Truth, Heels and Gender Roles: Why Kelly Kelly Is the Real Diva Villain

The actions of an honorable woman?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

All Beth Phoenix wants is to be taken seriously. It's hard for her to do so when she's one of the few in a division who strive for that. When most of the Divas base their offense on how hot they are, or how well they can shake their asses, it can be hard for a legitimate female wrestler to ply her trade when all she wants to do is bust skulls. What was her repayment? She's painted as the villain, and furthermore, Kelly Kelly, the most egregious of the ass shakers and stink-facers, gave her the waylaying of a lifetime.

Coincidentally, K2 is considered the face of the Divas division.

While this may not seem "right", it has been the status quo in WWF/E for a long time to some degree. The heels were the ones who told the truth, often times uncomfortable, while the faces spun propaganda to some degree. This was no more evident than in the broadcast booth in the '80s and '90s, when Bobby Heenan and Jesse "The Body" Ventura would point out flaws in Hulk Hogan's or the Ultimate Warrior's games. Obviously, they were bad for a reason; they'd often ignore the misgivings of their bad guy counterparts, but this is nothing new for WWE.

However, the level at which this attacking of the truth, at least from an institutional level, seems to be a bit excessive from where I sit. Let's switch the narrative around a little bit. Instead of Beth wanting to turn the Divas away from looks, splits and booty-shaking, what if she came out and wanted to rid the Divas of politics and ass-kissing? She'd be CM Punk, right? CM Punk's a good guy, or at the very least, he's a fan favorite (which may still yet make him a bad guy if the fans are into that kind of thing), correct?

So, basically what the WWE is saying is that it's okay for the men to have real competition, but the ladies should be there to shake their asses. I'm no feminist, and believe me, I've gotten my fair share of erections looking at sexy photo shoots, but that's not kosher from where I sit, ESPECIALLY when the one company that does nearly everything WWE tries to do, only worse, gets it better than they do in this instance, even now when their women's division is at its worst. When Impact books women better than you, you have problems.

Even more troubling are the demographics for WWE. Apparently, 36% of the audience is female. That's not a trivial number, and it's one that needs to be catered to. That begs the question, what caters to women? Do you assume they're all vain and easily fooled by platitudes like being called "smart, sexy and powerful" without any evidence of that being the case, or do you assume they're real people who like real, three-dimensional characters, or at the very least, two-dimensional characters who can actually wrestle? The WWE thinks it's the former, but I'm going to make the not-so-wild assumption that 36% of their audience would like to see more of the latter.

So you can very much agree on why I feel like positioning Beth as a heel is a bad thing, right? Especially when the thing she's been fighting against was so expertly personified as a bad girl trait during LayCool's epic run on Smackdown. Strong women are good role models. Conversely, the woman with minimal wrestling skills maybe shouldn't be held as the paradigm. I mean, K2 uses the Stink Face, a move that was used by someone 300 lbs. her heavier. The girth was the efficacy, but now, it's reduced to lesbian homoerotica. While I'm not exactly going to argue that I dislike that kind of thing, I don't think it should be used in something that is being staged as legitimate competition. Then, in response, she Pearl Harbors Beth, partially out of retaliation for last week, but you could assume she was a bit miffed at the criticism. Then again, when did the good guy sneak attack someone? Oh yeah, that's right, it's SOP in WWE. No one fights with honor anymore. But I digress.

The point is, if the gender here was inverted, Beth Phoenix probably would be a folk hero. Instead, she's used as a monster to get over the paradigm that you need to be PRETTY PRETTY OH SO PRETTY to be a good girl in WWE (completely oblivious to the fact that there are people in the fandom, of which I'm a member, that think Beth is way hotter than Kelly). When you have a significant portion of women in the audience, especially impressionable youths, maybe it's time you start portraying the fairer sex as more than just pretty faces, fake tits and shrinking waistlines.

Deja Vu Booking: One of WWE's BIGGEST Weaknesses

The first of two handicap matches... ugh
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Monday on RAW, the first match of the evening was a handicap match, John Cena against the Tag Team Champions, Michael McGillcutty and David Otunga. Okay, all well and good, a handicap match against the henchmen of his rival for Money in the Bank. Yeah, seeing the Champ go all SUPERCENA on the Tag Champs was irritating, but hey, that was last we'd see of those kinds of shenanigans tonight, right?

Yeah, then Big Show came out and wrestled Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler. Yeah. I have to wonder if these script writers even realize that they're doing what they're doing. If it were the first time something like this happened, I'd be more than willing to give them a temporary pass, but it happens so much in WWE, whether on a single show with a booking device or with a storyline on either brand. I mean just a couple of weeks ago, they finished two matches via castigo excesivo, aka, disqualification via the five count. It's just lazy.

Honestly, it's embarrassing. Even on strong shows, they can't escape these kinds of repetitive mistakes, and this lends more credence to a rushed atmosphere than any dirtsheet snippet or Cageside Seats expose ever could. I mean, where's the care? Where's the nuance? Where's the oversight? Corporately, WWE professes to be entertainment, and their competition to be scripted TV. Well, if scripted TV shows trotted out lazy scripts like WWE does, they'd get lambasted by critics and have fans turn out.

The WWE needs to start practicing what it preaches, and maybe the head producers/executives like Vince McMahon should ease up on the writers if this is the case. OR maybe the writers should get better. I don't know. But when you get gaffes such as these, it really makes for groan-inducing watching.

If Punk Loses, What Is Acceptable?

Cena could beat Punk clean... will it be greeted with open minds?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

There's a distinct possibility that CM Punk is going to beat John Cena Sunday. Whether he sticks around after, takes the title with him or gets cashed-in on after he wins the title by one (or more) Money in the Bank winner(s). The beauty of the main event is that it could virtually go in any direction. The possibilities are endless.

But with "endless" come the possibilities that Cena actually wins his match. Yes, it would defy logic at this point, given the amount of pomp and build that Punk has received. IT wouldn't make sense to job him out, but WWE Creative has proven they don't make sense from time to time. Is Cena going over Punk out of the realm of possibility? Well no, it's not. But is that a problem? Well, it depends on the way he loses.

I think we can all agree that SUPERCENA rearing his ugly head and dispatching CM Punk to his couch in Chicago would be the worst possible outcome and one that would make everyone collectively lose their shit, right? Well yeah, but how do we know what's SUPERCENA and what's just Cena making a comeback? Can Cena win clean without getting backlash, or at the very least, deserving backlash? I'm not sure about that, at least for the first part.

I mean, if Punk loses clean, we're on the precipice of an Internet meltdown over here. It's not that there are degrees of losing clean in some people's minds. Losing clean is a burial if it's a darling losing to someone monolithic. Always. It's one of the things I hate about the way people react sometimes. There's no perspective, no foresight. However, this time might be different because CM Punk could be leaving, and he's been blisteringly hot lately. I think I'd be pissed off if Cena just blows through Punk like he's a typical Cena PPV opponent.

I don't know. There's so much uncertainty going into Sunday, but I think that disappointment could be on the horizon. I hope not, because I want them to hit a home run here, but at the same time, the WWE hasn't exactly earned our trust in regards to a truly happy ending for anyone other than Cena and lately Randy Orton. That all being said, I have this perversely optimistic feeling that if Punk goes down, he's going down with a fight or even better, to someone other than Cena.

Has Punk Been a Success in WWE? Of Course He Has, Stop Being Dramatic

The portrait of a WWE success story
Photo Credit: WWE.com

For five years, CM Punk has gone nearly non-stop for WWE. Since being brought into the ECW brand, he's been on TV for the most part excepting a week or two between injuries. Even so, he's been in the public eye as an announcer when he's been hurt. He pretty humorously replied someone who asked him how he could stay on the program without using painkillers that he's "not a pussy". So now, as the Zero Hour approaches, many people are left to ask "Has Punk been a success in WWE in those five years?"

Those people miss the point entirely. Of course the man has been a success. A resounding one, I'd say.

The argument that a lot of people have is that CM Punk has been misused, mistreated or even buried in WWE since coming up. They point to long PPV losing streaks or shoddy booking and I get it. Punk hasn't been used optimally in WWE. I mean, I'd have booked him differently, but at the same time, you can say that for nearly everyone in the company save John Cena or Triple H at some point during the last five years. Even golden children like Randy Orton have had the run of bad booking slung against them. It's a fact of life.

Meanwhile, in his time in WWE, Punk has won the ECW Championship, the World Tag Team Titles, two Money in the Bank briefcases, the Intercontinental Championship, three World Championships, was featured prominently in two straight Royal Rumbles, got to be the guy who chased Jeff Hardy out of WWE, has a winning streak against Cena and was deemed to be so important by WWE that he was placed in the commentary position while injured. I'd say all of that is pretty successful by any metric.

It seems like there's a certain portion of the Internet that wants to paint all their indie favorites as martyrs, and that the WWE does EVERYTHING to screw them. It's microanalysis that ignores the bad treatment that other guys have gotten and dishonestly pretends that Punk is somehow maltreated. Even if he was made to look like a jackass at every turn, the maltreatment argument is bunk, because they're paying him pretty well.

So can the talk about him being unsuccessful is bunk. Could he have been "treated better"? Sure, but that's the nature of WWE nowadays. It's not acceptable in that they need to change their practices, but let's not pretend they're doing wrong by Punk (or Daniel Bryan or Evan Bourne or any other indie guy who made it), okay?

Kings Reign Supreme: What I Hope for a Possible WWE Arrival for Claudio and Hero

Kings Reign Supreme!

If you believe the scuttlebutt, Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero, collectively known as The Kings of Wrestling, have an offer on the table for a WWE contract. The no-brainer answer would be to take it, but stranger things have happened. Hopefully, they will sign, because as much as I like watching them in the indies, I would rather see them every week on WWE TV and as a fan of theirs, I want to see them get paid as much money as they can get.

That being said, there's always that tricky question of "usage" that makes people take up the insane thought that they'd be "better off staying in ROH". Granted, there's almost nothing that would make me think staying in the indies is a better idea than going to WWE. However, I am a bit skeptical as to whether they'll get a good shake in terms of exposure. They could end up like CM Punk, exceed expectation and rule ass, they could be like Daniel Bryan (and admittedly, I don't think we've scratched the surface as to what we'll see from the former American Dragon) and get TV time but not get to the main event, or they could end up like Colt Cabana and be out of the company within a year. If they end up like Bryan, and again, Bryan's story in WWE is only beginning, then it's all good. However, there's one superstar whose career trajectory... well whose PROJECTED trajectory was exciting, fresh and totally game-changing for an entire division.

Yes, if the Kings make it to WWE, I would love to see them take on the Kharma role for the tag division.

Before she stepped away from WWE due to her pregnancy, Kharma was set to turn the Divas division on its head. She wasn't presented as your normal model-turned-wrestler who had silicone implants, and because of that, she got a genuine reaction. All signs pointed to a more "serious" women's wrestling division, one where Kharma would destroy the chaff and set up for a hero, be it Nattie Neidhart, Beth Phoenix or Kelly Kelly, to take her down and maybe establish that the Divas were deserving of more attention than, as Razor and I talked about last night, which of the males they were dating.

Of course, there's no stigma attached to the tag team division in terms of sexism, but it seriously is lacking of teams that could be considered legitimately over as a tandem. I mean, the only two that I think come close are Kane and Big Show and the former Champions of Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater. The former are a mongrel team of two fan-favorites-because-they've-been-around-since-the-dawn-of-time, and the latter got their overness more because of the groups they were associated with rather than a build as a team. Even then, with the dissolution of Corre, they even seem floundering. And at this point, neither team has the titles. In what may be the lulziest Tag Team Champion tandem in WWE history, Michael McGillicutty and David Otunga hold the Tag Pennies right now. Even though the Divas division had and still has its own problems, at least they have attention paid to them.

That's where the Kings should come in. Let them debut and destroy the Usos, Slater and Gabriel and then earn a title shot, where they win. Build them up as an unstoppable force whose teamwork is unmatched. Let them defeat Show and Kane, maybe not in short order, but convincingly enough. Give them mic time so they can develop their characters as more than just a win streak. Let them become the tag division so that when you build up a new set of challengers to them, be they an existing team like the Usos (who have potential but haven't had great opportunities to develop heat) or Slater and Gabriel, or another new team, either of guys who are on the roster or of a new team from FCW that's built up. That way, when the Kings lose the titles, it's a big deal. When they lose, they don't lose their heat because Hero and Claudio have been developing their characters through feuds and promos. It's all a matter of smart booking and attention.

Of course, this may very well be a pipe dream. Given that the failed TV writers have shown no desire to build a midcard or a tag division past a token "feud" that involves either bullshit parity decisions from week to week or a series of matches where it's a series of clean victories by one party while the crowd is expected to care when the result is never in question and there's no other factors making the losing party seeming like he's still got a story to tell. That being said, if they can try to revolutionize the Divas, why not tags?

That is, of course, if the Kings sign with WWE. There's still a chance that they might opt to stay with ROH, or that the scuttlebutt is just something that was sensationalized through being passed down the grapevine. Still, there's no doubt that Claudio and Hero deserve a chance to be in the top company in their field. Hopefully, the people potentially signing them know what they're getting.

Because it has the chance to be special.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

This Is the Feud That Doesn't End: Kingston Vs. Ziggler Vs. Eternity

Stop me if you've seen this one before, but...
Photo Credit: WWE.com

If you had an intense feeling of déjà vu last night watching Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler, well, yeah, it was justified. Over the last couple of years, the two have had televised wrestling matches against each other a mind-boggling 16 times. That's a large number of wrestling matches in that period of time. It wouldn't be so much of a problem if both guys had moved on since their first meeting. However, neither Kingston nor Ziggler really have been pushed further outside of a cup of coffee in the main event since then. If I remember correctly, their first match happened after Kingston's push to the top failed when his feud with Randy Orton ended abruptly. Ziggler himself had a brush with the main event against Edge, but he's since come down to earth.

In the interim, both guys have had other feuds. Kingston battled against Drew McIntyre and Wade Barrett. Ziggler had run-ins with John Morrison and Daniel Bryan. Still, their roads always seem to intersect with each other, most probably with a secondary title on the line. How does a feud last that long anymore? I mean, we all marveled that TNA/Impact kept the Kurt Angle/Jeff Jarrett feud alive for 8 months, but as poorly-booked and unentertaining as I found it, at least it was at the top of the card and had several wrinkles to it. This one? Well, yeah, I like feuds over titles, but the way WWE goes about booking any feud sub-the main event can get way, way boring at times, mainly because they rarely know what they have with their Intercontinental and United States Championships.

I'm not really complaining about the lack of elevation here either. I mean, I'd love to see both guys tangle with main eventers more often, but at the same time, as long as they're wrestling or promoing, I don't mind where they are on the card. I just want to see what they can do against different opponents. I think this is more an indictment of WWE for their lack of midcard rather than speed of elevation. I mean, other than his feud with Edge, what can you say about any feud that Ziggler has had since starting his never ending series with Kingston? Well, the matches were good, especially against Bryan, but other than that, the midcard is usually treated with the same care and attention that the kid with halitosis gets at the school dance. Matches are great, but I need a story too.

If there were two or three distinct stories involved here, then I wouldn't mind the overkill between the two wrestlers. That being said, usually, the angle is one of them is a secondary Champion, and the other is getting a title shot. Only recently did either one of them actually ACCENTUATE that the title meant something to them. That's why this "feud" has seemed so boring.

If the story is interesting, two guys could wrestle a million times and not have it get boring on serialized wrestling television. The problem is that WWE rarely makes a good midcard story anymore. That's why Kofi and Dolph have been eliciting groans for their matches being announced, not excited cheers for the chemistry that they have in the ring.

Because believe me, that chemistry is pretty good.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Wash, Rinse, Repeat: WWE's Spin Cycle of Booking Malaise

Great match, boring story
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Stop me if you've heard this one before. WWE books a heel to win a match or get heat on a babyface one week. The very next week, the babyface gets his retribution, and either the angle ends, or more annoyingly, there's a third match without the heel doing anything to warrant that rematch...

...oh yeah, you have heard it? A million times? Yeah, it's a staple in WWE feud "building". The phrase "bullshit parity booking" hasn't been trademarked by Dylan Hales, but it should have been, because he would have made a mint off how many times I or other A1-ites residing in the blogosphere have used it to describe this annoying habit of the WWE writers. The latest example was in the last two weeks, when CM Punk and Rey Mysterio traded wins with the respective wrestler winning on the respective episode of RAW. There was no indication of whether the angle would continue this week either; Mysterio counteracted Mason Ryan's interference and then got the pin with a tornado DDT and a top rope splash. He got out of dodge, no sneak attack, no recourse.

There's still one week left before the PPV, so something else CAN happen in order to culminate the feud reprisal, but it would be rushed storytelling on top of the poor storytelling that's happened over these last eight days. It seems like this is par for the course. If you don't believe me, click on the "WWE Creative sucks" tag at the bottom of the post. You'll find quite a lot of posts there, many with the same theme. I mean, I've been beating this dead horse for so fucking long that it's turned into horse dust (but not HorseDust, the short-lived, equestrian-themed character Dustin Runnels was rumored to have portrayed at an ill-fated Louisville house show in 1997...).

This is not a pedantic, "bitch for the sake of bitching" argument here either. It's bad storytelling that really turns me, as a viewer, off to the product. Like anyone else, I want attachment. How am I going to get that attachment if wrestlers I like, like Punk (and for the fan at large, that's Mysterio), don't give me a story to be drawn into?

The other argument is, "well, they're already writing stories for other angles, be happy with what you have!" Well, fuck that argument. You know why? Because I want consistency with my wrestling, not just good here, but lame, unengaging stories elsewhere. Quick, two-week angles are just so unsatisfying, especially when there's no storytelling other than guys trading heat. I'm all for extended in-ring feuds, but there's nothing about this Mysterio/Punk doubleshot that screams "extended" from that context. The wrestling is good, yes. The wrestling is very good. I do like wrestling for wrestling's sake, but I like it when a good story is attached even better. But when a weak story is attached, it feels weak.

If this Punk/Mysterio feud is to continue (and I hope it does), then they need to do a better job building it going forward. Give me something extracurricular if you're going to finish matches clean. Give me some post-match promos, motivation, anything. Don't just give me a doubleshot of matches, both with clean finishes, with the second match being a face win with a clean-slate heat trumping.

Bad TV is bad TV, no matter how much else is going right. ESPECIALLY when the performers involved are guys whom I WANT to be invested in, it's frustrating to see their story be told so hamhandedly.

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And Now, Angry Internet Meme Guy Asks WWE Creative a Question

Seriously, did ANYONE find any kind of sense in that decision by the anonymous RAW general manager? Do these writers have editors? Is Vince McMahon legit insane? Ugh.

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A Stunning Entry into WWE: Was It a Good Idea to Lay Out the Winner of Tough Enough?

Not the best debut for Mr. Leavine, is it?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Andy Leavine won WWE Tough Enough. I'm not going to pretend I was emotionally invested in him or the show because I watched maybe fifteen minutes of it total before the end last night, both scheduled and the part where it spilled over into the intro of the actual RAW telecast. I have to admit, the guy's got a good look and seems WAY better suited for immediate success than Maven, the winner of the first season of the first incarnation of the show.

However, his entry into WWE after winning the competition was inauspicious to say the least. He was greeted first by a slap from Vince McMahon that segued into the worst sell-job off a Stone Cold Stunner that I have ever seen in my life. I chalk it up to jitters and greenness, but it wasn't the sell-job that had most people up in arms. It was the act of the stunner itself that made folks upset. Why lay out a guy in his first real act as a WWE superstar? Wasn't the whole point to create a new, hot act through 10 weeks of personal investment? To squelch it there just seemed pointless to some, not as much to me, but to those who watched the show, yeah, I can see where they might be angry.

Maybe it's because I didn't watch the show and thus didn't really have much of an attachment to him. I don't know. Maybe it's because I also think that there's almost no way for someone to get completely derailed nowadays, or even ever. Heat is very much elastic. Look at Dolph Ziggler. Earlier this year, his push was bungled about as hardcore as you can fuck someone's momentum up. He's still over. He still can garner heat, although Vickie Guerrero does have a lot to do with that. Then again, Vickie didn't quite get that horrible Enri... what the fuck was his name again? The guy who was on the roster for a hot second before getting future endeavored last year? So forgettable.

This feels to me like one of those situations where the WWE really did something dumb, but where Andy may end up being fine because hey, he does have the talent enough that four WWE/WCW alumni saw it. Then again, I just don't see what the hell their philosophy in making guys "pay dues" is anymore. It's like, they're afraid of creating a Brock Lesnar, but like AnonymousJX pointed out, there are those who've been snakebitten by WWE's asinine "building" practices like Ki who point out that they don't want world-humbled indie wrestlers either and look for ego. It's like they're looking for the guy who's egotistical, but not too egotistical, almost as if they're trying to break people. Well, the breaking process doesn't really lend itself to getting guys over like the tried-and-true process of a slow build through the card does.

Yeah, I know that TE doesn't exactly seem like the kind of slow build vehicle I'm talking about, but then again, who said anything about the winner going right from the training dojo to main events? This is where the lack of a defined midcard and tag division hurts them the most.

So yeah, maybe my glibness over how Andy Leavine was treated is a bit wrong here. I want to think he'll be fine, but then again, their track record, both with TE in the past and NXT, seems to indicate that he might be in trouble. This points to a fatal flaw in how WWE treats true rookies, and that things like the Nexus angle, which we can all agree was executed well from debut until at least SummerSlam, are the exception and not the rule.

Hopefully, eating a stunner doesn't mean that Andy is the latter and not the former. If that's the case, and I'm USA Network, then I'd be pissed.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

The WWE Has Lost Their Collective Mind (Truth/Confederate Uniform)

Not exactly how I'd have dressed if I were Truth...
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Like I said last night on Instant Feedback, I very much enjoyed the opening segment to RAW. The promo work from everyone involved was good, even Cena being in smart-ass mode worked as he didn't get too smarmy. Every part of the segment worked except for one. R-Truth's wardrobe was really, really galling to me. I get the reason why they had him dress up in the grey jacket of the Confederacy, or why he himself volunteered. I don't know whose idea it was.

I do know it was a terrible one though.

There are certain things associated with the Confederacy that come to mind to anyone who is reminded of the Civil War. While they seceded from the union over states' rights, and the Civil War itself wasn't fought with the freedom of the slaves in mind as a primary focus (a common fallacy held by many today), it's still an undeniable fact that each one of the Confederate States was a slave state. It's also an undeniable fact that a vast majority, if not the entirety, of slaves at the time of the Civil War were black.

It'd have been in poor taste for someone who wasn't black to wear the uniform. It was not only borderline racist, but obliviously stupid to have Truth, or another black wrestler, wear it. Whether or not you thought the writers and Truth himself, by acquiescing to the request if he wasn't the one whose idea it was anyway, were being racist, and I fully believe they weren't, the actions still don't speak well of the intent, especially today. So much groundwork has been laid to try and create a post-racial society, but at the same time, you're never going to eliminate bad feelings between races, or ethnic groups or any kind of division. It's human nature to be somewhat exclusionary with people who don't look, talk or behave like you.

SO yeah, even if they didn't mean to do so, they offended some of their fans last night with that gesture. The sad part was, Truth could have cut the EXACT same promo last night without wearing the grey jacket and still had it come across as effective. That's where the idiocy lies in this situation. It's not like the Confederate uniform could be chalked up to "heels being heels" like, say, the Piggie James angle or other things that heels do that could be considered edgy. The lone exception would be if he was maybe feuding with another black wrestler, but even then, I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one to find it in poor taste.

The WWE put a huge blemish on their opening segment last night, a segment that otherwise might have been pitch-perfect, by the absolutely braindead blunder of outfitting R-Truth in a Confederate uniform. While they may not have intended to come across as racist, well, sometimes intent can be garbled within action. It's not especially wise, especially for a company that is already on thin ice with one minority lobby in the gay community.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Instant Feedback: R-Truth, You Probably Shouldn't Wear That

Full disclosure: I thought the opening segment to RAW, which was really the closing segment to Tough Enough bleeding into RAW in something surreal, was entertaining as hell. I thought Truf's rambling was hilarious. I liked what I saw from Miz and Alex Riley. Cena was... Cena. It was clusterfucky, and reminiscent of 1999-2000 in a weird but good way. I dug it.

That being said, whose fucking idea was it to have R-Truth wear a Confederate soldier's uniform? There's edgy, and there's stupid. While I didn't have a problem with it, it's stupid to tempt outcry like that. Then again, it did lead to a really good main event with some really good moments, like Miz jaw-jacking with Austin, Riley getting a really loud chant followed by the most nuclear hot tag for Cena that I've ever heard in my life. The finish was... well yeah, it was fanservice. At the same time, they did it a couple of weeks ago with Bret Hart. A bit more creativity needed from WWE Creative... haha, yeah right.

I was pretty baffled though... why the fuck would the RAW GM give Austin his job right after undermining his decision? Christ, these writers were in rare form tonight. Ugh.

Anyway, outside of the main angle, this was an all-over-the-place RAW. There were good spots, like the wrestling, Punk's pre-match promo and Booker T (!) wrestling in a singles match for the first time in like five years in WWE. It was pretty nice too. Plus, they continue to build the Jack Swagger/Evan Bourne feud nicely. It's also always good to see Zack Ryder on RAW, even when he's jobbing, and Dolph Ziggler on commentary was really, really pointed and fit well. Seriously, talking about the US Championship like it's important? Tommy likey.

However, the bullshit parity booking reared its ugly head again, with a mini-program between CM Punk and Rey Mysterio wrapping up neatly in two weeks. We got two great matches out of it yeah. I'm not complaining about that. But would it kill them to use two of their strongest characters in something more than trading wins with no other storyline advancement? Weak. Then you have Alberto del Rio, who's usually on point. I got excited when I saw him, but then he rolled out Ricardo Rodriguez as a dimestore Big Show. No. People say feuds with Big Show are momentum killers. However, is it the act of feuding with Show, or is it that Creative doesn't give a shit with Show, since they know he's probably just going be in a tag filler match or wrestle in a celebrity match at WrestleMania, and thus his endgame is really, really unimportant. I don't know.

Mixed bag tonight, the very definition. Next week's a three hour RAW though, so you know it'll be heavy on the wrestling. At least we have that going for us.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Stop Undermining Titles

Kofi Kingston jobbing to Dolph Ziggler last night was the latest in WWE's offenses against titleholders
Photo Credit: WWE.com

In this past week's episode of Game of Thrones (I'm totally obsessed, I know), Tywin Lannister was having a stern talk with his son, Jaime, about the family legacy and why he was so concerned with things he shouldn't be concerned with. Anyway, the conversation steers towards why Tywin was so concerned about his impish son being held prisoner by another family. I'm paraphrasing here, because I can't find the exact quote anywhere online right now.

Soon, I'll be dead, so will you, so will everyone, but the family name? The legacy? That's what lives on, that's what needs to stay strong.

It's an a propos quote, but what does it have to do with wrestling, since it's clearly not Thursday and I wrote about GoT last week? Well, all you have to do is substitute wrestler names for the Lannisters referenced and "Championship Belts" for family name and you've got something that sticks in my craw. You know from 2+ years of reading The Wrestling Blog that I've always hated when Champions get booked poorly. I even wrote rules for that sort of thing back over a year ago.

Granted, a lot has changed with my outlook on wrestling since then, and I've softened on a lot of my "hardcore smark" points of view. However, one that I didn't go limp on, and one that I'll probably never turn tail on likely, is that Championship belts, and in turn Champions, should be kept strong and should mean something. I've come to understand that the most important thing in pro wrestling is to tell a coherent and entertaining story, wins, losses and the like be damned. However, the Championship belt? Yeah, that is the best storytelling device in all of wrestling. Seriously, they provide easy storylines, ones that can be modified or have devices added to them to enhance them. They also are pretty much the biggest piece of the "sports" side of the proceedings. They're pretty much the thing that preserves kayfabe (even in an era where it's broken repeatedly) and they're the most commonsense thing that binds a wrestler to a wrestling company.

With all that in mind, that's what makes it so maddening that Kofi Kingston drops matches like he's a 1990 Superstars jobber, or when Jack Swagger or anyone else holding the World/WWE Championship loses in a non-title match without all that good a reason other than "that's how we booked it". When a Champion loses a match willy-nilly, then it takes the specialness out of the decision when he finally drops the title. Who cares about the title if the guy holding it loses all the time? Like Tywin said in the paraphrase above, just as the Lannister name is longer-lasting than any person wielding it, the same is true for Championship titles.

Yes, there are wrestlers who are or become bigger than Championships they hold. However, in most cases, the title belt should be something that, because it's bigger and more long-lasting, that can help enhance the guy holding it, and thus enhance the story being told through him and the guy or guys with whom he's feuding. It's not rocket science.

To continue to make Kingston drop matches with the title not on the line or to keep making matches where a guy gets a shot at a Champion by beating him in a non-title match is so short-sighted and it takes a viable story off the table. There are plenty of other ways to build up a title feud without throwing away the long lineage and potential power that a Championship belt brings to the table. WWE Creative, and really, all other wrestling companies too (I've seen this booking run rampant in TNA and creep up in other indie feds like NWA Hollywood), would be wise to be a bit smarter with their booking.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Can You Take the Bull by the Horns in WWE Nowadays?

Ryder's Youtubage is underrewarded

Zack Ryder is a self-made star, at least on the Internet he is. I doubt that anyone in WWE told him to go on Youtube and create Z! True Long Island Stories, but he did. He has gotten a cult following in the truest sense of the term. If you would believe Ultimate Warrior, Ryder was making his own way and should be on his way to bigger things. Back in the '80s, according to Warrior, via his Randy Savage tribute, they didn't have guys holding their hands, and everyone made their own way. I can believe that, because I believe the business was different back then, at least at the top levels of it.

So, did those changes eliminate the need for self-starters in the wrestling business? I have to think that's the case since Ryder rarely gets off Superstars and has such a low profile with the people who don't follow him in Youtube that he gets dismal reactions at house shows. But why? Ryder gets an organic reaction, which is something the WWE desperately needs. Instead of cultivating that into something the entire crowd at large can either appreciate or learn to hate as a heel, he maybe gets a token high five with John Cena on RAW and a match on the Internet show that barely anyone in the main audience watches anymore.

Of course, this could be a fallacious argument, because aside from Triple H and probably John Cena and CM Punk, it's really unknown how much input the rest of the roster has on their development and their angles. The overly scripted nature of promos nowadays would suggest that it's limited, and if guys came up with their own angles, would there be a need for the extensive writing staff WWE has? I don't know. Still, it feels like the show is just so controlled and inorganic at times that I wouldn't be surprised that the writers might not take kindly to someone doing their job for them, especially icky wrestlers.

So here we are, with the business fundamentally changed. Is it for the better? Given that we see shit like SuperCena, Randy Orton jizzing all over his competition and angles getting start-stopped all the time mixing in too much with the good stories the WWE tells, maybe it's not. All I know is that I do want to see more Zack Ryder. He steals the show on Superstars nearly every week and he's got charisma to spare as shown through his Youtube channel. Maybe initiative needs to be rewarded more often.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

You're a Star, Alex Riley!

You go, A-Ry!
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Watching NXT Season 2, there were a few things that were certain. One of them undoubtedly was that Alex Riley could talk. If getting by with a voice and a knack for cutting a promo was one of the requisites for making it, then Riley had that in spades. If he even learned to be passable in the ring, he'd eventually become one of the biggest stars in the company. It was just a matter of when he'd get that star-making moment.

I'd say what happened Monday on RAW qualifies, right?

When Miz fired Riley from his "personal services" contract after several incidences of screwing up in his task of assuring Miz kept his WWE Championship, I thought it'd end with Riley getting his ass beaten and shipped off to FCW. I mean, that's what happens with these NXT alums not named Daniel Bryan, Wade Barrett, Heath Slater or Justin Gabriel, right? What happened next was amazing. It's not that Riley fought back, it was how well it played out. He looked natural in the brawl with his former mentor, so natural that I'm convinced that he has the physical abilities to be a future star in WWE. The even more surprising thing was the crowd reaction. I don't know whether it was a fluke crowd, whether fans found something in him that made them want to cheer him, or whether it was just a reaction to how much they liked seeing Miz get his, but Riley got an honest-to-God pop when he popped Miz.

In a perfect world, that's where we'd all remember where A-Ry was made. I mean, it was the perfect storm, with everything coming together to create a memorable performance. Sadly, there have been a ton of those moments in WWE that have led to guys going nowhere. Couple that with the fact that neither RAW nor Smackdown have a fully-formed midcard that means anything, and the prospects for a follow-up aren't promising.

However, for a second, let's pretend the WWE has consistently followed up on big moments in the last few years instead of delivering on one out of five or so. If they can put a buzz behind Riley that lasts, I think it pays off. Right now, in this moment, Riley is already a star, and he's a guy that I personally want to see on my TV screen. If the moment is too fleeting then at least we have the moment now, and for that moment, Alex Riley was the brightest new star in WWE.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Whither The Miz (Hint: He's Gonna Be Just Fine)

He's AWESOME and will be just fine
Photo Credit: WWE.com

So, as with anytime someone not named Randy Orton, Undertaker or Triple H loses to John Cena at a PPV, the outcry begins anew. Oh, so-and-so got buried! Why can't Cena put anyone over! That's it for what's-his-face's heat! While this whining has been proven wrong more than once, it was out in full force again after The Miz lost to Cena at Over the Limit. Granted, the way in which he lost - easily to a couple of John Cena's signature moves after Miz spent the first 20 minutes of the match uncomfortably destroying him with Alex Riley's help - sounds pretty lopsided and heat crushing. On the surface, it makes Miz sound and look like a chump, but a lot of results make the losers sound and look like chumps. It's wrestling; not everyone can look 100% strong all the time.

Honestly, you can point to a fundamental flaw in the structure of how the WWE books main events involving Cena (or at this point Orton or any main event babyface... oh wait, I just named the only two they have) and I'd agree with you. They need to overhaul how they book those kinds of matches. It's been a broken record with me for years now, and I imagine it'll continue to be a broken record until something drastic happens in the front office. That being said, I'm over complaining specifically about people being buried. Why? Because they're not being buried in most cases.

It's true that bad booking can sink some wrestlers. The Miz is not "some wrestler". He's a heat generator. He could keep warm in the middle of deep space with the heat he can produce. He's over and got himself into the main event scene for a reason, and it wasn't just because McMahon wanted him to be there. The front office wanted more than a few people to get there, and if you notice, they don't really have all that great a success rate. That's why I'm not worried about Miz, nor should you be.

It's all about the follow up and the stage that Miz will get in the future. He got promo time on RAW, a good chunk of it. The peanut gallery cried "DEMOTION! HE'S WORKING WITH RILEY!", but I saw it more as a fresh start for A-Ry and a close to a story. In fact, the reason why the segment was done was probably to help Riley get a rub himself from how much the crowds HATED The Miz. Judging from the reactions that he got in kicking his former mentor's ass all around the ringside area, it was a great success.

I guess the main thing I'm saying is that yes, the WWE handles booking of heels as ham-handledly as you can get sometimes. That being said, there are guys you need to worry about and guys you don't need to worry about. Miz is one of the guys you don't need to worry about. As long as they give him a microphone and a chunk of time to talk, he'll be over, regardless of how "weak" he's made to look.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

The Inevitable Christian Heel Turn: DO NOT WANT

This feud was great the way it was
Photo Credit: WWE.com

One of the most refreshing things about watching Smackdown the last few weeks has been the main event scene. The main feud between Christian and Randy Orton has been different from most WWE main event tilts in that both guys remain babyfaces and have remained on the "good" side of the ledger at least through Over the Limit. I like it, and I hoped that it would've signaled somewhat of a paradigm shift in the Blue Brand's booking. However, there have been warning signs, classic WWF/E/pro wrestling logic warning signs that point to Christian not staying a "good guy" for much longer.

Even if the narrative from Michael Cole can be discounted because he was an überheel up until his apology and subsequent feud ending (we hope) with Jerry Lawler last night, usually, when an announcer plays up that someone is a loser or lost their best chance at something like a World Championship, it signals that the target is about to do something drastic about it. Couple that with Christian not blaming Orton for how he capitalized on getting his Championship opportunity or nor Teddy Long for making the match because it was his job, I'm beginning to sense that Christian's going to start blaming, yep, you guessed it, the fans for his failings, much like R-Truth and CM Punk and nearly every heel in WWE since Chris Jericho v. 2.0 started doing in 2008.

I don't need to tell you that I think it's a terrible idea if that's the road they're taking. It's not because Christian would make a terrible heel. Far from it, he was one of the best things about early Aughts WWE when he split from Edge and first developed the Captain Charisma character as a dickish and sarcastic villain. He's the rare guy who's supremely adroit playing either side of the alignment column. It has more to do with keeping things fresh, something the WWE has struggled mightily with. It's like there's a formula they use for every feud, and if they don't follow it to a tee, they panic and feel like Linus from Peanuts if his security blanket is somehow stripped from him.

A perfect recent example of this inability to break from the paradigm was in their handling of the issue between The Rock and John Cena. Up to and through WrestleMania, it was handled perfectly (if you discount their bungling of Miz's involvement, but that's a whole other blog). The Rock played to the fans that would cheer for him, and so did John Cena. Neither guy went full heel, but they didn't exactly go buddy-buddy with each other either. Then, the night after WrestleMania happened, and they botched the dynamic by trying to have Cena and Rock play up the mutual respect angle. It killed the crowd and ruined the unique vibe they had, and most importantly, it proved that the WWE was afraid to do anything that deviated from their SOP.

To me, if they turn Christian, it'll be the same deal. Both Orton and Christian have loud fanbases who cheer for them, even when they're pitted against each other. Orton's reactions are markedly louder, but let's not pretend that Christian only gets cheers from some nerdy subset that resides in the collective basement of a nebulous mother figure. This "Internet" crowd is larger than it was in 1999 and it's way vocal too. Catering to the fanbase means more than just catering to one specific group anymore. With the right creative direction, you can engage several different subsets of fans with a single feud and still have both competitors be over as babyfaces rather than having one be a stone cold face and the other be standard heel.

I think all the fans spoke out resoundingly before Christian and Orton were even thought about being paired together anyway. We want to cheer Christian. We want him as a feel-good story, not as some carbon copy of Chris Jericho. Furthermore, there's probably a whole ton of us out there that likes a good face/face feud to be sprinkled in with the good vs. evil dynamic we get all the time. Orton will have plenty of opportunities to go all SCRKO on guys like Mark Henry, Sheamus, Wade Barrett and the like. Plenty. It wouldn't hurt them to show a little depth of character once in awhile, especially when that depth of character was greatly appreciated in the last three weeks between Extreme Rules and Over the Limit.

The point is, Christian doesn't need to be a heel to be a compelling character, and the WWE needs to realize that as a top face, he works. Smackdown and the WWE in general is sorely lacking for compelling top stories, and turning Christian would only reinforce that notion, as he'd just become another RKO victim waiting to happen rather than an option for a viable, second-from-top feud that could keep interest and turn into what would certainly be a slam-bang PPV sub-main event.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Instant Feedback: Macho Forever

This was a very schizoid RAW. The good stuff was good, and when RAW is good, usually it has some good wrestling on it. That was the case tonight. The main event tag match was good (stupid finish aside), as was the three minute Evan Bourne/Jack Swagger match and the United States Championship match too. I also dug the opening segment. You know, R-Truth has been hit or miss since turning heel, but at the same time it's surreal, and in a way, I can dig surreal. "I WANT MY SON BACK" was just the weirdest thing I've heard, but in a way, it worked.

The best thing that happened in terms of storyline advancement though was the break-up between Alex Riley and The Miz. Seriously, it came out of nowhere as how awesome it was. Miz was in rare form tearing Riley a new one, but then what happened when it came to blows was just epic. If they actually knew how to follow up on anyone's initial moment, they would have created a new midcard face attraction to set loose on Smackdown, but I have my doubts. That being said, WOW, the intensity on that beatdown was AMAZING. Riley proved to me that he's got more than just a knack for the promo tonight.

That being said, the misses were pretty bad. For one, do we need to see another hit-and-run angle? Big Show getting struck by a car was bad, but what was worse was how they dragged the segment out. Also, the Kharma stuff... again, this is where I'd say I'd give them the benefit of the doubt on following up a disappointing segment that made a U-turn in the narrative, but does WWE Creative really deserve that benefit? I felt like the people in the Simpson household felt when they saw the debut of Poochie. They could have gone to the fireworks factory! Dammit! Again, this could be good, but at the same time, yeah, I don't have much faith.

But yeah, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Macho Man tribute, and it was so well done. Bravo, the WWE video and production department did it again. I'm not the biggest Coldplay fan, but the song was definitely the perfect fit for the montage. Macho Forever. I'm glad that they finally gave him the treatment, even if it took them until he died to get that.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!