|
| |
|
Three
years ago I had wrestling buddies. (sob)
|
Chair Shots
12-10-02
Raw
Thoughts
Three years ago you could sit around with your wrestling buddies
(in a darkened room where normal people were not apt to find
you and mock you) and talk about your dream match-ups and
angles.
At the
top of most fans' lists would be the return of Shawn Michaels
coupled with a feud with Triple H. Nothing could be more exciting
than the wrestling legend coming back to feud with his former
best friend. Or so you'd think three years ago. But today,
this is the WWE where even "can't miss" angles are botched.
First
WCW invaded the WWE. Instead of the shot heard around the
world, it started with Mike Awesome sneaking a win over the
hardcore champ. Mike who?
Needless
to say that without the big name stars that made WCW, the
angle failed. Poor use of the talent the WWE did acquire didn't
help any either.
Next,
Vince McMahon re-formed the NWO. Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, X-Pac
and Hulk Hogan were supposed to revive the WWE (or at least
boost ratings). Again, a combination of injuries and poor
writing doomed the NWO to fail. Scott Hall and X-pac were
both fired by the WWE. Kevin Nash remains injured and Hulk
Hogan isn't speaking to anyone.
Regardless,
here we are at the peak of the Shawn Michaels Farewell Feud
2002, only five days away from his final showdown with Triple
H, and I honestly don't care. With two wins over HHH, Shawn
proved months ago that he could still go in the ring and yet
all the focus seems to be on "can Shawn do it?"
|
|
|
Triple
H and the Dumpster of Doom!
|
The real
question should be "can Shawn listen to Ric Flair babble on
for five minutes about how he should retire?" I barely got
through it and even Shawn looked weepy at the end. That, combined
with a horrible looking gimmicked dive into a foam filled
garbage dumpster, has just left me feeling apathetic towards
the whole thing. Even the crowd seemed more interested in
quiet meditation last night rather than the announcement of
Sunday's main event stipulations.
The truth
is that Shawn Michaels is just as entertaining in the ring
today as he was five years ago but he no longer has the acting
chops he used to. His character has not caught on with the
fans and the writers have again not given him anything to
work with. Call me crazy but the Ex-Champ That Discovered
Jesus vs. The Guy That Holds All The Backstage Power and Only
Jobs To His Friends just doesn't make me want to shell out
30 dollars for a PPV.
What
I wonder is, what if this entire angle had been written by
Paul Heyman and played out on Smackdown? Would Shawn vs. HHH
be the stuff of legend we'd always hoped it would be, or is
it a fart by any other name?
|
|
|
So
far, this pic is the best thing about Armageddon.
|
Poor Jeff
Hardy was Triple H's latest victim last night. HHH owned him
last night and proved that Jeff Hardy is never going to make
it to the main event. Since it's almost guaranteed that Triple
H will win on Sunday, he really should lose a match or two
before then since he's going to get all his heat back with
a win over Shawn.
Test's
Christmas ornaments are blue. Get it? Blue balls! HAHAHahahahahaha…sigh.
At this point in the show I wonder where Mick Foley is. That
guy was funny.
Steven
Richards vs. Jackie was just as much fun to watch as it was
to say. Yay, Steven can beat a girl. Woo hoo. I'd tell him
to put on a tee shirt, drink beer and hit his woman, but Steve
Austin is already doing that gimmick.
Please
Mr. Stone Cold, if you're reading this, don't kill me.
Last
week Rob Van Dam fought Triple H in the main event to determine
the number one contender for the World Title. This week he
couldn't get a win over Batista in a match that preceded D-Lo
Brown & Chris Nowinski vs. Al Snow & Maven. If I had RVD's
wrestling career, I'd smoke as much pot he does. Seriously,
Rob, go wrestle in Japan, because The Man is holding you down
here.
If this
were the only show WWE offered, I'd label it a dead promotion
and move on but it's not. Over on Smackdown, the writing is
good most of the time, the talent is not wasted, everyone
gets the amount of airtime they have earned and the wrestling
is awesome. Ratings prove that Smackdown has 20% more viewers
than Raw. Why can Vince McMahon not see that fans prefer Smackdown
and that maybe he should duplicate it for Raw? Has my idol
truly fallen?
Coming
to a Smackdown Near You
James Maritato debuted as Jamie Noble's "cousin Nunzio" at
the Smackdown house show over the weekend. He will make his
TV debut at the Smackdown taping tonight in Atlanta. New female
wrestler Gail Kim also debuted at the house show in a bra
and panties matches against Dawn Marie. She must be hot.
Right
Thought, Wrong Show
SaveMyShow.com
has added WWE Smackdown to its list of shows that readers
can vote on whether they should be canceled or not. At last
count, 24,429 people had voted with 51% voting to keep it
on the air. 47% said cancel it and 1% didn't care. I guess
the other 1% went to go see if you could vote for Raw. Among
the shows that readers have voted should be canceled were
Dog Eat Dog, Teamo Supremo, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
and Love Cruise. Smackdown's contract with UPN ends next August.
My contract
for the day ends at 970 words. On that note, have a very,
very, very, very, very, very good day.
|
