The Ominous Thoughts News Report 6.10.07
Posted by Sam Caplan on 06.10.2007
Scott Steiner's injured, thoughts on ROH's Philly show last night, feedback, Ross's Roundup, and the opportunity to find out what's in *MY* VCR!
Well, I just got in from ROH's Philadelphia show and I'm fucking shot. But that won't stop me from putting forth a quality column full of excitement, adventure, and really wild things. So here we go...
The Real News
With the upcoming Draft Lottery putting any major WWE-related stuff on hold for the week, the only real news items worth mentioning was the injury suffered by Scott Steiner this past weekend in Puerto Rico. Reports say that he took a knee to the throat and, while he was initially okay, later had trouble breathing and had to be rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed as having a major trachea injury, and underwent surgery shortly afterward. He is still largely immobile and, to make matters worse, the injuries prevent him from getting on a plane and flying anywhere for several weeks, so if he's going to get back to the mainland, he'll have to travel home by boat, and that's once he's able to leave the hospital. He obviously will not be competing at Slammiversary, though his replacement has yet to be announced. Strangely, TNA did not mention the injury on Impact this past week and, in fact, ran a promo for the match despite knowing for days that it was not going to happen.
I really don't have much to add to this story except to say that this really sucks. Of course it sucks for Scott for all the obvious reasons, but as a fan it means the Steiners-Team 3D match that I was really looking forward to is now off. It's a real shame that they had that awesome promo only for things to turn out this way, it feels like it was really wasted. I do have to question the fact that TNA left that promo for the Slammiversary match on the show, because you would think the honest thing to do would be remove the promo and make an announcement. Then again, honestly has never been a prime quality of those in the wrestling business. Here's hoping Scott recovers soon (though the nature of the injury suggests it'll be a somewhat long recovery) and that he's smart and doesn't try to fly home and end up like Chris Candido.
Live Thoughts On ROH: 6/9/2007 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
ROH returned to the Philadelphia National Guard Armory last night, and the first thing I noticed is that the size of the crowd wasn't entirely impressive. One entire side of the building had the bleachers closed due to low attendance, and I actually came in with a general admission ticket and wound up sitting front row because the place was so empty. That's too bad though, because it was a really good show which was highlighted by a match we didn't even know we were going to get between Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness. At the beginning of the show, it was announced that he was injured the previous night in Boston and would be unable to compete, but we were surprised to discover that he would be Nigel's mystery opponent tonight. That is what you call an example of a GOOD bait and switch. This was their first ROH match on the east coast, and it was nice to finally see it live. As usual, they stiffed the crap out of each other and did their pet spot, which for those who have never seen it, is that they headbutt each other until somebody gets busted open hardway. Tonight, Danielson was the lucky bleeder, and he was fucking bleeding. He did end up coming back and beat Nigel by knockout after continually hitting him in the head with elbows and the put him in Cattle Mutilation until he passed out. Great match, and a total MOTYC.
Speaking of MOTYCs, we unfortunately did not get the one I expected out of the Briscoes and the Kings Of Wrestling. I admit that I was going to be hard to please because I was at Final Battle and saw they awesome match they had there live, but I really felt like they could have done better. It was the bgest 2 out of 3 falls, and the Briscoes took the win in two straight falls, much like they did against Aries & Strong earlier in the year. The Briscoes are dominant, but this unfortunately looks like the end for the Kings Of Wrestling, because Hero and company left without Claudio after the fall. In other championship action, Takeshi Morishima retained the ROH World Title after a hard fought defense against Roderick Strong. Strong brought his best, but it wasn't enough against Morishima, who destroyed him at the end with several suplexes and a hard clothesline before finally finishing him with the backdrop driver.
The rest of the No Remorse Corps saw action tonight, as Davey Richards defeated Matt Cross by submission, but Rocky Romero was defeated by Delirious. CHIKARA made their presence felt tonight in two matches. First, Hallowicked (who I have to say, didn't impress me) lost to Matt Sydal in the opener, then Jigsaw and Mike Quackenbush (who, after all these years, I finally got to see live) lost to Kevin Steen & El Generico as the Canadians continue their roll to their World Tag Team Title match against the Briscoes in Chicago. Also, Lacey and Daizee Haze's match got bumped up to the main show, but went to a ten minute time limit draw, and Brent Albright won a Four Corner Survival against BJ Whitmer, Jimmy Rave, and Erick Stevens to earn a title shot at ROH's return to Philadelphia on 8/11/07.
Overall, a pretty good show and I have to say I was a little disappointed at the attendance. They haven't drawn well in Philly lately, and it really looks like a lot of the CZW fans who came by for the feud went back home afterward. Too bad, because they missed a great show.
What's In Stu's VCR?
We go back to 1989 this week for Wrestlewar 1989, which featured Ric Flair regaining the NWA World Title from Ricky Steamboat and almost nothing else. But I watched it and took notes, so might as well go with it.
Wrestlewar 1989
As usual with big NWA events at the time, the show opened with a series of glorified squash matches, the first of which saw the Great Muta destroy Doug Gilbert. Gilbert got a couple of lucky shots in, but Muta mostly kicked the crap out of him before putting him away a couple of minutes in with the moonsault. You know, Muta had this really great elbowdrop that kind of looked like the People's Elbow without all the bullshit theatrics. I think if somebody picked up that high-velocity elbowdrop in WWE it'd get over.
Up next was Butch Reed against Ranger Ross. Reed was just kind of floating around right before becoming a member of Doom, while Ranger Ross was a total loser. I also think Ross looked like a second-rate 70s porno star, but maybe that's just me. Squash city, Reed wins, leading us to what may be the worst gimmick match of all time as Dick Murdoch defeated Cowboy Bob Orton in a Bullrope Match. I use the term match loosely, because it lasted less than a minute and didn't even really utilize the gimmick. The replays took more time than the match itself. Orton hung Murdoch over the ropes after the match, but thankfully both guys disappeared shortly after this.
-Our series of squashes concluded in interesting fashion as the Samoan Swat Team (Samu & Fatu) took on the Dynamic Dudes, aka Johnny Ace and Shane Douglas on skateboards. Well, I say on even though they never actually rode them, they just carried them around. They also wore neon colors because everybody did that in the 80s, apparently. I shudder to think how over the Dudes would have gotten if they'd been allowed to use their real personalities instead of the goofball skating morons they were portrayed as. I'll even go out on a limb and say they could have been one of the top teams of the 90s, though they did have a lot of singles success as it was. Anyway, SST kicked their asses the whole match, but the Dudes win on a hail mary when Fatu picks Johnny up for a slam, but Shane dropkicks Johnny on top of him for the upset win.
-Next up, Lex Luger defends the US Title against Michael "PS" Hayes. The story was that Hayes, who had never been any kind of singles threat, had always had the Freebirds backing him up and was regarded as a shitty wrestler at best, came to the NWA to prove that he could get it done by himself, so he turned on Luger in a tag match leading to this title match. Hayes was able to frustrate Luger early on, but couldn't do any real damage until Luger took a spill over the top rope and Hayes was able to take over. Luger made a comeback and went for the rack, but Hayes escaped and hit the DDT. They collided head to head and while Luger went down in a heap, Hayes collapsed against the ropes, at which point Terry Gordy came out of the back and shoved Hayes off the ropes and on top of Luger for the HUGE upset win and the US Title. Hayes would lose the US Title back to Luger like two or three weeks later, but this was a real shocker at the time and I believe was Hayes' only major singles title win.
-Following a TV Title Match which saw Sting totally squash the Iron Sheik in less than 2 minutes, we get the climactic final match in the classic Ric Flair-Ricky Steamboat series. By this point, Steamboat had pinned Flair in a tag match to get a title shot, beat him for the title at Chi-Town Rumble, and then went on to win a grueling, 55-minute, 2 out of 3 falls match at the Clash Of The Champions to retain against Flair. However, Flair's foot was under the bottom rope when Steamboat won the third fall, and he used that as an opportunity to receive one last, do or die title shot against Steamboat. In the event of a time limit draw, the match would be decided by three judges at ringside, former NWA World Champions Lou Thesz, Pat O'Connor, and Terry Funk. This was easily the most fast paced of the three matches, and the early part saw Steamboat working over Flair's arm to build to the double chickenwing he had already used to score two falls on Flair. It was their usual awesome affair and they were about equal until Steamboat went up top and Flair hit the ropes, knocking Steamboat off the top and injuring his knee. Flair attacked the knee like a shark, going right to work with the usual and hooking Steamboat into the figure four. Steamboat managed to escape, but made the mistake of trying a slam on Flair, which Flair reversed to a cradle for the win and the NWA World Title. Flair showed Steamboat respect by shaking his hand after the match and, in a postmatch interview, put over Steamboat as the toughest champion he's ever faced. The interview was interrupted by Terry Funk, who congratulated Flair on his win and issued a challenge for a World Title match. Flair turned him down, saying that he had a top ten to defend against while Funk hadn't even wrestled regularly for some time. Funk took offense to this and suckerpunched Flair, then laid a beating on him at ringside before giving him a piledriver on a ringside table back before anyone EVER did table spots, and this led to a kayfabed broken neck for Flair.
-Strangely, the World Title Match did not end the show, and instead we were treated to two crappy Varisty Club matches, the first of which saw Mike Rotunda and Steve Williams defend the NWA World Tag Team Title against the Road Warriors with Nikita Koloff as a guest referee. This was pretty standard until Kevin Sullivan and Dan Spivey ran out and attacked Koloff, drawing the DQ and resulting in the Varsity Club being stripped of the title. Directly after this, the show clsoed with the US Tag Team Title Match (yes, really) pitting champions Rick Steiner and Eddie Gilbert against Sullivan and Spivey. I'm not going to beat around the bush, this match sucked ass. They attacked Steiner early and he spent the entire match crawling around ringside in pain while the VC beat up Gilbert. Steiner finally makes it into the ring and hits a Steinerline for the win, but then the Varsity Club attacks him again to close the show.
-The one draw for this show was Flair-Steamboat. Everything else was really short (I guess to give time to the main event), and everything felt really rushed. Seeing Michael Hayes win an important singles title was unique, but other than the NWA Title Match, there's really nothing to write home about here.
Ross's Roundup
Kyle asks if I like "Celebrities" in wrestling? I would have to say yes, but only as long as they are utilized logically and in a timely fashion. That doesn't include David Arquette winning the WCW Title or Jay Leno wrestling, but to each his own.
I think that if celebrities are going to be used, it ought to be something like Mr T or Mike Tyson in that they're in a high profile role in a major match in which they either don't wrestle or are extremely limited in what they do in the ring. I don't think stuff like David Arquette or Jay Leno works at all, and I don't even see the benefit of having a bunch of useless celebrities cluttering up Wrestlemania, either.
Matt- I can't apparently say it clearly enough and I do not mean to be a wisearse, but the old ECW is dead and is not coming back. The new ECW is being built as we speak, like it or not, and one would assume ECW will get a shot in the arm following the WWE Draft on June 11th. I am a loyal viewer every Tuesday night on Sci Fi.
Yes, I'm sure the first thing he does after flying back to Oklahoma is run right into his house and turn on ECW. Seriously though, one would hope that they'll be getting a fresh infusion of star power after the Draft because things are looking a little thin there right now.
Jim- When I first got into the wrestling business in the early 70's, it took me a long time, perhaps a year, to really be accepted by "the boys." The wrestling fraternity is a tough nut to crack, but I persevered and things worked out well. When the wrestlers saw that I wasn't going to give up on my dreams, many became allies, or at least most of them did. Today's newcomers to the business have it so much easier than my generation did breaking into the business and being accepted in the locker room.
The reason for this is that back in the day, wrestlers would only allow you into the business if they thought there was a chance of making money with you. It wasn't like today where you go to a school for a few months and bingo, you're ready for the indies. Back then they had to see something in you and would give you the cold shoulder if they didn't.
C Rodgers- Why is Raw the "A" show? Personally, it is the #1 show in my mind because that's the show I work on and I take great pride in being a part of the Raw process. That's my ego and my pride of being on the brand speaking. Secondly, is it the longest running of all the WWE produced TV shows, and it regularly is the #1 rated weekly cable TV series on all of cable television. Honestly, it is a very subjective matter, and a good case can be made for Smackdown being the number one show because they are on "broadcast" TV, but you asked my opinion and I gave it to you. I watch all our shows, so I might not be the guy to ask, and week to week the shows vary as to who has the best matches.
Makes sense, and an interesting thing that I don't think anyone's pointed out is that for years, people bemoaned that Smackdown was getting the short end of the stick between the two brands, but everybody seems to have forgotten about that following the recreation of ECW, and if anything I hear almost nothing but positive things about Smackdown these days.
Bob- You are the man, sir, being retired from the United States Air Force after serving our country! I have described Mr. McMahon in many ways, perhaps some accurately and some not, but I will say without a doubt in my mind that the Chairman of the WWE is as patriotic as any man I have ever met. That's not wrestle-talk either.
I absolutely believe this. Vince McMahon has done a lot of things to support the Armed Forces going back for many years, and it goes beyond just the annual Christmas show in the war zone. For as much as he jokes about having beat the US government, he has shown many times how much he loves this country.
Miguel- Why don't I acknowledge that TNA is on the rise? Miguel, I have never intentionally spoken a negative word about TNA. The more places wrestlers have to wrestle and to earn a living, the better. I am pleased that they are doing well.
Plus, what does it accomplish to talk about TNA? Granted, this is his shoot blog, but he's still a WWE employee and it probably wouldn't look good if he went around tooting the horn of the competition.
Archie- Do I think that Yokozuna was overrated? Heck, no! Yoko had uncanny timing and great in-ring psychology. Yoko was unfortunately his own worst enemy, as he could not control his eating disorder. I remember the WWE sending him to Duke University's weight loss department and Yoko sneaking out at night for fast food or paying "insiders" to bring him a pizza late at night. Yoko, like many Samoans, was an athletically amazing talent, especially when he was around 400 pounds.
Yokozuna was a great and totally unappreciated worker who, like Jim says, was unfortunately held back more by his weight than ANY kind of wrestling politics, especially after he first won the WWF Title in 1993. Shame that things ended the way they did.
How do I feel about the fans' "mixed reactions" toward WWE Champ John Cena? It used to perplex me, but really, not any longer. I like John, as I have said many times, and he is one of the best recruits I ever signed. So I may not be totally objective, but I do genuinely like the guy and I love his work ethic. John, too, is used to the mixed reaction and simply forges ahead with what he needs to do to earn his living. By the way, I did not like the Spinner Title Belt in the beginning either, nor the Smoking Skull Title Belt, for the record, but I am a traditionalist. I'm not sure that is a blessing or a curse, but it is what it is. However, now the Spinner Title Belt doesn't annoy me whatsoever. I have bigger fish to fry and plenty of other things I could bemoan, if I chose to pull a "poor me."
John Cena getting booed and Spinner Belt question subjects are closed.
I think that having custom belts devalues titles and makes them seem like a prop or a joke when they're supposed to mean a lot more, but that's just me. Part of the reason they do them is to sell replica toys to all the little John Cena fans.
Martin- Montreal fans are emotional and generally bring out the best in the wrestlers. I know that the "moment" between Hogan and the Montreal fans the night after the Toronto Wrestlemania where Hogan wrestled The Rock was extraordinary. I enjoy traveling to Montreal, as I love the food (smoked meat sandwiches!) and the lovely French accents of the ladies. I may be a happily married man, but I'm not dead!
I'm sorry, I don't see what's so great about the people of Montreal, and I spent four days in that godforsaken city. I'd probably suffer through it again if my job took me there, but I'd take Toronto over Montreal any day.
Cactus- Regarding the upcoming WWE draft, I have to believe that the wrestlers will find out where they are going when their name is called. That's how I would handle it. Talent should be drafted where they can most help the company. Not that this is an issue, but I would also not factor in wrestlers who may be socially connected with another superstar on the same roster when making these draft picks either. This is a job where significant money can be earned, and is not a dating or a matchmaking service. That may sound harsh and old school, but that's my honest opinion.
I think it's weird that they don't find out sooner than they do because one would think that it would be a nightmare making travel arrangements on such short notice. I guess that's part of the job.
Jeremy- I agree that the use of gimmick matches is over done. I love the Hell in a Cell format, the War Games, and old school, smashmouth Texas Death Matches, but the Kennel from Hell would not make the cut. I am still trying to forget that one.
I didn't think Kennel From Hell was such a bad match, it wasn't great but it wasn't terrible or anything like some people make it out to be, it was just a stupid concept. I do think that gimmick matches are relied on WAY too heavily these days, however.
Bryan- Unless you are hell-bent on becoming a wrestler at age 28, and have the gifts to ascend to the top quickly, I would suggest that your goal may be challenging at best, to reach. That's not to say you shouldn't try it, but you should be aware that success is a long shot starting at 28 years of age. I know that Diamond Dallas Page started his career later than most and did really well, but DDP would be the exception and not the rule. Lastly, I am unaware of any wrestling schools in Oregon, but perhaps someone can help us with that one. I do wish you the best of luck with whatever your decision may be.
Well, I guess that rules me out. DAMN!
Alinco- Seeing a young superstar take a tumble off the top of a double stacked, steel cage isn't my idea of a smart move for any young wrestler. The business is too dependant on the "Holy S*%$" moment, which I am not a fan of, if it is overused. Matches must build to the occasional aforementioned moment, plus these moments can't become an every match or regular occurrence in my humble opinion.
Agreed. Like gimmick matches, holy shit moments are also relied on too heavily, although that's more common on the indy scene than WWE or TNA.
Edgar- It is your choice if you choose to take the draft seriously or not. I think this is an important draft, especially considering how many top superstars are on the injured list with many of them likely to be on the sidelines for a good while. I am looking forward to June 11 to see who goes where. I think your issues about too much crossover on the various TV shows is a function of a lack of talent depth in general, plus factoring in the long list of injuries to make every broadcast as good as possible. Perhaps the draft will lessen some of your concerns.
I think that now that they've had a month or so since the last major injuries to try and figure out what they want to do for the Draft, they have an idea of who's going to be put in a position to be an upper-midcarder or moved up to the main event. This Draft is going to be very telling as far as figuring out who's going to be in WWE's major plans over the next few months.
I LOVE FEEDBACK!!!
Didn't get much in the ol' inbox this week, but I wanted to respond to this one from Patrick Conley:
Hey Stu, fun column. I definitely agree with you about Kevin Nash. He's a riot! I just have one criticism and its about your dickhead of the week. I think you're being a little hard on Mr. Lashley. I know he can't talk well and some of those jokes were things you'd expect to hear from uncreative 6th graders but that made me enjoy them personally a lot more. It showed he was different and stayed away from the normal gay jokes and was a different type of humor. Also about them giving him the mic, i must say, he's not going to get any better unless he keeps practicing. I know practicing is supposed to take place in the lockeroom or at home but the crowd adds a different dynamic and i think as long as he keeps it up he will eventually develop more personality and skill on the mic. Unfortunately there is nothing he nor anyone else can do about his voice, which is a drawback. but maybe I'm just a person who doesn't believe you have to fit the neccesary criteria to be a successful star.
Also I have a suggestion for your next dickhead of the week. I know its MMA but because he used to be a wrestler, Brock Lesnar. Did you see the K-1 Dynamite show? He pissed my friends and i off. What he said about wrestling being fake in his promo (which i dont personally agree with) didn't bother me as much as the way he said it/ Like a dickhead! Also, after he won the fight they cunducted the post match interview and he said he'll see which promotion wants to pay him the most and give him a heavyweight title shot. First of all, in his promo he said he doesn't need the money, that this is just something he wanted to do. I know he's not going to do it for free but to say he didn't care about the money and then say that i think was a dickhead move. And secondly, yeah, you looked good, you dominated, you won. Congragulations. But to basically demand a Heavyweight Title opportunity after one match, regardless of the outcome, thats another dickhead move. Maybe I'm biased against him though because Vince basically handed him the WWE and he turned it down to go play football.
Anyway, sorry for the length, but let me know what you think. Look forward to hear from you.
I know I ride Lashley a lot and I'll freely admit it's a gimmick for the column, but I really do have strong feelings about him and I seriously think that giving him a mic is a bad idea. You're right, he's not going to learn to promo any better without actually doing it, but going over this stuff pre-show is part of what creative is supposed to do. However, the main problem is that, as you said, there's nothing anyone can do about his voice, and I think his voice makes it very difficult to take him seriously as a tough guy, and I think they'd be better served to have him just go out there and demolish people and never say more than a few words. Here's an interesting factoid for you guys: did you know that the actor who played Darth Maul in Phantom Menace was not the guy who did the voice? They had to get somebody else to do the voice because the actor had such a pussy voice that if they let him talk for himself, nobody would have taken him seriously as a badass, Jedi-killing Sith Lord. The same logic applies here, I know what they want out of Lashley but, unless he starts smoking VERY heavily, I don't think it's something he can give them. I know they want all their main eventers to be able to talk more than caring about whether they can wrestle, but as poorly as he turned out, Goldberg was INCREDIBLY over for the first year and a half without barely saying a word because people just loved watching him go out and kill bitches. That's what I think they should do with Lashley.
As for Lesnar, I've purposely stayed away from covering him or any other activities that former wrestling names are getting involved in, simply because I write about wrestling, not MMA. If I wrote about Brock Lesnar, it would be about as relevant to wrestling as it would be if I came here telling you about how Greg Valentine now runs a successful parakeet farm or something. Granted, I'll make exceptions every now and then, but I don't feel like Lesnar being successful outside of wrestling has very much bearing on what's going on INSIDE of wrestling. As for Dickhead Of The Week...sorry, but that's ECW/TNA only. I have to make sure I congratulate the lucky winner each week without getting their spot usurped by somebody who couldn't handle the pressure. :)
Speaking of Larry, he and young phenom Daniel Wilcox go head to head in week ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY of Fact Or Fiction.
You liked Fact Or Fiction? Good, then go read Buy Or Sell, featuring Ari Berenstein and John Gregory!
After that, go read Ari in his usual spot in Column Of Honor.
You know I love promoting myself! To that end, here's part 2 of my feature on Ring Of Honor in 2006 from That Was Then. After you get done reading that, go read all about ECW and TNA in Friendly Competition.
That's it for me for this weekend. No PPV tonight, but I think Slammiversary's next weekend, though I'm too lazy to check up on that just now. However, if you're away from the TV, at work, or whatever and won't be able to follow the Draft Lottery live on TV, make sure to come by and check out 411's live coverage of Monday Night Raw starting tomorrow at 8pm EST. In any event, have a great week and don't forget to check in for That Was Then this Friday as I continue my multi-part look back at Ring Of Honor in 2006. See you then, and thanks for reading.
