Breaking The Walls Down - Bits and Pieces Submitted by Chris Dailey on Tuesday, February 20, 2007 at 3:21 PM EST
Breaking The Walls Down
Hello all and welcome back to another edition of Breaking The Walls Down. The cold snap has finally broken and I welcome it! We’re finally above freezing, so that’s something to celebrate, right? As always, my time continues to come at a premium, so I will focus only on Bits and Pieces this week.
Bits and Pieces
Mike Alfonso known to the wrestling world as Mike Awesome has passed away at the age of 42 this past weekend. I will keep him and his family in my prayers through this difficult time. It’s not known what he passed away from, but 42 is too young. I know his body had to be ravaged from injuries sustained in his hardcore bouts. I know I will not forget his legendary matches with Tanaka. Man, those two could put on some great matches. Mike, may your soul rest in peace.
Anger and disappointment were the two most predominating themes in my Inbox from the last column I did concerning ECW. Fans are tired of what Vince has done to ECW and are looking for ECW to return to its roots. From what I can gather, fans are tired of the non-hardcore matches. They (you) want the look and feel that made ECW what it was. Their argument is not that they are living in the past, rather they want to go with what works and build from there. Their belief is that ECW will be a viable entity should it be allowed to grow from what worked. Right now, ECW hasn’t come close to capturing its former glory and that’s not because they tried, because they certainly didn’t. We were pitched a new ECW and that new ECW hasn’t/isn’t/won’t work because it’s not what ECW was. Until Vince realizes this, ECW will continue to suffer. And, judging by the e-mails I received, so will Vince’s fan base.
“Mr. Perfect” Curt Henning is going to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year. I’ve always been a huge Mr. Perfect fan and I definitely feel this is a deserving award. I was saddened to hear of his passing and this induction helps heal those wounds a bit. For those of you who are too young to have seen Mr. Perfect in his prime, I feel sorry for you. Mr. Perfect always gave a solid match no matter who he was against. His matches always made you watch carefully as you never knew when the match would end. His matches against Bret Hart, “The Texas Tornado” Kerry VonErich, and Ric Flair (to name a few) were instant classics that bring a smile to my face. I can remember sitting there with my brother and, inevitably, at some point in a match, Mr. Perfect would say, “Now that’s perfect”. I hated him then because he was a heel, but I love it today. Secretly, even as a kid, I loved what he did in the ring. It was great stuff. And, who can forget those awesome promos he did shooting basketballs, diving, throwing the football and catching his own pass? Those vignettes were classic!
The WWE has been reportedly considering breaking up MNM and The Hardy Boys. I understand that most of the members of the teams have an established singles career, but these teams are lighting up the crowds. The WWE has to recognize the drawing power of these teams and what that means for their bottom line. These teams have developed a great chemistry that comes off in their matches and really shines through in their brilliant performances on PPV. Sadly, The WWE doesn’t seem to have an interest in keeping these types of matches going. I really hope that tag team wrestling doesn’t disappear. I know I’ve spoken about it so much lately, but I really do feel that tag team wrestling is integral to the success of professional wrestling as a whole.
Wrestlemania this year is really shaping up to be a powerful show. The main events, to me, look pretty good and I’m really looking forward to the title matches. For some reason, I think Batista and The Undertaker has the ability to be much better than people are giving it credit for. We already know that HBK will make sure his match is top-notch and we have been told there will be a “Money In The Bank” match. So far, things are really looking bright for Wrestlemania this year. I’m considering splurging and getting the PPV. I don’t think the wrestlers are going to allow themselves to put on a subpar performance. I’m expecting there to be some O.K. matches, but for the most part I really believe that this will be one heck of a PPV!
I tried to sit back again and watch NWA-TNA this past Thursday during their special while I recorded RAW. I kept getting pulled in to work on something or help someone with something and I couldn’t really focus on it. From what I saw, it still had a very WCW’ish feel to it. I’m not trying to be negative, as I went into the show with a very open mind, but as I sit back and think about what I did see, I felt like I was watching a recycled WCW show with a six-sided ring. From the camera work to the announcers to the storylines, everything about it screamed WCW to me and not the good days of WCW, either. In my opinion, NWA-TNA really needs to do something to replace this kind of perception. I know I’m not the only one who perceives NWA-TNA in this way, either. In all honesty, I want NWA-TNA to succeed. The WWE needs competition and I’m hoping NWA-TNA can provide that. The problem is, they aren’t and whether that’s because of management problems or writer problems or production problems, I can’t tell, but I have a feeling it’s a little of all three. The wrestlers are trying, they really are, but they can’t help what environment they are given to perform in.
There is something that I really miss in the WWE right now and that is the manager concept. I miss having managers running around with their premier wrestler or their stable of wrestlers. I say bring back the days of Bobby “The Brain Heenan”, The Wizard, Rev. Slick, Master Fuji, etc. Managers added another dynamic to the sport that I think has been underappreciated as of late. Granted, when managers were in the sport I wanted them gone, but after several years of not having them around, I admit I was definitely wrong. I don’t care if some faces have managers. I simply want to see some sort of effort at bringing back the manager role.
I saw that Konan is still in need of money donated so he can get the surgery he needs. I figure that if we take the average amount of news hits on lordsofpain.net and each one of those people donated somewhere between $1.00 and $10.00, Konan would be much closer to his surgery. This is a chance to give back to an athlete who has given so much to us. I am not one of those that speaks without doing, as I did donate myself. I’m hoping that each one of you can find it in yourselves to donate to a really good cause. They have a PayPal system set up so the donation is really easy to do. I rarely (in fact, I think this is the first time) talk about anything like this, but he really needs our help. Please, if you have the money, it only takes a few minutes (under five minutes if you remember your PayPal username and password – a bit longer if you don’t or don’t have an account set up).
