Searching for Answers 5/17/03: Too Much Authority

[Guest TSMAdmin]

Let’s get straight to the point this week. If only because my computer is bitching out on me and I’m already almost a day late with this.

 

Now really, I have no deep-rooted hatred of the authority figure. I like it. Hell, I think Vince McMahon’s original Mr. McMahon (And to a lesser extent, the character he plays today.) is brilliant. It’s a great evil character who is evil because he feels that **insert so and so ** (In this case, Steve Austin) is bad for his company. In a way, you could almost understand his point. His methods may be disgusting and you personally don’t agree with him, but the logic behind the character made some degree of sense.

 

Somewhere along the line, that was shot to hell. Around 2000, Mr. McMahon and all heel figureheads that succeeded him became evil just for the sake of being evil. They forged alliances with random heels for no other reason than they were both evil people. It made my head hurt. But then again, that doesn’t even compare to the face figurehead. They suck monkey genitals. One of the most notable examples was Mick Foley’s Commissioner Foley.

 

Now, I respect Mick Foley more than almost anyone else in wrestling. But I hated, hated, HATED Commissioner Foley. When a heel figurehead blatantly leans towards and often cheats for the heel, it’s okay because they are both heels and that’s what heels do for fun. Cheat. Or something. I guess they go home and cheat at table tennis when they aren’t thinking up master plans that end in a weapon shot. Yep, I just went ALL the way off track. My point was that Mick pretty much openly cheated for and gave advantages to the faces. That’s just ass backwards wrestling logic. Why were the odds stacked up against Stephanie in her title match with Lita? On a related note, why would certain heels get reprimanded for cheating while Lita was allowed to run free? Why did Mick constantly screw with Chris Benoit? Why were the Hardyz allowed 3746 title shots against E and C while the Blondes got ONE title shot? Why was Raven punished severely for beating Al Snow and sending him to the hospital as a result of a hardcore match? Isn’t that the objective of a hardcore match? If this were a heel doing this to faces, he’d be a pretty awesome bad ass heel. But he wasn’t and it came off really weird.

 

Even with both the horrible Foley face character and the dreadful post-McMahon heel characters in mind, I was willing to give this Austin-Bischoff regime a try. Maybe the power would corrupt Steve and turn him into his own worst nightmare. Even if it didn’t, I mean really, how bad could it be? After all, it couldn’t be any worse than anything else they’ve tried. Oh, how wrong I was.

 

In the beginning, it kind of had promise. I love the no contact rule. And the 50/50 stipulation where they must agree on everything is a good idea. It literally forces compromise. And for the hour that they adhered to it, damnit, it worked! Eric had to agree to bring back the IC belt. Steve had to agree to the World title match. They came to a solution on the JR situation. They both had to fire Morely. And then it all went to hell.

 

The first sign that something wasn’t quite right was when Austin was able to fire Coach without consultation from Eric. Okay, maybe it was in the match stipulation. I can live with that. But then, how can Austin just make a Jericho/Nash match and a Christian/Goldberg match with out asking the other GM? Hello? What about Easy E just making Jazz vs. Trish without the rattlesnake seal of approval? Add on to that Austin’s Beer Bash, which The Bisch basically openly opposed and the end of week one ended on a sour note for me. But okay, it was the first week and only minor nitpick type things anyway.

 

And then came Week Two!

 

Oh boy. Here is where the whole basic idea of this 50/50 thing just went out the window. And it starts in the very first segment. Not only does Eric make a major title match without Steve’s approval and with no time for discussion, but also he does it with a newly signed surprise team that Austin didn’t even know about! At this point, I started banging my head into the wall. It made the pain from all that thinking and rationalizing go away.

 

And it gets better/worse, depending on how you feel about this. Was Austin given complete control over the IC match? When? Why? Does Eric have total control over the Clique Love-In that he made? Doesn’t that destroy this 50/50 thing? Why is Booker allowed into and IC champions battle royal to begin with? Did Eric give Steve his blessing off camera? While I’m on that track, why was Steve allowed to randomly start a Flair/‘Cane match backstage with strange rules? Someone please explain this!

 

Even with all that, I still had some hope left. And than Austin reinstated the Dudleyz. DESPITE HIS 50/50 PARTNER STANDING RIGHT THERE SCREAMING “NO!” Why Why Why Why Why Why? Does this make any sense to anyone at all? ANYONE? I’m trying to give it a chance. I really am. The least they can do is follow their own storylines. Then maybe I’ll try a little harder.

 

Sometimes I wonder why I even do try,

 

Matt Ditaliano

 

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