AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
Nice to see the intelligent people who disagreed with me about the comments at the beginning of last week's column, including one fairly known indy wrestler and one regular reader. It's sad to see that there were so few who could do so...intelligently, that is. At least they read the other 95% of the article that discussed a rather notable wrestler who helped desegrate Southern wrestling.
Not so for many of the others who disagreed, who ranted and raved that I was picking on the Tea Party types and any connection they had to racism. For them, I present Dr. Rand Paul, their candidate for US Senate in Kentucky, who has made public statements opposing the Civil Rights Act (including stating that businesses should be allowed to discriminate), the Americans With Disabilities Act, and said that any criticism of BP (the company whose well is polluting the Gulf of Mexico as we speak)...is somehow "un-American".
I also present the charmer who responded to what I wrote by sending me a picture of the President of the United States with a bone in his nose. If you don't believe me, go to its original source at this link. It's disgusting enough that I don't want it on my site.
Yup, no racism there.
Back to wrestling,
It's little secret that wrestling is at a low ebb right now in terms of TV ratings. Eric Walker, periodic PWBTS contributor, who has spent the last several months fighting cancer, sent some thoughts in about the fact that TV ratings are in the toilet.
"Hopefully the across the board from the bottom up repair of this industry isn't either, where 'what's my next flippy move?' and 'I gotta get my shit in' is replaced with trying to draw money and increase interest in wrestling, which is at its lowest interest peak since before the days of television. The problems must be resolved from the indies on up, and allow it to move upward, finally getting to WWE and if still in existence, TNA and ROH. Either way, this industry is in trouble, and the only ones that can fix it is us. If I can beat cancer, wrestling can be fixed"
So, here's some thoughts in reply to the questions Eric posed.
In Vince's case, first he needs to create some new stars. HHH is off being Daddy (congratulations, HHH), Undertaker can barely walk (yet cranks out great performances used sparingly), and Batista is off trying to find himself.
Meanwhile, Vince can't make up his mind how to use Bryan Danielson, with the "yes, I'm Bryan Danielson...nah, I'm still the little indy jobber who got voted off American Id...er, Ultimate Wrestl..er...NXT" confusion over the last two weeks. Seems Vince McMahon can't remember that doing something different worked pretty well with CM Punk. Um, Vince, think that it might just be time to try?
Second, Vince, the PG shit doesn't work. Stephanie, we're happy you're having maternal instincts. But screw the fact that Linda's running for Senate. PG TV doesn't work. TV needs an edge for adults to have a reason to turn on your show every Monday night.
And by "an edge"...we don't mean Abraham Washington as RAW GM, Vince. I'd rather see Vickie Guerrero. At least she's not a candidate for the X-Pac heat that Washington will create.
Nor do we mean stopping TWO matches to seal hardway cuts on wrestlers, including in an "I Quit" match. I mean what happens if Linda actually wins the Republican nomination? Do we get Fluffy Bunny against Sammy Squirrel in a "Loser has to tell the winner he's nicer" match at Summer Slam?
TNA is rapidly approaching being beyond hope, and is little more than a tax write-off for Dixie's daddy unless they bring in Heyman and let him blow things up. Running Monday nights clearly didn't work, and that was with a WWE TV product that has been spayed and neutered for Linda's Senate campaign. Imagine how much worse it would have been if the product had been on the level WWE is capable of?
The latest drunken embarassment by Scott Hall didn't help things very much. The mugshot of Scott Hall made him look like he was 103 years old. THAT is the TNA Tag Team Champion? Way to make your promotion look like the alternative to WWE, Dixie. Meanwhile, the Motor City Machine Guns are certain jerkers on PPV, Bubba Ray Dudley is busy beating up his trainee, and Christopher Daniels was handed off to ROH because "creative had nothing for him". I bet Jim Cornette or Paul Heyman would if thet were given full control of creative of TNA.
At least Ring of Honor is giving fans some coherent storylines. Getting some more expsoure with more big cities airing HDNet on Comcast (including their home market of Philadelphia) won't hurt. But for Tyler Black keeping the belt... uh-uh. Ring of Honor waited too long to give Black the belt and crowds have been crapping on him. Time for Ring of Honor to do what it's obvious they're going to do (and should have done anyway) and put the belt on Davey Richards. Gotta give Richards something for turning his back on EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA, after all.
So for the moment, folks, support your local independent promotion. It may be one of the few exciting things about wrestling in the near future.
Until next time...
If you have comments or questions, or if you'd like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at the address above.
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If you have comments/questions, or if you'd like to add the AS I SEE IT
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