By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

On the PWTorch.com website, there's a comment area after articles that many of you take advantage of. Here's a few selected comments and my response...

REGARDING TODAY'S EDITORIAL ON KURT ANGLE DESPARAGING THE X DIVISION

Adam Colgan: "Awww the title just leads to disappointment! I was hoping for Wade Keller to get on his high horse and give us another gay rights rant.

WK: If Angle said something anti-gay, I'd have called him out on that. I don't own a high-horse, but I do call out people in the public eye who make bigoted comments. What rights do you not want gay people to have, by the way?

Earnest Pettie: I feel like this is an overreaction to that statement. I may be wrong, but I haven't heard Angle make similar statements about the X Division on Impact (or off), and this is completely in keeping with his overconfident character. I mean, if the guy is willing to take on a TOWN, he's going to be willing to take on two X-Div wrestlers.

WK: I wasn't saying what Angle said was necessarily part of a string of comments he made desparaging the X Division. The fact that he said it without probably thinking there was anything damaging about the message it sent - and the fact that no one in TNA thought to do a re-take - was quite telling to me. If the guy was willing to take on a "town" of drunk civilians at a bar has nothing to do with whether he should express such flippant confidence he could beat two top level trained athletes who just happen to be in a slightly lower weight division than him.

Justin Watry: I could do without the "fantasy booking," but I agree with the beginning. For every step TNA takes, they take two backwards.

WK: I'm not a fan of fantasy booking to the point that I generally skip over it anytime I run across it and rarely engage in anything resemmbling it. I think there is a difference in using a specific example to illustrate or accentuate a point I'm making editorially as opposed to just going on some random "fantasy booking" essay. My intent with the Angle scenario was to present one way that TNA could make up for what Angle said and chip away at the image of X Division wrestlers as jobbers to heavyweights.

REGARDING YESTERDAY'S EDITORIAL ON THE MIXED REACTION TO JERICHO'S RETURN

Danny Vacost: I'm kind of in the middle here. What's interesting is that WWE and Chris Jericho are intentionally trying to get fans frustrated. We are so used to seeing out-of-the-ordinary angles start strong, but let us down in the end. As a result, a lot of fans became frustrated. I'm assuming that was unintentional on WWE's part. It's difficult to have faith in WWE executing and resolving storylines that keep you hooked. Examples: Nexus angle, C.M. P unk shoot promo, the walkout... etc. I do trust Jericho to do right thing if he has full creative control.

WK: Danny, you are right. The pressure is on WWE and Jericho to follow up Monday's angle in a satisfying way. I don't think they should feel pressure to give everyone instant gratification and have Jericho show all of his cards right away next week. They do need this to play out to a satisfying conclusion or else it will be added to the list of abandoned storylines that went nowhere which does chip away at WWE fans' faith in the company.

Andrew Wieczezynski: And Wade, comparing this to the 1,004 holds promo [by Jericho in 1998] is absolutely ridiculous. That promo was obnoxious and irritating for all the right reasons: it was genuinely funny and by the time it was over you wanted to see somebody kick Jericho's ass.

WK: Why is it funny to say "armbar... chinlock... abdonimal stretch... [commercial break] armbar... superplex... German suplex... armbar" for eight minutes, but not funny to smile widely, channel Howard Dean's "yeahhh!", play to the crowd, run a lap around the ring slapping hands, keep smiling widely, shout "yeahhh!" again, point to the upper deck, run another lap around the ring, etc. Both were genuinely funny because they were intentionally self-indulgent and patience-testing to an extreme degree. There's hardly a difference at all between the method and the effect Jericho was going for. It's not Jericho just stood there and did nothing. He was constantly doing something, just not verbally.

Bill Torres: Pure and simple, the people who hated it were people that were fooled. No one would have been good enough as a surprise, because most of the internet fans are very cynical - the "I've seen everything so I know evrything" people. You have the people who get upset when the WWE doesn't do what they expected and you have the people who get upset when they do exactly what they expect. What Jricho did last night was become the puppet master while illustrating that the over the top kissing babies smiling no matter what even in the face of boos is exactly why the majority of fans hate John Cena. So bravo, Jericho, and Wade some of us still get it!

WK: I think the response from disappointed fans is going to be used by Jericho to further his new persona. I also think Jericho is setting up pins for Punk to knock down. The frustration and tension that fans felt watching that play out, as their emotions were played and they were made to feel like fools for liking this jerk in the first place, can be used by Punk to expand his fanbase when he becomes the guy who calls out Jericho for being such a douche. I do think a lot of pro wrestling fans have lost sight of what the point of pro wrestling is in it's best, purest form - which is a means to an ends, and that ends is a satisfying, exciting, dramatic battle between someone you despise and someone you can't wait to cheer as he beats up that person you despise. Jericho doesn't want you to like him this week. He wants you to hate him for what he did. You can't blame a heel for drawing negative feelings from you because he built up a big return and then failed to deliver ice creams and balloons like the pandering Triple H, Rock ("I didn't want to team with John Cena, but my Twitter followers want it, so I'll do it"), John Cena, and even C.M. Punk did in recent months during their promos.

Josh Rose: Great column, Wade, In the world of the IWC if you don't pull the jar of cookies down off the self and open it when they ask for them then they get upset and cry foul. If you do, then it's, "Let me show you in my cookie jar grabbing prowess, how I would have done this better than you!" The way Chris Jericho did this was great, and guess what.. judging by the people giving the cold shoulder to this on this forum, he did what he set out to do.

Trevon Burtch: I don't understand why people think this was a poor payoff. Jericho surprised me but didn't dissappoint me. Also, I think its cool he didn't talk because now I want to tune in next week to see what happens. That is a GOOD thing.

WK: Wait, we have to wait a whole week (or more!) to see every chapter to play out in Jericho's return? Exactly. Pro wrestling shows have become so self-contained that there are story arcs that should play out of six or twelve weeks that start and end within the same show. I think a lot of fans expect self-contained storylines these days. How dare Jericho leave us wondering what's going on?

REGARDING MY FIRST EDITORIAL ON JERICHO'S RETURN TO RAW

Ivan Perez: Bravo Wade, you got it. All of these smarks posting here, just wow. "Waaahh, he didn't do the heel promo", "Waaaah". Typical of them to crap on something different.

WK: I think it's fine that some fans felt let down. I just think this is a case of Jericho trying something different and pacing it differently and people being thrown off by that. I could understand the outrage if Jericho sat on a chair and didn't move or twitch for eight minutes, but there wasn't a 10 second period where he wasn't communicating something through body language and shouts and gestures that logically built where he was going. The fact that as he left the stage fans began to boo him, considering the reaction to his music when he first walked out, showed how brilliantly effective his performance was.

Rob Skarda: Jericho comes out last night to a huge face reaction which he expected and instead of using the mic, he is able to turn heel in a matter of minutes without saying a single word. That's talent!

WK: Exactly.

Pete Cangemi: I thought this was well done. Jericho is seemingly coming back as a true heel, not a wink-wink, I'm an old star so it's ok to cheer me heel. And rather than go for cheap heat, he's trying something different. With Punk locked into a program with Ziggler, no need for him to overplay his hand with still four weeks til Rumble's Punk-Dolph match.

WK: I could see Jericho coming out again and doing the same thing just to drive people even more mad. I could also see this not really coming into clear focus until after the Royal Rumble. LIke you said, Pete, there's no reason to rush this. I love that Jericho is trying to break the awful pattern of heels who secretly want to get cheered, rather than seeing cheers from their admiring smart fans as some sort of sign of success. The point of a heel in wrestling is to get booed and be hated enough that fans escape into the pro wrestling world and suspend their disbelief and take great joy in seeing them get knocked around the ring and pinned. Jericho is setting those pins up nicely for a lucky babyface.

Denny Wellman: "Hey, we're going to give you these vignettes to get you emotionally invested for a surprise! We're going to build this return up by making something that'll create buzz and excitement! And when the payoff climax comes...WE'RE GOING TO MOCK YOU AND YOUR ENTHUSIASM! TROLOLOL That's what you getting buying in so hard! Tune in next week when we go over how the whole End Of The World thing was also just apart of the joke you idiots actually bought! BWHAHAHA!"

WK: Jericho wasn't making fun of anyone or trying to mock anyone's enthusiasm. Jericho's character is just not what you presumed it to be. Jericho's wrestling character doesn't want your admiration or cheers. Your reaction is the negative effect of Triple H and John Lauriniatis and Vince McMahon and other authority figures talking constantly about how their goal is to "entertain you" and "please you" and "listen to you." That's all wrong. They should never say that in the context of a wrestling show. The job of the person playing the role of a wrestling company's authority figure is to set up an even playing field for these combat athletes to fight each other so we can figure out who the best pro wrestler is. That's it. It should be implied as a given that by doing that, you'd entertain fans of pro wrestling. Once a G.M. says on TV that his goal is to please fans more than anything else, it screws up the entire narrative of pro wrestling. Pro wrestling works best when the audience "just happens to be there" to witness this spectacle of great wrestlers battling for a prestigious title. Of course wrestlers are going to react to their fan adulation and express appreciation, as athletes do in real competitive sports, but the primary goal of a wrestler - when in character within a wrestling TV show - should be to win, not entertain. That set-up then inherently is entertaining for viewers.

Paul Calento: Brilliant. At this stage in his career, getting fans to boo is tough to impossible (for most workers). Mission impossible. Virtuoso performance from Jericho.

Now you can COMMENT BELOW (and read what others have to say) or READ MY PREVIOUS BLOGS BY CLICKING HERE. Thanks for supporting PWTorch.com.

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Wade Keller launched Pro Wrestling Torch as a print newsletter in 1987. The newsletter is still published every week. It's distributed to thousands of wrestling fans internationally via postal mail and digital PDF's online at the VIP website. He has interviewed some of pro wrestling's biggest power brokers over the years in their longest insider interviews ever done, including Steve Austin, The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura, Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Goldberg, Paul Heyman, Jim Cornette, Mick Foley, Vince Russo, Lou Thesz, Verne Gagne, Jerry Lawler, and many many others. He writes every week for the PWTorch Newsletter and also blogs on PWTorch.com. He is also the supervising editor of MMATorch, records the Keller Hotline every day for VIP members reviewing and analyzing the news of the day, and hosts the PWTorch Livecast twice a week. Contact Keller: kellerwade@gmail.com.

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