go about business, but it also makes sense in an odd sort of way, considering how much Vince McMahon has apparently grown to despise tag team wrestling over the years. It's kind of weird that he and Eric Bischoff have that in common, while most wrestling fans enjoy the hell out of a good tag team, but be that as it may, it's kind of led to the situation we had last year. When the Hardyz split up the first time, their feud wasn't handled very well and I think they may have only had one or two matches against each other before the writers lost interest and tried to put them back together briefly before Matt ended up on Smackdown and Jeff was released from the company shortly after. I think the problem with this break up of the team was that there wasn't an organic reason for it. They broke up the team simply to break up the team, the way the WWE seems to do time after time with basically no purpose in mind. It led to an interesting single's run for Matt and a weird two year run in TNA which produced exactly zero championship runs for Jeff.
This time, though, the decision to turn Matt heel makes sense. For one thing, the sympathy card he could play after re-signing with the company in 2005 is over. It's been nearly 4 years since the story broke that Lita had cheated on him, he was released from the company for unprofessional conduct, and was later hired back to basically air his, Lita's, and Edge's dirty laundry publicly, but within the confines of a wrestling angle. It's kind of sick if you think about it that they were willing to do this, but they always say that the show must go on, and it ended up being a step along the way to making Edge into the superstar he is now. But what about Matt? Sure, he's remained with the company, but at best he's been an upper midcarder, never getting a chance to really step into the big time spotlight, the way that his first days as a heel Matt Hardy Version 1.0 seemed to predict. When he was the cocky Matt Hardy, who was so sure of himself that he had a disciple and little bits of trivia about his likes and beliefs were displayed during his entrance, he was never better; at least as a single's star. He may have won the U.S. and ECW Titles as a face, but that's not where his bread is buttered.
Matt Stryker took to calling Matt Hardy "everybody's favorite wrestler," during his four month reign at the top of ECW, but that's a bland title for a bland guy. There's no question that Matt Hardy is very good in the ring, and since his return in August of 2005 has portrayed a very decent, moralistic guy, who was always implicitly more or less standing up for what was right and/or always had the fans sympathy because of what he had to go through. That's pretty much the definition of a generic face, though, isn't it? Hardy did come out at Wrestlemania XXIV and cost MVP the Money in the Bank title shot, but that's really the only time I can recall him being proactive as a single's babyface. So, why was he everybody's favorite wrestler? Because he was always victimized by the bad guys, because he never got what was coming to him, while constantly being on the receiving end of assaults and rudeness that he didn't deserve. All that changed at The Royal Rumble, and presumably weeks before, because even while he was helping his brother to get a title shot against Edge, he was working behind the scenes to harm him. He's no longer a victim, so that he may become a victor.
"There is a point in every race when a rider encounters his real opponent and realizes that it's himself."
For the first time in years, this character has taken a step in the right direction, and I believe that if this turn is handled properly; and it has been so far, that this could be the starmaking opportunity for Matt Hardy. Matt's younger brother got to the top of the mountain before him, but that doesn't mean the elder won't get there eventually; he can. In fact, the two can help each other. If this feud is handled right, Jeff can use his overness and main event status to move his brother to monster heel status, while getting himself ever closer to where some in the WWE believe he can be--John Cena level status. It's a brilliant move by the WWE, much more intelligent and subtle than bringing Christian in to be the guy that was attacking Jeff. While Christian would have been logical given their history, it makes little sense for the WWE to put a guy that left them for 3 1/2 years in that kind of cat bird seat, when they had another guy waiting in the wings who's been improving, advancing, and showing what he can do for a hiccup short of 10 straight years. Now is the time for Jeff Hardy to shine solo, never doubt it, but it may also be the time for Matt to do so, and most thought the two could never do that concurrently.
But, in order for this to happen, Matt Hardy has to leave everything behind. On the January 30, episode of Smackdown, Matt came out with the chair he used to brain his brother and said that he was tired of taking care of Jeff, that he was tired of Jeff causing him pain, that the Hardy Boyz were through, that he no longer considered Jeff his partner, and that he no longer had a brother. He said, "From now on, the only person Matt Hardy cares about is Matt Hardy." Those were all powerful words, and it was an incredible promo, but they were just words. Actions speak louder, so what I keep coming back to over and over in my mind when I think about this angle are the chair shot, with Matt just standing over his brother while his former hated rival covered him to win the WWE Title and the brutal attack he had on his sometime friend and sometime rival, Hurricane Helms, where after ramming Helms into the steel steps outside the ring, he brought him back into the ring and trapped his arms while whaling away on his head with elbow after elbow until WWE officials came out to stop him.
It was this last image, of course, that started me wondering on whether the WWE would actually let Matt change his wrestling style and I, for one, certainly hope that the answer is "yes," because this catharsis will not be complete if he goes right back to using his second rope leg drop and Twist of Fate. CM Punk doesn't wrestle at all like he did in ROH, but he has still had a lot of success in the WWE using a moveset that I've heard he stole from KENTA, who's a young, up-and-coming star in Japan. If that's the case, there's precedent for what I'm suggesting. I'm not saying Hardy should use Danielson's trademark slogan or his "Whoa," but I am saying that he should adopt the idea of using a myriad of different ways to finish off your opponent, but apply it in a brutal way. To see Matt Hardy using the arms-trapped elbow strike as a means of finishing off opponents would be amazing, as would the arms trapped stomp that earned Danielson's opponents the chant "You're gonna get your fucking head kicked in!," but mainly what I want to see from Matt is his abandonment of all the things that have brought him to the dance, because they're holding him back.
There was a rumor a while back that the WWE was looking into having their wrestlers use a more "real" style in their matches; this could be a step in the right direction. After all, if someone out there truly only cared about themselves, wouldn't they just do everything they could to beat the living snot out of their opponents? Maybe they'd just go out and grab a chair or anything else they could get their hands on and just start beating the shit out of them with a psychotic look in their eye, but it seems to me that a guy who only cares about himself is going to do whatever it takes to win a match, so I'd like to see an intense Matt Hardy of few words try to break someone's arm or leg to incapacitate them enough to get a pinfall or to make them submit, or hit someone with the side effect only to trap their arms and knock them out with straight elbows to the head instead of attempting a pin. A heel who's a heel not because of who he does something to or because he cheats, but because he's successful at not caring how he beats whoever he's beating. A lone wolf who tries to bite those who try to become his pack. It's time for Matt Hardy to shed the vestiges of Version 1.0; they've been holding him back too long. It's time for him to evolve. It's time to release Version Ultimate.
Long days, pleasant nights
{Author's Note: The quotes in teal above are from 6-time Tour De France winner, Lance Armstrong.}
Points of Light
I'm once again plugging the Columns Series Invitational that's currently running in the LoP Forums. Once the tournament is over, I may go back to plugging normal Columns Forum columns; it may not be possible, because lately I haven't had the time to read a lot of columns. Just giving you a heads up.
If you look to the right side of your screen, you'll see some of my previous columns posted, but not all. It'll take me a while to get all of my old stuff transferred over, but until I do, you can just click this link in order to read past Northern Stars.
You can send any comments by email to me at XanManX@hotmail.com with the words "Northern Star" or "feedback" in the subject line.
