The Crystal Ball 9.13.06: News, Notes & Feedback
Posted by Steve Sullivan on 09.13.2006
I don't know what to write about so I just write about it all. This thing is less organized than a match between Sabu and Jeff Hardy!
I never say this enough and I want to say this right off the bat this week. I appreciate everyone who reads my column. Whether you read it from time to time, everyday, or what not. Maybe you email me and maybe you don't. Regardless, I can always count on several of you reading my stuff every week and that makes me feel good. The reason this became so important for me is because someone who read this column reguarly, and even discussed my column with a friend of mine, passed away this week in a car accident. I've said this many times in the 11 months I've been doing this column and I'm going to say it again. If I can make an impact in your life whatsoever, then my mission has been accomplished. Today, I have one less reader and this one goes out to Shaun in Missouri.
With that being said, Welcome one and welcome all back to the OVW Crystal Ball! I've had such a scatterbrained week it's not even funny. First off, I got a big promotion this week which is one GIANT step into achieving my dream. Secondly, I had dinner with Kenny Bolin last Wednesday following the OVW TV Taping. Kenny is a terrific person and I had a very memorable time. I learned a lot about the business through him. By the way, did you know that there are 7 guys under WWE contract who worked at the same Chiji's Restaurant in Louisville?? Keep that in mind next time that big burly guy brings out your burger!
While at the OVW TV Taping last Wednesday, I had a lot of thoughts cross through my head and I want to go over today. So there's no real theme here, just me blabbing away at a few random bits. So sit back and take your pick as to what I'm talking about because at this point, I have NO clue.
Cryme Tyme
I gotta say, I am EXTREMELY excited about this tag team on Raw. Gaspard was one of the first people I wrote about when I started this column. What's even better is seeing him actually WINNING. He's been in OVW forever. He finally shared a moment in the OVW spotlight by winning the OVW Southern Tag Team Titles a few months ago. Finally, Gaspard is getting a chance to play a face. I think he is going to shine in this role. It's been said that Gaspard is a really nice and fun loving guy. I think he's going to have a lot of fun in this role on Raw.
In case you've missed anything I've ever said about Gaspard and JTG (formerlly the Neighborhoodie), here's your second chance. Gaspard, as you've seen, is a big man. He's very powerful but his ring time will be short. He makes frequent tags, usually with an elbow bump. But when he's in, expect some powerful stuff. Stuff you might see from guys like Bobby Lashley and Batista. He has really improved his game in 2006 and I look forward to seeing the finished product in a Raw ring very soon.
JTG if you haven't figure out yet, is your basic thug. He wears a grill in the ring. He bounces around and flashes signs and as you saw on Raw a couple weeks ago, sends shout out to all his homies. That's basically all he is. He's the basic offense of this time and will probably see most of the ring time, taking the beating and giving the beating.
This is going to be a lot of fun when they get into things on Raw. It's really good to see the WWE cushioning its tag team division. With The Spirit Squad being rumored to break up soon, we get another tag team to follow through with The Highlanders, Cade & Murdoch, Eugene & Hacksaw, and Vis & Haas. Maybe just maybe the WWE is taking tag team wrestling just a little more serious than they have the last couple of years. We can cross our fingers anyway.
Roadkill Is No Longer Roadkill
It's lights out for Amish fans. Amish Roadkill has dropped the Amish gimmick. Though he has not made any OVW TV appararences recently, the wrestler formerlly known as Roadkill has now changed his name to Braddock. If you thought Roadkill was tough to look at before, go look up a picture of Braddock. The big hairy pale guy wears nothing but a singlet and some boots. It's enough to make you wish you were Amish.
Apparently the Amish aren't extreme enough. Though Roadkill was the last original ECW Tag Team Champion with Danny Doring, Roadkill had barely seen any time in ECW since it's re-emergence. So apparently Roadkill...er...Braddock will be making a switch to a "real person" role and I half expect to see him on Smackdown with Jimmy Yang sometime in the near future.
Jacob Duncan Character Already Killed Off
I was really enjoying this character, but the mankind, psycho from the woods gimmick has already been dropped by the WWE. The WWE, who came up with the gimmick, killed it off less than a month after he made his debut on OVW TV. The WWE decided that the character was too "gimmicky". And get this. The man who killed the Duncan character...none other than The Boogeyman. That's not gimmicky at all.
Duncan was being played by Ryan Wilson, aka Tytus. He will apparently be going back to being Tytus. He was getting a look at Smackdown earlier this week. No word on how that went but he is a very capable wrestler. His final match as Jacob Duncan was a doozy and he showed a lot of promise in the ring. If there isn't room for him on Smackdown, then maybe this guy should get a look with ECW.
OVW Gets A New Title?
Sort of. I think. Apparently OVW is really busy setting up a new Women's Division. With the departure of Trish Stratus, and the rumored departure of Lita, the WWE is doing everything it can to get a few new sexy faces on your screen. This past Wednesday, OVW had it's first ever women's battle royal for the "OVW Women's Title". OVW Champion ODB, who claims she won the title after fighting for several days in Rio de Janerio.
This battle royal saw several familiar faces and some new ones. Some familiar faces included Kelly Kelly (who by the way, is apparently dating Test now), Ariel, and Beth Phoenix. Then there were a few OVW faces, in particular, ODB and Serena. Both of which have been pretty impressive.
ODB, who hasn't actually shown a lot of wrestling skills, has shown a lot of promise in entertainment. The one who has really impressed me as of late is Serena. Serena is a very talented wrestler. She has the potential to be the next hot WWE Diva. She has the looks. She has the moves. She has a spear twice as sweet as Edge.
If OVW truly has developed a Women's Title and a Women's Division, this could mean a lot of changes and a lot of new talent for the WWE Women's Division.
Several 2006 Diva Search Finalists have also been signed to WWE developmental deals and are preparing for work in OVW. Those names include Milena, Maryse, and Amy. So keep your eyes on the Women's Division on Raw in the near future. It could get pretty good.
Seth Skyfire Out
I don't know if this is an angle or legit, but Seth Skyfire came onto OVW TV this week and stated he had several injuries and was going to be out of wrestling for several months. He also vowed revenge on C.M. Punk and Charles "The Hammer" Evans, the two men responsible for injuring him. But never once do I recall Seth congratulating his former Tag Team partner for his OVW Heavyweight Title win, Chet The Jett.
I see one of two things coming out of this, a hot angle, or a flop. Two years ago, Matt Cappotelli found himself injured with a broken leg. Johnny Jeter, his former partner, won the OVW Heavyweight title and began a very hot feud. I expect to see a very similar feud soon between Skyfire and Chet. The two are crowd favorites in OVW and a feud between the two would be nothing short of phenomenal. I expect to see Skyfire turn heel very soon and test the other side of his wrestling career. He's been a face his whole career in OVW.
Angle or not, I wish Skyfire the best and I hope he's back wrestling soon. He had quickly became my favorite wrestler in OVW this year and I look forward to watching him take it to the WWE soon.
Steve-mail
And finally, the part of the column you write! I had quite a bit of people arguing over some of the comments I made in last week's column about unexpected title changes. Before I get into my email, and in case you missed the column, I basically named several matches from the WWE, WCW, and OVW whose title changes on a free TV show came unexpected. That means, this title change did NOT occur at a pay-per-view. So with that, here's what some of you wrote.
James wrote in with several free TV Title Changes that I don't even remember:
Hey, long-time reader. Great column, but I'm not sure about only there being 9 free title changes of a WWE-controlled heavyweight title. I have the list at:
WWWF/WWF/WWE
1) Andre the Giant defeats Hulk Hogan on Saturday Night's Main Event
2) Sycho Sid defeats Bret Hart on Raw
3) Steve Austin defeats Kane on Raw
4) Mankind defeats Rock on Raw
5) Mankind defeats Rock on Halftime Heat.
6) Rock defeats Mankind in a Ladder Match on Raw
7) Steve Austin defeats the UnderTaker on Raw
8) HHH defeats Mankind on Raw
9) Vince McMahon defeats HHH on Smackdown
10) HHH defeats the Big Show on Raw
11) Steve Austin defeats Kurt Angle on Raw
12) Brock Lesnar defeats Kurt Angle on Smackdown
13) Edge defeats Rob Van Dam on Raw.
"WCW" title
14) Booker T wins on last Nitro (technically this was under WWE booking.)
15) Kurt Angle defeats Booker T on Smackdown
16) Booker T defeats Kurt Angle on Raw
17) Rock defeats Chris Jericho on Raw
World
18) Kurt Angle wins the Battle Royal on Smackdown.
ECW
19) Big Show defeats Rob Van Dam on ECW on Sci-Fi
Keep up the good work man,
James
Thanks James. I don't even remember half of these matches being for the WWE Title. Does anyone else? If your information is correct, then shame on me! You did some awesome research here and thanks for the input!
Clayton chimes in next:
I'd consider Show's win at Survivor Series '99 the biggest surprise WWE title victory. This one probably should have made your list.
Maybe it would have had it not been on a Pay-Per-View! But how can you really call that win the biggest surprise in WWE Title history? How can a WWE Title Match with a 7 pound giant on one of the major pay per views really be that surprising? This may rank in my top 10 but that's it. There's no way The Big Show winning that match was less expected than Bob Backland dropping the title at a non-televised, pre internet boom, house show.
"The MB" comes in next with even more Pay-Per-View matches:
Narrowing down the surprise title changes to just three for each promotion is extremely difficult, but you did a good job. I think the Arquette title change was the most surprising since nobody in their right mind would have ever thought that would happen. I think that Angle showing up on Smackdown the night of his win was a surprise, but him winning the battle royal was hardly astonishing.
I have never seen OVW and WCW is dead, so here is my 5 most surprising title changes for the WWE are:
#1. Edge defeating Cena at New Years Revolution. I had the feeling that Cena wouldn't be walking out of there with the belt because he was the top face and was getting booed out of ever arena, but I never predicted Edge would be walking out with it, considering he wasn't even in the match!
#2. Bret Hart defeating Ric Flair. I didn't even think Hart was in the title picture when this happened. I also think this was from a house show as well.
#3. Mankind defeating Austin and HHH at Summerslam 1998. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, thought that this was going to be the first title win fro HHH. He was steadily climbing the ladder and deserved it. He ended up winning the title the next night, but putting the belt on Foley for a night was a very surprising swerve by the WWE.
#4. Jericho becomes the first unified champion by winning a four man tournament at Vengeance. The participants involved were The Rock, Austin, Jericho, and Kurt Angle. The last person out of this group that was expected to win was Jericho.
#5. Diesel defeating Backlund, which you already described.
Honorable mention: Vince McMahon winning the title on Smackdown.
Sincerely,
"THE MB"
Thanks MB. Once again, most of these were pay-per-view matches and I was talking about Free TV matches but I'll talk about them anyway.
Edge beating Cena was sorta predictable. In fact, several writers here at 411mania called it in our roundtable! So thanks to those jerks, I wasn't very surprised! What was more surprising about that angle to me was the fact that Cena won it back just a couple weeks later at The Royal Rumble. I did not expect Cena to take that belt with him to Wrestlemania, so I was more shocked there.
I don't remember the Bret Hart/Ric Flair fight you're talking about but I'm sure it was a classic bout. I don't recall one of Hart's title reigns coming from a house show. If I'm wrong, someone correct me.
I totally agree with you about Mankind's title reign. I did not ever expect to see Mankind ever hold WWE gold but he did. Not for long but the fact that he came out of Summerslam with it over Austin and Triple H was a total shocker.
Jericho becoming the first ever Unified Champion almost seems like the WWE made a mistake. Before you argue, let me make my point. The Rock, Austin, and Angle were all WWE born and bred. They were purebloods. Jericho however, came over to the WWE from WCW. At a time where the WWE was trying to slowly ween people off the WCW name, making Jericho the first ever champion of champions seems kind of weird. Especially given the length of the reign and the amount of reigns he received following it. It was a true shock and so shocking, it almost seems like they screwed up. And don't get me wrong, I love Jericho, but it was just weird to process at the time.
And of course I was write about Diesel and Backlund. It's me!
Next up, a fellow Steve, because there aren't enough of us:
Hi Steve Nugent here,
In your Crystal Ball Collumn About Unexpected Champions you stated and i
quote:
"Only once has the World Heavyweight Title been won on free TV since being
introduced in 2001, and that was this past January on Smackdown. And only
once has a new Heavyweight Champion been crowned in the history of
Smackdown. "
this is incorrect.
Back in 1999 on an episode of Raw in September i bleive VInce McMahon
defeated Triple H to become The WWF Heavyweight CHampion.
Just felt compelled to point that out
Thanks for the input Steve but I don't think you read the quote you pulled out correctly. "Only once has the WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE been won on free TV since being introduced 2001, and that was this past January on SMACKDOWN."
You pointed out a different belt on a different show. I'm still not quite sure what you were going for.
And with that, I end the sloppiest edition of The Crystal Ball ever. I want to hear from you. I'm struggling for ideas over here now that I don't get OVW on TV here anymore. So tell me what you'd like to see. Give me some ideas on what to write. And maybe you can help a brotha out! Until then my friends...and no Cook, I have two, but I only need one to make my point....
