Welcome to the News & Views. Just to let you know, there won't be a News & Views at all next week and this week's version will be condensed. I'm just busy with stuff in everyday life. This is not going to be the norm, it's more of an exception. After this week I should be able to continue doing the N&V every Tuesday as scheduled.
Raw Recap for 04/18/05
You're getting a short version of the Raw recap this week. I'm talking maybe a sentence or two about the segments. Due to real life commitments, I didn't see Raw live, I taped it and watched it at a more convenient time. Since there were no real matches on this show there's nothing for me to go in-depth about anyway. I think I lucked out.
I had a sense that the Benoit/Edge thing wasn't going to be some clean match. Turning it into a Last Man Standing Match at Backlash is a good idea. Give them twenty minutes and it could be fun. Sometimes LMS matches can be great.
Poor Trish. No wonder she has back pain (see the News below). All this crap she has to carry. First Lita, then Christy and now Viscera? I have to say, though, the crowd was phenomenal against Lita here. Just fantastic. I thought she was going to run out of the ring and cry. Anyway, I'd type more, but the thought of Viscera getting his hands on my woman makes me want to puke and puke some more.
The Heart Throbs? Not that impressed. They are nothing in the ring at this point. Guess it'd be fair to give them time.
I think it was foolish to bring back Hogan without advertising it on TV the week before. They advertised it in the building and on the internet, but not on TV. Dumb. I'm sure some marked out for Hogan. Me? I liked it Mania and the Hall of Fame tribute. I think it's enough now. Not to sound mean or anything, but when he can't even get his foot up high enough to boot a guy in the face I think it's time to stop going in the ring. Seriously, did he boot Hassan in the stomach or what?
The Chris Masters thing was a total bomb. Wow. This gimmick is a candidate for the Wrestlecrap Hall of Fame, much like Mordecai was last year. I don't know if Masters can actually wrestle well, but with this gimmick I don't think he'll be around long enough for us to find out.
That horrible segment was followed up by another as Chris Jericho sang a song about Shelton Benjamin before Benjamin beat Simon Dean. It was not good. This is not me ripping something because I dislike the wrestlers. Jericho is one of my favorites. It's just that this song with the guitar was poor and the crowd didn't like it either. Last week they took a step forward and now they went a step back. Oh well, a match at Backlash should be fun.
The Christian-Vince thing was fun. Crowd marked out hard for Christian, which is always nice. New York and Toronto have the best crowds, I'd say. Vince announces the draft lottery. I have to say, too, that it was amazing to see McMahon walking like that without a cane or anything. He healed up fast from those torn squads. Never underestimate the toughness of that man. Christian vs. Batista next week? If it goes longer than six minutes I'll be shocked.
I can't believe the HHH vs. JR "match" lasted eleven minutes. By the fourth or fifth minute of standing and punching I was fast forwarding it. I was expecting Batista to really give it to HHH with a powerbomb through a table, but it was just a chairshot. Must have been a really hard chair since it kept HHH motionless for what, 60 seconds? They could have done that whole thing in about half the time and it would have been way better. JR "beating" HHH was the best thing to sell HHH vs. Batista II? I don't agree.
I wasn't a fan of this show. Not just because there were no matches over ** or anything like that. It was because I was bored by a lot of it. Jericho/Benjamin wasn't good, Masters gimmick continues to suck, the Heart Throbs are not ready judging by their ring work and the main event was boring, too long and nauseating all at the same time. Forgettable Raw. Best part of the show was the crowd. Easy.
4.5 out of 10.
The News
- If you saw Raw then you know the draft lottery is coming up in about a month. No specific date is known as of this writing, but the best guest is the day after Judgment Day, which means May 23rd on Raw in Green Bay. If it's the week after that then it's the Raw in Calgary. Should be one of those weeks. Already rumors are flying about who might go to what show. The big one already is Michaels for Angle. I hope that's not the case because I'd rather see them both on the same show so that they continue their feud through the year. I'm sure there will be plenty of more rumors in the coming days and weeks.
- Triple H is banged up now too. Hurt his neck last week on Raw in his squashing of Rosey and Hurricane. It's a pinched nerve, we think, but it could be worse. I think HHH is the kind of guy who will never admit he's hurt and will always be willing to work through pain. He may not be the most favorite guy of a lot of fans, but if you doubt his toughness you're just being foolish.
- You probably read about the ongoing story that is the Matt Hardy/Lita/Edge situation. Hardy had Edge's wife post a message on his message board. I sympathize with her. What can you say? What's done is done. Edge reportedly laughed off the chants at his girl Lita during Raw. Lita, meanwhile, looked shaken by some of it, but to her credit she was able to pull through it in part because Trish carried it well. Will this story ever go away? Probably not.
- My girl Trish Stratus is battling through a herniated disc in her back. That's why she hasn't had done much in the way of matches in recent weeks. She's also been taken off recent house shows to rest the injury. No word on if she'll miss an extended period of time or she would need surgery. I think it's one of those situations where they be careful about how much they use her in the upcoming weeks. This injury shouldn't be a surprise since she's been carrying the women's division for years. Of course she's going to have back problems!
The Three Count
Real quick this week.
1. You know why Chris Masters' gimmick does not work? Because nearly every person on the WWE roster has the big arms, the six pack and the muscle body. It's like it's a requirement of them. Why would Masters stand out when we see guys like HHH and Batista on TV all the time? It's a stupid gimmick.
2. A good gimmick actually debuted on Smackdown last week as MNM came on the scene as a new tag team. Johnny Nitro is a winner of Tough Enough 3, Joey Mercury (or Matthews) is a solid indy worker who's been around a while and Melina is a hot manager for the team. I like it. As I've said recently, more managers are needed in today's WWE, especially female ones. I'm looking forward to seeing them in the ring.
3. The four people who I most want to see moved during the lottery: Shawn Michaels, Rob Conway, Big Show and Danny Basham (so Doug can be alone in singles on Smackdown).
Reader Questions & Comments
I've caught up to all the emails that have been sent to me the past couple of weeks. It's always fun to read your thoughts on what WWE is doing or what I'm writing about. Your email questions and comments. Reader comments will be in yellow, while mine will be in white.
First one up is about Kane. It was a weird week since I had four questions about Kane, all of the similar variety. Maybe you people loved it when he smooched with Lita.
Hi there. Just wondering what your thoughts are on the use of Kane. In my opinion, he has the gimmick and presence to hold the title again. It just annoys me how one minute that portray him as an unstoppable machine and next he is losing to the likes on Snitsky
etc.
Cheers,
Luke
I think Kane is a very good to great heel who is being wasted/misused as a babyface character right now. I think it's stupid to make him likable. He has done so many heinous and evil things that WWE is just being stupid by making him out to be a sympathetic figure. He's great at being evil and he's just average as a babyface.
As for title aspirations, I just don't see it happening for him again. They seem content to keep him in the upper midcard, which is fine by me. I think he's good in that role.
Next one asks about why some wrestlers are deemed main eventers while others are midcard for life:
I have been a fan of the WWE for many years, and it seems like that they are just trying to breed main event superstars in too quick of a hurry. On one hand I can understand this, with the way that things used to be, with the smaller rosters, when there would be stretches with many of the usual main eventers injured. But it really doesn't make much sense to me that they take a "newcomer" and push them to the top so fast. I think that this will hurt the company in the long run because of the fact that many of the new stars will have achieved pretty much everything there is to achieve in just a few years, and they'll become stale, in the long run. Like Brock Lesnar, there isn't much left for him to accomplish, if he comes back. But another reason that I think that it will hurt them, is, what if TNA becomes competitive? Some of these guys will probably leave after they've had all of the titles, in the WWE, looking for something new, something to achieve. Are we ever going to see like a Mick Foley, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, title win again?
That leads to a question...Why is it that, in your opinion, does the WWE kind of hold back veteran (loyal WWE) wrestlers from winning the world title, but people like Batista, John Cena, Orton, etc, get it so quickly?
Matt Cracraft
Lexington, KY
I think we'll see those veterans win titles again, but not as often as we'll see somebody "new" in that seat. I see where WWE is coming from on it. A lot of fans look at a guy like a Jericho as somebody who's always in the upper midcard. Yes, he was the first undisputed champion and headlined a WrestleMania, but for three years now he hasn't really sniffed the world title. I think WWE is trying to find the guys that will bring in the new viewers, hold on to the current viewers and try to milk them as much as they can. Is that the best strategy? I don't know. Give it a few months, see what Cena and Batista are doing at that time and then we can really judge it. As I've written before, I think Cena has more long term potential than Batista, but I think both will do pretty good in terms of generating TV ratings and PPV buys.
Another point to mention is that it's not like it was in the era when Austin, Foley, Benoit, Guerrero, Jericho, etc. were coming up. All of those guys started in WCW before they were in WWE, so they were all pretty well known with the wrestling audience and they were more comfortable and more able to get over with fans than the current crop of guys. Austin wrestled eight years before he won the World Title in the then WWF. Benoit and Guerrero each had over fifteen years of experience before they ever won, but only four or five years in WWE. My point is that it's a different era considering there's only one major company in North America right now. It's hard to compare this WWE to what was there five or ten years ago when they had WCW to compete with. If TNA gets bigger something might happen to change the current climate, but I don't see it happening.
I just read your recent Rajah post and decided to hopefully get some of my own questions answered. I am a HUGE Val Venis fan....Mic skills...he can actually wrestle....and IS marketable IF they ever wanted to. I know he is still employed and some have said is Sunday Night Heat's biggest star. My question is kind of a 2 parter for him. Will he ever meet or exceed the fame he had a couple of years ago? I mean honestly, even though I am a huge fan, I don't see him as a RAW champ...but if JBL can become an eight month SD champ...I think Val has a shot there. The other question is if he is in danger of losing his job anytime soon?
Ken Klobus
I think with regards to Val Venis he could definitely lose his job soon. I don't see WWE all of a sudden deciding that he should be pushed. Does he deserve another shot? I think so, but I'm not the one to decide that. Sucks to say that, but if you think about how WWE is firing people they don't use then he's certainly a name you have to look at. Interesting story is I met and had lunch with him here in Ontario (we had a mutual friend who set up the lunch) back in the summer of 2003 when he was doing a whole lot of nothing then too. I asked him if he was going to get pushed and he basically said they never know anything until they show up to the arena that day. He said all you can really do is go to the show every week and hope they have some storyline or angle for you to be involved with. Otherwise, what can you do? Before you ask, no, I haven't seen or heard from since. Most of the conversation was us complaining about the Canadian government and he mentioned how he was moving to Phoenix. Awesome guy, though, and heavily into politics.
Hey John,
1. There have been rumors that Rey Mysterio recently put in a good word for one of his good AAA buddies Juventud Guerrera, with the recent signings of Psicosis and Super Crazy, do you know if maybe the WWE will possibly go after Juventud also?
2. Chris Jericho's Contract expires later this year, will he re-sign, or move on in his future endeavors??
- Dan
1. I've heard that WWE has shown interest in Juventud Guerrera although I don't know where they are in terms of negotiations now. He's a great worker, but he's been arrested a few times in the past four or five years, so there's that risk there. I think it would be great to bring him in because I don't think you can ever run out of great workers. I'm unsure if ever be there. If I had to guess I'd say no because they already some cruisers who they never use, so it probably wouldn't be wise to bring in more. I think they're more likely to call up guys from OVW rather than bringing in more people who were in ECW or WCW.
2. I don't know if you read about that interview he had on the radio, but they asked him and he said that in eight months when his deal is up he's leaning towards not re-signing. Personally, I believe him. I just don't think he'll be out of WWE that long. I could see him not re-signing, trying to push Fozzy hard, then realizing he wants to be wrestling and be back by that point. Due to not being injured a whole lot, he's basically been on the road for six years straight with WWE now. It takes a toll on you physically and mentally.
Since I started watching again, I have mainly enjoyed Smackdown because of Carlito. However, Carlito has been injured ever since I started watching it again so I have seen none of his matches. I was wondering if he is as good in the ring as he is outside the ring? Side Note: Carlito's Cabana. Carlito's face when the manager of MNM got in the ring was priceless, then his "you guys are definitely cool", great. Loving Carlito.
Gary Emery
First, the Cabana last week ruled. He was great in that segment. It's hard for me to really gauge him as a worker because I've only seen his WWE work. What I know about him is he's in his mid-20s (I believe he's 26) and his dad, Carlos Colon, has been a successful wrestling promoter in Puerto Rico for decades. Wrestling is in Carlito's blood, so that's why he looks to have such great poise in front of a crowd. Unfortunately he hurt his shoulder and to this point he's had less than five TV matches on his WWE resume. Most of those matches were against Cena, who is an energetic worker, but not a particularly good one. I think Carlito looked competent in his matches. It's hard to call him good or bad at this point because we've seen so little. What I like about him is he's able to draw crowd reactions based on his facial and body expressions, so he's got an advantage on his peers in that regard. I'm optimistic about him as a worker, but I'd still like to see more. In a few months hopefully I'll be able to answer this question better.
Now for a commentary to bring us home.
First a lame ass parody: "Batista you cut a mind-numbing promo on one night. I cut a mind-numbing promo every night!"--HHH
Now that I got that out of my system...I find it interesting, now that Batista and Cena are the champs that no one is complaining about what a shame it is for such limited workers to hold the belts. After all, for almost a year all I heard was how undeserving a champion JBL was because he was such a bad in ring performer. However, I look at Batista and Cena and see two guys who are basically in the same class as JBL in the ring. Cena is a guy whom I have seen have exactly two good matches on ppv since he has been around, and in both cases his opponent was Kurt Angle. By the way, Cena also has about the least impressive finisher I have ever seen for a main event-level wrestler. Isn't his "FU" just a slow, standing fireman's carry takeover? People complain about JBL's finisher, but at least that clothesline looks like it would hurt, due to the sloppiness with which it is delivered if nothing else. Batista on the other hand has had exactly one good ppv match, and that was the match in which he won his belt at WM 21. If you ever want to induce vomiting, drag out his armageddon '02 match with Kane sometime. My point in all this is, I think this inconsistency makes it quite obvious that the real problem that most people in the internet/wrestling world have had with JBL is the man's (not the character's) out-spoken political beliefs (By the way, how could they miss calling that clothesline of his the right-wing conspiracy?). Ironically, up until the last 7 or 8 years, the WWE champ going back to the old WWWF days was usually a limited worker. Sammartino, Graham, Backlund, Hogan,in the wrestling world before monthly pay-per-views a champions work-rate was a secondary concern. Monthly pay-per-views and competition from WCW changed all that and brought us an era where guys like Micheals and Austin up through guys like Angle and Benoit were pushed as main eventers. Now that all the competition is gone, and brand exclusive pay-per-views allow you to protect a limited worker longer, it seems like WWE is moving in what may seem to a lot of people to be a new and discouraging direction, but a direction that was really the norm for the vast majority of WWE history. But that's just my opinion.
Joseph, NC
Good stuff although I mostly disagree with what you have to say about Cena. I think he's going to better than people think.
How You Can Be Here
So now you're wondering how you can be in this column, right? Well, there are two choices for you. First choice is you can send me a commentary you may have about something current in WWE, or maybe something from the past if it's relevant. My rule is it has to be 500 words or less (used to be 350). I plan on posting a couple, so I don't want you to go really long. If you want to write me a lot then that's cool, but don't expect all of it to be posted. I can only post so much, you know? The other choice is you email me a question with regards to anything WWE related. Ask me what I think about a wrestler, what I think about a match from the past (I can give you a star rating and thoughts on it, for example), a storyline going on or anything else. My only request is no fantasy booking. I know people like to do that. I just don't want to do that in this column.
Send all comments and/or questions to me at oratoryjohn@gmail.com and throw in a name for me to reference to as well. I won't post your email address, but a name would be nice. Maybe even a location is fine too. That's up to you.
I'm going on vacation from next Monday through till Sunday, May 1st, so if I don't reply to you during that week then that's the reason. You can still send me your emails, but don't be upset if it takes a bit of time to get a response.
Closing Time
I'll see you in two weeks, on Tuesday May 3rd for the next edition of the News & Views. I have a vacation next week. I also won't be seeing Backlash, so don't expect any sort of preview or recap for me. I'll get a tape of it from somewhere and talk about it after I see it at some point when I get back.
Smell ya later,
John C. - oratoryjohn@gmail.com
Links to check out:
The Oratory - The Best Wrestling Columns on the Net!
The John Report Archives - Missed something that I wrote? That's the place to go.
WrestleLine - Another great site I write for.
Morphine Nation - The first website on the net to mock the new Nazi Pope. They're friends of mine. Sort of.
