Kevin Nash, literally an outsider. Will the WWF take the risk?
Everywhere I go on the internet (wrestling websites at least) we have writers continually bashing the WWF's current product. Like military ants on a dead horse, they jump on every single little storyline and missed opportunity that the WWF produces. Like scavengers, they pick apart any kind of meat the WWF can put on National TV. Perhaps all the WCW fans that have left their televisions when wrestling comes on have jumped to their monitors instead.
The WWF looks like a brand new company these days. With some of their most talented acts injured right now, they have decided to mix the soup, and go for more unorthodox television. The WWF is testing a whole lot of concepts that previous wrestling programs haven't done in the past. Right now, WWF is about as revolutionary as it has been in it's history.
Points to back up the last sentence. The WWF does have a pretty full roster, but the people that complain that there is only one promotion refuse to suspend the disbelief of their being an Invasion storyline. During the NWO invasion angle in the WCW's glory days, the wrestling populous "forgot" about the fact that the leading wrestlers in the NWO were not from an invading WWF. They also forgot that NWO couldn't take over the WCW or vice versa because they were all signed to WCW all along. The current Invasion angle is even more interesting than the beginning of the NWO angle, because there are legit company lines in the WWF right now. The ECW guys probably hang and play cards with other ECW guys, and the same with WWF and WCW guys. This should be brought out effectively in storylines by having them all backstage on camera talking about the other promotions, and plotting on both of the other companies. Instead, the Alliance is the Alliance, and WWF is WWF, making it one on one. Even though this column is to get people to jump off the WWF's shoulders, that would have helped naysayers to understand the current product further.
People also seem to forget that one main eventer and two upper-carders are returning soon. They're also forgetting all the WCW wrestlers that are in the developmental territories. WWF has the strongest talent pool in the world, with such remarkable and talented wrestlers as Shane Helms (minus the Hurricane gimmick), Billy Kidman, Lance Storm, and Jerry Lynn on the roster. Alot of these wrestlers are under-used, but that's likely when there are so many wrestlers in the promotion. The WWF should really be looking into forming another developmental territory, or better yet, build another national promotion to split the groups up. Vince should allow Shane or Jim Ross to take some wrestlers that Vince seems reasonable to another promotion and run themselves independent of the WWF. This will be hard to do, but if Vince wants to, he can easily swap talent sometimes, or have the yearly interpromotional matches.
The wrestlers that the fans want to see get the TV time. Jerry Lynn is a great wrestler, but he has 0 personality. He made a good splash earlier in the year with a light-heavyweight championship win, but his momentum quickly ended, and he was pulled from TV. His arch-nemesis RVD on the other hand, got over with the live crowd faster than anyone in memory, and gained enough momentum to grab victories over the biggest stars, such as Steve Austin, The Rock, and Kurt Angle. They're pushing the right wrestlers right now, such as Test, RVD, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, and Christian, but no one gives credit to them for that. Sheesh, they're even giving Shane Helms a push. Where are all the "push these guys" rants on the message boards and web columns?
Following is a list of some recent WWF matches on their shows. Some matches weren't great matches, but the name power should gain ratings for the WWF if they made sure to announce their complete match listing in advance on all of their previews. Here are some matches you would have seen listed if they would have used that idea.
Recent WWF matches. (No particular order.)
Tajiri vs. Billy Kidman
Edge vs. Christian
Booker T vs. The Undertaker
Rob Van Dam vs. Chris Jericho
William Regal vs. Lance Storm
Kurt Angle vs. William Regal
Kurt Angle and The Rock vs. The Dudley Boys
Kurt Angle vs. Christian
Kurt Angle vs. Rob Van Dam
Rob Van Dam vs. Raven
Chris Jericho vs. Rhyno
Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle
The matches need to be promoted heavily in the future, then hopefully people will respect the product more. With Hall and Nash reportedly thinking about signing, I have a feeling the WWF's backload will get heavier and heavier into the new year.