Talking to Myself: State of Professional Wrestling (part 3)

Written for The Wrestling Game   Hello people of TWG™ and whoever stumbled upon this article! I am Ninoslav Maricic and I will be your host for the third (and most likely final) episode of "Talking to Myself: State of Professional Wrestling". In this article, I will share with you my views and thoughts about some of the current TNA talent and after that I will most likely be talking about something else (still wrestling related). Aces & Eights   I'm going to start with the "new age" NWO. Aces & Eights is another attempt at the good old invasion story that WWE and TNA are doing at least once a year with no major success. There is a saying that only a fool keeps doing the same thing and expects different results (or something like that), so my advice to both organizations would be: Give it up already!   Anyway, Aces & Eights came to TNA one day and started causing trouble. They were wearing masks (I guess that is something different) and soon they were losing masks and their identities were revealed. It turns out that some of them were WWE rejects (as usual) and some of them were current TNA talent (what a surprise).   They now have World title and TV title in their possession (they will most likely be getting more titles over time), they will probably be split in two fractions soon (Aces & Eights and Deuces & Nines?) and I wouldn't be surprised if Hulk Hogan joins them and is revealed as their true leader (so far their "true" leader was Devon and now is Bully Ray). Then they will have Sting beat some sense into Hogan and he will be back to his old (very old now) self. Or not. Nobody really cares. Garret Bischoff   This guy is in Aces & Eights, but I think he deserves to be mentioned because of the great amount of sucking this guy is capable of. Unlike WWE, TNA was able to gather a whole bunch of good talent and there isn't a lot of people there that anyone can say that they suck. Unfortunately, Garret Bischoff makes up for all of them. Usually people go trough a wrestling school before they join a wrestling organization, but it seems Garret Bischoff was able to do the opposite. If he did go to a wrestling school before he joined TNA, then he should just hang himself for sucking that bad. I mean, Sin Cara botches everything he tries to execute in the ring, but at least he can execute something. Garret Bischoff has nothing to botch because he can't do anything. TNA should either make him a referee again or just fire him. Joey Ryan   This guy has some skills, but he is just lame. Maybe he wouldn't be so lame if they were actually doing something with him, but he seems to be there just to job for people, rub baby oil on himself and get laughed at for wearing a thong (even though a lot of wrestlers wear a thong - Hulk Hogan included). Joseph Park   He came to TNA a while ago looking for his brother Chris (you know, Abyss). Since then he had some matches and apparently some training. In reality, this guy is Abyss (but everybody knows that) and this is TNA's attempt to do... something. Nobody knows what and it seems this story is going nowhere. It might go better if Joseph Park wasn't overacting and just looking stupid while doing it. Tone it down a little or bring Abyss back. He was more fun then Joseph Park. Matt Morgan   Here is a big guy that deserves to be in the title picture. Instead they had him babysitting Joey Ryan. He was in the title picture while Mr. Anderson had a concussion (if I remember correctly), but they soon had him back to doing nothing. No wonder he is thinking about going to WWE. The only thing that might be stopping him is the fact that he will probably be doing nothing there as well. Either that or WWE being dumber than I thought and not wanting to sign him. Conclusion   Like I said before, TNA doesn't have a lot of wrestlers that you can say they suck. They have filled up their roster with a lot of good talent and it's understandable that some of the people who deserve a push can't get one. Personally, I prefer TNA over WWE and I like TNA matches more. I always found most of WWE matches to be boring and I don't really understand why is WWE more popular then TNA (even though they are trying to be a copy of WWE). I guess people look at the ratings, see WWE on top and assume it's a better product (it wouldn't be the first time that happened). After watching TNA they see it's nothing special (too similar to WWE) and decide to stick with WWE.   Unfortunately, if this keeps up, wrestling will be stuck at being a sucking half-product it is today. WWE won't try to change much since they are on top (even though their ratings are on a decline) and TNA will keep being a bad copy of WWE. Instead, they should at least try and do something different and new. Work on better storylines (forget "Dancing With Stars" and "Hogan Knows Best"), push people the fans already like (not push people you think the fans should like) and don't give wrestlers super powers (like John Cena never losing a match cleanly while WWE motto is "Anyone can beat anyone"). Stop selling people half a product and wonder why your ratings never go up!   Well, this was Ninoslav Maricic and you were reading part 3 of "Talking to Myself: State of Professional Wrestling". I will be back next week (hopefully not cutting it close like this week) with more thoughts about this great sport some of us have learned to love and hate at the same time. Until then, I bid you adieu!

Talking to Myself: State of Professional Wrestling (part 2)

 Written for The Wrestling Game

  Hello people of TWG™ and whoever stumbled upon this article! I am Ninoslav Maricic and I will be your host for the second episode of "Talking to Myself: State of Professional Wrestling". In this article, I will share with you my views and thoughts about some of the current WWE talent (or lack of one). Basically, I will be talking about some title holders, people who get pushed, people that should be pushed (out the window), good an bad gimmicks, promos etc. So, lets begin!

Team Hell No

  What to say about Kane and Daniel Bryan? They are both great singles competitors and they work well as a team. They are great in the ring and they have great and entertaining promos. The name of the team is the worst I have seen in a long time, but other teams can't say they have better names either. WWE creative should work on that a bit. Also, they should get more permanent teams with their more famous competitors. Something like Team Rhodes Scholars. They need to bring the tag division back into the spotlight.

Brock Lesnar

  "The perfect storm" (yeah, right). This guy is a beast and it's perfectly understandable that he gets invited to compete in WWE. What bothers me is that he gets invited only when WWE wants a rankings boost (like in Wrestlemania). In my opinion, this guy is just steeling spotlight from people who are wrestling every week and deserve to appear in PPVs. He can barely cut a promo and his first match after his return (against John Cena) had enough potatoes in it to feed a third world country. WWE should concentrate on their current talent more. Having Lesnar show up for one match just to quit after he wins or loses will get old really fast. They have people in the roster that can be considered beasts. They should give them a storyline they keep giving to Brock Lesnar instead of turning them into dancing idiots.

The Shield

  I like these guys even though they are just another attempt at the good old "invasion" storyline. They have great in ring skills and they work well as a team. Maybe they could hold tag team belts in the future. It would be good for the tag team division. What bothers me about them is their promos. The camera is all over the place in their prerecorded promos and they keep repeating their names over and over again just like Wade Barrett did when he came to WWE (I am Wade Barrett! Remember my name, Wade Barrett! I will be the next world champion! Me, Wade Barrett!). It seems they were taking advice about cutting promos from the same guy. Unfortunately, that makes their promos look like they were recorded and edited by a drunk they found in the geriatrics ward (Uh, lets see... first they introduce them selves... Uh, then they can introduce themselves... Uh, then they introduce themselves and... Uh... To finish they can introduce themselves).

Fandango

  I've mentioned before that WWE is turning beasts into dancing idiots. This guy is no beast, but he is an idiot. Some of you may know him as Johny Curtis and from his appearances on "Santino's Foreign Exchange" series on Youtube. What he is doing now is, he comes out and asks his opponent to pronounce his name correctly. Since his opponent can't do it, Fandango just turns around and walks away. The good thing about it is: I don't have to listen to that guy any more. The bad thing is: he doesn't get a beating he so desperately deserves. Honestly, the sound of that guy's voice makes me wanna jam my foot down his throat.

The Great Khali

  Here is another dancing idiot. The sad part is: this guy can barely walk. Sure, he is huge and he was brought to WWE to get WWE more popularity in India, but all this guy is able to do is twirl around in the middle of the ring because it seems that only one of his legs bends at the knee. If I was in charge of WWE, I would kick this guy and spend the money on someone else. I am sure that there are other big guys from India out there who can wrestle. Or maybe they could hire someone like Jinder Mahal. Maybe even not put him in a joke stable like 3MB. I wonder what Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal did to deserve such punishment.

Tensai

  Prince Albert left WWE, went to Japan, had a good career and then came back as Lord Tensai. Big guy, can move around the ring, great wrestling skills. What does WWE do? The team him up with Brodus Clay. Now, Brodus is also this big tough guy who likes to get funky before and after the match. It looks good and he is pulling it off nicely. Tensai, on the other hand, can't pull it off. He looks stupid. If you wanna make someone look stupid, try Brock Lesnar. Have him dance around like an idiot. What's that? He doesn't wanna do it? I wonder why?

John Cena

  Yeah, I'm sure you saw this one coming. John Cena, the hardest working man in the business. Kids love him, most of the others can't sand him. Why? I talked about how things used to work in wrestling in my previous article. You give people the good guy and the bad guy. They cheer the good guy, they boo the bad guy. Cena is the living proof that that formula no longer works and no matter what WWE does "Cena sucks" chants are just as loud as "Lets go Cena" chants. Why? Well, WWE has ben pushing Cena so much in the past few years that a lot of people are sick of him. Super Cena can't lose a match. Even if he does, there is always controversy involved. Why not push someone people already like instead of trying to force people to like someone? The only way I can see people liking Cena is if he goes away for a few years and then they bring him back as one of the greatest of all time (kind of like what they did with Dwayne "Rocky 'The Rock' Maivia" Johnson). They could even recycle that "Once Twice in a Lifetime" storyline.

Santino Marella

  Here is one guy I usually get a lot of heat for. Why? Because I believe he should have been pushed more. Santino is a guy who had been making a fool out of himself (in a fun and entertaining way) ever since he came to WWE. In my opinion, they should have made him a world champion last year at "Elimination Chamber" PPV. The setup was perfect. He won a Battle Royal match to qualify at the last moment (the fans loved it, by the way) and he and Daniel Bryan were last two competitors in the Chamber. Santino hit the Cobra on Daniel Bryan and the crowd went nuts (in a good way). Unfortunately, he only got a two count and Daniel Bryan won the match. I think the fans wanted Santino to win and I believe it would be better if he did. Now, here are the usual responses I get from people when I say this:

#1: Santino is a joke!
My response: So is John Cena!

#2: Santino has like 5 moves!
My response: So does John Cena!

#3: You can't have Santino headline "Wrestlemania"!
My response: Why not? World title match at that "Wrestlemainia" was the opening match and it was 18 seconds long. Daniel Bryan kissed AJ and then turned around to kiss the sole of his opponent's boot. There is nothing Santino could have done to make that match worse.

Sin Cara

  I'm gonna finish up with Sin "Botch - Daddy" Cara. Here is a guy who got a lot of hype when he was coming to WWE, just to botch everything he could. He kept botching his entrance, half of the moves he executed and he was even able to botch a tag. That's right! He tagged Ray Mysterio while they were both standing on the ring apron (technically, outside of the ring). Meanwhile, he never learned English, so promos are out of the question too (they could give him a translator, but they don't seem to care). Why do they still keep him in the roster? All he is able to do is hurt himself or his opponents. Fire him before you waste more money on him.

  And that's all I have for this time. I could mention more WWE talent, but this article is already long enouh as it is. I'll leave them for another time. Next week I will talk about current TNA talent in part three of "State of Professional Wrestling". This is your host, Ninoslav Maricic, and you were reading part two of "Talking to Myself: State of Professional Wrestling".


Big "Thank you" to The Bouncer for advice about editing articles!

Talking to Myself: State of Professional Wrestling (part 1)

Written for The Wrestling Game

   Hello people of TWG™ and whoever stumbled upon this article! I am Ninoslav Maricic and I will be your host for this episode of "Talking to Myself: State of Professional Wrestling". In this article and those that will follow, I will share with you my views and thoughts about this sport and people who compete in it or work behind the scenes. Before I start, let me assure you that all of the typos, misspellings and grammatical mistakes are intentional and have nothing to do with he fact that English is not my native language (wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more).

  I would like to start with a little bit of history (yes, this will be yet another article about the "Attitude Era" and "Monday Night Wars") just to give you my thoughts on why wrestling has become how it is today, so sit back, relax and try not to fall asleep.

  As you know, in mid 90's WCW started a program called "Monday Nitro" in order to give WWF (later renamed to WWE) some serious competition. WCW was struggling for a bit until Eric Bischoff (or so they say) came up with the idea of creating a fraction that will try to "take over" WCW. WCW recruited Razor Ramon (renamed to Scott Hall) from WWF and had him interrupt WCW program. He was later joined by Diesel (renamed to Kevin Nash) who was also recruited from WWF and Hulk Hogan to form NWO. Many other WWF and WCW talent followed them and NWO became a seemingly unstoppable force.

  The ratings shifted in favor of WCW and WWF eventually ended up being a number two wrestling organization for over 80 consecutive weeks (that's over a year and a half). Organization number three was ECW. ECW will only get a mention here since they were never a real competition to WCW and WWF even though ECW was able to make a big impact in pro wrestling and had a major role in shaping this sport into what it is today. The reason that they never made it to the top might be timing, luck or the fact that WCW and WWF had more money to toss around and they kept "stealing" ECW's top talent.

  "Monday Night Wars" changed wrestling in more ways then one. Wrestling was more famous then ever before and all the struggling for ratings and all of the new ideas and attempts to "invent" something new, different, never seen before had a strange side effect. Up until then, things were simple. You would give people a good guy and a bad guy. They would cheer the good guy and they would boo the bad guy. Simple, right?

  Well, with the appearance of NWO in WCW and people like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Dwayne "Rocky 'The Rock' Maivia" Johnson and Degeneration X in WWF, being the bad guy became fun. Bad guys were more entertaining then good guys and people started cheering the bad guys. Writers, promoters and bookers found it hard to adept to the situation and wrestling was becoming a mess. Best laid plans were backfiring and nobody new what they were doing any more. I know some people will disagree with me here, but they still have no idea what they are doing.

  Anyway, a few bad decisions from WCW later, the balance of power shifted back to WWF and WCW was struggling in vain to get it back. ECW lost their top talent and closed and eventually WWF bought WCW. With "Monday Night Wars" being over, Vince McMahon could breathe more easily and shape wrestling in any way he wanted. Unfortunately, he decided to turn it into a beauty contest.

  With all real competition gone, it seams WWF/WWE stopped trying to give people a quality program. It could be that they have nothing to compare it with. WCW kept making them push harder and since they are gone, there is no one to steal their fans. TNA is trying, but all they do is trying to copy WWE.People that stop watching WWE don't want to watch a bad copy of it, so they just stop watching wrestling, i guess.

   Linda McMahon decided to run for senate which brought the "PG Era" to WWE. One good thing that came from that is that wrestling became safer for wrestlers. Bad thing is: wrestling lost more fans. In the attempt to bring more fans to wrestling, WWE started recycling storylines. Naturally, TNA is doing the same.

  Old storylines that worked once no longer work. The fact that they still persist in using them over and over and over and over again makes me think that there is a few people pulling all the strings in pro wrestling. People who got their status by selling people a few good ideas and now they have no idea what to do next. Their new ideas are crap, their old ideas don't work and they are just running in circles now. Too bad there isn't a game on the internet (lets call it "The Wrestling Game") with a bunch of people playing it who have a whole bunch of great ideas running inside their heads. If WWE or TNA would hire some of them, maybe they could help wrestling become more popular.

  Well, that's all I have for this time. I will talk about current WWE talent in part two of "State of Professional Wrestling" and I'll try to explain more about what I meant by Vince McMahon turning WWE into a beauty contest. This is your host, Ninoslav Maricic, and you were reading part one of "Talking to Myself: State of Professional Wrestling". I'll be back with more next week (I hope).