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Submitted by Wevv Mang on Sunday, November 6, 2005 at 10:16 PM EST
Ridin’ With The Bossman – Over-Analyzing Taboo Tuesday Greetings! Welcome to another edition of Ridin’ With The Bossman. The column that shapes the wrestling landscape. What a week. Intrigue, rumors, speculation, paranoia, a brutal schedule, and I’m not talking about the wrestling world. Sometimes real life can be just as crazy as that world on our TV. Long story short, Wevv got dragged through the wringer at work, and has barely thought about wrestling this week. And to quote Snitsky, “it wasn’t my fault”, but Wevv got the heat. End result? Wevv is tired, and things are looking up for the first time in weeks. The good news is that I believe I can just sit back and look at the Taboo Tuesday shenanigans without getting all riled up and give a fair and balanced look at it. So, enough personal life drama. It sucks, but I’ll get over it, and more than likely, you’ve been through something similar, and it’s just not that interesting to some one who isn’t going through it. As Peter Tosh said, “I’m a living man, I got work to do”. So let’s take our escape and jump into wrestling, shall we? WWE TV – The Series An amazing thing happened on the build up to Taboo Tuesday. The Shit hit the fan. Long plan rides seem to bring that out. But the main newsblurb wasn’t about a guy getting out of control on a plane, but about some one who wasn’t even on the plane. Steve Austin wasn’t going to show up on Raw. He may not even appear at Taboo Tuesday. Nothing was clear, except for the fact he wasn’t coming. Another rumor surfaced that Torrie Wilson was fired. He name was removed from the listing for the Diva Battle Royal, along with her picture being removed. Some rumors were also floating around that an ECW personality was backstage before the PPV aired. Christian decided to not renew his contract, and this was going to be his last set of shows. A huge loss for WWE, even though they may not realize what they’ve lost yet. Much like Jericho, Christian was a key component of Smackdown. So, a lot of rumors were flowing before Raw hit the air. Raw Recap info provided by Carl Walsh The last chance to hype up Taboo Tuesday. After a long plane ride, with tired wrestlers. And no idea what was going to happen. On Halloween. Show opens with Bischoff and Masters in the ring. The challenge is made again. Teddy shows up with Rey, who will accept the Master Lock Challenge. Rey attacks and Masters slaps on the master lock. Rey tries some counters, and then the Raw crew attacks. Smackdown’s crew comes out and cleans house. A good move. Smackdown is left standing in the ring. Angle vs Tajiri Quick and brutal match. Angle counters the Tarantula into the Ankle Lock for the win. Angle was dominant, and Tajiri put on a good show. After the match, Angle speaks, but Cena interrupts and chases off Angle. Conway vs Eugene Conway attacks Eugene with the chair, and is disqualified. The Old Crufters come to the rescue, and even King runs in. He’s wearing a Burger King Mask, which I found hilarious. -There is a way to make back the lost advertising to a degree. A little something known as product placement. It happens in movies all the time. It’s when we see the characters drinking a Coke or eating some Doritos. Basically, it’s getting your product on the air, and having a celebrity, or an actor using them. It’s the Gatorade machine in the background, the characters talking about a Buick, and so forth. It’s not really a commercial, it’s the next best thing. Todd Grisham, Harry Caray Great impression of Harry Carry. He tries to get Hurricane to talk, but Hurricane is doing the silent but deadly gimmick, only he’s just dead, gimmick wise. Carlito Speaks And it’s good for the two, three minutes he talks, until we get Mick Foley’s new Three faces of Foley video, complete with cheesy sound effects. Eh, it wasn’t bad, and the Mankind poem was great. Coach Speaks Coach calls out Austin. Coach has a bodyguard, and it’s Goldust. I always though Goldust was a great character, but a bodyguard? Eh. I just hope for some good skits. Anyhoo, Vince shows up and says that Austin got injured. WTF moment #1. So, he’s going to face Funaki, #1 Smackdown Announcer. Big cheer for Funaki, and Coach and Goldust quickly squash him. BOOO! Coach challenges any Smackdown wrestler and Batista appears. WTF moment #2. Batista comes down to the ring and starts fighting. THEN, we get VADER, who looked just terrible. So Goldust and Vader, and Coach then beat up Batista. WTF moment #3. After the beat down, Vader falls out of the ring. HAH! That was funny. Sad, but funny. -So, you don’t have Austin anymore in the match, and Batista takes his spot. Eddie doesn’t run in, which would have made sense, instead you put Vader in there, for no other reason than he signed a Legends contract. And your World Heavyweight Champion is made to look like a bitch. To: An announcer, a broken down wrestler, and a returning guy who is known for his comedy spots. - I can see why Austin backed out. This has disaster written all over it. Austin was upset about the skit. A lot of people were. For different reasons, but I don’t think that was it. I think he heard about the finish to his match, and said “No thank you”. Mark Henry was going to be involved, and that would have been a million times better than Vader. Who can barely move. But I don’t think it was Mark who was the final straw. Let’s not forget, Creative is vengeful, and for making something good and getting himself over, not Steph, I believe it was going to be payback time. I have no concrete idea what was going to happen, but I have my imagination and years of watching WWE creative screw sensibilities and taste just to get even with some one on TV. - Oh and apparently the JR story has been thrown out. I fell asleep shortly there after and missed the rest of the show. Hey, it starts at 10 PM here and I gotta work early the next morning. I have it on tape, but haven’t found the time to watch it yet. My week has been like that. But I can read the recapps and make some observations. Cena’s Promo From what I’ve read, it sounds very strong. No talk about balls or anal sex mentioned, just I’m the champ, I’m here and I’m going to STAY here. Strong stuff, and surprise, it usually works. Chick Costume Match Most likely the only match I will actually watch and not fast forward through. From the pics on the website, they look damn hot. Cena vs HBK Looks like a schmozz, where the Taboo Tuesday contestants just ran in and we have no winner. Well, it looks like the show was thrown for a loop after the trip. Loss of talent, mixed with exhaustion, combined for some last minute shuffling. Which was the main factor that prompted me to get the PPV. I wasn’t going to, but after reading of all the changes, I had no clue what was going to happen. SO I had to find out. Taboo Tuesday Recap Info provided by Carl Walsh, Hardest working man in Recapping. Just a review for this part, as the Over-Analyzing will come later. Props to the crew that designed and built the set. Well done. The live section where Grisham reported on the results was a solid idea, and enhanced the show. Shelton Benjamin and Val Venis vs Chavo and Matt Striker Man, what happened? One year ago, Shelton was putting on a great match against Jericho for the IC title, and now he’s jobbing to the Liar Part II. Chavo and Benjamin was good, but the match was short. Striker got the pin. On Shelton. So much for his push, as guys that are blonde and stacked are getting it now. Smackdown vs Raw It’s Matt Hardy and Rey Mysterio vs Chris Masters and ? Edge pulls a fast one and backs out of the match. Instead, we get Snitsky. Now, when I said Taboo Tuesday wasn’t the same without Snitsky, I meant having Snitsky say Taboo Tuesday, not actually wrestling. Soppy match early, as these guys haven’t worked together before, but Matt and Rey pulled it together and made it a good match. Rob Conway and Tyson Tomko vs Eugene and Snuka Tomko was a last minute addition, as announced on Raw. Still it was a weird match. Eugene and Conway worked well together, but Eugene, Wrestling Savant wasn’t there that night. Instead we got hints of the talent Eugene has, and lots of goofy tribute spots. Snuka made the late entrance and went for his frog splash. Only it took him a while. He’s old you know. So Eugene and Snuka won, the beat down started and the rest of the old crufters came from the back. Hacksaw didn’t look bad, and actually got a solid reaction. Lucky for Conway and Tomko that Hacksaw was feeling merciful and didn’t go EXTREME on them. Though he should have. Fuck yeah. Carlito vs Mankind A fast paced match, in an old school style. Mick really worked his ass off and Carlito was right there with him. Good match. And Mr. Socko made his return. Vince Speaks Vince talks to Eric and asks him how the Smackdown vs Raw match went. Bischoff says they lost. Vince gets irate. Vince then berates Eric. He asks where is the creativity, and that’s something every single wrestling fan has asked for the past four years. Anyhoo, Vince tells Bischoff to straighten up, and who is this man standing before him. Kane and Big Show vs Murdoch and Cade The two big guys are not in the title hunt. Instead Kane does most of the work, and work he does. Some great moves, as the gay cowboys lose to a double chokeslam. Post match, lots of handshaking and smiles, and an interview, that Creepy Gay Cowboy tries to interrupt, but gets double choke slammed. More smiles. - An interesting pairing, having the two biggest guys on the roster make a tag team. I think it will work well. It’s not the Undertaker- Kane tandem, so it might just make both of them stronger, instead of being about getting only one of them (like it was with Taker) over. Batista vs Coach, Goldust, and Vader (Weeble-Wobble) An earlier promo saw Coach mess up his promo, so a bad omen going in. A sloppy match, and it did no favors for Batista. Batista got beaten early, but made a comeback. Batista won, but when it’s all over and done, it means nothing, as the JR stipulation was barely mentioned during the entire show. HBK Speaks HBK calls himself the popular kid. Well, kind of. It was closer than I think WWE thought it would be. Show was played as strong, but he got the least amount of votes, while Kane just burst onto the scene. Well, Angle shows up and suggests that he and HBK take out Cena, and settle the score. Chick Match Lingerie won. And we all win. Not a bad match, but nothing stellar. Well, Trish and Victoria worked very well together and put on a show, while the other chicks did some moves. Candace does a Tarantula. Nice move. Micki has some nice moves. End saw Micki help Trish retain her title. Post match, Trish starts to speak when Micki interrupts. I think that was the most Trish has said on camera since her return, and it was like three sentences. Triple H vs Ric Excellent match. Intense, and brutal. Very good. Ric was swearing up a storm however, and that’s not good. You can’t do that on TV, but this was a PPV. Lots of blood, which is an H trademark. Ric wins, and is still Intercontinental champion. HBK vs Cena vs Angle Man, Cena looked weak in this match. Even his normally decent looking punches looked horrible. Angle and HBK saved this match, with some stellar wrestling. Ending was tight however. Counter, counter, and then opportunity seized. Nice. Cena is still the champ after nearly submitting to Angle, when HBK went after Angle with a flying elbow, and then Cena stole the pin. An interesting show. The folks who have faced each other before, or at least worked together looked good, while the first time meetings didn’t mesh well. I think this show was an eye opener for WWE. The reactions of the fans played a big part in how things went down. It pretty much went according to plan, but not the way the plan was laid out. Improvisation was the name of the game. Still a decent show, as the last half delivered some really good wrestling. Smackdown Recap courtesy of Chad Matthews Chad had personal matters to attend to, and the recap is brief. My condolences for you and your family Chad. Rey Mysterio and Matt Hardy vs Bradshaw and Christian Great match and I will say that was some of Bradshaw’s best work. Holly was the ref, and you know what? He was a great fit in that role. Holly should become a full time ref. No BS. Hell, there aren’t any more Hebners, so why not? Rey and Hardy won after Holly laid out Christian. Booker Talks- -Way too long. I like the new heel Booker, he does it well. But the segment was way too long. Teddy appeared and after saying that he told Benoit to stay in back, Teddy says he’s coming out NOW! What? Nevermind. Benoit vs Booker Good match. Booker looses by leaving the ring and the Ten Count, but is still the US Champion. Roddy Piper vs Cowboy Bob Orton Why? I have no idea. We just saw this, and this match was much worse. Randy comes out and beat sup Piper and says almost the exact same thing he said on Raw, what? Two weeks ago? Pointless. Just pointless. All this for Undertaker. Good luck. Undertaker’s vacation and UFC appearances are coming to an end, so have fun jobbing Randy. With your DAD! Bobby Lashley vs Nuzio and Guido Not too bad, and Lashely did some selling, but he still took over and won. The guy isn’t bad. I have yet to hear him say a single word, but he looks pretty solid. He hasn’t worked a long match yet, but that should be coming up soon. Bischoff Appears Eric gets out and the first guy he sees is a drooling Boogey Man. Welcome to Smackdown Eric! You want midgets with that? Bischoff and Teddy, Best Buds Man, this had promise and boy did it suck. Honestly, who gives a rat’s ass about Teddy vs Bischoff? It has terrible written all over it. I’d much rather see a champion vs champion match. Why not? Not for unification, but for bragging rights. But that would sell tickets and that obviously is not the plan. MNM vs Batista and Eddie Man, Batista has had a busy schedule. Still a decent match, but nothing spectacular. Nice counter to Eddie’s cheating by Melina. Nicely done. The Tag champs won, which is a good thing. One thing to keep in mind, is this. Smackdown was the first show after Taboo Tuesday, so the fallout for the event hit Smackdown first. Which was constantly mentioned by Cole and Tazz. Unfortunately, having Cole do the hard sell, made the victory come across as desperate. Cole is a salesman, but one that you know is trying to sell out a lemon. Luckily, this is the first attempt, so while the point was made, the delivery can be changed. Honestly, Funaki would be a better choice. Heh, that’s something I’d love to see. Funaki calling out Coach, and winning. That’s money right there. People love Funaki. Funaki may not equal ratings, but he’s still the Man. The fallout is over, and it’s time for WWE to learn what they can from Taboo Tuesday. What did the fans tell them, well, let’s take a look. Over-Analyzing Wrestling Today’s Topic: Taboo Tuesday Two Last year, a concept was introduced to WWE fans. Go online and decide who and what would happen on the show. Well, that was the premise, but the reality was that they could have a hand, but they most certainly would not have any real power. Just influence. I saw the first Taboo Tuesday and I thought it sucked. I’ve seen the second and thought it was OK. The first show had: Kane vs Snitsky – fans decide what weapons to use in the match of revenge for the killing of Kane’s unborn child. It was a chain. Dress the Divas – Hot chicks dressed as schoolgirls. Trish was (and still is) unbelievably hot. Intercontinental Champion - Fans picked Shelton over Batista. Shelton won. Eugene vs Bischoff – Eric got his head shaved. Heavyweight Championship – Fans picked HBK over Benoit and Edge, not by much. Legend vs Legend match Stipulations – Randy Orton vs Ric Flair in a steel cage. This year it was different. Not very, but WWE learned from last year. They put some thought into what type of matches the fans would have say on. In fact, they did a pretty good job. Some of the changes made were stupid, but that can’t be blamed on the fans participation. Or on the stipulations themselves. In fact, the one match that fans had the least say in, the Coach vs Batista match was the one that sucked the hardest. Let’s break it down. Edge and Masters vs ? and ? Matt Hardy – 31 % Rey Mysterio – 29% Bradshaw – 17% Christian – 13% Hardcore Holly – 10% Bradshaw was portrayed as the leader and mastermind of the invasions. He was portrayed as the one who would certainly be going. He came in Third. A clear and decisive third. Matt had little to say, yet got the most votes. Rey had a lot to do with this angle, but mainly as a victim, until the last Monday. Christian had barely any speaking parts, and little to do in the angle. Yet he got almost as many votes as Bradshaw. Holly, he was played as muscle. And the other one they really wanted to send, but realized that he wouldn’t win. Still he was played stronger than Christian. All right enough excuses. I’m disappointed that Christian didn’t do better, but the fact is….Christian fans are also Matt Hardy fans. Effective Marketing?: I’d say no. The fans voted how they wanted to vote and ignored WWE’s attempts to channel them. I believe that WWE had no idea that Matt would win. In fact, it was clear from Holly’s expression when they showed the guys before voting that he thought he would do well. Bradshaw looked like he knew the results already. And his work on Smackdown showed it as he actually worked with Matt and Rey. Eugene and the Legend Snuka – 43% Hacksaw Jim Duggan – 40% Kamala – 17% Effective Marketing?: No marketing was involved to any great extent in this vote. Fans were left to decide for themselves who they wanted to see in action. Fairly evenly divided vote, between Snuka and Duggan. However, I’d say that Duggan came in as the underdog to Snuka’s legendary status. Three Faces of Foley Mankind – 52% Cactus Jack – 35% Dude Love – 13% Mankind was the clear winner and something that should be noted. Foley’s promo as Mankind was both intense and humorous. Dude Love was just goofy, too goofy one could say. Cactus is Legendary, and got a good chunk of the vote. Yet Mankind won by a large degree. What does this say about the fans? A couple of things, but all speculation. 1) That fans are nostalgic. They loved the Rock and Sock Connection. They loved Foley as Mick Foley/Mankind. The juxtaposition of hardcore and humor. 2) That the legacy of Cactus Jack is still strong, but after losing his last few matches as Cactus Jack, folks would rather he not lose again. 3) Dude Love sucks 4) WWE is aiming at the wrong time period in their attempts to re-create the past. Instead of the Austin/McMahon Era they should aim towards the Rock/Foley/Austin Era. Austin McMahon has been done one time too many. It may have gotten people watching, but what they saw was Rock and Foley, Angle and Austin, and Triple H and DX at the end, not the beginning. Effective marketing?: Again, one was not played up more than another. Each got a say and the fans just chose which one they liked better. Take note Mick. Your creepy books may be what you like to write, but your fans seem to like the Happier, Smart Ass version of your work better. Much like Mankind dark and brooding turned into Mick Foley, “Have A Nice Day”, and climbed the heights. WWE take notice too. Creepy is out. It was never in. Here’s your proof. Cena vs ? HBK – 46% Kane – 38% Big Show – 16% I voted for you Big Show. Four times in fact. Sorry man. HBK won. He is a fan favorite. People like him. Effective marketing?: Yes, and a big no. HBK got the vote, and he wasn’t dominant, but he was portrayed as stronger than the other two. HBK got an actual match for the title. HBK and Angle have a strong feud. Big Show got to beat up jobbers, and look like a monster, just far removed from the title. Kane is the big surprise. He came back and won the Battle Royal, but that was a few weeks ago. And frankly, I don’t think that had much to do with his strong vote. No, people just voted for Kane because they like Kane. I would have expected it to be closer between Show and Kane, but there was a huge gap. People want to see Kane go for the big belt and actually win for once. I think that people wanted to see HBK and Angle go at it again. I also think people assume that Big Show will get another shot. It also doesn’t help that Big Show while winning, isn’t; really cranking it up a notch. That fault does lie on Big Show’s shoulders. Not so much match wise but promo wise. Being tag team champions is a whole different game however, and having the two biggest guys as champs allows them to be more relaxed. When the bell sounds, they can be intense, but on promos, balance is key. More on that later. Dress the Divas This is always a fun poll. Cheerleaders – 25% Lingerie – 43% Leather and Lace – 32% I was rooting for cheerleaders. Effective marketing? : Yes and very much so. The evenness of the voting means good things for the Divas and for WWE. See, they now know that they can three different photo shoots for the Divas. And people like them all. Some more than others, but they’ll buy them. Divas = money. If they can ever figure that out, and not get all creepy. Ask DDP about being a stalker. Did wonders for his career. How long did it take Vicki to get over it? How’s Dawn Marie these days? Oh that’s right. FIRED. Batista vs Coach Street Fight – 91% Verbal Debate – 6% Arm Wrestling – 3% The substitution of Batista for Austin most likely had little effect, since there was less than 24 hours before the show. Yet it did change the nature of the conflict. Effective Marketing?: Yes and no. Folks wanted something physical and the only thing that clearly said physical was the Street Fight option. Arm wrestling is boring, period. A verbal debate could have been interesting and offered a fine venue for Austin to be funny. Of course, it would have gotten physical no matter what happened. Ric Flair vs H Steel Cage – 83% Submission – 13% Pinfall – 4% I voted pinfall, since I wasn’t sure what exactly that was. A regular match? Effective Marketing? :yes. Ric Flair begged for a cage and he got a cage. However, it wasn’t total. Fans showed their knowledge of the sport by voting for a submission match. The pinfall match got some votes, probably smart asses like myself. But the cage clearly won. Overall: WWE said that 6,351,188 votes were cast The hype did it’s job. The matches they hyped got the votes, except where the fans had a choice. Like the Smackdown choices. But that was a good test to see how popular the guys they want to be over really are. When it came to deciding the fate of matches, that was the only clear one. The rest was simply allowing fans to choice rather inconsequential matters, like what type of match, to how they dressed. HBK vs Cena was a surprise, I’m sure. Nott hat HBK won, but how well the rest of the potential main eventers are doing. Kane in particular must be a surprise to them. Now, WWE can see that fans back Kane. Kane and Big Show are in an interesting position. Kane vs Big Show is a main event match. Possibly. However, they are now going to be working together and the weak link in his paring is Big Show. Kane is also injured. He worked most of the match, but for how long is the question. HBK , Cena, and Angle is an interesting mix. Angle and HBK is solid, but Cena is the weak link when it comes to wrestling. If it boils down to popularity, then Cena has the edge. Could Kane eventually face Cena? Yes, but probably not soon. Kane knows how to wrestle and he might stand a chance of making Cena look good. Kane vs Angle could work as well. The key is that HBK vs Angle can only go so far. With Cena in the mix, it has some legs, but eventually the title is going to drop and then some one else has to step up. It could be said, the fans think Kane is nearly HBK’s equal. The big question is whether H will take the belt back or not. I find it amusing that no chance what so ever is given to the fans to vote against H. They don’t want any hint of fan negativity towards H. Maybe next year, H will be one of those in the line up for title shot. That’s all for today. I’m running really late as it is. Go BEARS! Anyhoo, some brief comments on recent news, quick plugs and that’s a wrap. Christian leaving WWE I’m saddened. Christian pushed himself to the main event. He was ready. Then WWE depushed him. Then he got traded. Then forgotten about. Then they lowballed him on his contract. Way to go Johnny. You’re losing talent left and right. So Christian decided to follow on the heels of Jericho. His presence will be missed, not just by the fans but by management. Much like Jericho. HBK got the Jericho spot, and he doesn’t like it. I suspect that Matt Hardy will get the Christian spot, because people like him and that was never the plan. Captain Charisma, take care. I know you can find work outside WWE. You got talent. TV will welcome you, radio will welcome you. Best of luck my man. An interesting note is that Benoit’s contract is coming up soon. QUICK PLUGS! The Movie Bar! The Movie Bar Forums The Project LOP Forums! LOP Columns Forum! LOP's Very Own PWA, Best E-Fed on the net. Period. All Your DVD Review Needs can be filled at : DVDFANATIC.COM Until Next Time, Thanks For Readin' and Thanks For Ridin' Wevv Mang mrwevv@mac.com Please label all email FEEDBACK. *NEW GALLERY* Hot Shots of WWE's Other Milena, Milena Roucka! WOW!
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