iggymcfly

The "point" is interesting television and character development. Do you really think my scenario would hurt Brock or Wrestlemania one tiny little bit in the long run? I sure don't.

Yeah, I'm baffled why they've continued to push Benoit as a face for so long. The heel character that he was running in 2000 was about a thousand times more interesting. I've always thought that Benoit would never work at WWE champion level as a face. I guess what happened in 2004 either proved me wrong or right depending on how you look at it.

I've been thinking once they move Smackdown to Fridays, they should switch the schedule around and do SD live on Friday, house shows for both brands on Saturday and Sunday, and Raw live on Monday. I know that'll never happen but one of the reasons SD is seen is a B show and always will be is because it's not live. It doesn't have that anything can happen vibe about that makes lots of fans tune into Raw and then just skip SD. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> So under your plan, it's going to back to being an 'A show' while it's airing on Friday night? Yeah, suuuuuure.

Oh, fuck off. So you had to deal with Mabel in the main event for a few months? At least he has the "500 pound monster" appeal. We've had fucking BRADSHAW as the WWE Champion for TEN MONTHS! It doesn't get worse than that.

Oh, bullshit, you could do it absolutely fine, and make compelling television without hurting Brock one bit in the long run. The trick to it is just to spell it out for the fans. Go ahead and have him lose his first PPV match to someone he's never lost to like the Undertaker. Then, after the match, have him just completely snap, destroying wrestlers for a few weeks, until Teddy long brings in someone like Heyman to help control him. Heyman tells him how he should be an undefeatable monster and tells him how pathetic it is that he's losing to the Undertaker. Then, we see training videos with Brock and Heyman similar to the 2002 ones, after which Brock becomes a cold, calculated machine in the ring. Finally, to cap it off, he does something really definitive to beat the Undertaker (win 2-0 in a 2/3 falls match), and boom, he's back stronger than before, and you have three month of interesting television instead of boring crap before the big showdown with Batista.

If only Russo was booking. McMahon, on the other hand, is smart enough that he's not going to ruin the title scene for the next six months just to "work the internet".

No, I think the Orioles are just planning on losing regardless. I've never seen a team dive so fast at the all-star break before.

I don't really agree with this. He was talking about how none of the characters are believable, and he's right; that is the main problem. Look at Cena; his lines don't ring genuine the way Stone Cold's did and as a result, it's really hard to get into his character. Sure, he says something funny occasionally, but when he's talking about people looking down on him, etc., etc., he just seems more like an actor than a character. JBL's the same thing, but magnified to the 800th degree. Whenever he delivers lines, I expect to see big flashing lights over his head that say HEEL HEEL PARODY PARODY. Just nothing about him seems real at all. Batista actually did seem real for about a month or two, and it resulted in one of the biggest buyrates the WWE has ever done, but as soon as he became generic tough hoss #98, the connection was lost altogether.

Well of course he delivers one of their best promos. When you spend year after year delivering the exact same interview almost verbatim, odds are, you'll eventually get it right. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Really, then what happened to Cena and JBL? They repeat themselves way more than HHH does and they're nowhere near as entertaining.

I just want to say that WWE.com's really improved a lot. Having stuff like interviews from people outside the company really make it a lot more interesting than a basic kayfabe site. As for Nash's comments on HBK, I think all he's really saying is that he won't bring back the DX HBK that likes to make dick jokes. He doesn't mean that Shawn can't continue to wrestle faces and act egotistical.

I'd like to see Jericho as champion, but there's no way that it will happen. The fact is that to even have a heel champion right now, there has to be at least one major face turn because the face side's so depleted. And besides, if they were going to do a heel champion, they have much better options than Jericho. He's old, he's somewhat stale, and he has no credibility whatsoever. I mean can you imagine Jericho vs. anyone but Cena main eventing a PPV right now? They wouldn't even let him have Summerslam if Hogan/HBK wasn't there to carry the show. Basically, he's a nice, entertaining feud for Cena heading into Summerslam. I would like to see them get the belt off of Cena, but even I recognize that they'll have to wait until at least No Mercy. If they did want to do it, Shawn Michaels would probably be a much better choice as he's fresh off a heel turn, and would have tons of credibility coming off a win over Hogan. Two or three months is plenty of time to turn Angle face, and and Angle/HBK feud could easily last from the end of the Cena feud until Wrestlemania. The Jericho idea though? Completely impractical and counterproductive. It would be fun for one night, but it would hurt business tremendously over the next six months.

I don't see why Rey would slip down to the US or Cruiser division, especially with the way this feud's going. With the credibility he's gained, he should probably be feuding with someone like JBL after Summerslam. The egotistical "wrestling god" vs. the 5'6" guy that can kick his ass would actually be kind of entertaining. (In the same way that seeing Hogan tap out to the ankle lock is entertaining, but still.) And Eddie, for all his troubles is still the #3 heel on Smackdown. Feuds with Benoit, Undertaker, or Booker T would still be just fine for his character at this point.

After the DQ finish at Great American Bash, I've got an awful premonition that JBL's going to be main eventing Summerslam on the Smackdown side. No, not in a triple threat match with Taker involved. One-on-one with Batista. I mean, obviously the plan for the title match was Batista vs. Hassan, and they had to change it. So why are they protecting JBL? Is it because he adds to a Taker/Batista match? No. Is it because he was planned to face Undertaker before? No. It's because they aren't going to put Taker into the main event and they need him to fill it out. Obviously, they think that Orton/Taker is the match that's going to sell the PPV, and they want to leave it as a singles match. They apparently think that the heatless wonder Bradshaw can be thrown into another PPV main event, even though the fans see him as a midcarder after main eventing 11 PPVs in a row! I really think this might be the death knell for Smackdown after the draft gave it a little glimmer of hope. I mean is anyone going to sit through the JBL/Batista feud for another month? Anybody? I saw ten minutes of it on Smackdown and they had so little chemistry, I didn't think they should have a mini-feud on Smackdown, let alone main event back-to-back PPVs. I really think that they could fall to 2000 WCW ratings levels here.

Actually, that's kind of a neat idea. If the winning team from Survivor Series all got a title shot inside of an Elimination Chamber or something, it would make it more interesting to the casual fan. The problem would be keeping the PPV schedule up in the air, but if they just waited on their posters, there's no reason they couldn't have the winning brand work Armageddon and the losing brand work No Way Out.

*raises hand* <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm on board with that one too. I've actually been looking forward to an Orton/Batista feud since the night after Wrestlemania. However, that doesn't change the fact that Smackdown is completely unwatchable with JBL in the main event. His character's stupid enough to begin with, but when you have him challenging for the title he's failed to win in the last three PPV main events against an opponent he has no chemistry with whatsoever, it just boggles the mind. Oh, and having a #1 contender's match directly after a #1 contender's match to change who challenges for the title is the biggest copout ever. They should have at least given Undertaker a title match for Orton to interfere in. He could have even RKO'ed Batista and set up their eventual feud at the same time.

I'm someone that generally likes the entertainment side more and isn't as into ringwork, but even I see nothing but positives for a round-robin tournament. It basically just takes every match and makes it seem more interesting and meaningful. I thought that it would have worked best in the old Smackdown six days back when they were really trying to emphasize that Smackdown focused on wrestling, but it would be a positive in almost any environment. There's two things they need to do for it to work however. First, they need to make it meaningful. If the prize for winning all your matches is being the "captain" of a team, the fans are just going to shit on it. Secondly, they need to keep the titles as the top focus of the show since they carry it whether there's a round robin tournament on or not. I think the best way to do it would be to run dual round robins leading into Summerslam on whichever brand doesn't wrestle at Vengeance. The "top six contenders" on the show all wrestle each other leading into the PPV, with the top two then facing each other for the right to not only get a title shot, but to "main event Summerslam" which can be built up as being very prestigious as well. Meanwhile, the next four or five wrestlers can have their own round robin, but for a shot at the US/IC title. This would be a great way to fill out Heat or Velocity if they were still around, and if they were, you could probably go with the full six men, but since they will apparently be gone by next year, you'd probably have to abbreviate things a little. Anyway, this way, it would give one brand a focus while the other brand promotes their PPV and also build up the titles long-term since there was so much effort to attain them. It would also set up feuds with people screwing each other out of matches to affect their own standing, and would build up the secondary title-holder enough to be able to compete for the World Title by the time the next PPV rolled around.

I can't believe that no one's seeing the point of this. They're trying to make the Kane/Edge storyline as hokey as possible in order to contrast it with the "real" Matt Hardy storyline. The idea is obviously that Matt's fighting back against all the ridiculous kayfabed crap they put out in an attempt to settle a serious issue with Edge.

I sure as hell would, especially at this stage of his career. In fact, while I'm sure it doesn't hold for the WWE fans at large, there's nothing that Shawn could have done to get in my good graces more than to "turn" on Hogan.

Well, for the most part, Raw was dreadfully boring tonight, and I watched it mildly drunk with fast-forward ability. Cena's feud with Bischoff is corny and simplistic, Hardy did the same crap he's done for the last three weeks, and Shawn's promo, while mildly interesting was far from earth shattering. However, there was one thing that I did really like. In the main event, Jericho hit the Lionsault and Cena stayed down for a slow, deliberate, three count. While it won't rebuild Jericho's credibility overnight, it was a huge step in the right direction, and it has me starting to get legitimately interested in the title feud again.

RVD's matches with Guerrero, his match with Austin, his matches with Angle, his match with Jeff Hardy, his matches with Undertaker, and his matches with Brock were all better than anything JBL's done in his career. Period. Furthermore, he may not get as much heat as JBL on the mic, but he has a better character, and his promos operate on a higher level than JBL's do. When JBL's on the mic, he might as well just be screaming "I'M A STUPID HEEL! HATE ME!". Honestly, subtlety's a foreign concept to him. He's basically like La Resistance in that he does everything possible to get cheap heat, but there's nothing intelligent about his character whatsoever. I didn't see ONS, but I've seen RVD cut good promos in the past (see the tremendous promo against Jericho in December 2001), and the promo he cut on Carlito on Raw was pretty damn good. He's basically angry at the way he's been held down, and he knows he has the potential to be better, and he's ready to stop taking shit, and do whatever it takes to move up. There are layers to it, and it is much more complex and interesting than the crap JBL spews. When JBL's on the mic in a red, white, and blue clown suit, rambling about nothing, I don't think "that's funny". I don't think "boy I'd like to see Batista beat him". I think "what, does the WWE think I'm five years old? Why would I possibly want to see this? I guess I won't watch Smackdown for another month."

I told you, I don't even hate Joe Morgan. I just think it's hilarious the way that they're all total dicks to him. There's more damning stuff elsewhere on the site; that one just struck me funny for some reason.

You're putting way too much thought into this. They weren't thinking "how can we keep Benoit a part of the program down the road and on PPV cards for months at a time." They were thinking, "how can we get him on the card at GAB. Hey, Orlando Jordan needs an opponent." The match wasn't to put over Jordan or to do anything in relation to anyone's standing on the card. It was to fill 15 minutes of PPV time. Period. Now, let's stop reading into things that the bookers weren't thinking, and look at the PPV from a kayfabe perspective. Undertaker won a match to become the #1 contender for the title. JBL defeated the World champion by DQ. Benoit got pinned in a US Title match. Which one of these doesn't belong in the main event? You can't tell me that just because you want to see a good worker in the title match that the WWE's planning for it to happen. I'm guessing you probably didn't want to see Kevin Nash main event a PPV with HHH or Hogan vs. Vince as a hyped WM match, but they went ahead with those, didn't they? Now, to analyze where they're going with the main event a little further, we'll look at how our two (likely) challengers got into the title picture. Undertaker is #1 contender by virtue of being scheduled in a #1 contender's match against Hassan before they found out they had to kill off the Hassan character. This is despite the fact that they have no desire to run a Taker/Batista match, and seem to really want to run a Taker/Orton match. Meanwhile, JBL got a DQ win at GAB despite that fact that ending the PPV that way totally killed the crowd, and made them feel bad about paying for the PPV. This leads me to believe that they're going to run Taker/Batista on Smackdown, get it out of the way (maybe ending on an RKO to Taker at the 8:00 mark), and set up JBL/Batista II and Taker/Orton for Summerslam

God, this site is terrific, I can't stop reading through the archives. Here's another gem from a month or so ago: Jeff (Arlington, TX): Mr. Morgan, Any comment on Kenny Rogers playing in Tuesday's midsummer classic? Joe Morgan: Yes, I think baseball is basically saying that since in appealed, he is eligible to play. But, I think that when you give a punnishment, you have to make sure you hear the appeal right away. I don't see how he can play if you are punnishing him for something he did on the field, but I do understand that you are able to play until the appeal is heard. I've seen instances where the appeal was heard the next day or two if it was that important. I think this IS that important to the fans and the media. It should have been heard by now. >> I'll be honest. I didn't read Joe's answer very carefully because I got bored and I don't care about his opinion on Kenny Rogers. But since I've already copied and pasted it in here, I might as well point out that in the last chat, he spelled "punishment" with two N's. There was some speculation that he might have done so just because the questioner spelled it that way and Joe was simply following his lead. I think his response in this new chat lends credence to the theory that Joe in fact has believed for some time that there are two N's in "punishment," "punishing" and presumably, "punish." Another possiblity is that he "learned" this incorrect spelling and had his memory of the correct spelling erased by the last chat. And finally, the last two sentences of his answer: They have airplanes to get him to NY or people to Texas or however you want to do it. This could have and should have already happened. >> Well, thank God they have airplanes. A good excuse for delaying this whole Kenny Rogers thing would be if it happened in 1903 and people had to take steam-powered trains everywhere.

I don't even hate Joe Morgan, and I still think that this is one of the funniest sites I've ever seen. I found my new sig there, and it made me laugh for a solid minute.

I do think they're in a position where they think that Benoit might be slightly above the US Title, but they're certainly not pushing Benoit for the World Title. Basically, the fact that Benoit was in the US Title match means they have no plans for him whatsoever, and that they just threw him in their to fill out the card. For now, they're likely to continue throwing him into random PPV matches to fill out cards, until such time as it's convenient to use him in a upper-tier match again. (Say Brock's return if Taker's busy.) As I speculated in the other thread, they'll probably put Booker and Benoit on the card at Summerslam, just because they feel obligated to, but it'll probably be something completely throwaway like a handicap match against the Mexicools. I think that the WWE sees pushing Benoit as somewhat of a "cute phase" that they're through with now, and they'll continue to let him flounder in the midcard until they find it convenient to use him as enhancement talent. Basically, think of him as a Smackdown version of Chris Jericho that wins occasionally.