High Road/Low Road 05.05.06: Rey Mysterio as World Champion
Posted by Sat on 05.05.2006
Last Week's Results and a new High Road/Low Road on Rey Mysterio as World Champion
Welcome back to the High road/low road. Here are the results to last week's High Road/Low Road
The Results for the Spirit Squad:
High Road: 53%
Low Road: 47%
E-Mails:
Below are some of the e-mails that we received this week. We read every e-mail that we get, so keep them coming. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.
osfcs25 writes
I gotta go with the high road on this. The guys in the Spirit Squad are just too damn athletic and entertaining in the actual matches to just shove them off of TV. Scrapping them now would be worse than anything you can dream up. They'd never be able to recover. Recovering from bad gimmicks though, is relatively easy. How easy did Angle go from being a freak with Sharmell to being the MAN on RAW? Pretty damn easy and pretty damn quick too. All it would take is Mikey taking off his headband, looking down at it like he's just now realized how gay this all is, and then just beating the hell out of his partner with the trampoline and you've got a new face with charisma, in-ring talent, and a good look. What could be better?
Plus, I love seeing those bastards flying all over the ring. The high road gives me hope.
Sat: Excellent point with Kurt Angle. It is very easy to recover from a bad gimmick. I had completely forgotten about Kurt Angle and Sharmell.
Rajah: Whatever. Kurt Angle is aberration. What about Eugene? I am sure that's going to work out great.
Jesse writes
hey guys, i just read your new column and I think it's a good gimmick, as for this case, i'm going to have to go with the High Road, the Spirit Squad are very entertaining, and at a recent house show I was at, they entertained the crowd alot, and drew a lot of heat from saying the Islanders sucked, I think this is going to help out the careers of Ken Doane and Johnny Jeter alot...
(Also, you can say the words Fuck and Shit on 411mania, after reading so many columns with these words, f**k and s**t just arent cutting it, so use your profanity freely)
Sat: Let's give the Spirit Squad some love. They got heat by saying that the Islanders sucked (I am assuming that this is the hockey team), when they could have gone the easy way and criticized the New York Knicks.
Rajah: Great fucking analysis Jesse. Thanks for the tips on those fucking curse words. Shit, no one told me I didn't have to fucking censor my words.
David writes
The Spirit Squad have grown on me. Sure I initially found the male cheerleader gimmick to be lame, but they are serving their purpose of being annoying to the point where you can't help but notice them and smile. It's no different then duke the dumpster's garbage man gimmick. Gimmick's don't hurt wrestlers it's their in ring ability and mic skills. If you have both your gold i.e. Kurt Angle. One or the other you can have a decent career i.e. RVD and John Cena. The only sure thing that can be said about the spirit squad as a gimmick is that it will undoubtedly end. And when it does we will have at least two future staples, maybe not maineventers, but solid guys. I can see Doane and Jeter, who I look at being the better guys in the squad, having careers the resemble Billy Gunn and Bob Holly. The rest will either end up on Heat, TNA, or in Japan teaming up with Bull Buchanan.
Sat: You make some excellent points. However, I believe that the WWE is hoping that Doane and Jeter will have better careers than Billy Gunn and Bob Holly. I think the expectations are world titles for these two.
Rajah: Billy Gunn? Bob Holly?
S.G. writes
I gotta say, Rajah makes an excellent point. I don't care to see dinky, flick, blinky, slinky and moe on my TV set making stupid boring cheers. The best part of the entire squad (I refuse to call it a stable, stables have personality) is that fact that you can only here the stupid cheers part of the time, due to the faulty mics that they wear. The are constantly breaking the little bit of continuity that the show already is struggling to keep. One week they can barely beat HBK, the next week, they are going over the largest tag team the WWE has today, and the next week their vomitous stench is all over my Triple Threat for the WWE Title. Makes no sense whatsoever. They could have been a stable, they could have done a lot of things with a little personality... oh and the president is still a cheerleader. Bad, Bad, BAD point to try to make. They need to drop the titles quick, be knocked back down to OVECW for a few months, and be repackaged as two tag teams and a singles competitor. Or they need a chick in the group. A sweet managing ass to look at while those morons are playing with each other on trampolines would make it a slight bit more bearable. But only slightly. Good job on your new column, good luck. Next time, try the High Road/Low Road of the spinner title.
Sat: It would be pretty hard to do a high road/low road on the spinner title. That would be one short column. The president joke was thrown in there to get a few laughs, most people don't know that he was a cheerleader. I didn't know until Rajah told me. I never did understand why they have those mikes. I guess it would be hard to hold a microphone and cheer at the same time.
Rajah: The spinner title fucking sucks. Sat probably likes it though. By the way you are a genius for agreeing with me. Good point about the lack of continuity. Props.
Uncletrunx writes
Hi, Loved the column; I think it's a great idea. Why not have a vote at the end amongst the readership to see who wins on any given week? On this occasion, I have to go with Rajah. The spirit squad, whilst entertaining in an "opener for a house show" sort of way, are utterly devaluing the tag belts. As you said, when you consider that these belts were fought over by the Harts and Demolition amongst others, giving them to this gang of nothing is like spitting on them. The difference between the Spirit Squad and, say, Evolution, is that Evolution had distinct personalities and easily identifiable characters, each of whom was a credible threat. Thus splitting it up gave you many dream matches. Flair vs Orton, for example, is legend vs 3rd generation star. If Spirit Squad split and feuded, I wouldn't know which was which, nor would I care. It's even worse than the '97 era gang warfare, where you had teams of 4 fulfilling a racial stereotype. I hated that and I really hope they never go near that sort of thing again; sadly, Spirit squad looks just too damn similar. As for angles like getting Boogeyman to "posess" them, that just showcases all that's bad about "sports entertainment" (As opposed to wrestling, which has nothing to do with such angles)
Sat: Good idea about the vote at the end. We added a poll at the very end of this column. We'll see how it works out this week. The thing that I can't understand is that people constantly complain about tag teams and when they get a tag team, they still complain. I believe that the reason that the WWE does not differentiate between them is that they are male cheerleaders; they are supposed to look the same.
Rajah: Uncletrunx is a fucking genius. Preach on UncleTrunx!
Now, the moment you have all been waiting for. This week's High Road/Low Road featuring...
Rey Mysterio as World Champion
High Road:
If somebody is getting a favorable reaction, either good or bad, then they deserve to be the champion because this means that they are connecting with the fans. When Stone Cold Steve Austin became WWE champion he was getting a favorable reaction. When John Cena became champion, he was getting a favorable reaction. Rey Mysterio has been getting a favorable reaction since he arrived in the WWE and he deserve to be champion right now because he has the fan support.
Low Road:
So let's make the Boogeyman the world champion. Boogey gets consistent fan support and thus should be world champion. Also of note, many of Rey's cheers have been due to the death of Eddie. I am not saying Rey didn't get pops before, but he's been getting those sympathy cheers as well. Fan support should play a role in deciding who becomes champion but no one in their right mind would make that the sole determining factor.
High Road:
When JBL won the WWE Title, nobody wanted him to be champion and nobody thought that he was worthy of being champion. With Rey Mysterio, people were hoping that he would be world champion and there is no question that he is a worthy champion. JBL at the time was being forced down everybody throats and today he is a person that can challenge for any title. At the time, I thought that JBL was not deserving to be champion, but now that he was the champion, he should be given a fair shake. Now that Rey Mysterio is the champion, he should be given a chance and Rey Mysterio will become a person that could challenge for any title in the WWE. Rey Mysterio has always overcome the odds and when his title reign is over, he will have had a successful title run and he will be a solid mid-carder for the WWE.
Low Road:
Exactly. Why are mid-carders holding the heavyweight title? I understand working your way up to the world title, but making someone a mid-carder by giving them the world title? Because all JBL is a glorified mid-carder. That's fucking stupid. Hey, lets make Mark Henry world champion and then he'll be legitimate for the United States title! Oh, and about your comment that JBL could vie for any title—lets put him on RAW and see how many world title shots he gets. None, he's good at the intercontinental level, but that is it. Same with Rey, on Raw there is no chance he would be in the main event scene. Basically, the World Heavyweight Title, is the B title—its for mid-carders. But I'd like to think of it something more so Rey, to me, is not a good champion.
High Road:
One of the major knocks on Rey Mysterio is that he is not worthy of being champion because he is not known for giving great promos. I do agree with the fact that he does not give great promos. When Rey Mysterio starts to give a promo, I admit that I hit the fast-forward button. However, I believe that you can be a great champion without giving great promos. Chris Beniot had a successful run as World Champion and he does not give great promos. You do not have to give great promos to be a worthy champion. To be a worthy champion, you have to wrestle great matches.
Low Road:
BULL SHIT. To be world champion you have to be well-rounded (not in the Mark Henry sense), and Rey's promos are boring, boring, boring. Chris Benoit's promos still show passion, with Rey, I want to shoot myself. Okay, he's a great wrestler, so is Paul London (and he gets decent pops), so lets make him World Champion.
High Road:
Rey Mysterio is worthy of being champion because he can have good matches with any wrestler. These past six months, he has been having some unbelievable matches on SmackDown!. Rey Mysterio has pulled out great performance from great wrestlers, average wrestlers, and very bad wrestlers. Mark Henry is a bad wrestler and Rey Mysterio was able to get a good match out of him. This is Mark Henry that we are talking about. If you put Rey Mysterio with great performers, then you will get a great match. An example of this was the week before WrestleMania and last week on SmackDown! when he faced Kurt Angle. With these two great performers in the ring, there was a great match.
Low Road:
Again, you have to have everything, just being a good wrestler, with decent pops (and a lot of dead pops) is not good enough.
High Road:
If you look at the current situation on SmackDown!, there was no other options on who you could make World Champion. Batista was injured by Mark Henry, Kurt Angle has an injury problem and Randy Orton has an attitude problem. Rey Mysterio had to leave WrestleMania as champion because there was nobody left and Rey Mysterio was very deserving of being champion. So, Rajah, I am assuming that you would have liked to have Kurt Angle leave as champion. The only question I have for you is who is he going to face at Judgment Day; it would have to be either Rey Mysterio, JBL or Mark Henry.
Low Road:
This goes back to the original problem of having no main event wrestlers on SmackDown!. Whose fucking decision was it to put Mark Henry on SmackDown!? Fire their stupid ass. Anyways, if there were viable main eventers on SmackDown!, Rey Mysterio would not have to be World Champion at all, which he shouldn't be.
High Road:
With Rey Mysterio winning the World Title, this gives hope to all of the other cruiserweights. The glass ceiling for the cruiserweights were that you could become the cruiserweight champion or tag team champion and that was the end of it. There was no way that you were going to challenge for any other title. Now, with Rey Mysterio has the champion, there is a chance that one of these cruiserweight could break through. Now before you blow a gasket, Rajah, I am not saying that all of the cruiserweights should begin to challenge for the World Title. I am saying that some of the cruiserweight can begin to challenge for the United States title and if they get a favorable crowd reaction, like Rey Mysterio, then they can challenge for the World Title.
Low Road:
You are on crack. The glass ceiling is still there. Vince can't get his rocks off on the cruiserweights.
High Road:
Rey Mysterio is the perfect champion because there will always be a built in storyline whenever he wrestles. Whoever Rey Mysterio wrestles, he will always be the underdog. Most people felt that he was better has the underdog and now that he has won the title, he is no longer the underdog. People believe that Rey Mysterio has overcome the underdog label and he is now the favorite. I disagree with this because now that he is champion, he is an even bigger underdog because now everyone will be gunning for him every week. WWE has done a good job in portraying him as the underdog, even though he is the champion
Low Road:
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Florida Marlins are underdogs and nobody cheers for them. The underdog card has been played enough with Rey Mysterio. If the WWE keeps using it, it will be looked at in the same light as heel authority figure versus babyface. I am already bored with the fucking underdog angle.
The Final Take
Sat: Rey Mysterio is a worthy champion because he has got the fans support and he can wrestle amazing matches. These are requirements to be a good champion
Rajah: He's only champ because everyone is injured or suspended, and Eddie died. He is a weak champ, and I can not buy him as the World Heavyweight Champion.
Are you taking the High Road or the Low Road?
E-mail us your reasons at rajah_sat_bier@yahoo.com
