High Road/Low Road 11.10.06: The Champion of Champions Match
Posted by Chad Nevett on 11.10.2006
This past Sunday at Cyber Sunday, there was a Champion of Champions Match. Was it a good idea or a bad idea to have this match and was the match respectable? You decide in this week's High Road/Low Road.
Welcome back to the High Road/Low Road! A brief explanation of the column: Uncle Trunx takes the Low Road (negative view) on angles, gimmicks, and other wrestling related "stuff" while Sat takes the High Road (positive view).
Special Note: Also; for any of you who live in the Banbury area in the UK, Check out the British All Star Wrestling Alliance on November 12th at the Wood Green Leisure Centre, Banbury. British wrestling for all the family, and Uncletrunx will be there live and in person. He's as miserable in real life as he is in this column, but if you offer to buy him a pint of good British ale, he might be a bit more sociable! Doors open at 5.45pm, show starts at 6pm. Get along there, and tell them Trunx sent you!
The Results for the Women's Title Tournament:
High Road: 43%
Low Road: 57%
E-Mails:
These are all of the e-mails that we received this week. We do not respond to the actual e-mail, but the reply to your e-mail will be below.
Bobby D. Writes:
Hey Sat and Uncle Trunx,
Great column as always, usually I agree with Sat's high road, but on this topic I'm going low road. I think the major point was made by Trunx when he said a tournament is only as good as its competitors. Unlike most wrestling fans, I am (or was) actually a fan of the wrestling divas. Back when it was Molly Holly, Victoria, Jazz, Jacqueline, Trish, Lita (before neck surgery) and the completely underrated in both character and hotness Ivory…(yeah I love Ivory so what?) I thought all the aforementioned women put on some pretty solid matches, yet still worked from an eye candy standpoint, AND had semblance of character development for people to get into. There was Molly who was virtuous, Trish was the hot chick, Victoria was crazy, Jazz was vicious etc. Now there's Candice who's … what exactly? Same for Torrie. And Melina, she…screams. (Not that a screamer is a bad thing, but that's another topic for another time.)
The division just doesn't have the wrestling talent to make this tournament work. 5 years ago I think most of the fans and IWC would have been intrigued, or at least not crapping on this thing with the better talent, but not now.
Even though I love the brand split, I hate the fact that the women's champion is designated solely to RAW. This tournament would have been much better if some of the non-wrestling divas of RAW (Candice, Maria, Torrie) were replaced with the better wrestling divas from the other brands. ECW's Jazz or SmackDown's Jillian would have been nice fits here. Hell, Ashley, Kristal, and Michelle McCool all would be more believable champs then the 3 RAW women mentioned above and it would give the other brands' divas something to actually fight over.
Plus, where was Beth Phoenix? I'm guessing she must still be injured because if not it's completely moronic not to have her in this. There's no better way to re-introduce a tough diva then right after another tough diva just left. Especially if Beth won and declared herself the "new era's" women's champ.
Lastly, some people are at least happy with the finals: Lita vs. Mickey. I'm not for a few reasons. 1) Lita has never been the same since neck surgery and her matches have suffered for it. 2) Victoria is the best wrestler of the bunch, but sadly gets jobbed repeatedly. 3) Mickey/Victoria makes more sense not just from a wrestling stand point, but also could be storyline wise too if the loss drove the loser back into crazy mode. And 4) It's been rumored that Lita has one foot out the door and is looking to also retire soon so why not take this chance to elevate another Diva to start a feud with Mickey?
All in all this, to me, was a badly missed opportunity to re-elevate the women's division and for that I'm going low road.
Again thanks for the entertaining column guys. Keep up the good work.
P.S. Not that it really matters, but are you guys ever planning to switch and have Trunx take High Road and Sat take the Low?
Sat: I had a pretty hard time coming with High Roads. If I had to vote for this, I would have also voted low road. There were only two high roads that I believe. My personal believe is that the tournament took a turn for the worst when they announced the "second chance match". There are no second chances in a single elimination tournament. I like your suggestion about using the SmackDown and ECW divas, but let me expand on it with this scenario. Coach knows he is going to have to have a tournament, so he decides to swing a few trades. He sends Candice to ECW for Jazz and he sends Torrie to SmackDown for Ashley. This saves London & Kendrick from getting disbanded (the seeds are getting planted) and it brings a wrestler (Jazz) to RAW. If need be, another trade could be made to bring Jillian to RAW. She hasn't done anything worthwhile on SmackDown. You bring back Beth Phoenix and you have one hell of a tournament. I guess we could switch it up but before Uncle Trunx started to write this column, I noticed that he always voted low road.
Uncle Trunx:
I could take an occasional high road if you like, but I'm more of a miserable, fault finding old bugger usually!
I had assumed that Beth Phoenix was still injured and thus wasn't involved. However, there's always the likes of Katie Lee in OVW who could have been brought in for this, and the suggestion of trading SmackDown and ECW wrestling ladies in would've made the tournament seem more important and less like a thrown together afterthought. Either do these things properly or do something else is what I say!
Freddy Neuwendyke Writes:
I had to vote low road. For years the women's division has been a complete train wreck. For every woman like Mickie James who can actually work a decent match there are always 10 who are as green as army trucks. Plus let's face it watching a whole match full of Jerry Lawler's incessant "Puppies Puppies" chants is equally annoying.
WWE has never had more belts yet they've never meant less.
Sat: You make a great point. There are not that many good women wrestlers out there. I have actually been able to avoid Lawler's "puppies puppies" chant because I usually fast forward through the women's matches.
Uncle Trunx:
I maintain it's because they've slowly phased out actual female wrestlers in favour of diva search contestants. There are so many women out there who can actually work a decent match, it seems criminal that they all have to scratch about in the Indies (or OVW!) while the diva search failures get on the big stage.
Lynx Raven Raide Writes:
you gave an interesting read this week, and I give props to Sat for trying to shed a positive light on the tournament. If it had have been a different tournament, for say tag, US, IC or even CW titles, it would have been easier, but with the current women's division (hehe, liked the name diva division), the only things you could really do is bring in credible wrestling women, or suspend the belt indefinitely. Uncle Trunx's idea of triple threat/fatal four way would be good, but being that the PPV is Cyber Sunday, the WWE would put some stupid stipulation on it that would ruin it. If it was a TT/FFW, the only credible wrestlers for it would be Lita (question mark next to her though), Mickie James, Victoria and maybe Beth Phoenix, although she is injured. The tournament was a waste of time, since with the depth, or lack there of, of the women's roster should indicate a suspension of the belt. It is a pity though, since I can remember it was only a couple of years ago when they had a talented women's division.
Sat: As I said above it was tough to defend this tournament. I think that the WWE could have put on excellent I.C. and U.S. Title tournaments, but not for the CW and tag titles. They have no contenders for the title. They keep telling us that Gregory Helms is the longest reigning champion in Sports Entertainment. No duh, he has nobody to face. If he had some competition and he was the longest reigning champion, then I would have given him some props. A triple threat could have been a good idea, but then you have some competitors that didn't even get a chance. Kind of like the BCS. Also, I believe that Beth Phoenix is currently wrestling in OVW. I guess they will bring her back after Lita's departure.
I'm going Low Road on the Women's tournament. I mean usually for a Women's Title Tournament you want women who can actually WRESTLE. not interviewers, not managers, I mean sure Lita I'll give her slack but she's not been continuing active in the ring which makes sense due to her bad knee. Perhaps you guys won't mind evaluating a personal creation of mind. Please, Satman and Trunxie evaluate my idea for a match. What TNA does is they take 1/4 inch steel and wrap it around the apron to expand the Apron. then they take the Ultimate X and set it up like normal then they take the 6-sides of steel and put it up, since the extra width on the apron made it easier to set up what with the Ultimate X already there in the first ever Prison Break match. Let's say they used this at Genesis for the AMW/LAX match for the tag titles. There are only 3 rules for the Prison Break match: #1: you must have the tag title belt in your possession when you exit the cage. #2: both members' feet have to touch the floor w/ the tag titles in their possession #3: if one member from each team exits the cage. the 2 men left will fight it out in a singles match per a Referee already being inside the ring in case the scenario occurs.
Sat: You make the same points as the e-mailers above.
The term "Prison Break" might be copyrighted, but I love your idea. The rules make sense (not like that stupid Fight for Your Right thing) and you combine two great features into one.
The only problem I have with the match is that somebody could potentially get a title, but get it stolen. I would fix this by saying that you have to climb and hit a buzzer at the top and then you are eligible to leave the cage.
Uncle Trunx: I love the idea of a Prison Break match, but agree that it might need a slight name adjustment. I can see something similar being used to get the tag belts onto Cryme Tyme…
Matt Short Writes:
I'm going high road on the Women's Tournament and its mainly because I think that the WWE actually made the right choice this time in determining a new champion. Sat is right on the money in saying that with the tournament the winner is viewed as completely deserving of the title. It's mainly the reason why I've always been a mark for tournament events like King of the Ring and recently the indy Ted Petty Invitational. When you take the best in a division and put them against each other in a series of matches, that's pretty damn exciting if you ask me. At the same time, this will really only work if all the competitors in the tournament are actually capable of putting on a good match every time they're out there. And sadly most of the Divas are barely competant in the ring, thus the overall quality of matches is going to be way down. That was probably the biggest problem with the Diva's Tournament: it was too long. If a tournament is meant to highlight the best while they compete for the prize, it should actually involve the very best that can be offered. They didn't really need weeks of matches when it was perfectly obvious that this was going to lead to a PPV showdown between Mickie James and Lita. A shorter tournament or even a four way match would have worked just as well I think.
But the important thing is this: the tournament was meant to add credibility to the Women's Title. After Trish left they could have easily just had a singles match the next night on Raw and be done with it. Winning the belt at the end is all well and good, but being able to win it in a tournament shows that they perhaps put at least some effort in building up the title and the women who are going to be competing for it. I am also very glad that it was decided that for the finals they were allowed to wrestle a real match. Granted, all the choices were very gimmicky regardless. I am glad though that they didn't go the route of having the belt decided in a Bra and Panties-Brass Knuckles On A Pole-Donkey Punch Match (????). This tournament isn't going to be something that's going to be remembered with the biggest events of professional wrestling, but at least they tried to give the belt some respect and highlight it in this way
Sat: I wasn't able to send this to Uncle Trunx because I recieved the e-mail really late. I will include this e-mail again next week, so he can respond. I completely agree with you. As I wrote above, I only believe two of the high roads. One of them was that the tournament was the best way to determine a champion. The competitors could have been better, but hey you can't get everything.
This week's High Road/Low Road featuring...
Champion of Champions Match
High Road:
This was the first time ever that we had the all of champions from each brand going at it, one on one. I think that this has been one of the matches that all of the fans have been waiting for since the beginning of Brand Extension. I have also been wondering for a long time if this type of match was ever going to happen and it finally happened at Cyber Sunday.
Low Road:
Surely if you're going to make your belts and your champions mean anything, you need to build this type of match up like it's the be all and end all of Wrestling this Century. This match didn't have that epic feel to it; it felt like a rushed together match for the sake of putting something on PPV. The screwy "voted on" nature of the stipulation also detracted. I know that's the whole point of Cyber Sunday, however if you're going to go for this type of match it has to be on one of the big events, not some afterthought of a PPV which means very little.
High Road:
I think that the WWE deserves a ton of props for using this match at Cyber Sunday. Cyber Sunday/Taboo Tuesday has not been a buy rate machine, so they decided to use this match for Cyber Sunday. Most people will say that this type of match should happen at the grandest stage, WrestleMania, but I disagree with this because there is nothing wrong with WrestleMania, so why would you want to add more to it. This match should be used to help another buy rate. I personally hope that the WWE continues to use the Champions of Champions match at Cyber Sunday because it will definitely help the buy rate.
Low Road:
You'd want to add more to WrestleMania to make it feel like the biggest show ever. This match, properly built and promoted, could be the ultimate centerpiece for a show like WrestleMania. Instead, it felt more like a main event from a TV show. I can't help but feel it was a waste.
High Road:
The Champion of Champions match can easily be used to lead into the Survivor Series. Most likely nothing will be solved at Cyber Sunday, so the champion of each brand can lead their respective teams into the Survivor Series.
Low Road:
Was anyone surprised at the result of the main event at Cyber Sunday? I wasn't; it was pretty obvious what would happen as soon as the voting result was announced. There was almost no incentive to watch this show. It may lead to something good at Survivor Series but that's not the issue at hand. The issue at hand is the main event of Cyber Sunday, which was a disappointing match with an obvious finish.
High Road:
One of the arguments that I have heard is that while we do have a Champion of Champions match, the competitors in the match are not the best that each brand as to offer. John Cena is the best that RAW as to offer, but you could potentially make the argument for a replacement for the Big Show and King Booker. My response to this argument would be that if doesn't matter if the competitors aren't the best that each brand has to offer. The fact is that all the competitors are champions of their respective brands.
Low Road:
Well, quite. The very nature of it is that it has to feature the champions; the issue I have with it is that the champions need to be presented as the absolute cream, the best athletes that there are in a match that has never been seen before. Each should be presented as being the pinnacle of sporting achievement, utterly confident as they go into the biggest match ever. Instead of which, we get them bickering and plotting like little children, and get the inevitable screw job finish. It's so disappointing, although it's almost more disappointing that I expected it.
High Road:
Now, onto the actual match. The ending to this match was perfect because none of the champions lost straight up because there was outside interference. If a champion had lost straight up then that brand was going to look inferior. The outcome made sure that no champion looked bad and no brand looked inferior.
Low Road:
That mess of a finish was certainly not perfect. Firstly, it was yet another non finish to deprive us of an actual finish to a main event. Secondly, it was blatantly obvious to me that whoever was defending their belt would win; that Booker had to rely on interference to hold on to his belt devalued him, the belt and SmackDown in general. As for using C list celebrity involvement in the finish, that just smacked of purest desperation. Once again, I fear that we'll see something like the David Arquette incident.
High Road:
The match that they had at Cyber Sunday was the best match they could have had. They had the Big Show and John Cena and both of these guys can't wrestle. King Booker can wrestle, but he wasn't going to work any miracles here. So, the WWE went with the next best thing and that was to have King Booker and John Cena be in the ring for the majority of the time. They had a legitimate reason for the Big Show to be out of the match for an extended period of time (he hit his head on the steps). Also, as usual the Big Show was dominant (as he should have been) and we got to see his strength. Great job by the WWE for noticing the problems that this match could have had and then trying to work around these problems.
Low Road:
So the high road is that two of the competitors can't wrestle? Again, all they did was expose what a poor product we're getting these days. They shouldn't need to work around the glaring weaknesses of the competitors; these are supposed to be the world champions! So rather than the cream of the cream wrestling each other in an ultimate meeting of the best athletes, we get an overbooked mess; and this is supposed to be the best they've got across all 3 brands?
What we end up with was a predictable match with a screw job finish and an all too obvious winner. What an absolute waste of a great opportunity. Sadly, it was all too predictable.
Are you taking the High Road or the Low Road?
High Road/Low Road Plugs
We are taking the high road on these articles so you should read them...
Ari Berenstein has the ROH results from Chicago Ridge and Braintree, a look at Cabana's week, ROH news, and a preview of ROH in Philadelphia in the Column of Honor
There are other articles that we didn't list, so check them out as well.
Special Note: Also; for any of you who live in the Banbury area in the UK, Check out the British All Star Wrestling Alliance on November 12th at the Wood Green Leisure Centre, Banbury. British wrestling for all the family, and Uncletrunx will be there live and in person. He's as miserable in real life as he is in this column, but if you offer to buy him a pint of good British ale, he might be a bit more sociable! Doors open at 5.45pm, show starts at 6pm. Get along there, and tell them Trunx sent you!
E-mail us your reasons for taking the High Road or the Low Road and suggestions for future High Road/Low Road at satuncletrunx@gmail.com
