CALDWELL'S TAKE CORNER CUBE TUESDAY 3/18: Bizarre Raw, disjointed Mania hype, and Santino's greatness Mar 18, 2008 - 10:26:52 AM

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By James Caldwell, Torch columnist

Updated daily from the corner cubicle, Torch columnist James Caldwell's weekday blog focuses on hot topic current events and other items of interest from around wrestling.

Updated Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Monday night on the USA Network, a show aired for approximately two hours and seven minutes. The event took place at the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler were the announcers. Triple H was in charge of the show. Other than it being perfectly clear that Santino Marella is the greatest man alive today, I have no idea what I watched on USA Network for two hours and seven minutes on Monday night.

How do you evaluate a show where the heel champion, Randy Orton, played babyface in the main event? Or, a show where Santino and Jerry Lawler fought over a sandwich? Or, Jim Duggan in a main event? Just an unbelievably bizarre show. It came across like two different writing crews wrote this show, and Vince McMahon was too busy basking and baking in the Hollywood sun to oversee this show in time for Monday night.

Some segments seemed to be written as if the writing crew believes they have five weeks until Mania to flesh out the issues between the wrestlers. Other segments were written as if the writers are just begging for WrestleMania to be here because they're completely out of ideas to fill two weeks of TV. I simply have no idea what WWE was trying to do with this show.

What stands out in my mind as the top bizarre program this week was Big Show vs. Chris Jericho. It's one thing for WWE to give fans a choice in who to cheer and who to boo, but it's another thing when it's not clear why fans should care about either man or the issues between them.

In the Raw post-game audio show, Jamie Penick and I took one side or the other on how they should have presented Big Show in the IC Title match. Jamie said Jericho should have beaten Show clean to present the idea that Mayweather has a fighting chance at WrestleMania. I said Show should have been kept strong with no signs of vulnerability to build him up as a monster for WrestleMania.

We both agreed it should have been one extreme or the other. Instead, WWE watered everything down with Show showing vulnerability and the match ending with a non-finish after Jericho decided he had enough. If Jericho = Mayweather, then why are people going to pay $50 for a non-finish to a match where WWE hasn't even said what the match is? It was also frustrating watching Jericho change from heel to face so many times on this show that I thought I was watching Impact.

And then, there's the mid-card. 15 of those guys in the main event are screwed for the foreseeable future. Apparently WWE was more than willing to sacrifice those men in order to build up JBL and Umaga via juxtaposition. It's such great logic - if 15 of those guys are completely useless, then JBL and Umaga must be real hot shots because they're not jobbers! Hurry, call your cable operator and order WrestleMania!

I would comment on Flair vs. McMahon, but I have no idea what they were trying to do by having the non-wrestling, uncoordinated, one-half of the 120-year-old-men Vince McMahon score nearfall after nearfall on Ric Flair, who is currently booked for one of the headline matches on WrestleMania.

WWE is trying to reach Disney World on March 30, but right now, I feel like I'm watching Clark W. Griswold and Family traveling to Wally World with every single thing that can go wrong possibly going wrong. WWE just better hope Disney World isn't closed once they reach end of the Road to WrestleMania.

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Updated Monday, March 17, 2008

Yesterday afternoon's WWE house show in Beaumont was nothing more than just another day at the office for WWE's crew of weekend warriors. No major news came from the show. There were no qualifying matches or title changes or injuries, as far as I could tell. And there was nothing wrong with that.

WWE doesn't need to have a knock-out show heavy on wrestling to give fans their money's worth. With the focus on TV being more on characters than in-ring action, WWE can present basic wrestling matches that are heavy on "character recognition" that takes less of a toll on wrestler's bodies.

"Character recognition" goes along the lines of fans knowing that Snitsky lacks dental hygiene. They know that JBL is that stuck-up jerk who left for the bright lights of New York City. Fans couldn't tell you the last time Snitsky won a match, but they can tell you that his teeth stink.

If WWE is looking for solutions to keep wrestlers healthy over the long-haul while still making money, then WWE simply needs to give fans a reason to care about the characters, as that's the selling point. For better or worse, the wrestling isn't their selling point.

WWE house shows are an opportunity for fans to get a close-up look of the action and snap pictures of their favorite wrestlers. The kids (and there were a ton of them) had a story to tell at school on Monday to be the most popular kid in school for a day. They were able to see DX pull down Orton's trunks; while the other kids were at home doing chores because their not-as-cool parents didn't buy tickets.

For the wrestlers, it's a chance to work on some different things in a front of easy crowds to prepare for when it counts on TV. There isn't the pressure of packing a five-minute story into a two-minute TV match. They can have fun with the setting, the fans, and the opponents to create a compelling overall show.

That's a major plus when wrestling three or four times per week, and doing appearances three or four times per month. If wrestlers don't have to take as many bumps on a night-to-night basis, they can rest their bodies for the long haul. If they can get the same reaction to a match that's light on wrestling and heavy on "character recognition" as they can a five-star match, then it's common sense to save their bodies for the big matches on TV and PPV.

Case in point was DX - Shawn Michaels and Triple H. They were the smartest men in the ring on Sunday afternoon, as they worked a 23-minute match with hardly any wrestling involved. It didn't matter, though, as fans - especially the kids - enjoyed it and they went home happy. Michaels and Hunter know when it's time to "flip that switch" and tear down the house. Sunday afternoon wasn't the time.

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