If I Could Be Serious For A Moment 06.09.09: State of the Federations - WWE
Posted by Chris Lansdell on 06.09.2009
Finishing our look at the three major players with WWE.
Greetings, humanity! Welcome back to If I Could Be Serious for a Moment, your weekly dose of intelligent wrestling discourse with me, Chris Lansdell. This week we're at the end of the State of the Federations series, looking at the Big Kahuna of the wrestling world. Before we get to that we have some feedback to address and, of course, the
BANNER!
Serious Feedback
"Angle is the mouthpiece of the Mafia, but Sting is the silent Godfather type. No, Angle is the Godfather, he just isn't the champion. No, Angle and Sting hate each other, to the exclusion of the feud with the Front Line. The Front Line is all young guys. No, Rhino is in it. Wait, so are Team 3D. And Jarrett. And Foley. Oh, and the Motor City Machine Guns are in, but they're heels. No, they're out. The Front Line stick together. Wait, they don't help each other. No, Sting and Angle are actually fine, but Foley and Jarrett hate each other. So do Joe and AJ. And Eric Young is a heel too"
That is an accurate depiction of Russospeak. I never thought interpretation was possible. Hats off to you Mr. Lansdell, I think that is as close as any of us will ever get to understanding his booking!
Posted By: CanadianCrippler (Guest) on June 02, 2009 at 01:14 AM
I could have added a ton of stuff but it would have ruined the flow. But yeah, that's about the way he books.
WCW was at least on WWE's level,
TNA has never been, and will never be an equal to WWE.
Posted By: Guest#1908 (Guest) on June 02, 2009 at 04:12 AM
WCW in fact surpassed WWF (at the time) and came very close to putting Vince out of business. To boil it down, Bischoff and Russo figured out what fans wanted sooner, but let their egos (or rather Bischoff's ego) control their minds. Once McMahon caught on, he took over. To say that TNA will never accomplish that may seem harsh to some, but it is likely true.
It's pathetic to see the WWE trolls who act like it's the greatest promotion ever just because of its longevity.
Tell me this, fanboys: what about WWE is so good? Tag team wrestling? Women's wrestling? Mid-card division? Stale World Title Division with the same guys over and over?
Also, for all of you fanboys who still think that the WWE is the best thing since sliced bread, wake up to reality. Do you seriously think that they will ever let guys like MVP, CM Punk, and Morrison go over Cena, Orton, Batista, and HHH? Get real!
TNA (along with ROH) is exactly the fresh breath of air wrestling fans have been looking for a long time. Give me a promotion that actually puts over tag team wrestling, women's division, and a believable buildup to young stars like AJ Styles to the World Championship.
Posted By: JR (Guest) on June 02, 2009 at 07:39 PM
A believable build-up for AJ to win the title? Would that be the same one he's held several times before? How much more build-up does he need?
What WWE does well is make people watch. The casual fans tune in because you don't have to be a hardcore wrestling geek to understand what's going on. The hardcore fans watch because WWE still has the biggest names, occasionally pulls out an absolute gem and is not booked by a Ritalin consumer.
TNA has a better mix of big names and new guys than the WWE.Their roster is pound for pound better.
Their show has alot of variety with the x-division,tag and women underneath and the big names on top.
To me,TNA's only weakness is the impact zone itself//
once they go live on the road 24-7,they will be better than the wwe imo...
They have the gimmicks,the storylines,the wrestling,they just need to tour/
Posted By: MacDollarz. (Guest) on June 03, 2009 at 01:21 AM
They have too many gimmicks, storyline that dart from point to point on a whim and wrestling that is as slow and tedious in the upper card as it is exciting on the undercard. Touring may be part of the answer for TNA, it's just not the only answer.
TNA is an equal to the WWe simply becuz they are on primetime every week for 2 hours on basic cable telivision.
they have action figueres,dvd's,retail items,ppv's etc..
shut the fuck up,please.
there's only been 2 larger promotions than TNA and those are WWe and WCW(Rip).
Posted By: MacDollarz. (Guest) on June 03, 2009 at 01:27 AM
Sorry, I cannot follow your logic. TNA has ONE primetime show. WWE has FOUR, plus occasionally has a fifth show on NBC. Plus, I'm fairly sure that All-Japan and New Japan are at least as big as and possibly bigger than TNA.
TNA actually does have a good roster mix, even a bit international (good idea), and if they somehow snagged Jim Ross from WWE (I know it'll never happen, but let's dream for a moment), that's all it would take to make them number one and credible to me.
Let's face it - their announce team is really second-rate...but what if Jim Ross was there? They'd instantly be more listenable with J.R. and Mike Tenay together, and Don West could be a decent heel stable manager, since everyone hates him anyway. He'd easily get the biggest boos forever-more!!
By bringing in a proper announce team, just by replacing ONE GUY is all it would take to FIX TNA for the future.
Posted By: TNA-fixer (Guest) on June 03, 2009 at 11:20 PM
I hope that's sarcasm. Don West has been gold since his heel turn, and bringing in JR would do close to nothing for TNA's numbers. Now I'll agree that he would be far better in TNA where he can be himself, but to suggest that an announcer is the key to TNA's future success is a little...off-kilter.
State of the Federations – WWE
It was debatable for years, but in the past decade it has been beyond question: WWE is the biggest wrestling company in the world. They have the biggest names, the biggest ratings, the biggest live audiences, the biggest shows, the most brand recognition...WWE is wrestling. This position brings with it a drawback: they get the most scrutiny, both from fans who love to pick on the one at the top; and from the media, who instantly point to WWE when wrestling gets a black eye. The weight of expectation is definitely magnified under the gravity of WWE's bright lights and pyro, and as a result it takes a special performer to make it to the top.
The Roster
As always, we'll start at the top. Unfortunately, I could have written this column 4 years ago and the names would have been almost identical: Cena, Orton, HHH, HBK, Edge, Undertaker, Batista. WWE has tried to freshen up the scene by elevating Jeff Hardy and CM Punk while bringing in Chris Jericho and Big Show and resting Kane, Taker, HHH and Shawn Michaels, but the same stale feeling is still there. There appears to be a concerted effort to elevate some younger talent, with the likes of MVP, Miz and Morrison all receiving some big wins in recent weeks. Despite winning the IC title Sunday, Jericho's stock seems to be dropping despite consistently being in the most entertaining angles. He's at the top of the second tier with the likes of Shelton Benjamin, Christian, Jack Swagger, Matt Hardy and Kofi Kingston. These are the guys that aren't main eventing, but could be without much of a stretch from the position they're in now. The great part of this is that half that group are on the younger side. WWE has a large and strong midcard, with plenty of variety, but it's vastly underused. People like Regal, Finlay and Mark Henry are past the days where they will contend for a major title, but they do a good job of making others look good. Yes, even Mark Henry. I would include Umaga in this group, but, well, he belongs in the TNA column. Or he will, in 90 days. People like Evan Bourne, Dolph Ziggler and the Hart Trilogy (well, two of them) are the young guns that aren't quite ready yet.
The tag team scene in WWE hasn't changed: it's still close to non-existent. You've got the Colons, Cryme Time...ummm...Benjamin and Haas, occasionally...ummm...Golddust and Hornswaggle, I guess? Kendrick and his partner du jour? You can include Priceless, I suppose, but they rarely wrestle as a team in the division. A quick look at these teams will tell you that precisely one (two including Priceless) has a team name. For more on my thoughts about the way teams are booked, see the Booking section. As for the roster...there really isn't one.
The women across two "brands" are really stretched too thin. Melina, Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Natalya, Katie Lea, Jillian and, at a push, Michelle McCool all know their way around a ring, but they are surrounded by some pretty useless eye candy. To give the devils their due, WWE have done a phenomenal job of taking models like Trish Stratus, Candace, Eve Torres and even Kelly Kelly and turning them into passable wrestlers. The lack of focus on the "real" wrestling women is as much to do with the fans not caring about women's wrestling as it is to do with Vince being a pervert. Far more, in fact. Either way, WWE could have a strong women's division if they wanted to, and if they let the women be themselves, but they don't because it won't matter.
The Booking
The staleness of many parts of WWE's roster is mainly the fault of the booking. You have the majority of your top guys nearing retirement, yet you continue to bounce them off one another, choosing not to elevate anyone. For example, one of the best angles in wrestling in the last 18 months was Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels. Who, exactly, was this feud supposed to benefit? Neither guy needed the feud win to be over. I'm glad they had it, but then they both moved on to other feuds that did nothing to elevate talent. Face Michaels and heel Punk could have torn down houses everywhere while heel Jericho and face MVP or Kofi did the same thing. Even when one of the upper echelon has faced a newcomer (HHH and Kozlov, for example), the result has been a complete destruction of the new guy.
Some of it is about comfort. The bookers know that Edge and Cena have great chemistry and always engage the fans, so they put them together...over 35 times. Orton and Cena aren't far off that total. Triple H sandwiched his Kozlov feud between an Orton one and a Jeff Hardy one, winning them all. Batista hasn't been a heel since turning on Evolution. The thing is, there is a lot of contradiction in WWE too. They claim to be PG, and bear that out with stuff like Hornswaggle, Santino, poop jokes and John Cena toning himself WAY down. Then they intersperse things like home invasions, abuse of women, marital infidelity and throwing a guy into a searchlight. If you're going to do the family-friendly thing, do it. If you're going edgy, go all out.
The biggest singles booking issue is that there are not enough strong heels in WWE. In order to really make an angle buzz and get people behind it, the heel is more important than the face. Fans will cheer the face far more if they hate the heel, but just making the fans love the face isn't enough to get the heel over. Fans will cheer good over evil, they won't boo someone just because the other guy is good. In WWE right now there are three strong heels: Edge, Jericho and Orton. If you think back over the last two years, the only angles that stand out that didn't include one of these three men were face-face angles involving Shawn Michaels, possibly the greatest performer ever.
I promised more on the booking of tag teams, and here it is: it sucks. There are two uses for tag teams in WWE – parking spots for singles guys for a few months, when they have nothing else to do with them (see Haas and Benjamin right now), or they use the team to bring two guys in, knowing full well that they will break the team up in a few months and push one or both to the moon. Of all the teams in WWE right now, only Cryme Time has been around any length of time. Teams like Miz and Morrison, MNM, LonDrick, Ryder and Hawkins, Jesse and Festus...all gone, replaced by singles pushes for some and obscurity for the rest.
Positioning
The best thing about being at the top is that you don't have to catch anyone. WWE is so far ahead of the competition that they can afford to cruise. Unfortunately for us, that's exactly what they are doing.
With the talent they have, WWE are ideally positioned to make some stars before the old guard start to retire gradually. HHH, Batista, Michaels, Taker and HBK are all at or past 40, and they need to spend some time putting over young guys before they go. If WWE can convince the stars to do that, then they are sitting pretty. The problem is that they haven't. Sure CM Punk, Jeff Hardy and even MVP have got some big wins, but they're going to have to make good use of the couple of years they have yet unless they want ratings to drop even further due to lack of name value.
There's a school of thought that says that WWE are over-saturating, and the position of 4 TV shows plus too many PPVs is going to burn their audience out. I tend to agree with this theory more than disagree, simply because it's just too much. You can't overfeed your audience, especially when you have a fairly tenuous hold on some of them in the first place. McMahon seems to think they could run a show every night and not suffer from that...I hope for his company's sake that he knows that's not true.
So where is WWE positioned? At the top, miles ahead of anyone, with no reason to push themselves. No mater how shoddy the product, we all keep watching. They have the roster to stay strong IF they want to.
Serious Tweets
This week's question: Have the absences of Kane, HHH, HBK and Undertaker done anything to freshen the main event?
411's own Michael Bauer:
Of course it freshened up the Main Event of Smackdown, but Batista vs Orton is just as boring.
411's own Aaron Hubbard:
Yes. But RAW NEEDS HBK back. And Undertaker really doesn't hurt anything.
EricBroughton: Only if MVP gets elevated, it's still the same guys in the main event, there's just less of them. At least on raw.
Bripelts: Not really, 'cause the main event is still Cena, Batista, Orton, Edge, etc.
The consensus seems to be that it hasn't done enough. It says a lot when you take 4 of the longest-tenured names off TV for a month or more, and it isn't enough to change the landscape. A little top-heavy, maybe?
Well folks, that's my creativity tapped out. I'll see you next week, same time same channel. To make sure you don't miss it, you can follow 411wrestling or me on Twitter, or of course just bookmark 411mania!
I think the process has already started of pushing new main eventers, if Punks heel turn(hopefully) turns out the way many hope it will keep him top of the card, plus MVP is on the road the title now i think.
I think the injuries to HBK, Taker & Batista have opened there eyes more & i fully expect another 2 or 3 main eventers by the time the summers over.
Posted By: jbardo (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Jack Swagger>Randy Orton
Posted By: Guest#7045 (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 12:30 PM
wwe's product is horrendous. it really is.
Posted By: Joe Mastronardo (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 01:27 PM
Great article. You make some really good points. IMO, the lack of decent heels (outside of Jericho, Orton and Edge) has really hurt the product over the long term. I always felt it makes for poor drama if the heel doesn't stand tall at the end of the show some of the time. Smackdown and sometimes WWECW gets that some of the time but when was the last time that Orton/Legacy, or any other heel for that matter, was allowed to stand tall at the end of an episode of RAW? It's rare if it's allowed to happen 5 times in a year. If the heel is never considered to be a threat, the audience will never fully invest in the face and the audience won't be encouraged to pay to finally see the heel get his comeuppance. It's some really classic and basic booking that the WWE has seemed to forget over the years.
The main reason Hulk Hogan was so popular over the years is that the heels were always allowed to look strong, even at the expense of Hogan on several occasions. The audience paid to go to the house shows and paid for the PPVs to see Hogan finally beat whoever he was facing. That kind of booking has worked since the beginning of pro wrestling.
Posted By: Cory (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 01:38 PM
SD will just steal all of WWE's momentum and htat's a good thing. Jeff Hardy seems to be going bye bye, Edge really needs a break cuz he's been having all these crazy matches, pushing Punk in his place as a top heel is smart. And with the WWE wanting to keep away from drug suspensions and the steroid moniker, who better to push as your star than a man who has drug free tatooed on his hands. What a (hopefully) great storyline if Punk talks about not wanting to be on the show where the top face has well-known problems. Punk really is so much better as a heel and it seems in the past few months his popularity has been waning a bit. I think he could be a heel the fans cheer.
RAW is just a waste, plain and simple. The top stars wont change. They'll push Miz and MVP and probably bury them on the same Monday Night RAW. Miz unfortunately is being pushed against Cena who will never let(and neither will McMahon) Miz legitimately go over on him. MVP is now pushed aside for HHH, so he falls to the side. HBK can come back, but for what? Taker is really an entity more than anything that is suited just fine with being around once and a while. Being on SD doesnt demand he be on all year because other guys are pushed in his place. Batista is a waste and shouldve gotten the Kennedy treatment. RAW is just dying honestly.
As far as the women go, the best of the best are on SD and ECW which is lucky for them. Beth and Mickie aret really doing anything on RAW as theyve been pushed aside for Santina and Kelly Kelly. Thankfully the title that matters is on Melina and on SD. Natalya, the real best of the entire divison may not be wrestling, but shes on every week in a meaningful capacity and is the needed mouthpiece for the Hart Dynasty. ECW and SD tape together, and I'd love to see her get a title push. She and Melina could have a great summertime feud.
Posted By: CL (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 01:45 PM
You didn't really put Trish in the same category as Candace, Eve, and Kelly did you? In the In the quiet words of the Virgin Mary... come again?
Posted By: ScottieD (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 01:46 PM
The E should trim the fat and just have one three hour show a week. Most likely RAW. Do away with Smackdown,ECW and Superstars. The ECW name is tarnished I doubt many people will miss the show.
Also breakdown the PPVS and just have the big four. Wrestlemainia,Royal Rumble, Summer Slam and Survivor Series. Less burn out and more build up and excitement for the fans.
Posted By: Captain_America (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 01:58 PM
Please someone answer this...why is everyone hoping certain people get pushed who really dont get any crowd reaction? MVP does not get a great crown reaction. He does not deserve the title, now or anywhere in the near future. Batista comes back, there was no crowd pop at all, and he gets the title. Morrison, i am sorry, is boring. His promo's are horrible. He does not deserve to be champ. And BTW, why does everyone need to be champ to get over? Some of the greatest stars from the past never held ANY GOLD AT ALL...Jake Roberts, Jimmy Snuka, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Big Bossman, PIPER...these were all guys WAY OVER than most of the talent today, and they never had ANY gold whatsoever, and no one ever said anything about them being "held back"...they just did their thing, had great fueds that didnt need gold. Thats what made the belts (IC & World) mean so much. Not every guy in the world needed one to be "over". I hate wrestling the way it is..everyone and their mother has some sort of gold. That is BS in my book.
BTW, if I was booking, I would turn guys heel that arent getting over...Batista & Cena (Even though in reality if I was booking Batista would be fired cause I hate that guy)...but a heel Cena may have potential...MVP & Morrison would never have gold until they were really REALLY over, giving them gold so soon hurts them (look what it did for Carlito...anyone even remember he won rthe IC & US belts on his first nites in each brand??). Bring back the One champ and let him defend on both shows. Brock Lessnar defending the World Title on both Raw & Smackdown was real fun back in the day, and it ment something.
Ok, i better stop cause i can rant all day long!!!
Posted By: Mike (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 03:12 PM
The E should trim the fat and just have one three hour show a week. Most likely RAW. Do away with Smackdown,ECW and Superstars. The ECW name is tarnished I doubt many people will miss the show.
Also breakdown the PPVS and just have the big four. Wrestlemainia,Royal Rumble, Summer Slam and Survivor Series. Less burn out and more build up and excitement for the fans.
Posted By: Captain_America (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 01:58 PM
Thats not a bad idea considering the most tv and ring time will be going to the boss' son in law would totally suck and not put anyone else over. There should not be a brand split, wwe should just start canning the old timers or experienced or just less tv time for them and build up the young crowd.
Posted By: guest1228 (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 05:17 PM
Sorry, I cannot follow your logic. TNA has ONE primetime show. WWE has FOUR, plus occasionally has a fifth show on NBC.
Yeah and WWE stil sucks, they try to do way too many things with what they have, and even with 4 and sometimes 5 shows it is the same people over and over again. These guys don't even have brands. How many times has Orton, Cena, Batista, HHH, Edge, Big Show, Undertaker, and whomever is the flavor of the month taken up WAYYYYY too much time on a brand that wasn't theirs?
Would be really interesting to see what TNA could do with 4 or 5 hours a week, instead of two. The fact that WWE HAS 6 and sometimes 8 hours a week to promote, as well as running PPVs out there every 3 weeks, should actually garner the question, with so much time why can't they make a decent product with a storyline that is actually plausible and one people could follow without having to twist and trn it because they can't figure out which way tomake it go?
TNA isn't any better, but they have an excuse, they have ONLY 2 hours a week to do it. Not to mention they actually have more young talent that they sometimes try and get on TV once in awhile as well.
They just need to cut the whole Main Event Mafia stuff, and get on with it. but they see WWE push out these old has beens that were has beens inthe 9s and still make ratings, so they try to emmulate it in their own way.
But they should go old school, bring back managers and their antics, rather than have these guys wrestle directly, have them in the cornor of some actual talent and have cross fueds take place. Having Nash roll around with Samoa Joe (won't have to see that for awhile) even with "their history" just isn't good wrestling. They should have an awesome angle, they just can't sell it. So get rid of these guys wrestling and have them promote or manage newer talent. And keep Scott Stiener off the mic. Damn he makes Cody Rhodes, Swagger, and that other lispy loser sound like MLK. He doesn't even speak English and they let him ramble on.
Someone needs tomake a drastic change and shake it up, and get away from the old mold. Because every promotion is stale right now it seems. Sometimes you have t gamble to win big. Name recognition is one thing, but braking the mold is totally another.
Posted By: Rich (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 05:57 PM
Chris, well done on an absolutely awesome series. You make some fantastic, insightful and thought-provoking points and it's great to see all of the franchises given the same treatment by the same critical eye. Again, well done!
Posted By: geoff eubanks (Registered) on June 09, 2009 at 06:05 PM
I wonder why people get so mad so quick about the main event scene. I am like everyone else when I say I want someone new but the question is who. We can pull names up but the fact is everyone in WWE and TNA who the fans would respoind to as champ has had it at one time or another. It's a business and it really doesn't matter if the IWC's favorite workrate guy is capable unitl the fans respond there is no point in bitching. Also as for the Jericho/HBK feud that saved and reinvented Chris Jericho from his attitude down to his manner of dress and ring attire. I don't see how you can say his storyline didn't have a purpose because he was floundering. I will say this with Batista gone I have quite a bit of hope for Raw now. Say what you want about HHH but he can put on a match...and Batista can't.
Posted By: The Get Some Kid (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 07:11 PM
I've been thinking about this question a lot today....Are we going to see an Edge babyface turn??? Just spit ballin out there
Posted By: Justin (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 07:37 PM
One of the problems with creating new main event stars is that you need to push established stars down the card or have them leave.
And in the past 4 years - which main eventers have left the company? Well, I looked at the 2005 PPV's and the championship/main events.
Chris Benoit (BIH) & Eddie Guerrero (RIP)
JBL (retired)
Kurt Angle (TNA)
Who has moved up to main event since then?
Jeff Hardy, CM Punk
The same from 4 years ago:
HHH, HBK, Taker, Orton, Cena, Batista, Edge, Jericho, Big Show.
So you are creating a new main eventer once every 2 years - basically because the main event players aren't leaving or moving down the card.
Now is the time to move a couple off either down the card or off the rosters completely.
1. Batista - injury prone, older, probably doesn't sell a lot of merchandise. Plus - his only good matches have been with Taker.
2. Big Show - he's starting to look like the Big Show that left a few years ago - unmotivated, slow and not staying in shape.
3. HBK/Taker - the time off has actually helped the younger guys because if they were both healthy, they'd be involved in some of the storylines taking time away from Punk or MVP. Not saying release for these guys - but they should be comfortable working in lower level programs.
Posted By: BobbyC (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 09:17 PM
The E should trim the fat and just have one three hour show a week. Most likely RAW. Do away with Smackdown,ECW and Superstars. The ECW name is tarnished I doubt many people will miss the show.
Also breakdown the PPVS and just have the big four. Wrestlemainia,Royal Rumble, Summer Slam and Survivor Series. Less burn out and more build up and excitement for the fans.
Posted By: Captain_America (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 01:58 PM
So instead of seeing good wrestling on Smackdown! you'd rather just see an extended Raw where the new guys will now get 5 minutes to wrestle instead of 4?
And this is exactly why the internet community makes no sense to me. You hate a product so much, then stop watching it. It's that easy. I've stuck to DVRing Smackdown or catching it on youtube, ignore Raw, and watch ECW to see up coming talent. There's a product for everyone so pick a show and quit bitching about a show not being exactly how you want it to be.
Posted By: Douchebag (Guest) on June 09, 2009 at 10:12 PM
Super Cena doesn't help either. At least Super Hogan looked legitamately threatened by a heel, i.e. earthquake, andre, macho man, etc...sometimes hogan would litarally be about to cry because of the pain he was caused. Cena won't even sell Show as a threat. The guy can pick up Show like nothing. He's slammed through a 700-volt spotlight and walks the next night. There really was no reason Show had to tap to the crossface. the guy is 7 foot, 5oo pounds...why in the fuck would a crossface make him tap, much less any submission move. the people are bored of Super Cena. he needs to be more vulnerable, less indestructible. the WWE is so afraid of hurting Cena, it's ridiculous.
They need to make Legacy seem like a legitimate threat to anyone. They are easily the weakest stable in the history of pro wrestling. Its June, and they expect to turn DiBiase by the time the Marine sequel comes out. Yet they aren't even showing little signs of dissention between the two. The build will come and it will be just as meaningless as burying these guys like they are.
Batista hasn't been a heel since he turned on Evolution? What about Cena? The guy gets booed out of buildings every night! How have they not turned a negative into a positive like they did with the Rock? CM Punk is going to start to get booed pretty soon. And not for the right reasons.
Posted By: sour grapes (Guest) on June 10, 2009 at 04:22 AM
I liked the column, however, mentioning Trish Stratus as a passable wrestler in the same sentence with Candice Michelle, Eve Torres and Kelly Kelly is stupid, TRISH IS AWESOME and they are not
Posted By: Freeman (Guest) on June 10, 2009 at 07:17 AM
WWE have done a phenomenal job of taking models like Trish Stratus, Candace, Eve Torres and even Kelly Kelly and turning them into passable wrestlers.
Already seen some responses in the same vein as I was going to say, but yeah one of these things is not like the other indeed. Big difference between passable and what Trish was in the ring and even the mic/backstage stuff
Posted By: Guest#0640 (Guest) on June 10, 2009 at 09:18 PM
Putting Trish with Candice and Kelly Kelly is a big no-no, but Eve Torres looks like the real deal and probably shouldn't be so quickly dismissed (if at all even), perhaps due to some legit athletic ability, according to her wikipedia entry. Eve already has a certain crispness in some of her offense that not even all the top-tier divas have. Dunno if she got much of any ring time in OVW or FCW, but she's already easily better than Kelly Kelly, Candice, and everyone else not in the top tier (excluding Layla), with all of five or so main roster matches under her belt. Promising to say the least.
Eve and Layla are legitimate breakout stars that are already creeping up on McCool, who's at the bottom of the top-tier of diva talents, imo. Layla may already be there, since she makes up for what she may lack in technical soundness and polish by putting her character into how she wrestles, making her at least more interesting to watch than McCool's fundamentally fine but, dare I say, soulless style.
That all said, excellent assessment of the state of the WWE, Mr. Lansdell. I think I'll check out your TNA one now, since I missed it.
Posted By: Mr. GE (Guest) on June 12, 2009 at 02:56 AM
The TNA one was good too, lol.
Posted By: Mr. GE (Guest) on June 12, 2009 at 03:51 AM
