Scripted Through Sin 8.19.08: Kill ‘em With Kindness

Posted by Jarrod Westerfeld on 08.19.2008

Bayani isn’t the only one around here that can prove to be not so safe for work. This edition talks a lot about TNA ranging from the lack of credit given to the writing team when accomplishing good despite the heavy clouds of bad that cover the product, positioning the spotlight on the wrong central character of the company, rehashing old ideas that failed, and finally a nice little idea submitted for your reading “pleasures”. We also return to talk about Triple H, and add more talk about The Dark Knight.

There's always something to be said about a solid performance from an actor. From the way they make a character come alive, to their ability to get you to care about them in the overall scheme of a written piece put up on a big screen. In fact, more often than not, what you'll hear most is the praise of an actor over the praise of a writer.

While writers aren't completely over looked in today's society, most of the praise that could be thrown their way for creating a character that allowed for an actor to really come off as more powerful ends up all at the actor's feet. Some examples could easily fall upon everyone in The Dark Knight, including the performance that everyone seems to be in total agreeance in deserving an Oscar nomination in Heth Ledger's Joker. I doubt anyone giving up praise to this film is completely neglecting the writers for piecing together such a brilliant film, but most of the praise they'd receive ends up on the actors for bringing their story to life.

The same could always be said of wrestling. When you look back at certain storylines within the world of greased up warriors of the squared circle, most of the praise, if not all of it, falls upon the wrestler for bringing to life that portrayal. When we look back at moments like Shawn Michaels betraying Marty Janety, tossing him through the window of the Barber Shop most people end up talking about only these two men for delivering unto us a tremendous moment that lives on in wrestling infamy. It's hard to pinpoint what writers are deserving of credit for even formulating that idea in the first place, but rarely do you hear about how brilliant they must have been for giving us such a moment that would performed so perfectly by these two young up-starts.

Fast forward to today, where we do have a lot more names to the pen to be thankful for, and still the praise mostly falls upon the wrestlers. Sure, they are always deserving of that praise, especially considering their craft is twofold - one as athlete and the second being as an actor – but still no love is handed to the writers, while only menacing hatred for delivering unto us something we deem as horrible garbage.

Recently, before writing this out, I sat down and caught up with some of the pay-per-views I had missed from this year. Namely, I caught up with the much talked about TNA events of Victory Road and Hard Justice. Missing out on these the first time, I can safely say I was glad to have missed them the first time as I probably wouldn't have enjoyed them as much, especially Victory Road. While neither event struck me as being shows that we'll all have to go out of our way to pick up, immediately, they did leave some good impressions upon me for some parts. To argue whether these [events] were worth your money or not isn't something I'm willing to debate or even try and rule upon. Everyone is going to hold their own views about these shows based upon their own beliefs of what make a good wrestling show.

But what I am going to point out is once again on a TNA pay-per-view event a "fire Russo" chant broke out amongst the crowd. This wasn't the first, nor do I expect it to be the last so long as Russo holds a position within the company. Earlier, when the chant had started [back during Final Resolution of 2007] many reports were that Russo's control, or creative input, was limited. Konnan would then come forth and express that some of the things done during that time frame Russo had almost no involvement in. Later his role would grow to allow him to write out the scripts of iMPACT! but still it wasn't his ideas being implemented as Jarrett and [Dutch] Mantel were still the main writers of the show, a job that once belonged to Dusty Rhodes and Scott D'Amore.

It's hard to argue for Russo in this company given that many of the ideas utilized are trademark Russo. But what does get lost in all of this is the fact that it's still Jeff Jarrett's company. Russo and he are very close friends after their time together in WCW, much in the same way that [Glenn] Gilberti and Jarrett are close friends. Jeff is going to utilize what he feels best works for his company, and what he has felt worked best during his time in WCW was the items that Russo had written, especially the items revolving around [Jeff] himself. So while there is certainly an influence, to say it's all him, and only him would be very naïve.

So why all of this talk about great writers versus great performers? Well, during all of this complaining about Russo what tends to go innocently enough despite ruining layers of great writing and tremendous performances is excessive writing of items.

For instance, Hard Justice's entire theme was about Sting and what role he would play, as well as who he would ally himself with. What upset me beyond all of the typical iMPACT! like segments featured on the pay-per-view, and beyond the quality of graphics this company would put out when showing signs of producing better looking material, was after a tremendous, excellent match that has followed a very well structured storyline involving Kurt Angle and AJ Styles was a horrible segment. For me, Sting's involvement in the end ruined what could progress from that moment, and reading the spoilers that these two went on to perform another match the very next night, for television viewing, they had a whacky ending thrown in.

At what point do we, as fans, just get fed up of things like this overshadowing the good it can and does produce? It's not as if that was needed considering all of the hype around Sting centered itself between Samoa Joe and Booker T – so much so that it felt as though the main event of the evening was a triple threat between the three men.

During all of this, though, I can't help but laugh at fans that scream for the blood of Russo, proclaiming him to be the virus of the company when something as good as the AJ Styles and Kurt Angle storyline has been fostered during his time within the company. It seems with wrestling fans, all we can do is bring ourselves to be more negative about things then we probably should. If fans believe Russo is to be blamed for all that's wrong with TNA, then I wonder why they look to credit for all that's right within the writing staff?

Some intro this week, huh?

Focusing on… TNA: Writing Hijackings

Focusing on… TNA: Viral Campaign Trail

Focusing on… TNA: Cross the Line of Decency?

Focusing on… WWE: Buyrate Assassin – The Vacant Star of His Own Event

Weekly Scripture: And Rounding out the Evening

Writing Hijackings

TNA once again placed major focus of one of their pay-per-view shows around someone who wasn't even featured on the card in a featured match. The difference this time around? Not a thing.

As I went off on just earlier, it seems that TNA is really banking on two entities playing vital roles for the direction of the company's whole. How they'll actually play out is still yet to be seen but rumors hold it that the failed revitalizing storyline of WCW, pitting the veteran workers known as the Millionaire's Club against the younger workers of the industry known as the New Blood, is the new hope for TNA as they look to end out the year on the note of Sting versus the returning Jeff Jarrett at the helms of their respective groups.

While all of this is being discussed I'm now left to pose the question: is anyone else noticing the similarities between this company and WCW's entire existence, and if so can we please make this comparison now while it's so appropriate?

The comparisons between Kurt Angle's signing and Hulk Hogan's, while not nearly as dramatic as the latter, still holds on – both were released from their company at a time when neither was seen as useful to the product at a particular point in time. The circumstances around those releases vary but their sudden arrival on the "other" company's television shows pretty much sum up the similarities. Then you add in the fact that both were viewed in the regards of the savoir to the promotion. Both were granted title runs that were viewed in the hopes of raising ratings to new heights but failed ultimately.

Perhaps I'm just not a fan of rehashing something that failed because its set-up was nonexistent. Perhaps it's more to do with the fact that this idea interferes with other structured storylines, derailing them to a point where it's become the main focus without even introducing the main players they're planning this around, or more accurately Jeff Jarrett hasn't made his return to television yet.

The last edition of iMPACT! showcased Angle and Styles dueling black outs to reveal their weapons of choice. Angle revealing the black bat and Styles revealing the guitar sparked off further ideals of this storyline rumor becoming a reality, which only pulls these two from the storyline they had for themselves. It was okay to see these two mashed up with Team 3D and their affairs with Christian Cage and Rhino seeing how their feud was on and off against since Lockdown. It's not, however, fine to hijack the focal point of these two's hatred for one another and lead it down the path of being the pawns behind the chess-like faction war between Sting and Jarrett.

Personally I can't understand why a storyline need be hijacked to promote something like this when one of its main players hasn't even officially returned on screen. There's still plenty of time to delay his return and finish out this particular storyline, but perhaps I'm being somewhat naïve about it as it seems that because Angle and Team 3D were tied in with Booker T and Samoa Joe's obsession over Sting, and Sting is the opposing figure to Sting's current "run" of attacking the younger talents. But what's odd for me, seeing only just those two pay-per-views as of recently, the only attacks laid out by Sting on the younger talents were against Samoa Joe to end out Victory Road, and then to AJ Styles just moments before the main event of Hard Justice. So to me, it appears as if Jarrett's intervention was an act of divine wisdom, unless he was only basing his knowledge on evening the score in favor of Samoa Joe after last month's fiasco.

Whatever the case, I'm not in favor of Sting having been the focal point of the entire pay-per-view seeing as the title-less champion, Samoa Joe, was facing a contender that we were sold as being someone whom he could not beat. A man whom he allowed to hold onto a title that he had no right to, after laying out the words that he would leave the entire industry if he hadn't won it, and on the night of "losing it" said that he would never allow Booker to walk out of the building with his title. Instead of this being about Joe's chase to regain glory and honor lost, it was all about what Sting would do and what role he would play upon the event as his fingerprints were all over just about every match, it seems.

The sad part about this is that no one seems to understand that the entire focus of the company being on this one entity just hurts the image of the company if the fans are either apathetic towards them or is viewed as being a star of another product. Trying to sell us WCW's old goods that had seen better days and been utilized during better storylines that fans cared about just hurts the overall image of this current company trying to resell him as one of their own.

For me it's the wrong choice as Sting has been on a revolving door relationship with this company. A better choice to pin your image upon would be someone that you can lay claim to as creating into a star someone such as an AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Frankie Kazarian, James Storm, Robert Roode, or Hernandez. Anyone of those guys who commands an audience's attention and can be seen as an original of the company – or better yet, anyone that isn't looked upon as a reject of the WWE when you consider the backgrounds of Taylor Wilde and Rhaka Khan, but to name a select few.

I've said time and time again that the company's main focus should be on their younger stars, and that they should really try and present themselves as being different to that of the WWE universe. Things that garnered them attention in the first place and got them their television deal on Spike TV, actually.

Perhaps this company should take a bit more interest in what their fans have wanted to see more of. After all, wasn't the World X Cup opener of Victory Road something many fans flocked to praise as being the best opener match of all time? Isn't that what these TNA fans have been interested in since day one?

Viral Campaign Trail

Maybe if John McCain was up to the tactics of wrestling promotions these days then he'd be a step above the grade. As Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black parodied during the promotion of Tropic Thunder with their own viral campaigns, it seems this is the new way to go within today's society. We've seen Chris Jericho's return promoted through cryptic video messages on every WWE program, ROH use the internet to promote a new unit that would later become known as Age of the Fall, and now TNA has gone viral with one of their own – sort of.

I guess the best way to even set this up is to air out the video, and to air out this video would require that the video still be working by the time this article goes live, so here's to hoping some tight-assed lawyer can't get a hold of this video just yet. So if the heaven's allow for it, this should work, if not I'll have to try and explain what should be to the right. Firstly, the concept of TNA's new campaign revolves around, currently, a fictional and completely rumored character that is to be the star of the first TNA video game from Midway. Basically Suicide, the masked character noted as being a huge superstar of the company, gets taken out of action and left for dead. Reconstructing his career from scratch he climbs back to the ranks of superstardom gaining revenge upon those that sidelined him in the first place. The issue with this? The viral campaign around Suicide's debut in TNA will actually revolve around this video game storyline, and the MySpace page advertises that this individual will be "coming back" in search of revenge upon those that took him out.

In all honesty, there isn't an issue about the attempt to get their fans involved with an online campaign to debut a new worker. It's nice that they even try to get some sort of interactive page going for this despite how limited that interactivity could be thanks to MySpace's services. But to sell him as though he's been a worker in the promotion before despite it being a totally new persona, all as hype for their video game? To sell him via a split second screen flashed during a Knockouts segment on iMPACT!? It doesn't open up the doors wide enough to a larger audience, and these are two flaws you can't afford to dish out when trying a tactic like this.

The truth of the matter is that only die hard wrestling fans are going to care about split second frame inserts on a show. Only these hardcore fans will care to investigate that split second frame and go to the site, following its path over to the MySpace page. For every cry that TNA should focus on opening up their range of audience, branching out to appeal to a wider audience, and they opt to deliver on that note by doing something that only hardcore fans will really care for.

Again, the idea isn't horrible for TNA to lift for their own as they sell us a new character, but the way they're going about it doesn't branch them out to a wider audience, only continue to cater to their small, hardcore niche audience who was already going to buy the video game and this new character based on the fact that they support this company fully.

Cross the Line of Decency?

This probably will be the only nasty part of this entire article, and it isn't even anti-TNA speech, really.

The other night, prior to sitting down and enjoying SummerSlam with some friends and being entertained by a show that is probably going to end up being worth at least a DVD rental upon its release, I happened to be on a Skype conversation with JLPrime who had a very sick and twisted idea that just happened to be very good, and one that could actually bring TNA to a level that garners them huge attention much in the same way ECW garnered attention.

With a slogan like "Cross the Line" and a acronym that conjures up all sorts ideals that drive people to believe this company is selling us a different kind of oiled up and latex laden product, one can't help but think that if this company is going to copy the formula of any other company from the Monday Night Wars why not it be ECW? The sassy, and over the edge product that reinvigorated wrestling to the point of a new attitude and direction of the media products, TNA could try and revive its own image and stretch out to a broader audience via what ECW did by being edgy and different. They're already on the right path with their X Division styled matches that feature an innovative style that has never been seen, before, in the WWE, but to build further from that would require characters that fans can relate to and care about.

So JL, being the radical free thinker that he is, conjured up a revitalized character of TNA's actual past – "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels. While he isn't the biggest fan of Curryman, the idea of bringing back Daniels as his former guise can hold some merit, and probably would have held more steam with a stronger writing force behind it. After all, the character did work for the niche audience of ROH especially thanks to the aid of a sidekick in Allison Danger, and the unit of his disciples in The Prophecy, so the potential for a larger audience was there.

So what was JLPrime's sick and twisted idea that could work out? Well, revitalizing what worked in ROH for Daniels and bringing it over to TNA with a fresher face that gives it something so much more raw and intriguing that borders on what WWE tried to do with Kevin Thorne and his love interest, Ariel.

Starting to connect parts of the puzzle thus far?

As we all know, Salinas has a history of working acting gigs that see her play up more to a gothic theme, playing vampires for short films and becoming the victim of a murderous psycho. She's also done softcore porn that ranges from sensual strip teases to bondage spanking films. So what better naughty nun to play the sinful mistress of distress to Christopher Daniels guiding light than Shelly "Salinas" Martinez?

But this wasn't the end of JL's little scheme as he continued to deliver upon us all a colorful description of a segment that could stand TNA head and shoulders above what the WWE delivers, as they push upon the boundaries of decency and good taste with a segment that could really get a core adult audience backing up this company in a way that could rival what ECW's main influence. A segment that could only work on pay-per-view to avoid being censored to the point of butchering, and one that falls so far from decency that it may actually offend in ways that even the McMahon versus God storyline failed to do; and that segment would end up revolving around Salinas being presented in an overtly sexual manner.

Now, I'm trying to be "PC" about it to avoid having to edit out this entire portion of the article, so here it lies, as safe for work as one can possibly make this: Daniels works his usual Fallen Angel spiel, preaching upon the world of their misdeeds and falling outs from the way of the holy gospel as he sees it. Variations of this can be done to allow for Daniels to be doing this inside of a confessional booth – a booth that is ironic in its own nature as sins aren't brought to the booth for confession but rather are brought there to be committed – especially for the sake of placing a self censor upon this act – and the act, the true part of this segment being that Salinas is working her own holy gospel. The kind of praying that involves a lot of screaming as she works a special kind of rubber friend. The kicker to all of this play with a crucifix phallus would be Salinas then grabbing her little toy, turning to Dixie Carter and stuffing the used goods down her mouth, and twirling the item about for some extra lubrication for later use off camera.

The reason for bringing up this evil picture and idea would fall more in line with the idea that many people unaware of what TNA's product already believe this product to be something bordering of a strong sexual nature, so why not branch upon that ideal and gather in some fans through some form of sexuality? Added with the violence and innovation, it may just end up being something that could garner a larger audience in the long run. You never know – worked for ECW.

Buyrate Assassin – The Vacant Star of His Own Event

Space runs tight for me here, but I refuse to keep this on the back burner any further especially as the research isn't something so grueling that I can't do it within a single sitting to further push out this article. So instead of dropping the ball and missing out on another week of following up on my Triple H argument, I present the second part of the Buyrate Assassin.

Continuing off of themed pay-per-views that featured Triple H front and center of the pay-per-view posters, and potentially the central character of the event to look out for, we skip ahead from the previous entry (Fully Loaded) to September's Breakdown: In Your House event. Once again, the theme focused upon the unit of D-Generation X, but because of the leadership role that Triple H had assumed in Shawn Michaels' absence, you're left with him standing above and beyond the rest of the members of his unit to demonstrate that he was the main focus of the poster.

Held at theCopps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, the venue would actually play house to a leaderless D-X, whom would confront Jeff Jarrett and his Southern Justice teammates in 6 man tag action. At this point in time, Triple H was out with a serious knee injury, nursing the first of many kinks to his armor to come. A liability to any professional athlete of any caliber and one that had, in the past, left doubt over such workers as Edge and currently plagues Mr. Kennedy and the role his future holds within the WWE.

Previous to this event, Triple H was involved in what is still heralded as one of the benchmark ladder matches to come from the Attitude era for the Intercontinental Championship against long time rival in The Nation's Rock. SummerSlam (1998) would play host to the last match for Triple H before his serious injury while under WWE contract and would last see Triple H as close to the main event as one can get without actually being involved in the main event. Considering the contrast of numbers between the two years of SummerSlam events the 1998 event out drew, via the pay-per-view buyrates, by .68 points. The contrast to the shows that could reflect why there was such a huge change between the two years? Well, for one, you could contribute some of that number to the addition of the hot feud of Triple H and The Rock, along with the role Steve Austin played during this time frame.

Event Date: September 27, 1998
Buyrate: 0.86
Arena Attendance: 17,405
Arena Capacity Max: 19,000 (1,595)
Previous Event Buyrate:
SummerSlam - 1.48 (0.58)
Previous Year Event Buyrate:
In Your House 17: Ground Zero (September 7, 1997) – 0.45 (0.41)
Previous Event Attendance:
SummerSlam – 21,588 / 20,000 LIST (+1,588)
Previous Year Event Attendance:
In your House 17: Ground Zero – 4,963 / 6,000 MAX (1.037)

So thus far we do have some evidence to point to Triple H being an influence on the figures, thus proving his drawing power is worth the initial investment placed into him. Although we've also tripped over the fact that with his influence comes the fear of an injury that could cut down on his mobility and possibly limit his in-ring performance as, at that time, most of his moves revolved around his knees which were already being worn out.

So right off the bat, early into his new found player for the future of the WWE's main event scene we saw him contribute to the drawing power of a named event that suffered the year prior, only to follow up with an injury scare that could hamper the rest of his career to come. At this point, the scare would leave the WWE in doubt of what kind of future they can get out of their investment in the newly repackaged Blue Blood.

And Rounding out the Evening

So the night comes to an end. An event that ended up being more fun than was initially thought to be going into this fiasco, after yet another fun night of poker with the guys. So sitting here, thinking about all that has happened to me upon this day, I leave myself wondering how I end this whole article. For the first time I'm really lost for words.

So I guess the only correct way to exit from this would be to end upon the light note after coming in so hard and heavy with the intro. So like a whimper after starting like a lion, this article simply looks to fade to dust – until next week where I hope to keep rolling with the fire that sparked most of this article.