This week brings a slough of new competitors and grapplers to our online voting project, the Power Poll. Although an episode of iMPACT has already aired, and possibly one from Smackdown, keep in mind the date listed above. Last week didn’t include the win from Sting over on the TNA side of things, and “spoiler,” he somehow didn’t make it this week. However, a sneaky vote by myself (and likely others) vaulted an ROH/indie guy into a spot this week. And when I say “Boom” I don’t mean Kofi Kingston! Also, you won’t believe who is not on the list this week… read on smarks…. read on. (more…)
What’s up folks? I guess this will be a little different than your normal Power Poll installment. Yes, there will be animated gifs (I made three of them just for you)! But, I did not receive any results from our ringmaster. So… these are only my own rankings, as biased as ever! (more…)
Oh how things can change in one weeks time! Once again I return to bring you this week’s power poll. Sadly, I am a little strapped for time and this will not be an animated gif version of the article. However, it will still be a nice look at the IWC’s perception of the top stars amongst the contributing websites. (more…)
MVP is totally going to show up in the iMPACT Zone tonight! He got future endeavored by the WWE today, so obviously with the no-compete clause, the last sentence you read is a lie. I miss the days before that clause… Let’s see what REALLY happened on this pretaped go-home episode… (more…)
This is simply an extended reponse to my previous column dealing with the wide-open subject of John Cena. “Bored Wrestling Fans” very own Jana always provides a good read and I thought that her opinions were so great that it’d be a shame not to share them with the rest of you! Couldn’t fit THIS into one measly comment!
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The current anti-Cena attitude can be traced to several factors.
The easy thing to do, which is also incorrect, is to make blanket assumptions, such as “The IWC hates Cena,” or that only women and kids cheer for Cena. Both of those statements are demonstrably false. Show me a fan of ANYTHING today who doesn’t spend time on the internet, researching and seeking to connect with others of like mind. I don’t remember anyone ever claiming that only women and kids cheered for Hulk Hogan back in the 80s, and if it were true for Cena, it would almost have to be true for Hogan. The argument that Hogan was a star in a more innocent time, where older kids and guys would have felt comfortable supporting him, and that we today have already experienced the age of the anti-hero, making the more traditional hero less attractive, doesn’t stand up either. Hogan’s heyday in the 80s was the time of Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry, the X-Men comics (which I know were created earlier, but were still very popular), the golden age of hard rock and heavy metal, and a host of other tv, movie, and comic book characters who were as dark, edgy, and of the anti-hero vein as anything that we have today.
Wrestling fans have grown up accustomed to “cool” heels. The nWo holds much responsibility for this, as does DX, the original ECW, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and the Rock. We’ve almost been trained to be contrary, cheering for heelish characters and booing babyfaces. The example of the Rock is always trotted out, and the comparison has some merit. Rocky Maivia was too goody-goody and boring. The Rock was everything that we wanted to be. Cena was quite popular all around when he first started the rapper gimmick, largely because he was unpredictable on the mic. He would cut down anyone, including Vince McMahon. Nowadays, he grunts and makes rather constipated-looking facial expressions while repeating lackluster catchphrases like “Never give up.” Cena is doing exactly what he is supposed to do by playing the indestructible super hero that every kid loves, but in doing so, he has completely alienated the rest of the audience that is not part of the PG demographic.
This leads me to the next point. Whether it really happened because Linda McMahon decided to run for Senate or not, the shift to the PG product and tightly focused marketing on kids is, to a degree, a very sound business decision. The golden age of WWF in the 80s (I consider the Attitude Era a completely different creature from any sort of “golden age.”) targeted kids. Business boomed. Now those very kids are grown and have their own kids. It’s a basic business concept to “get ’em when they’re young,” and then you have customers for life. It certainly worked before. The problem with catering to a new generation of fans is that the previous generation of fans, who have supported the product with time, money, and passion, feel slighted and even cheated. The resentment and hatred over that is transferred to the company’s poster boy, John Cena. The thing that WWE seems to have forgotten in their new business model is that the kids aren’t paying for anything. Parents and guardians, adults, in other words, have to take the kids to the shows, buy tickets, t-shirts, masks, and all the other merchandise that gets created, and sit through the shows with the kids, both live on on tv. If the parents think that the content is stupid, or embarrassing/insulting to human intelligence, they won’t want to spend the time and money on WWE that they once did. Basically, there has to be something in it for them as well, and WWE is ignoring that.
This ties in with my final point. You were dead-on about having a company that has a bit of everything. That’s why I (and so many others, by the sound of it) feel so disappointed and let down by both WWE and TNA. I wouldn’t mind sitting through a John Cena match if I knew that I would get an Alex Shelley match somewhere else on the card. The most effective and profitable concept for pro wrestling has always been, and always will be, what I call the circus model. It has a little bit of everything, and all of it is good. Comedy acts, like Santino Marella and Hornswaggle. Over-the-top epicness like the Undertaker and Kane. Special attractions like the Great Khali and the Big Show. True tag teams like the Hart Dynasty, the Usos, Beer Money, and the Motor City Machine Guns. Legitimate women’s matches with actual wrestlers like Beth Phoenix, Natalya, Mickie James, Daffney, Sarita, MsChif, and Sara Del Ray. Mat-based technical wow-fests with people like Douglas Williams, Nigel McGuinness, Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles, Davey Richards, KENTA, and Roderick Strong. Powerhouses like Drew McIntyre, Samoa Joe, and Sheamus. Super-athletic high-fliers like Brian Kendrick, Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, Justin Gabriel, John Morrison, and Austin Aries. That would be every wrestling fan’s dream.
The company with the broadest appeal does the best business. ROH caters to a very specific audience, and that’s great for that audience. They specifically say that they aren’t interested in the casual fan, and that they provide serious wrestling that has nothing to do with sports entertainment for fans of real pro wrestling. Fine, that’s their thing. The big two aren’t much better. WWE hates tag teams, most of the smaller and more athletic high-fliers, and legitimate female wrestlers who don’t look like Barbie dolls. They focus on children at the expense of the adult audience. TNA prides themselves on being a more adult product, but Eric Bischoff mocks the hardcore wrestling fans and says repeatedly that they don’t matter, that the casual fans were the target audience. As you said, TNA has tried so hard to be WWE that they have lost almost everything that made them different. The X-Division, the six-sided ring, the legitimate Knockouts division, the focus on true tag teams, and the international talent are all gone.
How does all this tie back in to John Cena? While there are a given number of douchebags who have to make sure that everyone knows that they are far too cool to ever like something that is popular or mainstream, most of it, I honestly believe, stems from frustrated and disappointed fans who feel that there is nothing in the WWE product for them anymore. They resent having devoted so much time, money, and passion into something that has essentially ditched them. Because John Cena is the embodiment of the current WWE product, all the negative feelings are transferred to him. Booing and criticizing him is easier than actually getting the desired changes from Vince and the WWE. It’s rather like spending huge quantities of time, effort, and money on dating someone, and then you get kicked to the curb for someone else. Of course you hold that individual up as the epitome of all that is wrong with the world. It’s how human nature works.
Ladies and gentle/wild-men of the “Bored Wrestling Fan” community, welcome to my very first article here in the land of the strange, crazy and indeed wacky. Please let me begin this by stating how awesome it is to be here and how sweet it really is to be back writing about professional wrestling again! Oh wrasslin’ journalism, how I have missed thee!
I’ve basically been given free reign to chatter away to my hearts content about all things wrestling, which is perhaps the most fantastic welcome email I could have received by “the boss” (I’m very sure he walks just like Vince McMahon into the office every morning), ThinkSoJoe. So, with that said – feel free to thank that man for inflic…erm…bringing me onto your computer screens each week. You can thank him in anyway you see fit, likely by screaming at him in a voice akin to Paul Heyman, “WHO’S THE RAMBLING SCOTSMAN WITH THE GRAMMATICAL SKILLS OF A 4 YEAR OLD!?”.
It’s plainly obvious why I am here and why I have managed to stumble, with the help of the lovely Drowgoddess, blind drunk into the land of BWF; yours truly simply loves professional wrestling. I have done since I was a very small boy and will continue to do so until I’m a very small old man. It’s always hard for me to convey or put across my true passion for what all those men and women do each and every night. I’ve penned many an article for many a website regarding my thanks for the countless hours of fantastic entertainment they have given me over the years. The sacrifice and dedication to performance is evidently appreciated by millions, with me amongst those millions. I love wrestling for the drama, the spectacle, the over-the-top hammy acting and the head-in-hands moments where you’re failing to believe what you’ve just witnessed. It has made me laugh, it has made me cry. One thing it has never really failed to do however, is fail to entertain me.
I’ve long pondered why I am so enraptured by this unique form of scripted theatre. In the many years I’ve followed the grap-game, there have been many people I know who have moved on from it’s clutches. “Grown out of it” or grown bored of it, the numbers aren’t exactly sparse. In my circle of friends, I’d go so far as to say that 90% of them now view professional wrestling as “something for kids” or “entertainment for morons”. They don’t mean anything harsh by these statements but they seem to be missing the point of why I’m still heavily into it – it’s more than entertainment to me. I enjoy thinking about what might go on backstage. Where the storylines come from and how they’re put together is a topic which has long kept me awake at night, basking in the afterglow of another Pay-Per-View conclusion. Sure, I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that goes on when the lights go down and the show’s over, but it doesn’t stop me from daydreaming about it.
The above may seem like a pretty wacked-out piece of nonsense to a number of you. I appreciate that there are those and such as those who merely wish to watch the show week-to-week, never thinking of what goes on behind the curtain. Afterall, what’s wrong with that? If you’re getting what entertainment you need out of the product then by all means treat it how you wish to treat it. One thing nobody should ever do however, is tell another fan how to go about enjoying the same product. This is partly what makes pro wrestling such an exclusive commodity however. How many people do you know who watch…say…CSI and when they switch the TV off, they wonder for hours how the show is put together, what the cast are like as real people and will eagerly debate with others on whether or not William Petersen as “Gil Grissom” is protecting his spot and keeping the minor characters in their place, hogging the limelight all for himself?
Now we all know that if this does happen, it’s a very rare occurrence. Most fans of most TV shows are happy to tune in, enjoy and then tune out, getting on with the rest of their day/evening. Not so in the wrestling world. It’s one of those entertainment mediums which has it’s content scrutinised relentlessly by a huge number of it’s fanbase each and every day of the year.
The internet itself has become so renowned that the fans who like wrestling AND use the web are now referred to as the “IWC” or “Internet Wrestling Community”. There’s a negative stigma attached to this too, wherein fans who surf the net to talk about wrestling are perceived as fat nerds who just want to pick holes in what happened on Monday Night RAW. Now I’m extremely sure there are those of that ilk among us but, y’know, some of us just want to chat to fellow fans about what’s going down, where the promotion could possibly take the stories from here and wax lyrical regarding Velvet Sky’s entrance sequence.
Personally, and I’m sure I’m not alone here, this reputation irritates me. It’s not that many wrestlers and creative team members of the various wrestling companies have bias against opinionated forum-users that gets to me. It’s a large portion of the vast number of wrestling-based message boards userbase that gets to me. The very same userbase which I myself am a part of. There does seem to be so much negativity around, to the point that sometimes you find yourself wondering why most of these people even watch the shows anymore. What pleasure can be gained out of watching any entertainment medium you find ridiculous, seething over it and then venting your self-made frustrations to others over the internet? Surely to heck some of these folks need to relax and if wrestling isn’t as good to them as it was back during the “Attitude” era, they should just stick to YouTube clips, videotape libraries and memories?
Having said all that, I beg of you – please do not get me wrong. There are many things which happen on wrestling shows which perplex me to absolute unholy hell. Do these things ruin my day? No. Do these happenings destroy my enjoyment of the show as a whole? No. I wouldn’t watch it for one minute longer if they did! I guess I do understand where some of the bitching comes from but, like I said, it impresses me how some of these people beat the product up and yet still find the time to tune in. It’s simply something I may never understand.
If you’re still awake, I must thank you for taking the time to peruse through my article. I really hope it’s apparent how passionate I am about the weird and wacky world of pro wrestling. As much as I know about it, I like humbling myself by saying that I know next to nothing about it, really. I know what I think, what I’ve read and heard, which is possibly not actually what happens in the day-to-day running of World Wrestling Entertainment or Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling.
I’d really like to hear from you regarding the content of this column. Any opinions, questions or corrections you can think of, I’m more than happy to read them all. I just love talking to others about wrestling! That’s why I’m here! I’d also just like to thank ThinkSoJoe, Drowgoddess and each and every one of you for welcoming me here with such open arms. It’s great to be a part of the family! You can send all correspondence to jamiekennedy@live.com
Holy new champions, Batman! While my predictions for Extreme Rules didn’t really pan out too well – and neither did the PPV itself, for that matter – the company was definitely shaken up. 48 hours after I posted last week’s ThinkSoJoE’s thoughts, four Championships were in the hands of somebody different. In fact, there were FIVE title changes in that span. If that doesn’t set the tone for a big week in professional wrestling, I don’t know what does.
During our Extreme Rules coverage on Sunday, Drowgoddess and I pondered the fact that Batista hadn’t climbed the cage once in the buildup leading to his match at Extreme Rules against Randy Orton. He didn’t climb the cage at all during the match either, yet still won the WWE Championship. After the fact, we found out that Batista had been injured before the show and was scheduled for surgery two days later. It was originally believed to be a torn bicep, which is a very severe injury, but the word going around is it’s just a torn tendon, not nearly as severe. WWE, however, says that it’s a torn bicep, which is leading some Internet Wrestling Community pundits to speculate that it’s a coverup for a wellness policy violation. What do I think? I think WWE is lying to us, not to cover up an injury, but to add more impact to Batista’s earlier than expected return. They’ve been doing this for a few years now – John Cena at the Royal Rumble in 2007 comes to mind. If he did fail a drug test, I seriously doubt they’d have given him the WWE Championship the day before his suspension kicked in.
Speaking of the WWE’s wellness policy, the roster is one Superstar shorter than it was last week as Umaga was released for failing a second drug test and refusing to go to rehab. The IWC is comparing this to Jeff Hardy’s termination from WWE several years ago for some reason. TNA is apparently interested in bringing in Umaga once his 90 day no-compete clause is up.
The WWE roster is actually one Diva shorter as well, as Vickie Guerrero has given her notice and officially quit as RAW General Manager last week. The new GM is scheduled to be named this week on the three hour edition of RAW, which happens to eminate from Charlotte, NC. I’ll give you one guess as to who the IWC “journalists” expect to be the chosen one. I’ll also tell you why it won’t be who you’d expect. The standard recovery time for the The Randy Orton Super Magic Mega Kick of Final Ultimate Death!!!is around four months. Ric Flair was hit with the move a mere two weeks ago. There’s no way the WWE is going to try and make us believe that a 60 year old man managed to come back from the devestating move quicker than Triple H or Batista did. I’m not going to make a guess as to who it will be, but I’m willing to bet that it’s not Flair.
BoredWrestlingFan.com turned 1 this past Tuesday, and in the 369 days we’ve been around, we have never once mentioned Combat Zone Wrestling. There’s probably a pretty good reason for that, but reports have come in that a CZW wrestler was severely injured doing one of the “company’s” patented light tube spots. According to reports, a wrestler by the name of Nick Gage severed a main artery after taking a bump on a light tube. Gage never passed out, instead running to the back in a panic before being air lifted to a local hospital. It’s said that he lost a lot of blood, and not really knowing what to do the wrestlers started an impromptu battle royal. The card was apparently taking place in one of the wrestlers’ parents back yard, which is probably why this is the first time we’ve ever mentioned CZW here. Don’t worry though folks, thankfully CZW’s website reports that Gage is going to be ok.
Rumor was making it’s way through WWE this past week that Rey Mysterio was leaving the company. These rumors appear to be unfounded as it’s been reported that Rey just wanted the week off.
Speaking of taking time off, John Cena came home early from the WWE’s tour of Mexico amidst rumors that he was getting married. It was, in fact, his brother that tied the knot. Cena is allegedly getting married in July.
Not a lot of TNA news this week, but what do you expect when the company tapes a month of shows in two nights? Supposedly a wrestling website reported that new TNA Knockout Tara (formerly known as Victoria in the WWE) had an affair with Chris Benoit before the tragic murder suicide that ended the life of Benoit, wife Nancy, and son Daniel. Tara got wind of the report and denies everything, even challenging the site that started the rumor to come to her hometown and watch her take a lie detector test. It’s about time somebody who didn’t like something somebody on the internet said about them actually did something about it.
That’s about it for this week, but before I go, an interesting couple of tidbits – Batista’s win at Extreme Rules was the first time in WWE history that the WWE Championship has changed hands in a traditional steel cage match. Also, the span between last Monday (June 1st) and this past Sunday (June 7th) is the first time that the WWE, ECW, World Heavyweight, Intercontinental, and United States Championships all changed hands within a week.
That’s it for me folks, stay tuned tomorrow for an all new Random Randomness from JT!
