Category: Wrestling Musings

All posts related to pro rasslin’ that isn’t covering specific shows or events.

WWE + 1 half of Mortal Kombat = Wrestlemania 21 X-BOX

WWE Wrestlemania 21, the new X-Box video game, has been announced for a March release.

According to a Game Informer article, it’s developed by Studio Gigante. Studio Gigante was not only the team who developed the X-Box fighting game Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus, but is a group led by John Tobias, co-creator of Mortal Kombat.

Somehow, I half-expect Triple H’s finisher to literally Randy Orton’s spine as opposed to his regular finisher… I wish I could say that was just a lame joke, but considering how Randy’s been booked as of late, there are worse fates.

Should TNA Use The WWE Tape Footage?

On a recent edition of the WWE’s Internet show Byte This, former ECW owner and current WWE scripter Paul Heyman said that TNA would never be true competition to WWE. Is there truth to that statement? Maybe, but TNA is really doing well at bringing paranoia to a federation that has lost all touch with the wrestling audience.

TNA has had a decent week/month to say the very least. Their first real PPV, their Fanfest, their matches on one of Fox Sports’ regular programs, the mysterious tape with WWE wrestlers getting pissed because TNA brought them cookies during a commercial shooting all seem to be giving TNA some much needed attention, which can only be a good thing. Now that they’re getting noticed by a large number of people, it’s their chance to make the most of it.

If you’ve heard, WWE is threatening legal action against TNA if they use the cookie footage. They’re demanding that TNA surrenders the tape and whatnot. What does TNA do? They put up a poll for fans to vote as to whether they tape the footage or not. Here’s the link:

[LINK NO LONGER VALID]

My vote? Show the fucking footage and prepare for the consequences. A lawsuit from WWE might be the right, legal thing to do, but it would only further their reputation as bullies of smaller companies (according to TNA). Not only that, but it will show a sign of weakness from WWE as they will be considered threatened by a company they claim is beneath them.

So, as Chris Jericho stated, make the right decision. Vote for the cookie footage to go on the air.

2011 Update:
TNA did eventually show the footage on one of their PPVs (along with a poor man’s Vince impersonator that made me long for the Billionaire Ted skits… hey, at least those were somewhat entertaining.), but blurred out the majority of WWE talents’ faces in order to avoid legal issues. You can make out who’s there, though, if you’re keen-eyed and can recognize tattoos. The footage can be found on TNA’s 50 Greatest Moments DVD if you’re so inclined… it might also be on YouTube.

The Shadow Of TNA Threatens McWrestling

From InsidePulse.Com:

WWE still has up to 5 members of the roster that they want to cut, but the word is that they are holding off, so they don’t feed the talent to TNA. This week being huge for TNA, with Victory Road and the TNA matches on Best Damn Sports Show Period WWE doesn’t want to give them any more momentum.

With morale being so low, especially in the SmackDown! locker room, it may come to the point where talent starts asking for their release to go to TNA, as it’s starting to be looked at as an alternative.

From what I hear so far, Victory Road was a pretty good show. It’s too damn bad that I chose to skip the first real TNA PPV and set myself up for another disappointment from the WWE. I’ll admit to have enjoyed Taboo Tuesday, but it wasn’t necessarily a good show either.

In any case, the added exposure they’re getting right now is exactly what they need to become a serious alternative to WWE, who is starting to notice this small-time wrestling company and holding off the firing of five other talents from their roster, just to keep them from jumping ship.

Kudos to TNA for their recent exposure and let’s hope I’m around for the Turning Point of their Victory Road.

Later.

Divas Dodgeball?! WTF?!

So let me get this straight: instead of a decent wrestling match, we’re getting a bunch of talentless models playing dodgeball with RAW’s women wrestlers at Summerslam?! Who was the genius that thought up that stupid idea?

No wonder women’s wrestling in WWE is shit these days. You try and promote the division as something that can be equally appealing as the regular male division, and then you throw in something stupid like this into the mix. And the RAW Diva bullshit was bad enough on its own…

Come on, dodgeball?!

First Bradshaw as World Champion and now this…




Nostalgia Does NOT Equal Ratings

Something is filling the air of World Wrestling Entertainment since the purchase of World Championship Wrestling from AOL/Time Warner back on March 2001. Vince McMahon should be living the time of his life – after a long struggle, he had beaten the last major wrestling federation and is the only big-time league in North America. With the possibilities of a new and improved WCW on the horizon and potential inter-promotional matches that were only the stuff of dreams, it seemed like McMahon was ready to begin a new era with a bang and take his wrestling company to the next level.

Of course, things did not exactly work that way.

Continue reading “Nostalgia Does NOT Equal Ratings”

No More Wrestling Rants

“When’s the next Wrestling Rant, Dave?”

There is none.

If you want to read my thoughts on wrestling, just read the Bite. I don’t have the energy to keep up with two features at once, especially if the other feature is talking about this awful wrestling that’s on TV.

That McSon-In-Law versus Steiner match nearly broke me.

That was so bad.

I’m amazed how much damage a single Panda did to the direction of this company… but then again, whether they got the F out or not wouldn’t have made much of a difference because they were headed for shit, either.

I’d go for TNA… but do I really wanna pay ten bucks a week for more Vince Russo on my TV?

I’ll bare the WWE product because it’s better than the other one… but not by much.

A Short Comment on Chris Jericho And The “Internet Marks”

The following piece was taken from The Bite edition 06/30/2002 in a subject called “Chris Jericho’s Bashing of the Internet Marks”

“I am browsing through the wrestling webpages and I find this link which contains Chris Jericho’s comments about the dirtsheets and critics (or as he calls them, “marks”) who gave his match with Rob Van Dam negative reviews. If that was the case, then explain to me why this match was the second most-enjoyed match in the King of the Ring (according to a WWE.com poll on June 26th 2002 – 7:49 AM Eastern Time, for those who want to be technical). Explain to me why I actually enjoyed watching this match… It seems to me lately people are more interested in picking out the bad points of a product (in this case, the WWE) than to be entertained by it. They want to check for low ratings of the product and figure out what’s wrong with the product.

“On one of the dirtsheets Tuesday morning, I saw this article agreeing with Chris Jericho’s comments. He thought the June 24th episode of Monday Night Raw was one of the best he’s seen, despite the low rating. Sounds like this guy’s been entertained pretty well. He also says the people who claim that “without big guys like Austin, Rock, or Triple H, WWE is going nowhere” are also the same people who a year ago have said that “WWF (F the Panda) needs to get the limelight off Austin/Rock/HHH, WWF needs to create new stars.” These people are contradicting their own words by saying stuff like this now. If you’re going to review a card, review both its positive and negative attributes. To claim that the crowd was pretty much dead is a joke. I thought the crowd was into it, especially during the RVD/Jericho and Lesnar/Test matches, both of which I felt were highlights of the card.

“The ratings do not dictate whether the card was good or bad. It dictates how many people were watching the show with interest. You can have the absolute best quality television program that night and still manage to score a pathetic 2.9. That simply means in order to attract a larger audience, the writers have to do better than what they are providing.”

That pretty much sums up how I felt about the whole thing at the time. Two months later, I purchase a copy of Pro Wrestling Illustrated (referred to commonly as PWI) in which one of the magazine’s columnists (once again) agree with Chris Jericho’s internet tirade. (All the more interesting is the fact that Chris is true to his word about being done with wrestling on the Internet, as I have yet to see a new commentary posted… nor do I expect one.) The wrestling “newswires” and dirtsheets are nothing more than a source of negativity and bullshit rumors that may or may not happen. It seems that 10% of what’s out there actually holds some merit (mainly Smackdown spoilers – which is the only reason I go to these sheets in the first place), while the rest is “speculation” or “rumor.” I opt for the third option: bullshit.

These days, there is no true way to be entertained by wrestling because we are often tempted to go to these dirtsheets and check out the latest “backstage heat” or “potential future storylines.” And when they do happen in a wrestling card, we shrug it off and pass it as “predictable.” Of course, before you went on to the dirtsheet, you probably didn’t have a clue as to what happened.

On the other hand, though, wrestling hasn’t really changed much during the time it’s been around. Maybe some of the stuff is semi-predictable, maybe some of the stuff is the same shit, and maybe we’re getting the same match ups over and over again. You can call it whatever you want (wrestling, sports-entertainment, male soap opera, the fake sport), dress it up in any way you like, but it is the same product. It is the same basic principle.

Bottom line… who gives a fuck, really? I mean, if you are tired of the same old thing happening over and over again, THEN DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND STOP WATCHING THE FUCKING SHOW!  Is there anything that is tempting you to watch something you don’t like in a negative light? If there is something I don’t like on TV or in the movies, I don’t watch it. It’s as simple as that. Find something you do like and go watch that. It seems as though there are people will just about bash anything and may very well like anything… that is something Chris Jericho has stated in his commentary. In some sense, that is true. Also in some sense, I don’t think there is such a thing as a true fan. In fact, I think these days, the definition of being a fan has changed to the point where the original meaning is lost.

A fan used to be someone who enjoyed the show… but now I think a fan has evolved into a mark… if you’re a fan, you will enjoy the product you’re a fan of. It’s alright to criticize, but enjoy the show too.

WWF Buys WCW… And Somehow Loses.

It’s over.

After a long, hard-fought battle, the World Wrestling Federation has outlasted its rival promotion World Championship Wrestling and bought off its remains, putting an end to the storied rivalry in years and giving Vincent K. McMahon the sports entertainment monopoly he’s always wanted.

It was tight in the beginning. WCW Monday Nitro started in 1995 and went head to head with WWF during a time when the show was an hour long and ran a bunch of bad matches and stories featuring largely cartoonish gimmicks.

And then Scott Hall and Kevin Nash jumped ship to WCW, wrecked havoc (in more ways than one), and formed the New World Order with a Hulk Hogan who had gone bad in an effort to change his stale act. And for the first time in a good long while, WCW was on top of the world, beating the WWF in the ratings, pay-per-view buys, and other areas that the geeks would consider important. The WWF struggled, but couldn’t quite nudge.

But WCW proved two things; they had one good idea and most of their top stars were old guys from the WWF’s prime years in the eighties. Eventually, people got tired of the nWo gimmick and clamored for something new… and that something new came from Stone Cold Steve Austin feuding with Vince McMahon. Suddenly, people were hot for WWF again to the point where WCW was suddenly feeling left behind.

In an effort to gain back their dominance, WCW made stupid mistakes. They ended the streak of their hottest star, Goldberg, and went back to the nWo well one time too many. They hired one of the creative minds behind the WWF’s recent run and they ended up with the same stuff that was on the other show, which begs the question why anyone would want to watch second-rate WWF television on the WCW show when they could just watch RAW. They let four talented wrestlers leave for the competition. They brought back the two guys responsible for the company’s woes to try and liven things up again, only to fail miserably and harder than before.

And these are just scratching the service.

Eventually, the heads at Time Warner decided to sell the thing off and then someone else decided to cancel all the WCW shows, leaving Vince to come in and buy his competition. He might not have the shows, but he has the trademarks, the titles, and some of the stars… but not the big guns. No Goldberg, no Steiner, no Jarrett or anyone like that… well, they got DDP… that’s something, I guess, right?

So this is it… WWF is the only show on television right now… and how do they celebrate this big milestone?

They make Shane the new owner of WCW and have Steve Austin turn on the Rock to join forces with Vince McMahon.

The next day, a friend of mine who had been watching wrestling since the 80s was so upset by this turn of events that he swore off wrestling forever. We’ll see if he actually means it… but if that’s the case, then I wonder how many other people would feel the same way. More to the point… how many people who used to watch WCW until the very end – still feels funny saying that – are actually going to make the jump to WWF?

I was not the biggest WCW fan in the world; the old guys and the constant nWo stuff killed it for me… but it was the place for great wrestling. And there used to be this mentality that WWF was more focused on the entertainment aspects while WCW was more about the sport… something that wasn’t readily apparent the first time around when you had a bunch of old guys in the main event.

So two shows with two different styles… and one goes away… does the one show get the other audience or do they go away?

One thing’s for sure; this acquisition could very well make this whole WWF vs. WCW thing a reality… even if it feels half-assed

Revisiting THREE: A New Generation of Street Fighters

I remember going to the local arcade by the shopping mall, looking to see if there was anybody occupying the popular fighters during the day. And there it sat: THREE.

Why they went with THREE on the arcade banner and not Street Fighter III baffled me at the time, but looking back, I realized that the banner was a joke that Capcom went along with.

For years, people have been clamoring for a Street Fighter III and for years, we got anything and everything BUT that elusive game. In that time, there have been many countless jokes made about Capcom being unable to count to three when it comes to its Street Fighter games. The funny thing is that nobody at Capcom had a problem counting up to and beyond 3 when it comes to its Mega Man series. Maybe the problem is with Capcom’s arcade side of things, as now we seem to have a problem counting to 4.

Or maybe this is the last Street Fighter game for a good while… not counting the updates, of course.

I remember popping in a token into the machine, which had seen only a couple people play at most. I’d pick Ryu and then was astounded by the option to choose one of three Super Arts. Prior Street Fighter games and spin-offs gave fighters more than one super that were available at all times, so to restrict players to one out of three seemed like a step backwards, but then again, this was a “new” take on the property.

Other than Ryu and Ken, you have a cast of eight new characters. In a way, I was annoyed because that meant you had no old favorites to fall back on other than Ryu or Ken… but in a way, it actually makes sense. Street Fighter II had only three fighters making a return from Street Fighter I and this third game is supposed to denote a new generation. Shouldn’t there be more new faces to introduce to the pack?

So I play this new game and in a way, it’s familiar territory almost back to basics. Moves works as well as they did in past games, air blocking is gone, air hurricane kick is gone, only one level of super energy, and… wait a minute, why does that girl have three levels of energy and a much smaller meter? What’s going on here? Hold on, they’ve got a meter that shows me how many hits it takes to stun someone? Why would… HOLY SHIT! DID THAT SUPER SHORYUKEN JUST EAT UP HALF THAT GUY’S HEALTH?! WHAT THE FUCK?!

Street Fighter III was the same old Street Fighter game with a new cast of characters, a somewhat more fluid artstyle that was rougher looking and carried more grit than the anime-esque Alpha visuals,  and a new parrying mechanic that takes a while to master, but changes the dynamics of the game greatly. And I’ll be honest; I enjoyed the game quite a bit. It was nice to see a different looking Street Fighter game that didn’t just recycle the same Alpha sprites over again and there was a vibe to this one that I kinda dug.

The typical single-player experience gave you six random opponents for you to conquer before facing off against the final boss, Gill; a tall dude with blue and red skin wearing nothing but a loin cloth. This fucker was tough; his moves hit fast and hard, his reaction times were quick, and if he had a full super meter after getting KO’ed, he’d spring right back to life.  Clearly, this guy was an asshole that was hard as nails… but eventually, he was conquered and a high score was achieved… back when we cared for such things.

And then a year or so later, that SF3 machine was replaced with something else. I don’t remember what, but the game didn’t last long. I never did get to play the 2nd Impact upgrade in arcades, but I did play the Third Strike iteration during my wilderness years. A drastically different experience that no doubt felt like a considerable upgrade… but I’ve always had a fondness for the OG Street Fighter III. It might not have gotten the warmest reception at first glance, but I was just thrilled to get a different Street Fighter that actually felt somewhat different.