The Amazing Rando

No more mini Rumbles. Orton WILL win because they are building to Taker/Angle on the SD side, and neither of those guys should even BE in the Rumble. Oddly enough, they both seem to be too far above the rub winning it gives.

w00t! *marks out*

*gets ready to comfort Rudo in his time of disappointment* B prepared.

There went my Mt. Dew again.

I still say that "Destiny" is a good start when it comes to Randy Orton. He doesn't elude to it much in his promos, but I'd love to see him try it out. Nobody else in wrestling has really had a "destiny" lately. You can say Chris Benoit had one before WM, but since then... probably HBK going into the Iron Man. The whole boyhood dream thing. Character-wise, that was one of the most captivating things about Shawn Michaels in that era of his career. Marks were just WAITING to cheer HBK as the new champion at the end of WM12, and it was handed to them and the celebration afterwards (going so far as to hug Vince at ringside) was a grand image that needs to be recaptured. Once again, it seems Benoit did somewhat recapture that, as he stood in the ring with Eddie Guerrero after WM20, but if the same idea was placed with Randy, it could turn him into more than something bland and give his character a much deeper direction that "i kill legends and i want to beat HHH." I am all for deep characters, as long as the stories they have are told well. Kane's story started out fine, but then turned into something so bizarre that it lost all meaning, but Orton is fresh and a story of "My destiny is to become world champion" or my personal favorite which I would love for him to use post WM21... "It was my dream to hold the World Championship ever since I was a child, but moreso, it was my destiny to hold the world in my hands, and last night I came as close as any mortal man can to doing just that. Randy Orton held the world in his hands...and yes, it was Destiny."

Too bad I got very little love or discussion out of that one post.

I may or may not have went over this already, as it seems like a pretty decent formula and hopefully the one they follow. IF BOOKED RIGHT, it could work and end up with Orton being as over as he should be as World Champion. Except, I would put the Benoit J-O-B on Survivor Series, because he's a bigger superstar than Benjamin AND HHH hasn't even gone near Benoit lately except during the 6 man tag recently.

Emjot - an illiterate form of enjoying something. My 3 Posters: RRR for bringing the discussion Malibu for bringing the Malibu TCR for bringing the off the wall

Ironic, considering I always thought "Destiny" would make a great sort of iconic catchphrase for Orton.

Remember when Marge (i believe) found out that Lenny was living in a very small rundown shack... "Don't tell Karl"

That's a whole different wrestling topic, right there.

Smackdown, like Raw, has both it's good and bad qualities. Sometimes it's hard to see how they weigh to each other, but it can be broken down: RAW The Good 1. Focus. As I stated in the other thread, there are only about 10 wrestlers without something to do. It seems everyone has their sights set on something and is working toward it. Sadly, there is some bad in there as well, but i'll get to that later. 2. Intercontinental Credibility. Finally there is more than one person that gives a damn about the IC Title. Since Randy Orton dropped it and then it was incorporated into the Jericho/X feud, it seems to have taken center stage for once. Randy Orton never really had it center stage, because his ego was always there instead of the title. 3. Build Up. Raw is working hard to build up new stars, with both good and bad results. The good in this case is Shelton Benjamin and Randy Orton, both of which have had great build up for themselves and the future looks very bright for both. The Bad 1. HHH - The Cerebral Crybaby. I'm not trying to hate on Hunter here, but his character is a shell of anything it ever was. He constantly has to rely on Evolution to save him from loses and to help him win, making him look less like the leader he talks about being. The HHH he talks about shouldn't need Evolution to help him, and should be able to run over anything in his path, yet since Wrestlemania he hasn't cleanly beaten Shelton Benjamin, Chris Benoit, or recently Randy Orton one-on-one. He always needs help. He isn't the uber-heel he should be, he is the leader of a group that capitalizes off their support. He's like Hogan to the nWo, like Michaels to heel DX, like Flair to the Horsemen. Sure, it's a great character, but it's been done so many times it's borderline pathetic that he chooses to follow in these footsteps instead of doing what his character should represent. HHH should represent setting new rules and breaking away from the old bad guy mindset. Instead, he fell into it and is in a character rut that he doesn't not seem willing to come out of. 2. The Tag Division. Vince has never really cared about the tag division, so I don't much care to discuss it. They have La Rez, they have Team ECW, they could have E&C, and with the addition of at least one more steady team (i'm not counting the Superheroes) it could be a decent division if given time to develop. La Rez needs a new gimmick, but they are typecast for life. Only Conway has the ability to make anything of himself, as he isn't really a French Canadian. But Sylvan may never be able to erase the stigma he has. It used to be the tag division could help create new stars... HBK, Bret Hart, British Bulldog, and now Shelton Benjamin, but for the most part it's "Tag team is together for awhile, splits, and everyone PRAYS that one of the two or both grows away from the tag stigma and becomes superstars. Sadly it rarely happens. Thankfully, outside of the Superheroes, teams seem to be sticking together. The division is an example of "lacking focus". 3. The Bad Build Up. For this, we go to guys like Gene Snitsky. Sure, he's getting chants and what not, but he isn't going to be a star. He's wasted space. After this, he's not even going to be midcard fodder, and he's lower on the food chain than Maven at this point. Frankly, most of the Kane storyline itself has been wasted space and the longer it goes the more it makes Kane himself seem like wasted space ever since "Kane...YOU ARE A MURDERER" was bellowed after TLC4. This too falls under "bad focus." There are other good things and bad things around, like the Diva Search storyline, but with it no longer taking 20 minutes from every show, it's becoming just another superior piece of bad focus. ...... Now, I just sat here for a few minutes and tried to think of good things for Smackdown, but I really can't. That is scary. Sure, it's entertaining, but in a train wreck sort of way. The storylines are bizarre: Kurt Angle the heel against Big Show the face who tried to murder him Heidenrape Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree....like the odd couple on acid. Eddie Guerrero, Former WWE Champion vs. Luther Reigns, Second Banana The Undertaker vs. JBL is just not worth my time, except to say this one piece that is almost common sense around here: It does not matter what you do, WWE, but Bradshaw will never be taken as seriously as you want him to. Look back at what that man has accomplished in his career and "world title contender" just never seems to pop up. Sadly, the Undertaker is immensely more qualified, even though he long should have been retired so that some of the up-and-coming stars could actually be allowed to shine. Smackdown has a great line-up of characters and wrestlers that, with tweaking, could be big or at least used more towards their potential. John Cena, RVD, Mysterio, and Charlie Haas are just a few that could be used alot better than they are, even though each needs some tweaking here and there. I am most happy to see RVD/Rey in the broken down tag division, and hopefully it will give them both a boost they need and set them back in the right direction. Eddie Guerrero has his personal problems, and hopefully they are being worked through. The man has gone through much in his life and it shows, and stress is something that made his run at the top a little less than stellar. He is a person that one can very well build a company around, and I hope he is able to get one last run at it with a better undercarriage of a brand. Kurt Angle + Big Show + Tranquilizer Dart + Clippers = Dumbest thing i've EVER seen given the storyline. ATTENTION KURT ANGLE...MR. BIG SHOW TRIED TO KILL YOU! You were more serious with Eddie for breaking family values! Where the hell are YOUR values. Angle is looking worse and worse by the week by picking up Mark Jindrak. Sure, the guy may have some potential, but in the eyes of the fans he is someone that the new GM left behind (a part of the character they haven't even touched yet and SHOULD, considering how Kurt and Teddy Long act around each other.) Overall, Raw is ahead of Smackdown as far as having the best potential right now, but if Smackdown was shuffled around, burned down, and built back up, they have the pieces to, maybe not this month or next, but in a year or so...get back any glory it once had. Both have been in the skids as of late, but if you really stop and think, Smackdown is sliding alot faster than Raw ever did, with very few signs of slowing down and actually regaining any footing whatsoever. Raw is above Smackdown. It always has been and always will be. That's truly a sad sight, especially with the OWNER OF THE COMPANY actually ACTIVELY SEEKING ways to make Smackdown the B-Show. In any business...that is completely pathetic. ~ Rando.

I would only call the actually booking dumb in that the writers are given what comes down to a list of people that they need to put over and or a list of feuds that they need to build. So for Raw they have: 1. Evolution vs. mostly everyone but focused on Orton and to a lesser extent Benoit, possibly Edge, and Shelton Benjamin. Shawn Michaels isn't really even in the fold of this one. 2. Christian vs. Chris Jericho, with HBK and Tomko playing supporting roles. 3. Trish vs. random woman of the moment. 4. La Resistance vs. Rhyno/Tajiri (?) 5. Eric Bischoff vs. Eugene with William Regal and possibly the Coach as supporting characters. 6. The Kane/Lita/Matt/Gene storyline. 7. The Diva Search Fights. 8. Hurricane's new story with Rosey as a supporting character. 9. Simon Dean vignettes. So there is a basic rundown of most if not all of the storylines currently on Raw. That is roughly about 35 people to keep track of at any given moment. Notice that these are the people I left out: Val Venis Maven Chuck Palumbo A-Train Garrison Cade Mark Henry Rodney Mack & Jazz Stevie Richards That's 9 people right there, though I just counted a random number for the women up top, so she may or may not make that cut. So roughly 9 superstars are unaccounted for during Raw, so they take up the space on Heat, where there are usually NO storylines whatsoever outside of "oh, so and so has defeated whatshisface 93 times in a row! Can he keep the streak alive?" The sad fact is, through that whole roster there is a few key contenders for each title, except for the tag championships. I do not see why not they can use some of those 9 guys and slap them together and push them. Even Mark Henry and Rodney Mack could be used as a good monster midcard tag team that could get a slightly good push, though I wouldn't push them past Team ECW or my made-up team of Palumbo and Venis (and possibly Richards in there as well). People say that Heat is a lost cause, well it is if the WWE doesn't do anything with it. They hardly ever promote anything that is going on. They never show clips, never show anything like that. Hell, I can even make it so that fans aren't hearing about Heat matches they already watched! All you have to do is book them 2 weeks in advance. You don't even really need to even put the Heat guys live on Raw, as taped segments could work just as well. Do a small clipshow type job with some music, hype the show, and then show a list of matches for Sunday. The fans in the arena have already seen them, but the nearly 3 million fans watching at home haven't. I'd rather push the show for those 3 million than leave it be for the sake of the few thousand in the arena. It can be two or three minutes of Raw's time every week. Shit, have Bischoff show up on Heat every once in a while and get involved in things. That is his show, too. It is not outside the realm of being brought back to live, taped or not. Hell, do the same thing for house shows! You don't even have to really show any of the matches besides quick shots of the ring. Throw a cameraman in there, have him talk to some fans and to some wrestlers and BOOM, hype the house shows too. Here's the big thing with "sheep" and with most people: If they see other people giving a shit, they will start to give a shit too. It's only a matter of how long it takes for the first few people to start giving enough attention to something that it catches on. If the TSM Heat Thread had 10 or 12 guys in it doing really great discussion about the show, the wrestlers, and what-not, and others saw it going up to 3 or 4 pages during the show or within a half hour period after it, it might make them want to read it and see what the hell happened that got so many people talking (as it's such a rarity these days). I know that I rarely go into the Heat thread unless i happen to stumble upon the show, but there is always at least something small to post about. If the WWE can make it so more fans actually care that they have weekend shows, then maybe we as a group could find more and more to post about and that is exactly what they want. Without us, the WWE would be nothing. That's another big thing they need to learn. The fans are everything to them and they continue to insult them and us. Even the "no wrestling fans as writers" thing is a total joke to those that care enough about professional wrestling to want to pursue a career in it. I end this with a paraphrased TCR quote: "Sure, you can write about traveling for the local newspaper, but only if you have ever been outside of town and don't know an airplane from a bus." ~ Rando More longwinded than the current Hurricane Season.

I've met this guy. Possibly at Wrestlemania XX.

From the site Venkman posted: Back to the Future 1 for NES: "Poor Marty McFly, he's not having a very good day. First his friend Professor Emmitt Brown is shot by a bunch of gun-toting crazies, all because he cheated them out of a little plutonium. Then Marty was just barely able to escape using the Prof's new sports car turned time machine." I find the first two sentences to just be the greatest synopsis for the first 20 minutes of that movie ever.

Yes, it's the Cheap Trick song...and it's not *bad*, but it's no Cheap Trick. It sounds like any typical garage band cover, just a little more polished.

I chose Jericho, and it's kinda sad yet funny that he's beating Benoit, Guerrero, and Orton, the last three champions.

I'm fairly certain I just had an entire conversation with myself. I'm hoping Vince was listening, though i'm sure he's thinking "pft, why start now?" (oh...and right there's a third fundamental problem)

Teacher: What are you kids doing over there!? Kids: Drinking till you're hot!

And if it was me as a writer/booker I would look each in the eyes and say: "Guess what, it's not 1998 anymore. The edge that you once thought was so great is now haphazard, lazy, and is seen more like a joke than an innovation. In 1996, look at the two biggest things to cause a boost in popularity for the entire industry...the nWo and Steve Austin. If you notice, neither of them are around anymore because they can no longer survive. Vince, you made the nWo a watered-down version of a watered-down version of a watered-down version of his original being. And Steve Austin should never be allowed back into the ring or into WWE again, not because he's not a great guy, but it's because he does not bring anything new to the table anymore. It's hard for him to put people over in his physical shape and the entertainment value of "What?" grew old a few weeks after it started. You need to look into the roster you have and look for the diamond in the rough. Just the crap and keep only those you KNOW can create profit for you. It's about the wrestling, Vince, not whose the father of someone's baby. It's not about dead girls or guys, and it is most certainly not about who the evil boss is going to mess with next. Times are changing, and the only thing you can do is cling on to the past. Look at your supposed superstars. Val Venis, edgy in 1997, but not really now especially after being Chief of Staff Sean Morley and a member of the RTC. Carlito Cool, a rip-off of Razor Ramon. Simon Dean - A bodydonna. Stevie Richards becomes the leader of a hated mid-card faction, and then comes back after an injury and is his old crazy self again! How do you explain these things, Vince...oh wait, that's right...YOU DON'T! You think that what's in the past is meant to be forgotten, yet you constantly dredge it out so that we can all get a whiff of things that were bad back then and are even worse now. You seem to go of two ways with just about everything you do anymore! You either do something way too fast, such as the Evolution dissention, or you do it way too slow... like the Steiner/Test feud, Hurricane's heel turn, and Kane losing his mask. Even the things you pull off somewhat right, like Trish's heel turn, don't even make sense nor are they talked about in continuity anymore! Pay attention, Vince, as you are watching all those years of claiming to be number one slowly pull you back underwater, and just when you hope someone will be there to come out of the shadows and pull you to safety...you'll find nothing. You buried them all, and it's going to take a miracle to bring some of the potential you had and killed back from the dead."

yeah, well Vince Russo was a mostly moronic wrestling fan. They need a smart wrestling fan in there. Luckily there are actually a few of them around. WWE just doesn't seem to want to find them.

Because the writers aren't wrestling fans... but they ARE failed sitcom and soap opera writers. And guess WHAT... we can EASILY tell why they failed.

You mean the bigger issue in that, little by little, WWE is going against everything they repeatedly said they didn't stand for previously? i.e. "we don't do rape, we don't do murder" and similiar quotes? We never thought they'd really do any drug-related storylines either, until Hawk came out drunk on Raw and they faked a SUICIDIAL DIVE. It's nothing really new for them, it's just that they are starting to do it in such bizarre quantities that it makes me personally question the talent of the writing and booking staff when they have to stoop to such a low level to try and make something "entertaining". Sure, it might be entertaining to some people, but not in the way they truly want it to be. For those that see it as what it is, that being a fictionalized story, it's still one of the most screwed up, skewed, and most disturbing pieces of film ever captured. Heck, you can say that for most of Kane's backstory and history in the fed. They really can not make a movie based on the character as was speculated because they revised and editted him so much that he's a walking jump cut. Although, and oddly enough, that can be said for a few people on the roster at this point.

I thought it was something he did during the InVasion before he got his ass handed to him by the midcard warriors.

Didn't he used to do a pumphandle spinning neckbreaker or something like that? You guessed it...call it "The Mark Out". Hell, as I stated to a few people, I would go so far as to sell "I'm A Mark!" or "100% Mark!" t-shirts.