High Road/Low Road 12.15.06: The Miz
Posted by Sat & Chad Nevett on 12.15.2006
The Miz has been on the SmackDown roster for a few months and he is still undefeated. Has the Miz done a good job on SmackDown or a bad job? 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).
The Results for the Extreme Elimination Chamber:
High Road: 03%
Low Road: 90%
Both Road: 06%
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.
Matt Short Writes:
I do like the extra tab on the voting. It makes sense since a lot of the time it is easy to see both sides of the argument. In this case however, I am voting low road on Batista vs. King Booker.
The match was indeed passable. Maybe it should have been better considering that the match headlined one of the Big 4 PPVs of the WWE. A lot has been made about how Batista has generally lost the appeal he had before his injury. His in-ring work is just down in general and do not have much interest in watching his matches. But Batista getting the title back was inevitability and it was more of a question of when he was going to do it then if he could do it. When he returned he had a huge amount of support behind him. A lot of people thought that he was going to be the needed spark to SmackDown's World Title scene. I think his inability to have his grudge match against Mark Henry really hurt a lot of his momentum when he came back. And it just feels like he never got it back. His return to the top just lacks that feeling you would expect in a storyline like this. Like I said we all knew it was going to happen. The end result is just a bit of a letdown.
The main event picture on SmackDown is rather strange at the moment. There are guys who could very well main event, but outside of the Undertaker, Kane, or Chris Benoit it would be hard convincing your average fan that they would be a legitimate threat to the champion. Kennedy is the most likely pick to move up to the main event on SmackDown, but the laws of WWE booking says that a heel cannot win the title from another heel one-on-one. Batista as champ limits their booking decisions right now. With few viable heel contenders besides King Booker or possibly Finlay, the main event seems a little slowed down. Though with the Armageddon tag team main event, it seems a little calculated doesn't it? Kennedy and Undertaker are set to finish their feud and the winner of that will be most likely get a title shot. Finlay, who's involved in the tag team main event has been put into the title picture and can easily get a decent match out of Batista. But honestly, the man who could have benefited most out of being in the SmackDown main event would have been Lashley. WWE is quite high on him right now, and I think he'd be a better choice to be champ on SmackDown than on ECW right now (which is a whole other can of worms for next week I think.) Essentially, I think SmackDown would have been better off letting Booker keep the title for a little longer and trying to build up more heel challengers for Batista to face. But as I said, I do see Kennedy getting the next title shot if he beats Undertaker at Armageddon. Plus, Mark Henry is likely to receive a shot if he returns so that Batista can settle his feud with him. It could get interesting before its all said and done. So I'll hold out hoping that we'll see this come through well in the end.
Uncle Trunx:I'll wait and see how things turn out in the run up to WrestleMania. There's a lot of potential in the SmackDown main event and mid card scene right now, I just hope they book it well and give us a WrestleMania to remember.
John Bryant Writes:
I am going LOW Road. I mean the road I am taking on the EEC is so low I might find Vanilla Ice's music career. I know I have kind of always had a question for ya but this time it actually makes sense. What would you consider the most dangerous wrestling move. and the most dangerous Tag or Tri Team move? like on Youtube there is a video that has a tag team move being done well I am calling it the Platform Sault. the larger partner has one of the opponents up in a Burning Hammer-like position. and his lighter partner jumps onto the prone guy's stomach and jumps off into a Moon Sault on the KO'ed opponent for the pin.
A future High Road/Low Road. Should TNA bring in Paul Heyman?
I asked who you considered the most underrated legend of all time. Of course Sat never answered that but anyway: who do you consider the OVERrated legend of all time?
Uncle Trunx: It may sound odd, but the nastiest wrestling holds (from my limited experience and conversations with wrestlers) are those which leave you unsupported and in freefall. One guy I spoke to swore that he'd rather take five piledrivers than one back bodydrop. That said, as I'm sure I've said before, anything botched is nasty, just about anything done properly is reasonably safe. It's more about the delivery than the move. Overrated legends? I never saw much in Dusty Rhodes, but as I only saw him initially during his awful polka dot WWF run, I don't think that's a fair reflection.
Sat: I think you asked this question before about the most dangerous wrestling move. Either way, my response is still the same with the Gringo Killer. The Most dangerous tag team move…How about the doomsday device? Probably missed a move, but that's off the top of my head after some exhausting finals.
TNA bringing in Paul Heyman would be a good High Road/Low Road, but I want to stay away from the stuff that could happen. I think it is a better idea to focus on stuff that has happened. Maybe we'll give it a try one week and see how it works.
The most overrated legend would have to be Hacksaw Jim Duggan. He was good in getting the crowd going, but besides that he wasn't that good.
Wesley Rice Writes:
Had to go low road on the Not So Extreme Elimination Chamber. The booking of this match was awful, they had CM Punk enter third and eliminated first he should have stayed in the match for a while to prove that he can hag with the top dogs. Also they had Lashley eliminate Test about two minutes before Big Show entered the ring so he had to just stand there doing nothing. The weapons hardly came in to use they were used about once or twice each and I don't think the barbed wire baseball bat even made contact with anyone. Anyway hopefully you can post something I can go High Road on next week because I am not a negative person really.
Uncle Trunx: What can I say, other than "I agree!"
There's no need to force yourself into going high road. Enjoy life here with us miserable sods!
Sat: I don't think that it matters when he got eliminated; he did have a good showing in the chamber. Having Lashley eliminate Test early was kind of stupid. I would have preferred to have the Big Show and Test beat on Lashley, have them make a mistake, have Lashley eliminate Test and then a little while later he can beat the Big Show.
Nathan Carter Writes:
Ah yes, the "extreme" Elimination Chamber. ***** PPV right there huh. Yeah. I could not believe that I actually wasted $40 bucks on that crap PPV. However, I took both roads because I personally thought that the EEC match was good. I will actually go as far as putting it as #3 on my list of my favorite Elimination Chamber matches. The first one will always be number one and #2 was from New Years Rev 2005. #4 would be from Summer Slam 2003 and NYR 2006 as the worst. The reason that I chose both roads was because this match is what really saved the PPV from being more of a disaster than it actually was. There were some great spots and I enjoyed it even though the rest of the PPV was garbage. I have said before that I am pretty much a sucker for Cage matches and this match was the only reason that I and I am sure anyone who isn't a journalist ordered this PPV. If a PPV has an Elimination Chamber, Hell in a Cell or a Ladder match I will almost always order it because those are my favorite matches. Lashley destroying Test by throwing him into the "pods" was awesome in my opinion. Now a lot of people were upset about CM and RVD being eliminated in the chambers first. However if you look at the match as a whole, it was going to happen sooner or later so people should not have been as mad about that. Now the reason that I chose Low road was not because of the match itself but because of something else. Next month Raw is holding the New Years Revolution PPV and for the last two years they have had the Elimination Chamber in the main event. This was a huge mistake by WWE creative in my opinion blow this match on ECW. I think that most people were expecting the Elimination Chamber to be at NYR including people who bought tickets. I would have been pissed if I bought tickets for NYR only to learn that the annual EC match went to ECW. I mean if you look at RAW's current feuds John Cena, Umaga, Edge, Randy Orton, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels would have been a perfect 6 for this match, and it would have been a good way to get the Orton, Cena feud started if they are taking that road for Wrestle Mania. However that makes me wonder whose going to win the Royal Rumble. WWE creative is usually in a cluster fuck around Royal Rumble, Wrestle Mania time I am hoping for a surprise again this year. The last three Royal Rumbles have been great because the winner was someone who I was not expecting to win. …. OH wait, Ya, Extreme Elimination Chamber. For me it was a decent match that saved the PPV from being a 100% ass raping without and lube or a reach around of your $40 dollars which is why I gave it the High Road, but I gave the it the Low Road because this match usually only happens once every year and they wasted it this year when they could have had a better one if they gave it to Raw. So I split the difference and gave it both roads.
Uncle Trunx: I think it was the worst elimination chamber because it was advertised as extreme and was nothing of the sort, and because the booking was so shockingly poor. There's only one road for that mess, and it's low.
Sat: I would actually agree with you with your ranking of the Elimination Chamber except that I can't comment on the 2006 chamber because I never saw it. On your comment about you ordering pay per view based on the type of match, I think that you make a great point and I hope the WWE trys to actually implement that because it would help the buy rates.
Ray Tugman Writes:
I voted the low road because the latest ECW pay per view sucked. What in the hell was Sat smoking? Anyone who voted the high road either did not see the PPV or truly does not know what good wrestling is all about.
Uncle Trunx: To be fair to Sat, he had to work hard to try to find high roads last week, while my part of the column almost wrote itself! Sometimes he has it easy though, when there's something like Joe vs. Angle that I have to try to pick holes in!
Sat: I am not denying that the ECW pay per view was a low road, but the Extreme Elimination Chamber was a High Road. I had the benefit of watching only the Extreme Elimination Chamber and nothing else.
Matt Short Writes:
I'm voting Low Road on the EXTREME Elimination Chamber. And it all comes down to the horrible booking of the match and the entire PPV. I am not a huge fan of the Elimination Chamber match. When it first came into existence there were some nice bloody battles, but the last two times have been huge letdowns. The one for New Year's Revolution last January was just not that good and this one last Sunday could have been better. Anyone could go on and on about how they should have done the ECW PPV, but the fact is they did it badly. You cannot base an entire PPV around one match, let alone a gimmick match like the Chamber which has been fairly inconsistent in terms of quality.
Lots of this match's problems came down to the booking. What was initially supposed to be RVD's chance to get his revenge on Heyman and Big Show screwing him out of the title became almost completely forgotten with the inclusion of Bobby Lashley. Lashley being in the match was the red flag that let everyone know that RVD was not going to win. Nor would the belt go to anyone who had been a regular on ECW. In a way I can see where they might have been heading with the booking here. And if it went down like this, then it would have been typical Heyman booking. Heyman screws both RVD and Big Show for the title. He gets in Lashley's corner, dumps Big Show again (since he needs the time off), then they target RVD. If Heyman turning on Big Show had been the plan then some other parts of the match would have made sense (Test eliminating Holly, since Holly cannot be trusted). But as we all know this story line is impossible as Heyman is gone from ECW for the time being. Which sucks since he is essentially being punished for a PPV failing when he was entirely at fault (which is an entire debate on its own).
As for Lashley being champion, I do not really think he is the right person for ECW right now. They have been trying to give this new brand credibility for months. And they have also been trying to give Lashley as much credibility as they can. He has come a long way in-ring. He is not perfect, but he is definitely better then when he started. If they were going to give him a test as a world champion, I think they should have done so on SmackDown. Why did he have his singles title match against Booker taken away? Because Michael Hayes did not think he could do it at his level. In some respects he was right. But with the caliber of workers on SmackDown like Finlay and Regal Lashley would have been made to look like an excellent champion. His biggest downfall is that his promos are lousy and honestly being on SmackDown as champ would not have helped as much. In the Lashley turns heel scenario he gains Heyman as a mouthpiece and then all he has to do is go out and power people around the ring. Essentially on SmackDown he'd have been more protected in the ring, while in ECW as a heel he'd be more protected in terms of speaking. As it stands now he has not got much on ECW. And if he ends up being a dismal failure as ECW champ, then the brand gets hurt even more. If he bombed as SmackDown champ, it doesn't matter SmackDown's already well established but ECW is still trying to get its legs. It needs to continue building itself as a brand and after Sunday's PPV they have to try to rebuild again whatever credibility the company once had.
And I too was unhappy with the Sabu switch out. Yeah the guy botches moves, but he is known for that. And when he messes up, he messes up big time. A blown dive by Sabu off the Chamber would have been memorable. Dangerous, but memorable. I think the Elimination Chamber would have been a great environment for him.
Sat: Uncle Trunx's reply will be in next week's column.
Again, I haven't seen the New Year's Revolution 2006 match, but this last one would be the third best chamber after the first one and the one in 2005. I think that the plan was to have Heyman join Lashley on ECW.
It probably is too soon for Lashley to be champion, but he was the best option. CM Punk is relatively new to the WWE, so he wasn't going to get the title and RVD's problems are well documented. I agree that it does hurt the credibility of the brand because they have a first time champion, but I think that Lashley will do a good job as the champion.
You could argue either way with Sabu, but I think that he needed to be out of the match because the match needed to have the fewest possible screw-up.
This week's High Road/Low Road featuring...
The Miz
High Road:
The WWE is always giving wrestlers some type of a gimmick. Most of the time this fails miserably. Usually, this is because the wrestler does not know how to make the gimmick work. The Miz's character is that he is/was a reality star. He knows the character and he has made it work. His character is something new that has not been seen before. And I would rather see this character then some of the other stupid characters that the WWE has been trotting out.
Low Road:
The Miz can make being an annoying reality TV "star" who can't wrestle work as a gimmick because that's exactly what he is. Yes, it's true that the WWE has created some stupid characters. However, most of them were wrestlers, rather than some random C list "celebrity". I watch wrestling to see wrestlers, not reality TV. If I wanted that, I'd watch one of the other 5,000,000 channels where that crap goes on.
High Road:
One of the things that I have heard people say about the Miz is that he is awful in the ring. I have to completely disagree with this. I think that he has done a pretty good job in the ring. Granted, he is not a Chris Benoit, Finlay, or William Regal in the ring. Once he starts to wrestle these guys he will start to get better in the ring. The Miz is pretty good in the ring and he will continue to get better once he starts to gain some experience.
Low Road:
So we have to wait for Miz to get experience in the ring, rather than WWE hiring some actual wrestlers who already have that? How many people are there in OVW that they could bring in, not to mention all those out in the Indies looking for work? Instead, we get a celebrity put on the roster. I hate reality TV, I hate celebrities taking up wrestlers roster spots and when the two combine, it's the worst thing possible for wrestling.
High Road:
One of the things that the Miz is not lacking in is charisma. Most of the wrestlers that debut do not have charisma and this usually holds them back. Brent Albright is a good example of this. The Miz has shown that he has great charisma in the ring and in his promos. Another thing that I have heard is that people are saying that the Miz is annoying. Yeah, he is supposed to be annoying because that is his character. Hats off to the Miz for playing his character perfectly.
Low Road:
Yes, well done Miz for making me turn off the TV and do something else. That's something to be proud of. As for charisma, it's all well and good but it's worthless if you can't back it up in the ring. Which he can't. Perhaps he'd be ok as a manager, but WWE don't really do male managers anymore because they've got to find room for all the diva search failures and C list celebrities.
High Road:
The Miz has a distinct advantage over most of the wrestlers on the WWE roster. This advantage is that he is great at talking. Most wrestlers that debut do not have the knack of the promos down. This is not the case with the Miz because he has shown that he can talk. Hopefully, he will be allowed to continue showing off his promo skills.
Low Road:
Hopefully he will be able to continue showing off his skill at talking somewhere which isn't WWE or the wrestling world in general. There's far too much aimless talk on WWE these days, and he doesn't help.
High Road:
One of the great things about the Miz is that he can do multiple things. He has shown that he can wrestle, he has been a host for some segments, and he has also done some announcing. Now, I know what all of you are thinking. He should be wrestling, not doing all of this other stuff. That is true, but if he does multiple things than he is on TV that much more. And once he becomes successful, he can drop all of his other acts and just start to wrestle. Right now, he needs to separate himself from everybody else.
Low Road:
I'm not thinking that he should be wrestling. I'm thinking that he should be away from wrestling. I'm not quite sure how Miz being given multiple jobs and thus being on TV more is ever going to be a high road. As far as I'm concerned, he could separate himself from everybody else by going back to MTV so I wouldn't have to watch him.
High Road:
One of things that you want when you start to wrestle is that you want the crowd to react to you. You do not want the MVP chants of "Power Ranger", a get off my TV response or even worse no reaction at all. The Miz has gotten a reaction from the crowd and he also gets the crowd involved with his catchphrase. If you have a catchphrase, then you are more likely to stick around; it does not guarantee success, but it helps.
Low Road:
The "Where's the beef?" lady had a catchphrase, it doesn't mean that she should be on the WWE roster. Of course, these days she probably would be, and that's the problem. Wrestlers who can actually wrestle get shunted off to OVW or released, while useless C list celebrities get the TV time to talk and annoy us.
Are you taking the High Road or the Low Road?
High Road/Low Road Plugs
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Ari Berenstein has the ROH results from The Chicago Spectacular Night One, ROH news, and a preview of Night Two in the Column of Honor
