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Submitted by Pt2 on Saturday, June 12, 2004 at 8:15 AM EST
Welcome once again to the column that has jobbed to the Ultimate Warrior in even more embarrassing style than Triple H, Take up thy wrestling boots and walk. I’m the man number one on everyone’s to do list, Pt2, back once again to share my thoughts on all things wrestling. Arquette and other travestiesDavid Arquette. Vince Russo. Vince McMahon. All guys who weren’t full time wrestlers who won the world title. All vilified for it, and I find it hard to come up with an argument to defend them, and impossible to come up with one I believe myself. And I can convince myself of almost anything after a few drinks. Yeah, almost everyone who watches thinks it’s a bad idea to put the title on a non-wrestling character - it has nothing to do with being a net fan, or a “smark”, or whatever the hell terminology is going around. It’s a well known fact that even the most typical fan will look at David Arquette and say “damn.... he can’t beat the champ.” And if the majority of people watching believe that (and they seem to), then it hurts. End of story. However, one thing I’m not a fan of is the melodrama - There seems to be a certain attitude that when guys like Arquette and Russo won the WCW title, that the title was “disgraced” and that it soiled the legacy of all the legends who had gone before and held the belt. That somehow an occurrence ten or twenty years later on robs them of what they achieved. Sounds like Bull crap to me. OK, it’s an awful decision for a guy like Vince Russo to ever be a wrestling companies world champion, we get that; but it doesn’t mean Ric Flair and Harley Race title reigns are meaningless now, does it? It doesn’t steal anything away from the Funk brothers or their legacy. Their accomplishments stand as they always will have. What it does do is take the prestige of anyone to wear the belt afterwards - It stops becoming a coveted possession and becomes the belt of the company where the competition was so poor that actors and writers once could hold it. So people might not look at a Scott Steiner WCW title reign or a Booker T WCW title reign with any real respect after the joke that was made of the belt - but they should look at the Ric Flair and Sting reigns with the respect that they always did. Think about it, Razor Ramon was one of the most respected WWF stars for being a 4 time Intercontinental champion when the Intercontinental championship actually meant something. And though the IC title became a toy more than a prestigious Midcard title from the end of 1998 onwards, those of us who saw Razor’s title reigns think no less of them for what became of the title afterwards. Ultimately though, it does seriously damage almost every wrestler on the roster. In the case of the 1 night Vince McMahon reign, you can make an exception, but for anyone to get a pinfall or submission victory over the world champion when it isn’t even your trade makes everyone in the damn company look bad - This is the guy that the trained athletes can’t beat, but this guy can come in and take him out despite being as small as a stunted Chihuahua? If Prince Iaukea couldn’t beat Jeff Jarrett and some guy who has a stunt man can, what does that say for the career of Iaukea? Not that I’m saying he should have beaten Jarrett you understand, but I’m sure you get my point. If not, here it is again. Yes, it’s a pretty shit move to put the title belt on a non wrestler. It’s demoralising and heat killing for the wrestlers on the roster, it means that once they lose the belt you have to start trying to rebuild some credibility with much stronger angles, and it will probably turn away many of the “purist” fans of your company. But lets not over-react and suggest that it hurts the likes of Bruno Sammartino that in the late nineties Vince McMahon held the same title that he held in the sixties. Benefit of the doubtI’ve criticized a lot of things in wrestling. I’ve criticized writer, the performance of certain wrestlers, the quality of shows, and all kinds of other things you can imagine. Of course, I like to think that I am a big enough man to stand up and admit it when my criticism is proved to be in the end, unjustified. One man I have levelled a lot of criticism at over the years has been Vince McMahon Jnr. I’ve ripped into him over a lot of decisions that don’t make much sense to me. But, while he isn’t always at his best and can create some real stinkers at times, there comes a point where you have to hold your hands up and admit, that for the most part, Vince McMahon knows what he is doing. I don’t think he’d still be around if he didn’t. I think we really have to give McMahon the benefit of the doubt with new angles and things. I’m sure everyone on the internet has seen someone jump all over a storyline instantly, without giving it chance to play out and see what they are trying to do. All right, you get a stinker from time to time, but if you were to make your mind up that things are going to be bad before seeing them, you’re never going to enjoy the shows. These days, when I’m sceptical about something I still have to give Vince the benefit of the doubt. I really didn’t think the Eugene angle was going to work at all. I expected it to be pretty tasteless and turn viewers away. I really didn’t expect to enjoy it at all. Well, I was wrong. I do enjoy it, and based on reaction, so do a lot of other fans. It’s even given us the most memorable segment of the year, with Eugene and The Rock. A Bradshaw push to the main event? I would never have thought that could have been enjoyable, not in a million years. And while the wrestling quality of the man makes me long for Barry Windham, and I don’t agree that a Nazi salute can be justified by trying to draw heat (even though that was what he was doing... it’s still too far), but the character is the best he has ever had, and the story was pretty solid. I’d rather they left Heart attacks out of it, but hey, two out of three ain’t bad. He makes mistakes. Hey, we all do, and Vince McMahon is human as well. Necrophilia was a mistake. But you notice these mistakes don’t come in too often? There’s usually one every now and again. While he might not write everything, I think we have to give him a lot of credit. When it comes to knowing what we want to see, he’s usually right on the money. In 1992, the fans were right behind Bret Hart, in an age where larger wrestlers were still Kings. Vince ran with it, made Bret King, and Bret became one of the biggest superstars in wrestling history. Ditto Shawn Michaels in 1995, winning the title at Wrestlemania XII following the 1996 Rumble victory. When Diesel got a nice reaction, Vince ran with Big Daddy Cool, because that is what people wanted to see. You could say the same thing about Steve Austin. People want to see Eugene succeed. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that Vince McMahon puts out a lot of material that we want to see. So remember that when you read someone rubbish a WWE angle that is only a week old. Just give it time, Vince will usually deliver. Time for some plugs I think. Click Here for the LOP columns forum! Allow me to recommend some of the quality columns I’ve read lately. Former LOP main pager Brendan Campbell returns with I know what you did last Monday! Tremendous column. SteJ returns for the 40th stop of the Crazy Train! An Awesome column from Random Guy#5. Check out The Nosebleed Section #30. The X-Change is as good as ever - Xanman vs. Julian Phoenix. Whisper to a Scream is the new column from Robb, AKA Nerves Normal. Double Helix returns to Excuse The Aggravation, which is pretty damn cool. I could go one for a while now. There’s so many good columns in the forum, I’d be here all day listing them all. Go and read some, it’s probably the best thing you’ll do today. One last thing, watch out for Yourayatollah’s Column of the Month - Coming soon, to the main page. All feedback is appreciated. If you would like to get in touch with me, you can do it by clicking here Anyway, see you next time. Have a good week. Pt2 *NEW GALLERY* Go Directly to a RANDOM HOT BABE & DIVAS GALLERY! Check It Out!
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