Shots off the Turnbuckle-- A Smark Response Posted by Robb Michael on 01/12/05 I know that many websites do not welcome the idea of rivalry between columnists. I certainly don’t want to start any trouble myself. The columns I publish are a way to express myself to you fans in the hope of reaching out and inspiring some of you to send the WWE a message in some manner, shape or form. I seek not to make headlines or waves; I seek to entertain and inform. But I am compelled at this time to respond to a recent column written by a fellow 4W-Horseman. I have all the respect in the world for Johnny Rotten and his opinions. But I strongly disagree with many of his points in his recent column, “Just when you thought…” Overall, it was definitely a good piece, because it lit a fire under my ass to write something after a couple of weeks of doing nothing. For the record, I e-mailed Rotten before writing this peace and asked for his blessing to post this to you. He agreed, and I thank him for his acknowledgment. Johnny Rotten makes the point that it seems like nobody on the RAW roster can carry Triple-H’s torch. He makes the fair argument that Randy Orton has lost the momentum he had before his heel turn. I’ll give Rotten the benefit of the doubt; Orton isn’t the same character he was. But there’s a reason why Orton-as-a-face hasn’t worked, and that he lost all of his momentum. That reason, like so many other reasons to explain WWE failures, is in the booking. Randy Orton was champion for a month. He had one nationally televised title defense during that tenure. Orton never got out of the box, and never got the chance to carry any torch, because somebody else wanted to carry the torch. More on that later. God knows what the hell happened to Edge, and I have to agree with Rotten on that one 100%. Edge is a terrible heel. He comes off the way he did when he and Christian were heel Tag Team Champions. The kind of over-the-top narcissism may have worked in that mid-card division, but if you’re seriously going after the World Title, you better not give me the same old “Look at me, I’m special, I should be World Champion” bull. You have to impress me with more than just talk and using the ropes for leverage in order to beat somebody. If you can’t get over that way in the main event, go back to tagging up with Christian. Again, Rotten’s right on the money when it comes to Chris Jericho, whose talent has been flushed down the toilet by WWE since 2002. The shame of it all is that Chris Jericho is one of the all-time greatest faces in wrestling history. His reign as Undisputed Champion between December 2001 and Wrestlemania XVIII was during a phase when Jericho was more like Edge today. Clearly, he was not at his best as a heel, and it took a very long time for WWE to finally make him a face again. If he became the World Champion next week on RAW (he won’t), the ratings would instantly jump. The fans would jump on board like crazy, perhaps even more so than they would for Batista (more on him in a sec). But that can’t happen now, because WWE has reduced Jericho to a super mid-carder. It’s a big, damn shame to waste his talent in a feud with Tyson Tomko. Shame on WWE for letting this happen. Rotten also questions whether it really is Batista’s time or not. Take a look at his performance in the last two months, with all of the tension his character is building up, and tell me with a straight face that Batista’s not ready. This guy is the real deal, and the fans are practically begging for him to go nuts. For two years this guy has been the quiet enforcer for Evolution. He hasn’t done much, and it piqued the fans interest as to why he doesn’t do much. He has the look, the skills, and now we know he can speak on the stick very well. It’s one of those rare occasions when WWE actually got it right in building Batista’s character. And now it is time to strike, because the iron’s hot, and the fans would go crazy for a Batista title run. To wait much longer would kill his momentum. As much as Rotten was right on Edge, he was way off base when it came to Chris Benoit. All Benoit did during the five months he served as World Champion was go out and kick ass. He gave the fans all that he had. You can’t size that all up on ratings or buyrates. The man built himself up into being one of the all-time great World Champions. The fans loved it when he won the World Title at Wrestlemania XX, and they were with him every step of the way. The low ratings during that period was not his fault. There were problems similar to the same problems WWE is plagued by now. But nobody in WWE is blaming the World Champion now, are they? The only people who truly believe that Benoit was a ratings drain while World Champion are those receiving paychecks signed by Vince McMahon. Or those who got married to Stephanie McMahon. Johnny Rotten asks if anyone on the RAW roster can carry the torch. I have a question of my own-- how can anyone carry the torch when Triple-H won’t take his mitts off it? Let’s think of this as 4 X 100 track relay race. Let’s say that each of the four runners have to go 100 meters. And let’s say that one of the runners says to his teammates, “Listen, don’t worry about it, I’ll run 200 meters. We’ll win, don’t worry.” What does that do? Well, for starters, the opponents are sending out four fresh runners to run 100 meters. This team is sending out only two. One teammate will run 200 meters and, unless he’s Superman, is going to tire out versus the opposition. In addition, the one runner left out of the team is relegated to sitting on the bench and doing nothing, when he could clearly run faster and help the team win. No running team with half-a-brain would allow one of its runners to do more work than necessary, or feed an ego to such a degree. It’s counterproductive to the ultimate goal-- victory. In WWE’s case, the goal is-- well, what is their goal now without any serious competition? You and I both know what the goals should be. The WWE should be thinking of getting big ratings and solidifying its status in mainstream media. The goal should be creating a product so damn good that several networks would be willing to throw millions of dollars in broadcasting contracts at them. The goal should be creating a product so damn good that fans would be paying out their hard-earned money on tickets and pay-per-views without any regret. Those should be their goals. But no. Vince McMahon doesn’t see it that way. No WCW, no problem. Or so he believes. Because of his self-satisfaction, he lets Triple-H stay in the spotlight match after match, week after week, month after month, year after year. He dominates the program, and the fans are clearly tired of him. And when this company needs a new Champion, when it needs someone new to carry the torch, Triple-H squashes it. I had no problem with Benoit’s five month reign; I did object to Randy Orton getting only one month as Champion before Triple-H stole his thunder. One month! He only defended his title once on RAW during that time-- ONCE, and it happened before Triple-H turned on him. How do you expect any wrestler to build himself up in just one title defense? Orton had a lot of hype, but he’s no miracle worker. Great champions take time to be built, just like a great movie plot. If movies were made in the same fashion WWE designed Orton’s title reign, The Lord of the Rings trilogy would have been over an hour into the first movie, and would have gone down as one of the worst films ever. If The Rock’s first title reign ended in one month, he would have never become the legend that he is. But back then, Rock didn’t have to contend with an overbearing ego the likes of Triple-H. There was more important competition back then, ala WWF vs. WCW. There were no dominant egos on the roster back then, and wrestling was better for it. Now there’s no rival, so Vince McMahon and Triple-H just do what the want. The hell with all the money they’re losing; just keep Triple-H happy. He is his son-in-law after all. Triple-H has been World Champion way too long over the last couple of years. WWE caves into his demands the minute another Champion slips up. They give it back to him, and he holds onto it as if his life depends on it. How can the torch be passed down to anyone when the bearer refuses to pass it down? How can you build up new Champions when the current one refuses to give up the spot? How can you build up new Champions when you don’t give them the chance to shine? No matter how much anyone tries to rationalize it, Triple-H as World Champion/Over-bearing Overlord is bad news for business. That was my biggest contention with Johnny Rotten’s column. I also take issue as to why Rotten thinks Paul Heyman is-- in so many words-- overrated. He asked what Heyman had done with ECW and WWE to make anyone think of him a legend. Let’s take a look at Heyman’s ECW days. Granted Paul E. had no idea how to run the business end of his company, and would have been better served by allowing someone else to handle accounting and payroll. But can you come up with another person who made more of an impact on the wrestling world long-term? Only Vince McMahon is more of a legend than Paul Heyman. All Heyman did was revolutionize the business by creating a new style of wrestling. He drew in a fan base beyond everyone’s expectations that were loyal to him to the very end. If Paul Heyman didn’t run ECW, WWF would never had created it’s “Attitude” which saved their company. That fast-paced style of wrestling we’ve come to expect today is in part the responsibility of Paul Heyman. What did he do creatively? Not much, and that says something else about Paul Heyman. Heyman didn’t bother with lame gimmicks and fake storylines. For the most part, this guy was a hands-off booker, and he basically guided his talent to come up with their own stuff. And it worked. He made it work because he made the action real, which in part is the result of letting the talent do most of the character development. WWE is so enamored with gimmicks, storylines, and self-censorship that it all comes off as an act. We all know that. We knew ECW was scripted too. But it did have a real feel, didn’t it? Fans loved that, and it was another thing that was revolutionary. Paul Heyman is a genius, and we have to face the reality that WWE hates him for that. They hate his guts because they in many ways stole his ideas. They hate his guts because they know he can turn this ship around by having creative control. They hate his guts because not only do the fans love and appreciate him for what he’s done, but that many of the wrestlers themselves love, appreciate, and respect him for what he’s done. I guarantee you that deep down, the roster doesn’t feel that same love, appreciation, and outright respect for the McMahon family. And that idea must eat away at them. I have a ton of respect for Johnny Rotten. I think he’s a great writer, and I respect his opinions. But I had to voice my opinion this way, because I just believe differently. I’m absolutely disgusted with the direction WWE is taking. This company ought to be doing better than what it’s doing now. It just doesn’t have the drive or desire to do so. And that apathy, in my view, is not worthy of anyone’s defense. That's all for now. Send your questions and comments to robbmichael4w@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading. More Columns [an error occurred while processing this directive]