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I thought I'd write a column, the likes of which you'd find on wrestlezone.com or something, so I did, and aren't I pleased. Hopefully it will spark off some debate amongst you.
***
What’s Your Style?
I’ve been reading articles on the Internet for a good while now, and I have to say that most of it isn’t all that helpful to me. There are some diamonds in the rough, and the reports about the smaller federations are very interesting and helpful to me, someone who hasn’t got the best capabilities for seeing wrestling. I thoroughly enjoy the matches that I’ve seen from NWA:TNA and Ring of Honor, especially the now-famed X-Division. However, I do not enjoy watching WWE’s recent shows. I’m not going to say that Ring of Honor or TNA are the perfect promotions, because, put simply, they aren’t. Nevertheless, they are a step up from WWE in terms of how much I enjoy watching them, and I think I can put it down to 2 key factors.
1. Storylines/Angles.
This is the key area where seemingly no one can get it right lately. The Attitude era had some truly excellent storylines that I really enjoyed tuning in every week to follow. The Corporation, the Ministry, the Corporate Ministry, the Union, it was all there. I genuinely looked forward to seeing RAW and, later on, SmackDown! as well. But then it started going a bit wrong. We got some decent storylines (some that I’d give my right arm for now – Mick Foley vs. Triple H, for instance) but nothing that quite gave me that same sense of intrigue and longing for the next instalment. Still, those storylines were good; not great, but good.
But today, we get a tag team with someone called a ‘Super Hero In Training’. Oh, wait, if you just get the initials of that, then you get, wait – oh, it’s a naughty word! How funny! Well done, Brian and crew – that’s where the ratings are! They might as well have “It’s funny, honest!” running at the bottom of the screen, because that’s the only way they’ll get laughs. This is low-brow rubbish – they are treating every viewer with complete disrespect. I know that RAW is broadcast on Spike TV, ‘the first station for men’ or however they wish to put it, but it’s just too easy to tar everyone with the same brush. Come on, lads in the writing team, pull your fingers out and start earning your cash. Please? This latest Kane plot might have been half-decent, should there not have been so many damn holes in it. Why on Earth can Kane piledrive the CEO and not get fired? It just makes no sense.
For me, there are two particular types of scenario that work for a storyline, they really aren’t too different from one another, and they are best explained using examples:
a.) A feud for the belt.
Example feud: Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar.
By ‘feud for the belt’, I don’t mean a simple feud where two guys just ‘end up’ feuding. I mean a feud where each man is convinced that they are better than the other, and that the only way to prove that to the other guy is to win the belt – they want the belt to show their rival that they are superior. Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar were both from amateur backgrounds, both very successful, both outstanding athletes. Both had a desire to be better than the other, and so a feud for the WWE Heavyweight Championship was born. There was no arguing over a girl, no petty destruction of the other guy’s stuff, just proper rivalry.
A fine example of how to hype up this type of feud was displayed by WWE themselves in the Brock/Rock feud. They tried to hype this up as an almost straight fight – showing the athletes train, getting their say on the match and other such things. The Angle/Brock feud really the did the WWE Heavyweight Title Belt a lot of favours – it pushed both wrestlers and the belt. This is the sort of feud WWE could do with for the Intercontinental Title on RAW, or the US Title on SmackDown!
b.) A feud of hatred
Example feud: Sabu vs. Taz
A feud of hatred is usually the best time for a writing team to experiment, but only if the wrestlers involved have history behind them, such as Sabu and Taz. This type of feud can involve a title, or even different titles if the feud is sustained for long enough, but never should the title become bigger than the belt. The belt should be shown as being crucial to the two of them proving that they are better than one another.
Feuds of hatred often end up with both wrestlers in a tag team, or showing each other respect, at which point you’ve lost the whole allure of the feud in the first place. Unless one of them quickly turns on the other, the feud’s whole point is lost. When fans in later years watch the tapes, they are going to be thinking, “Why are these guys fighting? They made up a little while later.” This shouldn’t be happening with a proper feud of hatred, not if the promotions want to be treated seriously.
The feud between RVD and Jerry Lynn was a somewhat watered down feud in terms of emotion: they weren’t really driven by hatred, but rivalry. They were in between these two types of feud, as they were feuding because they considered themselves better than each other, but weren’t necessarily too concerned about the ECW TV Title as to be willing to die for it, as was the case for Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar with the WWE Championship.
A feud of hatred, if taken far enough, can give the writers a real opportunity to experiment with different match types, stipulations or just different types of angles. Both wrestlers getting so angry and emotive with the other leads to them trying ever more desperate measures to get one up on the other, which can provide us with some excellent television, especially when the feud climaxes in a huge match.
At the moment, as I said, none of the promotions that I have seen seem to have a storyline genuinely worth my time. As good as Kurt Angle’s feud with Brock Lesnar is, it’s not enough for me to watch SmackDown! each week when I can just get the results on the Internet. However, the second point of my argument is the one that I am most concerned about.
2. In-ring action
This is the area where ROH and NWA:TNA are beating WWE to the punch lately. ROH, while it’s weak in terms of the storylines, is exceptionally strong in terms of what happens in the ring. The matches I’ve seen have been eventful, entertaining to watch, and yet have also told a story, which is important as well.
TNA’s X-Division is the showcase for some of the best wrestling I’ve ever seen, and has some true talent, two of whom were wasted by WWE: Lo Ki and the fantastic Jerry Lynn. Jerry Lynn is released ‘because there’s no storyline for him?’ For goodness sake, what storyline have you got for Mark Henry, Vince? Why have you been holding on to Nova for so long with no storyline, even when he’s been ready for TV for months and months? Release the guy, let him be seen by the world once more, do us all a favour. But I digress… AJ Styles is the real future of this business, and hopefully others like Amazing Red and Lo Ki can follow him.
But WWE is lagging behind. Badly. They have managed to assemble a cruiserweight division that would be treated as if it were some divine intervention in any other federation. But, and sadly this has been typical of WWE lately, it is wasted. Matt Hardy managed to restore some sort of respectability to the belt, but it looks as if that’s going to mean nothing soon enough. The WWE negotiated for months to be able to get Ultimo Dragon to work for them; finally, he signed. This exciting prospect, the inventor of the Asai moonsault, could well have been the future of the WWE Cruiserweight division, carrying the rest of the division to fabulous new heights. Sadly, it looks as though we’ll never know what he could have done, as it sounds as though we won’t be seeing too much of him from now on. And why is this? It’s because he ‘doesn’t fit the WWE style’. So, Vince, are you telling me that after so many months of negotiation to get this guy to sign for you, only now do you realise that he’s a high-flying Japanese wrestler? Sorry to go on the attack so much, but it’s a very serious point. They’ve signed him, and now he’s tied down to them for however many years his contract is worth, denying him the chance to work anywhere else. Disgraceful.
And while we have Ultimo Dragon being denied the chance to shine on SmackDown!, we have the honour of seeing everyone’s favourite wrestler, Kevin Nash, on RAW every week. Great! I dare say that he does fit with WWE’s style – he’s a big guy, after all! He’s got to be good, then! A good example to show where WWE’s priorities lie is the D’Lo Brown situation – a wrestler with plenty of talent, who could have been an asset to the Intercontinental Division on RAW, is released. Just like that. Meanwhile, Mark Henry remains on the company payroll because… well, why is that? I couldn’t say why, he’s certainly not interesting to watch.
I can understand that WWE is trying to push a slower, more mat-based type of wrestling, and although that can be boring, that is OK with me. What I really object to is every other type of style being dismissed – just because Ultimo Dragon doesn’t use a headlock at every opportunity shouldn’t mean that he is sent to Velocity every week. Surely even Vince can see that the style used in the X-Division is really exciting and could be an asset to business? Having that style on SmackDown! each week could easily strengthen a somewhat flimsy undercard, and it doesn’t mean that every single wrestler working for WWE has to fly – it just caters for a different audience. It’s simple business sense – don’t eliminate certain sectors of the market, because it means you’re already losing the chance to make money. Variety is the spice of life, too. Having something to rival the X-Division would mean that I would tolerate seeing the Big Show on my screens, too.
WWE isn’t all bad, of course. John Cena has become one of the brightest prospects they’ve had for years, and used what could have been a really awful gimmick to push him to just below the main event status that all wrestlers yearn for. The Brock/Angle feud is also good at the moment, and the prospect of an Elimination Chamber match, while a mark of fairly bad booking, is something to look forward to, at least. But there are many gaps on both RAW and SmackDown!, and WWE will have to fill them soon if they really do want some higher ratings.
***
What’s Your Style?
I’ve been reading articles on the Internet for a good while now, and I have to say that most of it isn’t all that helpful to me. There are some diamonds in the rough, and the reports about the smaller federations are very interesting and helpful to me, someone who hasn’t got the best capabilities for seeing wrestling. I thoroughly enjoy the matches that I’ve seen from NWA:TNA and Ring of Honor, especially the now-famed X-Division. However, I do not enjoy watching WWE’s recent shows. I’m not going to say that Ring of Honor or TNA are the perfect promotions, because, put simply, they aren’t. Nevertheless, they are a step up from WWE in terms of how much I enjoy watching them, and I think I can put it down to 2 key factors.
1. Storylines/Angles.
This is the key area where seemingly no one can get it right lately. The Attitude era had some truly excellent storylines that I really enjoyed tuning in every week to follow. The Corporation, the Ministry, the Corporate Ministry, the Union, it was all there. I genuinely looked forward to seeing RAW and, later on, SmackDown! as well. But then it started going a bit wrong. We got some decent storylines (some that I’d give my right arm for now – Mick Foley vs. Triple H, for instance) but nothing that quite gave me that same sense of intrigue and longing for the next instalment. Still, those storylines were good; not great, but good.
But today, we get a tag team with someone called a ‘Super Hero In Training’. Oh, wait, if you just get the initials of that, then you get, wait – oh, it’s a naughty word! How funny! Well done, Brian and crew – that’s where the ratings are! They might as well have “It’s funny, honest!” running at the bottom of the screen, because that’s the only way they’ll get laughs. This is low-brow rubbish – they are treating every viewer with complete disrespect. I know that RAW is broadcast on Spike TV, ‘the first station for men’ or however they wish to put it, but it’s just too easy to tar everyone with the same brush. Come on, lads in the writing team, pull your fingers out and start earning your cash. Please? This latest Kane plot might have been half-decent, should there not have been so many damn holes in it. Why on Earth can Kane piledrive the CEO and not get fired? It just makes no sense.
For me, there are two particular types of scenario that work for a storyline, they really aren’t too different from one another, and they are best explained using examples:
a.) A feud for the belt.
Example feud: Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar.
By ‘feud for the belt’, I don’t mean a simple feud where two guys just ‘end up’ feuding. I mean a feud where each man is convinced that they are better than the other, and that the only way to prove that to the other guy is to win the belt – they want the belt to show their rival that they are superior. Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar were both from amateur backgrounds, both very successful, both outstanding athletes. Both had a desire to be better than the other, and so a feud for the WWE Heavyweight Championship was born. There was no arguing over a girl, no petty destruction of the other guy’s stuff, just proper rivalry.
A fine example of how to hype up this type of feud was displayed by WWE themselves in the Brock/Rock feud. They tried to hype this up as an almost straight fight – showing the athletes train, getting their say on the match and other such things. The Angle/Brock feud really the did the WWE Heavyweight Title Belt a lot of favours – it pushed both wrestlers and the belt. This is the sort of feud WWE could do with for the Intercontinental Title on RAW, or the US Title on SmackDown!
b.) A feud of hatred
Example feud: Sabu vs. Taz
A feud of hatred is usually the best time for a writing team to experiment, but only if the wrestlers involved have history behind them, such as Sabu and Taz. This type of feud can involve a title, or even different titles if the feud is sustained for long enough, but never should the title become bigger than the belt. The belt should be shown as being crucial to the two of them proving that they are better than one another.
Feuds of hatred often end up with both wrestlers in a tag team, or showing each other respect, at which point you’ve lost the whole allure of the feud in the first place. Unless one of them quickly turns on the other, the feud’s whole point is lost. When fans in later years watch the tapes, they are going to be thinking, “Why are these guys fighting? They made up a little while later.” This shouldn’t be happening with a proper feud of hatred, not if the promotions want to be treated seriously.
The feud between RVD and Jerry Lynn was a somewhat watered down feud in terms of emotion: they weren’t really driven by hatred, but rivalry. They were in between these two types of feud, as they were feuding because they considered themselves better than each other, but weren’t necessarily too concerned about the ECW TV Title as to be willing to die for it, as was the case for Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar with the WWE Championship.
A feud of hatred, if taken far enough, can give the writers a real opportunity to experiment with different match types, stipulations or just different types of angles. Both wrestlers getting so angry and emotive with the other leads to them trying ever more desperate measures to get one up on the other, which can provide us with some excellent television, especially when the feud climaxes in a huge match.
At the moment, as I said, none of the promotions that I have seen seem to have a storyline genuinely worth my time. As good as Kurt Angle’s feud with Brock Lesnar is, it’s not enough for me to watch SmackDown! each week when I can just get the results on the Internet. However, the second point of my argument is the one that I am most concerned about.
2. In-ring action
This is the area where ROH and NWA:TNA are beating WWE to the punch lately. ROH, while it’s weak in terms of the storylines, is exceptionally strong in terms of what happens in the ring. The matches I’ve seen have been eventful, entertaining to watch, and yet have also told a story, which is important as well.
TNA’s X-Division is the showcase for some of the best wrestling I’ve ever seen, and has some true talent, two of whom were wasted by WWE: Lo Ki and the fantastic Jerry Lynn. Jerry Lynn is released ‘because there’s no storyline for him?’ For goodness sake, what storyline have you got for Mark Henry, Vince? Why have you been holding on to Nova for so long with no storyline, even when he’s been ready for TV for months and months? Release the guy, let him be seen by the world once more, do us all a favour. But I digress… AJ Styles is the real future of this business, and hopefully others like Amazing Red and Lo Ki can follow him.
But WWE is lagging behind. Badly. They have managed to assemble a cruiserweight division that would be treated as if it were some divine intervention in any other federation. But, and sadly this has been typical of WWE lately, it is wasted. Matt Hardy managed to restore some sort of respectability to the belt, but it looks as if that’s going to mean nothing soon enough. The WWE negotiated for months to be able to get Ultimo Dragon to work for them; finally, he signed. This exciting prospect, the inventor of the Asai moonsault, could well have been the future of the WWE Cruiserweight division, carrying the rest of the division to fabulous new heights. Sadly, it looks as though we’ll never know what he could have done, as it sounds as though we won’t be seeing too much of him from now on. And why is this? It’s because he ‘doesn’t fit the WWE style’. So, Vince, are you telling me that after so many months of negotiation to get this guy to sign for you, only now do you realise that he’s a high-flying Japanese wrestler? Sorry to go on the attack so much, but it’s a very serious point. They’ve signed him, and now he’s tied down to them for however many years his contract is worth, denying him the chance to work anywhere else. Disgraceful.
And while we have Ultimo Dragon being denied the chance to shine on SmackDown!, we have the honour of seeing everyone’s favourite wrestler, Kevin Nash, on RAW every week. Great! I dare say that he does fit with WWE’s style – he’s a big guy, after all! He’s got to be good, then! A good example to show where WWE’s priorities lie is the D’Lo Brown situation – a wrestler with plenty of talent, who could have been an asset to the Intercontinental Division on RAW, is released. Just like that. Meanwhile, Mark Henry remains on the company payroll because… well, why is that? I couldn’t say why, he’s certainly not interesting to watch.
I can understand that WWE is trying to push a slower, more mat-based type of wrestling, and although that can be boring, that is OK with me. What I really object to is every other type of style being dismissed – just because Ultimo Dragon doesn’t use a headlock at every opportunity shouldn’t mean that he is sent to Velocity every week. Surely even Vince can see that the style used in the X-Division is really exciting and could be an asset to business? Having that style on SmackDown! each week could easily strengthen a somewhat flimsy undercard, and it doesn’t mean that every single wrestler working for WWE has to fly – it just caters for a different audience. It’s simple business sense – don’t eliminate certain sectors of the market, because it means you’re already losing the chance to make money. Variety is the spice of life, too. Having something to rival the X-Division would mean that I would tolerate seeing the Big Show on my screens, too.
WWE isn’t all bad, of course. John Cena has become one of the brightest prospects they’ve had for years, and used what could have been a really awful gimmick to push him to just below the main event status that all wrestlers yearn for. The Brock/Angle feud is also good at the moment, and the prospect of an Elimination Chamber match, while a mark of fairly bad booking, is something to look forward to, at least. But there are many gaps on both RAW and SmackDown!, and WWE will have to fill them soon if they really do want some higher ratings.
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Thanks for the feedback, guys.
It's a shame that I'm writing about it, though - it really shouldn't be happening, but that's what you get from a monopoly.
It's a shame that I'm writing about it, though - it really shouldn't be happening, but that's what you get from a monopoly.
The storylines have not been interesting and Raw has become, as you said, a show full of low brow humour. And again, the Kane storyline had potential but with so many plot holes and the fact that he hasn't really wrestled against someone since he got locked up kind of irritates me.
The feuds have been rather poor and the use of wrestlers is terrible. Ultimo Dragon V Rey Mysterio would have ruled muchly but that's been ditched. They've gone the wrong way. They focus on the angles and the boring promos when the majority want to see longer matches and more ability. Nowadays, the older and slower wrestlers all seem to go around punching and kicking continuously.
I agree that Cena's gimmick is a very bright part of Smackdown and Benoit V Eddie wrestling for about 30 minutes wins me over. To think that Smackdown was better when Paul Heyman had an input in the show makes you wonder how far they could go. Raw has been a travesty and the real talent has been surpressed.
Nice article. Liked it.
The feuds have been rather poor and the use of wrestlers is terrible. Ultimo Dragon V Rey Mysterio would have ruled muchly but that's been ditched. They've gone the wrong way. They focus on the angles and the boring promos when the majority want to see longer matches and more ability. Nowadays, the older and slower wrestlers all seem to go around punching and kicking continuously.
I agree that Cena's gimmick is a very bright part of Smackdown and Benoit V Eddie wrestling for about 30 minutes wins me over. To think that Smackdown was better when Paul Heyman had an input in the show makes you wonder how far they could go. Raw has been a travesty and the real talent has been surpressed.
Nice article. Liked it.
Well written, and I agree with much of it...WWE has the talent, especially in the main event, but isn't using it correctly when Kevin Nash is in the main event at SummerSlam, and RVD and Kane aren't.
They have their priorities the wrong way round now. RVD and Y2J perform an awesome match, one that would easily main event SmackDown, and yet the RAW main event is some 'match' between Bischoff and Shane McMahon (neither of which are proper contracted wrestlers.)
And it's strange that if RVD and Y2J are working such great matches, why are they being ignored for the likes of Nash, Big Show and Goldberg?
But yeah, along with Y2J, John Cena is my current favourite wrestler...his gimmick is great, he's got the talent and I wouldn't be surprised if he turns into the new Rock - he's a cool heel, which is what Rock was before he turned into one of the biggest faces of all time.
They have their priorities the wrong way round now. RVD and Y2J perform an awesome match, one that would easily main event SmackDown, and yet the RAW main event is some 'match' between Bischoff and Shane McMahon (neither of which are proper contracted wrestlers.)
And it's strange that if RVD and Y2J are working such great matches, why are they being ignored for the likes of Nash, Big Show and Goldberg?
But yeah, along with Y2J, John Cena is my current favourite wrestler...his gimmick is great, he's got the talent and I wouldn't be surprised if he turns into the new Rock - he's a cool heel, which is what Rock was before he turned into one of the biggest faces of all time.
I thought I'd write a column, the likes of which you'd find on wrestlezone.com or something, so I did, and aren't I pleased. Hopefully it will spark off some debate amongst you.
***
What’s Your Style?
I’ve been reading articles on the Internet for a good while now, and I have to say that most of it isn’t all that helpful to me. There are some diamonds in the rough, and the reports about the smaller federations are very interesting and helpful to me, someone who hasn’t got the best capabilities for seeing wrestling. I thoroughly enjoy the matches that I’ve seen from NWA:TNA and Ring of Honor, especially the now-famed X-Division. However, I do not enjoy watching WWE’s recent shows. I’m not going to say that Ring of Honor or TNA are the perfect promotions, because, put simply, they aren’t. Nevertheless, they are a step up from WWE in terms of how much I enjoy watching them, and I think I can put it down to 2 key factors.
1. Storylines/Angles.
This is the key area where seemingly no one can get it right lately. The Attitude era had some truly excellent storylines that I really enjoyed tuning in every week to follow. The Corporation, the Ministry, the Corporate Ministry, the Union, it was all there. I genuinely looked forward to seeing RAW and, later on, SmackDown! as well. But then it started going a bit wrong. We got some decent storylines (some that I’d give my right arm for now – Mick Foley vs. Triple H, for instance) but nothing that quite gave me that same sense of intrigue and longing for the next instalment. Still, those storylines were good; not great, but good.
But today, we get a tag team with someone called a ‘Super Hero In Training’. Oh, wait, if you just get the initials of that, then you get, wait – oh, it’s a naughty word! How funny! Well done, Brian and crew – that’s where the ratings are! They might as well have “It’s funny, honest!” running at the bottom of the screen, because that’s the only way they’ll get laughs. This is low-brow rubbish – they are treating every viewer with complete disrespect. I know that RAW is broadcast on Spike TV, ‘the first station for men’ or however they wish to put it, but it’s just too easy to tar everyone with the same brush. Come on, lads in the writing team, pull your fingers out and start earning your cash. Please? This latest Kane plot might have been half-decent, should there not have been so many damn holes in it. Why on Earth can Kane piledrive the CEO and not get fired? It just makes no sense.
For me, there are two particular types of scenario that work for a storyline, they really aren’t too different from one another, and they are best explained using examples:
a.) A feud for the belt.
Example feud: Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar.
By ‘feud for the belt’, I don’t mean a simple feud where two guys just ‘end up’ feuding. I mean a feud where each man is convinced that they are better than the other, and that the only way to prove that to the other guy is to win the belt – they want the belt to show their rival that they are superior. Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar were both from amateur backgrounds, both very successful, both outstanding athletes. Both had a desire to be better than the other, and so a feud for the WWE Heavyweight Championship was born. There was no arguing over a girl, no petty destruction of the other guy’s stuff, just proper rivalry.
A fine example of how to hype up this type of feud was displayed by WWE themselves in the Brock/Rock feud. They tried to hype this up as an almost straight fight – showing the athletes train, getting their say on the match and other such things. The Angle/Brock feud really the did the WWE Heavyweight Title Belt a lot of favours – it pushed both wrestlers and the belt. This is the sort of feud WWE could do with for the Intercontinental Title on RAW, or the US Title on SmackDown!
b.) A feud of hatred
Example feud: Sabu vs. Taz
A feud of hatred is usually the best time for a writing team to experiment, but only if the wrestlers involved have history behind them, such as Sabu and Taz. This type of feud can involve a title, or even different titles if the feud is sustained for long enough, but never should the title become bigger than the belt. The belt should be shown as being crucial to the two of them proving that they are better than one another.
Feuds of hatred often end up with both wrestlers in a tag team, or showing each other respect, at which point you’ve lost the whole allure of the feud in the first place. Unless one of them quickly turns on the other, the feud’s whole point is lost. When fans in later years watch the tapes, they are going to be thinking, “Why are these guys fighting? They made up a little while later.” This shouldn’t be happening with a proper feud of hatred, not if the promotions want to be treated seriously.
The feud between RVD and Jerry Lynn was a somewhat watered down feud in terms of emotion: they weren’t really driven by hatred, but rivalry. They were in between these two types of feud, as they were feuding because they considered themselves better than each other, but weren’t necessarily too concerned about the ECW TV Title as to be willing to die for it, as was the case for Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar with the WWE Championship.
A feud of hatred, if taken far enough, can give the writers a real opportunity to experiment with different match types, stipulations or just different types of angles. Both wrestlers getting so angry and emotive with the other leads to them trying ever more desperate measures to get one up on the other, which can provide us with some excellent television, especially when the feud climaxes in a huge match.
At the moment, as I said, none of the promotions that I have seen seem to have a storyline genuinely worth my time. As good as Kurt Angle’s feud with Brock Lesnar is, it’s not enough for me to watch SmackDown! each week when I can just get the results on the Internet. However, the second point of my argument is the one that I am most concerned about.
2. In-ring action
This is the area where ROH and NWA:TNA are beating WWE to the punch lately. ROH, while it’s weak in terms of the storylines, is exceptionally strong in terms of what happens in the ring. The matches I’ve seen have been eventful, entertaining to watch, and yet have also told a story, which is important as well.
TNA’s X-Division is the showcase for some of the best wrestling I’ve ever seen, and has some true talent, two of whom were wasted by WWE: Lo Ki and the fantastic Jerry Lynn. Jerry Lynn is released ‘because there’s no storyline for him?’ For goodness sake, what storyline have you got for Mark Henry, Vince? Why have you been holding on to Nova for so long with no storyline, even when he’s been ready for TV for months and months? Release the guy, let him be seen by the world once more, do us all a favour. But I digress… AJ Styles is the real future of this business, and hopefully others like Amazing Red and Lo Ki can follow him.
But WWE is lagging behind. Badly. They have managed to assemble a cruiserweight division that would be treated as if it were some divine intervention in any other federation. But, and sadly this has been typical of WWE lately, it is wasted. Matt Hardy managed to restore some sort of respectability to the belt, but it looks as if that’s going to mean nothing soon enough. The WWE negotiated for months to be able to get Ultimo Dragon to work for them; finally, he signed. This exciting prospect, the inventor of the Asai moonsault, could well have been the future of the WWE Cruiserweight division, carrying the rest of the division to fabulous new heights. Sadly, it looks as though we’ll never know what he could have done, as it sounds as though we won’t be seeing too much of him from now on. And why is this? It’s because he ‘doesn’t fit the WWE style’. So, Vince, are you telling me that after so many months of negotiation to get this guy to sign for you, only now do you realise that he’s a high-flying Japanese wrestler? Sorry to go on the attack so much, but it’s a very serious point. They’ve signed him, and now he’s tied down to them for however many years his contract is worth, denying him the chance to work anywhere else. Disgraceful.
And while we have Ultimo Dragon being denied the chance to shine on SmackDown!, we have the honour of seeing everyone’s favourite wrestler, Kevin Nash, on RAW every week. Great! I dare say that he does fit with WWE’s style – he’s a big guy, after all! He’s got to be good, then! A good example to show where WWE’s priorities lie is the D’Lo Brown situation – a wrestler with plenty of talent, who could have been an asset to the Intercontinental Division on RAW, is released. Just like that. Meanwhile, Mark Henry remains on the company payroll because… well, why is that? I couldn’t say why, he’s certainly not interesting to watch.
I can understand that WWE is trying to push a slower, more mat-based type of wrestling, and although that can be boring, that is OK with me. What I really object to is every other type of style being dismissed – just because Ultimo Dragon doesn’t use a headlock at every opportunity shouldn’t mean that he is sent to Velocity every week. Surely even Vince can see that the style used in the X-Division is really exciting and could be an asset to business? Having that style on SmackDown! each week could easily strengthen a somewhat flimsy undercard, and it doesn’t mean that every single wrestler working for WWE has to fly – it just caters for a different audience. It’s simple business sense – don’t eliminate certain sectors of the market, because it means you’re already losing the chance to make money. Variety is the spice of life, too. Having something to rival the X-Division would mean that I would tolerate seeing the Big Show on my screens, too.
WWE isn’t all bad, of course. John Cena has become one of the brightest prospects they’ve had for years, and used what could have been a really awful gimmick to push him to just below the main event status that all wrestlers yearn for. The Brock/Angle feud is also good at the moment, and the prospect of an Elimination Chamber match, while a mark of fairly bad booking, is something to look forward to, at least. But there are many gaps on both RAW and SmackDown!, and WWE will have to fill them soon if they really do want some higher ratings.
***
What’s Your Style?
I’ve been reading articles on the Internet for a good while now, and I have to say that most of it isn’t all that helpful to me. There are some diamonds in the rough, and the reports about the smaller federations are very interesting and helpful to me, someone who hasn’t got the best capabilities for seeing wrestling. I thoroughly enjoy the matches that I’ve seen from NWA:TNA and Ring of Honor, especially the now-famed X-Division. However, I do not enjoy watching WWE’s recent shows. I’m not going to say that Ring of Honor or TNA are the perfect promotions, because, put simply, they aren’t. Nevertheless, they are a step up from WWE in terms of how much I enjoy watching them, and I think I can put it down to 2 key factors.
1. Storylines/Angles.
This is the key area where seemingly no one can get it right lately. The Attitude era had some truly excellent storylines that I really enjoyed tuning in every week to follow. The Corporation, the Ministry, the Corporate Ministry, the Union, it was all there. I genuinely looked forward to seeing RAW and, later on, SmackDown! as well. But then it started going a bit wrong. We got some decent storylines (some that I’d give my right arm for now – Mick Foley vs. Triple H, for instance) but nothing that quite gave me that same sense of intrigue and longing for the next instalment. Still, those storylines were good; not great, but good.
But today, we get a tag team with someone called a ‘Super Hero In Training’. Oh, wait, if you just get the initials of that, then you get, wait – oh, it’s a naughty word! How funny! Well done, Brian and crew – that’s where the ratings are! They might as well have “It’s funny, honest!” running at the bottom of the screen, because that’s the only way they’ll get laughs. This is low-brow rubbish – they are treating every viewer with complete disrespect. I know that RAW is broadcast on Spike TV, ‘the first station for men’ or however they wish to put it, but it’s just too easy to tar everyone with the same brush. Come on, lads in the writing team, pull your fingers out and start earning your cash. Please? This latest Kane plot might have been half-decent, should there not have been so many damn holes in it. Why on Earth can Kane piledrive the CEO and not get fired? It just makes no sense.
For me, there are two particular types of scenario that work for a storyline, they really aren’t too different from one another, and they are best explained using examples:
a.) A feud for the belt.
Example feud: Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar.
By ‘feud for the belt’, I don’t mean a simple feud where two guys just ‘end up’ feuding. I mean a feud where each man is convinced that they are better than the other, and that the only way to prove that to the other guy is to win the belt – they want the belt to show their rival that they are superior. Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar were both from amateur backgrounds, both very successful, both outstanding athletes. Both had a desire to be better than the other, and so a feud for the WWE Heavyweight Championship was born. There was no arguing over a girl, no petty destruction of the other guy’s stuff, just proper rivalry.
A fine example of how to hype up this type of feud was displayed by WWE themselves in the Brock/Rock feud. They tried to hype this up as an almost straight fight – showing the athletes train, getting their say on the match and other such things. The Angle/Brock feud really the did the WWE Heavyweight Title Belt a lot of favours – it pushed both wrestlers and the belt. This is the sort of feud WWE could do with for the Intercontinental Title on RAW, or the US Title on SmackDown!
b.) A feud of hatred
Example feud: Sabu vs. Taz
A feud of hatred is usually the best time for a writing team to experiment, but only if the wrestlers involved have history behind them, such as Sabu and Taz. This type of feud can involve a title, or even different titles if the feud is sustained for long enough, but never should the title become bigger than the belt. The belt should be shown as being crucial to the two of them proving that they are better than one another.
Feuds of hatred often end up with both wrestlers in a tag team, or showing each other respect, at which point you’ve lost the whole allure of the feud in the first place. Unless one of them quickly turns on the other, the feud’s whole point is lost. When fans in later years watch the tapes, they are going to be thinking, “Why are these guys fighting? They made up a little while later.” This shouldn’t be happening with a proper feud of hatred, not if the promotions want to be treated seriously.
The feud between RVD and Jerry Lynn was a somewhat watered down feud in terms of emotion: they weren’t really driven by hatred, but rivalry. They were in between these two types of feud, as they were feuding because they considered themselves better than each other, but weren’t necessarily too concerned about the ECW TV Title as to be willing to die for it, as was the case for Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar with the WWE Championship.
A feud of hatred, if taken far enough, can give the writers a real opportunity to experiment with different match types, stipulations or just different types of angles. Both wrestlers getting so angry and emotive with the other leads to them trying ever more desperate measures to get one up on the other, which can provide us with some excellent television, especially when the feud climaxes in a huge match.
At the moment, as I said, none of the promotions that I have seen seem to have a storyline genuinely worth my time. As good as Kurt Angle’s feud with Brock Lesnar is, it’s not enough for me to watch SmackDown! each week when I can just get the results on the Internet. However, the second point of my argument is the one that I am most concerned about.
2. In-ring action
This is the area where ROH and NWA:TNA are beating WWE to the punch lately. ROH, while it’s weak in terms of the storylines, is exceptionally strong in terms of what happens in the ring. The matches I’ve seen have been eventful, entertaining to watch, and yet have also told a story, which is important as well.
TNA’s X-Division is the showcase for some of the best wrestling I’ve ever seen, and has some true talent, two of whom were wasted by WWE: Lo Ki and the fantastic Jerry Lynn. Jerry Lynn is released ‘because there’s no storyline for him?’ For goodness sake, what storyline have you got for Mark Henry, Vince? Why have you been holding on to Nova for so long with no storyline, even when he’s been ready for TV for months and months? Release the guy, let him be seen by the world once more, do us all a favour. But I digress… AJ Styles is the real future of this business, and hopefully others like Amazing Red and Lo Ki can follow him.
But WWE is lagging behind. Badly. They have managed to assemble a cruiserweight division that would be treated as if it were some divine intervention in any other federation. But, and sadly this has been typical of WWE lately, it is wasted. Matt Hardy managed to restore some sort of respectability to the belt, but it looks as if that’s going to mean nothing soon enough. The WWE negotiated for months to be able to get Ultimo Dragon to work for them; finally, he signed. This exciting prospect, the inventor of the Asai moonsault, could well have been the future of the WWE Cruiserweight division, carrying the rest of the division to fabulous new heights. Sadly, it looks as though we’ll never know what he could have done, as it sounds as though we won’t be seeing too much of him from now on. And why is this? It’s because he ‘doesn’t fit the WWE style’. So, Vince, are you telling me that after so many months of negotiation to get this guy to sign for you, only now do you realise that he’s a high-flying Japanese wrestler? Sorry to go on the attack so much, but it’s a very serious point. They’ve signed him, and now he’s tied down to them for however many years his contract is worth, denying him the chance to work anywhere else. Disgraceful.
And while we have Ultimo Dragon being denied the chance to shine on SmackDown!, we have the honour of seeing everyone’s favourite wrestler, Kevin Nash, on RAW every week. Great! I dare say that he does fit with WWE’s style – he’s a big guy, after all! He’s got to be good, then! A good example to show where WWE’s priorities lie is the D’Lo Brown situation – a wrestler with plenty of talent, who could have been an asset to the Intercontinental Division on RAW, is released. Just like that. Meanwhile, Mark Henry remains on the company payroll because… well, why is that? I couldn’t say why, he’s certainly not interesting to watch.
I can understand that WWE is trying to push a slower, more mat-based type of wrestling, and although that can be boring, that is OK with me. What I really object to is every other type of style being dismissed – just because Ultimo Dragon doesn’t use a headlock at every opportunity shouldn’t mean that he is sent to Velocity every week. Surely even Vince can see that the style used in the X-Division is really exciting and could be an asset to business? Having that style on SmackDown! each week could easily strengthen a somewhat flimsy undercard, and it doesn’t mean that every single wrestler working for WWE has to fly – it just caters for a different audience. It’s simple business sense – don’t eliminate certain sectors of the market, because it means you’re already losing the chance to make money. Variety is the spice of life, too. Having something to rival the X-Division would mean that I would tolerate seeing the Big Show on my screens, too.
WWE isn’t all bad, of course. John Cena has become one of the brightest prospects they’ve had for years, and used what could have been a really awful gimmick to push him to just below the main event status that all wrestlers yearn for. The Brock/Angle feud is also good at the moment, and the prospect of an Elimination Chamber match, while a mark of fairly bad booking, is something to look forward to, at least. But there are many gaps on both RAW and SmackDown!, and WWE will have to fill them soon if they really do want some higher ratings.
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