Take up thy wrestling boots and walk - Unforgiven?
Submitted by Pt2 on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at 1:23 PM EST





I’m going to have to learn to be critical of the WWE more often.

A few months ago, I criticised the Smackdown brand and asked the question “How the hell do they expect to give us a good PPV with TV like this”, and lo and behold, they turned around and gave us something at least solid at the Great American Bash, a PPV that completely outdid all the TV offerings they had been giving us in the build up.

And in my last column, I suggested that although wrestling certainly wasn’t boring on the RAW brand, it was predictable, familiar - that if you’ve been watching for a few years you’ve certainly seen it all before. And then what happens?

They turn around and give us one of the best single brand PPV’s they’ve ever managed to put on.

Now, before I get the angry e-mails calling me an arrogant jackass for thinking that the WWE actually read my column and put out a special effort when I’m not satisfied, I don’t really think my being critical has affected them at all - a shame, because it’d be quite cool, but I’m a realist. The PPV was pretty damn great, and it’s all down to the way it was booked, and executed.

I didn’t have too high hopes for the first match - he can take a good ass kicking, but I’m not sure Nitro is as good as the WWE would have us believe yet, and I’ve not been a big fan of Jeff Hardy solo at any point - but these guys did go out and give a solid match up to start the show. It was nothing spectacular, but it started the show well, filling a role that has often been missing on the RAW brand - Smackdown has it’s cruiserweights to start the shows, but RAW has lacked the hot opener, and although this isn’t a classic example of it, it certainly helped set the tone and start the night off in the right way. Following this up with Umaga and Kane didn’t really help raise the technical quality of the PPV, but it did add some more heat and allow these two to continue feuding in the coming weeks, so I think we’d consider this a fairly good start to a PPV so far.

Next up, you have two of my favourites - The Highlanders. A good match I thought, but hampered somewhat by the crowd. Seemed to be behind them early on, but crucially the fan reaction died out as the more vital parts of the match progressed. Hopefully that’ll just be a one off and we get to see more of the blossoming tag division on RAW. Again, not a bad match, but certainly a sense of anti-climax about it. This feud also can’t be dragged out much further, if the plan is for the Highlanders to win, so expect either that to be the final match, or a rematch on an upcoming RAW.

Next up came the Hell in a Cell - now, I know it wasn’t the best cell match ever, and it certainly isn’t a patch on the first two - I also know that Cell veterans Shawn Michaels and HHH could have done something that is potentially 5 stars alone in there, or even with the added dimension of the Big Show - but we have to remember that you have essentially two non wrestlers in the ring for this one, and frankly, I think this one is as good as you can expect it to be under the circumstances. It was brutal and bloody, the ending was well booked, and for a match with two non wrestlers in it, surprisingly, it never really dragged or lacked excitement. The cell has taken something of a battering since the year 2000, but this match will have done no harm to it at all - in fact, with the ending and both McMahon’ stretchered out, it may have been something of a tonic for the biggest of the cage matches.

Then they followed that up with the hometown girls finale - and what a finale it was. Probably the best match between the WWE’s premier wrestling ladies, Trish Stratus and Lita. These two have certainly never lacked heart or effort in their matches, but this time, the crowd was behind them, and crucially, so was the backstage team, for almost the first time as much effort was put into a women's match as goes into the men's. Finally, when all three factors of booking, wrestler effort and crowd interest came together, we got an absolutely great send off for Trish Stratus. The result was never really in doubt, but the quality of the match certainly kept it interesting despite that. The end was brilliantly booked, and at this point the WWE has achieved something they usually put together only at the big 5 - back to back high points.

Next up were Randy Orton and Carlito - didn’t really get chance to see how well these two worked together, but from what we did see, it’s promising - in what can only be described as a nothing match, both men looked reasonable at all times, and both looked more than just capable at others, occasionally flirting with their claims of being the future (more on that later). The ending itself was marvellous, and really helped put the RKO over as one of the top moves in the WWE.

Next up, we got the Tables, Ladders and Chairs match for the WWE Title. Now, the first TLC match, I liked. After that, they tended to become something of a chore, with only some decent story telling at the Wrestlemania X-7 match breaking up the monotony of spotfests.

But last night, with the crowd behind Edge and booing Cena out of the building, they actually told a story, and put on a match I could watch, and become interested in. Much of that must be the fact that the work going into it has been very good, but some of it has to be pointed at the fact that they didn’t just go in and give us high spot after high spot after high spot like we’ve come to expect from the tag team TLC matches, but instead paced themselves, and actually made the smaller number of spots they executed mean that much more. While the spear from the ladder was somewhat less impressive than I think they wanted it to be, I really can’t criticise the match, or the work, of either of these two. A great match, and a great ending to both the match and the PPV.

There you have it - a PPV with no downside. Even though on occasion matches might have been given more time or in the case of Umaga and Kane been given a more conclusive ending, there really is nothing bad about it - everything has a reasoning, and is at the very worst solid. And that trend seemed to continue on through RAW the following night.

No McMahon presence, so Jonathon Coachman had to fill the role of authoritative heel, and did so satisfactorily. D-X continued their humorous TV antics with one of their better executed promo’s of this run, and paved the way (somewhat unfortunately) for McMahon retribution. I somehow get the feeling that this may run a little longer, perhaps until Survivor Series either with the McMahons as the principal wrestling heels or with them pulling the strings of other workers (dare I remind everyone of the rumoured D-X vs. nWo feud?).

Perhaps the most entertaining aspect of RAW for me was the discussion of who was the future of the WWE. It started some cogs turning in my mind - as Johnny Nitro said, he could be the future, as it is obvious that the WWE think quite a lot of him with his recent IC title win and TV time. Beyond that, there is Chris Masters, a man with a solid, old school wrestling ability that looks great in the flesh, but without any of the glitz or charisma to really stand out as a future wrestling superstar - if he had it, he would probably have started to show it by now, and I think the WWE is aware of that. From those two, we are left with Randy Orton and Carlito, the two I think are most likely (by a huge distance) to actually be the guys competing with the Edge, HHH and John Cena types down the line.

Carlito is young, popular with the fans and seems to have both a good attitude and the backing of management. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him spend another few months at his current level before they dip his toe in the main event scene, to see how both he reacts to it, and how the fans react to him being there. He’s come on a lot in his time, and I think it’ll only be a little more seasoning before he is ready for the big time.

Orton is also a potential star. He’s already been Intercontinental champion and World champion, so it’s obvious how highly the WWE thinks of him. He gets a great fan reaction everywhere he goes, so good a reaction you could make an argument that he is one of the top 5 heels in the WWE. His in ring talent is there, he looks very good on a lot of occasions, he knows how to pace his match out (and crucially how to add heat when he’s on top but the match is simmering down), and also how to add realism - in fact, combined with his film star looks, if it wasn’t for one thing, I’d say right now that Randy Orton would be the next man to truly be elevated up to the big leagues.

That one thing is that the man seems to be a complete idiot. Between sexual harassment accusations and failing drug tests, he certainly seems to be his own worst enemy. Blessed with tremendous athletic ability and lucky enough to be born into a wrestling family like the Orton’s (where you are certain to be fundamentally sound if you choose to wrestle), he doesn’t seem to have the intelligence to know what to do and what not to do in order to succeed. True, Orton is one of the darlings of the WWE, but he’s not indispensable yet, but he seems to think no matter what he does he’ll get away with it. He’s wrong - ok, so they’ve been lenient with him so far, but it is only a matter of time, if he carries on this way, before he really fucks up and he’s given a real punishment. The man can be a star, and can go on to headline wrestlemania’s, the whole deal - but if he throws it away because of his own attitude and stupidity (which incidentally is the main reason I think people are critical of him, since he’s certainly got more in ring expertise than guys higher up the card who are given more acclaim on the internet) then he would only have himself to blame, and I would have no sympathy. I hope he doesn’t, and he learns that these transgressions can only go on so long, because if he does, and becomes something more in line with the model professional, then the future for him could be truly bright.

Incidentally, the promo that led to my thinking about this also led to a legitimate match - fancy that, a proper match on RAW that lasts for a reasonable amount of time, and it wasn’t the main event? Ignore my last column friends, because things are looking up.

Feedback can be sent to takeupthywrestlingboots@gmail.com. I reply to all mail received.

Take care,

Pt2









*NEW GALLERY* Must SEE VERY HOT Pix of G4 TV's Olivia Munn! WHOA!!

• Quick Links -
  [Back to LOP] [News Archives] [Results] [Columns] [Forums]