Wrestling Rumblings #57
March 5, 2010
By: Jose Marrero of WrestleView.com
Before I get into anything this week the first thing I want to do is take some time out of this column to thank Dave Stephens for all his help in creating the new column logo and helping me out with some other things related to Wrestlemania weekend. I can?t tell you enough how much of a fan I am of Dave as a person and as a fan of wrestling and I know if he puts half as much energy into his and Anthony Valvo’s new show for the Wrestleview Radio Network ?The Teachers Lounge? as he does his column ?That’s a Wrap? than that’s going to be one hell of a show to listen to. Dave and Anthony for that matter are two of my very favorite people here on this site and I do hope that those of you who are subscribers to the VIP section of this website check out their show and to those of you that aren?t this and the new ?Outside Interference? column that I posted earlier in the week is as good a reason as any to subscribe.
Now that we got the gratuities and plugs out of the way this week let’s get into the rest of the column. I caught myself taking a walk down memory lane this week and looking at some of the original ?Wrestling Rumblings? columns that were done back in the days writing for doiwrestling.com. After cringing and realizing how horrible those earlier columns were now for the standard that I have set forth today, I couldn?t help but see how far things have come doing this column and I just thought that maybe just for this week I would sort of do a column that sort of paid homage to what this column used to be. You see every week I sort of pick a topic and stick to it and well ?Wrestling Rumblings? (believe it or not the original title was ?Wrestling Ramblings? but when I did the second ever installment I typed ?rumblings? on just instinct and it just sounded better and the name stuck) used to be the rant of one crazy wrestling fan (me) on just about everything and anything that was pertinent for that week. So for this week let’s go back to that and in the spirit of the original column ?let’s get into it?
For the uninformed WWE signed Orlando Colon to a developmental deal this week. Orlando is the cousin of both Carlito and Primo and the top heel right now in his legendary Uncle Carlos Colon’s WWC and should be finishing up there soon and heading down to FCW. I actually upgraded my cable package a little over a year ago to be able to watch some more wrestling and WWC was definitely one of the groups whose shows I was looking forward to watching, not because I am a proud Puerto Rican (believe it or not I don?t speak Spanish) but because it is one of the last territories in my opinion that’s left in the world of wrestling. WWC runs pretty much the same towns every week and because of that and the size of the island of Puerto Rico is forced to drag storylines out in a way longer than today’s WWE and TNA fan are used to. Take this for example, Orlando has been feuding with Ray Gonzalez in Puerto Rico for well over a year now and the feud is still drawing because of the manner in which it has been booked. I don?t think the actual wrestling over there is great but there is something to be said for having to appeal to the same fans week in and week out and I have noticed that WWE is paying more attention to Puerto Rico, Mexico and Japan as of late. I hope WWE sees that having wrestlers who have a hybrid of styles is beneficial to their product as opposed to having everyone exactly the same way as they are in FCW and comes to more of a concrete agreement with WWC, CMLL and other groups about maybe using their groups to help develop future WWE talent. In the meanwhile I am looking forward to seeing what Orlando does in FCW and what he will do when he is eventually called up to the main WWE roster. Rey Misterio is getting on in years and WWE could benefit from having more Hispanic talent.
Speaking of talent or lack thereof what was going on with that Diva’s pillow fight this week on Raw? It would seem that women’s wrestling as of late is taking some serious shots with the injury to Melina, the de-emphasis to Gail Kim, and the releases of Awesome Kong and Traci Brooks in TNA. I won?t sit here and say that I am the biggest fan of women’s wrestling because I am not but I do recognize its place in the business and have seen that when it is showcased properly like my good friend Sean ?The Mic? McCaffrey has done with his WSU promotion it can be quite the product to watch. It would seem with the scaling back to the women’s product in WWE and TNA and the launch of what I would nominate for worst new promotion of the year in Wrestlicious I really fear for the future of any talented women out there that want to break into the wrestling business. For those who have yet to see the ?Takedown? show that is being put out by Wrestlicious save 30 minutes of your life because as the Wrestlicious owner JV Rich would say if he didn?t own the company and had to watch that show ?If I wasn?t rich and didn?t know better, I would say Jimmy Hart just took all my cheddar, the women are hot but the wrestling’s atrocious and the skits on this show make me want to knock myself unconscious. If you?re into torture and you like to keep it vicious, then go ahead and watch Wrestlicious?
We move from a very horrible wrestling product to a company that most wrestling fans would say has as good of an in ring product if not better than anyone and that’s Ring of Honor. ROH has made official its main event for its next internet PPV The Big Bang and I am wondering if the company will be able to take the shellacking that I think is going to come from wrestling fans who don?t quite understand the direction that the company is attempting to go in. I?ve maintained for years how hard it had to be for ROH to be able to hold 30+ live shows a year and have them all be PPV type quality meaningful and it would seem that the future booking of the company is showing that argument to be true as ROH looks to be using it’s HD Net show to help further the storylines heading into the quarterly PPV’s and using there shows in between those PPV’s to help further promote the storylines instead of being great stand alone events. Ordinarily I wouldn?t have a problem with this except ROH makes majority of their money on DVD sales and I can?t imagine that too many fans would want to buy DVD’s of an event where the major titles aren?t even at stake. Tyler Black vs. Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries is the right match to have on your internet PPV. I just think that with no title defenses and all three men touching so frequently leading up to that show that it’s going to take away from both the prestige of those meetings before the PPV and the PPV itself. I could be wrong but it should be very interesting to see in the months ahead how ROH tries to evolve beyond its original model.
I am usually not one to toot my own horn. I hate it when people come out and take credit for saying things that many people say all the time just maybe not in the forum we do or maybe not to the wide range of people we get to say it too, however I did find personal satisfaction in hearing this past Monday that Maurice ?Mad Dog? Vachon was getting inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year. You see it was just a year ago that I did a column right here on Wrestleview where I created a list of wrestlers that needed to be inducted that most fans didn?t think of and I had the ?Mad Dog? very high on my list. For all the belt marks out there Vachon is a 5 time world champion in an era where if you won a world title once or twice it was a major accomplishment. Besides winning titles Vachon was a draw in an era where you had to draw fans to the seats to be considered anything. Too many fans today put credence in things that are relatively unimportant. I heard a Jerry Jarrett interview recently in which Jerry mentioned how TNA could be considered successful when they have yet to draw money; I totally agree which is why I have taken jabs at TNA and some of the ingrown TNA talent who haven?t drawn any money or widespread interest in their careers. To some of those guys I say do some research, watch some ?Mad Dog Vachon? and learn how he was able to draw money back in his day. It could help you draw money today if you learn even just one thing from it.
On that note I am going to wrap up the column this week but since we are doing things the same way we used to back in the good old days, that means I have to give the readers something to do for the weekend. Well it’s not on a weekend but from all accounts it was a solid show and well worth the $20 price tag on it so I recommend everyone watch DGUSA Fearless which starts Friday on most PPV carriers. Now to those of you in the New Jersey area and want to see a good women’s wrestling show my good friend Sean ?The Mic? McCaffrey’s Women’s Superstars Uncensored is holding its 3rd Anniversary show at the ACE arena at 725 Sip Street in Union City New Jersey. WSU will be holding a 2 hour meet and greet where all of its talent will be available at 3pm which will included former WWE Womens Champion Jazz, Molly Holly and former TNA Knockouts Champion Angelina Love. The show itself will begin at 7pm. WSU will also be holding a Hall of Fame ceremony and the best part is for all of you fans on a budget you can see everything, the meet and greet, the Hall of Fame ceremony and the show for $25. It’s definitely a good outing for a wrestling fan.
Of course don?t forget as previously mentioned to listen to Dave Stephens and Anthony Valvo’s new show here on the Wrestleview Radio Network ?The Teachers Lounge? and be sure to take in the new ?Outside Intereference? column in the VIP area where I reimagine the NXT concept. All your questions, comments, etc. can be sent to wrestlingrumblings@hotmail.com and well that’s it for this week, next week I will try to do better and until then, I am out.