The Forzese View - The WWE Cannot Win
    Submitted by Jim Forzese on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 at 8:17 AM EST

    WWE Can’t Win

    It is said everyday by every wrestling fan alike; WWE needs fresh faces at the top. We are sick of the same old Goldberg, Taker, HBK, HHH, and even Austin or Vince McMahon himself as the main event wrestlers. The WWE will never be better until they start to push new talent to the top and stop using the same talent over and over again. WWE then goes out and starts to push the likes of Brock Lesner, Cena, Randy Orton and Batista so that there are new main event guys on both programs. So what do the fans think about these moves? All you hear is “I’m sick of Lesner, he’s stale already” or “Orton and Batista, What the hell have they done, these guys are terrible in the ring”. La Resistance, they suck why the hell are they on Raw? Matt Morgan is only a main event guy because Vince loves big guys. Matt is boring in the ring, he will probably be just another Undertaker or Andre The Giant I guess, what kind of careers did those guys have?

    How the hell can Vince ever win in the ratings or win back the fans that he has lost when fans act like this? I understand that fans would rather have RVD or Booker T or even Rey Mysterio or Benoit in the main event fighting for the heavyweight championship; I do to, but remember this ever-important thing. Benoit and Booker T are ten to twenty years older than Orton and Batista.Do you remember ten years ago what Benoit (wild Pegasus), Booker T (ebony express) and RVD (Robbie V) were like? What if no one ever pushed them and gave them the opportunity to succeed? Maybe Orton and Batista have not done anything “YET” to earn the main event push but, they do deserve it because (A-We the fans asked for it) and (B-the only way they can get better and carry the company is by being in the thick of things with today’s top stars).

    So it is not really fresh faces that fans want but new faces that are different then what WWE currently gives us. The biggest difference between RVD/ Benoit vs. Orton/Batista is that Orton and Batista have untapped potential that no one has ever seen before where as RVD and Benoit are what they are for the rest of the career’s unless Vince changes them up dramatically. It will take more from Benoit than just a heel/face turn to make him worth more in the eyes of the WWE creative team then he is currently in. No one will question the in ring ability of Chris Benoit but, WWE does not care for his promo skills so that hurts his chances of carrying the belt for any length of time or at all. Size may hurt but I think it is his lack of character that hurts him more than anything.

    So instead of WWE just giving Benoit a drastic makeover that could propel him to the top of the wrestling world ala Stone Cold, WWE will just have Benoit be a set-up man for the main eventers that they have in place already. Orton has no background other than what WWE is creating for him so that is where all the untapped possibilities come from. That alone, beside the fact that he is a third generation superstar that has the look, size, and promo ability, is worth investing a lot of time into. RVD is said by most to be extremely sloppy in the ring. Why should a sloppy veteran of over ten years deserve a push over a sloppy Batista who is under three years as a pro? The answer is current day fan appeal but that is not building for the future now is it? Sloppy ring work can be fixed over time if the wrestler works at it. Has RVD really worked hard to change anything since he joined the WWE?

    So is WWE to just gives main event draw pushes to current day superstars who are fan favorites right now, but are also not going to dramatically improve ever or build future stars that may be green as hell now but in five more years could be as good as anyone is today? Booker T is in his forties right now, so what is the longevity that someone who is said to be contemplating retirement in two years going to give the WWE.Why put the strap around Booker and then see him become a trivia question in ten years when in ten years from now Orton and Bartista will only be in their early thirties and the prime of their careers? Fans have to look at things from the eyes of the WWE and the creative team.

    Do I agree with what Vince is doing? Vince and his “My vision only matters” approach does hurt his own personal fan appeal so as I don’t agree completely with him, I do agree with the thought of pushing the young guys even if they are not quite ready now because they will be ready in three or four years from now. What should happen with current day stars is to change them up some to create interest from the casual fan. Die-hard fans watch wrestling period, we can’t stop but casual fans need something to catch their attention to return. RVD doing a serious snob gimmick like William Regal would intrigue fans more than the laid-back surfer dude type he has been doing for ten years. WWE’s biggest sin is that they stopped creating characters and storylines, two must-haves in the wrestling business. When a strong character with a solid storyline is main eventing it replaces the need for quality in ring ability (see Hulk Hogan).

    Bottom Line:

    I said in my last column that WWE should use the wrestlers gimmick when a superstar comes to WWE from another company if that gimmick is what made them famous in the first place i.e. Goldberg, Raven, RVD. I still believe that but after that gimmick has been played out and there is nothing left to do with it then WWE needs to recreate that wrestlers exsistence. Just creating a new character however is not enough because the booking needs to be strong behind it. Sean O’Haire was the perfect example of creating an exciting new character from an established name but the booking behind it was so weak that he failed miserably. O’Haire failed through no fault of his yet is being punished like it was.

    O’Haire went from being a stand alone heel who was the devil’s advocate to being a lackey for Piper. Sean was not the strong enforcer like Cowboy Bob Orton; he was a lackey who stood in Piper’s shadow. When O’Haire was the devil’s advocate, instead of wrestling a Benoit who could carry him to a passable match he was stuck with Rikishi who could never carry anyone to a good match. That was a true crime by WWE to do this to a talent that could be making a lot of money for the company right now. Again a sure sign that the creative team for WWE is not quite that creative. O’Haire could have been apart of team Lesner over Matt Morgan or the departed Nathan Jones.

    So I implore the fans to stop complaining about wrestlers who are getting their opportunity before our eyes. Remember that Benoit, RVD, and Booker T all were in this position; it’s just that most of the fans don’t remember them in this boat because it was before their time as a wrestling fan. Orton and Batista deserve the chance to become main event players for the company that essentially drafted them from the minor leagues. Benoit and Booker deserve the chance to be main event players also but, not at the expense of the rookies. They deserve the chance over the likes of Big Show, A-Train or Billy Gunn instead but they need to start doing something different even if WWE doesn’t authorize it at first. Both Paul Heyman and Stone Cold have said to wrestlers, do something to get yourself noticed by the creative team. Wrestlers are just not heeding that advice so they are stuck where they are because of it.

    So before fans rant about what has Orton or Batista or even John Cena done to deserve the main event push there getting, stop and think back and say to yourself what did Benoit, Booker T or RVD do ten years ago to deserve a main event push back then? I am not here to preach but I just dislike how much flack Randy Orton gets when it is clear that the man has “it”. It is something that cannot be taught or bought it just flows from within. Ernest Miller is getting a lot of shit for his push because Vince loves his character but wrestlers think he is a sloppy performer in the ring and a kiss ass. Again Cat could improve his ring skills to become passable but his character cannot be learned like a wristlock. I’m not saying that everything WWE does is perfect but it has almost become a sport to bash them after every Raw, Smackdown or PPV.

    So as you are all sitting around partying on New Years remember that until next time that’s just my view.

    Jim Forzese
    forzeseview@yahoo.com




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