DaveyBoy’s Wrestling Menu #285 – Mike Adamle + Cyber Sunday Predictions Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 12:52 AM EST
THE WRESTLING MENU #285
Welcome one and all to the 285th edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.
It is gradually beginning to get warmer down under, which means that all of my northern hemisphere readers will be checking out whether or not their heaters currently are in working order! Of course, that is if you can still afford to use electricity as a result of the current financial crisis the world is experiencing. What’s the world coming to when gas prices are sky-rocketing, population is going through the roof and music leaks onto the internet before albums are officially released? Let it never be said that I do not have my priorities in order!
At least there is always the reliability of being able to watch wrestling a few times a week. ‘Vote One: Vince McMahon” I say.
It’s on with the vote…..
APPETIZERS
It’s Time To Vote
Yep, it’s that time again. The time when people must make a decision that will indeed influence the near-future. Of course, you don’t have to vote if you don’t want to. If you like, you can just sit back, put your feet up and let other people decide for you. But don’t blame them when you do not like what eventually gets served up to you.
So as WWE likes to state: “SmackDown your vote”. Whether you think it should be Triple H vs Ivan Drago, Rodney The Piper as special guest referee or Die Hard’s John McClane as the American President, it is in your hands. Of course, when it comes to elections down under, it is illegal not to vote if you are over the age of 18. We actually get fined if we don’t vote. And that’s not just at the national level, but also for state and local elections as well.
Maybe the WWE needs to have a database of all their fans and fine those who do not vote for Cyber Sunday. I could just imagine Vince doing that and he would probably do it love on Monday Night Raw to increase ratings. He could be seen climbing into the stands and harassing fans. Of course, he would have a trusty solar-powered battery recharger on hand with him just in case some local claimed that their phone had run flat!
In a matter which is totally unrelated to raking in some money, it seems that the voting system for Cyber Sunday this year has been predominantly isolated to text messages via a mobile phone. Lord knows why this isn’t the case for The Undertaker & Big Show match, but that’s just the way it is. Maybe some research has been done by WWE and it found that 95% of Undertaker & Big Show fans had fat fingers and were unable to use a mobile phone or something.
In another totally unrelated occurrence (insert sarcasm here), a grand total of 9 matches (including the preview U.S Title bout) has been booked and pre-advertised for this pay-per-view. The last time that was done was somewhere around WrestleMania 10. So please, never let it be said that WWE do not set up their ppv’s well… Unless, of course when it is not financially advantageous to do so. I mean, what’s the point of advertising a Mark Henry gauntlet match when all that is going to do is make fans not purchase a show.
What’s my point with this topic? I think it’s simply that I do not like the idea behind Cyber Sunday. There are simply too many unknowns for my liking. And even when things are obvious like a Stone Cold appearance, it is still difficult to anticipate the so-called unexpected with any real fervor. Sometimes when it comes to professional wrestling that can be a positive. But just like my topic a few weeks back when I concluded that it was not wise to have 3 Scramble Matches debut on the one card, there is just too much happening here to really care too much about anything. I mean, the InterContinental Title Match could be absolutely hilarious, but right now I couldn’t give 2 hoots about it. Yet, if it had occurred in isolation last month at ‘No Mercy’, it would have been so much more effective.
So yeah, be sure to vote. I recommend Santino for U.S president, Obama to guest referee the World HeavyWeight Title Match & McCain to win the big one… The Diva Halloween Costume Contest!
MAIN
’Cyber Sunday’ Predictions
MATT HARDY vs FINLAY for the ECW Title: In what could be one of the more even votes of the night, I am expecting Finlay to somehow be voted in over Mark Henry & Evan Bourne to challenge Matt Hardy for the ECW Title. Henry obviously makes the most storyline sense here and in normal circumstances, Bourne would actually get voted in. But Henry’s current push is finally beginning to bore fans, while not enough casual fans even know who Bourne is. So I’m going with the prediction of general popularity getting Finlay through here… I mean the guy has a midget with him! Of course, if Finlay was to emerge from this bout as the new ECW Champion, I’d be just a little pi$$ed off. It could actually be a decent enough match-up, although the face vs face dynamic would be initially tough to get around with practically no build up. Winner: Matt Hardy
KANE vs REY MYSTERIO in a Falls Count Anywhere Match: Personally, I don’t think that a 2 out of 3 falls match would fit this feud, while a Falls Count Anywhere Match & No Holds Barred bout would probably be booked similarly. I lean slightly towards the FCA option just because it could lead to some better storytelling around ringside. Of course, there could also be the danger that we end up with a boring old-school ECW-like punch-fest throughout the crowd too, but I’m willing to take my chances. This was pretty much a dead-end feud right from the beginning and I cannot see anything too extraordinary happening here. As for the result, with Rey winning by DQ last month, it could go either way this time around, but I’m suspecting Rey still needs the win more as he seems to be going nowhere on Raw right now. Plus, that would hopefully end this feud for good. Winner: Rey Mysterio
WWE DIVA HALLOWEEN COSTUME CONTEST: Umm, I am unsure what to say here. I predict a possible ‘We Want Puppies” chant. Umm, Victoria will probably make me laugh as she always does in these contests. wwe.com tells me that Mickie James is the defending champion for this contest, which is rather fascinating. Along with Mickie, Candice, Kelly & Michelle are the likely contenders, with whomever showing the most skin likely to win the crowd vote. Eenie Meenie Minie Mo, (insert derogatory rhyme concerning a ho)… Winner: Kelly Kelly
TED DIBIASE & CODY RHODES vs CM PUNK & KOFI KINGSTON: I doubt that too many would want to see the mixed tag match on offer here and while Cryme Tyme have their supporters, I still believe that the possibility of seeing Punk & Kingston win the titles will be too good to refuse for fans. The thing is though, I don’t believe it has been specifically stated that if this bout is voted in, that it would in fact be for the titles. That makes it a little difficult to predict a winner here as the champions are likely to retain if the titles are on the line, but go down if it is a non-title bout. I will presume the former and I think that if they are given the time (which they most likely won’t be), this could be rather good. Winner: Dibiase & Rhodes
SANTINO MARELLA vs ‘ROWDY’ RODDY PIPER for the InterContinental Title: I see Rodney The Piper getting the gig here, even if the Honk-O-Meter could see the guitar-swinging veteran (no, not Jeff Jarrett) sneak in for an upset. Golden Dust shouldn’t trouble the scorers a great deal. As for what happens after Piper gets to the ring, well that is anyone’s guess. But one thing for certain is that this will not be Hart vs Benoit! Comedy will reign supreme here with Piper likely to dominate the match until Beth Phoenix involves herself allowing her man to emerge victorious, retain his title & keep the Honk-O-Meter honking. Winner: Santino Marella
THE UNDERTAKER vs THE BIG SHOW in a Last Man Standing Match: If anyone is going to influence votes in a kayfabe manner, it has to be The Undertaker. I can actually see his fans steering away from the Knockout Match option (which is probably a Last Man Standing match anyway) just because he lost to The Big Show in such a manner at No Mercy. The ‘I Quit’ choice could cause an upset, but I really hope not as that could be one boring match right there. Then again, these 2 really surprised me in their previous ppv bout, so who knows. Big Show won last month’s encounter, so this time it is the turn of the dead man. Winner: The Undertaker
CHRIS JERICHO vs BATISTA for the World HeavyWeight Title with ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin as Guest Referee: Good luck to Randy Orton getting any votes here. HBK will obviously earn some votes due to the feud he has recently been in with Jericho, but come on, it’s Stone Cold. A large number of fans still drool over the Texas Redneck and they still believe him to be good value on WWE programming no matter what he does. Funnily enough, I can see Austin remaining largely in the background here (until after the match anyway), with this feud practically kicking off only recently. I forecast a medium-term feud between Jericho & Batista that will probably expire around New Years. Somewhere along the way, Batista will indeed win the title, but I think Cyber Sunday is too early a timeframe for that to occur. So Jericho somehow squeezes out a win here in what will be an interesting bout to view, simply because I am not exactly certain how these 2 are going to combine in the squared circle. Winner: Chris Jericho
TRIPLE H vs JEFF HARDY & VLADIMIR KOSLOV in a Triple-Threat Match for the WWE Championship: If Kozlov is voted into a singles match against Triple H here, the vote is rigged. Then again, logic would suggest that Jeff would get voted into a No Mercy rematch, so by saying that I think a triple-threat match will occur, I am indirectly suggesting that the vote may be rigged anyway. The Kozlov push has indeed come (about 2 years after it was rumored) and while some fans are enjoying it, nothing is being done to overly enthuse me. In fact, Triple H seems a little directionless to me full stop, despite the excellent bout against Jeff last month. Bottom line; H retains here no matter who we see in the ring with him. Winner: Triple H
Ok, so there we have Cyber Sunday as it currently stands. It is almost assured that there will be no further bouts added to the line-up as WWE have already promoted a further match-up for the United States Title in the lead-in to the pay-per-view. Fans get to choose between R-Truth, MVP & Festus as Shelton Benjamin’s opponent. I would expect R-Truth just to sneak over the line here and get the gig. And in what could be a selling point for further such matches, it wouldn’t at all surprise me if the former K-Kwik & Ron Killings actually won the title here.
Ultimately, I am unsure what to expect from this card. As I insinuated earlier, this kind of pay-per-view leaves me feeling a little unbalanced in the lead-up, so who knows what we will be treated to come the night. If WWE were able to put on an above average show with the No Mercy card though, I am quietly confident they can do the same here. Fingers crossed.
DESSERT – Mike Adamle
I am a patient man who likes to give things time to play out. I struggle commenting on music albums after the first few listens. Movies don’t always sink in immediately. And I give professional wrestling feuds, characters & storylines more than enough time to improve & peak. Hell, most professional wrestling fans want things NOW! So in essence, that makes me just a little different than the norm in this instance.
One thing I have lost my patience with though is Mike Adamle’s General Manager character. Opinion seemed to be split rather evenly when he was first handed the role. At the time, I was neither here nor there on the topic. There was a vacancy in the role and while I could have thrown up a few better candidates, Adamle’s commentating was seriously having an adverse effect on WWE’s product. It seemed like a decent enough way to kill 2 birds with the 1 stone as such. In the GM position, at least most of his lines would be scripted as well as be short and sharp, so how much damage could he realistically do?
Furthermore, as one of my loyal readers (Hi Ed) mentioned at the time, this was coming off the amazingly successful switch of Vicki Guerrero into a similar position on SmackDown. If Vicki and her uncomfortable mic work could pull off the role, then surely Adamle could do the same. In fact, Adamle should have been able to add a further advantage to the character; A little bit of a comedy with his verbal screw-ups… Whether they are intentional or not.
But here we are a few months later and I really couldn’t give a flying fire truck if Mike’s mistakes are scripted or not. They are no longer funny… They don’t add to their segments… And they are now very annoying to the point that they actually detract from the overall product. Sure, not to the extent of his commentary, but that is simply because he is not on the show as much.
Seriously Vince, bite the bullet and fire this guy. Pay out his contract and do whatever you have to do to get rid of this dead weight because it is just not worth it. If a casual fan was to stop by and watch Adamle in action on the mic, then it wouldn’t exactly scream out “professionalism” to them, would it? They would simply snicker & change the channel thinking that the product has reduced in quality from when they last watched.
In slight defense of the bumbling buffoon, his character hasn’t exactly been handled all that well of late. A couple of months ago, you could see that his clearly heel GM role was heading towards a face turn of sorts. Then, out of nowhere, Adamle gets used as the stooge at Unforgiven to let a heel (Chris Jericho) enter a title match he had no right being involved in. The way his character was headed at the time, as well as logic, suggested that HBK should have been given that role. And then what happens the very next night on Raw? Adamle begins to practically plot against Y2J. Excuse me for not having a freakin’ clue what’s going on here!
The thing that may annoy me most though, is that there is some serious potential in an unbiased GM character that has yet to be explored by WWE. GM’s tend to be either face or heel, but if wrestlers can be tweeners, why can’t General Manager’s also be? In fact, it makes even more sense for someone in a position of authority to be neither heel nor face. But wasting such a character on a bad actor like Adamle is practically a criminal offense and it deserves to be attempted by someone with much more charisma and microphone ability.
The bottom line here is that unless Adamle is able to hit a decent 450 splash, he must go… Full stop. He can’t commentate and I doubt he can wrestle or even referee. The General Manager role was definitely worth a try and I will even call it a wise move on WWE’s behalf at the time. But it has gone too far now. Pay the man out for goodness sake.
That’s #285 out of the way… I hope you all enjoyed it. You know the deal, if you would like to provide feedback for me, leave me some in the ‘feedback’ section of the LOP Forums or shoot me an email and I will get back to you whenever I get a chance. My email 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
All going to plan, I will indeed be here come next week with my review of the Cyber Sunday pay-per-view. Just a word of warning though; it may be later on Wednesday or possibly on Thursday as I won’t be able to watch the show as early as usual due to some prior appointments I have. You know what that means folks; I have to avoid the internet for a day or so. Shock horror… The world will end! Apart from my PPV review, who knows what else I will come up with? As always, my column will be posted at (approximately) the same Wednesday time on the same LOP channel. Until then, this is DaveyBoy signing off & asking you to remember that dinner is best served in 3 courses.
