TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
MCNEILL'S TAKE
MCNEILL CLASSIC (09-18-02): Raw Factor: The Belt, The Book and The Bisch Sep 18, 2007 - 11:48:21 AM
Welcome to the Raw Factor. My name is Pat McNeill. I love wrestling on TV, rooting for RVD, and cheering for the 'Skins, when they win.
Impact Segment of the Night: Raw opened with an interesting worked shoot verbal confrontation between Triple H and Rob Van Dam. During that faceoff, Triple H pointed out that Van Dam just wasn't World Championship material, although he didn't offer any reasons why the guy couldn't "cut the mustard." Rob Van Dam countered by pointing out Triple H's groundbreaking "water spit" introduction. But you know, it doesn't matter whether Rob Van Dam is "World Championship material" or not.
No matter what WWE says on Confidential, the title Triple H holds isn't a World Title. Yes, wrestling is a work and all that, and the actual belt looks about the same, but there is no link between the NWA World Title heritage that WWE was touting on Confidential and the big gold belt that Triple H is holding. It is a secondary title, and it's going to take a little bit of doing before it is elevated to the same level as the title Lesnar holds.
Elephant in the Room: With all the other noteworthy happenings on Raw, the lowlight of the program had to be that one of the Raw superstars had a live match, even though this individual was clearly in "no condition to perform." By the way, that's a polite way of saying that the guy wrestled like he had arrived at the building via Smoke-a-Bowl Boulevard and Crackhead Drive. Jim Ross can talk all he wants about the high altitude in Denver, but it sure looked like someone backstage dropped the ball in clearing this person to work.
Hey, admittedly I can't prove that there were any hopped-up performers on Raw. Maybe the poor guy was wrestling while injured. Maybe he recently suffered some deep emotional trauma, and his mind was elsewhere. But that particular match was an embarrassment, and the circumstantial evidence shows that someone backstage should have seen it coming. Scott Hall could have turned in a more professional outing after a bottle of Cuervo Gold. If you can read lips, you know that another wrestler in the ring was also disgusted with that guy's particular performance.
In any case, somebody in the back owes a big fat apology to the guy who could have had his neck broken last night. And the other guy needs to be taken off the booking sheets until he has his stuff together. While the WWE needs some more free publicity, I don't think they want to get it by having an impaired wrestler split his head open like a melon on live television.
The Book Factor: Hey, can't we get some of the same guys who have been working with Rob Van Dam on his mic skills to invest a little effort in Booker T? That promo before the Test match was atrocious.
Talking Points Memo: The segment where Stephanie McMahon, Billy and Chuck attacked Eric Bischoff was pretty innovative. At least the company wasn't trying to pretend that there were actually protesters in Denver. How many radical feminists wear as much makeup as the gals in the fake IOW group? That, combined with the fact that WWE recruited these extras from the same places that Godfather gets his ladies, should have been enough to tip off Eric Bischoff. Alas, it was not.
The real question is why WWE is trying to push Screechy Stephanie McMahon as a top babyface. Yes, she's the daughter of Vince McMahon, but the company shouldn't be trying to paint either Raw or Smackdown as the heel brand. Eric Bischoff has developed a following, and some fans aren't going to be able to stomach Stephanie no matter what she does. Why not let the WWE faithful choose up sides on their own?
Pat McNeill of Fairfax, Va. has been a Torch columnist since February 2001. He thinks this column has gone about three minutes too long. His PWTorch.com column appears two or three times a week. You can also read his "McNeill Factor" column every week on Page 7 of the Torch Newsletter. Pat McNeill's first book, "The Tables All Were Broken," is available from many fine booksellers.=
Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
