The Big Show push, Version xxxx

[Guest RedJed]

Well in the latest Observer I got a few days ago, that was the question. First and foremost, the topic of HHH making moves politically possibly came up. There was some internally that were saying he was the one who first made the suggestion that Show goes over, as it definately was first planned and booked weeks before the ppv that Show would get the squash treatment moreless v. Lesnar. With Lesnar getting more and more crowd pops, there may have been a possible threat for his spot feeling, as per usual with HHH. Hunter had stepped in on Lesnars push clearly already, poo-pooing the way Brock would defeat his opponents earlier this year, but not pin them. It was a HHH move that got that stopped. Apparently the word Meltzer gets is that Hunter is, no questions asked, wielding the most power he's ever had in the company right now. I think watching any Raw episode in the last few months shows that pretty convincingly.

 

Other speculation was as simple as that the Lewis-Lesnar deal fell through, and the company didn't feel the need to keep the streak alive as long, since he wasnt going to be the mega-draw with or without the streak if he couldnt be legit in a shoot with Lennox. Moreless it was a case there of shifting to short term planning with Lesnar and the feeling that the belt needed to change hands to keep the title picture fresh.

 

Also, Vince is notorious for pushing the big men on top when business is down, look at the past. So it's possible this could have all just been his idea after all. This might have had to do with struggling ratings as well and the typical naive hot-shot booking thought that it has to be the monotony on top that is driving the fans away. This whole thing actually might explain BOTH title changes.

 

And then you had the injury which had to be a focal point here too. I would bet HHH got into the mess at this point and made it clear that he thought a switch should occur with an injury intact, just my feelings there.

 

Anyway back to the original plans with Show-Lesnar.....as said it was supposed to be Lesnar going over convincingly and NO Heyman turn. However there was major consideration and preliminary plans then to have Lesnar-Benoit at Armageddon with Benoit getting the belt AND Heyman doing his turn then and there and going with Benoit. There was many road agents like Hayes and Brisco pushing for this idea instead of Show when it was decided Lesnar wasn't going to have the belt for much longer due to the monotony on top issue, and when it was decided they got to go with a full Lesnar turn within the next month at least. Of course now that won't be happening, and now Benoit is penciled for a title run sometime next year after Mania, possibly.

 

Anyway who knows who is to blame or should be credited (if you can call it that) for the Show run here. Ultimately it will publicly be Vince but now, more than ever, he has tons of people wispering in his ears.

 

On second thought, you know who might REALLY be to blame here.......Hogan. If he would have agreed to the first plan of action, which was Hogan v. Lesnar at the ppv, none of this would have ever happened.

[Guest DJ Jeff]

Wait a minute.....The WWE originally planned to have Benoit beat Lesnar at Armageddon for the WWE Title? So, they had the choice of having Benoit win the title or the Big Show, and they go with the Big Slow. Damn them.

[Guest AlwaysPissedOff]

Wait a minute.....The WWE originally planned to have Benoit beat Lesnar at Armageddon for the WWE Title? So, they had the choice of having Benoit win the title or the Big Show, and they go with the Big Slow. Damn them.

Well, it's a common occurance with Vince, so what'd you expect? He'd rather push fat, talentless slugs then smaller, more capable workers and he's been doing it for years.

 

I can honestly say I'm not shocked by his decisions as of late.

[Guest RedJed]

Wait a minute.....The WWE originally planned to have Benoit beat Lesnar at Armageddon for the WWE Title? So, they had the choice of having Benoit win the title or the Big Show, and they go with the Big Slow. Damn them.

Yep, when the desicion was made that the title needed to be off Lesnar for the time being to apparently make the babyface turn work (with the Heyman turn, etc) that was the first proposed plan of action. Benoit and Heyman together as a team was first brought up and planned back in the beginning this year when they were possibly anticipating and hoping for Benoit to be back before Mania to set up a match with Austin at Mania. They knew if they had Heyman bring him back in and talk for him, he could be taken seriously in a major feud with Austin. It would have been f'n awesome IMO since their feud was hot right before Benoit got injured. Would have just went back to what was working prior. But since Benoit couldn't make it back in time, what happened? Here comes the NWO.......

 

Then of course the second time they tried to make Benoit as something special was right before Austin left for good, as they were penciling in a major feud with those two after the short Guererro one with Austin, and they would have put Arn Anderson with Benoit then as the mouthpiece.

 

Man, how many times has Benoit gotten the shaft?!!! Throughout all of this shit he still goes out there and works like crazy, even risking further injury with the neck. Unreal.

[Guest Paranoid]

The HHH conspiracies are still running rampant. This is really sad to think that Vince, Mr. Ego himself, would let anyone tell him how to run his business. We, and yes I am included, read way too much into what we see in wrestling mags an on the internet. If HHH had half the pull that people thinks he does then he would have gone over on Lesnar months ago. All I am asking is give the HHH conspiracy therories a rest and see what happens.

[Guest DJ Jeff]

Damn, I hope Benoit wins the WWE Title sometime in 2003. He's probably one of the most derserving guys on Smackdown that deserve to win the title. I'm thinking by Backlash, he'll be WWE Champion. Well, I'm hoping anyways.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

I find it hilarious that Heyman, despite MANAGING the guy, has not been put under consideration as a deciding factor in this area.

 

Silly HHH. He must have FORCED Heyman to push Big Show. Heyman was probably too busy booking the stuff that everyone enjoyed, like the three-way tag match...unless nobody liked it, of course.

[Guest RedJed]

I find it hilarious that Heyman, despite MANAGING the guy, has not been put under consideration as a deciding factor in this area.

 

Silly HHH. He must have FORCED Heyman to push Big Show. Heyman was probably too busy booking the stuff that everyone enjoyed, like the three-way tag match...unless nobody liked it, of course.

On the Heyman note, another reason to post more from this article, more relating to him this time.

 

Here were Heyman's ideas with all of this.

 

When the Hogan deal fell through, what Heyman wanted was for Brock to take on Rey at Survivor Series. That was pretty much bunked in no time by Vince. Probably rightfully so, at least at this point.

 

Furthermore, Heyman seemed mostly opposed to even turning Lesnar babyface (I agree) but if it had to happen, he would have much rather seen Lesnar just finally have enough of Heyman and he would have fired and injured Heyman's character on a show to turn him babyface. Heyman then would have just been off TV, and most likely then would have shown up to screw Brock out of the title with the proposed Benoit pairing.

 

Anyway, keep this in mind too.......that all of this stuff reported in the Observer happened BEFORE the injury even was reported. I'm definately interested to see what the fallout story is from all of this, which I'm sure he'll report on in the next issue. There might be more answers as to the whos and whys at that point.

[Guest creativename]

The HHH conspiracies are still running rampant.  This is really sad to think that Vince, Mr. Ego himself, would let anyone tell him how to run his business.  We, and yes I am included, read way too much into what we see in wrestling mags an on the internet.  If HHH had half the pull that people thinks he does then he would have gone over on Lesnar months ago.  All I am asking is give the HHH conspiracy therories a rest and see what happens.

You might have a point, if this was anyone but Meltzer reporting this. As it is, Meltzer's credibility is undeniable. (He's more credible than the Big Show, at any rate )

 

Meltzer has always been accurate, calling angles and even backstage politics long before we see them on TV (was he the one who reported the whole Christian and Test hair/shorts nonsense?). And he's not some random hack; he's good friends with some of the wrestlers, and has been around the wrestling community forever. Meltzer doesn't need to prove anything at this point.

 

Anyway I don't see how you can say HHH has less than "half the pull people think he does"--watch the damn HHH show on Monday nights. Austin, Rock and Hogan were never this overexposed. It's fine to complain that people only give HHH more exposure by complaining about him, but one cannot deny his stranglehold on the company. (He is PoocHHHie!)

 

Anyway, keep this in mind too.......that all of this stuff reported in the Observer happened BEFORE the injury even was reported. I'm definately interested to see what the fallout story is from all of this, which I'm sure he'll report on in the next issue. There might be more answers as to the whos and whys at that point.

 

WOW. This was BEFORE the injury!?! Are you sure about that? I refuse to believe they considered Brock jobbing to Show before the rib injury. No one could possibly be so dumb.

 

I'm not convinced, but if that is true, then just WOW. That's almost WCW-level bad.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

Meltzer doesn't even say it was HHH for sure who suggested Lesnar lose the title to Big Show. He backs up that possibility quite well, but it might be something else.

[Paul Stanley 0]

Whenever Terry Taylor is around, The Big Show is champion all around.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Didn't Benoit win the belt once? Back in my mark days I thought the guy was a talentless sack of shit and getting pissed that he won the belt from somebody.

 

True that Vince always pushes hosses when business is down, but at least this time he picked a good Hoss to push. Too bad his greeness couldn't save the ratings. So now we have the goddamn Big Show.

 

Thankfully, WCW played out Nash vs Big Show to death (quite literally), so I don't have to worry about that happening ever again.

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

However there was major consideration and preliminary plans then to have Lesnar-Benoit at Armageddon with Benoit getting the belt AND Heyman doing his turn then and there and going with Benoit. There was many road agents like Hayes and Brisco pushing for this idea instead of Show when it was decided Lesnar wasn't going to have the belt for much longer due to the monotony on top issue, and when it was decided they got to go with a full Lesnar turn within the next month at least. Of course now that won't be happening

*sigh* Why do I even bother hoping anymore?

[Guest RedJed]

The HHH conspiracies are still running rampant.  This is really sad to think that Vince, Mr. Ego himself, would let anyone tell him how to run his business.  We, and yes I am included, read way too much into what we see in wrestling mags an on the internet.  If HHH had half the pull that people thinks he does then he would have gone over on Lesnar months ago.  All I am asking is give the HHH conspiracy therories a rest and see what happens.

You might have a point, if this was anyone but Meltzer reporting this. As it is, Meltzer's credibility is undeniable. (He's more credible than the Big Show, at any rate )

 

Meltzer has always been accurate, calling angles and even backstage politics long before we see them on TV (was he the one who reported the whole Christian and Test hair/shorts nonsense?). And he's not some random hack; he's good friends with some of the wrestlers, and has been around the wrestling community forever. Meltzer doesn't need to prove anything at this point.

 

Anyway I don't see how you can say HHH has less than "half the pull people think he does"--watch the damn HHH show on Monday nights. Austin, Rock and Hogan were never this overexposed. It's fine to complain that people only give HHH more exposure by complaining about him, but one cannot deny his stranglehold on the company. (He is PoocHHHie!)

 

Anyway, keep this in mind too.......that all of this stuff reported in the Observer happened BEFORE the injury even was reported. I'm definately interested to see what the fallout story is from all of this, which I'm sure he'll report on in the next issue. There might be more answers as to the whos and whys at that point.

 

WOW. This was BEFORE the injury!?! Are you sure about that? I refuse to believe they considered Brock jobbing to Show before the rib injury. No one could possibly be so dumb.

 

I'm not convinced, but if that is true, then just WOW. That's almost WCW-level bad.

Yeah, all that was reported when this issue went to press was he had a cracked rib (which turned out to be more serious later than week after the issue was already out) and the whole cracked rib issue wasn't even addressed at all in the cover story situation of the current WWE booking plans. It was just briefly mentioned in the WWE news section of the issue.

 

So you can pretty much debunk the rib injury being the reasoning why the switch happened, it definately was being discussed prior to it. Meltzer reported Vince had first officially brought it up as a possibility at "last weeks' TV tapings" which would have been now about 2 weeks ago. So again, there was definately talk about the switch before the rib deal.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

And THEN he injured Lesnar, and THEN Management decided to award him with the belt STILL?

 

I'm either going to call bullshit on this or go to bed at night afraid because such stupidity is reigning at WWE-HQ.

[Guest bravesfan]

On second thought, you know who might REALLY be to blame here.......Hogan. If he would have agreed to the first plan of action, which was Hogan v. Lesnar at the ppv, none of this would have ever happened.

 

No offense, but Hogan jobbing to Lesnar again? What good would that accomplish for either man? Lesnar already "killed Hulkamania" in storyline terms, so there's no reason to do a Hogan/Lesnar return program, unless Hogan is coming out on top, which no one wants to see at this point.

 

And damn, cut Hogan some slack. He put over 4 different wrestlers in the last 2 months until his departure. (Angle, Rock, UT, Brock- 3 of these being clean losses)

 

It's the booking that shoulder the blame for how each of Hogan's recent losses(which in the past meant a MONSTER push for the opponent) were each treated like it was Crash Holly doing the job.

[Guest wwefan4ever_brethartrulz_18]

That Triple H guy is something...!

[Guest godthedog]

However there was major consideration and preliminary plans then to have Lesnar-Benoit at Armageddon with Benoit getting the belt AND Heyman doing his turn then and there and going with Benoit. There was many road agents like Hayes and Brisco pushing for this idea instead of Show when it was decided Lesnar wasn't going to have the belt for much longer due to the monotony on top issue, and when it was decided they got to go with a full Lesnar turn within the next month at least. Of course now that won't be happening, and now Benoit is penciled for a title run sometime next year after Mania, possibly.

damn you, vince. damn you to hell.

 

i was always convinced that benoit would get some kind of transitional reign as champ SOMEDAY, but they way this dumb fuck company is being run really makes me wonder if it'll ever happen at all.

[Guest snowfan]

The WWE is an institution on incompetence...

[Guest Brian]

Once they decided to continue with the split and Trips couldn't get his win from Lesnar to unify the titles, things sure did change.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

If they were so concerned w/ the "monotony on top" issue, how does that expalin "Raw is HHH" where RVD, Booker, Jericho, et al constantly wonder aimlessly in the mid-card, Helms gets squashed by Test 2 weeks in a row, all while HHH is made out to be the only credible guy on the show?

[Guest humongous2002]

Why is that crippled fuck HGH allowed to put any input into Smackdown's booking?I wish RVD would've broken his neck.

[Guest snowfan]

Why is that crippled fuck HGH allowed to put any input into Smackdown's booking?I wish RVD would've broken his neck.

well-uh he has-us no stroke-uh...

 

ask any of the anti-HHHaters here...

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Meltzer, like anyone, should not be quoted with 100% accuracy. Yes, he has several guys that he talks to who are currently heavilly involved in the WWE (including Heyman) but those are second party sources that hold biases just like everyone. Meltz is often a very credible news source, but he's not infallible.

[Guest The Hamburglar]

Ricky's the guy making the most sense here. I find it very fishy that just as Brock was showing signs of being fully capable of operating on his own, Heyman's on-screen role was vastly increased. I mean, the real feud now is Brock-Heyman vs Brock-Show, and it comes off looking like Heyman's the vital component needed to hold the world title. A Lesnar win would have heavily degraded Heyman's prominence. Also, there's the argument that Heyman wants to prove he can make anyone a world champion in the space of a month, which is exactly what he's done with the Slow.

[Guest Slapnuts00]

God, that's so depressing. We could have had a Benoit/Heyman pairing which would have been awesome, a Benoit title reign and a feud with Brock. Instead the freakin' Big Show is WWE champ again. New rule: Big Show is NEVER allowed to have another title shot at Survivor Series EVER AGAIN. This seems to always happen...