Breaking The Walls Down - Defend or Refute Submitted by Chris Dailey on Wednesday, December 25, 2002 at 1:05 AM EST
Breaking The Walls Down
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hello all and welcome back to another edition of Breaking The Walls Down. The wrestling world hasn’t really had much excitement lately, so I’ll skip by Bits and Pieces this week. The news of a possible Goldberg signing is heavily rumored, but that’s all it is for now, a rumor.
One more side note, in my last column I stated wrestlers that the WWE has signed. And, one of them I said was Shane Matthews. Now, to my knowledge, the WWE hasn’t signed The Washington Redskins’ QB. I meant to Shannon Moore. However, there is an independent wrestler on the east coast who goes by the name Shane Matthews. He wrote to me letting me know his appreciation for the accidental plug. Ah, well, anyway I can help.
Anyway, onto the column.
Defend or Refute
Defend or refute. Yes, those words, that very sentence is engraved in my mind and any other students of Wilson High School who had a certain English teacher. Now, he was a great teacher, but that was his favorite sentence whenever discussion came up in class or a student discovered a topic in a book. And now, now I am taking that sentence and, certainly in my former English teacher’s mind, committing blasphemy with it. I will use that sentence with professional wrestling. I will defend Kurt Angle as WWE Champion while I will refute Triple H as The World Champion.
Defend: Kurt Angle is over. One way or another he is over. The crowd pops for everything he is involved in. He’s earned their respect. Angle has won the crowd over with his innovativeness on the microphone and the evolutionary plane his character has reached.
Refute: Triple H is anything but over. He’s stagnant. While Kurt Angle has reached an evolutionary plane in his character, Triple H has reverted his character back to an earlier form. In a mix of his aristocratic blue-blood persona from the mid 90s and his bully-like, arrogant ways from the late 90s, Triple H’s character has digressed to a point where the fans don’t care about it. Triple H comes out to speak and the crowd is silent. Sort of like the way they were in the mid 90s.
Defend: Kurt Angle’s in-ring performance continues to be raised. Kurt Angle does this by not killing himself in hardcore matches, but by working his butt off in the ring with some top-notch wrestling moves and matches. Granted, it doesn’t hurt when you face guys like Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero, but when matches are that impressive, it’s more than one guy carrying the other. It’s more like both men are raising the bar for each other throughout the match. This is a testament to not only Kurt Angle, but the wrestlers he has worked with such as Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero (let’s not forget Edge in this category, either).
Refute: Triple H’s in-ring performance continues to be erratic. It has been almost a year since Triple H came back from that serious knee injury. And, in that time Triple H has had some impressive matches, but nothing like he used to have before the injury. And, the number of unimpressive matches outnumbers the impressive matches. Now, let’s not forget the Elimination Chamber match. Triple H had a bad injury in the match and continued for well over twenty minutes. That in and of itself is a testament to how much he loves the business. I will never doubt his desire to see the business survive, but I cannot help but notice how his matches have been. I wanted to give Triple H enough time to work off the “ring rust”, but it has been a year. Any “ring rust” should have been shed long ago, considering how many matches he has had since he’s been back.
Defend: Kurt Angle puts over talent. Enough said.
Refute: Triple H does not put over talent. Enough said.
Defend: Kurt Angle is O.K. with not being champion. This expands upon the previous point a bit, but it begs to be mentioned. I do not remember the last time Kurt Angle was champion. It has been quite some time since he has held that title. Kurt Angle waits until he is told that he is going to be given the gold. He doesn’t play any backstage politics.
Refute: Triple H is not O.K. with not being champion. Trying to remember when Triple H was champion before this current title reign is like trying to remember who your parents are. Triple H really seems to take advantage of his relationship with Stephanie McMahon. Triple H likes the gold, who wouldn’t, but he has got to know when it is not his to have. Triple H has earned the right to be champion, but so have other guys. The rumors of Austin wanting to go to Smackdown are flying around everywhere. And, who could blame him? I don’t blame him for leaving, I just don’t agree with the way he did it. Regardless, Triple H plays the political game all to well, and others have noticed this, too.
What it comes down to is who’s time is it? It’s clearly Kurt Angle’s time, but when or if Vince says it’s Benoit’s turn, do you think Angle will try and stop that? No, he won’t. But, if Vince says that it is RVD’s turn, do you think Triple H will try and stop that? Yes, he will. It’s painfully evident what Triple H does behind the scenes; it’s a shame that it hurts the other deserving talent, however. Not to mention the fans.
