News to End Your Weekend 9.10.06
Posted by Nick Marsico on 09.10.2006
SmackDown, Kanyon, X-Pac and more in this fantastic not-in-its usual timeslot column from your boy, Jimmy Wang Yang. I mean Nick Marsico. You read the byline. It has my name, not his. Giddyup, Yeeehaw!
Hey, well would you look who's back? I'm taking the place of that sweet boy Jeffrey Small who is out of action this week due to a busy schedule of some sort. I heard he was spending the weekend on a plane, possibly as a drug mule, but don't quote me on that. Anyway, I get to start and finish your weekend this week, and since it's Sunday, that means that for the first time in a long time I'll actually be talking about SmackDown in this column and I may as well throw in a little iMPACT since I've now seen the show. Let's get on with it then.
NEWS FROM THE DAY THAT'S FRIDAY
Jeff Jarrett contest; Austin Starr... So that fans lumberjack match will be coming to fruition in a few weeks at No Surrender and if you make a video about why you hate Jeff Jarrett and send it in to TNA, you might get a free trip to Orlando to see the show and be one of the lumberjacks in said match. I don't really know what to think about this, really, but to be honest I'm basically indifferent.
Also, Austin Aries will be returning as Austin Starr at Bound for Glory in October... I wonder what he's going to do? A match? Against who? A promo? About what? I guess we'll have to wait a month and a half to find out.
WWE testing high def broadcasts... Starting with a house show tonight, WWE will begin working out taping their shows in high definition. The dot com has a story up about it that you can find at the link here. I really don't care much about this, because I don't have an HDTV and I'm not planning to get one anywhere in the foreseeable future. I'm sure people who have high definition TVs and watch a lot of stuff in high-def are creaming their pants right now, though.
SATURDAY'S NEWS ITEMS
Sean Waltman and Kanyon appear at RAW house show... X-Pac's not signed by WWE but I'm sure Triple H wants him to be. He was allowed to celebrate in the ring with DX after their matches on Friday. He's under contract with the MTV promotion Wrestle Society X and is also working for Vampiro in his promotion down in Mexico. Kanyon showed up on his own (X-Pac was invited by HHH) and told security that his involvement (he yelled at Triple H during the match) was part of the show, but he was soon escorted out of the building when it was found out that it wasn't.
I don't necessarily care to see either guy back in the E, but a Kanyon return to SmackDown's midcard (random Kanyon Cutters anyone?) would be welcome, I guess. Fucking DX just needs to end, though.
"You may have read or heard that I showed up at a WWE Raw house show Friday, 9-8-06, and created a "disturbance." Well, before people jump to conclusions and try to put their own spin on what and why I did what I did, I figure you might as well hear it from the horse's mouth.
Part of the reason dates back to the Smackdown show taped on 2-11-03, airing on UPN 2-13-03. It was my return to national TV after many months recovering from injury as well as many months helping with the WWE's training system, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), in Louisville, KY. After so much time off TV, instead of any build up and fanfare for my return, the WWE had me dress up as a known homosexual (Boy George), come out of a large crate in the middle of the ring (a closet, so to speak), sing in a very effeminate voice ("sing like a fag" I was told by the agent/creative person assigned by Vince McMahon to me and this "storyline,"), and take a very physical, stiff beating from the Undertaker including 3 extremely brutal and UNSAFE chair shots to the small of the back and the top of the head.
Now, I believe this was in response to my possible plans, at the time, to come out of the closet nationally. Prior to my comeback, I had several discussions with people within the WWE about coming out, and I am sure it got back to Vince. Instead of just telling me that he would prefer it if I didn't come out, I believe he set up this angle as a message to me. I can't say that for sure, but if it wasn't a message, it was an incredible coincidence. Following this incident I was very rarely on Smackdown or Raw, and was pretty much beaten every week until I was fired. I guess everyone can draw his/her own conclusions.
Now, as recently as a few weeks ago, my goal was to return to the WWE, I guess in some ways not wanting to believe that I was really fired because I was gay. But I was curious. Several attempts to contact and talk to the WWE about a possible return went unanswered. And in trying to find out about the potential for a return, I found out from people within the WWE that my suspicions about being fired because I was gay, according to them, were correct.
One person high up on the corporate side confirmed that Vince knew that I was gay and that was at least part of the reason that I was released. This person told me that Vince has said in the past, "it is my company, and I can hire and fire whoever I want for whatever reason I want." And, although morally I do not agree with that statement, in some ways I see his point and in some ways I agree with him….if it was a private company. But the WWE is a public company, and Vince's top priority should be turning a profit for his stockholders. He should not allow any of his personal animosity or prejudices towards any groups or individuals affect decisions that may affect potential profit for his stockholders. But that is just my opinion.
I also heard from a high profile wrestler who was in both the WWE and WCW who said that he was aware of an agent who had also known that I was gay (it was not a well kept secret within the industry for many years), and that this agent would often talk of me being gay and he would refer to me in some circles as "that fu**ing faggot," and "that queer." This agent was often responsible for my matches (the agent is often the liaison between the wrestlers and Vince McMahon), and on several occasions, I know that he lied to Vince about things that I had said and did. I do believe that may have also been a factor in my being fired, but again, you can form your own opinions.
All that brings us to Friday, September 8, 2006 in Tampa, Florida. I decided to attend the show because I was frustrated with my inability to hear from Vince McMahon on whether what I had heard was true or not. If I found out from him that it was true, I would have to move on with my life. There would be no attempted lawsuits (I really don't believe in them) and I believe I would really have no hard feelings. I would just know it was my time to move on. Everything happens for a reason, and I would take this as a sign that there are other things for me to do out there. It would give me closure to a great chapter in my life.
On the other hand, if it is not true, I would like one more run. I miss wrestling in the WWE and I feel I still have something to offer. But, thus far, I have not heard from Vince. So I decided to bring 2 signs to the house show. "HHH, PLEASE ASK VINCE WHY HE REALLY FIRED ME" and since that really didn't let Vince know what I was thinking. "SHAWN PLEASE PRAY FOR MY GAY SOUL." I intentionally did not do this during the match out of respect to Shawn and HHH, since I would never want to distract from anyone's match.
So, during their INTRODUCTION, I went to ringside with the signs and HHH and Shawn both came to the rope on the side I was standing and acknowledged my presence, which was a show of class by them. Shawn nodded and gave me a thumbs up, I assume meaning he would, in fact, pray for me. HHH grabbed the mic and said something, almost inaudible, I think saying, "Who invited Kanyon?" Security ushered me out of the building, although I had paid for my ticket (the nice promoter for the WWE, Bret, did get tickets for my friends, but I bought my own ticket).
And that was that. Not a publicity ploy, as some will accuse. And it was definitely not an attempt to upset anyone or distract from the show (if I did that I am sorry). I do want to take this opportunity to personally apologize to WWE Security, Jimmy N. He is a great guy, always treated me well when I was with the WWE, and he does a great job. I am sorry if I upset him. In closing, I would like to say that what I did was just an attempt to get some answers so that I can move on with my life, get some closure or return to the national wrestling scene. The ball is in Vince's court. I really wish he would just let me know if I can still play the game again or not."
Um... Pat Patterson and Sylvan are quite openly gay, Kanyon. The reason why you don't have a job is because you're a nobody. I was a Kanyon fan when he was in WCW and I was a fan while he was the Alliance MVP, and I was annoyed that when he finally made his return on SmackDown that he had to do the silly thing with the box and the Undertaker. The thing is, though, that Kanyon is NOT a big star and never was a big star, especially not while he was in WWE. A good wrestler, a good personality and a good entertainer, but expendable, and that's what happened to him. Better talents get released from WWE all the time for no good reason too, ya know. Maybe some people didn't like that he's gay, but it's ridiculous to think that directly correlates to his firing.
Kanyon says it's not a publicity ploy, well fine. He's not going to get much publicity showing up at a house show and posting a message on his blog anyway. Yeah, the story's been picked up by websites like this one and is being written about by guys like me, but in the grand scheme of things the internet isn't going to get Kanyon enough publicity for anything to happen. The only reason it worked for Matt Hardy is because all of the stuff with him happened while he was still a very popular guy and was on television only days before the whole saga began. Kanyon's been off WWE TV for almost 4 years and showed up on a single TNA PPV in front of about 40,000 people (if that) last year. He has no steam behind him like Hardy did. In the end, nobody who actually matters in the wrestling business cares to employ Kanyon any more. If you want to wrestle, work the indies, because I'm sure there are plenty of small-time promoters that would love to have you.
IMPACT & SMACKDOWN THOUGHTS
tna impact... Another decent show, although my recent high attitude and excitement for the company has been waning due to just that. The shows went from being really good consistently for a number of weeks back to being just decent. The LAX/Daniels & Styles stuff is still really good and they started off the show with a quick and good squash and a hot brawl. If the Ultimate X doesn't get to be the main event over Joe/Jarrett, I'll be thoroughly annoyed.
I take it they're going to wait until Bound for Glory to give us the Chris Harris/James Storm match, as they're going to be needed for the 8 team gauntlet at No Surrender, but the slow build for the break up and subsequent match has been pretty good, and since AMW really had begun getting stale I'm enjoying their much smaller current role on television. I liked Harris' singles run at the World Title back when Storm was hurt a couple years back, and I think he can once again get up into that class with a few months of a singles run. The problem is that he'd work much better as a face than as a heel, but Storm is somehow coming off seeming more like a sympathetic face, possibly because his character is portrayed as such a dummy and Harris is the brains of the team and a big asshole. We'll see what happens, I guess.
Killings and Christian had a good match and it's another good TV main event out of Killings, which is a shame since he seems to be on his way out of the company. I'm definitely looking forward to the Rhino/Christian match on PPV and wish they'd do something with Truth FAST so he doesn't want to leave.
The rest of the show, meh. Eric Young still rules, though.
friday night smackdown... Now one of the reasons I don't tend to ever talk about the show (as I do sometimes watch my downloaded copy before I finish my Friday column) is because there's not much to talk about. I'm enjoying it, but it's really more or less just there. There's nothing to offensive (it's overkill and boring to talk about the Eddy stuff at this point), and everything else is good, or as I said, just there. And as everybody on the internet says (except for those crazy fellows who enjoy themselves writing in the great positivity debates), it's really no fun to write about things unless you can write about bad things and why you don't like them. That said, I'll get into the stuff I like about SmackDown (which is consistently way better than RAW, better than ECW as well as iMPACT).
JBL's a fantastic commentator, and for a lot of people he's the reason why they still watch the show. For me, he just enhances a show I already really enjoy. Every week at least a dozen classic lines come out of his mouth, and he's more insightful and builds up the guys in the ring better than any commentator in wrestling in a long time. I'd go so far as to say that he's the third best color guy of all time behind Heenan and Ventura, and with a better face play-by-play guy to work off of, he could, dare I say, be an equal to both guys. He's that good.
Finlay, Lashley, Kennedy, Regal, Tatanka (yeah, I said it), Hardy, Helms, Terkay and Vito are a pretty strong midcard, and throw in Mysterio and Chavo, Miz and even Sylvan who was doing pretty good before he apparently pissed somebody off backstage and the show has a bunch of guys to put on television who don't come off as stale and silly like much of what you're going to see on RAW. They don't have to rely on filling more than half the show with shitty backstage promos that highlight boring feuds and silly ironic segments like Maria watching paint dry for the entire show.
Hell, even the tag division (which is small) is better on SmackDown, because the teams don't suck. RAW has cheerleaders whose act has gone stale, a couple of Scotsmen whose act was stale once the promos for their debut ended a young retard and an old retard in Eugene and Duggan, a fat "love machine" and his little friend who doesn't have a gimmick other than that he's a bad guy who's Viscera's friend, a pair of cowboys who came in with a bit of fanfare, won the belts while part of a shitty tag division, then split up quietly, went away and returned with no fanfare and have been on RAW like twice in as many months, and of course Val and Snitsky, teaming only because Val's former partner found a boring angry at the world bandanna wearing Haas and Snitsky's former partner got fired again after coming in with Vader to try to beat up Batista randomly and turned face out of nowhere. SmackDown's division features an awesome Noble and Kash tag team, an awesome London and Kendrick tag team and a good young team in Stevens and James who are a couple pairs of matching tights and maybe a name (which isn't necessary) away from being right there. Plus the Gymini, who are decent enough and at least don't have some silly gimmick are on their way back eventually.
People say SmackDown is the big gimmicky show? Both shows have more or less the same amount of guys with wacky gimmicks and the ones on SmackDown are far less goofy, far more entertaining and the wrestlers are far better. Plus, King Booker >>>>>> Edge, and John Cena for that matter. How people can favor RAW over SmackDown is beyond me, but then again a lot of people haven't actually been watching SD for a long while now, with all of the preemptions and whatnot, as well as it being on Friday. A lot of idiots also use the reason that it's taped as an excuse to not watch/like the show. But really there's no excuse, what with TiVo and the internet to either record or download the show. Oh well, I actually quite enjoy making believe SmackDown is a show that they're putting on only for me, so badmouth the show all you want, queers.
It's too bad we don't have a SmackDown report up this week, though. It was another quite good show. Consistency really is the name of the game with SmackDown.
THE EMAIL PORTION OF THE PROGRAM
Gary Szuca, a new face around these emailing me parts, has something to say about Jeff Hardy:
Is it just me or are you the only guy giving Jeff Hardy a bad time at the minute, I understand everyone has the right to their only opinoin but when you state 'it's Hardy and Nitro, so who really cares anyway?' I just had to step in, I care as do many others. In my opinion in the three matches Hardy has had since he's been back have eclipesed all the work he did in TNA and his final year/s of his last run in the big E. Yes he is not as crisp or fast as he used to be but hell nor would anyone after taking so many sick bumps week after week year after year, no Hardy isn't a Benoit or Angle but he can sell just about as good as anyone and as for bumpin for other people just read what Edge has to say in his book. I think your being over critical but I respect your opinion, just don't speak for all of us who enjoyed seeing a motivated Jeff hardy.
My opinion happens to be the opinion of a lot of people on the internet, actually. In any event, better than TNA or his last WWE run or not, that really isn't saying much, because those two runs were ABYSMAL. It doesn't take much at all to eclipse those performances, or lack thereof.
And there are plenty of people, people with passion and people with real talent all over the independent scene who have taken plenty of big bumps and have had years of abuse put on their bodies that still are crisp and good. The reason Jeff came back to WWE wasn't because he got his passion back, it's because they offered him money and TV time, while TNA was offering less money and no TV time.
He's also a shitty seller. The man's never heard the phrase "ring psychology", and if he has, he surely has no clue what it means. As far as I'm concerned, Jeff is guilty before being proven innocent. He went from a really good performer and a future HUGE star to a no-showing talentless bum in a matter of months, and he's not proven in 4 years that he can improve himself and get anywhere near his former talent, and over the course of three matches (about 25 minutes of wrestling time overall) he has thus far not done anything to convince me that he's ready to be back on television. If he's still showing up to every show he's scheduled for and is having good matches consistently in 6 months time, maybe I'll change my opinion of the man, I just don't see it happening.
pabenjam doesn't like what I said about what Matt Striker said about Steve Irwin:
What they wrote for Striker to say was wrong. That was cheapest heat I've ever seen. Iriwn was a genuinely good person who did a lot for this world. There won't be another human being like him again. That is why his death is sad and what they did was wrong. He had just started a young family. Not only that, he passed on only 2 days earlier. There is a reason why the majority of people think it was a tastless and cheap act. If you can't see that, than I feel sorry for you. I say this as a person who looked up to and was a fan of Steve Irwin. It just needed to be said.
Wrong, maybe. Tasteless, sure, but people who did just as good and better things than Irwin, people with families, die every day, and people don't even give a fuck. The only reason people care at all about Steve Irwin is because he was a CELEBRITY. If he did all of the good things he did for this world and had a young family but wasn't a TV star, nobody would give two shits about his death. In the end, he's just another person, just one that happened to be on television, which all of a sudden makes him more important than everybody else.
In the end, a joke is a joke and words are just words. It's not like Striker or WWE hates Steve Irwin or wishes any more ill will on his family, it's just something a smarmy, better-than-you asshole heel might say and certainly did, and that's as far as it goes. To get angry about it is silly, because you know, just like hopefully everybody else should, that, as I said, there was no malicious intent with that statement.
Nothing is sacred, my friend, especially not some goof who dangled a baby over a crocodile's mouth.
Some more hate mail about Steve Irwin, this time from BurtPet1:
dick head no respect for anyone complete dick head
That's right, man! Stick it to me!
COUPLE OF SHOW PREVIEWS
wwe raw...
- Vince McMahon versus Triple H
- Carlito, John Cena & Jeff Hardy versus Randy Orton, Edge & Johnny Nitro
- more to be announced
tna no surrender...
- LAX versus Christopher Daniels & AJ Styles (Ultimate X, World Tag Team Championship)
- Samoa Joe versus Jeff Jarrett (Fan's Revenge Lumberjack Match)
- Senshi versus Chris Sabin (X Division Championship)
- Rhino versus Christian Cage
- 8 Team Triple Chance Tag Team Battle Royal
