The Wrestling Utopia

Welcome, wrestling fans! Feel free to voice your opinion by signing the guestbook under the award that Star so graciously gave me. I just looked and realized that no one signs it anymore! SIGN THE DAMN BOOK! It took long seconds of cutting and pasting code that wasn't mine to put that thing up! Show your appreciation for someone else's hard work! If you have some ideas of what I should put on the page, let me know. Updates 5/23- Bios for Rico, Randy Orton and a memorial bio for Davey Boy Smith. 5/8- Late-breaking news: Goldberg Signs with the WWF! 4/24- Ever wonder what the lyrics were to Thorn in Your Eye? Well, wonder no longer! 4/3- I redid the Biographies page. 3/10- A new In Other News... commentary. (!!) ^--- What's this box supposed to be? A wrinkle in time? In Other News... Wow, has it really been a year since I wrote something here? There have been a lot of things going down over the past few months in the WWF, and I'm going to address several problems they need to take note of. I'm probably not the only one who has noticed that the WWF probably since last year's King of the Ring has been kind of... lackluster. As a longtime fan, both as a mark and smark, I think at least some of these things people will agree with. First off, the nWo. The New World Order. The New Order for our World. Drunko, the Orange Goblin and Big Lazy the Promotion Killer. Well, the concept behind the angle wasn't a bad idea and did start off fairly well, but where's the poison we were promised? It didn't take three weeks for them to become just another heel stable. Kind of like how the WCW/ECW Alliance started off strong and then just became the heel half of the WWF, huh? To me, it looks like there are too many people booking this thing. Lesson number one on why wrestlers should have no say in their storylines. As it stands now, the Rock/Hogan match has no safe outcome. If Rock wins, the nWo loses any momentum it had, and if Hogan wins, it looks like he's up to his old political games of holding the younger wrestler down. So that forces a nonconclusive ending which pisses off... well, everybody. On the other side of the coin, leave Nash exactly as he is. It's the perfect role for him. Not much talking, NO wrestling. Second, have Stephanie either choose between being an on-air personality or head writer, because she can not be both. Storylines and booking have gone downhill since she was given the position back in mid- to late-2000 (depending on who you believe). Is it any coincidence that what was supposed to be the main event of WrestleMania has sucked so far as far as build up? First, it has turned into HHH vs. Steph, and oh yeah, that guy with the titles. Second, Jericho has not gotten the upperhand on Triple H ONCE. He does not look like a threat at all. Even if Jericho wins the match, he looks weak because probably Steph would have something to do with the outcome and it would be seen as a fluke. As a sidenote, Jericho has not been in the MAIN angle once since he's won the title. First, he had to take a backseat to HHH's return (who coincidentally is banging Steph, the head writer) and then the nWo. His angle with RVD was dropped, his match with Rock at the Royal Rumble got NO build up, and his match with Austin at No Way Out got all of a week of build up. The champion should be involved in the main storyline. Steph has had a year and a half to prove that she could cut it as head writer, and so far she has not proven sh-t. If Vince can stop staring at his own daughter's breasts for a minute, I recommend he demote her ass and put whoever had the position in the period between when Russo left and when Steph took the job back in power. Next, go ahead with this roster split as soon as possible. The main event scene has become too stale. I mean, how many times have we seen HHH vs. Kurt Angle in the last two months alone? Austin vs. Jericho? Seen it. Rock vs. Jericho? Seen it. Rock vs. Austin? Seen it. HHH vs. all of the aforementioned gentlemen? Seen it. With two shows featuring separate rosters, it allows more people to get involved in the main event, like Edge, Test, Booker T, RVD, etc. Toss them in the main event scene and that will get some fresh feuds going. It will also give talented Jakked and Heat workers like Tajiri, Hurricane and Spike to move up to the midcard. Finally, Vince McMahon himself. My theory about him is that after the XFL failed he purchased WCW as a way of protecting his own ego. After all, his football league tanked (though I thought that he jumped the gun and pulled the plug on it way too soon) but he was still the undisputed king of pro wrestling, right? Well, bad timing with these two events collided with the fact that wrestling is a cyclical business. After a few years of being hot, the mainstream popularity started to fade, just as everyone knew it would. So Vince overcompensated by trying to prove that he could build WCW back up and provide his own competition. When the WWF/WCW angle failed, he gave the OK for Heyman to book ECW into the equation and when that failed, he pulled the plug on the Alliance storyline and started bringing in Flair and the nWo guys as he got more and more insecure in his abilities. It drove away Mick Foley, who didn't agree with the direction the company is going in. Even his longtime friend and one of the better match scripters, Pat Patterson, has asked to be reassigned to a lighter workload because he disagrees with the direction the company is going in and is stressed from having too many arguments with Vince. Vince seems to have forgotten that the WWF became popular again when he made new stars and didn't rely on tired stars from the past. The WWF as of now has possibly the most talented and star powered roster under contract. However, it also has some of the biggest egomaniacs in wrestling history under contract, including Hogan, Nash, HHH, and the rumored returns of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Not to mention Scott Hall, who has a past history of being more trouble than he's worth. For this enviornment to work, Vince needs to look at the past. Look at 1995, when the WWF was at its lowest and the Kliq was running wild all over the booking sheets. Look at 1998, when the WWF took off and Vince was in full control without primadonnas like Hart and Michaels around. Seriously look at the horrible job his daughter is doing in one of the company's most important positions. The WWF is heading downhill, but it's not doomed like some in the almighty Internet Wrestling Community say it is. They are still getting better than average ratings, and PPV buyrates and merchandise sales are up. I doubt that wrestling will attain the popularity of the mid-eighties and late-nineties for at least another five years, as wrestling will have changed to the point that people will tune in again and see that it's not the same old tired show. I have no doubt Vince and the WWF can do it again, but first they have to get through the down time. That's all for now! --Nykk, "The Smarter Mark"