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| Dolph Ziggler pins Christian Photo courtesy: WWE.com |
By Chad Smart
@chadsmart & @my123cents on Twitter
About a week or two ago,
Paul Heyman took to Twitter and unleashed a flurry of tweets basically telling
wrestlers who had not yet made main event status to stop waiting for their
moment and create it themselves. This sounds like good advice and maybe in a normal
work environment it would be helpful to be the squeaky wheel, but would it
really work in the wrestling business? I’m not an expert on the wrestling
business and the only time I’ve been backstage at a wrestling show was when I
had to take Kevin a referee shirt at an AAPW show. So what I’m about to write
is how a fan, or a smark, perceives the elevation of talent inside a WWE ring.
As of June 13, 2012, Chris
Jericho still has nine days to go on his 30-day suspension. Randy Orton won’t
return from his suspension for at least another 40 days. Alberto Del Rio, who
was slated to challenge for the World Title at No Way Out on Sunday is out with
a concussion. Rey Mysterio is on the sidelines due to injury/suspension. With
four guys currently off the roster and a roster that is firmly split between
current/former champions and enhancement talents, now is the prime time for
guys to step up and show they belong in the spotlight. There’s very little
doubt a number of guys have the talent to be major players. The major question is how do those guys
get the chance to shine?
Over the last 20 years,
wrestling has been redefined as Sports-Entertainment and unfortunately a lot of
the time the top guys lean more heavily to the entertainment side than the
sports side. Hulk Hogan’s technical prowess paled in comparison to Ric
Flair. Steve Austin became popular
after trading in mat wrestling for a couple of middle fingers. The Rock was
John Cena with sexual innuendos instead of poop jokes. The key issue to point
out is all the top guys got time on the microphone to get their personalities
over.
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| The Kliq says good-bye |
One of the most popular
“what if” questions is what would have happened if the Kliq didn’t do the MSG
Curtain Call when Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were on their way to WCW. If that
moment hadn’t happened, Triple H wouldn’t have been punished and would have won
King of the Ring 1996 instead of Steve Austin. If Austin doesn’t win King of
the Ring, more than likely the phrase “Austin 3:16” never would have been
uttered and the Attitude Era very well never would have happened. Or it would
have happened without the biggest star of that time as the focal point.
Jump ahead to today and look
at the average episode of RAW. Who is getting extended promo time on a weekly
basis? The usual suspects are John Laurinitis (a non-wrestler), John Cena (the
focal point of the last 9 years), Big Show (Cena’s current feud), CM Punk (the
current WWE Champion), Sheamus (current World Champion) and guys the audience
has never seen before (Ryback’s weekly victims). While other guys may get some
backstage promos, those segments are usually short and according to several
reports, highly scripted. Superstars aren’t getting the chance to show their
true personality.
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| Piper's Pit |
This is something that I’ve
never understood. Looking at the history of wrestling and some of the great
talkers like Hogan, Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Roddy Piper, Stone Cold, The Rock,
Jake Roberts, all of them were allowed to showcase their personality and that’s
part of the reason fans cheered for them. Now promos are scripted and instead
of showing off personalities wrestlers are trying to remember word for word
what they’re supposed to say. Why not give guys bullet points and let them
connect the dots? If wrestlers
were given the opportunity to be more natural and connect with the audience,
maybe the audience would care more about the wrestlers.
Though given the chance to
talk may help some stars emerge, the bigger problem is how guys are presented
to the audience. I was looking at
the WWE roster on wwe.com this morning and noticed with the exception of Sin
Cara, Ryback, Tensai and Antonio Cesaro everyone one the roster falls into two
categories: current/former
champions or jobbers. Technically I guess you could say guys like Kofi
Kingston, R-Truth, Santino, Miz, Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger would be the
centerpiece of a VIN diagram.
If your name isn’t John Cena or Randy Orton though, once you don’t have
a belt around your waist, you’re not going to be presented as a major star
unless you happen to be feuding with Cena or Orton.
CM Punk has been WWE
Champion since November of 2011. The last time he was in the main event of a
Pay Per View was December 2011. Including No Way Out, there have been six PPVs
this year. John Cena has been in the main event of every PPV despite not being
champion nor challenging for the title. (except the Royal Rumble) When it comes to RAW, CM Punk is
usually relegated to the top of the second hour slot while Cena’s angle get the
main event slot. Even it there’s no match-taking place. What I’m trying to get at is WWE is
training its audience to view Cena as the only true star.
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| Big Show vs. Kofi Kingston Photo courtesy: WWE.com |
The next factor, and
probably the biggest, is the fact wrestling matches have predetermined finishes
and the people in charge select whom they see as being stars. For example take the cage match between
the Big Show and Kofi Kingston from the June 11th Raw. Kofi is an
athletic guy. He could probably go in the ring and run circles around Big Show
using a hit and retreat style to have a somewhat competitive match. In the
process Kofi could show the audience it’s not the size of the dog in the fight
but rather the size of the fight in the dog. Instead, Kofi was sent into the
match and tossed around like a rag doll. One half of the Tag-Team Champions
(you know, the guys who are supposed to be the best) was put into a position
guys like “Iron” Mike Sharpe or Rusty Brooks would have been in twenty years
ago. Dolph Ziggler is another guy who could arguably be a breakout star but for
whatever reason is used primarily to make other wrestlers look good.
Getting back to the
predetermined factor, how is a wrestler supposed to get himself over when he’s
being told what to do and when that plan makes the wrestler look less than
impressive? Then you have a guy like Zack Ryder who found a way to get his
personality to the masses and got himself over at a time he was barely on TV.
What happened to him? He got a brief run with the United States title that few
probably remember and then was annihilated by Kane on a weekly basis and
betrayed by the object of his affection without ever getting redemption on
either person. Zack was made to look like a fool and just as quickly as the
crowd got behind him they moved on because they realized their cheers were
pointless. No matter how many signs they made, headbands they bought, or how
many times they shouted Woo, Zack was never going to be presented as anything
other than an over tanned goofball.
So how does a wrestler take control of his destiny? I don’t have any answers. As I stated at the
beginning, I don’t know what happens backstage in a wrestling company. Is it as
simple (or simple sounding) as constantly pitching ideas to the writers or
management? Will they listen to the wrestlers or will they get tired of being
harassed and either not use the wrestler or use them in a way guaranteed to
make the wrestler look bad?
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| Vader Time Photo courtesy: WWE.com |
Right now RAW is counting
down to the 1000th episode. It’s rumored, and was evident on this
week’s show, WWE is looking to bring in some past stars to celebrate the
occasion. This week we got the return of Vader in a match where he defeated
Heath Slater. I enjoy nostalgia and am curious to see who shows up in the next
few weeks. However when a 57 year old with bad knees beats a twenty-something
wrestler who could be a potential star, what message is being sent to the fans?
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| Cena vs. Rock 2??? Photo courtesy: WWE.com |
However the way, something
needs to be done and done quickly. I have heard from a few reliable sources
that the penciled in main event for Wrestlemania 29 is a rematch between Rock
and John Cena because Vince McMahon doesn’t think any other match will sell
out. First off, I hate seeing
rematches at Wrestlemania so I hate this idea. Second, this year’s match was
billed as “Once in a Lifetime” and therefore I have my lawyer working on a
class action lawsuit for false advertisement should the match happen two years
in a row. Third, and most disturbing, we still have ten months until
Wrestlemania and Vince is thinking no one on his roster can be trusted to
headline the biggest show of the year. Instead of looking to the past maybe
Vince should try and create a new star. The only way that’s going to happen is
if he admits the standard procedure hasn’t worked in ten years and WWE needs to
toss out the playbook and do something new. That’s how the Attitude Era
happened. Staying the course is the easy path but it won’t lead to different
results.
I wish I had some great
words to finish this blog. Some great idea that would revitalize wrestling and
lead to the next breakout superstar. Even if I did, I’m sure it would fall on deaf
ears. As a fan, I’ll continue to watch every week and marvel at how underused
some guys are while at the same time being treated to the same main events I’ve
been watching for the past five years. Then I’ll get on the computer and punch
out another thousand words about how disappointed I am in the major wrestling
promotions. The sun will rise. The sun will set. Lather, rinse, and repeat.
Do you have any suggestions
on how WWE (or any wrestling company for that matter) can create new stars? I’m
curious to hear your feedback. Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.
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