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Submitted by Wevv Mang on Sunday, November 23, 2003 at 2:20 PM EST
Ridin’ With The Bossman – What Do The Fans Know? Greetings! Welcome to another edition of Ridin’ With The Bossman! In a special report, Big Show will not be joining me here today. No, he’s on a diplomatic mission of peace. Big Show has been loaded on a plane, and is heading to Australia to make up for my jinxing of DaveyBoy’s predictions. He’s carrying a Mammoth Monster sandwich made special for Davey, and it’s sealed in liquid hydrogen cooling tank to keep it fresh. Said tank has been specially reinforced to keep Big Show out, to insure that Davey actually gets it, and no "accidents" happen. I also have a message from Smackdown Recapper Justin "Locura" Pratt. So let’s get into the TV happenings this week, before I ramble on anymore. Too late. WWE TV – The TV Series Survivor Series One week ago today, WWE put on a good PPV. Not a great PPV, but a good one. It may seem great, but my view is that after a slew of bad PPV’s a good one can seem great. First match had three guys go out in less than two minutes, and one before the bell sounded. Not a bad thing, but not an auspicious start. The finish saw Big Show taking on two guys, and doing the job, to get the win for Angle's team. Remember that, last guy standing of Team Lesnar? Big Show. Lots of nice little touches throughout the whole PPV. I loved the Goldberg – Lesnar segment. Very well done, and it’s amazing what you can do with Goldberg when you make him strong. The rest of matches were solid. Even Goldberg - H. They did what they needed to do. Lots of bleeding later on. I’m not even sure Vince bladed himself. See, when Taker hit him, he shook his hand afterwards, and Vince looked like he was bleeding before he left the ring. He may have diced himself to bleed more, but man, that was nasty. But a PPV is only as good as the following nights TV. RAW Bye Bye Austin. I won’t miss you on Raw, and wait to see what you can do on Smackdown. "That’s Very White of you…No offense" Before I get all racial here, let me point something out. Teddy and Mark are now all in white. Mark changed his ring attire, and there’s Teddy wearing a VERY white suit. So it could have been H making a joke about there apparel. Or it could have been H who put them up to it. Make your own guess. Bischoff’s Fab Five So, the results for getting rid of Austin? H gets a title shot. Please. Each guy should have wanted a shot at the belt, and I’m not talking IC. Which Ric got some how. Nope, it’s back to the H show. Five potential angles shot to hell for one guy’s ego trip. Heck it could have been six working angles, with Evolution playing a major role as top heel faction, but no. The guys are cut out of the action, with three of them blowing their favors for stupid reasons. Goldberg had five opponents lined up, and instead of making him a power for the next few months, BEFORE dropping the belt, the semi push has been cancelled. Welcome back H, how’s that movie looking? Delayed? What a surprise. Almost went off on an H rant there but I’ll save that for another day. I have yet to write an OAW full fledged rant, but I’m getting very close. SteJ has asked me to help out with his 25th column, and you’ll get a taste of it there. Since the plugs seem to be coming early, Pt2 has his 50th coming up, and I’ll be a part of that as well. But don’t read them just for me, these guys rock, and I’m honored to be asked to help out. Jericho and Christian, What’s The Plan? I do have a nice little scenario planned out for this, and if I write it, it will not happen, but I’d love to see it played out. See, Christian and Jericho are heels, and this whole lovey dovey angle is crossing the line. So to make them heels, and full blown heels, here’s what could happen. Christian used his favor to help an emotionally vulnerable Lita. Next week on Raw, Lita is shown arriving at the building, and Bischoff greets her with a "What the hell are you doing here? She explains about Christian’s favor, and Bischoff has no idea what she’s talking about, and she’s thrown out. Trish confronts Jericho about Christian, he says he’ll get to the bottom of this. Jericho asks Christian to guest on the Highlight Reel. Christian comes out, and admits that he tricked Lita, but that’s not all. He got some action as well. Jericho is stunned, then admits that Christian isn’t the only one who had some fun last week. Christian asks when, and Jericho says right after the show. Christian says he got his earlier. He then tells Jericho to pay up. Jericho looks embarrassed, and then pulls out a Canadian Dollar coin and hands it over. Trish comes out and demands to know what’s going on. Jericho then goes full heel, and explains that he had a bet with Christian over who could get whom first, and Christian won. Let me know what you think of this little drama. Smackdown -Results provided by Justin "Locura" Pratt And now a few words from the man who writes the recapps that allow me to just watch the show without worrying about missing something. Justin "Locura" Pratt "I'm not quite sure exactly how you want me to sound-off about how I feel about SmackDown! My reports aren't completely opinionated, but I do express my thoughts in there whenever I feel there are necessary. Whenever a segment gets atrocious, I'll express my disgust. Whenever a wrestler executes a dynamic move, I'll write down how I marked for it. My match ratings are all opinions, too. I mean, some people probably think squash matches are fantastic (to which they need to get smacked for). For my overall opinion on the wrestling world, there are very few wrestlers or ideas that I hate. Why? Because I always take the good with the bad. I don't care if a match is overbooked, underbooked, too short, too long, a blatant spotfest, etc. etc. etc. (although, as I already stated, I'm much against squashing). As long as the match is good and entertaining, then I'm happy. I'm not gonna hate a match just because a hoss that most smarts hate is there, or vice versa. If I like it, I like it. I don't feel the need to openly bash everything that happens or certain wrestlers. Vince McMahon, for example. I know the majority of the internet community hates him, and I can see their people. He is the owner of the WWE who is deliberately given himself TV time probably just to feed his ego. On the other hand, he is without a doubt one of the company's top heels and the fans react to him. Even though some of his segments are hit-and-miss and he does get into some ridiculous feuds (oh, the horror of Vince vs. Steph...), he brings an entertainment value to the show. I don't agree with hating him just because he's a McMahon. Hell, we wouldn't have a wrestling show to watch today if it wasn't for him. You can hate him for hogging up TV time, though, don't let an entire show revolve around him. Overall, I'm the appreciative wrestling fan. I don't overanalyze or criticize things that don't deserve it; I just call it as I see it and like it if it is . But, hey, if you have anything specifically to ask me about certain aspects of wrestling, I'd be more than happy to answer them for you. I do appreciate the plugs you put in your column, as recapping can oftentimes be tedious work, especially if the show I'm writing about ends up sucking big-time. ;-) " My pleasure Justin, and thank you for all your hard work. Send him some e-mail folks, and tell him thanks. He asked for questions and give ‘em to him. Justin Pratt - locuraniner@yahoo.com – Mr. Smackdown! Random thoughts from Smackdown. Cena vs Vince Well, that’s it for Cena. Push comes to stop right now. Ask Zach and Brock about working an angle with Vince. Hell, call up Hogan and get the skinny on what the plan was that made him run. "Brother, they wanted me to have a gay relationship with Zack. Hulkster don’t swing that way". Good for one week, but next week, he’s toast. If you ain’t six foot six, you ain’t on Vince’s good guy list. Jimmy Yang vs Rey Mysterio All that was missing was a solid angle going into the match. You now know that they can work well together, gives the feud some meat and you got something. Heh, seeing the match of Nathan Jones vs Benoit gave me the Thursday Night Thunder flashbacks like Phantom Lord was talking about as well. Vibe Awards What the hell is Justin Timberlake doing on this show? Did I miss something? Is this putz actually popular? I’ve heard his music, do people actually like it? Man, I am so glad I can turn my back on pop music and just download stuff from the net. Sigh, I long for days of Heavy Metal back when it was just Satanic Music. No whiny bitching about crap, just we’re gonna rock, get laid, and praise hell Satan. Even hard rock was cool. We’re gonna get laid, party hard, and go get laid some more. Now it’s just whining. Even Fred Durst is whiny, but he’s doing it to music I can stand. Enough about music. I’ve rambled long enough. Week one has come and gone of the new Era of Angles. H is making his presence felt, and Vince is getting insecure. I have this nasty feeling that Kane is going over to Smackdown. See, H owes Kane big time, and if they ever feud, guess who’s going over. Kane should be given a belt, but not H’s. Nope, he gets Brock’s, since he’s not a "real" champion like H. Vince will then be able to interact in those crappy angles he keeps cooking up for Kane. Serves him right. Wevv’s House (Next To The Cemetery) Living Room All is eerily quiet. The sun streams in through the patio doors. The rug has been rolled up and pushed to the side. The coffee table has been moved to the side as well. The TV is turned off. No sound can be heard. Suddenly, a piano riff comes from the stereo speakers. A thudding is heard, and Bossman slides into view. He’s dressed only in his underwear. The next couple of strains from Bob Seger’s "old Time Rock and Roll" starts up. Bossman turns around, and he’s wearing sunglasses and swinging his nightstick. He starts to dance around. Unnoticed by Bossman, Wevv comes in the back door. He comes out of the kitchen to see Bossman gyrating in the middle if his living room. He stops in shocks and just stares. Bossman goes through a twist and is suddenly facing Wevv. Bossman: WEVV! You’re back! I thought you were going to be gone for a while. Wevv: Bossman, put some pants on. Please. Bossman: Uh, with Big Show gone, I thought I’d just- Wevv: Pants. Now. Bossman: Yeah, uh, yeah…. Wevv: I don’t even want to know what you were going to do with that nightstick. Just put some pants on, and we’ll never talk about this again. OK? Bossman: Sure Wevv, I’ll just go put some pants on. Wevv: And turn off Bob Seger will you. Man, couldn’t you have closed the curtains at least? No, never mind, just put pants on. Over-Analyzing Wrestling Today’s Topic: For Love of The Business On Monday night Raw, HBK and Eric Bischoff had a skit together. HBK then went on to explain how he loved the business. Austin in his retirement speech said how much he loved the business. Wrestlers always seem to say how much they love wrestling. But what about the fans? Do they love wrestling? Sure, they may not put their bodies on the line night after night like the wrestlers do, but I think they do make sacrifices to be a fan. Sacrifices that do cost them in more ways than one, and that they willingly make for something, that I dare call love. I think the most sacrificed commodity of fans is time. Consider this, the time a WWE shows takes on TV is roughly 2 hours. Now think about when that show is run. 8-9 PM at night on Monday (or 10 – midnight in Phoenix, just a brutal time to air). Now, that’s on Monday. Staying up to 11 PM may be no big deal for some folks, but if you have to work or go to school, that’s some valuable sleep time being wasted. But it’s not that much to ask, since you can always catch up on sleep, though I haven’t figured out how yet. Another way that fans make sacrifices is through their wallet. PPV costs have gone up. The price of admission has risen slightly (except over seas, where it’s outrageous), and merchandise has always been an iffy call. But when the WWE is coming to town, most fans will go, sacrificing time and money to be entertained. The best way to make the experience memorable? Buy something. The desire to buy something clashes with the dictates of fashion, but the need to have a souvenir usually wins. The last point about fans love I’d like to make is one that effects almost all fans. The scorn of peers. Being a wrestling fan is not a popular choice to make in most social circles. Fans get made fun of, and usually hide their fandom from the rest of the general public. Wearing a wrestling shirt is usually a good way to get some jerk pointing out that wrestling is fake. Then the whole process of being interrogated on why you like wrestling begins, and there really is no winner. The traditional sports defense of being from the same city can’t be used, since wrestling is national. Same thing for rooting for the underdog, since it’s all lumped together. It’s like saying you’re a fan of curling, and people just look at you funny. The whole latent homo aspect of wrestling doesn’t help matters either. When the angles are bad it’s worse, since trying to defend something you don’t like as well is tough to do. When you admit you’re a fan, most folks lower your IQ about fifty points. It’s a low brow phony sport, and the folks who watch must not be too bright. The guy is probably a homo too. All that from just saying "I watch wrestling". The most vocal ones to defend the sport on sports radio usually ain’t too bright either. To be honest, they usually come off that way, but that’s the phone screeners choice of who gets on the air. Say you’re a smark, and you suddenly have no social life thrown into the mix as well. At least the morons are getting laid, but not those computer geeks. I have no idea what the chicks go through, but they can say they find the wrestlers cute in their defense. But the choice is made, and the fans put up with it. So do the wrestlers return this love? I think for the most part, the answer is no. Or if it is, it’s an abusive love. Thanking the fans has become passe’. Now it’s greater to be there than it is to thank the fans. The fans have become the enemy. Comments like " They don’t know anything about the business" and "They’ve never set foot in the ring" are thrown around way too much. "They don’t know anything about the business" is the most common one. While true to an extent, it really doesn’t prove that these guys do know about the business as a business. They may know how to wrestle, but when it comes to actually making money off the genre, they know as much as the rest of us. Making money off of wrestling has little to do with knowing how to wrestle. It’s about promotion, marketing, balancing cost against expenses, television production, and sales. Only one company is making money right now, and it’s not the wrestlers who are keeping the company afloat financially. They are the honey that may draw the bees, but they ain’t the ones saying how much to pay for what and making the product look good on TV. If knowing how to wrestle was the key to success in wrestling, the country would be overflowing with competitors to WWE, and the only one close isn’t doing that well financially. "They never set foot in the ring." Just who do these folks think the three million viewers each week are? Wrestlers? Hardly. As for only wrestlers knowing good wrestling, well, that may be true. But to be able to appreciate good wrestling is not exclusive to wrestlers only. Comic book fans have never fought against a supervillian, but that doesn’t stop them from going to see the movies. Which do huge business. Fans have their favorite matches and can compare them against the current product, and like what they like, regardless of whether it’s a five star match for some or a stinker to others. A balance of giving something to everyone is what the shows are about. It’s called variety. My final thought on fans love of wrestling has to do more with the nature and definition of the word love itself. It what that love means to the individual. For me, love is wanting the subject to do well. To be more than it is, and achieve success, regardless of whether I’m directly involved or not. If I can’t make success happen, then maybe something else should be tried. Standing aside can be hard, but if it works, then the end result is all that really matters. As long as it does well, prospers, and continues to grow. Like parents with children, sometimes they just have to find their own way, and let them experiment, try different things, and be there if they need you. Sometimes they don’t, but they appreciate the vote of confidence. My name is Wevv Mang and I love wrestling. Not in a homo kind of way, but in a way that makes me write each and every week at great length about it. I’ve thrown around the word love enough, so let’s call it a day. Random thought s first, then plugs. The WWE has decided not to renew Goldust’s contract, or so the rumor goes. That is a shame, since even if he was not physically able to wrestle, they should still use him in creative. The man’s acting talents were the highlight of many a crappy Raw, and what happened with Goldust and Booker T should not be underestimated. But oh well, I’m sure hiring some big goof will contribute to the show as much as Goldust has. Look at the impact that John Heinzketchup is having! He’s really making an impact, especially on the talent. Right Stevie? Stephanie recently hired Hollywood creative writers to help with the writing process. Not to help them come up with ideas, just to teach them the process of creative writing. They were said to have been hired at great expense. My thoughts? Payolla. They get paid to do some bogus job, when the real reason they’re getting money is to bandy about what a great guy H is, and land him some movie roles. An interesting thing to keep an eye out for. If these guys were the same guys working on Blade III. See, H has said that he’s going back to do some reshoots in December, and his part has already been filmed, but there was talk of extending his role in the movie. So if it turns out that his role is being extended, and these guys have been hired to do their "creative" thing, then it’s all just a big coincidence, right? Lawler in a hair versus hair match with his son Brian? I thought it looked like Jerry was wearing a wig on Monday. Bet it’s a big hit down at the junior high. Look out officer! He’s not stopping! He’s got his eyes on those eighth graders! Heh, wonder what Lawler will have to say about Michael jackson. Now, for the plugs Wrestling’s Fact or Fiction is up. Always a great read from Phantom Lord, Villano and Da Ref. These guys know their stuff. Wrestling’s Fact Or Fiction Mr. Tito did have his opinions and review up of Survivor Series, but it’s gone now. He does have up his Wrath of Tito where he actually watched Raw. He and I both love the business reports, and he’s got some info for you. Wrath Of Tito Dumass checks in with his latest tirade and opinions. A Dumass Thought I couldn’t agree more with Jim this week. It’s so simple, yet it seems so hard to follow. Find out what the simple rules for success are in The Forzese View. The Forzese View Davey not only goes over what went wrong with his predicitions, he also ranks the rookies. I have nothing to saw on this since I don’t want to jinx him, but encourage you to read him. The Wrestling Menu Da J-Train makes a return and boy does he have a lot to talk about. Better read it and send him some feedback. Stuck In The Middle With You Phantom Lord does double duty, as his Rant Of The Week is up and wanting for you to froth over. Rant Of The Week And Of Course, the mandatory plugs. LOP Forums! LOP Merchandise! Holidays are Here! Buy Something! Surprise you friends with LOP Mugs! LOP Columns Forums! Hey You has two ready for reading, cruiser weights or creative? Read em both and let her know what you think. Dubzilla is almost at 50. Good for him. Does he have something special planned? You better read. Winter talks about old Wrestlemainias and Survivor Series. Xan man asks, is it worth it? Find out. Helix did hit 25. Show him some love. That’s all for today folks. Who’s on the phone Bossman? Australian authorities? Big Show’s cannister? Why does it look gnawed on? No, don’t tell them that! Jeez! Go get the hearse ready, I’’ll handle it. This could take some time. Until Next Time, Thanks For reading and Thanks For Ridin’ Wevv Mang mrwevv@mac.com *NEW GALLERY* Must See! Lots of Rare and Hot Photos of Randy Orton's New Wife Samantha!
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