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"McNeill Factor"
Newsletter Headline: "McNeill Factor: Things We Could Do Without"
Originally published: December 12, 2007
From Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter #1002

Three months ago, we discussed how the concept of a heel authority figure has worn out its welcome with modern pro wrestling fans. Last month on the PWTorch website, we talked about the need to get rid of the unprotected chairshot to the head. As we approach the end of the year, it is time to suggest other changes, changes which will hopefully impact professional wrestling for the better. There is, without question, some other stuff pro wrestling can throw out in its metaphoric garage sale.

Handicap Matches: This week on Smackdown, we had what must be the hundredth main event handicap match in the eight year history of the program. That's too many. The handicap match is the most overused tool in the WWE booking arsenal. The nicest thing that can be said about Vince Russo's recent tenure in TNA is that he has shied away from this crutch.

The handicap match used to be a rare treat for fans. The monster, someone like Andre the Giant or "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd, wanted to show his dominance over mere mortal wrestlers, so he'd squash two or more normal-sized enhancement workers. Normally, this would take place on television, to show that the monster was ready for his big match at your local arena.

The other use for a handicap match would be if a babyface had an issue with two heels, or a heel and his manager, and demanded the handicap match. It made the babyface look like a tough guy for defying the odds and it made the heels look evil for using an unfair advantage to beat on the babyface.

Nowadays, the handicap match is used when the writing staff can't think of a good one-on-one bout to headline a television show, when the heels don't have enough juice behind them to be a convincing threat to the babyface without ganging up on him, or when the bookers can't come up with a creative way of showing how evil the heel general managers are.

In their first 169 shows, Ring of Honor has given us exactly three handicap matches, with none of them taking place in the past three years. There hasn't been a huge demand for handicap matches, nor has there been a backlash against booker Gabe Sapolsky for not using them on his shows.

Gimmick Matches With No Buildup: Just to make this clear, this is not about the misuse of stipulation matches in professional wrestling (a pet peeve of fellow columnist Bruce Mitchell.) This is not even about the sort of short term buildup you'll find on WWE Raw. Earlier this year, for example, WWE Raw did a cage match between Triple H and Carlito on one week's notice. Naturally, that ended up as a handicap cage match.

But that's not the complaint here. What we're talking about is when a fan tunes it to a wrestling show only to find that a gimmick match has been scheduled for that very show, less than two hours after it has been announced. Over the past week, we have seen two fine examples of how this situation works, or doesn't work, as the case may be. On TNA Impact, there was an impromptu six-man ladder match with Jay Lethal and the Motorcity Machine Guns teaming up to face Johnny Devine and Team 3D. It was a short match, but not a bad match. Last week's episode of Impact drew a 1.1, which means the ladder match didn't pop a rating. Does that mean fans don't care about the six wrestlers involved? Not necessarily. We don't know for sure, because the match was thrown out there with almost no buildup.

Interestingly, TNA has decided that the way to improve their ratings is to throw out more gimmick matches on free television. Over the holidays, we are going to have an episode of Impact featuring four different "Gauntlet for the Gold" staggered battle royals, a sure way to kill most any gimmick. Next week's Impact will feature Jay Lethal and the Machine Guns against Johnny Devine and the former Dudleys in a gimmick match where the winners get to choose which (other) gimmick match the teams will face each other in at the Final Resolution pay-per-view.

It isn't fair to single out TNA. After all, WWE is doing the same thing, to a lesser extent. On this week's Smackdown, it will be Dave Batista taking on Kane in a Last Man Standing match, a match that will, again, receive less than two hours of buildup. Batista is the World Heavyweight Champion, and Kane has been all over WWE television the past few weeks. Both men have star power. They're both popular wrestlers. But does anybody think this match is going to pop a rating for WWE? Does anybody doubt that the match would have a better chance of popping a rating if WWE gave it one week of buildup for the next episode of Smackdown?

Aside from the lack of short-term benefit from throwing gimmick matches on television without any buildup, there are long-term problems with the practice of short-notice stipulation matches. When wrestling fans see a stipulation match on free television with no buildup, they become conditioned to think that the stipulation is no big deal. Then, when the promotion tries to hype a pay-per-view match with that exact same stipulation, there isn't a sense of anticipation, because the fan has already seen the stipulation match for free and it wasn't a big deal at the time.

Do you know why the Elimination Chamber and Hell In A Cell are the two stipulation matches that consistently draw the most money on WWE pay-per-view? Because the company protects those matches, builds them up, and doesn't give them away for free.

Turns, Turns, Turns: Back in 1997, Vince McMahon and Vince Russo ran a storyline on Monday Night Raw where babyfaces Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels held the tag team titles....

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