Scripted Through Sin 4.15.08: What’s With All the Negatives?

Posted by Jarrod Westerfeld on 04.15.2008

Another week of scriptures, as this week we get notes from Steveo, touch up on TNA’s Lockdown, dive more into thoughts for WWE Backlash, and really lay one on Gabe Sapolsky of ROH. A lot of venom is spewed at some of the negatives this issue, which ensures my return to the Hidden Highlights won’t be anytime soon. Also inside my conspiracy theory about Jericho’s return plans.



Changing up the format just a little bit for this week as there's a lot I'd like to try and get to that I didn't get a chance to touch up on last week. So out goes the Scripting Agenda as that just required too much forethought, or going back and writing up the topic header to fill in that portion of the article. It's back to the basics and with that we'll jet right on into what needs to be said.

Notes from Steveo

For those of you who haven't been following this article for the past couple of weeks, every week since I started the TNA Revised project on Your Viral Dose of Reality 03.04.08: Scripted Through Sin Once More, one of my readers, Steveo Lavender, has added his notes to contribute to the project and skew my direction to be something a little more diverse. Some of his notes I take to almost immediately, others not so much. Though the overall experience has been fun as seeing it from another person's perspective allows me a chance to see what others think and want out of any company.

So when last week's deadline came and went with no notes from him, I assumed he'd lost interest. That was until after last week's article went live on the site and I received an e-mail from Steveo, once again contributing his worth to the project. And this is all he had to say.

"I have not fallen off the face of the earth. no no...far from it.

No, steveo's thoughts are not a handout. You only get them after a show. You did the debut and i gave you some thoughts. Then you did two side projects. I gave you no thoughts. Having said that, here's some thoughts.

I like the idea of forming an alliance against The New Church or Flock or Whatever it is. I forget what we're calling it.

I think the motor city machineguns should have a hook. i don't want to go with the paparattzi hook, because that would delegate them as comedy team and they're too good for that. i had this idea for the hooligans (london and kendrick) awhile ago. it was as an anti-establishment team who is disrespectful to everyone. not like age of the fall, more like the degeneration x. they were what they're name said they were, hooligans. they'd jump other teams backstage and spraypaint on their backs and stuff.

that'll do er."

Well, now I know the rules here. So cherish these notes for the week, as there won't be any next week as there won't be an episode this week. A part of me feels like splitting that away from this article to focus more on the real writing going on within the wrestling world, and as last week proved, the project, and my banter about the real TNA, cost me some space to squeeze in comments about Backlash and some conspiracy theories about the foreshadowed clues wrestling places within their product that they don't get to follow up for a multitude of reasons.

But to focus in on Steveo's comments this week – the LAX union is based purely on what Konnan had envisioned it to become when TNA was not interested in utilizing Ron Killings. So I took the step of doing it instead, as it was a really good idea and concept. Turning the Latin American eXchange into the Latin African-American eXchange builds up the idea of minorities coming together to face out the issues that all minorities suffer against. The idea that the LAX should only be a unit of Hispanics is sort of passé as the way TNA first utilized them spoke out about real issues that don't just affect Hispanics, but all minorities within America. I liked the idea behind this unit, though it took them awhile to finally place in the right big man in that group to get a good working chemistry.

The plan was scrapped by TNA management as Terry Taylor had responded to Konnan's wishes for Killings to join the unit with the idea that Ron forms his own team of African Americans to clash with the LAX, instead. It's that old school mentality, really. It just wouldn't work out, nor would it have been productive.

As for Raven's unit thus far, I'm leaning more towards a different name for the unit than The Flock or The New Church. The inclusion of James Storm was completely last second as I really fought against the idea of teaming up Kaz with the unit and realized no other character felt right in the role of being a submissive to Raven and James Mitchell's control. Going the route with Storm I get to add in Miss Jackie, which adds another in-ring member to the unit. One member that can help show their dominance throughout the all divisions within the company, including the Knockouts division. As per the name, while I'm going to play around with some ideas for the name one word seems to open up some good ideas, sacellum (particularly the ancient Rome usage, being a shrine open to the sky). Nothing is definitive upon the name just yet, but then again nothing in the project is definitive.

As per the Murder City Machine Guns, I like that concept but I don't see why they can't do some of the Paparazzi stuff as well, seeing as that led to some rather interesting uses of Shelley's talents. The concept around him spawned from his gimmick at that time, a student of the game that would look back on his, or recorded matches of his opponents, to get a better understanding of their game plan and how to counter it.

I think a combination of your hooligan idea and the Paparazzi usage could be an interesting and unique mix as they add to their strategy of learning about their opponents by beating them up before hand to ensure their counter strategy works in well. It would also give me more reason to want to place Christi Hemme with them as a third person wielding the camera during their tag matches could give them more perspective on what they would miss sitting the camera on a stationary pod. That and her attitude upon forming her own band, Hemme, leads me to believe she'd fit right on in with the anti-establishment boys of the company.

And as usual, thanks Steveo.

TNA Lockdown 2008

I can already hear some moans, but I swear to you this will be extremely quick. For those who cared, TNA hosted their annual pay-per-view, Lockdown, last night at the Tsongas Center in Boston, Massachusetts. The arena seemed to hold around 6,000 to about 8,000 TNA fans, and while I walked into this event hoping for the best, after witnessing it I feel very disappointed and unfulfilled. Some of the matches had some good build, while others not so much. And seeing as I'm on the topic, I'd like to address one comment I received last week, from guest to the site Jason.

"wait.

wait.

wait.

Do you actually watch impact? Because theres a boatload of evidence in this
that says that you dont.

For instance, the Rhino/Cage stuff was completely explained on impact a few
weeks ago. Rhino still hated Cage initially, but it built up until Cage won him
over.

When people like you search as hard as they can for small continuity gaps that
really arent there (ex; Joes contract), it honestly makes me feel for the
rabidly annoying TNA marks.

Seriously."

I admit that I don't regularly watch TNA iMPACT! anymore and only sparingly come in to view a bit of it at a time as the show, overall, drives me nuts with missed opportunities to do something, poorly contrived storylines and the ilk, but in my own defense you pointed to one fix made to all of this out of the possible 6 I listed. And it's not like I had to search long and hard for this stuff. The WWE and TNA both present their product based upon feuds and rivalries and not even years later, seem to amend them behind some curtain where the hidden or simply ignored camera happens to be.

The relationship between Sting and Nash was played up on barring the incident that cost Sting the TNA World Champion back in November. They seemed to recall their unity from a decade ago, but ignored what they went through not even 6 months ago. That has to drive people crazy that something like that wasn't explained as to why they suddenly are a working unit once more, much like Brian Kendrick's apparent turn on Paul London was simply ignored, AGAIN, this past week on Raw. You see something that you think will further or lead into a rivalry and then the company goes and pulls this? Wouldn't that drive you crazy if you were sitting down with a movie that insisted upon this style of storytelling?

WWE Backlash

Now that I'm squared away on that, let's jump back into what I ended out with last week, WWE's Backlash. It's amazing how I went from liking where things were going between Khali and Big Show to now hating this idea, all thanks to one segment on last week's SmackDown!. It irks me that neither of the previous confrontations resulted in a thing, but now it irks me even more considering that Khali is now playing off as the fearful heel that wants to avoid confrontation with the stronger and more agile Show. Why was this done? Khali confronted Show! Not the other way around. This would have made more sense if one of their confrontations led to blows and Khali realized, first hand, that he's no match for Show, so then attempted to amend tides with him with this segment. I'm of the opinion that the smark who was in charge of Raw the night following Wrestlemania 24 was dragged out back by Brian Gerwitz and then shot in the face. Gerwitz probably then took that as his cue to defecate upon the poor soul just for being a real writer while he continually proves to be nothing more than some hack in a thong.

While Backlash looms closer to becoming a reality, there are some other things I'd like to see the WWE step up and do to fill out the rest of this card. One of them being CM Punk establishing himself in the mid-card indefinitely as he has a serious program with Chris Jericho, whether it be for the Intercontinental Championship or not.

One of the big things I hear some other fans talk about is how this feud (Punk and Jericho) could trade off the Intercontinental Championship and Money in the Bank title contract. Sort of a role reversal of points, where Punk becomes the IC champion (however redundant that sounds) and Jericho becoming Money in the Bank. The concept could be easier to pull off than some would think, but the problem is the establishment of this feud would require that time be put in to CM Punk talking. I know, that's a difficult thing to accept considering the WWE loves to just throw him in front of a crowd slamming and kicking, with the only vocalization coming from him being grunting and moaning, but it's about time we get to really utilize this talent in all areas he excels at. This includes cutting of the promos that would get fans to really rally behind him and care for him.

Another bout that should come about, that I'm almost certain will be placed upon the card, is Matt Hardy taking on M.V.P. Undoubtedly this would be for the US Championship, though I think they can stretch this feud for a little longer before hitting the payoff of Hardy becoming the newly crowned US Champion of SmackDown. But what I'd also like to see done is the WWE amend a missed opportunity, by the company, to establish a relationship with Orton and M.V.P. over the dispatching of [Matt] Hardy for all those months, to really liken the feuds between Hardy and both men.

I feel both men had reason to want Matt out of the picture and both men contributed to him being out of action, storyline wise. It only seems fitting M.V.P. would want to thank the man that helped keep the biggest threat to his title out of the company for a few more months, leaving him to hold onto his championship that much longer. It also splits Matt's attentions, allowing him to lose certain bouts within the feud, as he has two enemies to worry about. This would also allow a program to be established upon Jeff's return, as Punk and Jericho tie up. It would be really simplistic to accomplish as Jeff can trade off with Randy, for the most part, until Orton is in a dim enough light that he could credibly lose a bout to Matt without hurting his appeal as a main eventer or a as a champion.

And finally, I'd love to see something done with London and Kendrick. Kendrick was already teased as having turned his back on his tag partner weeks ago, before Wrestlemania 24, but since then the two have been back together as if nothing had happened between them. No explanation, as far as I can recall, was given as to why they're suddenly back as a unit, nor was it explained as to why Kendrick felt the need to leave his partner in harm's way during their bout with Umaga. At some point the WWE is going to have to acknowledge this, do something with Kendrick's new attitude and get the fans to care about them either as singles competitors or as a tag team. So far, they seem to be trying something with them as a unit that seems to have gotten the fans buzzed for their matches, but is it a strong enough presence? Within time we can tell, but for right now it sounds as though the fans are more than receptive to their quickened pace style of wrestling, which should send a signal off to the company that they should allow these two to do what the Hardys did about a decade ago to get themselves over.

Conspiracy Theories Case #0001: The Savior of WWE

I've thought about this for a while. Honestly, I think this is the perfect forum to which to explain these thoughts and try and get some constructive thoughts and ideas about what I'm going to express.

To be completely honest, these are conspiracy theories about the wrestling world based upon the contextual clues placed within the writing of the company, and this week I figured I'd start with my first big conspiracy theory about what Chris Jericho's return was really aimed at saving us from.

Sitting around and transferring my DVR recordings to DVD, I actually ended up paying more attention to the shows than I normally would have, especially as I was weeding my DVR space from a overbearing 98% back down to a more respectable 67%. I had, at the time, literally 4 months worth of WWE programming on my DVR that needed to be viewed and moved, and most of this came around the time of No Mercy leading into parts of January (2008). In my viewing I noticed some things that lead me down this path of thought.

First off, the campaign of Chris Jericho's "second coming" began around late September, at which time John Cena was still the WWE Champion, and in many eyes, considered the man to beat. In theory, what better return would there be for Jericho? The man that ended his career in the WWE was John Cena, as the stipulation of the match these two had on August 22, 2005 edition of Raw, much in the same right as Eric Bischoff ended the run of Jericho within the WWE on that very same night.



I present to you this theory – Jericho's return was aimed to avenge his loss from 2 years prior against the man that was now viewed as the destroyer of the WWE, John Cena.

Some clues that lead me to this thought are the shift in Cena's demeanor as a result of his feud with Randy Orton. Orton kicking [Cena's] father's head in changed the character of Cena, and led him to become a little darker towards anyone that associated or protected Orton as his father became the target. It was as if these characters knew the only way to get at Cena, anymore, was to attack his family.

Unforgiven had passed, and though the execution of this now darker, almost brooding character, was poorly done in a manner that got the fans to care about his new found edge, Cena had disqualified himself to place further harm and injury upon Randy Orton. At the time it seemed as though this was the WWE's way of writing Randy out of the storylines so they could punish him for his involvement with the Signature Pharmacy scandal that rocked the WWE and led to some key characters having to be forced off the air [Umaga, William Regal, Chavo Guerrero, John Morrison, and the already injured and still off camera Gregory Helms]. But that was not to be, and I kind of understand why, now.

Orton was the character necessary in pulling out something that the WWE fans had wanted to see for almost 2 full years – a shift in Cena's character and a revamping of his demeanor. I feel, this is what the WWE felt was necessary to turn John Cena heel.

The clues are pretty much all there for the viewing – Cena attacking characters either to vent out frustrations placed upon him thanks to Randy Orton and his attacks, or characters simply associated with and/or trying to protect Randy Orton as a challenger for the big pay-per-view event. Cena seemed to lash out at anyone that stood in his way of defeating Orton and avenging his father's attacks and injuries at [Orton's] hands.

On the opposite coin, it also added to the whole "savior" demeanor of Chris Jericho's return as what would be a bigger threat to the fans than a dominant champion gone sour? What would require Jericho's return as a means to save us? A newly crowned, almost cowardly heel champion who's direction has wavered since becoming the main event champion of the show, or a dominant heel champion who was once idolized as everyone's hero and idol?

2007 proved to be a tragic year for the WWE as they had lost so many stars at points due to drugs, scandal, injuries and the odd contractual expiration scattered about. I think 2007 had especially soured the WWE, and has changed their programming concepts recently, because of Cena's injury. That injury may have prevented something we, as fans, have wanted to see for some time now, and may have haulted the idea of turning Cena heel for another prolonged amount of time.

Now, preemptively, I'm going to respond to the one comment I know will be generated from reading all of this, "but the reports said Orton was winning the championship, so there were no plans for this to occur." I call bullshit on a ton of reports about the WWE, especially those centered around John Cena, especially in 2007. There was a new report about Cena losing that title almost every week during that year. He was supposed to lose it to Bobby Lashley at The Great American Bash according to reports, as he was scheduled to be shooting for his new film. It was even reported at Wrestlemania 24 he would lose and take the time off, afterwards, to film his new movie. It's a never ending cycle with Cena and these reports. I can't recall a time he wasn't supposed to lose the title, anymore, it's that bad.

So while everyone continually rides that idea that Orton was always going to win the title as Cena was going to take time off to film his new movie, I call bullshit on that on the grounds that this is the dirt sheets cry of wolf – a cry they constantly make about Cena that seems to always be listened to no matter how often it's a bad or wrongful cry. Much in the same line I call bullshit about Eddie becoming champion during the time of his death, but that's another topic for discussion later on.

The seeds of a Cena heel turn seemed to be apparent in the late summer of 2007, and in typical fashion of that year, plans were altered and changed because of something out of the WWE [and their creative's] control. So instead, what were left to witness was Jericho's return focused on a new champion that didn't feel like a big enough threat for us to need saving from.

Ring of Honor: Always Trying to Appease Everyone

It seems as though I can't, honestly, talk about the negatives of other companies without having to talk about Ring of Honor to some capacity. I know a lot of people think of me, and a few others on this site, as being completely biased towards the company, but these same people couldn't properly define the term in the first place.

For the record, I do have a bias towards ROH. That's right; I claim it to be true. I have a personal preference for the product they present as that's something I enjoy. It's simple and easy to follow, and it's not trying to do so many things all at once, such as the cameras in the locker room catching candid conversations that were supposed to be secretive. Everything that need be played out for the purpose of advancing a storyline is laid out for all to see in the center of a ring. Anything done backstage is mostly like traditional cutting of the promos in the back.

But for everything I enjoy about this company there are the gripes I hold with it. It isn't perfect, though some will cry that it is or cry that we fans of it see it as being such. It has its faults which is something some of its fans find hard to say without feeling like they're betraying their fandom of the product. I hold no such loyalties to one company, so for every bad thing I've said about TNA last week, I'm going to do the same for ROH this week.

For starters, I hate when Gabe Sapolsky, head booker of the company, tries to do too much for the sake of appeasing everyone. Whether it's the moving of the ROH World Tag Team titles off of the Briscoes back at Final Battle 2007 to appease those in attendance who felt they weren't getting their money's worth due to Nigel suffering from a concussion the night before, thus his inability to compete that night in a Four Corner Elimination Match for the ROH World Championship, or the changing of Nigel's character to appease the minority of fans who had grown sick and tired of Nigel's new in-ring tactics.

What really irks me is Gabe's whacky and weird booking tendencies, as evidenced on Manhattan Mayhem II when Austin Aries, Roderick Strong and Jack Evans clashed for a Triple Threat match, only for the ref to get bumped and the No Remorse Corps to enter the ring and lay the boots to Aries and Evans. If I'm not mistaken, the Resilience members soon followed in suit, leaving Evans and his new manager, at that time, Julius Smokes, to unveil the newest member of Evans new group, the Vulture Squad. Throughout all of this interference, the ref was still out, and though it felt like the match would be thrown out, imagine the shock to all the fans in attendance, as a three count was made and Aries was the victory of that debacle. At that point the match wasn't important, but yet, it still concluded as if it followed under normal guidelines and rules.

The focal point of that match was to further establish the rivalry between the three men, and to introduce the new third unit that would tangle up with the NRC and Resilience, and their feud with one another. The match was secondary so was expendable, but for some odd reason it still concluded as if it were still important.

But that's not the worst of it all, as at ROH's Sixth Anniversary Show, Gabe had gone and pulled the trigger on a heel turn of ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness that was never foreshadowed prior to this very show. While some already seem to enjoy the new direction and what can come of this, I still feel cheated by this decision, and I would not be alone in this thought.

Nigel had suffered some unfortunate luck since becoming champion – two injuries in the span of about 2 months into his reign. Some, myself included, considered him to be too fragile for this role. I even went so far as to claim that Nigel was cursed with that belt and that his streak of unfortunate luck with the belt would prevent him from really demonstrating, once and for all, he is deserving of that championship. But I still held out hope something could be done to get him through this time and really put him up there in the ranks of champions such as Samoa Joe and Bryan Danielson.

It was at Glory By Honor VI, Night Two that the first seeds of fans becoming disgruntled with Nigel's inability to compete at a New York show began. Everywhere else it was fine and ready to compete, but when it came time to show up for New York, some unfortunate circumstances fell upon him and knocked him right back out of action. The fans at Final Battle 2007 were disgruntled at the fact that Nigel couldn't compete due to a concussion he sustained from the night before, at the Rising Above. The New York crowd, that night, showed how spoiled they had become and how obnoxious they really were.

But these all sowed the seeds of a sympathetic face in Nigel, as it was still only a minority of the crowd that was anti-Nigel for all the wrong and dumb reasons. I figured the best way to protect Nigel was to play off of the fans sympathies and run Nigel as the thinking-man's champion who would strategize his means to come about victory, as opposed to bullying through and trying to fight fire with fire, as it were, that would potentially lead him through more injuries. Instead, Gabe went the route of turning Nigel into a generic heel character that played upon the sympathies to weasel out of matches in front of a crowd, and further build upon Bryan Danielson as being the true face of this company.

Amongst this same group of whiners seemed to be a cry for the return of the Pure Title, which led me to believe what better way to give the fans what they want then to have Nigel out think his opponents in Pure matches for the ROH World Championship? It would give people the Pure matches they want, without bringing back the championship, and it would allow Nigel an out to avoid injuring himself with this new rough style he combats with.

And further speaking about how spoiled the New York ROH fans had become, the move of the ROH World Tag Team Titles seemed to be purely based on the dissatisfaction these fans had about not seeing the ROH World Championship defended as advertised. So we got Age of the Fall as ROH Tag Champions for a while, only for it to be moved over to Richards and Romero of the NRC, only to go back, not even 4 months away from the titles, once more to the Briscoes. What did it accomplish? Well, it gave the idea that any team can beat and hang with the Briscoes, but it really hurt Kevin Steen and El Generico some, as during their exchange with the Briscoes, they couldn't manage a win over the two in some really big bouts. It didn't bury them, but it did make them look that much weaker just in hindsight.

My main problem with this was that the Briscoes were booked throughout an entire year to look unstoppable, and suddenly that all came about with a change in one weekend. And it wasn't even the team that threatened them the most that did it, as the NRC put a halt to the beasts from Delaware by getting a single victory decision in the Best 2 out of 3 Falls bout at Rising Above. It seems a shame that honor went to Roderick Strong and Rocky Romero when it seemed as though Kevin Steen and El Generico could've utilized that win to really build on the momentum that they could, realistically, steal the tag titles away from the Briscoes come Man Up.

Not only this, but Gabe's latest project, Faction Warfare, was way to overly ambitious a project to have every really worked out. It relied upon too many components and too many individuals to really get off the ground, and for the most part, was established too early to really get people to care about some of the things that came from it.

For starters, Jack Evans's Vulture Squad came about too late into the feud with NRC and the Resilience for people to have cared. Ruckus was the right addition to Evans' puzzle, along with Smokes, but Jigsaw just didn't fit in at all. Nothing about Jigsaw screamed "team me up with Evans and Ruckus" as his demeanor wasn't as flashy and as stylized as the two "thugs" of the group. Not only this, but his mask prevented him from playing up the sympathetic character of the group and really stood him out of the unit as being the odd man out. If anything that role was destined for Eddie Kingston, but things didn't happen soon enough to bring him over for it.

Secondly, the unit of Erick Stevens and Matt Cross, of the Resilience, just didn't feel entirely right as neither had the type of look you'd associate with Austin Aries. But this is more a personal gripe than a general consensus. I'm sure most fans didn't mind it, but they didn't seem too thrilled with it, especially when the unit had to go a long period of time without Austin Aries who was still stuck with TNA due to his contract at the time. It also hurt that, outside of Aries, the unit was pretty much just jobbed out to the NRC for the duration of that feud. And nothing helped out the fact that fans didn't care that much than when they tried to team up the Resilience with Delirious, as he didn't seem to fit the puzzle in the absence of Austin Aries.

Then you add to that the formation of the Hangm3n, Sweet n' Sour Incorporated, Age of the Fall and the formation of Delirious, El Generico and Kevin Steen.

At points this feud flopped because of people being out of action due to contracts or injuries. When things looked to heat up between the factions, more problems occurred and halted the production of this ongoing war between all of the factions. Some were made out to look better than others, and those that didn't look all that great began to be scrutinized. In fact, the entire company was mocked as becoming a Dragon Gate America product because of all the units being placed within the company, and it got to be viewed as too much.

It was a good idea on paper, but I don't think Gabe took into account all of the variables that stood in its way. Nor do I think he took into consideration the care it would take to build it up to the finish he wanted, and thus we're now left with the aftermath that is trying to clean up some of this mess.

But this is not all I have an issue with within ROH, but hey it's a start, right?

The Wrap Up

Every week I think about changing this header, but I never bother to. But anyway, that'll do for me this week. So until the next issue of Scripted Through Sin, I was your host, Jarrod Westerfeld, wishing you all a happy stay on this site and that you'll be sure to check out some of the other great writers and contributors of this web page.