Moving Right Along: Bautista Has a Nice Clotheslin

[Guest TSMAdmin]

Moving Right Along: Bautista Has a Nice Clothesline

 

 

Boy, that Bautista sure has a nice clothesline. It’s very hard and has a lot of aggression behind it. I fully endorse Deacon’s clothesline.

 

Post of The Week

 

Boy, that article just flew off my keyboard! Now, before I leave you let us go to TheSmartmarks message board for the Post of the Week! This week has to do a little bit with the ongoing general manager saga that’s taking place in regards to WWE and comes from our good buddy, Dangerous A.

 

Dangerous A Another side note, [general managers] are stupid. All these GM/CEO/Vice President/Commissioner roles have one thing in common: They don't draw any money. They may push a storyline or two, but the bottom line is they do nothing in the big picture. Take a look back in the last couple of years. Has anyone ever gone to a show to see the [commissioner]? Didn't think so.

 

See folks, Dangerous A is absolutely, one hundred percent right as right could possibly be. And that’s what really chews my grits. Not because Stephanie McMahon and Eric Bischoff are two of the most obnoxious wrestling personalities in wrestling. Because quite frankly, it is not going to make any real difference who are in these roles. The problem isn't who gets chosen to be a general manager or a commissioner; the problem is that WWE has decided that it is somehow important to have general managers in the first place. No matter who gets chosen in these roles, whether they be the most hated individual alive or the most beloved, the end result is going to be taking the focus off the people that are actually going to be drawing money for the company, and since WWE has forgotten who that is, let me remind them that it is the workers. A worker made Austin-McMahon a success by coming out every week to foil screw with the owner of the company, not because McMahon stood there and made gulping pantomimes. Wrestlers made the nWo angle of 1996 work by staging a believable invasion and attacking each other with great vengeance and furious anger, not because Eric Bischoff did a phony smile and fired referees.

 

Now that Stephanie and Eric are knee deep in a feud over the talent of their two shows, I have a question. What, perchance, is the possible payoff to this angle? I’ll tell you. Both general managers will have a wrestler or two or however many and make them fight it out on their behalf. The question becomes then, why not cut out the general managers and just have a match? When did the idea that wrestler #1 hates wrestler #2 become outdated?

 

Because somewhere along the line, some geniuses decided that they were tired of having actual reasons for workers to have matches with each other. Now, we’re stuck with these company-wide uber angles where that one solitary story is supposed to provide motivation for the entire roster to do its thing. You know something? That gets boring. Take, for example, the InVasion. How many throwaway matches were explained as only being due to that big angle? There had to have at least been dozens of them. How many of those matches actually mattered to the actual story? There couldn’t have been more than five. But the WWF just couldn’t divert their attention to more than one storyline at a time. Look at the Christian vs. Edge feud. Here you had a classic opportunity for a feud where two partners, two brothers are set to go at it. But the first the first thing the WWF does is put Christian into the huge heel stable so he can get lost in the Alliance shuffle just like everyone else. And why? Was booking two whole feuds too much work? The same thing happened when the nWo got really popular in WCW. It got to the point where you couldn’t go a match without a member of the stable coming out to take part. When will people learn that good things come in small doses? The Rock being on the show helps the program. Having him on the show three times to put over a movie no one cares about like Halloween: Resurrection does not.

 

Enough is enough and its time for a change. It’s time that the writers took a look at their roster and figured out that, “Hey we’ve got some talented guys here. In fact, we’ve got just about every major star in wrestling today on the roster. Maybe we should do something with them, instead of with imaginary front office personnel.” Think about what business Jericho and Edge could be doing in a “you nearly broke my arm you jerk” angle that brought some hatred to the show. Think about how much sense an Undertaker and Rob Van Dam feud could make if you merely applied the “old dog trying to hold off the young gun” formula. Imagine Hulk Hogan doing the same exact thing he is doing right now with Edge, with a younger guy that isn’t already over. Think about what kind of heat that could immediately bring a Randy Orton or John Cena just by associating with Hogan and serving as his partner against a lackluster tag team division. Think about why Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit are teaming up, when there’s nobody really good to put them against. Think about the heat Angle could get by being the guy to make super face (who is only going to be around for a short time) The Rock tap out and then having the announcers remembering and bringing up he did it. The thing of it is, WWE doesn’t do those kinds of angles anymore. They do one big serious angle and a bunch of little silly ones that revolve around things no one cares about, like T-shirts, shampoo, and haircuts.

 

I guess I’m just getting cynical as I get older. But the thing is, I used to look at wrestling as the three-ring circus Mick Foley described in Have a Nice Day. It used to be, if you didn’t like someone, you’d see him maybe once a week and then he was gone. Then, someone else, who you did like would pop up and everything would be perfectly all right again. But now, these big angles just keep coming back like boomerangs, infecting the entire show with their presence so people who can’t even get in the ring can get over. And what about actual angles for the wrestlers? Those are a thing of the past. That’s just not the way wrestling should be.

 

I am your host, Mark “Goodear” Goodhart, reminding everyone I’ll be back talking about spinebusters next week. wishing you all…… good day.