Black and White Report: January 5, 2010 "Fizzling War"
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Jan 4 2010, 10:01 PM
Welcome to the first entry of my new column here on GeekWeek. Our fearless leader Jeff Katz invited me to write a weekly opinion piece on the world of wrestling. I'm not sure that my opinion matters more than anyone else's, but I've have a lot of experience covering the world of wrestling for a number of years--including a period of time writing for the Pro Wrestling Illustrated family of magazines and running their 900-number hotline. So, hopefully my insight won't be *completely* off base.
By now you've seen the two offerings of the one-night-only new "Monday Night War" between WWE and TNA. What a fun night it was! Or at least it started fun. It seemed like everyone had high expectations for what the showdown between the Pink and Black and the Red and Yellow would entail. The courses for the future would be set. Paul Heyman wrote, on his heymanhustle.com site, the most insightful blog about the whole night. Check it out here.
Back from Paul's? Nice to see you. Imagine thousands of people chanting "Welcome back!" as they did to Bret Hart on Raw.
Here we go with my thoughts on the shows. These opinions will be solely mine.
Overall, I thought the shows were fun. There was a great feeling of nostalgia for the Monday Night Wars of old. I loved flipping between the two options and seeing what was happening on the other guy's show. Both shows had a mix of good and bad.
Starting with TNA. The buzz about TNA was tremendous heading into the show. And the crowd was HOT at the start of the program. Unfortunately TNA killed the crowd with a screwy ending to the Steel Asylum match. It was, I said to my wife, the worst decision they could have made. Absolutely terrible idea. It buried the X-division, and showed viewers that maybe hadn't watched TNA in a while that the company was the same old screwy booking that has led to "Fire Russo" chants so many times in the past. The poorly edited BS chants hopefully resonated with Dixie Carter at her perch in the Impact Zone. The worst part of it was that they took the crowd out of the event, shortchanging what should have been a massive ovation for Jeff Hardy's return. But because of the wind-knocking finish to the cage match, Hardy needed to work harder for any reaction. Fortunately, if there is anyone in the wrestling industry who could overcome such a bad situation, it's Jeff. And he succeeded Let's hope that he'll overcome his legal challenges as well as he overcame the botched return to TNA.
The surprises kept coming, unless you read Twitter or the coverage from our friends at prowrestling.net. If you did that, then you knew everyone that was going to show up. Nevertheless, it was still great to see Ric Flair get out of his limo. There's intrigue there. Particularly if he's going to be working with AJ Styles somehow.
The nWo reunion was relatively fun, too. At first. And I LOVED seeing Sting in the rafters--the perfect follow up to his no-shows for interviews, etc. The remixed nWo mix music wasn't great, but I get it. Hogan made a strong debut. Bischoff was equally strong. Hall and Waltman looked like hell, but that was generally expected. This segment left me really confused, though. Is Hogan a good guy? Bad guy? Tweener? Is he Bischoff's puppet? Why did Dixie Carter looked pissed and/or disgusted half the time? I didn't like this aspect to Hogan's character, and it was only made worse when he heeled Jeff Jarrett.
Aj Styles and Kurt Angle put on an amazing match. My wife is a casual wrestling fan. But she put down her smartphone sudoku to watch this main event as she saw the greatness it had. Go out of your way to see this one. I wish they'd have left this as the last segment of the night. The nWo beatdown on Mick Foley with Hogan looking confused at the camera was such a weak fizzle to an otherwise (mostly) strong show. If they'd have had the Foley/Bischoff segment before the main event match, and left Hogan out of the Foley beatdown entirely, I think it would have been a much stronger ending. So anti-climactic as it was.
Where does TNA go from here? There are a LOT of loose ends from the live show. And there's some interesting ways to resolve them. I'm not sure what TNA's primary goal was tonight, but I think it was to show how they are different from WWE. They have a ton of weapons in their arsenal. The talent is there. Showing logical, solid wrestling (and not crewy finishes) is the first thing TNA needs to do going forward. I love the Knockouts divison, too...Especially compared to the Maryse/Bella match on Raw. Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan are legends. Samoa Joe, Daniels, Styles, Pope, Suicide, Amazing Red, the Motor City Machine Guns, and so many others on the roster are beyond fantastic to watch. And TNA made a big loud noise. I hope they learn from a couple of missteps--primarily the horrible cage match--and allow the company to *be* the alternative to WWE it has potential to be. I want TNA to succeed so badly I can hardly talk. The very idea of competing caused WWE to step up its game.
I love Bret Hart. I always have. It might have something to do with the fact that my mother is from Alberta, and I lived there for a couple of years in my late-teens/early-20s. In anticipation of his return, I watched "Wrestling with Shadows" and several of his matches on DVD. I was really ready for his return. And I wasn't disappointed. At first. The Shawn/Bret showdown was great. My wife, who has inherited my love for Alberta, was grinning from ear to ear. It was a fantastic moment.
I thought the rest of the show was a "meh" effort, as Raw has been lately. We cracked up at the Santino/Hornswoggle fight. The Jericho/Bret exchange was entertaining. And the Divas match was fine, though as I said, I'll take a Knockout match over a Diva match 99% of the time.
As with TNA's show, Raw kind of fizzled at the end. The eagerly anticipated Bret/Vince confrontation was fine, but too long. And ended with a half-assed kick to the gut? The 60+ chairman attacks the 50+ stroke survivor. Wow.
I was worried that was how it would end. When Randy Orton offered to go after Bret, that gave me hope that we'd see the Hart Dynasty make the save, leading to a Hart/Legacy program. But the Hitman's kin were nowhere to be found the show! That was criminal.
I was surprised by the lack of reaction Mike Tyson got. But, I shouldn't have been. As with Bret Hart, the fanbase WWE has been courting for the last year or so wasn't around (or even born) when Tyson was the big thing in boxing. And WWE didn't give him the necessary introductory video package they gave Bret last week. Once again my wife (I apologize for bringing her up so often, but I think she's a good barometer for casual fan connection to the shows) didn't care. In fact her reaction was "Wasn't he the guy who bit off his opponent's ear one time?" I think WWE might have their hands full with UFC going live next week.
Where does WWE go from here? That's harder to say than TNA. I have no idea how they're going to use Bret hart going forward, and sadly I don't really even care that much. I want to. Desperately. Like I said, I love the Hart family! I wanted a DX-Hart Dynasty feud for the tag titles leading to WrestleMania so badly. But with Michaels/Undertaker II in the cards, this dream will probably be relegated to a Dynasty/Legacy program, which is fine. Just not what I wanted. But I admittedly make up a very small part of the WWE Universe. The Universe is a big place.
This week's Raw really didn't do much for me to keep me interested in the future. I said before that I wanted TNA to succeed. I really do. But it's because I want WWE to succeed as well. I want them to get off auto pilot, and improve the creative direction of their programming. I want wrestling not just to be good, but to be great. There is so much potential not just in upstart TNA, but also in WWE. Sheamus, Bourne, Punk, Kingston, and others are ready and waiting to become the standard bearers of the industry. TNA is on the cusp of becoming a player. We're at a great time in the industry. There's so much hope for change and improvement through legitimate competition. I hope it doesn't fizzle.
And there it is in Black and White.
Welcome to the first entry of my new column here on GeekWeek. Our fearless leader Jeff Katz invited me to write a weekly opinion piece on the world of wrestling. I'm not sure that my opinion matters more than anyone else's, but I've have a lot of experience covering the world of wrestling for a number of years--including a period of time writing for the Pro Wrestling Illustrated family of magazines and running their 900-number hotline. So, hopefully my insight won't be *completely* off base.
By now you've seen the two offerings of the one-night-only new "Monday Night War" between WWE and TNA. What a fun night it was! Or at least it started fun. It seemed like everyone had high expectations for what the showdown between the Pink and Black and the Red and Yellow would entail. The courses for the future would be set. Paul Heyman wrote, on his heymanhustle.com site, the most insightful blog about the whole night. Check it out here.
Back from Paul's? Nice to see you. Imagine thousands of people chanting "Welcome back!" as they did to Bret Hart on Raw.
Here we go with my thoughts on the shows. These opinions will be solely mine.
Overall, I thought the shows were fun. There was a great feeling of nostalgia for the Monday Night Wars of old. I loved flipping between the two options and seeing what was happening on the other guy's show. Both shows had a mix of good and bad.
Starting with TNA. The buzz about TNA was tremendous heading into the show. And the crowd was HOT at the start of the program. Unfortunately TNA killed the crowd with a screwy ending to the Steel Asylum match. It was, I said to my wife, the worst decision they could have made. Absolutely terrible idea. It buried the X-division, and showed viewers that maybe hadn't watched TNA in a while that the company was the same old screwy booking that has led to "Fire Russo" chants so many times in the past. The poorly edited BS chants hopefully resonated with Dixie Carter at her perch in the Impact Zone. The worst part of it was that they took the crowd out of the event, shortchanging what should have been a massive ovation for Jeff Hardy's return. But because of the wind-knocking finish to the cage match, Hardy needed to work harder for any reaction. Fortunately, if there is anyone in the wrestling industry who could overcome such a bad situation, it's Jeff. And he succeeded Let's hope that he'll overcome his legal challenges as well as he overcame the botched return to TNA.
The surprises kept coming, unless you read Twitter or the coverage from our friends at prowrestling.net. If you did that, then you knew everyone that was going to show up. Nevertheless, it was still great to see Ric Flair get out of his limo. There's intrigue there. Particularly if he's going to be working with AJ Styles somehow.
The nWo reunion was relatively fun, too. At first. And I LOVED seeing Sting in the rafters--the perfect follow up to his no-shows for interviews, etc. The remixed nWo mix music wasn't great, but I get it. Hogan made a strong debut. Bischoff was equally strong. Hall and Waltman looked like hell, but that was generally expected. This segment left me really confused, though. Is Hogan a good guy? Bad guy? Tweener? Is he Bischoff's puppet? Why did Dixie Carter looked pissed and/or disgusted half the time? I didn't like this aspect to Hogan's character, and it was only made worse when he heeled Jeff Jarrett.
Aj Styles and Kurt Angle put on an amazing match. My wife is a casual wrestling fan. But she put down her smartphone sudoku to watch this main event as she saw the greatness it had. Go out of your way to see this one. I wish they'd have left this as the last segment of the night. The nWo beatdown on Mick Foley with Hogan looking confused at the camera was such a weak fizzle to an otherwise (mostly) strong show. If they'd have had the Foley/Bischoff segment before the main event match, and left Hogan out of the Foley beatdown entirely, I think it would have been a much stronger ending. So anti-climactic as it was.
Where does TNA go from here? There are a LOT of loose ends from the live show. And there's some interesting ways to resolve them. I'm not sure what TNA's primary goal was tonight, but I think it was to show how they are different from WWE. They have a ton of weapons in their arsenal. The talent is there. Showing logical, solid wrestling (and not crewy finishes) is the first thing TNA needs to do going forward. I love the Knockouts divison, too...Especially compared to the Maryse/Bella match on Raw. Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan are legends. Samoa Joe, Daniels, Styles, Pope, Suicide, Amazing Red, the Motor City Machine Guns, and so many others on the roster are beyond fantastic to watch. And TNA made a big loud noise. I hope they learn from a couple of missteps--primarily the horrible cage match--and allow the company to *be* the alternative to WWE it has potential to be. I want TNA to succeed so badly I can hardly talk. The very idea of competing caused WWE to step up its game.
I love Bret Hart. I always have. It might have something to do with the fact that my mother is from Alberta, and I lived there for a couple of years in my late-teens/early-20s. In anticipation of his return, I watched "Wrestling with Shadows" and several of his matches on DVD. I was really ready for his return. And I wasn't disappointed. At first. The Shawn/Bret showdown was great. My wife, who has inherited my love for Alberta, was grinning from ear to ear. It was a fantastic moment.
I thought the rest of the show was a "meh" effort, as Raw has been lately. We cracked up at the Santino/Hornswoggle fight. The Jericho/Bret exchange was entertaining. And the Divas match was fine, though as I said, I'll take a Knockout match over a Diva match 99% of the time.
As with TNA's show, Raw kind of fizzled at the end. The eagerly anticipated Bret/Vince confrontation was fine, but too long. And ended with a half-assed kick to the gut? The 60+ chairman attacks the 50+ stroke survivor. Wow.
I was worried that was how it would end. When Randy Orton offered to go after Bret, that gave me hope that we'd see the Hart Dynasty make the save, leading to a Hart/Legacy program. But the Hitman's kin were nowhere to be found the show! That was criminal.
I was surprised by the lack of reaction Mike Tyson got. But, I shouldn't have been. As with Bret Hart, the fanbase WWE has been courting for the last year or so wasn't around (or even born) when Tyson was the big thing in boxing. And WWE didn't give him the necessary introductory video package they gave Bret last week. Once again my wife (I apologize for bringing her up so often, but I think she's a good barometer for casual fan connection to the shows) didn't care. In fact her reaction was "Wasn't he the guy who bit off his opponent's ear one time?" I think WWE might have their hands full with UFC going live next week.
Where does WWE go from here? That's harder to say than TNA. I have no idea how they're going to use Bret hart going forward, and sadly I don't really even care that much. I want to. Desperately. Like I said, I love the Hart family! I wanted a DX-Hart Dynasty feud for the tag titles leading to WrestleMania so badly. But with Michaels/Undertaker II in the cards, this dream will probably be relegated to a Dynasty/Legacy program, which is fine. Just not what I wanted. But I admittedly make up a very small part of the WWE Universe. The Universe is a big place.
This week's Raw really didn't do much for me to keep me interested in the future. I said before that I wanted TNA to succeed. I really do. But it's because I want WWE to succeed as well. I want them to get off auto pilot, and improve the creative direction of their programming. I want wrestling not just to be good, but to be great. There is so much potential not just in upstart TNA, but also in WWE. Sheamus, Bourne, Punk, Kingston, and others are ready and waiting to become the standard bearers of the industry. TNA is on the cusp of becoming a player. We're at a great time in the industry. There's so much hope for change and improvement through legitimate competition. I hope it doesn't fizzle.
And there it is in Black and White.
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