News to Start Your Weekend 11.24.06
Posted by Nick Marsico on 11.24.2006
The defense of Vince Russo.
You know how when you're really hungry and eat a bunch of slices of pizza, and the first few slices you eat, everything disappears, crust and all, but by the 5th or 6th you're giving up on the crusts and just going for the most part of the slice and ignoring the crust? Yeah, I know that feeling too. I wish I could make that into some deep metaphor for something, and I really probably could, but I'm lazy and in the grand scheme of things it doesn't make a difference. I'm only writing this because it popped into my head just moments before I began writing and I needed something to start the column with, and for some reason it's always gotta be something WACKY~!
Yep.
Anyway, this week I'm going to focus the majority of this column on why Vince Russo is saving TNA and why he's good for business as opposed to ruining it as everybody seems to have jumped the bandwagon way of thinking. Maybe some news first though, since that's what this column's supposed to be.
So last week during WWE's European tour, the Undertaker fucked up his ribs pretty badly, cracked I believe. He's going to work this Sunday's Survivor Series PPV, though, and he'll probably take some time off afterward. He often takes some time off around the end of November anyway – the question is whether he'll put Kennedy over strong or not before leaving, or if we'll get a while of Kennedy calling him out after being embarrassed by ‘Taker on PPV.
December 28, January 20 and February 24 are all dates in which WWE will be running open tryouts. East Rutherford, NJ; New Orleans, LA and Auckland, NZ are the respective locations. Hey, maybe I'll go to the one in East Rutherford at my home away from home, the Continental Airlines Arena! Nick Marsico, WWE superstar coming to your television sets!
If they send me to Deep South, though, I'll have to remember to always stay in character, because otherwise they'll fine me half of my 500 dollar weekly salary. I don't get it... it's 2006 for God's sake, why must everybody stay in character? Holy hell, I mean come on! By the way, remember the dress code policy WWE started using a while back? Remember how Undertaker and Cena didn't have to abide by it because of their characters? How come the Little Bastard still has to wear nice clothing? Snitsky? There are plenty of guys whose characters don't lend themselves to wearing dress clothes, yet they have to anyway, so why not Undertaker and Cena? Just something I've been wondering recently.
SpikeTV was happy about the rating for last Thursday's prime time debut of iMPACT, and even though TNA isn't thrilled, they understand that they're still a new company and have changed timeslots a couple times, so they know it will take some time. I think the Spike executives were just happy because Missy Hyatt, who was backstage visiting friends last week, also helped boost some of their morale as well.
See, since she's known to be quite promiscuous. Get it? HAPPY HAPPY LAUGH LAUGH JOKE TIME
Jim Ross signed a new deal with WWE over the week. He was working without a contract for the past month or so.
Dr. Death has an autobiography coming out in March entitled "How Dr. Death Became Dr. Life". I might actually get this one.
Some Ring of Honor news... Roderick Strong is going to start defending his newly won FIP Heavyweight Title in Ring of Honor. I guess that can take the place of the Pure Title for the time being. Think Gabe is beginning to regret unifying the two singles belts?
Lacey is going to bring somebody in as a bounty hunter to help defend Jimmy Jacobs from BJ Whitmer and Colt Cabana. Maybe he'll be "solving" some "problems" as a "problem solver" for a young female wrestler like he used to.
The Gauntlet Series returns tonight in Long Island, with BJ Whitmer, Jimmy Jacobs, Nigel McGuinness, Brent Albright, Pelle Primeau and Jason Blade.
Jack Evans returns on January 26! Nice... that means I'll probably get to see him in Philly at the 5th Anniversary show in February. Speaking of guys I get to see, El Generico has been added to the card for this year's Final Battle in Manhattan.
Here are the cards for this weekend's Ring of Honor shows:
Long Island, NY Friday, November 24, 2006
No DQ ROH World Tag Team Title Match
Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli defend vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong
Grudge Match
Samoa Joe vs. Jay Briscoe
Tag Team Challenge Match
Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal with Allison Danger vs. Delirious & Davey Richards
Gauntlet Series
Participants will be BJ Whitmer, Jimmy Jacobs, Nigel McGuinness, Brent Albright, Pelle Primeau and Jason Blade.
Special Attraction Match
Homicide with Julius Smokes vs. Jimmy Rave
Bonus Match
Shingo vs. Mark Briscoe
SHIMMER Four Corner Survival Match
Lacey vs. Daizee Haze vs. Alison Danger vs. Nikki Roxx
Edison, NJ Saturday, November 25, 2006
Elimination Falls Count Anywhere Street Fight
Homicide & Samoa Joe vs. Jay & Mark Briscoe
ROH World Tag Team Title Match (if champions retain on 11/24)
Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli defend vs. Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal with Allison Danger
Grudge Match
BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs with Lacey
FIP Heavyweight Title Match
Roderick Strong vs. Shingo
Special Challenge Match #1
Austin Aries vs. Davey Richards
Special Challenge Match #2
Nigel McGuinness vs. Jimmy Rave
Special Attraction Match
Delirious vs. Jason Blade
Do Or Die Match
Brent Albright vs. El Generico
Top Of The Class Trophy Match
Shane Hagadorn defends vs. Bobby Dempsey
So of course everybody has been talking about him since Vince Russo was signed by TNA a short time ago, and many people have been up-in-arms about how he's going to/is ruining the company and how his wacky angles, characters and storylines are going to take away from the apparent goodness that the company had been bringing. The thing is, TNA had not been fantastic before they brought him onto the booking committee, and they had been doing plenty of stupid shit with their characters and angles before Russo was brought onto the team. Sabin, Lethal and Dutt and their Jackass antics? Yeah, don't bring in Vince Russo, he'll start booking nonsensical silliness!
Since he's been hired, TNA has all of a sudden become very close to being must see TV with me. I actually look forward to being able to watch the show each week, something I hadn't been feeling about it, RAW, SmackDown or ECW for a while. I actually give a damn about TNA at the moment. So since TNA just ran a PPV this past Sunday and there are a LOT of talking points that have come from it, I will use Genesis as the catalyst for my argument as to why having Vince Russo is a very good thing for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and why some of the booking decisions he's been making make plenty of sense. It's time to dispute you knee-jerk reacting people out there.
I'm not going to defend the VKM because I honestly don't care that much about what they're doing and am not interested enough in them to really ponder what's coming next with them. Could turn out okay, could be an abomination. It's really too early to tell. I will say that the two guys have seemed pretty motivated over the last few months, though, as they had some of their better matches with the company over the summer.
Let's start with Chris Sabin – hey, look at this, all of a sudden somebody in the X Division actually has a character! He's not just a random flippy-floppy young dude that smiles on his way out to the ring and does some impressive moves before walking back to the locker room awaiting the next time he'll come out and do some inconsequential and uninteresting things. Sabin's all of a sudden got prospective feuds with at least 4 different people – current X Title holder Christopher Daniels, X Division pioneer Jerry Lynn and his two former (?) friends Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal. As Larry Csonka said himself in his Genesis report:
"Not sure how I feel about the angle after the match, but they seem to be trying hard to establish characters and feuds."
He said so after his recap of the Styles/Cage match and the appearance of Rhino while AJ and Daniels were arguing in the ring. That itself can lead to Styles/Daniels and Styles/Rhino. Russo seems to be doing what he's always liked to do, which is long term booking, something that TNA just hasn't done. For a while it has been three to four weeks of build for a PPV, the PPV show, then three to four weeks of build for the next show – rinse and repeat. It never seemed like anything that ever happened mattered. The PPV happens on Sunday, then on Thursday (or Saturday, when they were on then), nothing that happened mattered. Sure, there were some feuds that lasted more than a month, but it was all cruise control booking. Two guys would fight, they'd have a match on PPV, then they'd keep fighting, just as they were fighting before their match, and then have another one in a month. There was no development, nothing new happened to build more anticipation for a second match (except they'd often just add a gimmick), and once that match happened, that would be it. The two guys would be done interacting with each other and just move on to their next feud. An issue may have been settled between them, but there would be no ramifications or implications or consequences for the future. The match may as well could have just not happened, because it wouldn't set anything else up, which is how it should be. In wrestling, one thing should always set up the next thing, which should set up the next thing, and so on and so forth. That's not the way TNA booked in the past, but it's the way Russo has always booked. Whether he's put good ideas on the air or not or whether he makes sure to keep all of his prospective angles going is disputable, but he always does intend to book for the long term and tries to make characters and angles intertwine with each other. He likes to make many different people interact instead of just two guys who are feuding, too.
Everybody seems to be annoyed at the finish to the Abyss vs. Sting match. I understand what they were going for, and the problem isn't the way it was booked to go down, but rather the execution of it. Here's the rationale of what happened. Yes, the rule for the title is that the belt can and will change hands if the champion gets disqualified. However, there also tend to always be relaxed rules for NWA Heavyweight Title matches. You see weapons being used all the time, often in front of the referee, the guys hang out outside the ring and don't get counted out very often, and things generally just tend to get out of hand. TNA "main event style", as the call it is very much like the WWE style that Steve Austin ushered in when he became the champion, most notably in the Austin/Dude Love match from Over the Edge 1998. So if the referees are so lenient, how come Sting got disqualified after both men did all sorts of illegal stuff right in front of the referee? Because he just went too far. The idea is that TNA wants a definitive winner for their title matches, so they'll let some things go, especially if both guys are using foreign objects and the like. That happened in droves during Sunday's title match, but it got to a point where Sting just crossed the line. He hung Abyss upside down and attacked him with a chair and intended to throw him off the stage into the barbed wire that Abyss had set up earlier on in the match, and during the process shoved the ref a couple times and gave him a clothesline. That's just excessive, and even with the rules relaxed and with Andrew Thomas letting a lot of things go, you can't abuse the leniency of the official and you can't physically abuse the official. Sting did both, and that was certainly grounds for disqualification. It makes plenty of sense to me.
Samoa Joe tapped out to Kurt Angle. It turns out that it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The result, that is. I had felt, as soon as they announced the match, that they just HAD to have a non-finish, but now that it's happened, I don't at all mind the way it happened. Hell, even Sunday night just reading the results I was annoyed that they had Joe tap, but once I saw it, it was okay. The match was just ridiculous. It wasn't Match of the Year, but it was a damn good match. I also don't have a problem with the length. Yeah, it was short, to the tune of just under 14 minutes, but the way it played out that was a more than fine length for it. The match was non-stop. There wasn't really any pacing, it was just two guys who hate each other beating the hell out of each other. It worked very, very well in the context of their feud and lends itself to future rematches. The fact that it was hyped as the "Dream Match of the Decade" might have been a bit counter intuitive, because it made the billing something that would have been tough to live up to, and with the way the match was set to happen, that's exactly what went down. To call it a bad match is silly, and to call it a disappointment is something that should only be said by idiots who bought into the hype and believe that Kurt actually is the best wrestler alive today.
As far as Joe tapping, no, dopes, it doesn't mean that they're telling us that WWE guys are better than TNA guys, and it's silly to think so. Angle himself has put down WWE and put TNA over on television, and they're trying to make it clear that he's now a TNA guy and doesn't value his time with the E as much as he will his career in TNA. They started Kurt out strong, and now it is going to lead to Joe and Kurt having at least one more match, which will be longer and more technical, as they say, and it will be a longer match, probably the one that people were expecting on Sunday. Joe's now lost, oh well. Now we can all move on.
That aside, one last thing – people who are afraid that TNA will stop being about the wrestling and it will start being more about characters and gimmicks... what the fuck are you talking about? TNA has NEVER been all about the wrestling. They like to bill themselves as that, certainly, and the rubes like to believe it, and they have a shitload of great talent that can wrestle, but that doesn't mean that TNA has ever focused on wrestling, because they haven't. If they did, iMPACT would have 2 or 3 long matches every week and maybe a promo or two to set up matches for PPVs, but that's not how it is. TNA doesn't do good or entertaining storylines and characters for the most part, and when they try to do something, you get stuff like the aforementioned Jackass Number Two garbage that bombed horribly. Russo is going to start booking some interesting stuff. It's going to be hit or miss and there's a possibility that a lot of it is going to miss, but he's been able to produce, if nothing else, a lot of interesting television over the years, and that's something to watch for. He's already begun adding depth to characters and is putting together some interesting storylines, and as I said earlier, things that happen week-to-week and on PPVs will actually matter rather than just happening before everybody just moves on without consequences. Russo is going to bring interesting and different characters into the mix, he's not all of a sudden taking TNA from all wrestling to no wrestling, because it's a myth that TNA was all about wrestling. Watch the program from the past few months and you'll realize how wrong you are in saying that.
I'll close out this week with Survivor Series predictions before I leave:
Team DX (survivors HBK & Punk), Team Big Show (survivor Umaga), The Legends (all four men survive), Mickie James, Chris Benoit, King Booker, Mr. Kennedy
And that's that. Happy late Thanksgiving and I'll see you next week.
