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1998 Big Japan Women's Champion

Chairshots
11/30/01

Smackdown Thoughts
You knew that the streak of good shows since Ric Flair's return couldn't last forever. Smackdown last night was a real dog. The WWF went to the well once too often with the "Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club" bit. It's just lame now. For that matter Vince is on television like every 10 minutes. At this point he could split off into his own federation. I was thinking the other day that we hadn't seen a strap match in a long time. Now I remember why. Strap matches suck. And as much as I like the idea of turning the Undertaker, is booking him in a match with Tazz such a great idea? Does anyone believe that "jobber to the stars" Tazz has a chance of winning? Bad, bad show all around. Let's forget about it and move on.

WWF Fined
The WWF recently used images of George Patton in the video packages for the Invasion PPV, and never actually received permission to use the video. As a result, the estate of Patton, which owned the footage, sued the WWF. WWF was forced to pay a fine of $100,000 and Vince McMahon had to kiss Patton's dead ass.

Ratings
Raw did a 4.4 rating this week. That's down from last week's 4.8 but still higher than previous weeks. This week's Smackdown scored a solid 4.2 broadcast rating. That's up considerably from last week's Thanksgiving edition of the show, which did a 3.3 broadcast rating. They were helped by the fact that the November sweeps period ended on Wednesday and they went up against repeats on CBS and NBC

Baby Dudley
D-Von Dudley was not at Smackdown tapings on Tuesday due to his wife giving birth. He flew home to be with his wife. Possible names are either Dee Dee Dudley or Dudley Dudley.

Vengeance Matches
The one thing that I think the WWF has done a great job of since Survivor Series is the early booking of matches for the next pay per view, Vengeance. This has provided the fed plenty of time to sell the importance of the matches and to build fan interest. The following matches are currently scheduled: Rock vs. Chris Jericho for the World Title, Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle for the WWF Title, a match between the winners of the previous two matches to crown the "undisputed champion," Undertaker vs. Rob Van Dam, and The Dudleys vs. Big Show & Kane for the WWF Tag Titles and Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy. The WWF still has 5 more shows, including 4 live hours of television to promote those matches. Expect 2 or 3 more matches to be added to the card before next Sunday.

WWF Split Update
More speculation came out this week about the splitting of the WWF talent roster into two separate promotions. A target date of January 7th is rumored to be set but don't expect WCW to return from the ashes. "It will be like the American and National Leagues in baseball," one source reports. The company is planning to hold a televised draft to determine the talent pool for both groups. That will probably happen on January 7th.

Undertaker Heel Turn
Undertaker had been urging management to turn him heel for some time. Although several agents and creative staff members were against the idea, Vince McMahon sided with Taker. Originally, Taker was scheduled to turn during the Oct. 29 Raw (instead of Kurt Angle). There was also talk of turning him at the WWF at Survivor Series, but apparently the turn was held off so that Taker could be aligned with McMahon. I for one think it's a much needed change for the big man. He was starting to get as stale as his brother Kane.

HHH Returns to Raw
Triple H was backstage at Monday's Raw and told friends that he has not fully recovered from his quadriceps surgery, although he is close. He is healthy enough to make an appearance at Vengeance, but has made it known that he would prefer to return in January.

WWF Layoffs
Numerous sources have told me that the WWF will be releasing some developmental talent next week. There is a meeting scheduled for the middle of the week where the WWF is expected to send Johnny Ace to the HWA developmental territory in Cincinnati and evaluate the respective talents there, with some being let go. It is expected that some of the higher paid former WCW wrestlers would be at the most risk of being released from their contracts.

Chyna in Playboy
Chyna's second appearance in Playboy will be on the shelves Monday. Her last spread in Playboy was the biggest selling issue of all time but this time she doesn't have the WWF marketing machine behind her.

Negotiations Off with Kevin Nash
As reported in previous editions of Chairshots, negotiations between the WWF and Kevin Nash & Scott Hall have reached an impasse. However, things have taken a big turn for the worse as far as Kevin Nash goes. Vince McMahon reportedly has pulled his offer to Nash off of the table and at this point will not negotiate any further with Big Sexy. This could be a negotiation tactic or it could be for real, as it was in the Chyna negotiations. If it is true, then that means bad news for Scott Hall as well, because Scott Hall is much more valuable to the WWF as Nash's tag partner. It might not be worth the trouble of bringing Hall back without Nash.

Japanese Hardcore Wrestling
A Japanese Hardcore Wrestling pay-per-view will air this Sunday, December 2nd, at 8pm. It is being carried on In Demand 2 and Dish Network at a price of $14.95 in most markets. If your local cable company does not have information on the show, you may want to check again this weekend, as some cable providers that claimed to not know about the show are actually carrying it. The show, hosted by Joel Gertner and Missy Hyatt, features five matches from Big Japan Pro Wrestling featuring barbed wire, light bulbs, fire, ladders, balcony dives and more. The matches that will air:
The Winger vs. Trent Acid for the CZW Junior Heavyweight Championship.
Kiyoko Ichiki vs. Misae Genki for the Big Japan Women's Championship. This will be the first time a Women's death match featuring barbed wire boards will be shown on PPV in North America.

Ryuji Yamakawa vs. Kintaro Kanemura for the WEW Hardcore Championship.
Shadow WX (sounds like a character from Mega Man) vs. Mike Samples in a Florescent Light Bulb Match.
Abdullah The Kobayashi vs. Tomokai Honma for the Big Japan Heavyweight Championship.

Book It
Each week in Book It we help the struggling WWF creative team with a few ideas on how to get talent that has been stuck in a rut over with the WWF fans.

If you asked the average wrestling fan to make a list of their top 5 favorite active wrestlers in the business, a name that would be on most people's list is Jeff Hardy. Jeff and his real brother Matt made their WWF debut several years ago after creating a name for themselves in the independent circuit.

At first they were a jobber tag team that mostly appeared on WWF secondary shows like Metal and Jakked. It wasn't until they changed their ring attire and took on a flashier offense that fans started to notice. Specifically, fans took notice of Jeff. His wild hair color and ring attire combined with his near suicidal ring moves reminded long time wrestling fans of a young Shawn Michaels.

Shawn and Jeff had a number of things in common, in fact. Both men started out as the flashier member of a WWF tag team (Michaels was partners with Marty Janety in The Rockers). Both men were average size and build in an industry filled with muscle bound giants. But despite these limitations Shawn Michaels used charisma and God-given wrestling talent to become one of the best WWF world champions in history. The parallels between the two men were so similar that Jeff Hardy earned the Internet fans nickname "Shawn Michaels 2k."

Now after several years of 5 star matches with his brother Matt, Jeff finds himself on the verge of becoming a big star but the WWF has never succeeded in coming up with a compelling enough storyline to give him the big push Michaels received.

Shawn Michaels was able to break out of the tag team rut by turning heel against his partner (he threw him through a plate glass window on the set of Brutus "The Barber" Beefcakes's "Barber Shop). The former tag partners feuded for months with Michaels winning most of the match ups.

Michaels changed his look with the help of his new valet, Sensational Sherri and became known as "The Boy Toy." Flashy costumes, and cocky attitude with a healthy dose of vanity are what defined Shawn's heel character. After Sherri turned on Michaels he hired a bodyguard known as Diesel (Kevin Nash) and continued his run towards the Intercontinental championship against Bret Hart. Diesel eventually turned on Shawn as well and they had a series of awesome matches.

So, why am I talking about Shawn so much when this Book It is about Jeff Hardy? Because those that learn history have the chance to repeat it.

Rather than turning Matt Hardy heel as the WWF is doing now, my plan is to turn Jeff on Matt. As weeks go by we learn that Jeff's hero has always been Shawn Michaels. He wants to be just like the high flying former champ.

Jeff's idol worship of Shawn not only manifests itself in his demeanor but begins to show up in the ring. Rather than the Swanton Bomb, Jeff uses Sweet Chin Music as his finisher. Eventually Jeff believes that in order to be successful in the WWF he has to follow in the footsteps of Shawn and that means turning on Matt Hardy.

Since the WWF no longer does the interview segments like "The Barber Shop," Jeff will have to throw Matt through a plate glass window somewhere in the backstage area. Next time we see Jeff, he's decked out in mirrored jackets and chaps just like Shawn used to. He even has a new female valet; let's say it's Stacy Keibler (Sensational Sherri 2k1.)

After beating Matt in a few matches, by cheating of course, Jeff begins to feud with the current intercontinental champion Edge (Bret Hart 2k1. Not really, but he's Canadian like Bret). He is able to win the title from Edge at a pay per view and dumps Stacy the next night on Raw.

The next week Jeff introduces his new bodyguard Diesel. Kevin Nash played Diesel originally but after Nash left for WCW the WWF, in a move of desperation, tried to introduce a new Diesel that was played by Glen Jacobs, the wrestler now known as Kane.

I've been thinking about Kane a lot lately because he is a wrestler that has grown stale. His "through hellfire and brimstone" act is the same thing it was when he debuted. I'd have Kane get seriously injured and take a few months off from the WWF. Instead, Jacobs would come back as the fake Diesel and act as Jeff's Hardy's bodyguard.

Jeff would defend his Intercontinental championship against all comers and defeat them all. Then, in a bizarre moment, Jeff begs Diesel to turn on him. Once again he believes that the only way for him to advance to the next level is for him to follow in the footsteps of Shawn Michaels. Diesel turns on him, wins the Intercontinental championship and Jeff tries to move on to the world championship. Of course if I had my druthers, this would all start taking place immediately and Fake Diesel would turn on Jeff at the Royal Rumble in January.

Say, isn't Kevin Nash rumored to be returning in January? That would set up all sorts of interesting possibilities. Nash could destroy fake diesel in the ring (Kane would return the next week from his hiatus) and Nash could then challenge Jeff Hardy to come get some of the real deal. In a fantasy world this whole scenario could lead to a Jeff Hardy vs. Shawn Michaels match at Wrestlemania X-8.

Regardless of the dream matches we could book, Jeff Hardy as Shawn Michaels 2k1 (or 2k2) could be solid gold for all parties. Jeff gets out of the tag team rut and into the running for a top tier championship. The character of Kane gets a much needed rest and hopefully the WWF gains the next big star they've been looking for.

That's it for this week. Join me next Tuesday and Friday for more wrestling goodness.