Shining the Spotlight 7.07.06: The Game and the King
Posted by Michael Weyer on 07.07.2006
A comparison of HHH and Jeff Jarrett and how they may not be as similar as you might think. Also, debunking a long-believed championship fact and my thoughts on RVD.
To start off, Mark Bain sent me a photograph that seems to clear up the Western States Heritage Title belt confusion.
It clearly shows that the WSH title does not resemble the temporary World title WCW used and another shows Zybsko holding both the WSH and AWA World title belts. So thanks to Mark for clearing up what appears to be one of those rumors in wrestling that turned somehow to fact.
As for the major news this week on Rob Van Dam, all I can say is that while I never bought into this whole cult of RVD, I did like his in-ring work. So it makes it even worse to see him, the man everyone called "the best wrestler to never be World Champion" finally getting his shot at the big belt and blowing it in three weeks. Maybe all those people who spent five years saying he should have been champ may now realize Vince might have been right not giving him a run at the top.
Unto the column this week.
Every form of entertainment has their whipping boys. The ones who are brought up pretty much to rake over the coals with columnists, fans and the like, the ones who always have their worst traits brought up and perhaps exaggerated while what good they do is overlooked. In sports you've got Ozzie Guillen or Barry Bonds. In movies there's Michael Eisner, Jon Peters, Uwe Bowell or Brett Rattner. In TV, it's whoever cancels a critically acclaimed show.
For professional wrestling, the current whipping boys are undoubtedly HHH and Jeff Jarrett. I can't recall a time when two men in two promotions were in such a similar position at the same time. Both major stars, both with ties to the people in charge, both pushed to the limelight big time, more often than not with the title belt around their waist. Since 2002, HHH has been the major star for RAW while Jarrett has made it clear TNA is his baby and both seem unwilling to let go of that spotlight. All the while they hog TV time with long promos, make themselves part of huge feuds and seem to go out of their way to cut off the knees of anyone who might challenge their dominance. Over and over again, you'll hear the complaint of Jarrett being just like HHH and vice versa.
But are they truly similar? Are they really just like each other? When you look at it closely, especially in light of recent circumstances, you might tell that while one of them still clings to the limelight and being the focus of the company, the other is starting to let go of that control and realizing it may be time to let someone else take over.
To start with, you have to track the early careers of both of these men and see how they got to where they are. As you do, you might notice something interesting, that one man seemed destined for the upper card, while the other doesn't quite have the same aura.
Now, as I noted in my review of his book World Wrestling Insanity, a few weeks back, James Guttman pointed out something that a lot of HHH bashers will so often forget, which is that Hunter was on his way to stardom even before he got involved with Stephanie McMahon. Even as early as 1994, when he started his career in WCW, he seemed to have that certain touch that hinted he might be able to carry a company in the future. No less than Ric Flair himself told one of the old Apter mags he could see the then Jean-Paul Lévesque as a future champion. True, his entry into WWF wasn't too big with his snob character but then again Steve Austin had to be the "Ringmaster" so you can't always judge by first looks at a guy.
While he would rise up as IC champion, with Chyna and feuding with Mick Foley in his various guises, it was DX that made HHH what he is today. It showed just how tough he could be, how good in the ring and on the mike and how he could seem to work a crowd damn well. They key was his taking control of DX in '98, as the man so long a flunky or partner of Shawn Michaels was now not only a leader but a damn good one too. Go back and watch his early stuff and you can see that even in his raw stages, HHH was a good worker, great seller and could work a crowd.
So if you think about it, his entry into the main event stage was not the sudden out of left field move it seemed to be but a logical progression of his career. With Austin forced to take time off with injuries and the Rock hot, WWF needed someone to help the main event scene. HHH more than did that and it's important to remember that despite what some say now, fans really were into him when he came on as a huge main event heel. True, he didn't really click over until he beat Mick Foley in two back-to-back PPVs in early 2000, the push he needed to take the top spot.
What has happened since has been well chronicled by Guttman and others so I won't waste space on HHH's dominance. Instead, let's flip over to Jeff Jarrett, whose own career hasn't exactly been the same fast-rising.
If you take a long look at Jeff Jarrett, you'll note the irony that for the vast majority of his career, he was the very type of mid-carder he rails against today in interviews. What makes it more intriguing is how long he was on the independent scene. He debuted in 1986 in Continental Wrestling Association, a promotion that just so happened to be owned and run by his father Jerry and was a tag team champion by the end of that year. He held the NWA Mid-America belt five times and kept with the CWA until it was absorbed into the USWA in 1989. Now, USWA was always Jerry Lawler's baby with the King dominating as champion but Jarrett got over a few times as champ and got the rub. As Tennessee was his home state, he was a big deal there but was never really given the chance to truly dominate in the main event spot. That's somewhat important to remember, that he didn't quite have the right stuff to get over in the main event in a small promotion like this.
Jarrett would make the jump to WWF in 1994 with his goofy "country musician" gig (hey, it was the mid-90's, stupid gimmicks like this were common in both WWF and WCW). Again, he didn't exactly set the place afire although he did show signs of the arrogant jerk he is known as today. He did get a reign as Intercontinental champion that was longer than expected and left in 1996. He headed to WCW, where he did a brief run with the New World Order and a briefer reign as US Champ.
He'd make a famous return to WWF, running down WCW in his first show back in a nice in-ring promo. Over the next year, he'd win the tag team titles with Owen Hart and also hold the European and Intercontinental titles. More importantly, he'd meet up with Vince Russo, one of the key writers of WWF at the time who took a shine to Jarrett and tried to increase his push in the federation. By most accounts, Jarrett was supposed to start a program with Steve Austin but "Stone Cold" shot it down, saying he didn't think Jarrett was ready for that stage (many believe Austin had a beef with Jarrett due to some bad blood back in the USWA). When Russo bolted to WCW, he talked Jarrett into coming with and it was here that Jarrett got the big push to the world title, which he'd hold off and on during some infamous moments in the dying days of WCW (David Arquette, the Hogan Bash at the Beach incident).
After a brief spin with the World Wrestling Association (including a run as its champ), Jarrett started up TNA with his father. I do have to point out that Jarrett was not the instant main eventer when TNA began. Ken Shamrock was the first TNA/NWA champ and Ron Killings had a good run as the top man until Jarrett got the belt in late 2002. This move just so happened to coincide with Vince Russo taking a big step in booking TNA. Since then, Jarrett has been the dominant player in TNA, with the NWA title a virtual lock around his waist and his monopolizing the screen time majorly.
So as you can see, while HHH's rise was rather fast and he had the shine for the main event scene from the start, Jarrett took a lot longer and it was really the influence of his father and/or Russo that got him to the top of the heap in his promotions. Of course, HHH owes a lot of his main event status to his relationship with Stephanie but as I just pointed out, he was rising even before he met her. He and Jarrett now have the shared distinction of using their clout to keep themselves in the center of the spotlight and push aside anyone who could challenge them, ignoring the boos of fans who are tired of them both.
Let's get this straight now. This is nothing new in wrestling. A star using his clout to keep himself on top has been around almost since the sport began. The AWA had Nick Bockwinkel and Verne Gagne keeping the title between them for an entire decade. And of course, there's Hulk Hogan. Jarrett and Hunter are good but when it comes to backstage politics, Hogan may well be the most brilliant strategist in wrestling history. He was a force in WWF as Vince McMahon knew he was the show and kept him happy. When he made the jump to WCW, Hogan turned the spotlight on himself firmly, refusing to sell injuries and changing plans to have him drop the title. He actually convinced WCW to have him and Ed Leslie main-event Starcade then caused Vader's career to stall by no-selling his dreaded power bomb before their Superbrawl showdown. During 1996 and the New World Order angle, Hogan played Bischoff like a fiddle, making sure the nWo would always come out on top and avoiding doing the job if he didn't feel like it. Perhaps the most destructive moment of politicking by Hogan was when he refused to give Sting a clean win at Starcade '97, thus wrecking the angle WCW had spent a year building to and beginning the company's slide to self-destruction. It's a sign that Hunter and Jarrett's antics can have consequences.
However….however, if you examine the actions of the two in the last year, you'll see a change, mainly over HHH. After he lost the World title to Batista, he spent the next two PPVs putting Batista over with losses. He then took three months off. This wasn't like previous absences when he took time off and there were constant mentions of him. For three months, no one at WWE talked about HHH at all. And when he did return in October, did he immediately reinsert himself into the main event title scene? No. He gets into a feud with Ric Flair, a mid-card feud at best where Flair's IC belt wasn't even on the line.
So HHH eventually gets into Royal Rumble but despite what people think, he doesn't win it. He then gets the title shot at Cena for Wrestlemania which everyone on the IWC is sure he'll win to get his belt back. But instead, in a move that had half the IWC almost hemorrhaging, he not only loses but does so by submission to the guy most in the IWC couldn't stand. He then went on to put Cena over the next night, calling him tougher than most thought and then lost to him at the next PPV. In short, HHH has done exactly what people have been wanting him to do for years: He put someone over big-time. And not just anyone but a guy many thought should be removed from the main event scene, showing how good he could still be. At the moment, HHH is doing the DX angle which is dominating some air time but in a fun way and it doesn't look like he'll be challenging for the title anytime soon.
Now let's compare that to Jeff Jarrett. As 2005 opened, he'd been NWA champion for six months, turning back challenges with liberal amounts of ref bumps, interference and guitar shots. In fact, that is one point I feel should be noted that puts HHH a step or two above Jarrett: At least HHH doesn't massively overbook every one of his big PPV matches. Here's a quick sampling:
Victory Road '04: Defending the belt in a ladder match against Jeff Hardy with Scott Hall in Jarrett's corner. Kevin Nash had said he'd be in Jeff's but wasn't there at ringside. He did come down at which point, in a "shocking swerve," he, Hall and Jarrett all hit Hardy with guitars so Jarrett could scale the ladder and win.
Turning Point '04: Teamed with Nash and Hall against AJ Styles, Hardy and Randy Savage, a mess of a match with Savage popping up in the last five minutes to pin Jarrett with an incredibly weak roll-up. Savage immediately left the promotion so Jarrett essentially did a job for a one-night performer.
Final Resolution '05: Defeated Monty Brown after hitting Brown with two guitars, a chair, the title belt, a low blow and three Strokes. And I might as well take this moment to say that the Stroke has to rank as one of the most anticlimactic finishers ever. The Pedigree really looks deadly with HHH drilling a guy into the canvas but the Stroke doesn't come off nearly as powerful. It's ridiculous to see guys getting hit with chairs and guitars and the like and shaking it off yet getting tripped onto their faces is supposed to be a knockout blow. Even the biggest HHH hater has to agree his finisher has it all over Jarrett.
Against All Odds: Defended the NWA title against Nash with the stipulation that if he used a guitar, not only would he be disqualified but lose the title. So midway through a match that had them brawling throughout the Impact Zone, Jarrett opened up a case to reveal a cello. Yes, you read that right, a cello. He tired to hit Nash with it but the instrument broke apart and Nash ended up power bombing Jarrett on it. With the ref out, Kip James ran in to attack Nash then Sean Waltman ran in to attack Jarrett and in the end Jarrett got a Stroke to win.
Destination X : Defended the title against Diamond Dallas Page in a lumberjack match with liberal interference and run-ins, ending with Monty Brown's completely baffling heel turn as he pounced DDP and helped Jarrett win. So in one fell swoop, Jarrett not only retained the title but the man most thought would unseat him was now on his side.
Lockdown : The first "Lethal Lottery", a "War Games" like match with all weapons legal. Was going to be Jarrett, Brown and Kip vs DDP, Waltman and Nash but Nash got a staph infection so BG James took his place. The match itself was a wild mess with Waltman pinning Brown.
Hard Justice: Finally loses the NWA title to AJ Styles. However, instead of the clean-cut win, there's interference from Monty Brown and referee Tino Ortiz knocks Jarrett out with a punch to set up AJ's pin. So basically, TNA's best wrestler at the time needed the help of the refree to beat Jarrett for the belt.
Slammiversary: Was going to be in the King of the Mountain match but on the pre-show attacked a "fan" and was led out of the building. The announcers spend most of the time talking about him and whether or not he'll make it back in time (which he didn't so Raven took his place and won the belt.
No Surrender: Not on the card but shows up on the pre-show to talk about the mass firings WWE had just done and how his job is in jeopardy as TNA is the only place they can go. He then spends the entire show popping up in other wrestler's interviews asking about Rhino. At the end of the Raven/Abyss main event, he comes out to ringside and says he knows where Rhino is. Cue Rhino goreing Raven as it's revealed he and Jarrett were working together all along. So basically, Jarrett, who wasn't even wrestling, managed to make the show all about him and ensured it ended with him holding the title belt over a beaten Raven.
Sacrifice: Teams with Rhino against Raven and Sabu with the stipulation that if he pins Raven he gets a title shot but if Raven pins him, no shots for a year. As you can expect, another wild brawl of a match with interference from Jeff Hardy (not seen since no-showing Hard Justice), Abyss and Cassidy Reilly with Rhino pinning Raven with Jarrett complaining about it.
Unbreakable: Once again, not on the card but shows up in wrestling gear on the pre-show to get in Monty Brown and Kip James' faces and brawls with Jeff Hardy. Shows up during the show to cause Hardy to lose to Bobby Roode then interferes in the Raven/Rhino title match. Five days later, he beats Raven in Canada for the title after AMW turn heel to help him out.
So while HHH puts over Batista and then takes three months off, Jarrett keeps the title on for several months, refuses to job it cleanly and then interferes in virtually every title match afterward until he gets it back. His behavior since then keeps in this pattern. Yes, he dropped the belt to Christian but was the focus on Christian after that? No, it was on Jarrett and Sting. Destination X '06 ended with Scott Steiner choking out Sting with Jarrett looking on and laughing. The next few Impacts were dominated by that stupid "Who will be Sting's Partner?" thing that chewed up so much time with a payoff that could have been handled so much better. Then of course comes Slammiversary where a stupid Russo/Rhodes like finish leads to Jarrett once more getting the belt back, a move that the fans showed they didn't like or want one little bit.
The question that has to be asked of both men is why are they doing this? Why are they going out of their way to keep down so many younger and fresher talents who can step up to the plate? How can they ignore the fans who so clearly want them both out of the scene for a long time (if not forever)? What logic can either of these men attach to their spotlight-hogging actions? I do believe the answer is in the fact that both men have obviously modeled themselves on one specific worker: Ric Flair.
HHH has always said that Flair was one of his idols and it's clear Jarrett has modeled himself on Flair, complete with several of his traits (the strut, the blonde hair, the figure-four leglock). As such fans, both men will remember that during his heyday with Jim Crockett, Flair was almost always the NWA champion, the theory being he was more marketable as the hated champ than as the hated challenger. Back then there weren't monthly pay-per-views, no Internet so fans truly thought Flair could drop the belt at any time and they wanted to be there. Flair was a true master at making them think it could happen, even managing to get feuds going with Road Warrior Hawk and Ricky Morton where fans seriously believed either of those tag team wrestlers could win the world title. I believe both HHH and Jarrett remember that, remember how Flair used his heel status to get the fans going and sold tickets and they are trying to do the same.
Of course, the difference is that when it counted, Flair would indeed put over the hot faces and recognize when a guy deserved a shot. He did it for Sting and would have done it for Steve Austin had WCW not brought Hogan in. As most know, HHH hasn't exactly done the same during his reign as champ on RAW and neither has Jarrett. Sure, he dropped the belt to Rhino at Bound For Glory but that was because they had to do something to make the fans happy after Nash's last minute hospital stay. In fact, that Rhino lost the belt only days later makes it clear that he was never intended to have a big run.
However, this brings up a key difference between Jarrett and HHH that so many people overlook, one so big I'm putting it in its own paragraph:
RAW is not the entire WWE.
Yeah, many will argue that statement but the fact is the brand extension means that there's an entire different roster from RAW that HHH has no sway over. In fact, during his '02-05 dominance, Smackdown was clearly the superior brand (not hard, considering it had Lesner, Angle, Benoit, Eddie and others). So WWE fans had a choice, they could still be WWE fans without having to check out RAW.
TNA does not have that choice. It is the one promotion with just one weekly show and it's one where Jarrett dominates in interviews, matches and the talk of announcers. It's even spreading to the commentary teams like the recent Impact match with AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels vs the Diamonds in the Rough and Tenay and West spent more time talking about Jarrett and the NWA title situation, not once mentioning how Daniels and Elix Skipper were once partners. For a promotion that spends so much time saying they're the opposite of WWE, TNA is sliding into that sort of "angles over action" mindset. And sadly, Jarrett is making that show, the only show TNA has, about him.
It's pretty laughable to me that Jarrett is reportedly thinking of turning himself face. True, he did have a brief run as a face in TNA in '03 but that was when they were working in his home state of Tennessee and before Jarrett's death grip on the title came to prominence. Today, in the Impact Zone in Orlando with the fans seeing what he's like, I highly doubt they'd ever accept him. That is a key difference between Jarrett and HHH. Even as a heel, there would always be a few cheers for Hunter and when he teased a face turn, the fans seemed ready to accept it. His recent reunion of DX bears this out. I guess what it comes down to is that people love to hate HHH but they just hate Jarrett.
Yes, it's true, HHH spent so much time pushing people down on RAW and making it about himself and keeping the title longer than he should have. But recent events seem to show that something is changing. Maybe it's impending fatherhood, maybe it's the fact Vince is looking to groom him to take over someday, maybe it's all those injuries over the years but Hunter seems ready to cede the spotlight a bit. True, DX is dominating right now but it seems more like a nostalgia trip, almost a farewell, as if Hunter wants to reexperience that great time where he first made it. Right now, he seems content to let Cena and Edge and RVD battle over the big belt and let the Smackdown guys keep things hot too.
Over at TNA, Jarrett has not learned that restraint. As I've just illustrated, since TNA began their jump to a bigger level with monthly PPVs and a weekly TV show, Jarrett has made the promotion about himself, dominating with the title and in every episode of Impact, complaining about how "TNA management" is against him when most know that the reason he's champion is because he's part owner of the company. I have no idea how Jim Cornette kept a straight face when he told Jarrett that TNA wasn't a promotion where "a guy gets a belt because he's the owner's son-in-law." TNA has other problems (their over reliance on old WCW stars for example) but Jarrett is not helping at all. Christian never got the chance to really shine as he could have because Jarrett had to dominate the shows during his reign and it now looks like Christian is going to be going heel and feuding with Sting, which once again leaves the top spot to Jarrett's care.
In conclusion, if you examine the evidence and behavior of these two men, you'll see that there's not as carbon copy of each other as most have assumed. HHH was a guy who seemed bound for stardom when he started out and in the last year appears to be finally letting go of that chokehold on the title and main event scene. Jarrett, however, was a good, not great but good, mid-card wrestler who succeeded in WWF and WCW by getting close to the head writer and then began to dominate a promotion created by his father. If anything, his need to be the center of attention is worse than ever and is causing a great alienation in fans that can prove deadly to TNA.
Contrary to opinion, even at his height HHH never really ran things because Vince McMahon has always had final say with what goes on in WWE. True, that control has slipped now and again (Katie Vick pops to mind) but Vince is quite clearly the boss and I doubt being his son-in-law gets Hunter as much freedom as many think it does. Jarrett, however, is still a big face with TNA management who probably feel a bit indebted to him for all he did starting up the company. I can understand how Jarrett is reluctant to give up finally being the big name and in many ways finally becoming like Ric Flair. But considering he's been in the sport almost a decade longer than Hunter, he should recognize that dominating like this is only going to alienate the fans further and cause a backlash against TNA that could make him a champion without a promotion.
Once again, I'm not denying the bad stuff HHH has done in the past. But the key words are "in the past" as he does seem to be giving a rub to guys like Cena and even the Spirit Squad. It has to be remembered, he only dominates one half of WWE while Jarrett has all of TNA under his thumb. Hopefully, Jarrett might be able to learn from HHH's example and take time off and give someone else a shot at the top. Otherwise, it might put all of TNA in jeopardy and HHH will have proven once and for all that he really is the master of the Game.
Mail bag has been quiet lately so I hope this gets some people talking. I will point out however that now in bookstores is the novelization for Snakes on a Plane. Yes, the novelization by Christa Faust, 416 pages. Yes, you read that right. 416 pages. And if the movie is half as good, we are in for one hell of a ride.
"I've seen meth-head killers more laid back than these snakes."
