411mania.com: Wrestling - The Wrestling Guide 10.15.09

Welcome all to what isn't The Hamilton Ave Journal. JP couldn't be here this week because…well, it really not any ones business but from your family at 411, JP you stay strong and you are all in our thoughts and prayers (for those of us that do that type of thing) and you come back when your ready.

As for me, I'm the rarely seen entity of 411 these days. I mainly do CD reviews and contribute to the Top 5 in the wrestling zone where I cop tremendous amounts of abuse because I reuse to hate Chris Benoit implicitly and the occasional Smackdown review when need arise where I also get heapings of hate because I dare use the work "fuck". I once did this very news spot in this here Wrestling Zone years and was editor of the Movie Zone and Sports Zone when it was functional. I'm too old and cranky these days to keep up a regular writing schedule but I do enjoy doing these types of fill-ins when I can because they can be fun. I didn't have time for graphics and other fun stuff so apologies for the bare bones look.

Anyway, I'm here for this week and hopefully JP is back on deck next week and if he isn't, someone else will be here I'm sure.

So welcome those of you reading to......

The Wrestling Guide

RIP – Capt. Lou Albano
I wanted to lead off with the sad news as a certifiable wrestling legend passed this week. Lou was a major player in the WWE expansion because of his staring roles in Cyndi Lauper videos where his larger than life persona shone through and helping draw people to that new fangled rock ‘n roll wrestling. For us fans, he was the master manager of tag teams guiding a whopping 15 teams to gold and also managing Ivan Koloff the night he beat Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF Title. He also was the voice of Mario in the Super Mario Brother Super Show and a regular on many TV shows.

I'll always remember this short, overweight man, with rubber bands hanging from his face that looked goofy as the first time I saw him back at WM1 and as the guy that managed The British Bulldogs (my favourite wrestlers at the time) to gold at WM2, I always had a soft spot for him. When I later learned what his contribution to wrestling history was and just how great a manager he was as a heel, I was immensely happy to see him enter the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996.

As weird as it sounds, I was glad to hear of a wrestling death from a guy in his 70's than someone under 50. As a tribute to the Cap the rest of this column will be seen in ALBANOVISION!!!!

Pretty cool hey ☺

Wrestlingfigs.com have announced the following funeral arrangements for Captain Lou Albano:

A PRIVATE wake will be held at Balsamo-Cordovano Funeral Home - 15 Church Street, Carmel, NY from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, October 16th.

The funeral home suggested if anyone wants to send flowers to call Carmel Flower Shop @ 845-225-4623.

A funeral Mass will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday, October 17th at St. James the Apostle Church - 14 Gleneida Avenue, Carmel, NY.

Hulk Hogan = Worth a Few Good Laughs
So Hogan has a new book coming out and I'm already calling shenanigans on some of the excerpts that have come out. Case in point…

"But the closest I came to a career-ender was right when Hulkamania first took off--on the night I won the belt from the Iron Sheik in 1984. The stakes were so high that night, every move I made was over the top. Halfway through the match I jumped up in the air real high and dropped a knee in the Iron Sheik's chest. Even when the mat is perfectly flat, it hurts. But that night there was a board in the ring that was out of place. The edge of that board was sticking up into the canvas--and that's exactly where my left knee landed. I exploded my kneecap. Here I was at Madison Square Garden, knowing I was going to win the world title. There's no way I wasn't going to finish that match. It was the ultimate high, being in that ring, so I just pushed through the pain. A few minutes later, when I couldn't take it anymore, I started Hulking Up--I hadn't really perfected that whole thing yet, but I had to do something to end that match quick. So I rallied my strength for everyone to see, and got ready for the finish, and I pulled the crowd right with me. With that kneecap totally blown, I laid the Leg Drop on the Sheik, and 'One...Two...Three!' I won the title."

Now, exploding ones kneecap is EXTREMELY painful and while I could see him making it through a match as adrenaline is a wonderful thins. However, I cannot see him walking around celebrating after the match without any visible sings of the injury let alone backstage.

I'm no medical expert so I did some hunting around and found a bunch of forums where people talked about their "shattered" kneecaps and almost all of them talked about having the pieces wired together, multiple surgeries and months heading into years of recovery. 411s Larry Csonka did major knee damage a few years ago and I asked for his thoughts...

I fractured my knee cap, split down the middle. But I also tore some shit as well including an ACL, so I had a long recovery time.

Hogan, as usual, is full of shit.

The thing is, I have never heard of this incident and you just know the Hogan would have been talking for years about working through a match with a "shattered" kneecap so I claim bullshit. I could imagine a dislocated kneecap, which can degenerate over time, if not taken care of, which I did in my teens playing rugby league (I'm Australian BTW) and because I didn't take care of it I have chronic arthritis now. Seeing as how Hogan limps badly now…this I would totally believe.

The other tidbit that I laughed at was….

The worst thing I can say about steroids is they made me sweat a lot, which could be kind of embarrassing. They would occasionally give me killer acne--like I'd get a monster zit on my ass, the kind that's so tight you felt like you could bend over and shoot it across the room: 'Hey, catch this!' "

Not that I don't believe him but I had images of Knobbs and Beefcake eagerly fighting each other to be the catcher to that particular pitch. You may be disgusted at how my mind works but don't tell me you couldn't see this happening.

JR Has The Night Off – Will BE Quitting Life
While I think JRs blogs are self-indulgent, condescending and often times useless I do admit I like the fact it sounds like it was writing by him (or at least a direct transcript of what he said) and I believe him when he says he's looking to resign with the WWE. Let's face it, even at his worst he's a million times better than anyone else and can work with ANYONE sitting beside him and make it sound interesting. Vince understands that and every time he's removed JR from he announce table the product has suffered. Keeping him is worth whatever shortcomings Vince perceives JR has because he is totally reliable.

WWE Pretends To Care About What We Think – Situation Normal…..
So the WWE have a poll going asking us what we think about certain things about stuff that they do. Here's a sample of a page of questions they asked….

A pay-per-view featuring Hell in a Cell matches does not interest me.
I was satisfied learning about Hell in a Cell results on TV.
I was not interested in the main event participants.
I was not available to watch the event.
I tried to order Hell in a Cell, but couldn't due to technical problems.
The matches were similar to previous pay-per-view events.
I didn't know the date or time of the event.
I preferred to watch Hell in a Cell clips on YouTube.
I thought the match outcomes would be too predictable.
I opted to watch other non-WWE pay-per-views in October.
WWE's TV programs were not focused enough on Hell in a Cell.
I'm generally less interested in WWE.
Due to the economy, I've limited my spending on WWE pay-per-view.
Everything I need to see is available on WWE's weekly TV shows.
I was unsatisfied with previous WWE pay-per-view purchases.
I preferred to read Hell in a Cell results online.
Storylines leading into Hell in a Cell did not interest me.
The announced matches did not interest me

There are some loaded questions on that lot but is anyone (i.e Vince) going to act on what we tell them? PPV buyrates have fallen considerable in the past 4 years and all the bullshit talk about the industry being cyclical is looking more hollow by the day. Fans have been voting with their feet (dwindling house show crowds) and their wallets (less PPV buys) for ages now and we still get the same stuff. I'm probably one of the few out their that likes the Cena/Orton feud but even I think it's gone too far.

When RAW has guys like MVP, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger and Evan Borne all getting good reactions but NOT moving up the card then things are broken. Plain and simple and in the age of super-fast consumer turnover, we constantly want fresh faces at the top. It's working for Smackdown with CM Punk so it boggles that RAW is the land of the dinosaur thinking.

The main event of Hell in a Cell perfectly encapsulates what is wrong. DX going over, Legacy looking like punks when two young guys can't beat a near-crippled veteran. The story of the match was fantastic but if it ended with DX getting their ass handed to them, it does a whole lot more for the WWE than if they win. Right now, Dibiase and Rhodes look like guys that can't get it done…the exact opposite of what they need to be.

The NWA Title – Sad Days
Just quickly…..Ric Flair is an idiot. Any goodwill he had is now pretty much gone. Vince gave him a lifeline and brought him back in and made him THE MAN once more but in recent light of his business dealings and just general douchery…I hope this latest hit really gets to him because he has no more cash cows left. His millions are gone and there is no third coming. He can't cut it in the ring anymore and his aura is gone.

ECW Ratings
So the show scored a 0.95...TNA does not much better than that....is Kurt Angle still thinking TNA is about to smash the WWE anytime soon? I know it's an old reference but it's still valid as far as Kurts mental state or lack thereof...never mind where he sticks his dick.

We currently are asking question about what can ECW do to improve its rating, click here to read what others have to say and add an opinion yourself.

The Art Of Jobbing

Every time I do a fill-in a add a rant about what generally bothers me at the time. Take it or leave it….

Ever heard the saying what's old is new again? Everybody is so hot looking for the next big way for wrestling to start having a new boom period that the basics are starting to slide. By that I mean, the fundamental foundations that go into building interest are all but extinct these days and while I realize that many of them (the territorial system for one) will never come back, maybe all feds would be wise to start looking back as a way to go forward. As you can guess by the title of this little section, I believe the humble jobber really needs to start being employed on a more regular basis.

For those of us that started watching wrestling in the mid-80's, we all have fond memories of The Mulky's, "Iron" Mike Sharp, Rusty Brookes, SD Jones and Barry Horowitz that are as ingrained as the names Flair, Savage, Hogan, Sting and Luger. These jobbers made an art of going out there and putting on entertaining squashes that got their opponent over and made for entertaining matches. Because of the jobbers, the viewer never got burned out on seeing main eventers wrestling each other outside of PPV cards and thus created the excitement when they finally clashed.

And by all this, I mean jobber matches on TV. By keeping TV exposure of your upper card talent wrestling each other to a bare minimum, you then create interest not only in PPV matches but house shows as well. Add in the fact that your green stars (think Batista or Cena in the early days) can then go out on TV, look a million bucks, win all their matches and gain invaluable ring time wrestling veterans teaching them timing and ring awareness.

Would people still watch RAW if there were really only jobber matches? I think so. I know that I really only tune into RAW to see the angles and the same for Smackdown. Late last year Jeff Hardy did two weeks in a row scoring wins over The Undertaker and Triple H on route to winning the World Title at Armageddon. While I certain appreciated seeing these matches for free, I was watching more for the build than I was for the matches and probably would have paid money to see these matches on PPV.

Let's face it, in the age of 18 PPV's a year there needs to be a damn good reason to shell out for them and seeing such high profile matches on free TV takes away a vast majority of those reasons. We can still have main events that go 15-20 minutes. Some of my favourite matches in the past couple of years have been 6-man tags and the like and you can mash different feuds into these clashes and get some outstanding spectacles…the RAW 10-man tag form 2000 comes to mind.

You could even bring back a Television Title that gets defended every week over both Smackdown and RAW as a way to help push the lower card talents. Guys like Kofi Kingston or The Miz would excel in these roles and it becomes a litmus test for any wrestler coming up as to how they can build matches and interact with the crowd. Or you tell me, would you like seeing someone like Kofi go at it with Evan Borne full tilt for 10 minutes? I know I would.

It would also be a tremendous chance to help develop moveset for performers as they get the chance to road test new moves so when The Ultimate Warrior runs out and splashes The Honky Tonk Man, we know Honky is fucked because we spent nearly 12 months watching Warrior murder jobbers with that move. It helps develop layers to a wrestler so when the do a turn or overcome the odds, we KNOW what the fuck is going on. Because right now, wrestler A beats wrestler B, reverse the decision the next week, no one get s a decisive when and no one gets any heat or traction is progressively killing the enjoyablity of the product.

Sadly, all my words are for nothing as the jobber as a function of building a wrestler is almost dead and as long as Vince is turning a profit and stays in business, he wont change his business model or should he need to. Fns need to vote with their feet and their remotes and when RAW is barely cracking 1.0 in the ratings he'll soon start listening to the people…just like he did with Austin and The Rock.

Time To Go
This was going to be much longer but I had my own hiccup along the way…I got fired over the phone form my job while typing this up. So I'm posting this late to the server hoping that Larry doesn't have a thrombo waiting for it and hoping he understands the lateness.

Hopefully, JP feels up to coming back next week but if not I may come back and actually do this properly with graphics and stuff.

Until then…be good.

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Comments (23)

Albano vision > Khali vision (as Jeff Small no doubt has already planned)

Posted By: Viper Fontaine (Guest) on October 14, 2009 at 11:51 PM

Just quickly…..Ric Flair is an idiot. Any goodwill he had is now pretty much gone. Vince gave him a lifeline and brought him back in and made him THE MAN once more...

and explain to me how Vince made Flair "THE MAN" once more...was it by jobbing him to Hogan when Hogan came back. even though Flair was a million times better in the ring and, at least, on par with him outside? Was it by jobbing him to the Undertaker at WM 18? Was it by jobbing him to Shelton Benjamin or Umaga? Was it by making Flair look like a complete joke(at least in the eyes of us who thought alot of Flair's legacy) by letting him be IC champ(a belt that is FAR beneath him? You know, Vince McMahon did more to TARNISH Flair's legacy than he did to help it, and anyone who says differently is a blind-man or a liar or a McMahon kiss-ass.

Posted By: JWestmoreland (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 12:38 AM

There are jobbers now. Pretty much everybody that has a match against HHH, UT or Cena is a jobber. I'd bet WWE would do better if there were less jobbers actually, and those 3 lost matches. Legacy is another jobber squad too, as you mentioned but didn't really include.

I don't think the actual full time jobber works. That is why it was abandoned. Beating a jobber is a waste of time and nobody wants to watch it. I mean just look at when WWF Challenge or whatever it was called was on, it was geared towards kids and it was time slotted for kids. It's like Power Rangers or Pokemon. Right now, there are just too many options to bother with wrestling if it's going to be that boring.

I mean obviously you make good points, I don't want to pretend you didn't. I just don't think that type of show would get near the rating RAW gets even now, because it never got those ratings before. Those were the recap shows basically, like Heat was, if Heat is even still around, and how Superstars or whatever it is now is on. It's not like it's not done anymore, afaik, it's just it's not a viable model really, since RAW draws revenue.

If anything, I think they should just give up on the PPV model entirely. WWE is entertainment, not a combat sport. Wrestlers need to understand that they are just actors. Crappy actors for the most part, but actors nonetheless. And what type of stuff do crappy actors generally work in? TV movies or sitcoms. And that's the direction I think WWE needs to go to in order to be profitable. Can the PPVs and instead try to fill the void in network TV right now because reality shows suck and nobody can right sitcoms anymore, and network airings of actual movies don't work because everybody has seen it already. Fill that void with wrestling. The PPVs would be like the "broadcast premier" movies of yesteryear. WWE is PG now, so that is the benefit, a paradigm shift in a changing economy.

Anyway, that's what I'd suggest if I was consulting, and that's what I'd try to use my contacts for if I was Vince, unless he burned all his bridges. NBC or CBS would probably listen however, NBC DID do SNME way back. I'm not sure how long the mainstream public would put up with Cena and HHH though winning all the time.

Posted By: Guest#0015 (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 01:33 AM

Who the fuck writes this column. I've been a fan of this website for five years( I recall reading the results of the 2004 royal rumble ). This guy shits on flair and hogan as if he has contributed anything to professional wrestling! Playing rugby does not impress your readership. Honestly, the is the most IWC sounding article I've ever read on 411mania. I hope this is a one shot deal. Terrible

Posted By: Guest#4249 (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 01:12 AM

Trust me, I didn't write a single word to impress you.

Oh, I've been involved with running 411 since 2003 and writing for it for almost as long. So if you're going to use tenure as a reason why you are just so right about me, I still have you beat on that score.

Posted By: Iron Chef Bobby Flay (Registered) on October 15, 2009 at 01:57 AM

Nice column, reading it was like finding my soul mate, I would totally let you have your way with me. Or high five as much as you wanted, you know, whatever man.

Posted By: GuidingLight (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 02:33 AM

Hell I loved this article. Screw you fucks that can't handle the truth. Ric Flair shat away his rep, period. He should tell his kids to name all their future kids after Vince, otherwise Ric would probably be poor on the streets right now OF HIS OWN DOING. And Hogan, christ, that guy was full of shit when he wrestled, like he'd be any different now?

BTW, felt the same way about the poll. Wrestling sucks now, period, and I can't for the life of me even remember why I used to enjoy watching this. I don't miss not watching it now, that's for sure. If there was any semblance that WWE did listen to its fans again, they might get an audience back, including myself, but I got a feeling I'd better not hold my breath over that.

Posted By: Butters4Prez (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 02:47 AM

Extra-bitter column all round this time...I guess the loss of Cpt. Lou hit your hard, understandable.

Posted By: LDM (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 03:55 AM

Ohhh, resign as in 'sign again'.

I thought for a minute there you meant resign as in 'hand in notice'.

Posted By: Quimby (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 04:02 AM

This was a good column...don't listen to the dude who's just pissed he hasn't gotten laid since the Attitude Era.

Man, I've been saying for a while that I think the best thing to freshen up the product is to go back to the late 80s/early 90s product. If you think about it, Vince isn't too far off of it now...PG rating, no blood, no real heavy use of weapons anymore -- take that and run with it! Remember the days when someone bleeding was huge, people getting hit with a chair/belt and kicking out was amazing, and Vince actually gave us wrestling matches instead of 30 min promos that involve him or his son-in-law? Yeah...I think that'd work excellently. And I'm with you on the TV Title coming back...think it'd be awesome for the midcarders.

Posted By: Gillberg (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 06:50 AM

One thing the WWE needs to do more of is to make debuts of new guys seem important. What happened to the video intro? They'd run videos for about a month or so hyping the debut, so that when the wrestler actually came in, he seemed like a big thing. Far too often, we see guys come in, and the fans are expected to cheer or boo them. Even on ECW, which is where most of the debuts take place these days, there needs to be some anticipation. If memory serves, the last wrestler to get the full-on debut treatment was CM Punk. Why not have more of those? While that won't fix everything that ails the company, it can at least help the younger talent.

As for PPV's, they need to scale back, at least to 12 per year. Doing a PPV every three weeks or so except around WM is just insane. This give the company no opportunity to build up their storylines in a logical way. Actually, i'd say cut down to eight per year, but that's really too much to hope for. What they could do is to go back to the IYH model of 95-97. Have the big four (or five if they want to elevate the June PPV), then have the remainder be two hour PPVs with a slightly reduced price tag.

Posted By: Michael L (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 08:07 AM

I remember the days when WWF Superstars of Wrestling was nothing but squash matches over jobbers and every time you got to see two 'name' wrestlers having a match it was a biiiig deal.

However, even though WWE no longer has the kind of competition it had when WCW was still around, if they were to begin using jobbers again, they'd give TNA, ROH and just about everyone else a huge weapon. The fans accepted the squashes back then because that was all they had - going back to that now would alienate a lot of fans.

Having the same top of the card year-in-year-out is hurting the product in ways a dedicated jobber squad could not fix.

Posted By: woody (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 08:40 AM

Sorry you got fired. Good column though if it is any consolation.

Posted By: Steve (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 10:04 AM

@ JWestmoreland (Guest)- Every post you make further proves what a dumb fuck you truly are. If they brought Flair back and made him a main event talent and handed him the World Heavyweight Championship, what does that say about the rest of the roster? He was old as hell and his in-ring skills had diminished. The IC Title still had some prestige to it at the time as well.

But oh, I forgot we are all liars or blind men, or Vince ass-kissers, right? Why don't you go jerk off to some Motor City Machine Guns spot-fest and let the big boys talk, okay?

@Scott Rutherford- Good stuff. I am surprised to see anyone admit they like the Orton-Cena feud. I am actually looking forward to seeing the Iron Man match. It's a gimmick that has been used sparingly, so it actually has a special feel to it still. I also think that Orton's methodical style and Cena's ability to adapt well to any match type will make for a good show. I totally expect that, because it's No-DQ, Legacy will run in at some point and interfere. Then DX will come make the save and we'll actually get a real finish.

Good job filling in, and I wouldn't mind seeing your writing more often around here.

Posted By: Polish Post (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 10:11 AM

Your opinion about bringing back Jobber matches to RAW is one of the worst ideas I've heard in a long time. Let the past GO. Wrestling is fun the way it is right now. People will always complain because they have nothing better to do. When RAW was scoring in the 6.0 range, many people still complained! I didn't like wrestling during the Attitude Era as much as I do now, so I really don't want another "Boom Period" anyway. Still boggles my mind as to why people care how many other people are watching.

Posted By: MDK (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 10:36 AM

RIP Captain. Check out his antics with the Wild Samoans! Gold!

I have often thought bringing back the TV title would be great. And while we are at it, bring back a few managers who could handle interviewers for those not ready to talk. When Hogan made his first WWF run in the late 70's, he was managed by Classie Freddy Blassie because he was awful on the mic brother!!

Posted By: Brawler (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 10:40 AM

When are Ireland going to play Australia in another Aussie Rules match mate?

Posted By: Propagandhi (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 10:50 AM

@ JWestmoreland- You know, you can form an argument by making statements, instead of posing rhetorical question after rhetorical question.

It doesn't make you look any smarter when you do this, just like an idiot who can't possibly form any real thought, so he'll just go with the super sarcastic questions, instead.

Posted By: Sprizzle (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 12:24 PM

Here's an adjustment to your idea of "jobbers"..
I agree with you almost 100% but for all the naysayers out there...

Since ECW is crap anyway, make that the show for your JTTS to be on and win.
YES get a TV title that is defended across ALL 3 brands. This is your main event on Raw & Smackdown.

LIMIT the number of times a guy gets on TV. I may like a wrestler, but if he's on every 15 minutes, you kinda get burned out and you end up with 2 minute matches that suck.

ONE appearance per show - unless there is a beat down in the back or something like that.

And STOP mashing rivals together and making them tag teams or even worse, GIVING THEM TAG TEAM TITLES!!!!!!!!!

If you had the TV title as the center piece of your TV show then you use the World titles as the vehicle to sell your PPVs.

And for the guy that said "let the past go, wrestling is fun the way it is"...
You know exactly jack and shit.
The WHOLE reason going to a house show or PPV was special was because you didn't get to see the Superstars wrestle on TV all the time.

Vince only broke the mold when he was going broke and Eric B did it to try to get the upperhand on Vince.
There is no competition anymore. As much as I love TNA they are not competing with WWE directly. And they are not offering an alternative either. But that's another rant.

The old adage holds true.. if it aint broke don't fix it.
And what worked was not giving away matches on free tv but causing a huge interest in seeing the opponents wrestle on PPV.

Posted By: Guest#2580 (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 12:34 PM

you did a great job. keep it up!

Posted By: Guest#4561 (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 04:24 PM

I've heard the "jobber match" argument before,through RVD in particular and it does have advantages. If they had kept it, it would still work. I just don't believe it can now. Or to be more specific, to go back to it would piss off and alienate a large portion of the audience, so you need to slowly build bits of it back in.
Yep, building up angles, so that people spent their dough on the blow-offs with the real talent,with it being the rare chance to see it, was and possibly is the best model as a fan as it makes it special. However, fans are now used to seeing main-eventers interact each week and will shit all over attempts to put it back to that. The "MNWars" uncorked that genie and led to the proliferation of ppv's. You can't go back without 10years of resistance to it,and others fighting it by slamming your product.
As much as "jobber" squashes would put the talent over, fans would shit on the quality of match and howl about the no-namers.
As a business, the current stack 'em high, sell enough of 'em and formulaic method of booking. (Exchange wins,segments, the loser of the feud pins the winner in a tag-match) works, even though it bores the tits off me.
Cutting ppv's would work to increase fan interest as would the squashes, but it won't happen as to cut a ppv means you need to increase buy-rates as the market is shrinking while putting a lower quality of match on tv to stimulate the interest.
Personally, I'd rather see a product that is edgier in it's use of satire,irony and realistic sporting dynamics as it doesn't need to be "rated-r" to appeal and shock, it just needs to be intelligent,logical and have simple elements explored well in an engaging way.
Jeez, I'd even sign Kimbo Slice and film a "mockmumentary" around him, as as a guy that can spike 1.5-2 million people watching him on a reality show((TUF), and beat the RAW rating on his own, due to his personality shows the audience is out there.
Seeing some guys train, and explain why the wanna kick someone's ass, the whole deal about I don't care if it's kayfabe, I want to be the best is the current reality-show based audience, and would build interest and you could give a great match at the end that you know wouldn't be a blow-out. That's the major element wrestling has that other sports don't.
Still, only internet speculation and if I knew shit I'd be doing it. :)

Posted By: Guest#5033 (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 04:31 PM

JWestmoreland - I actually didn't have a problem with Flair holding the IC strap. Sometimes you need that Main eventer to go after a secondary title to make it seem more important. This way when an up and coming wrestler beats him it's that much more important. (That is why I hated when Stone Cold gave up the IC belt because in his own words, 'he had bigger fish to fry.')

What should have happened was when HHH feuded with Flair Hunter should have not only wanted to beat Flair but take his belt as well.

The Champion make the title, not the opther way around. That is why I didn't get mad when Jericho held the IC belt as much as he did.

Posted By: Karatgold24 (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 05:49 PM

I think the main problem with the low ppv buys is the fact that there is not enough depth in the talent pool to have as many pay-per-views as we are seeing. I can miss bragging rights and see similar matches at Survivor Series (thouhg to be honest I only buy Wrestlemania). Jobber matches would just make a large proportion of fans lose interest. I know I don't wanna see John Cena come out and kick four different losers arses each week on rotation then see Randy Orton do the same thing but to a different loser, I now wanna see competativeness, I wanna know that they can work well in the ring before I invest money on seeing them. TNA then could start giving their matches real time and you'd see plenty of fans crossing the line.

Posted By: Butters (Guest) on October 17, 2009 at 10:57 PM