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 Thursday, March 20, 2008
How's your bracket looking so far? It's an exciting day in the world of sports with college basketball's real post-season kicking off tonight. I'm not sweating until Texas tips off on Friday afternoon, but TNA Impact faces stiff competition for their key demo tonight and next Thursday.
We're going to find out a lot about how dedicated TNA's viewing audience is the next two weeks. Tonight, they're up against the first round of the NCAA tournament. Next Thursday, their first live show will be up against the Sweet 16 round of the college basketball tournament and an hour of WWE on Larry King Live (barring yet another change in the programming line-up).
One thing about Impact that I'm looking forward to is the build-up for Joe vs. Angle at the Lockdown PPV in April. Joe set a good tone last week with his "mission statement" promo, but he really didn't have to say anything to convey his message, as he finally looked the part of a main event champion dressed in that sharp suit.
Joe did say in his promo that he won't be in the Impact Zone until after the PPV (if he wins). Apparently we're in line for a series of training videos, and TNA is previewing tonight's broadcast that Kurt Angle will be having an open training session. I haven't read any spoilers, but I'm assuming he runs through some less-than-stellar opponents to show off how great he thinks he is.
On an aside, I believe one of the most underutilized tools in the pro wrestling writer's tool belt is the training video. It's such an easy tool to build drama, but we rarely see a good training video on a pro wrestling show. A good training video adds to the suspension of disbelief for a worked pro wrestling match, plus it's a subtle cue to the "informed" viewer that these men are prepared to go 30 minutes and put on a five-star match.
Depending on what TNA already has in the can for video packages building up Angle vs. Joe, I'm hoping they take a page out of UFC's PPV build-up by using their own "Rough Cut" video presentation to make the match seem special. And hopefully not just with a few short clips, but a good 15 minutes each week to tell a complete story that connects with an audience that has seen its share of weak build-up to big PPV matches.
TNA is obviously doing enough PPV business to keep the important people happy. Otherwise, there would be more focus on building up PPVs and not doing comedy ha-ha on TV. If TNA is looking to grow this area of their business, then it will be imperative that TNA sets the right tone for Angle vs. Joe to lay the groundwork for future PPVs.
They're fighting themselves, though, as the Joe vs. Angle feud lingered on TV forever last year after the conclusion of their best-of-three series in February '07 to water down future re-matches. Fortunately, TNA has kept Joe and Angle separated enough the last few months to make this match between them seem special. Whether that translates into more than 2 percent of the TV audience spending money on the PPV product remains to be seen.
This is TNA's chance to shine with some cutting-edge video packages on Joe and Angle's separate training sessions. The bar has been set so low for building up PPV matches that TNA simply needs to let two of the best wrestlers in the business tell a story and connect with the potential PPV customer.
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Updated Wednesday, March 19, 2008
I have five thoughts this morning. Well, I have a few other thoughts that I won't print, such as my official WrestleMania t-shirt idea for JBL and Umaga that reads: "WE'RE NOT JOBBERS", but here's some food for thought.
(1) ECW was, well, ECW. Last night's ECW show was just another episode of decent-to-solid TV wrestling. Nothing wrong with anything on the show, but there wasn't a sense of urgency with WrestleMania coming up next weekend. I did like the new chapter for Colin Delaney in his quest for a contract and theme music, and his match with Chavo was so great because I never thought I'd see fans react to a hip toss ever again.
(2) Triple H. The mere mention of his name brings about two very different opinions. One group of people can't stand him, mainly because of the get-over-it-already reason that he's tight with the McMahon family and has influence over the direction of the company. Another group of people respects his contributions to the business and his dedication to the company.
Here's the deal. Hunter is the star of Raw. Yes, he's been positioned on TV as the coolest, smartest, most alpha man walking the planet right now. And you know what? I think it's good for business. He has a DVD coming out in six days, he's drawing well with Shawn Michaels on house shows, he's the headliner in the WrestleMania main event, and he sells merchandise. So, I have no problem with him being positioned as the top dog heading into Mania. I subscribe to the belief that if Hunter is strong, then the Raw brand is strong overall.
(3) APB for the following... Conspicuous by his absence this week on Raw was Mr. Kennedy. Conspicuous by her absence last night on ECW was Kelly Kelly. Fallen off the face of the ECW planet is Balls Mahoney. ... Related to Kennedy, there must be more than meets the eye on what caused his stock to drop the last few weeks. Remember just a few weeks ago when he was standing tall after a main event tag match with the WrestleMania headliners? That's a distant memory compared to the March 10 Raw where he was beaten senseless by Finlay, then was nowhere to be found on this week's Raw.
(4) ROH taking it to the South. ROH is good about doing its homework before making new business decisions. Taking the product to Virginia for a show in May piques my interest, as it appears ROH is testing the waters beyond the standard Northeast and Midwest locales to gauge the response level in a traditional wrestling market. Even if the show doesn't draw well, I believe the overall benefit gained will be more exposure for their PPV business, which ROH claims is growing with each passing PPV.
(5) Torch official WrestleMania Pick 'Em Contest. I've been waiting a few weeks for the final WrestleMania card before posting the details on our WrestleMania pick 'em contest, but considering WWE hasn't finalized the participants in MITB, or announced what type of match Mayweather and Big Show are having, I figure we're not getting a final card. So, check back later this week for the official details to make your picks on the winners for each match. Prize has been undetermined at this point, but I assure you it will be... satisfactory.
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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.
