News to Start Your Weekend 12.01.06
Posted by Nick Marsico on 12.01.2006
The fallout from the defense of Vince Russo and plenty of other garbage, as always. Enjoy!
Another week means another column. I ate some M&M sugar cookies, and they were good. So are calzones. I'd like a smoothie, though. Strawberry banana, yum. So anyway, I'm writing this just before midnight, and it's 63 degrees. In New York. On the first day of December. And it's supposed to snow on Sunday. How am I supposed to figure out how to dress? Maybe I just won't and take my chances with just my skin and myself. Or just my underwear.
PANTY PARTAY~!
Speaking of great segues, I mean panty parties, WWE is looking to hire 15 hot chicks to spread themselves open and give Vince a look-see. Or to spread around the three brands. Neither is wrong. I can see why they need to do this, though. With such a lack of good-looking girls, 15 new ones should make up for it. Maybe they're just going to randomly be in the background dancing. Maybe in cages. Never seen that before.
Speaking of the aforementioned women, Candice Michelle broke her nose on RAW. For such a pretty girl (who's actually beginning to look kind of old lately), she sure is really awful at acting sexy.
They are losing one more woman, though, as of course Lita has retired, although she is going to take some bookings through Maryland Championship Wrestling to work independent shows. I have nothing to add to this. Wish she would have done Playboy, though.
Speaking of great segues, I mean chicks doing Playboy, Ashley Massaro is going to make her second appearance for the magazine, this time as the April 2007 cover girl. The dot com has an interview up with her about it, and apparently she doesn't mind that her father and brother know, but hopes her mother doesn't find out. I know plenty of the rubes don't know she did Playboy in the past under a different name, but I hate all the silly shit that site does. They can't make up their mind whether they want to be kayfabed or not, and it's just all muddled and awful. Ya know, when Ashley first came in I really wasn't too fond of her, but she's really grown on me. Plus, her original Playboy pictures were pretty good. She's got strong legs. I like that.
And for an example of that "are we or are we not going to run this site in kayfabe?" status of the website, there's an interview with Lita (which I haven't read) that apparently talks about how she wanted to leave partially because of how the stuff with Edge and Matt Hardy has affected her life. Sounds like real shit to me, since on camera she's been playing Edge's whore, and her all of a sudden being bothered by the situation wouldn't make sense (yeah, I know). Make up your mind. Go all kayfabe or go no kayfabe outside of posting show results. It's annoying as fuck.
For some less good news about women, Michelle McCool's in the hospital for what I can only assume are elevated liver enzymes.
SmackDown sure causes a lot of problems. I read that this past Tuesday, some dude tried to kill himself at the taping. Early reports say it was Billy Kidman. On top of that, some stupid kid died while allegedly trying to do some wrestling moves he saw on SmackDown over in India or somewhere. WWE.com seems to be alleging that his father might have killed him. I really haven't paid enough attention, nor do I care, although apparently SmackDown has been taken off of the channel it was on there, yet RAW and 79 other WWE shows are still on that channel from what I've heard.
Two new matches have been added to the ECW pay-per-view for this Sunday, although I've not seen a word about it on the dot com. In any event, here's the card thus far:
Extreme Elimination Chamber
Big Show vs. CM Punk vs. Test vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Sabu vs. Rob Van Dam
Joey Mercury & Johnny Nitro vs. Matt & Jeff Hardy
Hardcore Holly vs. The Sandman
Daivari vs. Tommy Dreamer
Meh. I'll see it at some point during the week.
And now on to Ring of Honor. Next weekend ROH will be doing a double shot, The Chicago Spectacular. Night one, next Friday, will feature the following card:
World Title Steel Cage Match
Bryan Danielson defends vs. Samoa Joe
Grudge Match
Colt Cabana vs. Jimmy Jacobs with Lacey
Dragon Rules Match
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Matt Sydal & Shingo
Special Challenge Match
Nigel McGuinness vs. Jimmy Rave
Four Corner Survival
ROH Tag Team Champion Christopher Daniels with Allison Danger vs. Davey Richards vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Matt Cross
Special Attraction Match
Homicide vs. Brent Albright
Tag Team Grudge Match
Delirious & Ace Steel vs. Adam Pearce & Shane Hagadorn
The following night, 12/9, also features a strong card, though it is subject to change due to what may transpire the night before:
ROH World Tag Team Title Rematch From "Gutcheck"
Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal, with Allison Danger, defend vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong
Six Man Tag Team Main Event
Bryan Danielson, Jimmy Rave & Jimmy Jacobs vs. Delirious & ???
Strap Match
Homicide vs. Adam Pearce
Grudge Match #1
Samoa Joe vs. Mark Briscoe
Grudge Match #2
Davey Richards vs. Jay Briscoe
Special Challenge Match #1
Colt Cabana vs. Shingo
Special Challenge Match #2
Nigel McGuinness vs. BJ Whitmer
Bonus Attraction Match
Ace Steel vs. Tank Toland
Six Man Mayhem
Pelle Primeau vs. Matt Cross vs. Dave Crist vs. Jake Crist vs. Trik Davis vs. CJ Otis
And here's the fallout from the Russo defense. Surprisingly, I got plenty of support.
Brian Blaze had this to say:
Great column man. You straight nailed it in your defense of Russo. I was casually watching TNA maybe once or twice a month up until recently. There were two reasons for this: I was tired on Thursday nights and needed sleep and that it wasn't always interesting. X-Division matches while great were somewhat just there because of the lack of character development. While there have been a few WTF moments since Russo started booking, there were some before he started booking and the show is much more interesting. I personally want to see Sabin/Daniels and Styles/Rhino develop. The bringing in of Tomko has added another interesting dynamic to Christian and could possibly lead to a Sting/Tomko feud while Christian goes after Abyss. Russo has certainly opened up the possibilites for TNA and the feuds we have coming certainly have my interest.
I don't know about a Sting/Tomko feud, but yeah.
Kevin Dean (or something close to that) also agrees with me:
I have been saying the same thing for years. Russo is a creative genius. Since their move to Primetime TNA has put some of the best wrestling matches on free primetime T.V I've seen in years. We have feuds, character development, and controversial. VKM; classic Russo stuff, indeed, and I just can't get enough of them. I just hope the Russo Haters give the guy a chance. I bet he's not even on all cylinders yet. When he does get there, mark my words we will all be praising him for giving us real competition in wrestling again. Thank you, Russo. I never doubted you!!
Well, they had a couple good matches on the 2 hour show, but other than that he's not booked much as far as wrestling matches are concerned, especially last night's show.
James Hagan has some thoughts:
Really interesting thoughts on Russo. I just finished watching "Genesis" on Daily Motion and while a lot of it was disposable, the X match, Christian/AJ and Joe/Angle were all really worthwhile.
Even the Sting match made sense, as you can look at it that James Mitchell got under Sting's skin and caused him to turn to the dark side. That's interesting stuff.
Your points about Russo were correct. He does create characters, he does do long-term bookng and he does create buzz. That's indisputable.
However:
- Saying Russo is an improvement over what they had is damning with faint praise. Russo probably is better than Scott D'amore. That's not saying much. Wrestling as a whole has a lot of bad bookers/writers whatever. Russo is an upgrade but he hasn't proved he can book a successful product since Attitude.
- The TNA criticisms are valid. The booking of Abyss was BAD. He tapped to Angle, then got his ass beat and won the belt. Not good booking.
- The X title was hot-shotted. You can say it was reparing damage already done, but the fact is Russo came on and they reset the X division.
- Saying Sabin has a character isn't a positive. He went overnight from bland to cocky. There was no development there. Same with Kazarian et al. They all of a sudden turned into followers. Why? Russo books without any storyline explanation. Again, no good.
- The rehashing of old angles: Flag burning, sHo0t promoz, wacky partner angles. It's all there.
Like many, I think that while TNA has great talent their booking has always been atrocious and non-sensical. Russo's style of booking isn't going to get the company on track. Yes, he's better than what they had but my thought is when will fresh blood take over booking a major company. For the better part of this decade companies recycle the same creative minds. When will a Sabolsky-type come along and get a shot at a major company?
Good column, though.
Your first couple points aren't really disputable, but as far as the character changes, they do make sense. Sabin had been acting differently for a good while, going back to the Jackass Number Two stuff. All three of the guys were acting disrespectful, and while Lethal and Dutt were doing so in an immature and silly way, Sabin really felt that he could do as he pleased, and his current actions reflect that sentiment. Losing the belt to AJ and at the same time losing a chance at the NWA Title just pushed him over the edge. That all makes plenty of sense to me.
Kazarian, Bentley and Devine were all lacking direction and needed someone to help guide them, as they were all spinning out of control as far as their unsuccessful ventures since returning. Devine was kicked out of the Paparazzi and floundering. All three men looked to Raven for help, and Raven being the crazy mastermind he is, he's taken them in. They don't have to spell EVERYTHING out for you, do they?
Finally, Will Mayberry has comments on my column:
I am writing in feedback to your defense of Vince Russo. I realize he is trying to build characters which is a very good thing for TNA, but in general his booking has been terrible and I will go into some things to couteract the productivity that you seem to think he is providing.
First off, I know it was not his decision alone, but having Joe/Angle fight so early was a HUGE mistake. TNA got a 1.0 rating for their special after giving away their number one match right when Angle gets into the company. That match needed more build and now they are already having a rematch. The Impact Zone loves Angle so if he loses it kills some of the momentum he has built, but Joe needs a win to stay strong or he just lost twice in a row after not losing since entering TNA. Giving me that crap that losing to someone like Angle doesn;t matter because it will be a good match. They have painted themselves in a corner.
Having Abyss win the title like that makes no sense. Abyss has lost to everybody as of late and a DQ win and the belt doesn;t build him up. It makes fans who watch the product scratch their heads as he has no business even being in that match much less being the champion. If you are going to have him be champ then have him win convincingly. I just see it as a waste with how long they built up Sting having the title. I am not a Sting fan as I do not feel he deserved the title in the first place and he is not a team player but if you are going to build him up you might as well protect him from bad booking.
The VKM gimmick is stupid and they should both be canned. They are stale as 2 week old bread and I always hate gimmicks that publicize your competition. It is basically a free commercial for WWE. It is stupid.
I like your point that the jackass gimmick came before Russo. That is true. However, the new eye-spy vignettes hav not and frankly they have been terrible. First off we get man-ass on the two hour special. TNA needs to distance themselves from things that fans are complaining about with WWE. Man-ass is at the top of that list. Aries and Shelley have good characters but the booking for their gimmick has been boring and uninspired.
I have liked somne of the booking choices with Sabin (as you mentioned) and Christian, but the good choices that have been made are far outweighed by the bad. Russo still tries to get as many wrestlers as he can into a segments. He overbooks every angle and match. I will admit Impact has improved slightly but it was kind of in the crapper before and now it is just slightly better. Russo buried WCW and he will do it again. I want to be wrong so bad, but with the booking mistakes I have mentioned, and there are several I didn;t even get to, it looks like Russo will end up hurting TNA as well.
Yeah, they got a 1.0 as opposed to an 0.8 that they had been getting for weeks. Lance Storm said it best in his commentary this week – you're not going to have a big ratings jump over night. Just because they were on 2 hours earlier and pushed a couple big matches didn't mean that they were going to be getting some big 2.0 rating or something, and for anybody to have expected better than maybe a 1.2 at the very, very highest simply doesn't understand how it works.
Nobody's been painted into a corner. It would have been nice if you'd have explained why, exactly, they're in a corner now that Joe has a loss and it came at the hands of Angle. So what if he happens to lose again next Sunday? Are the fans going to stop caring about him? Is he going to look like a jobber? No. He's beaten multiple former NWA and WCW champions and everybody else other than Kurt Angle, and he's beaten most of them pretty handily. Maybe he'll lose some momentum, but to insinuate that losing to Kurt will cost Joe credibility is an absolutely silly and asinine statement to make. Maybe Kurt's that one guy that has Joe's number, someone that Joe can't figure out. How do we know how all of this is going to play out?
I agree that the way Abyss won the belt doesn't really help him much, but it did make sense as far as the story they're trying to get over. Granted I don't know how wise it was to make Sting lose his cool almost immediately after saying how he was going to be the bastion of hope for the title, but we'll see where it's going. The stuff from last night's iMPACT was pretty interesting, actually.
Are you kidding? The Nash/Shelley/Starr segments have been and continue to be absolutely golden. You can't seriously tell me you didn't enjoy those segments they ran during the primetime special. Oh no! You saw Kevin Nash's ass! The world is surely going to end now! Dude, it wasn't gratuitous and a waste of time like the shit DX has done. His ass was on the screen for all of a second or two at the very end of a series of vignettes they ran throughout the show. If that seriously bothered you, then I don't know if you can be helped.
He's trying to get a lot done because he only has one hour a week to work with and because he originally thought the show was going to be two hours long, so he had written up multiple scripts for two hour shows which had to be truncated and made into one hour shows. We all saw how well the two hour edition came across – in the end, he would really benefit from having one more hour. I was just watching Thursday's iMPACT, and it basically feels like a pretty good show that's been squashed down in order to fit all of the booked events into the course of a single hour, and they're doing it almost as well as possible. But yeah, he's Vince Russo, so obviously he's just bad and will ruin TNA just like he apparently ruined WCW, even though a lot of his booking decisions were quite good, especially in 2000. WCW had been going downhill long, long before Russo got the book over there. He was handed a pen and was asked to save the already split in half Titanic when he got there.
That's going to do it for this week, peoples.
Here's to Roddy Piper. He's been diagnosed with Lymphoma, but he's Roddy fucking Piper. Cancer ain't shit to him. I'll pulling for you, Roddy.
