|
|
|
|
|
Submitted by Wevv Mang on Sunday, January 30, 2005 at 2:31 PM EST
Ridin’ With The Bossman – Bye Bye Smackdown? Mail, and More Greetings! Welcome to another edition of Ridin’ With The Bossman. The hectic week has come to close, and we got a PPV to cap it off. Not just any PPV, but the one of the Big Four. The Royal Rumble is later today. Excellent. But first, there’s the hype to go over, some news blurbs, Kane’s House, and since I wasn’t able to answer all my mail this week, due to being over worked, I’ll answer it in the column. So, let’s get to it. WWE TV – The Series Raw Report can be found here! Not a bad show, but not a top notch one either. We did get some great wrestling to start things off. Benoit, Jericho, and HBK vs Christian, Tomko, and Edge Very sweet finish. Tomko looked good, but then again, he was in with some great talent. Yes, HBK is included in that statement. Look folks, I don’t knock HBK’s abilities. He’s a bona fide Hall of Famer, and with good reason. However, there are some things I will knock about HBK. You’ll get a better grasp in the Feedback section. JR Day Well, isn’t that a coincidence? JR day. H comes out and FAILS to get the kind of heat just about any other person could get. Even Simon Dean could have done a better job. Now, if he had lit JR on fire, well, that would have been it. But it’s not enough. H then threatens Stacy. Desperate to get that heel heat, eh H? Orton saves her but not JR. Now that is funny. We get a break and when we come back, not only is H just plain creepy, he’s weird. He lifts a chick’s skirt. Batista greets them, and H then tells his version of what happened. Batista then unveils HIS plan, and it’s a good one. Nicely done Dave. Tajiri and Regal Well, it looks like regal is back with Tajiri and that is a good thing. Those two were a great team. Your Tag Team Champions Are jobbers. I totally agree with Tito on this one. And that means that it must be true, since Tito and I rarely agree on anything. Nothing good can come from not just jobbing your Tag Team Champions, but squashing them. All for a bad sight gag. Good grief. Snitsky vs Maven vs Kane A very good match. I am really impressed. Well done. Kane even wins! Ric vs Randy One of the best matches I’ve seen Ric have in months. Wow, just blew me away. Great use of pacing, to keep things slow, but more meaningful. Each spot was special. Each bump important to the whole. Fantastic. This is why I like seeing Ric wrestle every once in a while. It makes it different, and give Ric a chance to really think about his match. Even H did a great job, interfering only when he had too, and to good effect. Well, for the match overall. After seeing Ric act goofy all night (like when H was talking to Batista) I just thought he was loaded, but now I see he was excited for this match, And with reason. Great job Ric. Well done Randy. Smackdown Report by Brandon Scott Berthelot, great work my man Eddie, Booker T, and Rey vs OJ(Look out! He’s got a knife!), Luther, and Jindrak Another six man tag to start off a show after the lengthy recapp and PLOT HAMMER? Must be a slow week. Good match though. Ending saw OJ get pinned. Damn Mark Fuhrman! Luther got hit accidentally and now takes issue with Orlando. He starts pushing him around, which brings out Bradshaw, and then Angle and that’s it for the teamwork. It’s ON! Kenzo vs Cena Cena wins. Not a bad match and actually one of Kenzo’s better outings. However, screw Cena winning the Rumble. Wevv says HELL NO! Look, Cena still needs a lot of work. I was thinking about this. First, he would do much better against Chavo, Kidman, or better still Eddy. Why? He needs to learn how to wrestle against a talented guy. Booker was good, but it just didn’t click. However, against those guys, who really know how to work heel, I think it would be good. Especially Eddy. I know the rumor is that Cena will challenge H, and we all know how that will end, and that will be it for Cena. Please spare me that. Hell, I’d rather see Snitsky win than Cena winning. Eddie, Rey, and Booker, Best Buds. Great job, and yes Eddie still has it. That ending with a simple " Eddy Guerrero" was priceless. Heidenreich OK, I’ve sobered up. Screw Heidenriech. I’d still like to see him beat Taker, just for the hell of it, but the Big Goof blows, this I know, and it kills the show, so out into the snow you go! No Michael Cole for you! WELCOME BACK DAWN! Amy vs Dawn? Oh hell yes! Last Man Standing Angle vs Bradshaw Not a bad match. But once again, it’s a Last Man Standing match with no Man Standing. OK, this one worked for me. Not my buddy, who hates that shit, but at least this one had a reason. I still would have preferred the Big Show coming out and beating the hell lout of both of them, instead of pimpin’ hos with Teddy. But, well, GO GET EM SHOW! You should win the belt. It would be a good thing. OK, not a lot of Rumble hype, as only a few were even pushed as contenders. But, the shows are trying to move the plot along, and I like that. It also sets up some angles for after the Rumble, where there is a big gap until Wrestlemania. Over two months to be precise. Partial FEEDBACK! I just wanted to say that I enjoy reading your column one of my favorites but you said Shawn Michaels never taps but he did tap out to Benoit at backlash 2004 it was in Canada and to the sharpshooter Dale Another cool column, Wevv. I wanted to let you know that HBK has in fact tapped out before. I believe it was at Backlash, when he tapped to Benoit's sharpshooter, in Edmonton. I think HBK also tapped to the Walls of Jericho in mid 2003. Kane's House was awesome, once again. I was, however, hoping that you would add in a joke from their main event match on Raw last Monday. When Snitsky was chokeslammed off the stage(Kane followed), the camera zoomed in, and caught Snitsky asking Kane, "Are you ok?". That would be priceless if included in a skit! -Billy A. Hey, I'm not really a big fan of your columns, but I decided to read this weeks edition. I could only read about half of your column before I stopped reading. I'm sure other readers will be telling you this, but didn't HBK tap to Jericho on Raw? Your bias really tends to blur the facts, and makes your column (at least for me) a bit unjoyable to read. Ian Thanks for writing Billy, Ian, and Dale. Sorry I didn’t get a chance to at least drop a thanks by email, but it’s been one of those weeks. Now, let’s talk HBK. So HBK has tapped. I admit I made a mistake, and in my fandom, I used the term as an absolute, when it was not true. Sorry. But, I still remember HBK crawling from one corner, all the way across the ring to the other while in the Walls of Jericho. That was not cool. And on Monday, he did not tap out. He hit the mat once to right his balance and that was it. But is it safe to say that HBK doesn’t like tapping out to submissions? I think it is. Just for the record, Backlash was in April. PPV results can be found HERE: Billy, I agree that was funny, I’m not sure I can work it in. At some point, maybe. Ian, it’s OK you’re not a fan. Honestly. Sorry I have an opinion different from yours.. But this column is all about opinion and not a news report. But I watch the show as a show, and let my markdom out to play for a while. What sticks is what I base my opinions on. It’s the lasting effect, though the immediate is also important, and history does matter. However, I try to think like the millions of folks who watch the show and whose fact checker is their buddy. Not the net or a newsletter. But thanks for dropping me a line. And thanks for reading. just to say I enjoyed the comments about Canada. just wondered if you noticed that in the Toronto raw mo hussain and davairi had support until they came up against Jericho. the were plenty of signs and even 2 guys with tea towels on their head. I think vinnie suspected they may get pops so put them against jericho where they were guaranteed to come off second. all the best james Thanks James, and good call. They did get a semi face pop. 1. Now maybe it's just me but don't you think Ric Flair should retire? From what I can tell he can't even tie his own shoes anymore. 2) What's up with Sting? Is he ever going to come to the WWE? If not what's he doing these days? 3) Whatever happen to Vampireo? He was always one of my favorites from WCW. Dablade 1) From an active schedule, yes, with only a few matches per year. From wrestling? No. Ric has plenty to contribute, from his mere presence to tips about promos, to working a match. 2) Last I heard, Sting was working on a Religious wrestling movie, with Ted DiBiase. As for coming to WWE, Rock wants to work with him. So, the answer is I have no idea. 3) No idea. Sorry. Hey Wevv, another great column, I'm loving the Kane/Lita segments! As far as the Montreal Screwjob though, I've gotta say, "Wrestling With Shadows" is nowhere near "objective". It's Brett's side of the story. Vince's side has been told numerous times as well. I think what's important to remember is that at the time, the WWF was in a very rocky position. WCW was beginning to amass a roster with huge star power. The WWF Women's champion had gone on Nitro and thrown her belt in the garbage. The Monday Night War had just begun, and the nWo angle was in full control. Austin had just become "Stone Cold". The Rock wasn't a top guy yet. Things were not looking great, and now you have a champion going to the competition. Maybe with your blessing, but still, going to the competition. Having the Women's Champion throw a belt away was one thing, but the WWF World Championship in the hands of the enemy? That could cement WCW as the top show for years. You might think that's an overstatement, but consider this: Shane Douglas and ECW. When The Franchise threw the NWA belt away in ECW, that made the whole business different. That was unofficially the end of the NWA, and the NWA hasn't been taken seriously since. You think the TNA belt has any prestige? How about the Wildside belt? Maybe Brett wouldn't have done something like that, but who's to say? WCW was paying him a buttload of cash, and as Ted Dibiase would say, "Everyone's got a price." In the end, Vince did what he felt was best, and it paid off for him in the long run. He knew he was gonna piss people off, but he'd rather have some people pissed off than see his promotion completely destroyed. Business is business. Brett knew that, or he never would've gone to WCW. He could've stayed with the WWE for less money or a short-term deal. He didn't, because there's loyalty to your job, and loyalty to your family and responsibilities. Business, not personal. Vince's business directly affects his entire family and the families of all his wrestlers. If WWF had gone down, that would've meant the jobs of about a hundred guys and gals. Vince did what was best for the greater good, and as a result, we got guys like Triple H, The Rock, Austin, and Mick Foley main-eventing. We got the Attitude era. WCW collapsed under their own weight and Vince made sure that the most promising of their stars didn't sit in the unemployment lines. Vince didn't screw Brett to screw Brett, he screwed Brett to safeguard his comapny, and can we really condemn him for that? WallzofJericho A very good point Wallz. The Big title is a lot more impressive than the women’s. But, the plan was already shift the belt, not just fire him out of hand, forgetting that he had the belt. Many, many precautions could have been taken to keep that from happening. As for "Wrestling with Shadows", it is objective to a degree. It simply shows what happened as the cameras were following him. Yes, some things could have been edited, but still, most of it was "real time" clips. It’s not the whole story, but it does allow one to see Brett’s side of things and how most of it went down. Visual proof. Not all of it, no, but enough to form an opinion on. Sup Wevv, I figured I'd drop in with feedback for the latest edition of RWTB since after all, you are talking about my people. :) I went to Raw live, and then got a friend to tape it as well. The announcers were really harsh on us, but the truth is that we make the wrestlers work for our money. Just because some guy did something special a month ago is not reason for us to react to them. This crowd was uber-hot, but some really stupid Heat matches killed them a bit. If I ran the WWE, I'd get rid of that. My section of the audience responded well to both Jericho and Dalvari, who always makes me laugh. Hassan gets the reaction that we usually give people that blatantly hate Canada: the odd chant but other than that no response at all. Randy's promo had the potential to wow us, but then it didn't. H seemed to save the day (you may have noticed the pop he got) with some cool talking. Sure, they did the predictable face/heel confrontation at the end but that's to be expected these days. Batista's cool. It has now come down to us hating HBK in a sort of loving fashion. He's become fun for us to make fun of and he actually responds to us well. If he turns heel and does that to every city, the WWE could go huge. Oh, and Shawn did tap to BAH GAWD Benoit at Backlash, just in case you forgot. Benoit vs. Jericho...well...honestly...it kinda bored the live crowd. Watching it on TV made it look like a good match, but that didn't come across live. That Master fella was in a dark match during a commercial of Heat, and he's nothing special. He seems to be another arrogant guy, like Jindrak was at the start of his Smackdown run. He sucks but has a nice finisher. We loved Trish, her promo was awesome. Then Kane came out and ruined our fun, so we booed him. Trish did take that chokeslam like a champ though, so all is good. H did wrestle after the show, as he and Randy took the leading roles in an excellent six-man that really should have been a part of the show itself. Your next Kane's House segment NEEDS to be on Mcmahon Mart! Hilarity will definitely ensue. Overall, great column that really drives home why you're on the main page. I look forward to more great work from you! Adeaton Thank you Mr. A. Now about the tap on Raw, on TV he hit the mat once. That doesn’t count as a tap to me. See, when it comes to HBK, here’s the rub to me. He’s one of those guys who is totally, completely over. A win means little. But a loss? That would count for something. Like with Edge. If Edge beat HBK, it would mean a lot. HBK beating Edge would be a big setback. HBK can always get his heat back, no problem. Hello Mr Wevv Mang I,m Mat, And I Must Admit, I Don't Read Your Column At All. But Your Canadian Column Caught My Eye Simply Cus I,m A American Who LOVES Canadians, Especially French-Canadians. My Favorite Wrestler Today Is Rene Dupree And My Favorite Wrestler Of All Time Is Bret Hart. I Must Tell You Though, It's More Than The Wrestling Spectrum, It's Everything. Canadians & Americans Are Different On Many Spectrums. Americans Believe In A "I Want It Fast And I Want It Now" Mentality While Canadians Are A Little More Pacient When It Comes To Things. Americans Have A Mentality When It Comes To Wrestling Shows In Cheering Who They Are Told To Cheer For, While Canadians As You Stated, Cheer For There Own, Face Or Heel. American Main Stream Media Tend To Mock And Laugh At Canadian Sports, Such As Hockey, Which Is On Life Support Right Now (Which Is A Shame Cus I,m A Dallas Stars And Montreal Canadiens Fan). We (As In Canadian Fans, Cus I Think And Act Like A Canadian Fan) Think For Ourselfs, We Tend To Boo Micheals Not Because Of His Screwing Bret (Allthough That's Alot Of It), But Smart Canadian Wrestling Fans Boo Micheals Because How He And His Kliq Buddys (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall & Paul Levesque) As Well Has Himself Have Backstage Power And Make Themselfs Look Good While Making "Other Wrestlers" As In Canadian Wrestlers Such As Val Venis & Test Look Bad. Look At Val Venis For Example, He Is Bald, Jobing On Heat And Probully Won't Be In WWE By June 2005. Sean Morley Has Termendous Talent, He Could Be In That Techinal Mold Of Canadian Wrestlers, As More As A Serious Type Of Wrestler Instead Of A "Adult Film Star". As Much As Venis Is Misused, I Don't Even Know Where The Heck Test Is. My Computer Crashed In March 2004 And I Just Got It Up A Month Ago. So If You Know Where Andrew Martin Went, Please Tell Me??? So, I Really Enjoyed Your Canadian Column And Hopefully You Write More About The Canadian Wrestling Lifestyle As Well As Your Funny Antidotes. "The Real Deal" Mathew Ok, the capitalizing every word is weirding me out. You comments about the Klique made realize that HBK probably taught Nash the backstage ways, and he helped train H. I appreciate the view of why Canadians boo HBK. Be it fun, or whatever, it does lend another perspective of the situation. Just goes to show how Canadians are on the ball. Yes, Canadians and Americans are different culturally on more than just wrestling. Test was fired. As for writing more about Canadians, well, when WWE goes to Canada, you can probably count on it. Kane’s House A crowd has gathered at the end of the street, where a raised platform stands. Decorations mark the tone as festive. Parade music plays over loudspeakers, and an occasional announcement keeps the mob organized. In the midst of all of this, the door to Kane’s house opens, and out steps Kane himself. Kane walks down to the end of his driveway and picks up his paper, noticing the commotion going on, as people walk past him, heading to the stands. Kane looks over to the stands and slowly makes his way towards them. A he does so, the music is replaced by an announcement. Voice: ladies and Gentlemen, thank you all for coming today, as we recognize one of our own for all his hard work on our behalf. It gives me great pleasure to announce that today is JR DAY! The crowd claps and cheers. Voice: On behalf of all the people on this block, we proudly recognize JR as the best block captain any neighbor could ask for! JR, won’t you give us a few of your timeless words of wisdom? JR stands up, and goes over the mic, shaking the man’s hand, and starts to speak. Kane has located Big Show and sidles up next to him, as JR starts talking. Kane: Morning Show, what’s going on? Show: Hi Kane. JR got an award for all his outstanding work as block captain. They named today after JR. Cool huh? I wish there was a Big Show Day… JR: I’d like to thank all the people for braving the snow and cold and coming out this morning to show their appreciation for all my hard work. It’s been a pleasure to be your block captain, and- JR catches sight of Kane. He stutters his speech, before going back to it, but an edge of nervousness has crept into his demeanor. JR: Er, and I’d like to thank each and every one of you for being my neighbor. It’s a great pleasure to live in such a great neighborhood where- JR stops, as he sees Kane lift an arm. But the gesture turns into a wave as some one on the other side of crowd. Kane turns back to watch JR with his creepy smile on his face. JR stares for a split second, before looking down at his cards. JR: Ahem, where great people can live and work together. We are a neighborhood of great people, who watch out for each other and take care of our own. AS your block captain, my job is to make sure that- Kane raises his arms, and JR stops, transfixed. But Kane is merely stretching and yawning. He lowers his arms, and goes back to staring at JR. JR: That, um, is a pleasure. I’ve enjoyed my time here, and my job hasn’t been like a job at all. It’s more like spending time with family, and that always brings a smile to this old Oklahoman’s face. Even though my Sooners may not have won, I’d like to say that watching our High School Football team under the care of Coach Kurt go onto play against the dastardly South High School team in the regional finals brings me as much joy as if my Sooners had gone on to win the Rose Bowl. Polite applause. JR: I fondly- Kane suddenly looks agitated, and raised his arm, but it was only to scratch his head. JR: I fondly recall backyard BBQ’s that- Kane jerks suddenly, but it was only some one pushing him trying to get through to see JR. JR: JR’s BBQ sauce- The crowd breaks into laughter and Show slaps Kane’s shoulder, distracting the giant. JR starts sweating in the cold. JR: That one time, back in my days as an announcer for- Kane suddenly gives an even creepier smile and his arms go up. JR’s eyes follow, and are helpless to stop as Kane lowers his arms, and picks up a flyer given to him by a passer by. JR: I…I… I can’t take it anymore! Just do it! Do it you monster! The suspense is killing me, BY GAWD! DO IT! DO IT YOU SON OF A BITCH! The crowd breaks out into a inquisitive murmur, and all heads turn, as a now frothing JR is screaming his usual nonsense into the mic and pointing at Kane. The crowd slowly turns to look back at Kane, who looks surprised to be the center of attention. Kane looks around and then points to himself, and mouths "Me?". JR has descended into gutter Oklahomanese, with lots of BY GAWD and even a HOSS or two slips out. The mutters grow loader the stares more hostile. Finally, Kane shrugs and raises his arms. JR stops and utters. JR: BY GAWD! This is it folks, it’s going to be a SLOBBERKNOCKER! Kane lowers his arms and JR bursts into flames. The crowd goes still and silent, before bursting forth with applause and cheers. On the stage, JR is flailing around, before some one knocks him off the platform into a snowbank. The music starts back up, in a happy, jaunty tune. Kane just shakes his head and heads for home. Kane: And they say I’m weird… Over-Analyzing Wrestling Today’s Topic: So long Smackdown A recent newsblurb making it’s way around the net had an interesting comment from Viacom president Les Moonves about Smackdown. That was in keeping with the news that UPN is going for respectability in the future, and in that future there's no room for senseless degrading of the Amish or for smackdowns. That's right. There's only one year left on the contract for World Wrestling Federation's "Smackdown!" and the network has decided to let it go. "It still makes us a decent amount of money," says Leslie Moonves, co-president and co-chief operating office for Viacom, which owns both CBS and UPN. "When you think about the powerhouses of CBS and NBC on Thursday night, it's great counter-programming. (But) it doesn't fit into the overall (programming) strategy." -Susan Young of InsideBayArea.com This would seem to indicate that there is not much interest in renewing Smackdown. The rumor was later proved to be false, but it did create quite a stir. So, Smackdown will still be on UPN for the duration of it’s contract, and as it’s highest rated show, there’s no reason to scrap it. Or is there? If UPN is going to be revamped, then there is the real possibility that Smackdown would be scrapped. Much like the new direction that TBS and TNT, and many other cable networks have undergone, going only for one genre, then it remains to be seen what the new direction UPN could be heading in. Many shows could be pulled. There’s rumors that Enterprise could be canned. Star Trek, once the flagship of the network, has gone straight into the crapper, getting the Friday Night Death Slot. Smackdown does make UPN money, and that’s all that really matters. But the real question to networks execs is, can something else make them more? Something that gets a bigger chunk of the viewers? The average weekly rating for UPN for the week of 1/17/05 through 1/23/05 was 2.0/3. Which means that roughly three million people watched UPN during that week. WB had a 2.1/3. The leader was CBS with a 10.3/16, so that’s 16 million compared to 3. UPN has had a long and troubled past, never really finding it’s stride, and launching some of the worst programming, so that even Fox laughed at them. But Smackdown has been the workhorse, giving top ratings for the network, week in and week out. But in the larger scope of network TV, it isn’t that impressive. Now, there is still over a year left on the TV deal, and in that time, Vince could look around to find his show a new home. But landing another network gig is very unlikely. Of the two shows Raw and Smackdown, Smackdown reaches a bigger audience constantly. However, Smackdown gets second hand treatment, being the landing ground for stars that were cast off from Raw. The funny thing is, they usually work on Smackdown. But the landscape of TV, and indeed broadcasting is changing. Michael Powell, head of the FCC is stepping down. That means that the Bush Administration gets to appoint a new leader. It could be an extreme conservative who gets the job. Who knows, maybe even L. Brent Bosnell, head of the PTC. Or some one just like him. That makes networks antsy, as this past week, there have been sporadic firings over the smallest of infractions. Everyone wants to err on the side of caution. It could be a ploy from UPN to shake up WWE and try to motivate them to boost their ratings. Or to let Vince know that they are considering the possibility. Not just for Smackdown, but also for Raw, as Vince is rumored to be shopping around that Show as well. Move Raw, lose Smackdown. It could have just been a reporter reading the wrong thing into a vague statement. Either way, there’s plenty of good to come from this. One aspect is that it will make Vince pay more attention to Smackdown and try to help raise the level of the show. Wait, maybe that’s not a good thing. This might be a good thing. It let’s the general public know, that Smackdown may be available, and the time to start sending in offer is now. Just idly speculating about where Smackdown can go, and work, ah, now that’s something I can sink my teeth into. But it will have to wait ‘til next week. The story has only just been released, and there’s plenty more to look into about this. Like what type of programming is Les looking at for a new Smackdown, how many cuts start happening on the network, and also how Vince is going to react to the news, since Smackdown was already taped and in the can when the story broke. Plenty of time until it really matters, but the seed has been planted. OK folks, time to wrap this up. Quick PLUGS! THE MOVIE BAR! Reviews, Forums, and MORE! LOP Forums! LOP Columns Forums! Until next Time, Thanks For Readin’ And Thanks For Ridin’ Wevv Mang mrwevv@mac.com
|
|