Later this week my fellow followers, you can log on and read as ever, the Money in the Bank 2012 preview. That is if my awful internet allows me to. Anyway, the topic of this blog, is the double standards in WWE.
WWE used to be a company of high morals and even higher standards. It was ruled with an iron fist by Vince McMahon and hardly anything slipped the net. Now though, WWE has gooten sloppy and dare I say it? TNA is becoming much more watchable that WWE. It has better wrestling, a better weekly show in TNA Impact Wrestling which UK fans can see on 'Challenge' and more interesting characters. I'd challenge anyone to find a wrestler as enjoyable to watch in and out of the ring as the current TNA X Division Champion, Austin Aries. If WWE had someone as good as Aries, then maybe it wouldn't have such a problem.
Anyway, I deviate. The first double standard we're going to look at right now is the inability to create new stars when WWE's main event scene is severley lacking. Now I'm not going to go into the story of how WWE need to re-develop their development scene, if you want to read a hot opinion and the best I've read for a while, then buy July's issue of Power Slam magazine, the best wrestling magazine in the UK, by far.
What I'm talking about is Vince McMahon's double standard, in which he trashes a supposed big name and then expects us, the paying public, to shell out our money to see the guy that the head of the company has just layed the verbal Smackdown on. Case in point; Big Show. On June 11th Raw, in a heated argument or 'put down' for a better word, Vince McMahon relayed the information to Johnny L, loud enough so the audience in the arena and the thousands watching around the world, live, I must add, that Big Show "...hasn't performed effectivley since 1999..." and "...what a horrible investment he was." This left myself and everyone with a brain cell watching, asking the questions 1) If this is Vince McMahon's opinion of Big Show, which I believe it is, then why didn't Vince McMahon fire Paul 'Big Show' Wight in 2000 or before now? 2) Why has Vince McMahon bothered to push a man who 'hasn't performed effectivley since 1999 and was a horrible invesment', in a main event role that could have done wonders for another wrestlers' career that needed the push? and the third and final question: why did Vince feel the need in the first place to tell us all what we already knew?
Everyone who watches Big Show week in and week out knows that he's an oaf who needs to leave wrestling and not let the door hit him on the arse on the way out. What caused Vince to point that out to us, baffles me. Especially since when he did so No Way Out was days away. Surely Vince would have the savvy to know that trashing one of the men in the main event would 1) negativley affect buy rates for the PPV and 2) tell the world who was going to win the Steel Cage Match at No Way Out. It was a pointless excercise. How is anyone who didn't know this about the Big Show, meant to invest in him now?
If anyone from WWE does read this and hey, it's a possibility, we have a lot of readers from the good old U.S.A, then may I suggest that you take some of these criticisms onboard? It's reasons like the afformentioned putting down of main event stars that is losing you pay per view numbers and viewers alike. Then again when did WWE ever take notice of anyone but themselves?
The second double standard once again features Vince McMahon and everyone's least favourite midgit, Hornswoggle. This guy should have been shown the door years ago. Yest a few weeks ago, Vince McMahon walked in on Hornswoggle making fun of Jim Ross, disabled mouth pose and everything. Instead of lambasting Hornswoggle for being disrespectful to a wrestling legend, remember there was a child audience watching, some of whom would have suffered bullying themselves at school, Vince McMahon made bullying ok when he pulled on J.R hat and joined in with the piss take, as we call it in England.
Vince mocked Jim Ross, the finest commentator of his generation, by shouting 'Stone Cold! Stone Cold! Stone Cold!' in J.R's voice. Now consider this double standard. In WCW, the same thing happened when it was Ed Ferrara who took the mantle of 'piss taker'. Whe he did so WWE kicked up the biggest fuss you have ever seen. Ferrara was made an example of. Yet Vince McMahon just gets away with it. No thought went into how those people who suffered bullying would feel. What made me chuckle with disbelief was that a short while later, WWE had the bare face cheek to air an anti-bullying campaigne advert for 'STAR' who WWE are associated with. (STAR is an anti-bullying organisation). Fans had witnessed a multi-millionaire / billionaire making fun of a partly disabled man on live television, for his own amusement. What are WWE trying to say? That if you're a billionaire with more money than imagination, it's ok to bully who you want and when you want?
Maybe, we could forgive this, if it was the first time it had happened. But it isn't. It's happened time and time again with WWE ripping it out of Jim Ross. Humiliating him in front of his home town, his family, on live television. Jim Ross is just one in a long line of people who WWE deemed it acceptable to make fun of. John Cena was given the green light to sinlge out gay men and women and take the piss out of them. This is all from a man who wears the word 'Respect' on the front of his t-shirts. The latest John Cena bullying mishap, which puts WWE to shame, it scripts everything the buffoon says, is allowing John Cena describe a disabled man as a 'cripple'. Nice going John. Is it John Cena's fault or WWE's fault? Answer: it's both of their faults.
WWE scripts the crap that Cena preaches. It should have edited itself and taken out the offensive material. John Cena should have looked at his script and told WWE, that as an icon to children and young adults all over the world, it would be innapropriate for him to go out on live television and take the piss out of gay peopel and call a disabled man a 'cripple'. Had WWE turned Cena heel this would have been a heat drawing comment. As it is, as a face, it makes Cena and WWE look inadequite. Which is getting a common belief in WWE today.
Mil Mascaras isn't a WWE wrestler, and technically this isn't a double standard, but I read an interview with Mascaras, the Mexican legend recently. In it, Mil struck me as a man who couldn't give a damn about anything, wrestling, the fans, his career, nothing. He gave vague answers which didn't really give anything away about himself or his career and kept saying things like: "I don't care!", "He can do what he wants" and "It makes no difference". There was something Mil said though that really annyoed me and in many ways I suppose you could call it a double standard. It was something that John Cena would have been proud of.
When quizzed, Mil Mascaras, hero to millions of Mexicans said; "What's important in this business is to make money!" Thank you Mil, thank you very much. Just so you know, all those people who have brought his shirts, his DVD's. his masks, paid your hard earned money to see this bozo, he doesn't care about us. All Mil cares about is his bank account. He doesn't care about sending us home at the end of the night content with our money's worth, he doesn't care about the business or his own legacy. Just the money. At least now we know. We're meant to sepnd our money to see him and those who think like him, buy into his facade and care about what happens to his character, yet he all he cares about is his share of the money. Well, screw you!
For anyone who read the interview and hadn't seen any matches with Mil in, they could be forgiven for thinking he was a conceited, arrogant man. And they wouldn't be wrong. For some reason Mascaras has ideas above his station. Thinks he's something he's not. It's lucky he's a talented wrestler, otherwise wrestling fans around the wrold may just give up on the guy. Mil should have tailored the interview to viewers and fans who hand't seen him wrestle. If he'd have come across as a likable guy, who cared about the fans more than the money and bigged up his hundreds of matches as something special, maybe the people who didn't know him would have sought out his matches and he'd have made extra revenue. As it is, I can only see the interview driving away new fans to Mexican wrestling. For that, they have Mil Mascaras to thank.
One of the biggest problems that has faced WWE in the last few years isn't just in the ring, but it's the guys sitting at ringside. For years WWE had a wonderful set of announcers. Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby Heenan, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler - when he cared, plus many others. Now though, it's lacking severley. Jerry Lawler has given up completley, we've already discovered that he prefers looking at the women's tits to the actual wreslting on offer. Michael Cole is just a mouth piece of Vince McMahon who says whatever Vince relays over the headset to him, mostly insults at people who aren't in the WWE machine. Booker T is ok on the mic, but nothing spectacular. Somewhere in here you'll find a double standard, but I had to include this because it astonished me.
At No Way Out 2012, almost the whole audience was cheering for Dolp Ziggler in his bid to dethorne Sheamus of the World Heavyweight Championship. Yet, despite the chants and the wanting, Jerry Lawler, the fool, stated that the capacity crowd at No Way Out were right behind Sheamus. Of course he was instructed to do this via his headset, but even he must have realised that the info was bull and should have tried to change the minds of the speaking heads backstage. It was done so Sheamus would look like the favourite and that the fans were right behind him. If you were watching No Way Out with a non wreslting fan or someone you wanted to get into the business, then this would have been embarrassing.
It wouldn't have hurt Sheamus to come across as a the viewers least favourite. Numerous times WWE have acknowledged the fans hostility towards John Cena. The boos and jeers he recieves are pointed out on commentary. So why couldn't WWE have done this with Dolph Ziggler? It would have given Ziggler's push a huge boost.
Another commentator mess up came all the way back in 2008. Yes I know, long time, but it needs to be highlighted. WWE have a long tradition of hiring commentators that have no idea what they're talking about. Mike Ademle, Josh Matthews, Matt Striker, the list goes on and on. Yet, from a broadcast of ECW from the UK in 2008, Matt Striker, in one of the most ridiculous comments I've heard in years qouted, in the middle of a six man match pitting Cryme Time and Tommy Dreamer vs The Miz, John Morrison and Jack Swagger: "There's Shad Gaspard (Cryme Time member), the modern day Ernie Ladd!" Bollocks. Shad was an incapable moron who couldn't wrestle his way out of a paper bag. Ernie Ladd was a legend of the ring.
If you never saw Shad wrestle then count yourself lucky. He was as wooden as Pinocchio. The only reason WWE and Striker said that, was because Shad was black. And that's WWE for you, ladies and gentle-beans. If someone is the same colour other than white as a wrestling legend, WWE will try its hardest to convince us all that that person is as good as the legend was. Despite the fact there could be a huge gulf in talent between the two. Comparing Shad to Ernie Ladd would be like comparing Santino to Ric Flair. Utter tosh.
The last two points on the commentary I'll make is from the same show as above. The match was Finlay vs Matt Hardy for the ECW Championship. A decent match, you didn't miss anything if you didn't see it, but decent nonetheless. The commentators said; "Finlay is fighting in his own backyard!" Really? ECW was coming from the Manchester Evening News Arena. Finlay, is Irish. I know that everyone in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England are classed as the United Kingdom, but Manchester is in England, Irlenad is a different country people. We're under one banner, yet the islands of Ireland and England, Wales and Scotland are seperate. If the English want to go to Wales or Scotland, we get a train. England, Wales and Scotland are connected. If we want to go to Ireland we have to get a plane or boat, it's seperate.
Basically what WWE were trying to say is that it cannot differenciate countries. Because we're under one banner, as far as they're concerned England is everyone's backyard, including Scottish, Welsh and Irish people. Maybe someone should give WWE a map next time they come to our shores. It might help. The funny thing is, that ECW didn't go out live and the commentary in the arena wasn't heard by the attending fans. So why couldn't WWE edit that out and replace it with the correct knwoledge, that Finaly was indeed from the United Kingdom, but Manchester wasn't his backyard, Ireland was?
On the same tour WWE aired a promo for John Cena, in which he would return to face Chris Jericho for the World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series 2008 (Cena won, of course). The promo was fine, everything you'd expect from WWE pushing a Cena return. Yet one thing struck me. In the promo, Cena's friends and family said; "John lives the business!", "When John comes to wrestle, nothing else matters!", "Wrestling is Cena's life!" They were wrong on all three statements. John Cena doesn't live the business, yes he does a lot of charity work and gives his time, but he doesn't live the business like Triple H or Vince McMahon does. Neither does nothing else matter when John Cena wrestles. All that matters is the money to guy. And "Wrestling is Cena's life?" Not a chance. Bodybuilding is Cena's life. Another double standard. Why does WWE feel the need to try and fool us when we already know the truth?
I know it might sound like I'm moaning for no reason at all. But I do moan for a reason. I love WWE, have done since I was 3 years old. Collected the figures, the shirts, the posters, the magazines, the vides and DVD's. I don't want WWE to fail anymore. I don't want to see 'B' level Pay Per Views continue to lose viewers because of WWE's own stupidity. I want this business to flourish, I want it to give us what it used to. I criticise because I care and I know you do to.
Onwards and Upwards...
