News to Start Your Weekend 12.22.06

Posted by Nick Marsico on 12.22.2006

It's really just Russo debate stuff and some feedback. Merry Christmas, though.

Hi everyone. Let's start this off with what may be the last installation of the discussion on Vince Russo, and then we'll move on. Will Mayberry has another response. By the way, I think you're harboring some ill will toward me. I don't dislike you, fella, I just disagree with you. He quoted my replies from last week's column, so go here to see what he's replying to. My responses are in normal type here and his stuff is bold:

Petey Williams has so much character now (insert sarcasm here). Give me a break. They put him in an angle but it really didn;t do much to get him over. The crowd liked him before just for the "cool flippy piledriver", and helping AMW while not the worst thing, there was not much follow up with it. All they did with Chris Sabin is start having him do run-ins and show disdain for the "x-division code". Whoopty doo. Russo pretty much killed Sabin by taking the belt off him immediately when he was built for so long to take it (1 example of Russo hurting a wrestler but I'll get back to that later). You know what would get Petey Williams over? How about an angle built around him than two other tag teams.

I have never read Ryan Byers column, but LAX was on fire before Russo got there. In fact they were even more on fire with the feud with AJ/Daniels. So way to go Russo. LAX is still hot despite you joining the company.

My point is that Petey actually has some character motivation now. Once Team Canada was over, Petey was just a dude with a cool move. Now he's a dude with a cool move that actually cares about something. Sabin is a heel now and he's showing more charisma than he's ever shown in his career. Don't argue just for the sake of disagreeing with me. Are you also saying that LAX should have never ended the feud with AJ and Daniels? The feud ended, and they moved on to another hot angle that ended with them standing tall in the ring victorious twice in a row, one of those times being them winning a flag match and getting the Mexican flag and national anthem played in America. LAX hasn't cooled down at all. Once again, don't just disagree to disagree. Disagree when there's something to argue about.

When did I ever say that TNA should just focus on wrestling? I said they needed more of a focus on the athleticism because that is the strength of their roster. You need a balance which we are not really getting. I would settle for one strong main event a week. I will not disagree that the writers on WWE totally suck and misuse their talent but they are spread pretty thin on each show. There is not a strong tag-divison on Smackdown or RAW, and ECW doesn;t even have a tag division. The mid-card belts on both shows are an absolute joke and again ECW doesn't even have a mid-card belt. I know you do not see the value of belts, but the mid-card and tag-team divsions are a good way to get your younger talent involved on the show when they are not ready for the big belt yet. WWE should have one Heavyweight Champ, one group of tag champs, and an Intercontinetal champ that can go to all three shows. They used to do that with the Undisputed Belt and I thought that was the best way to go about the championship with the current situation.

Like I said last week, the talent in WWE is absolutely not spread thin. Not even a little. The reason they don't have a strong tag division on either show is due to them not booking and putting together strong tag reams, not because they don't have the wrestlers to do so. The mid card belts are a joke because of bad booking, not because of a lack of talent. Your stuff about WWE's belts are completely unrelated to this argument. Also, where did you say TNA should focus on wrestling? How about in your last email to me, where you wrote:

"However, you say that TNA doesn;t focus on wrestling and you are right. They should focus on the wrestling though because that is how they are different than WWE."

That looks like you saying that they should focus on wrestling to me. Generally, when you say "they should focus on the wrestling", that's what you mean.

I didn;t see Turning Point, but from what I had heard it just two old washed up wrestlers doing bad parody. It is not taking up a lot of show? You say yourself how crunched they are for time and they have time to give VKM PPV time and god knows how many on Impact. It is wasted time that does not get anybody over.

Most people I talk to do not like Paparazzi so I do not know why you think "everybody" loves this crap, but I don't see the wrestlers involved getting bigger reactions becaue of it. How is dumb humor helping anyone get over in this. I laugh when stuff is funny, so pardon me for having good taste.

They're low on time on television, not PPV. They don't get much television time, maybe a minute per week in a short, edited piece. The PPV segment was actually pretty decent. It's not a waste because to the rubes, it may make it seem like TNA isn't too far from the level of WWE, because they're not coming off as afraid of them. There are plenty of arguments against it, and I honestly don't give a fuck about the VKM stuff either way as long as it doesn't take over the show (which it does not), so there's that.

As far as not thinking the Paparazzi stuff being funny, I can understand you wanting the guys to get more television time as wrestlers, but there simply isn't that much time right now, so at least this gets them on TV with a bit of a direction that has led already to a good match on PPV. I'll just assume you watch crap like 10 Items or Less and find that funny.

You also say, in response to me saying that TNA was WWE lite before Russo, that it still is, so nothing has changed – see, while it's still kinda sorta WWE lite, as people like to call it, your original argument that it became WWE lite, and now you're backtracking on yourself. That doesn't generally help one when arguing.

I thought Shelley was better when he was following Sting around and going to Christian's house with Abyss, Better than being a lackey for Nash.

So you want these guys as wrestlers rather than getting TV time in skits, and then you say that you preferred Shelley while he was doing some other skits? Alright then.

Genesis was not a good PPV because the disapointing booking overshadowed the ring work. I did not see Turning Point, so hard for me to judge until I have a chance to watch it. I have heard a different account than what you have told. I have read the spoilers and I will not judge a PPV solely based on that, but Daniels vs Lynn? Who cares. Lynn was never anything except in ECW and he really wasn't all that great there. Why not continue the Sabin feud since he is "so spectacular now.

I love it! Arguing by not arguing any points! Genius. Genesis certainly was a good show. You keep saying that they should focus on wrestling, yet you don't seem to want to focus on it. On the merits of good wrestling, Genesis was a really good show. The booking was decent – the booking of the NWA title match was fine, it was just really poorly executed. The Angle/Joe finish may not have been something a lot of people wanted to see, but as I'm pointed out, it hasn't hurt Joe.

Lynn and Daniels are both great wrestlers and ring veterans. Lynn had a really good match against X-Pac last year, and Daniels is better than X-Pac.

Buddy, in the past you said you couldn;t defend the heel turn and now you say it makes perfect sense. Him and Daniels were having problems. AJ was frustrated because Sabin cost him this and that. When does frustrated equal unlikeable? His whole speech with Tenay I know was a setup to try to make him look like a crybaby, but it just came off bad. Maybe I was wrong to say it was non sensical, it is just a big pile of shitty booking. I am a huge AJ Styles fan but they are going about it the wrong way if they want to turn him heel. I always pictured him as more of an RVD type character with that type of cockiness. You want him to turn heel have him do some dastradly shit to someone the fans care about. Oh and by the way the finish to the Rhino match was something they have done on WWE TV about 9 million times in the last couple years. Russo can be a little more creative than that. Another case of hurting a wrestler is Rhino. He needs a big win at this point and nothing has been done with him since Russo's arrival.

I'll be honest, I don't know why I said that, but I think my explanation as to why AJ turned overshadows my quick 6 word brushing over of something. I'm not sure what you mean by asking when frustrated means unlikable, though. Are you asking when a guy being frustrated means he's a heel? It's not that he's frustrated that makes him a heel, it's what he did because he's frustrated that makes him a heel. Russo's not taking anything from WWE... it's a thing that has been done in wrestling period forever, and it's something that has worked forever, and it worked with AJ. The people in the crowd did think AJ actually got hurt, and it was an asshole move to take a shortcut like that. He doesn't have to kill somebody in the arena to turn heel, he can just be an asshole. Rhino is fine. He beat the fuck out of Christian on the 2 hour Primetime special and he's been booked to look strong since then. Having Rhino lose like he did to AJ not only puts Styles over as an asshole, but it keeps Rhino strong because he didn't lose convincingly. AJ had to cheat to beat him. Rhino has continually been booked as a star. What do you want them to do with him? Should he be put into the current title feud? He's in one of the company's current marquee feuds, dude. They're using him quite well.

Sting never should have lost the belt that soon. It is stupid to build someone up a year and then have them lose it via DQ. Abyss doesn't really fit as world champ because he was never built properly to be at that level before he was put in that situation which was not Russo's fault. However, it is Russo's fault what has happened since. Abyss should have kicked both Christian and Sting's ass without ref bumps and other hijinks to put him at that level and then bust out the surprise which I am sure will be similar to the Kane angle.

Sting's loss of the belt works because it showed some character depth with him and put over Jim Mitchell as having a very strong character himself. He's supposed to be the bastion of what is good in TNA, but Mitchell was able to get Abyss and his actions to push Sting over the edge. As I've mentioned many times, the actual execution of this wasn't very good, but the idea was there and it was a good one. The big win for Sting would have been at Hard Justice, but since that didn't happen as far as I was concerned he shouldn't have won it at all.

Just to make it clear, though, my intention was never, ever to defend everything Russo does. It was to defend the fact that people think the man can do no good and that everything he touches turns to shit. That's just not true.

I don't see anything too rational about your Russo defense. I don;t see how anyone can like both individuals. I didn;t read you article after what pertained to me. It said you were defending the ECW December to Dismember and I had no interest in reading because there is no defending it. When you have Punk and RVD going out in the first three of a match like that there is no defense.

So I can't like multiple things? I can't enjoy more than one style of something in the world? Saying I can't enjoy a lot of things about Heyman's booking and things about Russo's booking is like saying I can't have a taste for different types of women. I like cute, sweet, nice girls, but I also like a chick who's got a bit of edge to her and can be different. I don't have to choose one or the other as far as my taste in that case, and I don't have to choose one or the other as far as my taste in booking of wrestling either. Read what I actually wrote about December to Dismember or don't comment on my defense of it.

Why would you need Russo when you have Heyman? There are no similarites between the two. One guy was a hair away from taking an indy federation to the top and created stars from guys who had no business being stars. The other guy helped create a style of writing wrestling that was innovative at the time but has since grown stale and he has not done one thing since his days at WWE to warrant being given another shot. I am glad you like both...you get a gold star.

Not to mention, although Russo and Heyman are quite different, Russo and the WWF took a lot of what they did from what they saw ECW doing. You apparently don't have a clue what you're talking about.

Hmmm lets see. Well he is booking AJ Styles in a crappy heel turn doing him no favors. His strength is his athleticism and I am sure doing something like what Joe did to Daniels would get him far more over than what has been done so far. The X-division's strength is their in-ring work, but instead we get comedy skits. UFC has a PPV a month and maybe 5-6 shows on National TV a year and their fighters get more promo time than TNA X-division does. Give the guys 30 seconds to build a character and say something. Rhino needs a win badly and has been jobbed since his arrival. What has been compelling about his interactions since Russo arrived. LAX has been kept strong but where is the build for the other tag teams on the card. Oh wait VKM is still being kept strong and everyone loves them so much (insert more sarcasm). Sting lost the belt in a month. Abyss has won matches by DQ and ref bumps instead of looking like the dominant monster he should. Joe lost a winning streak that mattered to Angle without the proper buildup. Need more?

Wait... so AJ's strength is being athletic, so he should be a ruthless killer? Um, okay? The X Division's strength is their ring work. That's true. As I've said, there's not much time on television to get that over, so they do other things that can be very short on television and then get to showcase that ring work on PPV. The UFC comparison doesn't work because it's a much different thing. UFC relies on just the promos and the history of the guys in the octagon. Wrestling isn't as cut and dry as that. Once again with Rhino... what? He's not being jobbed out, not at all. He won the feud with Christian even though he lost the cage match. He's been booked to look strong ever since. Losing doesn't equal being jobbed out, dude. The tag team situation is decent, but once again even I've lost track of the reason I took on defending Russo in the first place. It's not great, and he's not great, but he's not destroying TNA. Look back to the original piece I wrote. I never said that I was set to go out and defend every bit of what he's doing, just that he's not the death knell. And no, I'm not backtracking. The tag situation isn't fantastic, but the division is only as strong as the champions, and right now the champions are making anybody who challenges them look great, so it's all good.

The Abyss situation is that while he may be a monster, there are a lot of extenuating circumstances. He's got a lot going on in his head and that's what is hindering his ability to be dominant. Uh... and really, you're not doing what I asked you to. I asked for examples and reasoning, not statements. Saying that Joe lost a streak without proper build up is a statement, not an example. So yeah, I need more, sorry.

You obviously can;t piece together what I am saying then. Just because you can piece it together does not mean it is good! People are complaining about the booking because it is lame nit because we all "hate" Russo. He rushed Joe/Angle, and I'd bet money instead of putting off the rematch like he should he will rush it back out in two months. Heyman would have made the fans wait for a while before the payoff of even the first Joe/Angle and that is how wrestling booking should be. My point is Russo's booking is piss poor. We can all piece it together but it doesn;t mean it is good. Have a higher standard and think big.

I like the usage of the word "lame". It really does a lot for some people who can't otherwise formulate a good argument. It's lame, okay. It's not good, okay. The problem is that you're arguing things that you dislike rather than whether things are good or not. It seems like, even though you say it's not because of Russo, he's the person everybody's coming out against – if anybody else was booking what's happening in TNA right now, I bet people wouldn't be complaining so much about it. Joe/Angle would have been done immediately either way; it's what TNA does. But really, they're doing it because they don't know how long they're going to be able to have Kurt around and it's a really hot angle to use as Kurt's first. It's smart to bring him in and have him pick out the hottest star on the show – that's what a big star does. I also never said "piece together", because that's not what you have to do to understand it. It's just not all spelled out and simple. A little complexity can be a good thing, because it's different.

In the end, I'm just about done with this whole thing. Nothing new is coming from this, and more and more it just comes off like you're arguing about stuff you just don't like rather than about how things are. I've argued for a few things that I didn't happen to like thus far here and do it all the time for other things. Just because I don't like something doesn't mean it can't make sense. I'm being quite fair with what I'm saying, not biased like you seem to be. Sorry. It's not me that doesn't get you, it's you that doesn't get it.

If you want to continue this, write back. If I think it's worth it, I'll continue. Otherwise I'm just done.

I'm not really interested much in whatever news happened this week – Samoa Joe is out of this weekend's Ring of Honor shows due to his knee injury. Jimmy Rave will replace him in the Four Corner Survival tonight, and it will now be Rave vs. Danielson vs. McGuinness vs. Homicide. Nigel's opponent for Saturday night hasn't been decided as I write this, and likely won't be announced until some point during tonight's show or come match time on Saturday.

Armageddon wasn't good like I've seen people say, by the way. The Inferno match was okay, the Ladder match was really good, and the rest was merely decent at best. It was a better show on paper than it was in execution.

Okay, now some quick feedback before I leave. Next week we'll be back to having a real column, eh?

wcwfjojo agrees with me on Russo and whatnot:

Dude, I just wanted to say THANK YOU! If I had to read one more column from
Larry Csonka or that other idiot about how "Russo is ruining TNA, Oh my god!" I
was going to shoot myself.

Everytime TNA does anything now it's "Russo-riffic" to some people. Even
though, most of Russo's ideas have been good. God knows, I've hated a lot of what
Russo did in the past. His 2nd run in WCW was terrible, but I think at that
point he was so pissed off that they screwed him the first time, that he tanked
some ideas on purpose. Anyways, I was never even a fan of his big WWF run, but
I think he's done fine in TNA.

VKM started out slow, but has turned into a great angle for two guys who do
well with it. No one cared about the "James Gang" but everywhere I go I see
people talking about VKM. I also wonder if all these crybabies said the same
thing when DX did this. Because, if I recall every netboy was wetting his pants
"OMG they used some of WCW's stars real names!" and I'm sure these same guys who
are complaining now, loved it then.

It doesn't make TNA look bush league, it makes TNA look ballsy. Not unlike
ECW did in their prime. Or did everyone and their brother not like Austin's
skits making fun of WCW when he was upset about how he was used? Again, what's
good for the goose, is good for the gander.

Russo's "Crash TV" format is great in 1 hour. It makes Impact exciting and
tons of stories move along. He's also not overbooking the PPVs as D'Amore often
did.

TNA delivers the best wrestling anywhere, on PPV. They can't do that in 1
hour of TV time, so it's good for their 1 hour show to move fast. It's not like
there have been any 20 minute classics since the FSN days of Impact anyway.

Finally, I agree with what you said about people using their heads. Byers was
bitching about Truth getting in offense against Abyss, and claimed he hadn't
done anything, but looking back I've seen Truth do nothing but rack up singles
and tag wins since Russo took over. Of course he has to get in some offense
against Abyss.

I'm sure that if Abyss would have beaten him in 2 minutes, these same people
would have complained "That's Russo-riffic".

Thanks for having a damn brain.

I'm too tired to reply, so let that speak for itself. Thanks for writing, sir.

Stevie J of the Original Hip Hop Lyrics Archive at OHHLA.com actually doesn't happen to agree with me on the Paparazzi stuff:

I can't laugh at the Kevin Nash skits because they're the same
jokes every week. Every week Shelley and Starr are pining for Nash's
unrequited love. Every week Sonjay Dutt is on the clear or the cream.
Every week Diesel thinks he's God's gift to men AND women, not to
mention a better actor than Sean Connery and Harrison Ford combined.
And as a matter of fact, I didn't start buying TNA on Wednesday nights
to see "THE WHACKY X DIVISION COMEDY SHOW~!" I bought them because
the X Division matches were the best wrestling you COULDN'T see on
TV anywhere else. The fact they've made that a joke makes TNA A JOKE
because now they have NOTHING that makes them stand out from any
other promotion in the country - goofy comedy with a bunch of small men.
It's disgraceful what they've done to Sonjay and Senshi. Disgraceful.

Yeah, and you're getting that great X division action on PPV, the only place they have time right now to actually show it. You're overreacting to this in quite a ridiculous fashion. Just because it's a bunch of guys being goofy for about a minute and a half each week doesn't mean they're shit. They get to go on PPV and have the really good matches you're looking for. I just can't see how somebody doesn't find the Nash stuff funny. The man's got fantastic comedic timing, and all of the guys surrounding him are really playing it off quite well.

READER INTERACTION TIME~!11!!!1!!1!!!1

Here's something for everybody to respond to... what's your take? Even just a quick "I like it" or "I don't like it" will suffice. Do you think the Paparazzi stuff is funny? Think it isn't funny? I want to know what you think.

Anyway, that's that this week. It'll be better next time. I'll be at Ring of Honor on Saturday night and the after party, so I'll have something to say about that surely, and maybe other stuff will go on elsewhere. See you then.