Five-Star Conversation 05.19.09: Returning to The Palace of Wisdom

Posted by Geoff Eubanks on 05.19.2009

Q: How do you to rile The IWC?
A: Write a positive article about The Miz & John Morrison as singles' competitors!

I am admittedly uninspired this week and Sunday's PPV did little to rev my engine, eef you wee-yull. Thus, we continue our look at The Miz & John Morrison. Like them or not, you certainly responded strongly. Let's get this donkey show on the road! Your referee…Bronco Lubich!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: Santino stole my Vickie gimmick, only likened her to a pig instead of a cow!

CONTINUED DISCUSSION ON THE MIZ & MORRISON, SOLO ACTS, COMMENTPALOOZA STYLE
Stumbled upon this column for the first time and all I have to say is wow, 20 comments about the Miz! Why waste the cyberspace on a fucking jobber? He's not feuding with Cena and he's not the better half of the Miz-Mo tag team. That tag team was overrated because we are so starving for tag team wrestling these days. What the fuck did they accomplish? Not even a match on a WM? I've heard people compare them to E&C. More like Too Sexy if you ask me. Fuck, even Too Sexy made it to the big show. The Miz is the next Scotty Too Hotty, not the next Christian or Rock.
Posted By: Big Fat Fag

Yes, Fag, 20 comments about The Miz. And guess what? You were Comment #21. Thanks for the hit. Ashish and Larry love my numbers. Charming name, too.

Fantasy booking talking about what WWE should've done with the Miz-Cena angle.
Posted By: Chico

Personally, yes, I do thoroughly enjoy Miz & Morrison, as a tandem unit and separately, and I do want them to succeed. However, my qualm in reference to last week's column with respect to the manner in which The Miz has thus far been booked on Raw has nothing to do with how much I do or don't like the talent in question, and it certainly wasn't the intention of the column to "fantasy book"; rather, I was simply questioning how serious and committed McMahonagement is to pushing The Miz, or, in the worst-case scenario, if they even know how.

Perhaps I'm being too rough on McMahonagement in this regard, and that I am simply showing my age by suggesting today's Raw be booked the way some of us grew up watching good old-fashioned rasslin, and if that's the case, I'll certainly take that criticism accordingly. However, though, it strikes me that these booking templates are such, templates, because they're tried and true and they work, which suggests to me, when we see them not being utilized today, that this is symptomatic of too many writers on today's WWE Creative team who didn't grow up watching the rasslin of which I spoke and therefore are unfamiliar with those booking templates and likewise therefore don't even know to utilize them, instead figuring Miz (or any other up-&-coming talent they've gotten the memo to push) had his time and earned his heat, so punch the clock and pop the top on a longneck and call it a successful Monday. I say, not so.

Before you disagree with me, consider this – If you're trying to push a recently-transitioned talent (from tag to singles competition, in this case) without going all-out Diesel about it, and we'll use Shawn Michaels as an example (although I don't mean to suggest McMahonagement has any designs to see The Miz rise to that lofty height; merely that the HBK character evolved slowly but surely over the years from the time that Michaels Super-Kicked Marty Jannetty through the Barber Shop window in 1991 to when he was forced into semi-retirement after having dropped The HWT to Steve Austin in 1998), if a booking committee leaves an exclamation point off of an action committed by such newly-transitioned talent, it allows the fans to supply the much less emphatic period instead, or worse, the question mark of ‘Am I supposed to see this guy as a real threat, or just a loudmouth?', and that can have potential long-term ramifications.

Another example, look at Randy Orton's face turn following having been jumped out of EVOLUTION. We in The IWC were then marveling at the clever, patient manner in which Orton's departure from the stable was being booked and played out, a story told with such wise care, we were all quite interested in seeing how it would all go down and where the players would go once the die was cast. And then two back-to-back weeks of lower-than-normal Raw ratings freaked out Vince, who pulled the trigger on Orton's turn, I think, two months prematurely (don't quote me), effectively giving the fans the professional wrestling equivalent of scrambled eggs when the intention was to create an omelet. As a consequence, Orton was square-pegged into some poorly fitting Austin-lite sort of character that saw all of the careful planning and hard work crafting the Legend Killer character slide down the tubes, ostensibly requiring years of retooling before Orton was allowed to evolve into the top heel we know him as today.

So, back to The Miz, by not allowing The Miz the opportunity, and thus the purloined rub of pseudo-pinning John Cena immediately following the Big Show beat-down, he was robbed of the opportunity to have created as much heat as he potentially could have, and isn't that the goal? What's the worst that could happen? The fans end up hating him with such ferocity that he garners a main-event heel quality response? Isn't that the goal of the Brand Split in the first place? Would McMahonagement really risk not capitalizing upon a hot prospect who has over-achieved his in endeavor, just because such over-achievement doesn't fit into "the plan"? What if Vince had ignored the fans in the cases of Steve Austin or The Rock (before you respond, the answer is Christian, circa. 2005)? Again, I'm not implying that The Miz is headed that high up the card, but isn't that the point, both of the talent and the booking team behind him? Sometimes, it's not how good the talent may or may not be, but being the right personality/gimmick at the right time, and, if nothing else, it seems to me that The Miz fills a very specific void on Monday nights quite nicely.

Case in point, weak/incomplete booking costs time and thus money, and one would think that's a language Vince would speak fluently.

Yet another idiot who thinks Morrison was the star of the Miz/Morrison team... Morrison is amazing in the ring, has a fantastic look, but can NOT cut a decent promo to save his life. It is the same curse that affects fellow IWC darling Shelton Benjamin. Morrison will NEVER be a main-event playa, unless his mic skills sharpen us very quickly. The Miz is destined for massive things, he is one of the best on the mic in the entire company. Trust me, Miz will be a future fan-favourite and World Champion, you heard it here first...
Posted By: Guest#7997

Yet another IWC moron who wants to make another one of their "heroes" bigger than they actually are.

Miz is horrible, yet the IWC protects him just like they do Edge.

Morrison is the one with the real talent. Push him.
Posted By: shone jones

"You heard it here first."

Boy has that turned into such an annoying phrase. How do you know that you are actually the first person to suggest that The Miz will win a world title. In fact, I can guarantee that it's been said in some comment at least a dozen times before on this site.

Santino will actually go through with a sex change operation and he and The Miz will form the first intergender tag team champions. You heard it here first.

John Cena's first movie after he leaves the WWE will go on to make over $200 million box office in the US. You heard it here first.

Linda Hogan will take the money she's getting off the divorce settlement and buy a bunch of WWE shares. Then Linda McMahon will divorce Vince, and along with Linda Hogan, force Vince out of the WWE. Hulk Hogan goes on to marry Dixie Carter, only to force her to sell TNA to Vince. Vince then makes Hulk Hogan his first champion.

You heard it here first.
Posted By: BobbyC

"...it was time for the impressive Morrison (who had started to draw comparisons to a young HBK) to move on as a singles act, with The Miz left to commence a make-or-break period in his own career, the former being moved to Raw, the latter to SmackDown!."
_______________________________________

WRONG!
Posted By: Bob

First of all, 7997, we don't call names here…fucker. LOL.

To clarify in another area, last week's column was not intended for me to jump up and down in the stands waving my pom-poms in their regard and whine like a mark over why my boys aren't being afforded a better opportunity. For the record, were I truly in charge, the WWE landscape would be vastly different, indeed. My comment that the team had hit the proverbial wall with respect their accomplishments was not stated in an empirical sense, certainly not, but rather, all that today's WWE has to offer a set of tag team specialists. Jesus, look at CRYME TYME over on SmackDown!. I look at them, a team who has once been terminated by the company already, only to later be rehired (once they, by the by, went outside WWE's umbrella to polish their shaky ring skills) to host dead-end Diva segments. I think we can all agree the state of tag wrestling in WWE is sadly laughable. Or laughably sad, your choice.

Quite frankly, my feelings on The Miz & John Morrison as a team worked so well because they were as good as the sum of their parts, which is what a solid tag team should be. They filled in each other's gaps quite well (get your mind out of the gutter!). In the beginning, it was clear Morrison was the superior and more-polished in-ring performer, certainly, and, having already garnered three tag title reigns in prior team MNM with partner Joey Mercury, Morrison was, then, able to promulgate what he'd learned from veteran Mercury to his new partner, Miz, thus allowing that mentor-type relationship I've discussed in the past that serves a young talent so well when s/he is ready to tackle that next step of education. And we did see, over the course of the team's (roughly) year-and-a-half run, Miz improve greatly in the ring, most importantly, perhaps, performing with a greater sense of self-confidence as a consequence.

On the other side of the coin, I will absolutely not go so far as to suggest that Morrison can't cut a promo to save his life, but Miz certainly provided the majority of the team's attitude quotient. Without question, Morrison already had the swagger and the look, but I do think that year-and-a-half of having tagged with The Miz (most importantly, having collaborated for so long providing web content for WWE.com, a crucial component in their success), rubbed off on Morrison, thus facilitating the transition from MNM's spoiled Hollywood A-lister, Johnny Nitro, to "The Shaman of Sexy" John Morrison see fruition in more complete fashion. Morrison in a position to handle the proverbial heavy lifting required of the tandem while The Miz served as the caustic inspiration by which to inspire Morrison's new, somewhat more esoteric character.

That said, would that WWE had a better-established tag division on even ONE of its three brands, this is a team that most certainly still had a lot of miles left to rack up on the proverbial odometer, as it seems to me that both men could have carried on in this fashion, having each other's backs as they continued to develop and improve as they managed to hover around the top of their brand's tag card. We've established that The Miz' in-ring game has stepped up during his tenure in the team, but to such a degree that he can manage to transfer over into a successful solo career?

In like fashion, Morrison has provided some thoroughly entertaining guest-commentary on a couple occasions, sans Miz, and his line "We don't drink diet soda at The Palace of Wisdom" is still heavily quoted (as a matter of fact, for those iffy on Morrison's verbal abilities as The Guru of Greatness, check out this link: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Hennigan). Beyond this, though, I'm of the opinion that this character has a LOT of possibilities and potential directions available to it, provided some daring, creative, out-of-the box thinking is employed, the likes of which I'm convinced Morrison is capable; however, the tag team could have provided something of a safety net over which to have allowed some of this character expansion to have potentially been given a trial before having to be viewed as "a solid direction" in a solo talent's regard (you know, this wouldn't be a bad idea in LOS COLONS vein, either, because, really, who is Primo but Carlito's little brother…?).

But such is the state of the modern-day tag scene in WWE. With a healthy tag scene, the luxury to experiment exists; without one, after just a year-and-a-half, a team like Miz & Morrison appear to be tag mainstays who run the risk of seem to be treadmilling into stagnancy if not separated and sent their own ways into solo adventures, even if additional time together could potentially have served them much better in such an endeavor.

It strikes me that both men stand to be successful as singles competitors, although upon different platforms, if only initially, that being with respect to different platforms, that is to say, Miz' greatest asset will be the mic, Morrison's, his ring-work. As long as both are in McMahonagement's good graces by playing to their strengths and they continue to log quality time strengthening their respective weakest links, I personally see no reason why they both couldn't continue to rise the ranks under the WWE umbrella and find a very satisfying level of success.

(If any factor stands to potentially be problematic for them, it's that they're already in their very late 20s, almost 30, and, by this time in his career, a male professional wrestler should generally be higher up the card and with a more solid singles base, but the terms of the business are certainly changing and expanding to allow for a different set of rule in this vein, so who's to say?)

Everyone compares Morrison to HBK, but think about it, The Miz Reminds me of The Rock.

THINK ABOUT IT.
Posted By: who cares

The Miz-Cena angle is kind of things coming full circle. Before becoming the WWE superman, Cena was the young loud mouth punk calling out, then 'E' superman, Brock Lesnar, and trying to punk him out.
Posted By: jojo

I think that Miz has a lot in common with the Divas (other than hair products and make-up). You see where they were vs. where they are now and you think that improvement = good. So when they put out a mediocre effort - it looks good in comparison. Miz has yet to make me go WOW! Morrison did all the WOW stuff in the tag team.
Posted By: BobbyC

I think I have to lean closer to jojo on this one. True, The Rock was almost universally rejected by WWF fans as the hand-shaking, baby-kissing, pandering face, actually, for the time, something of an anomaly, because it marked one of the few times to date fans vocally did not buy someone McMahonagement had decided to shove down their throats, he had the ability in the ring pretty well down pat once he turned heel and joined THE NATION, it wasn't until he did so that he really started to find his voice on the mic, which is pretty much the opposite story in The Miz' regard.

The Chick Magnet has all the charisma and attitude in the world, but, because here was one of those Real World/Road Rules reality TV whores thinking he could just show up on the set of Tough Enough and, TA-DA, I'm a pro wrestler!, fans disrespected him from the beginning and did NOT want to give him a chance to succeed at ALL. It was his tenure tagging with Morrison, though, where he earned his right to appear on the Rawster.

Although I certainly see the Cena parallel, jojo, Cena was booked as a man with a future when he first showed up on SD! in 2002, making a damn good showing for himself against no less than Kurt Angle and then being afforded a rub when The Undertaker gave him ups. Once Cena's generic look stalled his career, he played around as a heel, "Evil Vanilla Ice", before his racy freestyles began to click with the crowd and a star was born. Again, The Miz was categorically disrespected and had to fight and work for every ounce of respect he's managed to obtain, and it's clear from comments left here last week that there's still plenty who don't feel he's made much progress.

Ironically, to strengthen your case, Cena eventually fighting criticism that he was lacking skills in the ring, and still fights those accusations and likely will for the duration of his career. So might Miz. But I think that's the wisdom of having placed The Miz on the sports entertainment program as opposed to SD!, which, once again, appears to be reclaiming its place as the wrestling brand, where Morrison is better suited. Thus, Miz' "promotion" to Mondays may not necessarily be a company mandate of good faith, but rather appropriate placement, for which McMahonagement should be commended.

I think BobbyC has a point there, that goes well with the close of (this round) of Diva discussions, as well. I don't think we'll ever see really WOW moments from The Miz in the ring, at least not where Morrison-type athleticism is concerned. That's not a dig on The Miz, that's just not his style, but I certainly get the gist of your comment and I agree and again point to the differences implicit in the personalities of the two major brands. Ross & Grisham don't really have to work too hard to make the flashy moves of a Morrison or a Benjamin come across as spectacular, they instead keep things basic and hype the ability of the athletes, whereas the over-the-top screechers on Raw do verbal handstands as they do their part to sell the sizzle of the stories on Mondays, where the fan is much less likely to be impressed by SmackDown! 6-quality work rate. The Honky-Tonk Man and Roddy Piper weren't even decent wrestlers, but they had sizzle for days and it turned them into legends. The same rule applies.

I don't see our buddy Miz as being a babyface ever. He's just got too much of a natural talent for douchebaggery. Remember when he showed up as the Smackdown "party host" or whatever, before he started wrestling? He was technically a babyface then, but I don't remember him ever garnering even the most half-hearted pop.

Likewise, though, I never predicted Morrison turning face either. His heel talents go beyond deliberately irritating promos, and can be seen in the very way in which he moves. His stride, his posing, his body language all SCREAM arrogance. He's so good at it that he gets away with doing some of the sweetest lucha-spots on the show and keeps his heat! Besides that, remember what his gimmick was until the moment he won the WWE tag straps with the Miz? Ultra-vain, pretentious wannabe rockstar? How does THAT fall into a babyface persona? Lastly, the man is just too PRETTY to get over with the male demo's.

When are these fickle dorks pulling the strings at Titan Tower (who is Vince, SKELETOR?) going to realize how precious a commodity talented heels are? They blew it with MVP and Melina, and now Morrison? Personally, I don't see the good Shaman's babyface days lasting too long, unless they decide to just leave him hanging in the midcard, instead of turning him back heel, when he doesn't get over.
Posted By: KanyonKreist

I don't think Morrison will have a problem as a face. The fact that he's man-pretty won't disway the male audience. He's too goddamned talented with shit like his split-legged corkscrew moonsaults. He'll wow the male portion of the audience with his skills and get the female portion going with his looks, a lot like Jeff Hardy. He'll always be able to fall back on his pretentious, vain heel persona. He might not be a charismatic as HBK but the dude will be a star within a year or two. Especially with Smackdown's lack of faces. It's basically just Jeff, Punk, Rey, and Morrison at the top. If rumors are true and Jeff is leaving to take a break then Morrison benefits even more.
Posted By: Guest#7400

Ah ah ah, Kanyon, as I wanted to point out to my buddy 7997 earlier, we've learned to never say never in wrestling. I'm sure there were scores of Hulkamaniacs back in the day who could never have imagined Hogan turning on them, but he did and business was great. To fortify who cares' argument, The Rock was a complete douchebag, but he eventually let us in on the joke and thus allowed us to be cool, his new NATION, if you will. There's no telling whether the same could happen in The Miz' regard, but for that to work, he first has to make us care that much, to arrest our attention in a similar manner and then make himself so cool that we want to hang out with him, the way The Rock did. My God, if he manages to accomplish that, it'll be one of the greatest feats in professional wrestling history, considering the manner in which he came into WWE!

Morrison is up on the game in terms of creating for himself the quality of character fans want to gravitate towards, and now that he's a face (BTW, teaming him up with Punk last week and allowing him the win with the spectacular Starship Pain was a GREAT move towards solidifying him as a staunch mid-card hero), he needs to really amp up the comedic side of his Guru gimmick. He can be as smartassed and cocky as he wants, but if he's funny and keeps busting out the breathtaking moves and making his opponents look foolish, the kids will love him, as long as he stays fit and handsome, the ladies will scream for him and, since he's a guru, why not have him followed to the ring by a harem of beauties, sort of a PG-friendly Godfather? That way, for the men in attendance, when you hear Morrison's music, that means a bevy of hot chicks to ogle, too.

I like your thoughts on the Miz, I've been a fan of both Miz & Morrison since their beginnings & I do think Miz is better on the mic & a better fit for his character than Morrison (don't get me wrong, I love the shaman of sexy, but he does come off a bit forced in his character) but I can't help but feel that even though we're all happy for Miz's A-show "push" --- I think it's all going to lead to a punked out squash at the end of the day.

Miz will be killed in a heartbeat & probably with Cena having his eye on someone else the whole time (like HHH vs Cody Rhodes) and the Miz will probably be in a quick & losing fued to someone like Kofi the next week. With Santino seeming to be turning good, there's a spot open for the "joke chicken-shit heel" and sadly Miz would probably be booked in that position. Raw doesn't seem to know or want to push guys besides their PPV mainstays so I feel bad for guys like the Miz. & M&M didn't accomplish everything for tag-teams... actually defending them at WM25 would have been something. I wanted to see that match big time but never got to see it.

Angry Bear has some great thoughts on TNA, I might--- MIGHT actually watch it if it went down like he suggests. I swear between the 2 of us, we've come up with wrestling ideas that are absolute GOLD & absolute CRAP but it would be worth watchin'...

Love reading the column every week, don't have much time to write in (& in case you haven't noticed, my typing skills stink) just wanted to pop in here & give my 2cents on Miz & say good work!
Posted By: theHomewrecker!

Great to hear from you, Homewrecker! The prodigal son returns! I have a sinking feeling, for all the high hopes and positive thoughts I've sent in his direction, you could very well be right in The Miz' case. We've just seen it too many times. BUT, if the encounter at JUDGMENT DAY is any inclination, Miz just might make it out of JTTS purgatory yet, as we saw quite the verbal altercation go down between Miz & Santino. This stands to benefit Miz quite a bit, because Santino stands to gain nothing by defeating Miz, as it becomes increasingly clear that he's really just around to make us laugh, whereas Miz stands to lose everything by being pinned by Santino. Now, they could play with this premise, where we Santina stands up to Miz to defend her brother's honor and gets a junk roll-up on Miz, but if Miz comes right back and beats the shit out of Santino in retaliation, he comes out on top and looks all the worse in the eyes of the fans because he's hurt the one who makes us laugh. I just, like you, have a sinking feeling this is all leading to a Cena squash, thus deflating Miz' balloon.

Miz should be feuding with MVP at this particular time. Their goals are practically the same with wanting to go into the main event and they sorta have a similar personality, but their methods are different. Can you imagine the promos they could have with one another?

Instead, MVP is feuding with Regal, an injured Matt Hardy, and Kofi Kingston is kinda helping him. I don't mind Hardy and Kofi so much, but Regal? Don't get me wrong, the guy still has it, but he seems like he doesn't fit on Raw at this time. I would've moved him to ECW so he can help the younger stars, we can have a credible heel there besides Swagger and Mark Henry (sorry Burchill and Kidd), plus I think a renewed feud with Finlay would be fun. He could even give Christian a run for the title. In short, on ECW he would be relevant, instead of the guy who gets jobbed out on RAW. Miz should've been in Regal's spot on RAW last week.
Posted By: JLAJRC

I can see your dissatisfaction along these lines, JLAJRC, but, looking on the bright side, as well to the past to validate it, for those who recall my stint as the SD! analyst for The R's, I was initially vehemently NOT a fan of MVP's. My initial response to the notion that he should be fairing so well against a ringmaster such as Chris Benoit when they warred over The ICT was one of offense, scoff and indignation. But then, the longer the program went, the more MVP MARKEDLY improved, really going toe-to-toe with Benoit, and this was a direct result of his having worked with Benoit both in the ring and backstage, Benoit introducing MVP to a bunch of the amazing Japanese wrestlers from whom he himself had learned as a youngster. MVP became a proverbial sponge and it from this session of on-the-job tutelage that The Drive-By became a lethal weapon in his arsenal.

All that to say, if the same dividends stand to be earned by MVP from a program with Regal, I say, by all means. Besides, I think we're killing time in MVP's regard (while still using the time wisely to allow fans to invest further in the new full-on face MVP) as Matt Hardy's hand heals, Matt similarly buying time in an innocuous program against Kingston, such that, once Matt challenges for The UST, they can really go and have the string of matches they were meant to have back on SD!, but were disallowed because of MVP's heart issue and Matt's burst appendix.

Both Miz and Morrison have great upsides. While I think Morrison is the one who will go onto "greater" things - A HBK-esque career maybe. The Miz may have a Chris Jericho career - Upper midcard guy with mic skills and charisma that can switch between the rare World Title and midcard level.

You said in the comments about the Edge/Jericho SmackDown deal while Orton gets to be the #1 heel on Raw. That is true, we both have faith in Orton (huge faith!). However, I have no faith in the WWE booking him strong in any way, shape or form. That ship has sailed, it was No Way Out 09 and has only become worse since. I want Orton to do his thing but…he hasn't got a hope in hell.
Posted By: Brad

It certainly pays to be a cynic where WWE booking is concerned these days, doesn't it, since you can't count on anything to go the way you'd like it to go, or with those with whom you hope it might. Expect the worst, hope for the best. I think that's exactly the reason why PPV revenue is down, no matter how Vince & Linda want to spin it. There's too much supply for not enough demand, especially as they continue to raise the cost for too little different than we get on the weekly shows. But I have greater faith in Orton than you appear to have, at least for now and in this current instance.

I mentioned earlier the importance of timing. This is completely in line with those who naturally play a damn good heel (so it applies to The Miz, as well). A natural-born heel like Orton would have made BANK in The Attitude Era, because the nastier he behaved, the more the fans would cheer for him. Now, though, where children rule, heels can expect to display their evil, the top 10% even to wear gold, but to eventually be vanquished summarily by the faces. Sign of the times.

"...it was time for the impressive Morrison (who had started to draw comparisons to a young HBK) to move on as a singles act, with The Miz left to commence a make-or-break period in his own career, the former being moved to Raw, the latter to SmackDown!."

do you know the difference btw "former" and "latter"?
Posted By: sammy

I understand your confusion, and I had to go back and re-read this passage in its entirety, but, taken within holistic context, what I wrote was completely correct, even if it wasn't initially clear. My apologies, for having been misleading, but I appreciate your concern for correctness.

That's all for this week! Thanks for reading; RESPECK!