justcoz

He's another example of someone who would have been the perfect heel manager if WWE still had traditional managers. He had a natural arrogance that made him easy to dislike, he could talk, interrupt matches and take bumps when needed. You could have been what Bobby Heenan was to the Brainbusters with Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. He could've had a Heenan Family-like stable. And he could've still hosted DVD's or specials. I think the fact that we saw him in the same recycled heel assistant/stooge to the heel GM role so many times and the fact that Vince and Kevin Dunn were stupid enough to believe for one second that he was the answer to replace Jim Ross on play by play make people take what good he had for granted.

I think Kris Kloss could be WWE'ized

Also, they could add elements of Santino's MMA style into his current slimeball character. He can brag about being trained by a legit UFC/MMA fighter. Pay Alessio "Legionarivs" Sakara to do vignettes with him or claim to be his cousin or something. Do vignettes with him training with a Bruno Sammartino look-a-like or something. You know, piss off Bruno some more. Call Domenic Denucci and make it out like Santino learned these wicked MMA moves from Domenic Denucci. Mick Foley would get it.

Santino should be used similar to how they intended to use Roddy Piper when he first entered the WWF. He should have a talk show segment every week. Part Santino's Casa and part Piper's Pit. Maybe tape them at a studio with only an occassional live edition. They can be mostly comedy but can also be used to build or develop serious storylines and main event feuds. He can be the guy that causes tag team partners to doubt one another. For instance, next week, they could have Paul London confront Brian Kendrick with Santino being the antagonist and pushing Kendrick's abandonment. He can be the guy that points out the sexual tension between a wrestler and his female manager. The guy that tells John Cena that Batista is talking shit on him. Maybe he can manage a stable of wrestlers. I know... "Manager", "Stable" and "Wrestlers" are dirty words in sports entertainment but someone like Santino can be the mouth piece that could have helped someone like Chris Masters get over - you can imagine Santino standing next to Masters gloating and hamming it up during Masters' entrance, not letting him speak and being the in-ring commentator during the Master Lock Challenge. That's the type of role I see Santino being in. Piper eventually did get into WWF main events and was allowed to be viewed as serious despite the gimmick, the fact that he often chickened out and was the BUTT of the joke with people making fun of him for the kilt. Santino could be pushed seriously if they'd put him the right program, with the right worker and gave him the right amount of time to work. It's hard to see what he's capable of when he's jobbed relatively quickly each week to people like Jerry Lawler. I'd like to see him moved to Smackdown to get into the MVP/Matt Hardy feud or sent to ECW to feud with CM Punk or something. I think he'd benefit being taken away from Raw at this point. His character doesn't get nearly enough tv time on Raw. They may be thinking that's the way to prevent him from growing stale but I actually think it's hindering him from being more over than he could be. I think Santino is someone who could actually run with the ball if given the chance to have freedom with his character and be a very entertaining part of the program.

Obviously they want to hurt the pay sites because that's money and website hits that could be going to WWE. I really like this. Let's put it this way, I'm more likely now to check out wwe.com on a daily basis than I was yesterday. Just to see what industry news they are reporting. I imagine there are more people like me. I think they realized that there is an internet wrestling audience that doesn't give a rat's ass about their site and this is their way of addressing that. WWE, being the recognized leaders in the industry, should want the overall industry to be healthy. The last boom period for the industry was because everything in the business - WWF, WCW, ECW - were all doing well and all had their own fans. I'm not saying that WWE promoting TNA is a great idea but if TNA was doing a 2.5 on Spike, instead of low 1's, that's more leverage for WWE when doing network deals. Even though it's not one of their brands it shows cable execs that wrestling has an audience and if the second-rate promotion is drawing that, what ratings will the big dog bring? The business looks healthy when indies, TNA, ROH, MMA, UFC, etc. are all drawing, getting good ratings and interest on PPV. It will be interesting to see if they post TNA tv taping spoilers. That may actually help TNA's ratings more than hurt them. This could also help non-WWE talent get some recognition and leverage in trying to get a deal with WWE. My uncle and I were talking about this the other day. Back in the old territory days, with the Apter wrestling mags, you would read about stars from other territories and there was actually some anticipation of when they may show up in WWF. If you read the magazines, you knew who Randy Savage and Rick Rude were before they debuted in WWF. This could be the same type of deal. Where a person reads about Nigel McGuinness and knows their reputation when they debut in WWE. Now, they need to have some audio or video content targeted at the internet audience. It would be great if they had JR do an audio show, similar to the pay site hotline reports, where he and guests discuss the same things that he writes about in his blog, take live calls and occassionally get critical of the product.

John Cena vs. Eminem would have worked years ago when I first proposed it here. Back before Cena became a children's wrestler and actually had decent raps and a fresh character.

What's sad is since the move to High Definition WWE tv is probably visually the best looking thing on television. The new set and the colors look awesome and the camera work and production seems top notch. But they will never escape the "low-rent" programming tag because of the fan base that Vince and creative cater to. How many of us have feel shame when a girlfriend or friend walk into the room and there is Vince McMahon on our television - with his bare ass - demanding that a midget leprechaun kiss his ass. It's difficult to admit to watching and impossible to justify. How can you market THAT to a network? "Yeah, this woman is the widow of one of our deceased wrestlers, obviously not the one that killed his wife and child, we have her in this storyline where she's aligned with our top bad guy and the little guy in the mask is concerned about his dead friend's estate - isn't that great!" Maybe if they treated this thing like a real television show. Hired real writers from established shows under the NBC/Universal umbrella to produce storylines and create characters. They don't have to target the lowest demo. If something like American Gladiators can make an impact on NBC so can WWE - if it wasn't the bullshit product we have right now. If Dick Ebersol had more control perhaps. But Vince would probably rather go on MyNetworkTV than listen to someone tell him what to do with his product. The WWE guys got nice pops at the last UFC PPV. People, whether they are current wrestling fans or not, will always be enamored by the characters and have shown that they will watch if there are personalities that come along like Hogan, Piper, Flair, Rock, Austin, etc. But the structure of WWE, the badly scripted promos, the stopped pushes, etc. keep any new stars from catching on. Or they catch on and their legs are cut underneath of them because SOMEONE is threatened or an agent doesn't like their attitude. I know - I'm not saying anything new. I just hate how wrestling is perceived by tv types and how there is this attitude that the entire fan base are stupid hillbillies - not NASCAR hillbillies even - but rather people who don't have money for cars, electronic gadgets, beer, etc. I think a lot of the wrestling audience buys stuff that isn't zit creme, drug store body spray, Starbursts and video games.

Friday Night Smackdown and Friday Night Lights on NBC! Nah, FNL will get canned and there is little chance NBC will put wrestling on prime time. I think Saturday Night's Main Event would work if they made it "Live From New York" from Hammerstein Ballroom or some intimate venue, giving it a different feel and energy, but to Vince that's making his huge production look small. This will be interesting. They could just end the brand all together. Move talent over to Raw to extend the show to three hours like the network supposedly wanted them to do a few months ago. Have the hour on Sci-Fi - maybe scrap ECW and Smackdown - make it Tuesday Night Titans or something and then do the seasonal SNME on NBC late night in the live format. Sci-Fi could end up having to take on Smackdown, which could mean the end of ECW too. I don't think they'd want three hours of wrestling on Sci-Fi - they don't even want one hour. Could this be an excuse to put the final nail in the coffin of the brand extension? They already have joint PPV's. What's the point?

Are you sure about this? I know Dave wrote for Friends but the PWInsider guys are always referring to him as an ECW Arena alumni. I remember reading - back when he was teamed with Heyman during the ECW relaunch - that he was a regular at ECW shows. Brian Gerwitz has attended ROH shows I think. Apparently he hasn't learned anything.

I loved that Dr. D segment! I remember me and my cousin, both around nine or ten, feeling sorry for his wife and kids and it's funny to watch now, 24 years later, and see that neither the kids or the woman could keep a straight face most of the time. I wonder where Dr. D. could have gone in the WWF. Him against Hogan had potential. Even Shultz and Piper. Had the guy not got into the altercation backstage with Mr. T, which did him in more than slapping Stossel, he could have been Stone Cold twelve years earlier for all we know.

I really don't understand why they haven't gone the comical route of making Hornswoggle a mini Vince with a suit, dyed black hair and the McMahon strut. I really thought the leprochaun thing would have been killed off by now.

I agree but at the same time what did WWE expect by putting them out there and if you can have producers in the headsets of freakin Jim Ross and Joey Styles, why not these guys? I'm just saying that it was obvious that they wanted them to duel with each other on commentary or else just one of them would have been out there. And no offense to Noble/Punk because the match picked up at the end but a good bit of that match was Noble with a chinlock, armbar or some other rest hold on Punk. I think they both said that CM Punk was a great champion at different points but there wasn't necessarily a lot of action for them to call at some points. In the end, I think the comapny probably learned something too from the improvisation and Miz being able to think on his feet better than Morrison. I also thought some of their bickering was funny but it's like nobody is supposed to have unscripted fun in WWE any more.

And my comment was blown out of proportion. Various sources, ranging from Meltzer to Keller to the PWinsider guys, reported that Stephanie had derogatory comments about Punk being the King of Indies and was in no hurry to call him up to the main roster from OVW. He didn't get his chance until Heyman was put in a position of power. This was around the same time that she was high on Daniel Rodimer being the future of WWE. HBK and HHH did report back unfavorably of Punk in OVW. I read that too. Within the past year we had the Arn Anderson stuff and reports that some agents didn't see anything special in Punk and felt the only reason he was over was because Heyman protected him in the original ECW booking. I'm not even that much of a CM Punk fan so I'm not some smark sitting around thinking HHH and HBK are out to get Punk. I never even insinuated that. I just thought it would be funny to read that they are high on him. I wouldn't have thought JBL would ever call a meeting complaining about people not protecting Punk. If I'm reading too much into what I've read from legitimate wrestling insiders - I apologize. I forgot that in smark land you only believe information that you want to believe and everything else is just a bunch of pimply faced geeks on the net making stuff up.

You're reading too much into what I posted. I don't find it strange. I find it funny. I don't have any evidence that HHH, HBK or Stephanie have a grudge against Punk, I'm not f'n Dave Meltzer, I'm some dude typing at a computer in Pittsburgh. My point was they did at one point have known grudges against him and it's ironic that he's come full circle and is in the position he's in right now with the company. It wasn't that long ago that he was jobbed out to Bob Holly because "he wasn't that good and was nothing more than a Paul Heyman pet project". Lagana didn't even see him as the star of ECW, instead choosing to have a boner for John Morrison and seeing Punk as a temporary champion while Morrison was suspended. Now we have him retaining the role of champion, "company men" like JBL backing him and even the Tony Atlas/OVW thing didn't see any fingers pointed at Punk. I'm just waiting to read something about HHH or HBK being into Punk as a future star of the company, a student of the game, etc. That's all.

pwinsider? $4.95 a month will get rid of those pop ups and their audio commentaries are always good. Not trying to be a dick or tell you how to spend your money but I like my subscription to that site and trust those guys more than other net insiders. I have mixed feelings about this. I do think Morrison and Miz's commentary took away from the Punk/Noble's match but I also feel that we need more improvised unscripted exchanges on WWE television. For instance, in this case, Morrison, who is Lagana's pet project, looked inferior to Miz who was sharper and quicker than Morrison, who had difficulty keeping up with Miz verbally. I'll have to watch the Smackdown match to see exactly what Miz and Morrison did in the tag match. JBL isn't an agent though so I can see where Morrison was coming from although he'll probably be given the shit treatment since he crossed backstage politics. Also, why didn't JBL invite Jamie Noble who also deserved an apology since main eventing ECW was his biggest WWE moment since his return? I do find it interesting how CM Punk is apparently in favor with the company right now. I mean, JBL is backing him, what's next HBK and HHH? Who would have ever thought Steph's King of the Indies would have such luck?

Yeah, I'm tired of the blue balling with the save_us stuff too but I can't get pissed because it's not like they promised me that tonight. It makes sense to build suspense. I just don't understand why they can't do something different. The video has never appeared on the Titan Tron. Like why not have it appear in the middle of matches and have the contestants and the announcers weirded out as to who's coming and what it all means? Why not do things like darken the arena with a voice whispering Save Us? Have wwe.com hacked with some kind of Flash save_us screen. It's not delaying the payoff that gets to me, it's the fact that they don't do new interesting things each week! I also wonder what portion of the audience are absolutely clueless about these videos since they are so easy to miss during commercial breaks or while fast forwarding a tape or DVR/Tivo. It's supposed to be a viral campaign and that usually involves cryptic messages and images seen by millions through every means necessary. Of course, the arena would be a target along with the tv audience, website, magazine, text messaging services, etc. I really don't think there is much of a buzz about these videos beyond the people at the arenas that are semi-smart to the Internet or have friends online feeding them info.

Yeah, I'm tired of the blue balling with the save_us stuff too but I can't get pissed because it's not like they promised me that tonight. It makes sense to build suspense. I just don't understand why they can't do something different. The video has never appeared on the Titan Tron. Like why not have it appear in the middle of matches and have the contestants and the announcers weirded out as to who's coming and what it all means? Why not do things like darken the arena with a voice whispering Save Us? Have wwe.com hacked with some kind of Flash save_us screen. It's not delaying the payoff that gets to me, it's the fact that they don't do new interesting things each week!

Here's my list of positives: Victoria was great tonight There was something "off" with tonight's Vince and HBK promo but the two of them facing off always seems interesting. I like whenever Vince reminds Shawn that there is still a bad guy inside of him, partly because I'd really like to see Shawn have a heel run. I'd really like to see him doing some kind of arrogant smart ass I'm more righteous than you type thing. I like the fact that the undercard stuff like Cody/Holly and Shelton/Haas, Hardy/Kennedy, Carlito/Smith, London/Kendrick - Trevor/Cade - Highlanders - Mickie James, Beth Phoenix, etc. all have storylines. They aren't just throwing matches out there with little reason. Trevor Murdoch, Mickie James and Lance Cade played their segment perfectly. Beth Phoenix cut a decent good promo I like the idea of Vince molding Hornswoggle into a McMahon, maybe with him having alterior motives initially but warming up because Hornswoggle shows him he has McMahon tendencies, I still think this needs to end up with Hornwoggle as Mini Vince. SANTINO!!!!! F**k the haters. You can all go to Philadelphia and see the Tom Hanks with the AIDS. Whenever someone legitimately goes down like Candice Michelle, they need to sell it like they did tonight. People forget this crap is dangerous. Jeff Hardy is MAD OVER HHH has cool shirts.

Yeah, he stands out from a sea of blandness which is good. I imagine a big part of it is the fact that they like writing for him but you really can't tell that he's going by a script. His delivery seems natural and that's why a lot of people think he's good on the mic and in his role. For all we know, there may be other guys in the locker room that could do the same thing as him but don't get the opportunity but you can't deny that he's made the most of the opportunity given to him. His character was dead in the water when he was getting squashed by Umaga and he's reversed that.

I don't think anyone is saying that he can cut Ric Flair or Dusty Rhodes money promos but he can be the hysterical, annoying antagonist that either sets feuds up between other guys or gets his ass kicked all around the building when he crosses the wrong person. Average would mean that he doesn't stand out in the crowd and well, um... he's standing out from the crowd right now and it's not because we're blown away by his in ring so it's gotta be the character and what he's done on the mic.

Santino has Piper potential. I don't think he has what it takes to be a main eventer but he should at least have his own weekly interview segment. I'm talking old school. Not in the ring. Build the guy a set that looks like an Italian restaurant with pictures of Bruno Sammartino, Tony Soprano and Frank Sinatra. Let him be the antagonist that starts all the feuds. He could try to turn HBK and HHH against each other or London/Kendrick. He could abuse lower tier talent. Find some big Italian guy to be his enforcer/bodyguard. Build him a little Soprano's like cartel that includes Little Guido as his stooge. The guy has proven that he can deliver on the mic, be entertaining and get heat. Do something where he helps you make money guys!!!! Instead they will just say, "Oh, he can't really deliver in the ring, no need to do anything special with him, let's feud him with Ron Simmons and then have Austin stun him, flip him off and that's it." How funny could Santino plotting revenge on Stone Cold Steve Austin, forming a mob of hitmen, putting bounties on Austin, etc. be? Santino brings in Big Pussy to get stunned. Boom Boom Mancini to get stunned. Whatever. Fun shit.

There was something fresh about tonight's show. The promos didn't seem as forced and unnatural. Opening the show with the darkened arena and Kennedy and then the sequence at the beginning with Hardy in the crowd was the first time in awhile it seemed like you were seeing a different product with new characters on top. Of course, HBK will likely get the votes and it will be back to the same old same old. I like how they seem to be putting London/Kendrick in the fast paced opener, kind of like the cruisers on Nitro. The HHH-Umaga pull apart was fun and it was great seeing Ricky Steamboat, Mike Rotundo, Barry Windham and Tony Garea (I think, I could've been wrong). Even the undercard matches had a storyline or meaning (Shelton/Cody, DH Smith). Santino is a riot sometimes. Whenever Y2J returns, I was hoping for a promo face off between him and Kennedy but I think Santino would be just as great as feeder for his debut. I couldn't help but wonder if the show this week was this good because Vince is overseas and wasn't there tonight - assuming that comment was legit.

They did at one point employ a writer with some decent legitimate credentials. Well, at least somewhat better than the Jenny McCarthy Show. CHRIS KRESKI 2003 NFL Kickoff Concert (2003) (TV) MTV Video Music Awards Latinoamérica 2002 (2002) (TV) 2002 MTV Movie Awards (2002) (TV) Growing Up Brady (2000) (TV) (book) "WWF Smackdown!" (1999) TV Series (unknown episodes, 1999-2002) ... aka Smackdown! (USA: new title) ... aka Smackdown! Xtreme (USA) ... aka WWE Smackdown! (USA: new title) ... aka World Wrestling Federation Smackdown! (USA) "WWF Raw Is War" (1997) TV Series (unknown episodes, 1999-2002) ... aka Raw Is War (USA: short title) ... aka WWE Raw (USA: new title) ... aka WWF Raw (USA: new title) "The Daily Show" (1996) TV Series (unknown episodes) ... aka Jon Stewart (Australia) ... aka The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (USA: new title) ... aka The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Global Edition (International: English title: cut version) Sixth Annual Rock N' Jock Softball Challenge (1995) (TV) ... aka MTV's Sixth Annual Rock N' Jock Softball Challenge (USA: complete title) "Beavis and BUTT-Head" (1 episode, 1993) - True Crime (1993) TV Episode (writer) "Remote Control" (1987) TV Series (unknown episodes) Now, I know that Kreski had flaws, however, he's proof that a legitimate Hollywood writer with little to no wrestling knowledge can do some great things. Better than what we're getting now at least. If they are so serious about having Raw and Smackdown seen as legitimate television shows, rather than 'wrestling', why don't they just scrap the current creative system, make an effort to get writers with credits on shows like the Daily Show, Conan Obrien, Entourage, Heroes... whatever... at this point, VH1's Best Week Ever and Monk would be great! Why can't Bonnie Hammer force this on Vince? If he wants to stay on the network, writers affiliated with programming on the network must sit in on creative meetings? I think tv writers have a lot to contribute and I imagine there are some writers out there that grew up watching wrestling as a kid. I mean, Jim from The Office is photographed in a Badstreet USA t-shirt, we all know people that 'used to watch wrestling'. I think there should be a wrestling booker or booking team working with the writers. I guess they kind of have this right now with Michael Hayes and Dusty Rhodes but who really knows how the creative process works with this company. For all we know, Dave Lagana, Ed Kreski and Brian Gerwitz may have a vision for the product that Vince & Steph don't let them put on screen. I find it hard to believe that guys that used to sit at the ECW Arena (Lagana) and currently attend ROH events (Gerwitz) can't see how bad the product is right now. They need to "promote" Stephanie to something else and reevaluate how they've ran this thing since 2002. Someone sit Vince down and make him watch UFC PPV's and TV and figure out what they are doing that WWE isn't. At this point, with them doing nothing, it's like watching your favorite baseball team take a nosedive with consecutive losing seasons while ownership doesn't shit can a GM or manager. Can there be some urgency that we've fallen into the 2's AGAIN and apparently more McMahons wasn't the answer?

If the ECW/Smackdown roster merge means that ECW will become Velocity-like, with a lot of Smackdown cruisers, or that rumored WWE version of the X Division (with maybe no DQ/no countout) is featured heavily on ECW, I'm all for it. I was all for ECW being it's separate brand/identity but it's obvious that they f'd it up to the point of no return. Kevin Dunn wanted it to look like every other WWE tv show and that's what we have. It became Velocity so it might as well have the good matches that Velocity had. Too bad London/Kendrick are on Raw now. I'd rather tune in on Tuesday nights and see CM Punk vs. Jamie Noble, John Morrison vs. Jimmy Wang Yang and Elijah Burke vs. MVP - this works. If this means that ECW will be Batista vs. Big Daddy V, Chuck Palumbo vs. Stevie Richards and Mark Henry squashing CM Punk en route to a PPV main event - not so good.

While WWE setting up and establishing their own network seems highly unlikely and expensive, is it any more expensive or unreasonable as the idea of establishing international territories overseas, creating new superstars continent to continent, overseas television production, house shows, offices, etc? Is it any more unreasonable than the XFL or WWE Films or whatever else they've thrown away money with? The McMahons are so hell bent on being more than a 'wrestling company' that they are completely overlooking the fact that they are essentially the NFL of their business. Vince did exactly what he wanted to do in the 80's Pretty much anyone, from any region in the U.S., that watched wrestling in the 70's, 80's or 90's, whether they like the current product or not, rely on WWE to see the wrestling they grew up with. I think the AWA, Ric Flair/Horsemen and ECW (pre re-launch) DVD's proved that WWE can make money from those people if they market something that appeals to them. I think even WWE 24/7 in its current form would be more successful if promoted better. They don't even promote it well enough to their current audience let alone the audience they've lost with the current product. Obviously asking that potential audience to pay for a subscription to programming is a downfall and getting advertisers on board for the network to be carried in all homes with a cable package is troublesome too. What is the demographic? Teenagers will watch the current product but would they be watching wrestling from the 80's? 18-34 covers a lot of that audience chunk, people that grew up with Hogan and Flair, but there will also be people older than that demographic watching old stuff too. WWE can't get automobile, Coke/Pepsi and beer advertisers for their current programming let alone a network. So that's the biggest problem I think. Making the whole thing lucrative. They still haven't even come up with an income generating business model for WWE.com. I may be out of my mind but I don't think ratings for an all wrestling channel would be all that horrid. It would get channel surfers, maybe more so than the Golf network or whatever. And it doesn't have to be 'all wrestling'. There could be programming geared towards the personalities in the company. In fact, that would be a big part of the production. Marketing the personalities. Old and new.