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The W - Guest Columns - L2C: Enough Already
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leggo
Mettwurst








Since: 23.3.04
From: Dublin, Ireland

Since last post: 7161 days
Last activity: 7005 days
#1 Posted on | Instant Rating: 2.62
by Gerard 'Leggo' Leggett of Powerwrestling.com

I havent put out an L2C column in a while have I? Missed me?

WELL YOU SHOULDNT HAVE BECAUSE IVE BEEN HERE ALL ALONG AND YOURE JUST TO DUMB/LAZY TO FIND ME!

Seriously, for those of you dumb/lazy pricks whove stood around like Scooby Doo wailing Wheeeres Leggo?!, Ive been taking care of my new project here on PW. If you havent already, check out Powerwrestling News Central, a news, opinion andlife column where I (on Monday), Jay Johansson (Tuesday), Cameron Powers (Friday) will inform you, make you laugh, make you think, make you cry and hopefully make you wish for more. We should be adding writers in the near future, and who knows, it could be you who is doing the informing, joking et al in the near future, so for information on that, please email me at iamleggo@hotmail.com. With that out of the way, lets get onto our main event.

Not enough of you visit our forums. Yes we are asses, yes were immature, no were not homos and yes it is the only place you can find Kevin Gregg anymore because God knows no one checks out his new site. The best thing about the forums of course, is me. The forums inspire some of my best writing, writing thats good, but doesnt make the cut in here or a news report either because its in response to someone elses work or it just doesnt fit. It was in the forums recently where a topic arose with a certain member, Joelismymaster, raising a number of points detailing the mess WWE is in right now. Always being the staunchest WWE supporter, I fired back with a series of counterpoints, and so began a conversation where one by one someone listening too much to Meltzer would fire a point at me and I would just rip it to shreds. Of course it wasnt all me, but this is my column, so for the purpose of this conversation, it was.

Now, in an easily digestible 20 points, Ill relay to you the bulk of this topic, and even beef up my answers for those of you whove already read them in the forums. Enjoy

1. Smackdown sucks right now.

Very much an opinionated statement rather than fact. SmackDown, for me, can be bleh at times, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it sucks. I'd say more accurately is that most WWE fans don't 'get' what they're trying to do with the show and just judge it against RAW, which, as Ive said many times before, isn't really fair.

If you liked WWF Attitude, or were a fan of the hard-nosed, kayfabed old school type of wrestling, youll like RAW at the moment. Its got a little something for everyone and even though many are claiming reached its peak with the loaded up quadruple main event card of several weeks ago (capped off by Y2J/Christian in a cage). Of course I dont need to tell you this, the Dave n Dave already have.

I once made the analogy that those who criticise SmackDown with such tired clichs as lack of direction, poor booking and the rest youre all aware of, go into it with the mindset of seeing Barney when you want to watch porn. SmackDown is NOT RAW, and doesnt try to be. Its cartoon wrestling at its best or worst, depending on your view of cartoon wrestling. Easily relatable characters, simple, fun storylines and solid wrestling. Whether it entertains you or not is another question, but dont for one second tell me that it out and out sucks. I, for one, enjoy it. Im sure families sitting at home are proud to watch it with their kids every Thursday night, and enjoy the wholesome family fun. Just because you, Joe E. Rawfan, doesnt like it doesnt mean its direction is backwards or the booking is piss-poor. Thats a direct line from Scherer, and Ive said many times that hand Dave the book on SmackDown and hell run it into the ground, despite his MASSIVE understanding of wrestling he claims to have about wrestling. Hes got skill in partaking knowledge, but his opinion is exactly why people IN the business hates us and see us as a group of fat kids who dont get it.

2. Everybody hates HHH to the point where they stop watching wrestling. (The exact opposite of what your going for)

The point would have been arguable at best months ago, but considering Trips is back in a LOT of people's good books, then this statement is pretty much a joke.

3. Vince is selling his stock.

And? The man's actually earning a higher salary because of it.

4. TNA is gaining momentum with the new TV contract.

You call being on a shitty network in a timeslot while everyone is at work or at home engrossed with Oprah gaining momentum?

5. People have been complaining about too many McMahons on TV, so know none are on regularily.

They answered the complaints. I don't see how this is a bad thing from the way you put it...

6. RAW announcers are not hyping up Smackdown, they're acting more like if their 2 different entities, and vice versa.

Again, how is this a negative exactly? You need to expand on your points a little.

7. Vince killing my interest by promising to re-do the shows with the lottery.

Eh, the lottery was months ago. It's over now. Not that much has changed.

8. They have to be really careful because of the FCC, so no more nip slips!

Unless you consider male wrestlers going topless, then the last two blatant nip slips they had on TV (Dawn Marie and Jackie Gayda) were both shown so that you couldn't see the nip, and then before that it was when Mae Young stripped in 2000, so I don't see how this is detrimental to the product.

9. Brock Lesnar quit, Goldberg quit, Rock is a movie star, Hogan left, Austin quit, Kurt's banged up, UT has about a year in him...

All of the quitters will be back. Plus, does it really matter WHO is there as long as the product is entertaining? All material points my friend.

10. Only the 4 joint PPV's really do good.

They knew that this would happen when they made the brand split PPVs. Thing is, this gives EVERY casual fan four clear pay-per views to buy throughout the year, so WWE know they're going to get four big, potentially huge, buy rates at least no matter what. As for the brand exclusive PPVs, they still need time to settle, but WWE are still earning a ton off them anyway. Problem?

11. They changed their name to WWE. Vince McMahon took on the govn, and didn't bat an eye, cursed and fought all the way to his victory. But when he took on the World Wildlife Foundation, he just gave up. Why? Now they can't even use their logo in old video's, now that's sad.

Because WWF were always going to win that case, plain and simple, it was just a matter of time before they pulled the trigger. It's like people like Ugo placing a stipulation in contracts for websites they support stating that they can take them down for copyright infringement at any notice. Since every website on the net infringes on copyright in some way, the clause is little more than a 'Get out of jail' deal for Ugo et al. Same with the WWF case. World Wildlife Fund were just waiting for a time when it would piss off VKM and benefit them, and it just so happened when it did. If Vince didn't see that coming, THEN he made a boo-boo, but considering the almost immediate re-naming of the product, its clear that he did.

12. Vince has done crap with WCW, and ECW.

Not much he could really do with the Invasion but kill WCW quick and easily. The big stars didn't need WWE then and WWE needed to gain some quick and fast momentum off the buyout to really assert their dominance, so the blow-off angle was the only way to go.

As for the ECW rights, it appears that they were bought solely for the use of old footage, and with Mick Foley's, Chris Benoit's and RVD's DVDs, along with the actual History of ECW featuring said footage en mass, I'd say they're getting their value for money.

13. Whenever an under used superstar leaves WWE, more times than not, they become a lot better. Like, Justin Credible, Ron Killings, D-Lo, Raven, Jamal or Rosey the other one, Taka Michinoku...

Justin Credible got better? D'Lo got better? Jamal got better? Taka got better? Rosey LEFT?! They dropped the ball on Killings, sure, but to counter that people like Shelton Benjamin and Randy Orton, who probably wouldve amounted to little on the Indy scene since they dont apply to the new trend of wrestler there, seem to be pitted as the new perennial superstars of the company. I think Im siding with WWE on this one.

14. A lot of superstars see Smackdown as the "B" Show.

A lot of Internet readers see Scherer as the National Enquirer of pro-wrestling. Next?

15. Christian sucks, Christian sucks.....



16. The tag division is crummy

Everyone says this, but yet an actual example of HOW exactly its crummy is nowhere to be found. The tag division is what WWE makes it. If they want to use it to build up the World Champion by just throwing he and a random partner against random tag-teams, then fine. That actually makes the tag belts seem like a worthy accolade for those of you who care (and shouldnt) about irrelevant crap like that. The RAW tag-team division have been having some excellent title matches recently with the Benoit & Edge/Evolution/La Resistance bouts. As for SmackDown, the tag belts are a means to an end to tell an excellently executed story involving Haas and Rico. It's a story of acceptance, of dropping one's prejudices in favour of attaining ultimate glory. The matches themselves are entertaining so where is the problem?

I think everyone is looking back on the apparent 'heydays' of tag-team wrestling, the 80s and WWE circa 2000, with a glazed vision. Sure there were about 948598 teams competing for every set of belts in existence, but if we put the angles taken place then under the same microscope as we do today, then they were just as shoddy, perhaps even moreso. In the 80s, the champs would often be parts of stables and the titles an afterthought. Even if we had an established tag-team at the helm, the challengers would just appear to be at random. Champion A beats Challenger B and then Challenger C, whos been gone for months and really doesnt deserve a shot, steps up and gets beaten before random Challenger D comes on.

I can understand everyone talking about how great the division was in 2000 with E&C, the Hardyz and Dudleyz at the helm, but you have to understand that for your entertainment, these men were killing themselves. Plus it got pretty repetitive after a while, as every PPV there seemed to be a match of some sorts involving tables, ladders and chairs. As for the rest of the division, well, at WrestleMania 2000 you had Godfather & D'Lo Brown/Bossman & Buchanan and T&A/Head Cheese on the card without ANY real storyline. 'Nuff said.

We need to realise that we're looking at things through smark goggles and comparing them to things we loved as a mark. Our perspective has changed so basically we're just picking out flaws of today and comparing them to situations of yesteryear glorified by time, but really just as flawed.

17. Theres no visible contenders for the IC title.

Rare is the time you'll find ANY mid-card title, in ANY company with a list of challengers at the ready. Orton and Benjamin are going for a long-term feud (ala Rocky/Triple H in 98) that is set to establish both men as upper-tier midcarders, so establishing another challenger for the belt would defeat that purpose. Besides, the problem seems too material to be a real PROBLEM when watching the show. Do you seriously find your enjoyment of a good 'ol IC Title match skewed by the underlying thought that "Oh God, when this match is over, there will be NO CHALLENGERS FOR THE BELT!!!"?

Thought not.

18. The women's division is undervalued

That's your opinion, okay. But again it's a material one that shouldn't affect your enjoyment of the actual show and any women's division matches itself. It's bitching for the sake of it. Me? I haven't seen the division handled as a whole as well as it was at Bad Blood. The fatal-four way seemed to involve every viable competitor for the belt but one (Molly), who each had their own identity and reason to win that match. The crowd identified with that and last Sunday marked a genuine high point for the division.

19. Underfed cruiserweights.

WWE has never been high on Cruiserweights, and doesn't claim to be. You have to remember that WWE is but one wrestling company, despite it holding the monopoly of the market, and doesn't HAVE to cater to every fan's wants and needs. It COULD just have matches like Big Show/Batista on round the clock, as we all know of Vince's love for the bigger male, but it chooses to cater to most of it's markets in some form or fashion. Consider yourself lucky that a Cruiser division exists at all, even if it is an 'underfed' one.

And if Cruisers are your thing, check out TNA, or Ring of Honor, or AAA, or any of the hundreds of Japanese feds. Vince doesn't care, because at the end of the day we're all his bitches and will always come running back to his show because no one can do it as good as he can. And no matter how much we bitch, we'll always put that dollar into his back pocket, however resentfully it may be.

20. I'd rate it at a 4. Not in the dumpster yet, but damn, are they doing bad right now.

Your rating has no real weight considering we don't really know what your idea of a 1 is, nor do we know what a 10 is. WWE is doing fine by their standards and actually are making themselves more profitable than they have in years.

People, stop TRYING to be smart and either actually do it or let people like me do it for you.

For some reason, I tend to put out an average outing before a major column. I did so last year with a thrown together tribute (shudders) to Crash Holly before the PW International Report, so consider this the Crash to my Report. Coming soon, the return of Kay-Fables with a column SO big, its going to take you a week to read. Literally.

Intrigued? Maybe.

Oh and Ill be taking Instant Feedback on this for my next News Central. So if you need me, either reach me by email at iamleggo@hotmail.com, (can someone please get my @pw.com addy back up, I feel naked) or get me on AIM at phatLME. Before doing so however, make sure you adhere to the five golden rules I outlined in my last outing and Ill see you, hopefully, on Monday.

Leggo.
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CRZ
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Since: 9.12.01
From: ミネアポリス

Since last post: 8 days
Last activity: 2 days
ICQ:  
#2 Posted on | Instant Rating: 9.07
    Originally posted by leggo
    I havent put out an L2C column in a while have I? Missed me?

    WELL YOU SHOULDNT HAVE BECAUSE IVE BEEN HERE ALL ALONG AND YOURE JUST TO DUMB/LAZY TO FIND ME!

    Seriously, for those of you dumb/lazy pricks whove stood around like Scooby Doo wailing Wheeeres Leggo?!
Speaking of "enough already..."



CRZ
leggo
Mettwurst








Since: 23.3.04
From: Dublin, Ireland

Since last post: 7161 days
Last activity: 7005 days
#3 Posted on | Instant Rating: 2.62
Oh..the wit..
CRZ
Big Brother
Administrator








Since: 9.12.01
From: ミネアポリス

Since last post: 8 days
Last activity: 2 days
ICQ:  
#4 Posted on | Instant Rating: 9.07
    Originally posted by leggo
    Oh..the wit..
1. ZOOM

2. So is that an example of you "just [ripping a point] to shreds?"



CRZ
leggo
Mettwurst








Since: 23.3.04
From: Dublin, Ireland

Since last post: 7161 days
Last activity: 7005 days
#5 Posted on | Instant Rating: 2.62
Uh, no, it was a comment on your post...
Spaceman Spiff
Knackwurst








Since: 2.1.02
From: Philly Suburbs

Since last post: 1336 days
Last activity: 1 day
#6 Posted on | Instant Rating: 4.05
1) "Smackdown sucks" - I hesitate to say it "sucks", because I still watch every week, and derive some measure of entertainment from the show (varies week to week), but you can't tell me it couldn't or shouldn't be better than it is. The ME scene has been decimated, they're intent on pushing the "extreme" gimmicks (which won't work), and the mid card & lower is a shambles.

As for "family friendly", what do you call Cena insinuating that his opponents are gay? Insinuating that they "suck on deez nuts"? All the diva stuff? Not exactly kid friendly.

2) "Superstars see SD as the 'B' show" - hell, management treats it as such. Move Edge to Raw, move Benjamin to Raw (complete w/ a push, while Haas was jobbing for months before teaming up w/ Rico), move Benoit to Raw. Meanwhile, SD gets Book & RVD, both of whom could be challengers for Eddie. Instead, Book gets jobbed out to Taker and shoved to the midcard, where RVD is stuck, as well. With the ME scene as bad as it is, these 2 should have been plugged in against Eddie.

It's obvious that management doesn't put nearly the effort into SD as they do Raw.

3) "Tag division is crummy" - it is crummy, on both shows.

Raw - Les Res have the belts, now what? The only face team is Helms/Rosey. Hell, beyond these 2 teams, there aren't any other teams.

SD - they've got more teams, but outside of the Dudz and Rico/Haas (Rico got legit hurt last SD, don't know how bad though), all the other teams have been jobbed so much, they aren't credible. Plus, pretty much all the teams are heels. Any idea who the Dudz are going to feud with?

I don't consider pairing up the World Champ w/ a random partner part of the tag team scene.

4) "Cruisers are undefed" - I understand Vince loves him some big guys, and I don't expect Jamie Knoble to be the World Champ (although I'd personally love it), but there's no reason they can't effectively use the cruisers to hold up the mid/low card on SD.

Matt Hardy vs. Rey ME'ed a SD, and that segment drew a 4.0+ rating. The SD6 era drew good ratings, so there's a track record of the fans buying into an increased focus on wrestling.

They've got these young, athletic, quick guys - let them go & see what happens. What could it hurt? IMO, if you want to make SD "family friendly", kids would be more into fast-paced athletic action than the lumbering no-talent big guys they're using in these "extreme" gimmicks.

Or, pair up a bunch of the guys and use them to carry the tag team scene.

There's no reason these guys need to be used solely as squash material for the latest hoss, when there's other ways they can be used that would be far more productive.


    9. Brock Lesnar quit, Goldberg quit, Rock is a movie star, Hogan left, Austin quit, Kurt's banged up, UT has about a year in him...

    All of the quitters will be back. Plus, does it really matter WHO is there as long as the product is entertaining? All material points my friend.

But SD hasn't been as entertaining as it had once been, and that can be directly attributed to Brock leaving and Kurt being hurt. So, yeah, sometimes it does matter.

(edited by Spaceman Spiff on 18.6.04 1045)


Guru Zim
SQL Dejection
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Since: 9.12.01
From: Bay City, OR

Since last post: 8 days
Last activity: 13 hours
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#7 Posted on | Instant Rating: 8.81
And so ends another guest column run.



Willful ignorance of science is not commendable. Refusing to learn the difference between a credible source and a shill is criminally stupid.
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