DEJ Experience District DEJ Kevin: Covering Pro Wreslting Ohio - Heel 101 Handbook May 31, 2008 - 1:06:22 PM

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While watching the P.W.O. show that originally aired on May 4, I realized that development is a key part of a small promotion. I hadn't paid much attention to the development facet of wrestlers until I was much older, and I find it very intriguing to analyze at basic level. In this episode, they highlighted the heel characters and laid out some simple tactics that heels have used for years. They need to be practiced time and again before you feel comfortable with a live audience.

The show went straight into a match between Marion Fontaine vs. Vincent Nothing without any ring introduction, but they did provide some graphics. The announcers, Joe Dombroski and Michael Cash, say that Gregory Iron has suffered another concussion and may lose his career after the vicious beatdown he received at the hands of Johnny Gargano on the last show. They then mentioned that PWO management is contemplating creating a PWO Heavyweight Title and that Fontaine or Nothing could help get themselves noticed for consideration for a chance at the title with a win tonight. I understand why they're saying it, but neither of these wrestlers have been presented as serious enough to challenge for the title since I have started watching. I hadn't seen Fontaine on TV before this episode, and he needs to pack on some extra weight before he could even be considered a heavyweight. Nothing, on the other hand, is being presented as a former tag team specialist who is just making a name for himself in the singles circuit. He has potential but is not ready right now. Back to the action in the ring, Fontaine went for a test of strength against the much larger and more muscular Nothing. Dombrowski and Cash pointed out the obvious stupidity of this line of attack. Fontaine did move on to some more suitable hit-and-run offense. After sustaining the offense for a couple of minutes, Jimmy DeMarco came out and distracted Fontaine, which allowed Nothing to attack him from behind. Nothing then applied a crossface for the tap-out victory at the 11-minute mark. This match really should have been closer to a squash match. Another easy way to make this match shorter would have been to have DeMarco interfere earlier.

They threw it to a pretaped segment with Matthew Justice and "Bloody" Morty Rackem. Rackem told Justice that he was going to have them go through some "Cut Throat Training" before their ladder match against the Viruses. The training started with with Justice being bad at sword fighting, not being able to duck ladder attacks and not drinking his rum well enough. By the end of the segment, Justice won the sword fight against Rackem, parried his ladder attacks and chugged the rum. The segment ended with Justice being dejected by the new pirate garb that he was outfitted with by Rackem. It was a campy, funny segment.

They came back from commercial break and went directly into a video package of Lionel Knights debut against Hobo Joe. The highlights of the match looked fine with an amusing take on the "Stinkface" maneuver. Hobo Joe actually applied a running armpit smothering in the corner. I had two problems with this segment. The first was that this match should have been shown in the full because this was Lionel Knight's debut in the league. The second was that it appeared to last a while from the length of the highlights. A debut match should be a squash match, especially against someone named Hobo Joe. It was a terrible way to introduce a new wrestler.

Jason Bane cut a backstage promo against Aaron Maguire and Cronus warning them that the restraining order they gave him last week was only temporary. He vowed to wait for the right time to get them but wanted to get to the business he has at hand. It was a good promo that was short and direct.

Justin Idol vs. Mike Tolar popped on as the third segment since the commercial break. This pacing has gotten to be consistently too fast, much like TNA. If they had a weekly one-hour show instead of a bi-weekly show, that would likely solve this issue. The announcers mention early in the match that Mike Tolar trained in OVW and reminded us of his amateur all-American status at Kent State University. After taking a breather outside the ring, Tolar allowed Idol back in the ring by holding the bottom rope up for him, but Tolar then attacked him as he was coming through the ropes. Dombroski and Cash agreed that the mean streak Tolar started to develop will help him out in the future. Tolar missed a second rope headbutt, which led to an offensive flurry by Idol. He lost the upper hand when Tolar reversed an Irish whip into the corner and Idol almost hit the referee. Tolar low-blowed Idol while the referee still had his head turned in the corner. He finished off Idol with an Angle Slam. Tolar then cut an in-ring promo running down the fans for not appreciating his great amateur status and present wrestling form.

Josh Prohibition and Johnny Gargano came to the ring in black suits. The ring had a funeral wreath in it. They made Pedro, the ring announcer and timekeeper, ring the bell 10 times for Gregory Iron's funeral. They then sang a song for him. The crowd booed this louder than anything I've heard from them. Gargano and Prohibition were then "surprised" when a faux Gregory Iron came to the ring. Gargano then got serious and told the crowd that he rid the league of a terrible wrestler and did everyone a favor.

Jason Bane then came to the ring because of Johnny's open challenge. Gargano bought time by doing warm-up exercises. Aaron Maguire came to the entrance stage and replaced Michael Cash as the color commentator. Bane dominated the match until Prohibition interfered. Maguire talked up the fact that the right price hadn't been met for him to schedule a match between his client Cronus and Bane. Bane regained his offensive dominance only to win by disqualification when Prohibition entered the ring and attack Bane in full view of the referee. "The Deviant" Michael Hutter came to the ring to make the save for for Bane.

Analysis: In the first match of the night, Jimmy DeMarco showed that an easy way to get crowd heat is by interfering in a match to cost your long-running feud opponent the match. Jason Bane's promo mentioned another cheap heel tactic, the restraining order. Nothing makes a heel look more cowardly than the dreaded restraining order. Tolar's turn in character is a page directly out of Kurt Angle's heel turn. If you have a former jock, it's easy to make people hate him by having him play up the under-appreciation and cocky attitude. Gargano and Prohibition put on a clinic in the final two segments with the mock funeral and the fake return of a popular babyface only to have a bad stand-in arrive. They completed the trifecta when Prohibition directly accosted Bane and went on to the two-on-one beatdown. The icing on the cake was Gargano and Prohibition backing away from the ring after the save by Michael Hutter. None of these heel tactics are clever remakes of old ideas but are straight out the the Heel 101 handbook. It's a good place to start for young wrestlers.

Kevin DiFrango is the creator of a weekly cartoon that appears only on the VIP message board. Keep an eye out for Dusty, Eric or Jeremy's articles and our Ask the Experience blog. If you feel like you have some ideas to stir into our pot, email us at theaudioexperience@gmail.com

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