Story Lines 11.19.06: The Series...OF DOOM, Part Two - Wrestling's One Ring Circus
Posted by Mike Hamflett on 11.19.2006
Screw the lot of you, I LOVE K-Fed, making fools out of midcarders, and 'jive' talkin'. Yo yo yo.
Reading his reviews is like listening to the guy in the bar who speaks the loudest but knows the least.
Nobody on the net touches Scott's quick wit and style.
If I had to pick just my favourite writer on wrestling on the internet, it would be Scott Keith. But I'd never buy his books.
Prologue
Above, are three actual quotes from readers Clarkey Clark, D Mills420 and regular emailer Jonny H Jett who I have been meaning to mention in a column for weeks and not found a way to until now.
My actual idea was to just post the whole email, give my discussion, and then head on with this week's review, but I thought that would come off as a feedback/response thing that has no place in one of these columns, and is generally a boring word filler for most things anyway. Plus, I managed to pluck out three great quotes that I thought made for fantastic coverage of what I was trying to put across in my review of Tonight…In This Very Ring, and if I'd have put the whole thing in, you might have skipped over them.
And moreover, I wanted to take time here to mention something particularly relevant to this current series.
About three months ago, I started a job and met a guy who was a big wrestling fan. This was a great thing, as often in real life this is somewhat of a weird occurrence. Since then, I've actually managed to see, with my own eyes, loads of Raw, a good portion of Smackdown and ECW, and several of the PPVs in both WWE and TNA. They've been an invaluable source and it's been nice to watch the product (unspoiled by the internet, no less), with my own eyes and make my own judgement. Not like I mind getting my results and opinions told to be by the good people here on 411, and the spin doctoring over on WWE.com, but actually watching has had a massive effect on my views of the business.
This was none more prevalent (to my current change in mind, and this series of reviews), than when I was reading the internet's response to last Monday's Raw. Jesus Christ, I watched that programme, and loved it. Since Unforgiven and the Family Reunion show, I happen to think the WWE has been firing on all cylinders. Smackdown has benefited from its continued promotion of hard work and (sometimes) coherent storylines and the star quality passing through from Raw for interpromotional stuff, and ECW, while no means perfect, finally seems to have the focus it was desperately lacking since its awkward inception. But (as totally should be the way), Raw has absolutely owned all over the past couple of months.
I loved pretty much everything about the Manchester Raw, without exception, and yet in reading the IWC about a week after, all I got was pissing, moaning and bitching. I've been on the net about once a week over the past month, only to post my column, and without it, I have missed out on loads of news, which I have to catch up on through various reports past the time. But he views I found while reading the response to this week's Raw, I felt, were a bag of shit.
The Cryme Tyme/DX skit was hilarious; one of the promos of the year, giving star rubs to the super cool new guys, and playing off Triple H's excellent descent back to comedy ass-kicking babyface. Whoever thinks the bounty skits buried the Spirit Squad, Eugene, Haas, Vis or Cade & Murdoch are missing the point – they are buried anyway in their current roles. And, better late than never, the tag titles were put on the hottest team in the promotion. Add to that, the best built character of the year – Umaga, got an awesome beat down on the still-fantastic John Cena, and the Masterlock Challenge was completely rejuvenated. In fact – and I can't believe I'm typing this – the only thing this show lacked was busy divorcee Kevin Federline.
The point I tried to make in that ‘rant' (oh, TAG), was that, it seems that I am speaking a dramatically different language to a good portion of the IWC right now, and that's the beauty of opinion; nobody can be wrong. The ultimate soap box speaker, Scott Keith has never been wrong, as such. The problem is though, there would be many who would dispute his ever being right.
Wrestling's One Ring Circus
Subject: Taglined as ‘The Death of the World Wrestling Federation' this is the natural sequel to Tonight…In This Very Ring. Release Date: September 2004
So on the back of the exhaustive Tonight…, Keith was given the reigns to another project. Assuming that he was asked to redo the first verse with newer lyrics, he no doubt once again dazzled editors, publishers and anyone else with their fingers in the deal. Understand this, if you didn't care much for the last one, this one will not even attempt to convert you. However, if you loved his previous work, this one will blow you away.
Picking up just about where Tonight… left off, and cumulating in the slump that was early 2003, the book covers a smaller time period but reaches a similar length, meaning that everything is scrutinised just a little bit closer. This is interesting, as during this time, Scott began his somewhat infamous apathetic period that exists to this day, offering much less insight in his TV and PPV rants than he used to, his disinterest shining through the writing. Maybe in hindsight though, he was using what little creative juice he had for this book, because it is an absolute triumph.
I don't know if I made it clear in last week's column, but I would consider myself a fan of Scott Keith, but in the broad sense. I got on board with him when he was THE MAN to read for anything and everything. Some people went to CRZ or Meltzer, but Scott's keen eye for comedy and sometimes brilliant mid-rant analysis moments were gold and made for great reading. He was always the guy to not set your watch by, as he threw his biases around like they were going out of fashion, but he was an escapist writer for an escapist form of entertainment.
Keith really brings the goods here, which leads me to think he was more interested in the product then than he let on, even if it was financially motivated. For anyone who writes books like this though, they need a good subject matter that suits their writing capabilities, and bugger me if Keith's cynicism plus WWE's drizzling shit of a product didn't compliment each other famously.
Scott mercilessly (and rightfully so) hammers the slew of god awful storylines that happened in the time, particularly 2002, passing through HLA, The Gay Wedding, Stephanie McMahon: Face GM, The prison bitch dominance of Triple H, Al Wilson, Katie Vick, The early brand extension catastrophes Hollywood Hogan's WWE Title reign, and countless, countless other disastrous angles the writers dared to pitch in that time. Truly, I think we are all capable of taking that steaming pile of garbage to task, but being that it's Keith's forte, he is allowed to revel in it here.
It's not all Triple H bashing and Canadian love though. Once again, the sources are never truly revealed, but Scott pieces together the breakdown of Stone Cold Steve Austin's personal and professional life, attempting to decode the myths and realities of one of the most spectacular downfalls the business has ever seen. He goes into the rattlesnake's bizarre (and often brilliant) 2001 heel turn, the numerous internal struggles Austin was involved in long before his mid-2002 departure, not to mention response to his 2003 return, and a good bit of hindsight to sum things up. This is an engaging, enlightening, and most importantly, original chapter, paying the price of admission in itself.
Once again the criticisms for his work lie within the rants and jokes he leaves in that don't match up with the canon of the actual book, but even that has been slightly improved. Maybe it's my own personal opinion stepping in, but it's a hell of a lot easier to sift through one of the most opinionated men on the internet when there's no choice but to completely agree with him in every manner. Mores' the point, while his usual fanboy love of the workhorses gets typically overbearing, I personally remember the Smackdown Six being the breath of fresh air at the time, with three matches from that period (Eddie v Edge on Smackdown with the ladder, Edge/Rey vs Angle/Benoit from No Mercy and Angle vs Benoit from the 03 Rumble), being probably my top three WWE matches this decade so far.
And without trying, I've finished where I started – opinion. It's one of the joys of writing, reading, or just indulging in any way you want. Everybody take's whatever they like from it. Keith walks a tightrope with many, with so many people pushing him off while that many others push to keep him walking. He regularly deviates the straight, which manages to simultaneously lose and gain him fans.
Next week, I'll conclude the series with Keith's most recent offering, but until then, keep emails coming in saying as little or as much as you like about the man, his books, or just why YOU thought Raw was terrible. I clearly missed the memo. See you next week.
