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Submitted by Xan on Sunday, March 5, 2006 at 8:32 PM EST
 {Author's note: The quotes in the column below belong to Big & Rich and their song "Leap of Faith". This is the fourth in a series of five columns in which I will be lighting the way towards what I consider to be the future for professional wrestling's three big entities: RAW, TNA, and Smackdown. You may want to read Part I, and Part II, and Part III before continuing here in case you haven't. Time to continue the story.} "I put myself on a limb and I feel it giving away from the weight of the rain. If I break or I bend, I get myself together again, put my face to the wind." As the WWF gears up towards Wrestlemania, one has to wonder what the future actually holds for Smackdown. The two best wrestlers on the WWF's roster are on that show, but they are both aged veterans who may not have a lot of years left to give. The fact that they hold the two heavyweight single's titles on the show is representative of the fact that there truly isn't much around them. Injuries and misfortune have hit Smackdown at a rate that I can't recall ever seeing an organization be hit before in all my years as a wrestling fan. The stupid rebelliousness of Juventud Guerrera; the entire situation surrounding Muhammed Hassan; the horrible imbalance of the draft; the departure of Christian; the injuries to Batista, Kid Kash, and Ken Kennedy; and, of course, the death of Eddie Guerrero were all huge turns on the downward spiral that the brand's been on. Not everything was bad, of course. Guerrero was probably the wrestler of the year until his death, both elevating Rey Mysterio to the point where he's looked at as a top contender and himself to the point that he was poised to win the World Heavyweight Championship the very day he died. Chris Benoit made the U.S. Title look important for the first time in its WWF history by dominating Orlando Jordan in a series of short matches. MNM crashed onto the scene with the best wrestling entrance ever, the Mexicools joined shortly after ECW One Night Stand, Paul Burchill may have not been used much, but has proven himself to be a phenomenal talent, the Boogeyman has been entertaining as all hell, Bobby Lashley has the chance to be their Goldberg, Carlito got traded over to RAW, and the Juniors Division has been thrilling people. Wait--scratch that last one. All of these things are good, and most of them bode well for the brand in 2006, but I don't think they are enough to outweigh the setbacks, nor do I think the future of Smackdown is very solid. For one thing, I think the WWF has made it abundantly clear that Randy Orton is going to be Smackdown's cornerstone, a decision that is going to make the foundation of the brand even more unstable than it already is. I know that in the WWF the ability to wrestle has never been a requisite to being a major star, but there are bigger liabilities with Orton than just that. The first is that the guy is just plain unlikeable. He has a cocky manner about him that honestly makes me just want to turn the television off. I haven't bought a ticket to see a WWF show in 7 years(I tried for Mania, but it was sold out in 2 minutes), but I do order PPVs and I can honestly tell you I've never ordered one specifically to see him wrestle. If I did, I'd be sorely disappointed, mainly because he can't do it. Oh, he can brawl, he can raise his eyebrows, and he has proven capable of bastardizing one of the greatest finishing maneuvers of all time, but he has no wrestling acumen, he shows no feel for the game, he's been incredibly injury prone, and if there's charisma in him I can't see it. So, it falls upon the correct thinker to look for others that might be able to carry the brand. "I close my eyes and I walk right to the edge, throw my hands to the sky. Oh, I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid to live this life through my dreaming eyes." The obvious choices, at least to me, are the two best wrestlers in the world, Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle. I'm not really surprised that Benoit hasn't had a second reign with the World Title yet, despite his success the first time, because he's just not the type of guy that Vince McMahon generally likes at the top of his promotion. Despite being the master of kicking ass in the ring, he doesn't have the mic skills that McMahon cherishes in his stars, and thus isn't highly looked upon. Kurt Angle has held more titles in the WWF than Benoit, including being a 4-time WWF/World Champion, but none of his reigns have been long, and despite being nearly as good in-ring as Benoit and far better on the mic, all of his reigns with the straps have been as a transitional champion. It boggles the mind that Angle's been used in this manner, but it's impossible to recall a great title reign by him because there just hasn't been one. Despite his claims this past week on RAW, Mick Foley is only the second greatest transitional champion in WWF history--Angle's at the top. I suppose one could argue that Kurt's first reign as champion was a strong one, but I discount that because unlike guys like Hogan, Michaels, The Hitman, Triple H, Stone Cold, and The Rock--even John Cena and Batista--had an aura about them that you KNEW they were the champion, when Angle had the belt it was easy to forget. Now the biggest issue facing both of them is probably their age. Despite not wrestling for very long, the same issue is probably true of the most recent former World Heavyweight Champion, Batista, who is apparently older than Triple H, and with the way he's built I wouldn't think he's going to last the way Ric Flair has. On the other hand, we've got Rey Mysterio who seems now to just be coming into his prime as a professional wrestler. While it's true that he isn't as fast and can't move the same way he could when he was dazzling WCW crowds, I believe he's become a better storyteller in the last few years and I think a lot of that is due to the influence of his late friend, Eddie Guerrero. The problem is that no matter how good Rey Rey has gotten in the ring, he's probably never going to be the guy at the top of the company. I strongly hope he wins the World Heavyweight Title at Wrestlemania, but I don't think he's going to have a long reign with it. Rumors surfaced about 6 months ago that the WWF was working on a way to promote The Big Show as a special attraction, and I think Rey would find his best success as that type of guy for Smackdown. Among the other veterans, there doesn't really seem to be a lot of options. Personally, I'd love to see the Undertaker with the World Title around his waist and have a strong title reign, but unless he really commits to the organization again, I doubt that's going to happen. What about JBL? It's weird, but the guy that got Smackdown back on the right track after Lesnar left, Kurt Angle got injured, and Eddie Guerrero had no one to share the load with has somehow become an afterthought. He built himself from a tag-team midcarder to a single's main eventer in the span of 2 months and less than a year after putting John Cena over at Wrestlemania he's jobbing to the Boogeyman in a match that lasted mere seconds. This guy could be the big deal, if the WWF chose to push him that way again--and I'd welcome a feud between he and Angle or he and Benoit--but, for whatever reason the organization seems to think they've already burned his candle out. It's too bad, because I think he's gold. I suppose I should mention Booker T in this paragraph, as well. There. "To a rocket I've been tied, I'm ready for the screaming ride. It's full of fuel and I just lit the fuse. I'm a raging burning ring of fire and I get hotter as I get higher and I'm tearing a hole right through this sky of blue." What about the guys that have just come up from OVW in the last year? I am a huge fan of MNM. I love their entrance, I love their look, I love their ability. Basically, I love everything about them. The WWF, however, has had a tendency to split every one of their successful tag teams in recent years with basically zero success. The decisions to split the Hart Foundation and The Rockers worked because Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were phenomenal wrestlers with significant stand-out ability who had lots of time to develop that ability before being thrust into the single's spotlight. Meanwhile, aside from Edge and Christian, most of the guys the WWF has thrown into solo work from tag in recent years has been within a year or two of the team being together. Is it really any wonder that Sylvan Grenier, Rob Conway, Rene Dupree, and Charlie Haas have floundered in the single's ranks? It's only the phenomenal talent level of Shelton Benjamin that's kept him from doing the same, and it can be argued the WWF did him a huge dis-service by splitting the World's Greatest Tag Team, as well. I hope MNM has years to develop both as a team and individually before they're split up, as they are basically a heel version of the Rockers as far as I'm concerned, and are damned good at being tag team specialists. I don't look for either to have much success if they are split up soon. Paul Burchill and Bobby Lashley are two young guys that I think can be superstars. Burchill, apparently, can perform a standing flux capacitor, which has got to be a sight to behold, and I believe this pirate gimmick of his is going to help him really take off. My ETA co-writer, double helix, has suggested that the gimmick may be dropped quickly once Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest leaves the theatres, but I can't see that would be the case if it's really over. His character may be a bit of a Jack Sparrow rip-off, but so what? If it works, it works. I never saw anyone complain about Steve Austin having the same name as the 6 Million Dollar Man. The real trick here is going to be how Burchill works his incredible in-ring skill into his gimmick. If he can pull it off, this is really going to rock. Meanwhile, his contemporary, Lashley appears to be the total package wrestling wise. He's quick, strong, agile, can wrestle on the mat and overpower you off of it. We haven't heard him talk much, but that's okay, he's still got plenty of time to develop that ability. I'm unclear on the reasoning behind JBL stopping his undefeated streak, because I think if worse comes to worse they could rush this guy to be their next Goldberg, but either way he's going to be a solid guy for years to come. Solid, but unspectacular. Speaking of spectacles, what can be said about the Boogeyman? Wow, is this guy awesome or what? Okay, he sucks. I don't think the guy has performed more than two wrestling moves in any of the matches he's been in, but he's not really supposed to, right? After all, wrestling moves are theoretically for wearing down your opponent and trying to get them to a point where you can put them away. This guy's gimmick is that he has his adversaries put away psychologically before they even get in the ring. They're too busy trying to recover from the red smoke, the forehead full of glass shards, and the worms crawling in and out of the guys' mouth to actually think to wrestle the guy. Personally, I think the Boogeyman is cool. Yes, he's comic relief, but I love the gimmick and all the ideas surrounding it. I'm not about to endorse him for POTUS or even for a run with the United States Title, but he's great for what he is and anyone who doesn't get that is probably beyond help. Boogey is a lot of fun, but he's not going to shoot to the moon. Ken Kennedy, on the other hand, is a rocketship. From the first moment he walked down to the ring to announce his own match, I've been hooked on him. I know there's been some debate about whether or not that's a good way for a wrestler to get over, but the fact is that Kennedy is a great orator. And, to top off his mic talent, he can go in the ring. Yeah, he's got a lot of traditional moves in his arsenal, but he's also got a catatonic-backbreaker and that incredible second-rope somersaulting samoan drop that he uses to finish people off. He's got the look, the talent, and the voice. The organization thinks so highly of him that they've even kept him on television when he's too injured to go. The last time I can remember them doing that for a young guy, it was Randy Orton. Unlike Orton, however, Kennedy is worth the attention. I was going to say that he's far ahead of where Cena and Orton were at this point in their careers, but let's be honest. He's better than either of them right now. He may not get the reactions yet that Cena does or be quite as varied in the delivery of his promos, but the superiority of his in-ring skills and overwhelming charisma more than make up for that slight shortcoming. If he recovers quickly and remains healthy--two things that I have no reason to doubt--Mr. Kennedy is going to be an incredible World Heavyweight Champion by the end of 2007. For the first time in a long time, there is a WWF bandwagon I don't mind getting on. How lucky for me, then, that this one just happens to be shooting it's way up, up, and away. Benny Russ makes his return with these words: G’day Xan, Sorry I broke the streak and haven’t offered any feedback in the last few months. I was super busy finishing my thesis at the end of last year (yes it is finally done) and then I took a well deserved holiday. But now I’m back, and in a whole new medium. I’ve been enjoying the Freak Parade series. I reckon that Shelton needs another good run with the IC belt, before he steps up to the next level, but that if that’s handled correctly he’ll be ready to step up for a main event run. The Truth on the other hand could step into a main event feud against Jarrett for the NWA belt right now and not be out of place. But storyline wise I think it would be better to slowly build him up for his next title run. He’s been out of the title scene for quite a while now, and personally I think it would work well to quietly beat just about everybody who faces for a number of months. Tenay and West can start to occasionally make comments about how long it’s been since he had a loss or such, but without really overstating it or hyping it up too much. During the same period I’d have Christian beat Jarrett for the title, and after a period of time have Samoa Joe beat Christian for the title. Once Joe gets the title and defends it a couple of times, he can talk up how he’s only been beaten once in TNA (he needs to lose the X-Division title) in a screwjob, and how nobody can beat him one on one. Then Ron can interrupt him and say “there’s at least one guy around here who can beat you, and that’s the TRUTH”. Of course such a scenario wouldn’t involve Killings being in the main event scene again until the latter half of the year, but I think you’re right, The Truth could be the future of TNA if he’s built up correctly. But I think you need a fair bit of time to actually get that build up right. I also think that you’re right in terms of making a few minor changes such as establishing another finishing move. I’ve never been a fan of either the Truth or Booker T using the axe kick as a finishing move. But that’s easy fixed, as you pointed out. If that happens, then the Truth really could be a great commodity for TNA as their world champion. But then again, as you pointed out, so could a number of other TNA stars. And no, I don’t think Jarrett is one of those; I may not think he’s as much of an egomaniac as you do, but I agree he shouldn’t be at the top of the TNA tree anymore. At the moment I think Christian and Joe deserve to be there, but the Truth could easily become their third standout main eventer, probably leaving one more spot at the top of tree for one of the other TNA stars you mentioned to step into. Of course, I’m not suggesting these things are actually going to happen, but if they did I think it would work quite well. Anyways, keep up the good work, and I look forward to the next one in the series. All good, Cheers and Beers, No worries, Ben. It's good to hear from you again, and equally good to see that you've signed up with the LOPForums now. Interesting what has happened in between the time you sent your feedback and the time I actually got around to writing another column, isn't it? Shelton has regained the Intercontinental Title and, while it looks like he won't be defending it at Wrestlemania, it does look like he's poised to have a dream feud for it against RVD in the near future. I'm highly anticipating that and hoping that both guys look strong in it, as I believe they are both much more worthy of the spotlight than the guys that have been occupying it lately. Meanwhile, The Truth is still pretty much in limbo--and how strange is it that the most talented member of the 3(4) Live Kru is the one getting the least direction right now? But, Christian Cage has, at least, upended Jeff Jarrett for the World's Title and it appears the way things are progressing that we might actually have a situation where Jarrett's out of the title picture for quite a while. Seems miraculous. These are the columns that I believe to be the best posted in the LOP Columns Forum over the last 14 days. I suppose you could call them plugs, but regardless what term you use, these are the recent columns I see as shining examples of stellar work: J-Man's Train of Thought #15 My House, My Rules: Volume II Pulp Wrestling-Like Father, Like Son Excuse the Aggravation: The Maris Edition and go check out The Project for some original non-wrestling related writing. This will conclude today's voyage on The Northern Star. Please e-mail any feedback to XanManX@hotmail.com, with the words "Northern Star" or "feedback" in the subject line. The Northern Star will rise again. Until then, Long days, pleasant nights Brooke Hogan Hanging from a Tree at the Beach! WOW!
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