DaveyBoy’s Wrestling Menu #275 – Foley, Punk, Kofi + G.A.Bash Predictions Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 12:02 AM EST
THE WRESTLING MENU #275
Welcome one and all to the 275th edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.
At a time when WWE have done what appears to be a mighty fine job in shaking up their rosters and switching around some of their titleholders, I find myself less interested in the product than previously. It really does not make any sense to be honest and even I am at a loss to explain it. I hope I am not personally getting burnt out, but I actually doubt it because I surely would have felt that a month ago if that was the case.
My guess is that I don’t like the unsettled nature of WWE at present. It’s not necessarily the change aspect, nor the obvious unpredictability factor that comes from it, but I think it’s because a number of wrestlers are in limbo when it comes to either (a) what they are currently doing on television, and/or (b) who they are feuding with.
It must be remembered that the creative team apparently knew nothing of the moves that occurred before-hand and in all fairness to them they should be given a month or two to settle and book feuds & match-ups appropriately. Well, that’s what I am hoping for anyway. In the meantime however, I’m just not feeling what we are seeing. I have not viewed ECW for a while now so I know nothing of Atlas SomethingOrOther and how big Chris Harris’ gut is, while I have tended to float away at different stages of both Raw & SmackDown over the past 3 weeks.
Somewhere in a corner, fellow LOP Columnist & PPV Predictor Skittlez is laughing maniacally thinking I will have no clue who is winning the matches this Sunday. He may not be wrong either.
On with the show…..
APPETIZERS – Mick Foley
Over the past month or two I have often been asked over email how I think Mick Foley is progressing at the SmackDown announce desk, whether or not it was with Michael Cole or Jim Ross sitting beside him. While I answered said emails as best as I could at the time, I didn’t really want to comment too much in my column as I thought it appropriate to allow Foley a little more settling in time. I think enough time has passed now, so here goes…..
To cut to the chase, Mick is doing just fine. The difficulty of commentating professional wrestling is always under-estimated as I am almost certain that there are all sorts of different kinds of directions that the announcers are given which distract them from doing their job as naturally as what one would presume. Considering all that and the limited time that Foley has been announcing, I think he is pretty much where he should be from a quality perspective and the room for improvement factor is still high.
Funnily enough, I think he is a lot better when announcing pay-per-views than when doing his job on SmackDown. While some people would think that obvious since he only has to call about 3 or 4 matches on ppv and gets breaks of varying lengths in between them, I do not think that is the actual reason for the higher comfort factor on pay-per-view.
What I think it stems from is the fact that for the most part, ppv’s are all about the wrestling that takes place in the middle of the squared circle. Fans have already purchased the show if they are currently watching it, so there really is not a great need to attempt to keep them tuning in for later in the show. And of course that is required to be done on SmackDown as ratings can easily dip & rise from minute to minute dependant on what is occurring at the time and what is to occur later on in the show.
Foley is not doing a horrible job in keeping SmackDown viewers interested throughout the show’s 2 hour duration, but he at times looks a little uncomfortable in finding that correct balance of selling the show, being entertaining and talking about what is happening in the ring. Let us just hope that he doesn’t get to the WCW Tony Schiavone stage though and becomes as annoying a seller as he was when he would often continuously speak about upcoming matches without calling the action as he saw it. Then when said upcoming match came up, he would talk about another future match. Now there is a wrestling memory I don’t miss one bit.
Mick’s getting there in finding the balance though. Those being overly critical of him at the moment are probably those who jumped down JBL’s throat when he began commentating, only to give him plaudits less than a year later. It is called natural improvement and learning from experience people… It takes a little time. And with one of the best ever in the business, Jim Ross, now beside him, then one should probably expect Foley’s development to rapidly improve. Good luck to him I say.
MAIN – CM Punk & Kofi Kingston
This is another in the long line of topics that has been passed on to me through emails from readers. In this case, I actually received 2 almost identical emails (or at least part thereof) over the space of 24 hours from memory. So thanks goes out to Jason & Nick who let their feelings be known to me. It is with regards to all this recent shaking up of WWE’s rosters and titleholders and is an extremely valid point that is difficult to disagree with in all honesty.
When any sort of surprising decision is made in the wacky world of professional wrestling, one of the top priorities is to gain attention. In terms of a surprise title change, this is not only for the company as a whole, but also specifically for the talents involved and sometimes the angles/storylines they are to be shortly involved in. As per the topic heading, I am obviously referring to CM Punk winning the World HeavyWeight Title and Kofi Kingston winning the InterContinental Title recently.
The thing is, if one of the main priorities of such title changes is to gain attention for the up and coming wrestlers in question, aren’t WWE shooting themselves in the foot a little by having them both have surprise title wins within 24 hours of each other…??? While there are a few more pieces to the puzzle than such a simple question, if I had to pick a side of the fence here, I would have to answer the question in the affirmative.
Wrestling fans have notoriously short attention spans as it is. They don’t want to be bombarded by new happenings as much as you would be made to believe. So when many things occur at once, then it gets a bit too much of an information overload. This is even more so in this case as both Punk & Kingston have been recently shifted over from the ECW brand. Without knowing the in’s and out’s of television ratings, I’m estimating that approximately one-third of those who watch Raw, also watch ECW. So it is quite likely they have rarely seen both men wrestle, especially in the case of Kingston who hadn’t appeared on pay-per-view.
The majority of viewers surely prefer getting used to wrestler’s styles, habits, moveset, etc… before seeing them become titleholders. I know I do. Of course, I understand that it was half the point in having such title changes as this added to the surprise effect of them. However, while I agree with that point on a singular occasion, I really do not believe that any further shock is added by having 2 such occurrences take place so close to each other.
Furthermore, it results in an awkward situation for WWE’s bookers as well because in all likelihood if Punk & Kingston were to have title reigns that last over 3 months, it will require some creative jigging in order to not throw them to the wolves too quickly… Especially in the case of Kingston. Hence why we have seen the likes of Snitsky, Haas & Burchill all of a sudden become involved in matches against 2 major titleholders.
The only defense that can be made for this situation is if WWE believe that they are somehow reducing the pressure off both young men and effectively sharing the load. But while this may seem to make sense on the surface, I don’t buy it because like a lot of things that occur on screen in WWE, their effectiveness is ultimately judged by the fans. The overwhelming majority of those fans don’t care about what personal pressures the wrestlers are facing… They want to know who will be wrestling who and what is entertaining them.
The moral of the story here is that by having 2 similar title changes take place so close to each other, WWE are basically reducing the effectiveness of each one by half. No wrestling fans want total predictability, so of course we will love it when something unpredictable such as a shock title change occurs. But part of that mystique is to see what happens to the champion afterwards. When there are 2 such champions to be concerned about, the care factor is simply halved… It’s simple math to me.
DESSERT
Great American Bash Predictions
THE MIZ / JOHN MORRISON vs. FINLAY / HORNSWOGGLE vs. CURT HAWKINS / ZACK RYDER vs JESSE / FESTUS for the WWE Tag-Team Championships: This is as good as any undercard filler they can put on pay-per-view I suppose as the inclusion of 4 teams should be able to mask the deficiencies of some of the competitors involved. Plus, with the likes of Hornswoggle & Jesse involved, they can also work in some entertainment value hopefully. Miz & Morrison have held those titles for a darn long time so this could be an opportunity to drop them, but with a heel champ currently on ECW, their next step is not so obvious anyway. That plus the fact that none of the 3 other teams jump out at me as champs right now means I will play it safe and predict….. Winners… Miz & Morrison
JOHN CENA vs JBL in a NYC Parking Lot Brawl: For what appears to be a clash of styles, these 2 have wrestled against each other a damn lot over the past few years. And it’s not as if their bouts have been 5 star classics either. Making this a ‘Parking Lot Brawl’ only makes me groan even more as such (for want of a more appropriate term) wrestling matches usually end up having a lot of dead time and mind-numbingly boring action. Let’s just say that I expect this to be pretty ordinary. As for the winner, I feel as if it would be more appropriate if the heel was to finally get a win against his nemesis, yet it is always so difficult to pick against Cena on pay-per-view. I’m feeling daring though and it’s been such a crazy time in WWE of late that anything can happen. Winner… JBL
NATALYA vs MICHELLE McCOOL for the Divas Championship: I expected this match to take place at ‘Night Of Champions’ and it didn’t. I have to wonder if one or both of them wasn’t quite ready for the big stage just yet and they have been rehearsing for the past 4 weeks in order to put on the best possible performance here. I don’t really know what to expect and while I am less confident this month than I was last month that Michelle will be the inaugural Divas Champion, I will stick to that prediction if only for consistency… & because The Undertaker said so! Winner… Michelle McCool
MARK HENRY vs TOMMY DREAMER for the ECW Title: I can just hear the conversation backstage now: “Ok guys, now that the big gorilla is our champ, how are we going to keep the belt on him for a sufficient amount of time?” “Let’s just feed him undercarders for a few months before we actually find someone decent enough to take the title off him”. “Ok, who’s first?” “I say Balls Mahoney”. “He was fired last year you idiot”. “Ok, then Tommy Dreamer or Stevie Richards I suppose”. “Yep, let’s go Dreamer as he is currently hanging around with that kid who scored a contract by accident… Henry can throw him around also while he is beating up on Dreamer”. “Done”. This one is predictable in every way, shape and form. I only hope that the bout is booked decently enough to get the live crowd involved. Winner… Mark Henry
SHAWN MICHAELS vs CHRIS JERICHO: On a card that doesn’t exactly look like it’s going to set the world on fire, it is set up for HBK & Y2J to steal the show. These 2 have already had one ‘match of the year’ contender in 2008 and I can see this being the 2nd as their feud has been much better established now compared to previously. Predicting the result is a little tricky, if only because HBK doesn’t often lose on pay-per-view and he has done so recently against Batista. But logic suggests that this feud will continue through to SummerSlam and the best way to set that up is to make it a tie-breaker of sorts by having Jericho emerge victorious here. So come on logic, do your thing. Winner… Chris Jericho
CM PUNK vs BATISTA for the World HeavyWeight Title: This is dangerous booking and could be one of those times where the face vs face dynamic that I am always raving on about really drags a match down. Seriously, I can just hear some of the live crowd now: “Yeah, hit him… Smash him”. “Hey, who are we cheering for here?” “Umm, both of them I suppose”. “How about we just wait & see who wins and then cheer them more than the other tomorrow night on Raw”? “Ok”. This is going to be awkward to say the least and it hasn’t exactly been allowed to build up like some of Batista’s other face vs face matches over the past year or two. The match-up is just strange full stop and I can only think that it was made to give some impetus to Punk’s title reign. Then again, it simply could be to end said reign. Call me naïve, but I don’t think so just yet. Winner… CM Punk
TRIPLE H vs EDGE for the WWE Championship: Just from emails from my readers over the past 2 or 3 years, I know for a fact that many WWE fans have been anticipating the feud and matches that these 2 were always likely to have against each other. Tell me why then do I have this anti-climactic feeling about it all? Actually don’t as the question was rhetorical… I already know the answer. It’s because the match has been very ordinarily set up and has predominantly concerned Edge & Vicki’s wedding nuptials. I suppose the more relevant question becomes whether or not these 2 continue their feud through the next couple of months. With the underwhelming beginning to it, I am not so sure. I just hope they can put the poor build-up behind them and put together a quality bout here. They should be able to, although I’m not expecting anything too special. As for the result, it wouldn’t totally surprise me to see Edge win the title as Triple H may prefer chasing it as a face, but the safe money is on The Game retaining. Winner… Triple H
Ok, so there is the ‘Great American Bash’ as it currently stands. Only 7 matches have been publicly announced at the moment, but another could be added. If so, it will most likely be a title defense from Matt Hardy, Kofi Kingston or Rhodes/Dibiase. For simplicity sake, I will suggest that the champions will retain whatever the match-up, with Hardy the most likely to drop a strap. I am unsure if it came through during these predictions, but I am not exactly psyched up for this event. For the most part, WWE has been reliant on their big 2 title matches on ppv this year and neither that have been booked for this card have been set up all that well. The undercard also seems like a fizzer, with the obvious exception of HBK vs Y2J which is odds-on to be the match of the night.
Ok, that’s #275 flying by. I suppose it’s a mini-milestone of sorts… Especially when the big 300 looks so far away at present. As always, if you have anything relevant to this column that you would like to email me about, fire away. My e-mail address is DaveyBoy123@bigpond.com, but if you are an LOP Forums member, it would be much appreciated if you could leave feedback on my thread at http://www.lopforums.com/showthread.php?t=159
Next Wednesday in 'The Wrestling Menu', I will be back with my review for the ‘Great American Bash’ pay-per-view and who knows what else. Maybe actually watching every minute of WWE’s televised product will present some fresh ideas for me. Whatever comes your way, my column will be posted at the same Wednesday time on the same LOP channel next week. Until then, this is DaveyBoy signing off & asking you to remember that dinner is best served in 3 courses.
