I Got To Tell You Something 48: Positive
    Submitted by Big Brother on Friday, July 28, 2006 at 12:38 AM EST



    I Got To Tell You Something 48: Positive


    Hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllo there little brothers and sisters. It is me, your one and only (thank God) Big Brother who is back for another entertaining edition of “I Got To Tell You Something”. I hope you all had a good week. I know mine was great. I want to take the time to thank everyone who sent me their thoughts/congratulations as it was extremely appreciated. To say that I was nervous about your reactions and comments would be a huge understatement. Hey, at least it was good enough not to be kicked out after only one week. It’s always good to look at the positives right?

    And that column will talk about that a lot: the positive side. And for one, Smackdown need somebody to point out the positives because we see a lot of negativity towards the blue brand. Time to show some love now. I’ll also have my first Main Page poll. Why? Because these days DaveyBoy is too lazy to make a new one ;)

    But first, I promised that I would introduce myself a little bit better and I will. You’ll have to wait another two weeks to know me very well because I planned something special for my 50th edition which will be posted on August 9. But still, I think it’s time for me to let you know what to expect and who is writing those damn fine columns you will read on a weekly basis.

    The most important thing to know is that I’m a French Canadian living in Montreal. It’s important because as some of you noticed last week, my English, while better than the average “Frenchies”, is still far from perfect. I’m only using the Word corrector and I’m thinking about getting a better one. If any of you guys have good software to recommend I’d appreciate the help.

    Also, since you’ll be reading my thoughts on various subjects, it might be important to point out that, as a person, I first respect every other human being. I try to avoid to dislike anyone from the get go and give the runner a fair chance. I react the same way to wrestlers, athletes and pretty much anybody else. But if someone loses my respect, I can be downright brutal.

    That doesn’t mean that I think that anybody I like should be in the Main Event. In my mind, everyone should just “be in the right place for him”. For instance, while I greatly enjoy the work of Paul London, I don’t think he should be World Heavyweight Champion. I’m pretty happy with his current situation but we’ll get to that later.

    Also, while in my past I have attacked people personally through my column, I changed my ways a lot recently. Usually, if you see me get little shots at other columnists/readers it’s because I like them. Like with the previous DaveyBoy comment I made. This was a friendly joke as I always said that DaveyBoy is the columnists whose opinion I respect the most. You might see those little friendly shots from time to time but I’ll try to keep them as sparse as possible.

    On a more personal note I’m the proud father of a great 3 year and a half old boy. He already knows 5 wrestling moves which put him on par with Khali. Oh yeah, I do some lame jokes every once in a while. And finally, something that nearly nobody knows, even my long time readers, I have a diploma in Letters and Creative Writing. In French though. I truly enjoy writing in different styles and try some different things but don’t expect me to come up with a different format every week. I’m only human after all. Well… only half human really but that story is for another time.

    Now, it’s time to talk about the poll I’d want you to help with. For the last year and a half writing wrestling columns, there was one subject that I always wanted to cover but I never really got around to it for some reason. Now, I think it’s about damn time. I’d like to talk about the WWE DVDs. What makes them good, which one are the best and so on. And for that, I’ll need you help.

    What is the best WWE DVD you ever saw?

    Actually, if you want to make a “mini-list” (please, no more than 5) go for it, I’d understand as I too would have a hard time to name only one as my favorite. I’d also enjoy any comments/reason behind your choices. Also, I know that pretty much every vote will go to compilations/life story DVD but I would like to know if there was one PPV DVD that you enjoyed most than others.

    Oh and if you want to, I’d make a side poll too. What was the worst DVD?

    Man did I ramble too much here? Yeah. Well, at least this is now officially over with and we can start talking about the business that we all love: The positive of Wrestling.

    Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left. ~Hubert Humphrey

    I enjoy life. I enjoy wrestling. I enjoy hockey (hey, I’m Canadian). I’ve had a hard life but I always looked at my life with a positive attitude. It’s not easy, mind you, but it allowed me to have a better, richer life than most people. Because instead of stopping to complain about what went wrong I went out of my way to make things better. My father once told me something that changed my life: “You don’t have to love everyone, but you should always respect the work they do.” And I applied that concept to everything. I TRY to like everything.

    And one thing that I like about that state of mind is that if I want to find a positive in a situation or a person, I can. As I said earlier, it’s not always easy but it also helps me enjoy a situation or a person while others will hate it. And let’s face it, as easy as it can be to complain and bitch about everything you want, it doesn’t make you any happier.

    I heard so much rumblings recently about that wrestler or that show and I think it’s high time I address it with my own little spin on it. Especially the blue brand. Smackdown. We use to call it the B show but now, some people are thinking that it might not even be good enough to warrant that title.

    Smackdown, as a matter of fact, lost a lot in those past few months. Since Wrestlemania, two third of their World Title match went to other brands. Angle in ECW and Orton on Raw. Their only other title match that night involved John Bradshaw Layfield against Chris Benoit. One is on the shelf with an injury and the other one is now the color commentator to replace Tazz who also left for ECW. We now also learn that Mark Henry, Khali and Bobby Lashley all were injured/fell sick in the span of a couple of days. Those three were even involved in matches for the Great American Bash.

    And how about that poor PPV. The Great American Bash. I heard a lot of people complain about how weak the card looked when all was said and done but let’s give it to the WWE. With three of their highly advertised matches being crippled with the loss of one of their competitor, they managed to pull out a rabbit out of their proverbial hat and deliver an event that was worth watching. Will it go down in history about one of the best PPV of the year? No. But then again, I don’t expect everyone of their PPV to be that way.

    But it had a good Tag Team Title match and a good cruiserweight match. In both cases it’s something that the WWE didn’t gave us often recently so I’ll enjoy it while I can. It was unlucky to lose the only face in the Triple Threat match for the US title and both wrestlers tried to overcome the anti-climactic feeling of a heel versus heel match without any hype. I can say that they did as good as I could ask in the situation. Same thing with the Batista versus Ken Kennedy match. No hype, no history between the two yet, they did perform an entertaining bout which allowed both Batista and Kennedy to look strong. There was even a gimmick match and, while the match seemed a bit awkward at times, the structure looked damn impressive and some of the spots were quite good. In any case, I still prefer Big Show in any match over Khali. And finally, this was arguably the best match Rey had in his tenure as World Champion. Really, I couldn’t complain too much with the situation the WWE was put in.

    A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. ~Harry Truman

    Ok… Ok… I’ll admit, even if I try, I can’t make that PPV look like a huge success. It wasn’t. It failed and it’s a shame. I’m just admitting that, with the situation, they did better than I expected. But one thing truly shined on that PPV. One man perform in a manner that impressed me and made me realize how good he is at what he does: color commentator John Bradshaw Layfield. True, at first, when I heard that JBL had back problems and, that as a solution, the WWE would give him a microphone and two hours to say pretty much anything, I was puzzled. Why would the WWE do that? Don’t they have anything better for him to do? Anything? Why not be a manager? Hey, he’s already a Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiaise rip-off so why not go all the way? But Sunday I understood.

    Micheal Cole, with al the respect I can show to the guy, is boring. He is a simple play by play man. Not a bad one, but nothing stellar either. He never had any “heel/face” association. Yes, he does denounce treachery and cheating but that’s about it. Pretty much everybody makes fun of him or bashes him or… you get the picture. He’s like the nerd in high school. Anybody can take a shot at him. He’s always fair game. He’s too bland and the problem in the past is that Tazz wasn’t really helping matters. He wasn’t clearly playing the heel role and, since the play by play man is supposed to disagree with the color commentator, Micheal Cole didn’t look like a “clear cut face” either. Tazz might have been a color commentator but he looked a little “black and white” for my tastes… Not enough color for the amount of commenting.

    But then the WWE, in a stroke of genius, placed JBL near to little Micheal Cole and let him lose. Boy is he doing a great job? You can look at any match; he’ll always put both wrestlers over. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still the “heel” of the group but even with that, he’s still pushing both performers as being good. I never heard him put a wrestler down. It was actually the first time I heard a commentator put the cruiserweights over in such a good way. Am I the only one who picked up on how much more enjoyable London/Kendrick seem to be now that we have someone to praise them? Who would have thought that JBL would be the man to help the Cruiserweight Division get over? Hands down liars.

    Next time you watch Smackdown, listen to JBL. Listen to him praising the work of both Rey AND Booker. Or Finlay and Regal. And pretty much every single wrestler to step in the ring. This man, by himself, is making Smackdown more enjoyable for me. Better yet, Bradshaw may very well be single handedly saving Smackdown right now. All because of a bad back. Talk about turning a negative into a positive.

    Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold. ~Maurice Setter

    Some of you might not understand what I mean by “single handedly saving Smackdown” so let me explain. When I look at the current SD! roster, I see a lot of wrestlers missing in action. I know how much they would need to have Benoit, Henry, Super Crazy, Matt Hardy, JBL and to a certain extent Khali. Yeah, I just don’t like him. Sorry about that.

    But as I look at the missing ones, I also see who will have to fill the spots left open. Right now, we have seen more air time than usual allowed to the Tag Team Champions and other Cruiserweights like Helms, Crazy, Psicosis and of course Rey Misterio. I also see young up and comers who don’t have yet any name recognition (or very little) like Ken Kennedy, Finlay, Vito (unbelievable but JBL makes that character worth watching) and Bobby Lashley (when he comes back). Hell, I don’t think there is any other commentator who could help a Chris Benoit match by selling the moves for him.

    And this is how JBL is saving Smackdown. At a time where a lot of their bigger names are missing or left the boat, Layfield is able to help create these stars and make them look even better than they would if another person was in the both. If you don’t believe me, watch the Simon Dean match against an unknown wrestler (which, poorly, I can’t remember the name). He put him over like he’s the second coming of Jesus Christ. And you know what, it works.

    The point is, he will make London look as fast as a jaguar, Lashley look as strong as a train, Batista as savage as an animal and Benoit as technically sound as… Angle? And it can work with all other superstars, especially those who still have everything to prove. It could be Burchill, it could be Helms or it could be Kennedy. What is important to remember now is that Smackdown is a breeding ground full of potential future stars that only need a bit of help and right now, JBL is there to help. He is there to make those wrestlers take their spot and grow with the fans. And quite frankly, it doesn’t matter who is wrestling; JBL WILL put them over. He will point out their strengths and their weaknesses and he will make me care about the matches. And if I can watch future stars of the WWE rise to the top because of half correct booking helped with a voice to make me care… I’m happy to watch Smackdown.

    So in retrospect, Smackdown is a broken down roster full of injuries with talented superstars to take their spot and a voice to help make me care about those wrestlers. Who would have thought how positive things could be if you look at it closely…


    The Smackdown tip of the week.

    This is a new section I’m gonna do for you guys. You see, being Canadian, we still get Smackdown on Thursdays which mean, the day before you. This section will not be about spoiler, it will simply be a tip. Something to watch, a moment you want to be sure you aren’t channel surfing or anything of that nature.

    For the first week, I’ll warn you that, if you have anything important to do, you should do it starting at the 51st minute of the broadcast. Seriously, you want to make yourself a sandwich? Run around the block a few times? Take a leak… and a number 2? Repair the roof? Watch the whole Lord of the Ring DVDs? Go ahead because starting at the 51st minute is the new and now LONG-ASS Booker T entrance. Seriously, an entrance that long needs to have Druids. Otherwise there is no point.

    Anyway, that’s it for me. I hope you enjoyed the column and that you will take the time to participate in the poll. I can’t wait to hear your votes. Drop me a line at bigbrother_lop@hotmail.com or in my feedback thread.

    See you in a week.

    BB




    *NEW GALLERY* John Cena Partying with 8 Other Women!!

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