My Take On 8.07.06: The Csonka-Mania FAQ Episode III
Posted by Larry Csonka on 08.07.2006
In this installment, we discuss Selling, CM Punk, WrestleMania, Wellness in TNA and More!
Introduction:
Greetings to all, once again it is time for another edition of My Take On. For this edition, I have decided to take some of the most frequently asked questions I have been getting lately, and answer them here for all of you. Being that I do write so much and cover so much wrestling, I get a TON of questions and emails, some agreeing, and some taking my opinions to task. At the end of the day it all comes down to personal preference and opinion; these are mine and maybe through this, you'll get to understand me better. Welcome to the Csonka-Mania FAQ: Episode III.
The Questions:
How important is entrance music? I would say that it is important, but in ways it is overrated. Simplicity is usually the best way to go. This whole thing comes from a discussion in the 411 forums about the music. 411's own Ryan Byers had about a perfect statement, "You just need something distinctive within the first ten seconds to hook the fans and get them to pop, and that's it." And for the most part that is true. If the beginning segment of the music is something that pops the crowd and gets them excited, the rest will be drowned out by the cheers and is just background. On the other hand, entrance music can make a person. The best example of this is The Sandman. The entrance is boring when not with "Enter Sandman," but add that into his pre-match ritual and you have a spectacle that is the stuff of legend. So while I think it is important, I think that some people over estimate the value of it at times.
How important is selling? For the most part very important. The basis of a match, structure-wise, is the baby face selling. You start with some back and forth, the baby gets the best of this, leading a heel to gain control through some form of cheating or nefarious means. Then the heat begins, and this is where the selling is VERY important. During this time, no matter how long the first thing is to make sure it is believable. One of the most annoying things is when a guy takes a beating, makes half a comeback and gets cut off to late. A short burst, a few shots is good for hope, but if it goes to long, you have just wasted the "X" number of minutes and have to start the heat from scratch again. There is a reason that people use the phrase, "Playing Ricky Morton" when they refer to a baby face beat down. He was the master, he took the beating like no other and clawed and tried to climb to his feet, just to his feet, but then would get beat back down again. He drew you in, made you believe and then, then he would get a counter and then roll through and finally, after all of the adversity and get that hot tag and the place would go wild! Today, when you see a basic tag match and a guy "tries" to be Ricky, does that comeback and dives for the tag and gets about no reaction, that is because he did it wrong. There is an art to selling, it is a craft and when done right (for example Flair at his ECW Match with Show afterwards, struggling just to walk away from the match) there is nothing better. Now I will say that there are times where you can get away without a ton of selling. An example of this is the 6-man Dragon Gate Match from the ROH show earlier this year. Basically, it is a spot-fest, and that is not always a bad word kids. It s a spectacular match that doesn't ever slow down. I don't like to throw these terms around, but it is state of the art stuff, amazing.
In the past you have been very hard on the Diva Search, but this year you seem to be ignoring it. Why is that? Well, there is a simple answer to the question. For 2-times I vented my anger of the project. I think it wastes TV time, you make no new stars and the women's division has suffered due to it. They are guaranteed more money than people on the road and actually working, which is bullshit to me. The other thing is you can only discuss the same thing so many times before you are just copy and pasting the same rant. Christi Hemme, fired. Ashley, abortion in the ring. It has added nothing to the overall product and it bored me, so that is that.
Why were you so hard on CM Punk's ECW debut? Here is the thing, I wasn't. The thing I think many need to understand is that "puRgatoRy" is not as bad as you think. It is something between right and wRong. Something that has a lot of both categories. I think that I explained myself rather well. The match was good, I never denied that. The thing is that Punk was hyped to a big degree. He faced Justin Credible, who lost to Angle in a little over a minute; who hasn't won a match unless it was through a DQ and who has been booked like a joke since the rebirth of the promotion. He got to have a 4:30, competitive match with CM Punk. With the way Punk came out, got the crowd reaction and was perceived to be a star, the match should have been immediately changed to a 2-minute squash by Punk to work off of that, and to make him seem even more important to the TV viewer, who less than 10% know who the hell Punk is and need to buy him in order for him to actually to become a star. I feel that this is where they failed Punk in his debut, and they may pay for it down the line. Now some may say that I am looking too far into this, but I feel that since he is the one that they plan to push, who has never been in WWE or ECW ever, it needed to have the feel that he is a total star. When he was announced and came out, he got a huge pop from the crowd. There were signs there saying the person came to see CM Punk, Punk chants, ROH chants; he looked like a superstar when he entered the match. But as I explained, the match should have followed through on that, and I feel it didn't. People are saying it was one of the greatest debuts ever and that he will be ECW's biggest star. He debuted in the perfect place, let's see what happens when he is in Texas, Utah or somewhere else that WASN'T an ECW or Smark hotbed and it will be differet. If i am wrong, great for him. Overall it was good, but I just think that it could have been better.
With the way things are in WWE, can WrestleMania XXIII sell out? Yes. I have discussed this before, and I will answer this again. They don't sell PPV's on the matches or the characters right now. They sell the PPV's and merchandize on the WWE name. It is a franchise, a conglomerate and the mass marketing machine works so well, that they could sell a PPV called, "Shit in the ring," show three hours of a pile of shit in an empty arena and still get 100,000 buys because of how they would promote the show; and it said "WWE Presents." There is no question that over the years that they have worked hard to establish this prestige and it has worked. Look at the ECW brand, a company that never scored much over a 1.0 is now getting 2.4's off the bat because it is "WWE Presents" and has a cross over with Raw. They could have Conway vs. Dupree main event and just because it is WrestleMania, it will sell out and they will do close to 800,000 buys. While we may not like the product a lot of the time, they make money and it works.
What is the best "act" in wrestling right now? This is a hard question really. If by act you mean what group or guy entertains me the most these days, I will have to go with "Paparazzi Productions" and Kevin Nash. While the Nash angle is hurting the division I fee, you cannot deny that these segments have been awesome. Alex Shelley has so much charisma, and the "Paparazzi" gimmick has let that be seen going all the way back to the Sting filming angle. Johnny Devine has just been added, and is the silent flunky of the group, but what he adds is fun and works. Nash is just on a comedy role since the inception of the angle. Every time they air one of the segments, I know I will be entertained, and I am. They smoke DX weekly in terms of great comedy, and are a highlight of the TNA shows.
Should TNA have a "Wellness Policy?" Yes. Without a doubt I think that TNA should have drug testing/wellness policies. This kind of thing, if properly done will help to prolong lives in this wild business. Party and drink too much, they can find it. Some recreational drugs, pain killers; they can find it. Roiding up, they can find it. Hardcore drugs, they can find them. Some people think that they should be allowed to do all of these things, this is entertainment after all. I disagree, I am sick of writing about how Davey Boy Smith, Curt Hennig, Brian Pillman, Eddie Guerrero and numerous others passing away long before it is time for them too. For all of the negativity the WWE Wellness Policy has received; whether you believed it or hated the idea, it has been working on some level. Angle got punished for painkillers, RVD for weed, Dupree for Steroids, Masters for pain killers/steroids. I commend WWE for doing this, it took long enough but it happened. I know that wrestling isn't "technically" a sport, but I wish tat there were some universal sanctions of wrestling as far as this goes. WWE and TNA as the main North American Companies would have their standards. Small promotions like ROH and PWG would have at least some basic health testing standards and so on and so forth. I will commend TNA for doing testing for blood transmitted diseases. That is a good step, it is a great step for safety, but it isn't enough. For now it is a great start. I love pro wrestling, and I don't know about you, but I have written one tribute too many. Let's hope that eventually, this becomes a more serious issue, these guys deserve it.
After 8-weeks of "WWECW," what are your thoughts and what do you think should be done to improve the overall product? As I have been saying in the news reports, as far as ratings go it is a total success. They are averaging about 2.29 or something like that, which for a brand that never cracked much over one when it was on its own and for airing on Sci-Fi it is amazing. I kind of hit on this above in the WrestleMania question, but because it is "WWE Presents" and has a crossover with Raw it is working. They have also recently had some Smackdown stars there as well, so they have the whole WWE machine behind them and are succeeding there.
As far as the shows have gone, they haven't been horrible (bar one or two of them) but they haven't been great (bar last week's which was really good.) They are pacing the hour really well, which is hard for a company that has been focused on the two-hour format for so long now as their main bread winner. While a show can be bad, if the pacing is bad as well you want to kill yourself, but they have done well, so they have that going for them. They are using Dreamer, Sandman and Sabu pretty well overall, RVD was king of hid own world until the HEMP came crashing down, but is coming back. Big Show is not perfect, but is working as the champ and with so many WWE drones only liking WWE guys, this helps with that. Overall it is not bad, just not great. The thing to remember, they are 8-weeks in, I'll still give them time.
What would I do to improve the product? Well let's look at that, shall we? Remember, this is my opinion.
Don't shun the old ECW: While I am the first to admit that this is obviously the new ECW, we shouldn't forget the old ECW. Dreamer, Sandman, RVD and Dreamer are getting used well, out there are older ECW guys that could and should be used better. Credible could have been used better to really put someone, like Punk over. A few wins, the hype of being a former ECW champion, yet they squashed him right out of the gates. The FBI has been jobbed, Roadkill and Doring as well. Killing a tag division that isn't even alive yet, tremendous! Embrace these guys, build them up a bit to the new ECW fan with some wins and a history lesson, and them when the CM Punk's and other new ECW guys feud and eventually win over them, it means something and is the perfect transition from old to new.
Another title and more self reliance: I think eventually they need to create another title. As I said this is the early stages, but as they establish more personalities and expand the roster, I am all for another title. Since WWE cannot book a tag division to save their life, I would resurrect the ECW TV Title, which has a storied history. With only one hour they can't overload, and since they will only run limited PPV's exclusive they can occasionally have a loaded show and use the BIG 4-PPV's as well as SNME to showcase these things.
ECW only tapings: I said it from the beginning and I will continue to stick to my guns on this issue, ECW needs some independence and their own tapings can do that for them. There are people who like just Raw, just Smackdown or just TNA. Let those who love ECW love ECW and support that show. Tuesday night was great because whether you love the chants or now, that was a hot crowd and a hot crowd comes across great on TV. It made ECW and that show feel important. They need to embrace this and run with it. Hell, I am still all for them taping from 3-4 locations in a rotational swing. Use the old ECW arena, which was on ESPN for boxing and looked fine production wise. Use the Hammerstein Ballroom and one or two other locations. Tape from those places, reduce ticket prices and get that cult feeling like the old ECW had. Still tour with house shows, find a new market eventually and add it to the rotation. Make ECW different; make it something special that the people want to be a part of and having their own tapings can help with that.
Why do you have to post spoilers at 411? A large number of people LOVE knowing what is going to happen before it happens. I mean, a LARGE number of people. We look for and post spoilers for Smackdown, Impact, OVW and Deep South TV as soon as we can get it. It does huge hits and is news. We also ALWAYS mark it with **(SPOILERS)** at the end. So to the people that keep emailing me to bitch, we have always and will always post spoilers for these TV shows. The day the show happens, we also run a complete "Non-Spoiler" listing for the show, telling you what matches will happen minus the spoilers. That is 411 policy and that is how we will continue to do it. If you click on a Smackdown or Impact results tread on Monday or Tuesday, it is your own damn fault. Deal with it.
The Conclusion:
And there you go guys. I hope that, as I said at the beginning of the column that this helps you gain more on an understanding of my opinions. If there are any more questions like this, feel free to send them my way. One last thing, remember; your opinion is your own, don't let anyone sway you and in the end, just have fun! If you have questions you would like addressed in a Csonka-Mania FAQ, just click the email link and fire them this way.
