hulimation of Lance Storm

[Guest MARTYEWR]

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that Lance Storm will be fine after this. While this isn't as obvious of the same route as the Austin/Kane angle, Lance Storm is still on the WWE's good side, regardless of him getting upset of the Steiner match last week. Don't forget, the WWF (at the time) did something similar with Jericho pointing out Benoit's lack of charisma in their 2000 feud, and Benoit came out okay. Whatever happens with Lance afterwards will tell a bigger story.

 

Plus, don't forget, in the match last night, Lance Storm absolutely dominated Garrison Cade and only lost thanks to getting distracted by Austin. It was booked as a squash with Storm losing on a complete fluke. If I feel sorry for anyone in this segment, it's Cade. He looked like a complete jobber who needed the win via interference or else it was a guaranteed loss. Plus, Storm must still be in the good books if Cade had to change his original first name. Lance Storm will be okay in the end; it's Garrison Cade's career I'm actually worried about.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Is it really that different in essence to what they've done since Storm got here. It's like JR saying something after Storm says 'If I can be serious for a minute'. He's beemn booked as boring most of his career...it's just now, they're making it more obvious.

 

HOPEFULLY, the plan is that they make him go 'Benoit'. In other words he begins to take eception to the boring chants and comments, and starts getting angrier, and angrier, to the point of being like Benoit. An intense yet still 'boring' Canadian.

[Guest Brian]

Storm couldn't pull it off. He hits like a pillow.

[Guest notJames]

Consider this: RAW has another 2 months before SummerSlam to book storylines for everyone. I'm thinking this "boring" angle, like others have said, will be a motivating factor for Storm ala Kane, but it will take a slow burn for it to work. The writers are banking on the "boring" chants to get Lance to react more with the audience, i.e. yell at them for their disparaging remarks. Not many wrestlers are able to interact with the fans directly during their matches, and although it's not exactly the most productive method, at least the fans have some way to connect with Storm.

 

Sure, in the minds of many wrestlers, hearing the crowds chant "boring" is demoralizing, but it's not the kiss of death that a silent arena is. I'll hold out hope that this is leading to something positive before I pull out the Howitzer and blast the booking staff for yet another burial of decent talent.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Seriously, if they aren't going to push Storm then just get rid of him. Let him go to Japan or NWA TNA and let him continue his career without humiliation. He has no character in the WWE but they don't try anything with him. So there you go.....

[Guest humongous2002]

I'm just wondering: Which is doing the most damage to WWE?The bookers or the politics?

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

The most galling thing is that the WWE writers are probably sat reading this thread on their laptops and getting major yuks from how they've pissed the online fans off...

Actually, if I were them, I'd be laughing damn hard too. This could all be a huge work and they've got you thinking the political BS is worse than it really is, and you (and I) just don't know and are just going on this assumption.

 

 

It could be a work. If it is I'd kinda enjoy the feeling of being worked for once but I'd be sad that all my laughing over this is gone to waste. As of now, this is up there with Montreal on the the comedy scale for me.

[Guest Ghettoman]

Jesus christ some of you are over-reacting.

 

OMG LACE STROMS CAREER IS OVA!!! HE SHUD GO TO TNA!!!1 HOW CULD DEY DO THAT!?!!?!/

 

Hey I got an idea, lets wait for an angle to at least begin to play out before we bash the idea of it, it makes us all seem a little more intelligent.

[Guest notJames]

I'm just wondering: Which is doing the most damage to WWE?The bookers or the politics?

It's more a question of how the booking leads to people politicking to change the booking, which leads to more people politicking to change the booking. It's like a perpetual motion machine… one feeds off the other in an endless cycle of madness and conspiracy.

 

All in all, it's Vince's fault.

[Guest Goodear]

Sure, in the minds of many wrestlers, hearing the crowds chant "boring" is demoralizing, but it's not the kiss of death that a silent arena is. I'll hold out hope that this is leading to something positive before I pull out the Howitzer and blast the booking staff for yet another burial of decent talent.

 

Darn right, just ask Rico. Man did he bomb last night... eek.

[Guest notJames]

Seriously. Why couldn't they give him a decent video package before re-debuting him with Jackie Gayda? That would have gone over much better than that 30-second promo he did before his match.

 

And not for nothing, but if anyone needs a name change ala Shaniqua, it's Jackie Gayda. RAW already has a Jackie that no one gives a shit about.

[Guest nl5xsk1]

There was some "boring"-type rumblings during Rico's match ... I was actually surprised that the chants weren't long and loud.

 

And I agree that a video presentation would have been a better way to present Rico's new character. But then again, since we are talking about doing a second rate reprise of a 20-year old gimmick that not many people even know of shows the amazing thought process going into character development right now.

[Guest notJames]

You got that right. If they want to reprise the "fey savage" gimmick correctly, Rico's gotta ditch that spinning kick finisher and use some kind of vicious submission hold or a solid, high-impact finisher.

 

And definitely have Gayda wear those barely-fitting halter tops. I paid more attention to her pulling her top up than I did the match.

[Guest Goodear]

Rico totally needed to pick it up a notch a whole hell of a lot more than he did. Doing that gimmick, there has to be a switch that is thrown when the match starts where you go from weiner to wrestler in zero to sixty. Instead we get Rico doing his best Disco Inferno impression before going to lame spinkick finish. I'm not even sure that this is a good place for Jacky since all the of 'Rico's gay' heat seemed to dissapear.

[Crimson Platypus 0]

Rico totally needed to pick it up a notch a whole hell of a lot more than he did. Doing that gimmick, there has to be a switch that is thrown when the match starts where you go from weiner to wrestler in zero to sixty. Instead we get Rico doing his best Disco Inferno impression before going to lame spinkick finish. I'm not even sure that this is a good place for Jacky since all the of 'Rico's gay' heat seemed to dissapear.

I agree with you there, it makes no sense for her to be his valet and be all over him if he is supposed to be gay???

[Guest evilhomer]

Second, Storm just standing there with an angry look on his face made him look like a bitch, even more than having Austin mock him. He should have either gone after Austin mid-match (and thus losing by countout) or chased him down after the match.

That was what really bugged me. I thought the segment was a bad idea, but I can see where they're going with it. I don't like this direction, but at least it's a plan to do something with Storm. But the fact that Storm didn't physically confront Austin whatsoever pissed me off. I realize that, storyline wise, Austin has a great deal of power as a GM, and that, storyline wise, Storm is in no position to pull a McMahon/Austin on him. But Austin berated him to the point where anybody would want to rip his head off, and the reaction from Storm, a mean look and a point of a finger.

 

OOOOOO that Storm guy, he may be boring but by gawd, what a tough son of a bitch, I mean look what he did to his boss - he made a dirty face and *gasp* pointed at him, he's the new rebellious ass kicker.

 

I'll give this angle a chance, next week if he comes out and starts swinging a chair at his opponent going "How's this Austin, is this exciting" then this weeks non-aggression could be written off to shock. But if it's this same segment for the next three weeks, then this will be the final nail in Storm's WWE career.

[Guest Polish_Rifle]

I actually think Austin's association with Lance is a good thing. This will add some character to Lance and the fans will actually chant something whenever he's on.

 

As far as Rico is concerned, I think his character is unsalvageable. I just groaned when Spike came out because everyone and their mother knew that Rico was going to win. On a side note, Jacky Gayda is looking good!

[Guest netslob]

Storm deserves to be let go. he isn't a 6'7" roid freak, or a 40+ year old draw from 20 years ago, or screwing a member of the company's hierarchy, or a drunken, crippled, wife-beating hick who stomps around slugging back watery beer and degrading all the talent who can actually work, on camera. so of course he deserves to be terminated. it's not like he has ANY marketability. plus he can't work "WWE Main Event Style" ™; he has actual talent.

[Guest newblood03]

I just widsh he would go to TNA. I think maybe Russo will have sense enough to use him like he did in WCW. Like someone said Lance had the crowd going crazy when he had Booker in the Maple Leaf. Hell he coulda been WCW champ towards the end. He went from the guy that started the invasion to fukn working as a janitor to a guy who gets boring chants because of his own damn company.That's just sorry on WWE part.

[Guest Ace309]

Is it really that different in essence to what they've done since Storm got here. It's like JR saying something after Storm says 'If I can be serious for a minute'.

 

Yes, in the sense that being hit with a squirt gun is like being sprayed down with a firehose.

 

Listen, if this is going somewhere, fine. But what I'm worried about is that this is just going to be Lance Storm looking like a bitch for weeks on end before they drop it.

 

On the bright side, though, conditioning the fans to chant "BORING" will probably come back to haunt them, which is pretty cool.

[Guest nl5xsk1]

Rico totally needed to pick it up a notch a whole hell of a lot more than he did.  Doing that gimmick, there has to be a switch that is thrown when the match starts where you go from weiner to wrestler in zero to sixty.  Instead we get Rico doing his best Disco Inferno impression before going to lame spinkick finish.  I'm not even sure that this is a good place for Jacky since all the of 'Rico's gay' heat seemed to dissapear.

I agree with you there, it makes no sense for her to be his valet and be all over him if he is supposed to be gay???

They're having Jackie play the role the way Miss Linda did for Exotic Adrian Street, in which he was obviously very effemenite but she played his sidekick in a very sexual way. The difference was Street was ultra-effeminite (in a rather non-P.C. way that they could never use today) until the match started and then it was a blatant 180-degree change into an animal. Rico was less gay, and then less tough. Just kind of there.

[Mecha Mummy 0]

Rico definitely needed to look more vicious there and Spike should have had MUCH less offense. Hard to look impressive when SPIKE is a tough opponent.

 

Oh, and do you think the "Boring" chants would have started up during Rico/Spike if it wasn't for that angle earlier on? I don't think so.

[Guest Smell the ratings!!!]

Forgive me for not having faith in the WWE creative team's long term planning abilities, but I don't think there is an angle. The jobbers will continue fighting the real jobbers, get boring chants, and get fired. They'll just be buried more than usual on the way out.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

1)*Johnny Ace* was the one who booked Storm in WCW - not Russo. Russo wanted to make Storm Eric Bischoffs illegitimate son.

 

2)What, in the WWE's history, gives you the notion that they will book this angle properly? They already killed it by having their fans chant "boring" - that will stick with them for a very very long time. WHAT? I said, it will stick with them for a very very long time. Before, the fans didn't chant "boring" because they were being polite, now they hear good ol stone cold saying "no, it's ok, chant boring" and they will at the first rest hold in a match that goes over 3 minutes. This is dumber than "you fucked up".

 

3)Why can't we say "this sucks" before the angle goes through? Seriously, haven't we proven time and time again we're right about these things? Haven't we earned this? Can't we gain anything from these horrible angles?

[Guest Polish_Rifle]

Why does Spike still have a job?

[Guest newblood03]

When i was asleep to i woke up and saw Rico's promo and then i feel back asleep and then i woke up and saw him wrestling and i was like WTF why is he already wrestling? I think it is too soon for him to be wrestling after he is being repackaged.

[Guest Brian]

Why does Spike still have a job?

Why not? Given the constraints, he busts his ass and makes his opponent look good while usually getting decent reactions. There are a lot of worthless people on the roster who should get dumped far ahead of him, and they probably all get paid more.

[Guest AlwaysPissedOff]

I think maybe Russo will have sense enough to use him like he did in WCW. Like someone said Lance had the crowd going crazy when he had Booker in the Maple Leaf.

Y'know, I pretty much sick of the "nationalistic" angle being dusted off almost every 2 years. While yes, it was the main thing that got Storm over in WCW, what the fuck is the point of doing it again when A) There's already one being run ON THE VERY SAME SHOW, and B) He did it last year with the Un-Americans. Enough's enough already.

 

If that's really all that can get Storm over then maybe it's time to jettison his ass.

[Guest Jack Potts]

Maybe the key is to make Lance Storm a no nonsense WRESTLER. He's not a sports entertainer, and he never will be. The WWE can't book Storm properly, just like they couldn't book Dean Malenko properly. If you read Storm's commentary, he's erudite and intelligent, but it's not his nature to be the life of the party. I've read that backstage, Malenko displays a sharp, dry wit, but it's something too subtle for the creative staff to work into a gimmick.

 

Mick Foley wrote that one of the things that makes a gimmick successful is crafting a gimmick that reflects some aspect of the performer. Just let Lance be a methodical, technical, submission wrestler who dispassionately picks apart his opponent in the ring. Didn't he train in Stu Hart's Dungeon? If so, play that up on commentary.

 

Or better yet, how about this: The gimmick would be that Lance enjoys hurting people. It's his only emotional release, but he's ashamed of the pleasure he derives from it. He's hidden behind a facade of detachment for so long that it's affected his in-ring performance. Once he gives in to the joy of harming other people, he starts winning in the ring. Lance would give deliberately bland, dry promos, (think Tim Duncan), but once he got in the ring, his eyes would light up with maniacal glee as he stretched the crap out of his opponent. As soon as the match is over, the emotion would drain out of his face.

 

It would freshen up Lance's gimmick, but it would still be consistent with the previous history of the character. Besides, it would be different from the tired "Canadian patriot" gimmick.

 

Also, give him back his long tights.

[Guest netslob]

jesus, Jack, that's crazy enough to work! never happen, tho.