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THE CORNER CUBE: Congress and wrestling, Impact preview
Nov 15, 2007 - 7:15:34 PM |
By James Caldwell, Torch columnist
Updated throughout the day, Torch columnist James Caldwell's new weekday blog focuses on hot topic current events and issues from around wrestling. Caldwell writes from his corner cubicle after a sudden department re-location to the other side of the office. It's law firm office politics.
Updated Thursday, November 15
- Remember when the U.S. Congress was considering a pro wrestling hearing about two months ago? In a letter to Congressmen Waxman, Davis, Rush, and Stearns, "Wrestling Babylon" author Irvin Muchnick reminds Congress of what's at stake in pursuing answers. With wrestling's shady side back in the news following CNN's documentary on Benoit, and WWE's subsequent distraction...er... complaint about the editing, Muchnick stops just short of challenging the manhood of Congress to resume serious plans on hearings.
Like many other fans and non-fans alike, I hope you pursue this issue to its source: the need for the return of a sensible measure of oversight to a currently unregulated industry. -- Muchnick in his letter to Congress
- TNA could really help us out in remembering the names of their PPVs if they simply call the next one Exodus and pick up from there with Leviticus and Numbers. I won't touch Lamentations, which could be a PPV based solely around crying about the booking. In any event, TNA picks up where Genesis left off tonight on Impact with Kaz's title shot against Christian Cage. They taped this for the main event, which should mean Kaz gets at least one promo to explain what this title match means for him. On paper, this looks like a good TV show. We'll see tonight.
***
One of the oft-repeated statements about TNA's locker room is that it's a positive, encouraging place. Guys seem to get along, even if their TV characters are stuck in neutral, they're wrestling two-minute matches, they're paying for hotel rooms, or enough WWE cast-offs are being brought in to make up a Legends PPV roster. From talking to wrestlers in that locker room over the past few years, the first thing I usually hear is that when you cut out the political b.s., the wrestlers want to work together to make the product a legitimate mainstream promotion.
But, it's not perfect, especially dealing with wrestlers from the Monday Night Wars era who expect a certain treatment, as if they're still riding the gravy train ten years ago. When Rikishi was brought in, there wasn't much of a chance he'd stick around long. Not only was the money not right, but, as Wade Keller touched on yesterday on his Hotline, Rikishi rubbed people in the locker room the wrong way with the way he carried himself.
It was quite obvious in his Robert "whatever-your-name is" Roode promo on TV that he carried a certain attitude. Yet, amazingly, TNA continued to push him in main events, feeding the idea that he was a big enough star to be above the roster that built the company. Should Rikishi have tried to blend in more with the locker room and be part of the team-player vibe? Yes. Did TNA make a mistake pushing him to the moon when there was hardly a chance he'd last two months? Yes. I hope a lesson has been learned in dealing with the gravy train riders from the Wars era.
***
WWE has Survivor Series on Sunday. ROH has its third PPV on Nov. 30. We'll set aside TNA's Dec. 2 PPV for the interim until matches are officially announced, but I want to look at the individual match-ups to see how WWE's line-up matches up against ROH's.
- WWE: Taker vs. Batista in the Cell against ROH: Briscoes vs. Steenerico in a ladder war. In the time since ROH taped this PPV, the rave has been about the ladder match. A fellow scribe recently told me it'll win Match of the Year. Briscoes-Steen/Generico is clearly the tag team feud of the year, and in this comparison, ROH's top feud is up against WWE's possible feud of the year. Taker and Batista haven't disappointed on PPV, but I'm concerned about the Cell getting in the way, rather than enhancing the match. ADVANTAGE: ROH
- WWE: HBK vs. Orton against ROH: Morishima vs. Danielson. Raw's title match has a solid story behind it (despite the silly stipulations) and Shawn Michaels usually delivers in big matches. Orton has been good recently as Raw's leading punter. But, with the silly stipulations, ROH looks better on paper with a can't-miss title match between two of the top wrestlers in the world. I'm looking forward to Raw's top match most on the PPV card, but if you're looking for a sure-fire wrestling classic, ROH has it covered. ADVANTAGE: ROH
- WWE: 10-man Elimination match against ROH: Resilience vs. No Remorse Corps. WWE has plenty of star power stacked into one match. ROH's long-running stable battle has been hit or miss throughout the year, but at least they're booking a best-of-three series of singles matches. Rocky Romero in a singles match is always a bonus, but WWE's star power has to win out. ADVANTAGE: WWE
- WWE: ECW Title match against Four Corner Survival. ROH's four-corner match has an all-star line-up of Claudio vs. Nigel vs. Marufuji vs. Hero. ECW just has C.M. Punk and the two club-hopping wannabee heels. It's easily one of ROH's best four-corner survival matches of the year based on star power, well ahead of ECW's lone match. ADVANTAGE: ROH
- WWE's undercard against ROH's filler segments. On the undercard, WWE has Horny vs. Khali and a bunch of divas in a buffer match. ROH's backstage segments and promos are hit or miss depending on who's doing the talking. ADVANTAGE: PUSH
- WWE vs. ROH: ROH has more quality invested in four match-ups with a potential match of the year. WWE could easily generate two four-star matches on this card, whereas ROH is guaranteeing two four-star matches. I still recommend Survivor Series because it's one of the cornerstone PPVs on the yearly line-up, but ROH is more of a can't-miss this month. ADVANTAGE: BUY BOTH! (Or, go with ROH if you're on a budget.)
Updated Wednesday, November 14
Off the Ropes: Tonight on ESPN Radio 730 in Memphis, I'll be on the "Off the Ropes" radio show with Jason and Bob. The show runs from 8 to 10 p.m. CST, and they have a loaded line-up of special guests to talk wrestling and MMA. I'll be on the show to talk Survivor Series and run down the line-up for this Sunday. The live stream can be found on the ESPN affiliate website.
***
Last night on ECW TV, John Morrison and The Miz joined color commentary during C.M. Punk's match against Jamie Noble, but they didn't add much color to the match. It looked like a smart idea on paper to have the two challengers to Punk at Survivor Series set up their title match. Only problem is, they did nothing but cut down Punk and each other like middle school adolescents while distracting from the match in the ring.
PWInsider.com has a report that JBL pulled both men aside afterward and asked for apologies to Punk for mishandling their role. Miz reportedly handled it OK, while Morrison made matters worse. JBL has a reputation for being a bully, but he was in the right here. It was plain to see from watching the show last night that Morrison and Miz were unprofessional on commentary.
There's a fine line between acting like a heel and being completely dismissive of a colleague while he's wrestling in the ring. Punk isn't being done any favors in the booking right now, so it's not up to Miz and Morrison to pile on with derisive commentary.
***
As a follow up to the CNN controversy, you have to look at WWE's ability to spin a story that took a hard look at the wrestling business. Rule #1 on how WWE handles any type of press is seeing how they manipulate the information into their favor. The word "manipulate" can carry a negative connotation, but for WWE, it's shrewd business. If there's a decline in revenues, WWE can find a way to spin it into "a progressive period". If there's a good ratings showing, WWE can spin it into something greater than it is.
In the current example, WWE is taking a 60-minute story by CNN and focusing on five seconds. Those five seconds are what CNN left out of John Cena's statement that has given life to a new part of the story. Remember, the CNN piece was about Chris Benoit, the murders, prescription drug abuse in professional sports, blows to the head, and other larger issues that all sports must address, but especially pro wrestling. It wasn't a 60-minute sit-down interview with John Cena.
With a quick stroke of the spin brush, WWE has overshadowed the real story by focusing on how they believe CNN wronged Cena and the company in their eyes. Whether CNN was wrong or right in the presentation of Cena's statement is secondary to the actual topic: Chris Benoit and how his story affects pro wrestling and sports. WWE found a way to avoid that pertinent topic and distract from the real issues to get people, including myself, worked up on media fallacies. This is why the only real change since the Benoit story has been the public disclosure of drug test failures. We see how much that worked for young D.H. and Chris.
Updated Tuesday, November 13
John Cena has a new interview on WWE.com talking about the latest in the CNN controversy. Cena claims CNN ruined what he's worked for in his adult life of trying to become an honest premiere athlete while Cena says CNN's editing job ruins his opinion of everything CNN reports on all stories.
What this boils down to is we live in a soundbyte-driven world. SportsCenter has 10 seconds to get you to come back after the commercial break with misleading bumpers. Talking heads on sports, politics, and entertainment have 15 seconds to present a complex argument before the opposing side develops a sudden case of diarrhea of the mouth and runs right over the argument.
Viewers don't know what to believe. And that's why it is crucial to get the story as accurate as possible in a one-hour documentary when viewers have no reason to believe anything they see on a public debate. CNN might have been 99 percent accurate with the Benoit documentary, but one possible slip-up on editing Cena's statement creates questions on the entire documentary.
The irony is that mainstream public invests so little stock in pro wrestling because it's seen as a side show that appeals to the lowest common denominator. Depending on how much more attention is drawn to CNN outside of wrestling circles, a story on those wrestling clowns could - could - undermine CNN's reporting on future stories, such as the presidential election in 12 months.
***
In today's DKH, Torch editor Wade Keller talks about Abyss's spot from the outhouse to the floor at the TNA PPV on Sunday. The basics of the story is that he was inside the outhouse during the fall - no trap door - and he removed the padding from said outhouse to make sure there wasn't a "soft landing" on the floor.
Now, maybe there were some thoughts to a previous TNA PPV spot where it appeared several men fell off the stage onto a foam pad suitable for a child's playground. If Abyss was concerned about the spot looking as real as possible, he didn't have much to worry about. The whole concept was already shot when the wooden box looked like an outhouse, eliciting plenty of jokes about how...um...crappy the match was.
In this instance, management has to step in and protect the body of the individual. The man has been through enough thumb tacks and glass to fill a lifetime and he's one sharp tack to the eye away from temporary or permanent blindness. Abyss has shown he's willing to sacrifice his body for any reason - opening throwaway match, meaningless TV angle, or main event match - but management has to show foresight to protect a wrestler who will obviously go to any measure to make a dangerous spot look as real as possible.
***
Santino Marella. It's a conundrum wrapped around a question mark. How do you make money with someone who's unbelievably entertaining, witty, and carries the sixth quarter of Raw each week, but hasn't shown the ability to wrestle worth a lick? Unless he's sent to OVW to train, which would be a huge loss to the entertainment value of Raw, WWE doesn't appear to be interested in watching him learn the ropes on the job. His last two in-ring opponents have been Ron Simmons and Jerry Lawler. He's not exactly being challenged to work a 10-15 minute match.
Certainly, there have been plenty of wrestlers the past 25 years who have been terrible in the ring but made a ton of money. Most of them had one extra thing that counts above all else in WWE: size. Santino isn't tall. He isn't big. He's just entertaining. How do you make money with that?
Considering ECW has about as much talent as OVW right now, I would give Santino a half-hour variety show each week. The risk is wearing out the audience on Santino, but the reward is creating must-see TV each week on a show that's desperate for a spark. Sorry, but "special appearances" by Mark Henry and Kane doesn't cut it.
The additional benefit is having Santino interact with what's left of the ECW roster to develop some personalities. What's the deal with Kevin Thorn (if he's still around)? How about a little more insight into C.M. Punk? Bring on a Smackdown special guest, such as Jesse, and explain what the deal is with Festus.
Considering ECW TV can generate additional ad revenue with higher ratings, as opposed to Raw, which does not collect on ad revenue, ECW needs those ratings. They're not exactly selling PPVs with only one match per PPV, so this is the one time to focus on TV storytelling as the business model. Santino could be the spark that ECW needs when there's barely a pulse on Tuesday nights.
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