This week in wrestling hasn’t been full of events for us to talk about, which is a shame. Of course, it also makes my job a lot harder. Usually we’d be pondering over the recent goings on which took place on Raw and Smackdown this week, but things are slow so I don’t expect this to be a very long haul for any of us at all.
We could ponder over the way WWE built up RVD’s comeback and then suddenly stopped the push and booked him against Wade Barrett on Raw, thus shoving him down the card and out of the main event picture that badly needed him. Or Randy Orton’s concussion at the hands of Alberto Del Rio, covered below. Maybe the Wyatt Family and their impressive path of destruction which they have carved through the WWE locker room. Certainly they look to be the next big stars of the company if Vince doesn’t suddenly change his mind and relegate them to ‘Superstars’. Those are all good subjects but nothing that I can’t cover in a few sentences or less. So forgive me my fellow minions, for I will try to extend this weeks sermon for as long as possible.
Feel the Heat
Backstage heat on wrestlers is common place in the industry. Those who don’t conform to what the higher powers want or do as the locker room leaders say come in for a great amount of heat when they come back through the curtain and unlace their boots. Backstage heat can take many forms, from a certain wrestler being ostracised from his or her group of friends and left out in the cold. The heat could, in the case of Zack Ryder, come in the form of a major burial which sees the wrestler lose to any and every nobody on the roster. Or, it come in the way of a good old fashioned tongue lashing from the boss. Something WWE stars have come in for more often than not in the past.
This time around though, two of WWE’s biggest stars are the ones who have come under fire, not from Vince, Stephanie or Triple H, but their own peers. Yes, the wrestlers are revolting as summer begins to hit and turning on their own colleagues. First in the firing line is the current World Heavyweight Champion, Alberto Del Rio. The recent heel turn by Del Rio has, unlike originally thought, opened up a new avenue for the Mexican to walk down. He’s a lot more forceful in the ring, you may have noticed. But it is this new found grit that has seen him firmly put in the spotlight with his co-workers.
On the July 19th edition of Smackdown, Alberto Del Rio and Randy Orton went head to head in a decent outing which ended with all eyes on the Champion. His new, reckless style gave Randy Orton a legitimate minor concussion that could have been much worse if it wasn’t dealt with immediately. Now, accidents happen in the ring we all know that and have seen it in the past, sometimes with heartbreaking and tragic consequences. Take Owen Hart for instance. To this date, the worst wrestling accident to ever take place. Wrestlers get injured. They break bones, dislocate limbs, rip muscles, tear cartilage and so on.
Randy Orton’s injury though happened through Del Rio’s careless nature. Does Alberto now believe that he’s bigger than the rules? Does he believe that he can be as careless as he likes in the ring and no matter what he does to whom, he’ll get away with it? If this is the case, that Del Rio is doing whatever he wants, a recklessly as he wants then its time he came down a peg or too.
The heat that is on Del Rio from other wrestlers, isn’t because he injured just Randy Orton. It’s because it’s not the first time and Randy Orton isn’t the first man that Alberto Del Rio has injured in the ring. It appears that the WWE talent are getting tired of Del Rio inuring their friends and are rebelling against his new reckless style. We can’t blame them, who wants to step into a ring with someone who could hurt them? They already have John Cena to cope with, they don’t need Del Rio becoming sloppy when their career are at stake. If Alberto Del Rio doesn’t tone down his ring style then he and WWE may find that there’s no one willing to work with Del Rio. Where will they be then?
The biggest concern with Del Rio however, is that if his series with Dolph Ziggler isn’t finished, then he could seriously injure Ziggler. Having already suffered a concussion after a dumb and reckless Jack Swagger kick, the last thing Dolph Ziggler needs now is either another concussion or something much worse. WWE need to jump on this before it gets out of hand. Alberto Del Rio is an asset at the moment, but it’s easy for asset to become a detriment.
Sheamus is a different story. The Irishman hasn’t injured anyone, far from it; instead he has disobeyed orders and put the Money in the Bank Ladder Match at risk. How you ask, well I shall tell you, well it’s that or we can just go about our business now. But I don’t really have anything else to do right now except write scripts that small minded people won’t look at. So let’s have a look at Sheamus’ part in all of this.
Again, as with Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus has come under scrutiny from his friends in the locker room. At Money in the Bank, Sheamus was accused of being selfish in the All Stars match. I know, a selfish Irishman, who would have thought it. Sources close to WWE say that Sheamus is in the dog house because he only cared about his planned spots in the match and showed no concern for helping in putting together the rest of the match and the rest of the planned spots.
If this is true then Sheamus needs a dressing down. He can’t do that, because it’s visible to the audience. We can spot people trying to either sabotage or purposely being selfish and refusing to put others over. It sticks out like a sore thumb and despite what the wrestler in question thinks, it only turns us off of the person. We don’t want to see someone only out for themselves, we want a team player who can help their opponent to create something special. Whilst I doubt Sheamus will be punished for this misjudgement, as he’s Triple H’s golden boy, he should be.
Just think about it. If WWE were to punish Sheamus with a demotion to Superstars for four weeks and putting over everyone who he faces, then it would send everyone in the locker room a message. Slack and you will be where Sheamus would be if they demoted him as punishment. Everyone then may up their game. Seeing such a big name demoted because of his selfishness would get the message across that no one is immune from this treatment. We may even get a better in ring product and not just from Sheamus.
Hey, it’s just a thought.
When Wrestling Goes Wrong
We all know that from time to time, Wrestling goes wrong. Someone gets seriously hurt like Droz. Or someone gets killed like Owen Hart. Or as in the case of Chris Benoit, something happens outside the ring which is or isn’t related to the business. This next story though is a sad one, as the victim of it wasn’t even a wrestler. Yet she paid the price of this industry, be it indirectly or directly.
For those few who remember WWE’s NXT programme from 2010 – 2012, you will be familiar with a wrestler named DT Porter whose real name was Brian McGhee. News is filtering through that Brian McGhee has been arrested and charged with stabbing his girlfriend to death. Truly horrific. McGhee, who was injured after a high speed pursuit which encapsulated two counties of Hillsborough and Pasco, plus entailing several police agencies, was working for NWA Florida Underground Wrestling as Donovan Terrell at the time of the attack is a stain on the wrestling industry. Someone we don’t need in the business or the industry and the whole world of professional wrestling will be much better without him.
There’s no good reason for stabbing or murdering anyone, let alone the woman you claim to love most in this world. McGhee can rot in prison for all I care. I don’t know his girlfriend, I’d never seen her, but my good friends, if you do believe in the power of prayer then please let her be in yours tonight.
A Paige Out of the Book
And now onto some better news. Something more uplifting. On a recent edition of WWE NXT (taped a while ago) the British diva known as Paige captured the first ever WWE NXT Divas Championship. The girl that calls herself ‘The Diva of Tomorrow’ has made a breakthrough for the Divas division and the claim isn’t one to be taken lightly. She truly is one of the best women to come out of WWE developmental in a very long time and on top of that she is gorgeous.
Winning that Championship was a step forward for the Divas Division on the main roster and for WWE as a whole. You see, if they can hire wrestlers like Paige and train them to become someone the people will willingly watch, then they can do it with anyone. The Divas Division on WWE’s main roster no longer has to be a parade of Playboy models who are more interested in getting their tits out than stepping into the ring. It can be packed full of beautiful women who can fight like they mean it. It truly is a promising step for Paige and WWE, and being congratulated by Triple H after her victory, surely Paige has done enough to make the step up to WWE’s main roster.
Granted, with her only just been crowned champion on television, it will be a while before we see her on RAW, but that’s not such a bad thing. If WWE want to her to be something special which she already is then the path they must walk with her is simple. Right now, on WWE.Com, the company have reported on the victory and quite right too. Now, on television, WWE need to give A.J Lee some killer material that states not one of the women in the locker room or anywhere in WWE is good enough to take the gold from her. The boasting would then see A.J run through other women in the division, pinning them clean whilst looking strong doing so.
In November, A.J would come to the ring and issue an open challenge for Survivor Series. Any Diva in WWE or WWE development could come forward and challenge her for the gold. This is where WWE could bring Paige in. If they kept hyping Paige on Raw and Smackdown and sporadically showed us highlights of the Brit winning the NXT Divas Championship, then she’d be fresh in our minds. When she came out to challenge A.J Lee at Survivor Series, she could bring the NXT gold out with her. This would put the spotlight on NXT and hell, maybe a few more people would tune into the show that will be solely shown on the WWE Network in 2014 in the USA, when WWE decide to launch it.
A.J vs Paige for Survivor Series, for once, would be a huge match if it was hyped right. In fact it would be the first Divas match which would be relished by the fans since Trish Stratus vs Lita. That’s saying something. Paige doesn’t need a dumb gimmick to get her over on the main roster. Let her come with her attitude, her skill and the fire that burns deep inside her and you will have a guaranteed star on your hands.
Let’s hope now that WWE take the hint. Let’s hope that Triple H backs up what he says about the future generation and puts Paige at number one on his list. She deserves it. Congratulations Paige.
The Unforgettable...
Last but not least is a new article that will be appearing on this blog every month. Everyone who reads this blog and who has done so for the last year will remember the highly popular ‘Fantasy Warfare’ series which we looked at each month. I received no end of praise for it from you guys and for that you have my thanks. However, ‘Fantasy Warfare’ had to cease for the time being because I was and am still very busy trying to get my career off of the ground. There is just not enough time in my month to write ‘Fantasy Warfare’ as well as the monthly pay-per view previews and ‘Review Corner’. So I put it on the shelf for a while. But it will return.
Instead of ‘Fantasy Warfare’ we are going to trial a new article. It’s going to be called ‘The Unforgettable...’ with the name of the wrestler after the title. The article will aim not to look at the careers of well known and established wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan or Ultimate Warrior, but instead those wrestlers who have been forgotten. The wrestlers, who may not have been brilliant in the ring, made the business what it is for a lot of us. Wrestlers who were considered part of the cartoon character phase WWE and WCW went through in the very early nineties. I thought it would be good to look at them for a change and their careers.
The article won’t just be a two paragraph summation, it will aim to encapsulate as much information about the character and person behind it as possible, complete with little known match dates, their best feuds, their impact on the business as well as what they’re doing now. It’s going to be fun and complete with pictures of that characters career in the ring. I’m halfway through compiling the first one now which will be ‘The Unforgettable: Papa Shango’.
As I said, this is a trial. It will run for a few months beginning in August, one per month and depending on what feedback I get – please do leave your comments in the box below and tell me what you think, I’d love to know your thoughts about it when it’s up – it could become a regular monthly feature. I’m having fun writing it and its brining back some memories which I thought had gone completely.
What I need from you guys right now is some feedback and input. This is all going to rely upon you. People still haven’t taken the poll to the left hand side of your screen which I implore you to do, but right now I want to know from you who you would like to see in the second ‘The Unforgettable...’ in September. Your choices are Marty Jannetty, Rick Martel, Big Boss Man or Doink the Clown. Have your votes (just put a name of the wrestler you’d like to see out of the four in the comment box or give me a totally different name – I like a challenge) in by August 15th and the one with the most votes will appear right here in September.
Onwards and upwards...
