The Wrestling Doctor 09.30.08: The Doctor Opens the Mail

Posted by W.S. Thomason on 09.30.2008

More reader suggestions, including the Royal Rumble, DVDs, and He-Who-Vince-Cannot-Name.

THE WRESTLING DOCTOR: THE PRESCRIPTION FOR WHAT AILS

THE SECOND OPINION
Nick C wrote in to let me know that the D.C. Armory is indeed still standing, right next to RFK Stadium. So there you go, TNA – another storied arena that would be the right size to tarp off and paper for a PPV. What more could you want out of an arena than the place that hosted the return of Robocop?

THIS WEEK'S PATIENT: YOUR QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS
The call for cases to be reviewed continues this week, with a couple of more suggestions appearing below.

1. How bout for the Rumble make a new rule that tag teams can enter together, but still have the only one can win the title shot. This could set up an angle of former team mates fighting over the title shot until mania or something like that and really if I could make a big angle it would be the two big shows feuding with each other. They've teased it a bunch of times and i keep hoping they will do a full on feud of some kind.
– gutterworx 1313

The Royal Rumble idea would be an interesting twist on a twenty-year old favorite, and may spark a little more interest in the tag team ranks (though splitting up teams may not be the best way to revitalize).

I have a fear that the WWE would handle this idea as it relates to the title shot by pairing up two big singles stars, like Batista and Cena, have them win a set of tag belts in December, and then spilt that pairing at the Rumble in preparation for a Wrestlemania main event that we would have gotten anyway. They have run the rival-singles-stars-as-partners angle so many times in the last decade that I do not see the Rumble element adding anything to such a feud.

However, splitting up a team during the Rumble – possibly near the end, with one partner eliminating the other – and following that story line into Wrestlemania would be compelling. You would need a solid and established tag team to make it work, though, of which the WWE is currently in short supply. Demolition battled each other at the 1989 Rumble in a high profile moment, and other partners have gone at it to a variety of degrees over the years. The Steiners fell out with WWF management in 1994 for refusing to battle it out in the Rumble (though they should have gotten the tag belts back beforehand and fought Bret & Owen Hart at the PPV instead of The Quebecers, but that's just me…) Carlito and Chris Masters in 2006 is the last pairing with a split tease during the Rumble that I can think of, but I very well could be wrong. Drop a comment if you know better.

I am not quite clear on the last part of your suggestion regarding Raw and Smackdown as it relates to the Royal Rumble tag team suggestion, but as a stand-alone multi-person war it certainly would make for an interesting Wrestlemania. The angle would carry long-term risk, as one brand would have to eventually suffer defeat and thus lose credibility, but it could be a storyline that the WWE could keep in mind if one of their shows ends up on the chopping block. For example, if the WWE had been unable to find a new home for Smackdown, they could have run such an angle over the last year seeing that they would have had time to plan long-term.

Good suggestions both last week and this. Thanks for writing in.

2. Dear Sir, I have been searching for a trustworthy friend of your kind to help in my plight. I am the heir to the throne of Rhodesia, and my father is in need of an American account in which to deposit 84 billion of your American dollars. All we need is your bank account numbers and a small deposit of $2000 to make the transaction possible. Also, we can refinance your home and make you have super big penis.

Oops, looks like my spam synopsis slipped through.

The next patients are DVD related…

3. What DVD's would you like to see come out in 2009?
– rusty kuntz

My favorite topic! My 2009 WWE DVD release schedule would like this (in no particular order):

- The long delayed Starrcade compilation
- A Survivor Series anthology
- Owen Hart biography / match set
- Greatest Stars of the 1990s
- Greatest Tag Teams of the 1980s
- Great Villains (brief bio / match set of classic heels)
- Best of WCW Monday Nitro
- Best of Saturday Night's Main Event
- Best of the Clash of the Champions
- Best of In Your House
- History of the WWE Tag Team Titles
- Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat biography / match set
- Best of Raw, by year (93/94 combined set; 95/96 combined set; 97 and onward each get a set)
- Best of the Triple Threat Match (WWE/WCW/ECW)
- Dean Malenko match collection

And I hope you take your screen name from the former MLB player, and not some bizarre hobby.

4. What do you think of the matches on the new Eddie Guerrero DVD? How do you think that they should have handled the situation with Benoit on the set?
– gilo copter crash

First, the easy part: the new Eddie collection is stacked like a brick house. It has eight WCW matches, including one from Nitro against Mysterio not previously available on either man's earlier sets, as well as some great Starrcade stuff. If you want a WCW fix, here it is. The set also has two ECW matches, and plenty of great WWE bouts. It will definitely find a place on my shelf.

Now the hard part: I understand why the WWE has chosen to expel Benoit from their past. What he did was heinous beyond words, but the cynic in me has to believe that Vince and company are erasing him from the WWE canon not because of the crime itself but because of the unprecedented levels of negative publicity and unwanted government attention the situation brought to the company. But I do understand the argument that by including Benoit in programming and releases, that they feel that they are somehow endorsing – or at least not recognizing the seriousness of – his crime.

The downside to banishing Benoit from memory is that other workers have their legacies undeservingly tarnished. It is impossible to tell the Eddie Guerrero story without mentioning Benoit. Many other workers, such as Dean Malenko and Chris Jericho, are in the same situation. What Benoit did to his family should rightly earn him eternal condemnation, but the WWE should not effectively censor the work of other talents like Guerrero just because they were close to the man. In most cases the WWE is right in leaving Benoit matches off of collections when it is reasonable – such as the recent Steve Austin set – but in situations like the Guerrero DVD an exception should occur. They should not advertise Benoit matches in any way – they could even put a disclaimer before each match and donate a portion of such DVD profits to appropriate charities – but they should not completely erase his matches when he was vital to someone else's story.

You can pick up Eddie vs. Benoit in the US Title tournament final from Vengeance in July 2003 and the great Los Guerreros vs. Angle/Benoit vs. Edge/Mysterio WWE Tag Team Title match from the 2002 Survivor Series on the Stealing Life, Cheating Death DVD. You can find the title through a variety of online outlets. It contains other great matches as well, and both the old and new sets will give you more than an excellent rendering of Eddie's career.

That is it for the week. I might run suggestions and responses in future columns, so keep them coming, but next week I'll probably pick up with a new topic.