Wrestling Rumblings #4
February 27, 2009
By: Jose Marrero of WrestleView.com
As those who know me personally will attest to I am a fan of violence. It does not matter if it is Boxing, MMA to random people just fighting on the streets. If 2 people are throwing down I am there. Why? Well maybe I am a bit warped and a bit twisted but that is a topic for another day. Of course this fascination with violence makes me a wrestling fan so of course usually all everyone wants to do is talk to me about wrestling. Especially those that are familiar with my website work and well the words I always hear is ?Whatever happened to?? and well you can fill in almost anything. So since this column is for the readers and I consider myself to be your spokesman I give you the ?Whatever happened to? edition of “Wrestling Rumblings.”
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Whatever happened to continuity in wrestling?
I am going to presume that since everyone reading this is a wrestling fan by now you all know the recent angle with Randy Orton and HHH and well I just want to know how is it that WWE actually divorced HHH and Stephanie McMahon on TV in July 2002 and yet HHH and Stephanie are all of a sudden married again on TV in February 2009? Sure I know wrestling is a work and we all know that Stephanie and HHH are married but to me once you start breaking kayfabe in one area to make something more ?real? it makes it that hard to take other things seriously. Bear in mind I had no problems to the hints over the years to there real life marriage but to come out and say it basically takes away f rom the storyline where they did marry, did feud and did divorce.
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OK let’s move past it and hit the old line of ?Wrestling fans have short memories? and let’s just look back to HHH’s interview on Smackdown where he is faulting Randy Orton for beating up Shane and Vince and basically called Orton a creep for beating up a 63 year old man and then his son for protecting him. Wasn?t it not that long ago that HHH and his good pal Shawn Micheals were beating up and embarrassing the McMahons on a weekly basis? It was just 3 years ago at Wrestlemania where Shawn beat Vince within an inch of his life and that was fine with HHH then and not now? They wrestled the McMahons in a Hell in a Cell match for crying out loud which is promoted as ?The most barbaric structure ever assembled?.
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While I am suing HHH and Orton’s program as a example this routinely happens how many times have we seen guys who have had blood feuds in the past all of a sudden just team up with no real explanation as to why all of a sudden they get along now. I like everyone else get that wrestling is a work but the whole idea is to suspend disbelief and it’s pretty hard to do so when your intelligence is blatantly insulted.
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Whatever happened to the whole idea of the brand extension?
Remember when the brand extension started and the whole idea of it was that if you wanted to see a guy who was on Smackdown well then you could only watch him on Smackdown. It seems as if lately the brand extension really doesn?t matter. For those who will email me and tell me the lines always get a little bit blurry around Wrestlemania I say look at John Morrisson and the Miz while these 2 are on ECW technically they wind up on every show seemingly every week. They have even won titles on both of the other shows becoming the only tag team ever to do that. Matt Hardy was on Smackdown during his time as ECW champion more than he was on his own show. If you really want the brand extension to mean something well then stars that you claim are brand exclusive should be just that brand exclusive because as it is right now the upcoming WWE draft does not mean a thing to me. I mean if I am John Cena and I was drafted to Smackdown I would just be like ?Screw that I am appearing on ECW and Raw every week? and so on and so forth. Make the brand extension right or just admit the failure that it is and end it.
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Whatever happened to making stars out of your younger talent?
This next upcoming TNA PPV will have the main event match up of Kurt Angle vs. Sting for the TNA world title. Don?t misunderstand what I am about to say here because I do think this will be a good match to see but wasn?t the whole point of the Main Event Mafia vs. Frontline feud to help give a push to your younger lesser established stars? How can that happen if you have Kurt Angle and Sting working with each other instead of these stars? Of course if this was a one month thing maybe I wouldn?t be so hard on it but what have the younger guys who this was supposed to elevate really got out of this? We had Team 3D in the main event the month before and Rhino in the main even the month before that. We are talking about 3 straight PPV shows where the younger guys are not getting that rub and instead you are giving rubs to guys who in my opinion don?t need or deserve them. This is insane and yet I still can?t help but feel at some point when all of this is said and done we are going to get another Jeff Jarrett title reign. The madness needs to stop.
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Whatever happened to satisfying your fans?
For those who are unaware Ring of Honor is looking for someone who can help them create ring entrances for there wrestlers when they go on HD Net. This is not really that big of a deal to me except I truly believe part of the atmosphere of going to a ROH show is some of the entrances of the ROH wrestlers and well those entrances have copyrighted music. ECW even in its darkest days didn?t have a guy like Sandman coming down to anything other than ?Enter the Sandman? because they knew the fans enjoyed that song and singing the lyrics to that song and well that made the entrance special. ROH fans have ?Final Countdown? for Bryan Danielson. Bryan’s entrance is special and for those of you who have no idea of what I am talking about you just have to go sit in a ROH crowd to understand exactly what I am talking about. I understand that we have tough times ahead in this economy and am not even saying that some custom music shouldn?t be created for some guys but I think when you get rid of some guys music you sort of take away f rom there character a bit and well ROH shouldn?t be doing anything to detract f rom there product right now. Stop being cheap and pay the fees.
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Whatever happened to having your champions mean something?
CM Punk the WWE Intercontinental Champion qualified to be in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match this past week on Raw. While that is great as CM Punk will definitely add something to the match it means more likely than not the Intercontinental Title will not be defended at Wrestlemania this year. Going back even further the Intercontinental Title has not been defended now at 7 consecutive Wrestlemanias. Sadly I am still not done the Intercontinental Title has not been defended on PPV since October at Cyber Sunday and of course that was a comedy match up between Santino Marella and the Honky Tonk Man. Of course it is not just the Intercontinental Title that will probably miss out on Wrestlemania but the tag team titles of either brand as well. Just what is the point of having titles such as the US, WWE Tag, WWE World Tag, and Intercontinental Titles if they are just going to be a midcard afterthought? One thing I can say about TNA is that for the most part every title is defended on every TNA PPV. I can?t recall a Bound for Glory taking place where all of TNA’s titles haven?t been defended. Yet when Wrestlemania rolls around you will probably get an average of 4 out of a possible 9 titles defended. Less than half of your organizations championships what happened to that line f rom an old Wrestlemania promo f rom the Undertaker about you being on the card at Wrestlemania meaning you mean something? Apparently if you are a tag team champion or a US/IC champion you mean nothing and if you are a Women’s Champion you mean a bathroom break.
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Whatever happened to realism in wrestling?
I know its entertainment and it’s all a work but is it too much trouble to ask that when a wrestler is not expecting to wrestle he dresses as if he is not expecting to wrestle? Why is it that even though no one in the Legacy had a match on Monday they all came down to the ring wearing there tights? ?I will give WWE this much they are coming down a lot better on this than they have in the past as you saw HHH didn?t come down to his music this week and well Edge for the most part when he comes out to berate people almost is never in gear. I will say this much I do find it funny that even though HHH is mad as hell and is dying to get his hands on Randy Orton he still found time to put on the brand new HHH T-shirt before he left his home to go and do it.
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Whatever happened to your emails?
Actually you have been sending emails and I have been listening and enjoying the feedback f rom all of you and doing my absolute best to get back to all of you in a timely fashion even if it’s just to say thanks for the email. Of course you can hit me up at wrestlingrumblings@hotmail.com and for those who want to hit me up on myspace and check out some older editions of ?Wrestling Rumblings? going back 4+ years check out http://www.myspace.com/wrestlingrumbling and well that’s it next week I will try to do better and until then I am out.