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Submitted by Wevv Mang on Monday, October 2, 2006 at 9:45 AM EST
Ridin’ With The Bossman – WWE, Enemies On All Sides Greetings! Welcome to another edition of Ridin’ With The Bossman. The column that Triple H denies he reads, but then asks me for promo advice. Welcome back folks. Well the shock is starting to wear off about Kurt Angle being in TNA. But you know what? In all the hub-bub another bit of TNA news seems to have gone unnoticed. It was only when reading the Observer that I learned of it. Now, if some one put it up on the news board, well, I missed it. But let me tell you folks what it is. Vince Russo is working for TNA. No, not as a janitor, but as a writer. Though he does have to clean the bathrooms after each show, and put those pink tablets in the urinals. Yes, TNA hires Angle, a good thing. They then hire Russo, which, well, it remains to be seen, but let’s not forget. He’s found Jesus. That was after he wanted to make a tag team of wrestling penises. He’s a changed man, or so I hear. He’s now thinking of having a tag team of wrestling vaginas. That suit will look great on Kurt Angle, I’m sure. Dixie Carter is supposed to do an interview that will be up on the TNA website sometime Sunday night. Since it currently is Sunday Afternoon, I have not seen it yet. So, it’s another wait and see. If they have pictures of Dixie, it will be well worth checking out. If not, expect a lot of “TNA is changing the industry” type stuff, and well, hiring two opposite ends of the spectrum will certainly do that. I may have more thoughts on the matter later on in the column, but I make no guarantees. Why? Because this has been a very good week to think about wrestling. The TV alone has been very thought provoking. What ratings information I have seen also tells a tale all it’s own. So, without further ado, let’s get into it. WWE TV – The Series Raw Recap info courtesy of Chad Matthews Raw opens up dark. Apparently, there is a problem with the power. So, we get emergency lighting. Strange, looks like House show lighting. Anyhoo, we still get a match. Lita vs Candace Yep, the chicks get to work in the poor lighting. Edge was the special guest ref. Lita won in record time, thanks to Edge. Cena then charges in, and for the first time, no one really did see him coming. We get a quick commercial break, as WWE techs furiously work to get the lights back on. Cena Speaks He calls out Edge and Edge responds. By the way, the lights were back on. I thought for a second that WWE was poking fun at TNA and their fire. But I guess not. Live TV, anything can happen. Anyhoo, Cena then insults Lita. I liked this promo by Cena. For one thing, he didn’t do a lame ass rap. Just straight and to the point. However, as Cena is busting on Lita, Lita speaks up, and says she’s tired of being called a slut. Not bad. She says that she is a better wrestler. One thing leads to another, and we got a main event match tonight. Cena with one arm tied behind his back vs Lita. With Edge as ref. Interesting. Of course, it’s an obvious screwjob, but how will it happen? Nitro vs Kane Kane came out first, and then Nitro made his way to the ring. Melina was scared to enter. For good reason. As Nitro did his slide between her legs, Kane caught him and threw him out of the ring. Nice. It wasn’t long before Umaga attacked, and Kane won by DQ. Not bad, not bad at all. Probably done this quick to make up for time. Still, a good way to keep the tension high between Kane and Umaga. DX You sons of bitches. I can't resist a cheap plug. And this one was done really well. Excellent finish as well, with the Mick Foley thumbs up. Maria then showed up and asked “What does Suck It mean?”. H started to explain by taking his pants off. Any excuse to show your ass, eh, H? Thank you HBK. He dragged H away. Eugene, still with green paint stains on his jacket, showed up. Maria told him H said to suck it. Eugene fainted. Eh. Coach and Shelton Benjamin Really good promo between the two. They addressed racial issue in an intelligent and thoughtful manner, and it was not offensive in the least. In fact, they did a damn good job. No going over the top, no racial slurs. Just an honest question. Still, Shelton would be much better on ECW. Why? I’ll get to that when I do the ECW review. ECW got some problems. Anyhoo, Jeff Hardy showed up, and said some things in slang. Which was good. Yep, very well done. Ric Flair vs Mikey It looks like Flair is going to be fed all the members of the Spirit Squad. Why? I have no idea. I totally agree with JR that Flair should only wrestle occasionally. This match was OK, but nothing great. Aren't the Spirit Squad the Tag Team Champions? Shouldn’t they be involved in the tag division? Oh wait, that’s right. DX Tag Team Gauntlet DX will face three tag teams in a gauntlet match. They came out first, cut a great promo, and then killed the crowd by showing clips of them facing Big Show and the McMahons. Yep, pretty quiet after that. The first team to come out were the Highlanders. They came out, and H distracted one member, while HBK Superkicked another, and then H Pedigreed the other. Over like that. Next team out was Viscera and Charlie Haas. DX actually wrestled these guys for a while. Viscera played man monster, and with a missed move, Viscera put down Charlie and DX got another pin and win. Final team was Cade and Murdoch. You know, that guy looks like Dick Murdoch! Hey, let me tell you about this time in Oklahoma where Dick Murdoch was in the locker room, and then…oh sorry, got sidetracked. Oh yeah, he’s not really related to Dick Murdoch. DX wrestled them for a bit, and they took it to the outside. Still brawling, they get back in the ring. H nails Murdoch with a steel chair and the DQ is called. Three teams in ten minutes… Cryme Tyme They robbed a white kid who just got money from an ATM. The guy doing the voice-over sounds like that NFL films guy. Tangent Yeah, like I didn't go on one already. But, in case you didn't know, there is a minister launching a protest of the Cryme Tyme skits, saying that they are racist. Well, here’s my take on it. It’s not. It’s comedy. It’s about as racist as a rap video, which many of seem to do the exact same thing. Promoting criminal activity, and glorifying it. Think about it. Read the lyrics, don't listen to them. Done that way, well, yes, it could be construed as racist. But cleaning up Rap music would be an unpopular activity, while attacking a sleazy wrestling company would be seen as a positive thing. So, yeah, the guy has no case, and I think WWE has walked done a fine job so far. However, since they have gotten people worked up, the skits and angle are at a critical stage. It could turn really creepy at any second, as WWE tries to “push the envelope” Now, never mind that the skits are being well received and doing the job they are supposed to do. Namely, get people excited to see the group debut. WWE loves negative press, and goes out of his way to get it. Now, they got it, but it’s not really a national phenomenon yet. It could be, if they went over the edge. Which is a very tempting thing to do for them. So, it’s a wait and see what they do situation, which makes for compelling television. Without being creepy. Jeff Hardy vs Shelton Benjamin Very good match, but way too short. Lots of reversals, and action. Hardy managed to get the quick pin. Randy Orton and Chris Masters vs Carlito and Super Crazy Man, Super Crazy and Shelton Benjamin, if they were allowed to actually put on a match, would be great. Yeah, I skipped this match. Carlito and Super Crazy won, which I did not expect. Bischoff! Yes! Bischoff returns to TV! I always thought that WWE didn't use Bischoff to his full potential as a character. And apparently, this is a one time thing. Eric has a book to plug and he does. Bischoff starts to plug his book, saying things like he is responsible for the best acts in wrestling today, when Coach cuts him off. Nicely done. Tangent Good marketing ploy. See, the book will tell you things that WWE doesn't want you to know. Get it? Going to get it? Lita vs John Cena OK, there was a bit earlier that had Coach explain to Edge that as ref, he could not touch John Cena or he would loose his title shot. So, it screams out run-in. Which did happen. Regal, Finlay, and Booker T attacked John Cena. They apparently beat him down for a while. I went to sleep before the match started. Yeah, it was that kind of show. Raw is in a holding pattern. However, they are trying some things with the under-card. There are some with good potential. However, the main event scene is getting stale quick. However, I think that WWE is waiting to see who gets a reaction before they start the next round of feuds. But, I also think that DX is focus of that attention, and WWE’s pickiness when it comes to them is not helping matters. The next Raw PPV does not happen until November 5th, Cyber Sunday. That more than a month away, so they have time to put things in place. But, the whole show seems to be on autopilot, and that’s not good. Especially since the main angles involve the same people they’ve been facing for weeks. ECW Recap info courtesy of Eddie Martin ECW opens up with JR. It’s in Oklahoma, so, it makes a weird kind of sense. And of course, Matt Striker shows up. Which brings out Sandman. And who ever would have thought they would see Sandman and JR in the same ring? RVD vs Hardcore Holly Brutal match. RVD wins. Tangent Hardcore Holly is cursed. That was my thought during this match. Well, one thought. The other was that didn't Holly nearly die from a staph infection? I’m sure that RVD and the wrestlers who follow this match are thrilled to be rolling around in his blood. Yeah, Holly got cut open pretty badly. He always seems to suffer some weird injury in his matches. First it was Angle smashing his arm, and after that, well, it’s been hit or miss with him. He’s a tough bastard, no doubt about that. A tough rookie-hating bastard. CM Punk Speaks CM starts his straight edge riff, when Kelly Kelly shows up and wants to bang him. Knoxx then shows up. Knoxx asks if Punk has a girlfriend and Punk is clearly uncomfortable when he says yes. He then has the great line about Knoxx keeping his chick in his yard. Well done. If only the match will be as good. Extreme Cat Fight Wow. Francine looks a lot different. The match gets broken up quickly with Kevin Thorne pulls out Ariel, and then Balls shows up. Tangent A real tangent this time. 37 – 6 Bears. You wanna talk about the greatest swerve of all time? Rex Grossman pre-season and Rex Grossman regular season. Go Bears! Big Show vs Sandman Sandman is allowed to use his cane. Big Show lets him. So, Sandman whacks Big Show around the head for a while, until Striker steals his cane. Big Show then finishes off Sandman. The good news? Big Show’s leg drop finish was put over huge, as well as his back breaker finish. That’s good news. Well, that was the show. Some good parts, some bad parts. The opening segment, rather weak. The following match was good, but not great, in my opinion. The rest of the show seemed geared towards setting up angles, or keeping angles going. That’s good and bad. See, it’s the ratings. It’s dropped off. The show has been getting in the high 1’s lately and while that can be attributed to a variety of factors, like people back in school, work, etc, it doesn't quite cover it. Angle leaving did hurt. Still, I think that ECW could boost that rating back up again. By putting on more high flying matches. One of the things that made ECW great back in the day was not a bunch of big goofs like Test. It was the crazy highflying matches. Not the kind of matches that made the X-Division in TNA, but along the lines of Super Crazy vs Tajiri feud. Yes, the cruiserweights. I know Vince loves the big goofs. They do have a place in ECW. Just not center stage. Well, except for Big Show. He has been the Man on ECW. Show vs RVD at their PPV is a good match, at least it sounds like it. CM Punk has gained a following and it’s growing. The high-energy matches that were shown earlier in the season got praise. It might be time to bring those back. The problem then becomes a matter of time. It’s only a one-hour show. There’s still some character development to do. It’s the same problem TNA has suffered from. An hour show really means that you only have around 45 minutes. Speaking of TNA TNA Recap courtesy of Jules And apparently I was not the only one who missed the show. Read the recap to find out what happened. Main thing you should know: The Dudley Boys returned. Smackdown Recap courtesy of Rudi Pavani We get a recap to open the show. On a side note, I must have gotten the ECW and Smackdown opening confused. I watched last week’s tape before the show. To be honest, I’m not real fond of the Smackdown one. The cartoony opening is not really what you want to portray your show as. It must have been a favor to the guy who did the drawing for Finlay’s entrance video. Heh, seems Vince agrees with me. After the recap, we get Cena. Cena Speaks Cena does fire up the crowd, and it would be great if he came back to Smackdown. They could use him. Cena even comments, comments? Hell, it was his whole opening spiel. Cena remarks on how things are still the same, and how they are different. He remarks that he beat JBL, which riles up JBL and that’s not a good thing. Tangent JBL is horrible at announcing. Seriously. The guy just bitches non-stop. I did read about how his new contract says he only has to work the shows, and won’t be doing retakes. That’s not good, as it means that his commentary is now a one-take deal. That’s going to create a lot of problems, sooner, rather than later. Terkay vs Mysterio Chavo and Vickie are also out at ringside. Terkay gets in the ring, looks over Mysterio and then has Elijah Burke wrestle the match. Not a bad match. Elijah has some skills, but need experience. But he does take the 619 without putting his hands up, and that made the move look pretty sweet. Rey picks up the pin and then Terkay runs in and beats him down. Ashley Speaks Ashley says her tag team(Huh?) is a bunch of cool guys. We then get a video package of Kendrick and London. Well, that’s a nice twist. They got themselves a manager. I like that. I like that a lot. Ashley has become a decent talker. She looks way different than she did when she started, but that’s not a knock, just a comment. And it looks like Smackdown is serious about the tag division. Pitbulls vs KC James and Idol Stevens Well, Kid Kash got released and that’s bad news for Jamie Noble, who is a hell of a wrestler, and can talk. His white trash gimmick a few years ago was solid. So, with Michelle McCool at ringside, who looked great, the Teacher’s Pets pick up the win. I hope they find another partner for him soon. Scotty 2 Hotty isn't doing anything. Give them a chick, like Layla or Kristal and they might just have something. For both the chicks and Jamie. Matt Hardy vs Chavo Guerrero A solid match. Vickie at ringside? Not so great. I hope they come up with something better than the Eddie’s Dead stuff. Maybe focus on the name Guerrero as opposed to just Eddie. Well, the match was good, and Hardy did the job. Again. Helms then came in and hit a beautiful Shining Wizard on Hardy. That feud has some legs. Ken Kennedy Kennedy has a memorial service for Undertaker, and then it turns into an Undertaker love fest. Damn, and it was going so well too. Right up to the point he pussed out. When Undertaker showed up, that’s one thing, but up to that? This was actually worse than all the other Undertaker Memorial services they have had. How many have they had? Let’s see, the Khali one, the Mark Henry one, and well, that’s about it, but then again, it’s not like Undertaker has had a lot of matches. So, there’s Kennedy, and he’s got the audience listening to him and then he says he wants to loose. Come on! You better be doing the job Undertaker, that’s all I got to say. Miz vs Tatanka Miz talks as he makes his way to the ring. The guy does have a way of getting people to not like him. He’s annoying as hell, but that can be good or bad. JBL just rips on him. All through the match. Miz has some ring skills, but he’s green and it shows. Tatanka does the job, but it’s a screw job finish. Tangent Boy oh boy, am I ever looking forward to that tag team of Brad Armstrong and Tatanka. Maybe, if we’re lucky, they’ll throw Henry Godwin in there. Teddy Speaks Pick your poison matches next week. What does that mean? It means that Booker and Lashley will pick opponents for each other to wrestle. Jimmy Yang The guy is still gold. Great promo by Jimmy and he’s got a match next! All right! Jimmy Yang vs Sylvan Jimmy just shows off. I’ve missed seeing Jimmy in the ring. The guy is just incredible. And now, with a solid gimmick, the guy really could go far. Hell, even the crowd gets into it, and at points, it didn't sound like a USA chant, but a Jimmy Yang chant. It could have just been my imagination. Jimmy does lose, but I have no problem with that. First match and all, and it was all Jimmy, all match long. Tangent JBL showed why I hate his announcing. Through this match and through the Miz match, all JBL did was bitch at Cole. I know Vince loves the feuding announcers schtick, but I don't think anyone else does. It hurts the show. It also hurts the show that the announcers never call a frigging move. Jimmy was doing some incredible stuff, and all JBL was doing was bitch. Cole barely got a word in edgewise. That’s not good. I was trying to watch the match and had to focus to tune out JBL. Tangent #2 Hey WWE! Need a replacement for JBL? Whatever happened to Josh Matthews? He was really good and guess what? He called the moves and paid attention to what was going on in the ring and wasn’t trying to put himself over. JBL is not wrestling, so there’s no purpose to JBL putting himself over. If he needs a 2 hour show, then give him one on WWE. Oh wait, he did have a show on there didn't he? How did it do? I’m willing to bet it bombed. Go figure. Oh yeah, didn't JBL also get canned from doing spots on that financial show as well? Take a hint WWE. Vito Vito vs JBL, the fans demand it. Screams PPV buys… MVP has signed with Smackdown Well, that was anti-climatic wasn’t it? Lashley/Batista/Cena vs Booker/Regal/Finlay Most of the match is spent being about Cena’s elbow. Apparently it was injured. Now, it most certainly will be so. So, basically, this match, which was special in it's own right, it turned into a huge angle to hype Raw. Not cool. I think Batista spent like 10 seconds in the ring. Anyway, when Batista does come in, it’s to clean house and sit up Lashley for the pin. Which Lashley gets on Booker. Edge then comes through the crowd and spears Cena. Yep, just a way to hype Raw. A very lackluster ending to what could have been a really good match. I was looking forward to Cena all the guys wrestle each other. But that didn't happen. The whole focus of the match was to injure Cena. Not to win. That really made the match drag to me. It also really showed how important Smackdown is. The answer being Smackdown is only important if they’re hyping Raw. It just seems really petty and not a good business decision at all. The opening was strong and built well for this match, and then, by focusing only on Cena it started to weaken. It was Champion vs Champion and then it became “We don't like Cena”, which was not nearly as interesting. And the result? A 2.5 in the ratings. Not a huge drop from the week before, which is good, but with a match like that, it should have done better. I am looking forward to going over the segment-by-segment breakdown. As for the show itself, I thought it was good. Some good character development and it kept a good story building pace throughout. It was just the main event, well, that and Vito, that dragged the show down. But there was more to it than that. Which brings us to: Over-Analyzing Wrestling Today’s Topic: Wrestling Resurgence? Wrestling has been shaken up. Angle, once a WWE mainstay has jumped ship and is now going to be on Total Non-Stop Action, or TNA. That’s big news. It certainly got people talking about TNA. How it effects the ratings for that show remains to be seen. TNA also is getting a new time slot. Thursday s at 9 PM. Prime Time. There is also talk of them getting more time. Right now, they get two hours for the show at the new time. That’s good news for TNA. If they do well, the extra time could become more than just a temporary thing. But the new time also has one other thing going for it. T gets to be the lead in to the Ultimate Fighter, a UFC show. UFC has been gaining steadily in popularity for a while now. On PPV, it’s buyrates have been beating WWE. WWE is trying to compete with UFC for viewers. Being the lead in helps TNA. TNA is in competition with WWE, no more than ever. The new season has started. Smackdown has debuted on the CW network and the rest of the CW shows debuted last week. Season premiers for Smallville and Supernatural happened, along with other shows. Cable and network shows are also rolling out new episodes. October looks to be a big months, and then sweeps hit in November. TV shows are going to try and ride the momentum into that time period. WWE is trying to compete with shows other than wrestling. Football season is underway and so far, has been getting great ratings. The broadcast on Monday nights on cable are hitting WWE. WWE is trying to compete with the NFL. Other sports venues that impact WWE, like the World Series, the NBA season, and Hockey, to a degree, are about to kick off. WWE is trying to compete with other sports period. Yep, WWE is facing some serious competition right about now. Not just on Mondays but also on Tuesdays and Fridays and Sundays for their PPV’s. Finally, WWE has the competition they were looking for. And it seems to have brought a change to their booking philosophy. In times of trouble, in order to get noticed, WWE usually trots out the crazy, creepy angle, in order to make the press. But so far, that has not happened. It’s been months since a truly creepy angle has taken place. And, cross your fingers, it will be months until it does happen. Instead of creepy, WWE seems to be taking their time and try and tell a story with their angles. Indeed, Raw has been pretty good, I really like what’s being done to Smackdown and ECW is doing fine, in my opinion. All the shows still need work, but the guy running out to the ring and trying to eat people has not happened, and for that, I’m very thankful. WWE seems to have gotten their shit together. Yet the ratings are slowly dropping. What could that mean? I have a theory about the ratings. I think they reflect a week lag. You see, if a show is good, then usually the following week, the ratings spike. And after a ratings drop, WWE panics and throws out necrophilia or something. So, the show with crap on it gets a big rating. And WWE usually interprets that as meaning that the fans want crap, ignoring the fact that the show before the crap hit the fan was well received. Let’s take a look at the present situations shall we? The shows are getting good reviews for the most part. Nothing truly glowing, but overall, good reviews. The angles are unfolding, and the matches have been good. There’s a lot of potential out there, and I think that most fans are just eager to see the good stuff happen sooner. The big match, that is. WWE has stayed the course, and some might argue to long in some case, but they have held onto a direction. That’s a vast improvement over the flying by the seat of the pants booking. They haven't panicked. If anything would shake them, it would have been Angle, but there was no burial. No acknowledgement of it at all. Except where it was warranted, like in JR’s blog. And then it was done by some one with tact. A pleasant surprise. In other words, the WWE is pacing itself. Waiting to see how the fans react to TNA’s news. How the fans react to their angles. Which new shows are going to be competition. Which shows get moved around to compete in their time slots. It always happens. Debut season is a season in progress for networks. If a new show bombs on it’s debut, it will either be cancelled or moved. WWE is also waiting to what happens with UFC, and with the sports world at large. Basically WWE is showing that they finally have a clue. That’s if to today. Quick Plugs, and then I’m outta here. LOP FORUMS New and Improved! The latest Sports, Entertainment news! What are you waiting for? LOP COLUMNS FORUM THE MOVIE BAR! Great place for reviews of DVD's, Music, and special video clips. Your one stop review spot. THE PROJECT LIVES! A creative site for creative people. Be sure to check out the forums! LOP'S PWA E-FED. Best E-Fed on the net. Period. That's all for this week. Thanks for Readin' and Thanks For Ridin' Wevv Mang mrwevv@mac.com - PLEASE LABEL ALL EMAIL AS FEEDBACK. THANK YOU. *NEW GALLERY* Photos of HULK HOGAN and His Hot New, MUCH YOUNGER Girlfriend!
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