Something new?

Hello all

As usual, I was watching wrestling this week. Not as usual, I started to notice something I really liked. Now don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things I love about the business (or I wouldn’t keep watching). RAW, Smackdown, and to a lesser extent, Impact Wrestling, are among the most entertaining shows on TV. I have been, and will always be, intrigued by the what’s and why’s of the business; however there are times when things get stale. So you can imagine my delight when I saw some new things on my shows.

As soon as I did my blog, I watched a taped version of Impact Wrestling. It was the show right after the “Bound for Glory” Pay Per View. As you read in that blog, Kurt Angle defeated Bobby Roode for the TNA World title. So they have the in ring confrontation about (you guessed it) the rematch. Roode came out 1st and got the crowd into a frenzy, telling them how he was “screwed” and deserves another shot at the title. Angle then comes out and says he won’t get a rematch because there was a clause in the contract. Then Roode’s tag team partner James Storm comes out and asks for a title shot instead, and was granted one. Later that night (in a match that was entirely too short for a title match, if you ask me) Storm wins the title. This was very refreshing to me for 2 reasons. #1 it was a title change on TV. I am getting sick of having to watch a ppv just to see a world title change. #2 It showcased a new champion. Even though it wasn’t the guy we thought, it was a new member of their roster, to win the world title. That got me to thinking about championships and the trend that we are seeing. As much as we all get tired of seeing the same old guys wearing gold (Angle, John Cena, Randy Orton), we have had some new blood in the main event spot in the last 3 years.

Let’s look at the most prominent (and longest recognized) major title in the business, the WWE Championship. Since this year is all but over, I am going to start at the beginning of 2009. Starting that year, we had a brand new champion, Jeff Hardy. Through that year the belt was held by some of the greatest champions of the past decade. But the year would turn out to have not just a wrestler who has never been champion, but someone we have never seen wrestle and barely knew become a main eventer. Sheamus was the next person to hold the belt. That was in December of 2009. He held the belt for a few months leading into 2010. In 2010 we had the usual suspects as title holders, Cena Batista, and Orton. But in November of 2010, we had maybe the most unlikely wrestler ever to win the WWE title (unless over of course you read this blog, then you remember that I said he would be champion), the Miz. Miz held the title for 6 months, and even defended it in the main event at this year’s WrestleMania. Yes he lost the belt to Cena, who passed it around to CM Punk and Rey Mysterio, till we got to the current WWE champion Alberto Del Rio. I know there have been a lot of old champions, but I don’t mind that. I want some of the best wrestlers to hold the belt to make it look more prestigious, and having the best wrestlers in the business hold the belt, will do that.

Next we will talk about the World Heavyweight Championship. Now for this one it takes a little longer to find new wrestlers who have become champion. But if you look at it from the angle of new guys getting a good run with the title, then yes this makes perfect sense. Let’s start with the beginning of 2009. You had the same guys of course, Edge, and Cena. But in June of that year, you had Jeff Hardy win the title in an exciting TLC match. Right after that, CM Punk cashed in his “Money in the Bank” contract, and won the title that night. These two would have an outstanding feud for that title, with Hardy winning it back. Punk won it right back from him developed his character, which most of you love today. Undertaker then took the title from Punk, and then lost it to Jericho in February of 2010. After defending it at Mania that year, Jericho lost it to that year’s M.I.B. winner Jack Swagger. Swagger held the world title for 3 month, before losing the title to Mysterio. Mysterio would only hold the belt for a month until he lost it to Kane in July. Now I know some of you are thinking, “Great, this would be the 1st time Kane held the belt”. That is not exactly true; he held the title for 1 day. Back in 1998, he defeat Stone Cold Steve Austin at a PPV, then lost the belt the next night on Raw. So Kane winning the title, and actually holding this time was long overdue. Kane would hold the title for almost the rest of that year, before losing it to Edge. Edge would hold the belt till after Mania, when he had to forfeit the title and retire due to injury. Then Christian won the belt and held it for 2 days before losing it to Orton in May. Christian and Orton would battle back and forth, trading the belt for the next 4 months, until Mark Henry beat Orton to win his 1st world title in the WWE. Taker and Triple H are the only wrestlers who been on the company roster longer than Henry. So him winning the title was a pleasant surprise.

Now for TNA I will not go as far back as 2009, because they had all of the guys you have seen in other companies. Sting was the champion and he lost it to Mick Foley. Foley lost the belt to AJ Styles, who yes you have never seen in another company, but if you watched TNA, you have seen him as a multi time champ. Styles lost the belt to Rob Van Dam. Van Dam was attacked and had to forfeit the belt due to “injury”. Then Hardy (yep Jeff Hardy) won their world title. That was all from the beginning of 2009 through the end 2010. Finally in 2011 we get a world champ in TNA who has never held a world title in a major company. Mr. Anderson (formerly Mr. Kennedy of WWE fame) won the title in January of this year. But that reign did not last long, because he lost to Hardy in February. Hardy held the belt for a month till he lost it back to Sting. Sting held it till June, and gave it back to Anderson. Who gave it back to Sting. Sting lost to Kurt Angle, who just lost the belt to James Storm. And we all know that eventually Storm will lose it to Roode.

So I know we have had a lot of the same old champions, and that could be turning you off to wrestling. But if you pay close attention, we are getting exactly what we want. New blood. New champions. Now, we as the consumer must support these new champions. If we do not, we will have another 5 years of Angle, Sting, Hardy, Punk, Orton, Batista(whenever he comes back), and Cena.

AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LLLLLLLIIIIIIINNNNNNNEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe they do get it!

Hello all

So as I was writing the blog last week, I was under the impression, as were a lot of people, that Bobby Roode was going to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship last week at the “Bound for Glory” pay per view. But that is not exactly what happened. Last week Kurt Angle defeated Roode and retained the championship. This confused lot of people, even me; but this may not be the worst thing in the world.

As time was approaching for this match to take place, I realized that now may not be the time for Roode.

First off, there was no lead up to this match at all. Up to this point in his career, Roode was a tag team wrestler. In TNA he has not held a singles title. Although besides the world championship, there are not too many singles titles. Even throughout the Bound for Glory tournament, there were matches that Roode would have with his tag team partner James Storm. So there was no time to make Roode look like a viable contender to the title.

Second, back to something I said in the last paragraph, we don’t know if Roode is a great singles wrestler. We know him as a 6 time tag team champion, but not as a singles competitor. Everyone is not Shawn Michaels, everyone is not Brett Hart, and on a much smaller tag team scale (but he is a once tag champion), everyone is not Stone Cold Steve Austin. Everyone cannot go from being a great tag team wrestler to being a world champion. Look at Bully Ray. As much as I love his new gimmick, he is not Heavyweight Champion material. What if Roode is the same? The World Championship at this point is too important to TNA to have it put on someone whom we don’t know if he is a great singles competitor or not.

Third, this is one of the smartest things that TNA could do. This is what used to happen back in the golden ages of pro wrestling. You had an up and coming contender fight his way up the ladder, till he gets a shot at the title. Back in the old NWA days when Ric Flair was the champion, this was how guys were built up to be the champion. David Von Erich wrestled Flair for months, and would have won the title, but sadly he passed months before he was supposed to win it. Dusty Rhodes and Flair wrestled all over the country with Flair narrowly escaping with the title, before Rhodes won it. And the classic confrontation between Flair and Ricky Steamboat encompassed an entire year, with both man having legendary match, after legendary match, and with both men holding the world title. With this past defeat TNA could be setting up for this same kind of back and forth that will not only make Roode look good, but will make the TNA world title seem very prestigious, and hard to get.

With all of this being said, I don’t think it’s a bad idea for TNA to keep the title on Angle. It seems like Roode will eventually be the World Champ, and rightfully so, but Roode needs to work his way up to the championship. I believe this is the first time Roode has challenged for the world title. Again this is a very important time for the TNA world title. This is a make or break time for that title. They can either do this the right way, and come out smelling like a rose, or they can put the title on him too soon, and have Roode not ready to hold the belt. Then the TNA title will have to be put back on Kurt Angle, or worse, one of the 50 year olds (like Sting). TNA’s title can’t afford for that to happen. They have to have a fresh new champion, and doing it this way, will make for a very deserving world champion.

What I would like to have right now.........

Hello all

Tonight will be the big TNA Pay Per View (and the only reason why I call it a big pay per view is because Hulk Hogan was doing a big media tour about it. Otherwise, I would not have known that it was anything other than their October pay per view), Bound for Glory. At this ppv the whole world is expecting Bobby Roode to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Speaking of a Roode who is going to become the next big star in the wrestling world, makes me think of another guy with a similar name, but no they are not related, Ravishing Rick Rude. We all remember Rick Rude’s gimmick, where he would talk bad about every man in the audience, and pull a woman out of the crowd, and kiss her, but let’s take a look back at his career.

Rude was born in Minnesota. He actually attended high school with a few other pro wrestlers including Tom Zenk, Nikita Koloff, and Curt Henning (Mr. Perfect). He began wrestling professionally in 1983. He started off as a jobber (a guy who is put in matches, and they are expected to lose). He worked at a lot of small promotions back then until he joined the National Wrestling Alliance. After joining the NWA, he got to compete in tag team against the Road Warriors, and started to make a name for himself. Then he moved Memphis to join the Continental Wrestling Association. In Memphis, Rude met Jimmy Hart and began to become the person we all grew to love to hate. He was over confident and arrogant, and changed his name to “Ravishing Rick Rude”. Rude would wrestle back and forth between the NWA and other small promotions before 1987, when he joined the WWE.

In WWE, Rude started out being managed by his old friend Jimmy Hart, until he got matched up with the manager to the stars in the 80s in WWE, Bobby “the Brain” Heenan. With Heenan beside his side Rude started the old gimmick I spoke about earlier, when he would kiss a woman in the audience. He did this until one night; he kissed the wife of the wrong man, Jack “the snake” Roberts. This started a small feud that did not last too long, but it got Rude’s name out there as a star.

If you have read my blog’s you know that anytime the WWE wanted to reward someone for being the best wrestler in the company back in the 80s and 90s, they rewarded them with the Intercontinental Championship. At the Royal Rumble of 1989, Rick Rude had a pose down with the then IC champ the Ultimate Warrior. The pose down ended when Rude attacked Warrior with a pipe, but their feud was just beginning. Rude and Warrior met for the IC title at WrestleMania 5 with Rude winning the title. Back then there were not as many pay per views, so Rude would hold the title for a few months, till the next ppv. During Summerslam 89, Warrior did regain the title. Rude would try to get the title back, unsuccessfully. Warrior would hold that title, until Mania of 90, when he won the WWE title. So of course since Rude was the only man to ever beat Warrior for the IC title, he thought he would be the only man to beat Warrior for the WWE title. Sadly he was unsuccessful. Shortly after that Rude left WWE, and went to WCW.

Back in WCW (remember it was NWA, until Ted Turner bought the main territory, and changed the name to compete with WWE) Rude came out like a ball of lightening. At the Clash of the Champions, he defeats Sting to win the WCW US Heavyweight Championship. He was a very good US champion holding that title longer than anyone else in WCW’s history. In WCW he was managed by Paul E. Dangerously (Paul Heyman). Dangerously and Rude went on to form a faction called the “Dangerous Alliance”, which consisted of Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton Larry Zbyszko, and Stunning Steve Austin. This was the dominant group in the company in 1990, winning and/or the Tag Team, TV and US titles for WCW. During his time as the head of the Dangerous Alliance, Rude began a long standing feud with Ricky “the dragon” Steamboat over the US title. The two fought tooth and nail for almost a year over the belt, with Rude narrowly escaping every time. Rude would go on to keep the title until he had to give it up, due to an injury. After returning from injury, he tried to win the title back, but he was unsuccessful.

When Ric Flair left WCW in the early 90s, he left as the champion. Since he put a deposit down on the belt and did not receive his deposit back, he took the belt with him. So WCW created a new belt and crowned a new champion. After much litigation WCW got the old belt back, but they called it the NWA championship, since they had a working relationship with them.
Since Rude could not regain the US title, he set his sights on the NWA World title. In September of 93 Rick Rude defeated Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight title. Unfortunately for Rude, that same month WCW and NWA severed ties, so Rude is not recognized as an NWA champion, rather as a WCW International World Heavyweight Champion (a championship created so they could get the old NWA belt as the WCW championship belt).
With WCW making a name for themselves as a big time wrestling company, they worked out a deal with a company in Japan (New Japan Pro Wrestling) to have some of their wrestlers compete there. And since they had some of their wrestlers, they used the International title to further promote both the belt, and their wrestlers. Rude would defend that title there, with some of the matches being shown on WCW television, but since they had a World champion, they didn’t have much use for the other. After holding that title for a few months, losing, and winning it back all in Japan, Rude came back to the states and lost the title to Sting. During their rematch, Rude attempted a suicide dive from the ring to the outside of the ring, and hurt his back so bad that he had to retire.

Rude stayed in the business for a few years after that. Working with all of the big companies in the 90s (WWE, WCW, ECW) at one point. He played a big part in WWE helping as an enforcer for the original D-generation X. Then he went to WCW and became a member of the NWO. There were even some rumors that he was training full time to make a comeback. But unfortunately on April 20 1999 Rude suffered heart failure and passed away.

Rude left behind a great legacy as one of the old wrestlers that we as fans will always look up to. He has been sorely missed in the past decade. May he rest in peace.

Thank you Cody

Hello all

I apologize for not writing a blog for the last 2 weeks. My wife had a baby and he has been a hand full. With the extra time I have had, I have been trying to relax. But today I am back and ready to discuss something I have seen from this past week’s wrestling that has caught my eye.

Earlier in my blog I wrote that I thought the WWE should go do all they could to bring some prestige back to the intercontinental championship. Now you may be thinking “how can they give the title back the prestige it used to have”? Well to me that is very simple.

Like I said before in that early blog, the IC title used to be the title for the best wrestler in the company. Sure Hulk Hogan, and Macho Man wore the WWE title (and yes that should be the ultimate goal of every one who has ever stepped foot in a WWE ring). But back in the time when those guys were holding the WWE belt, the IC title was for the guys who could bring down the house. Shawn Michaels is known as the “Showstopper”. He earned that name during his numerous IC title reigns. Bret “the Hitman” Hart, showed the world and Mr. McMahon that he was capable of going on and wrestling anyone, and making them look, not good but great. He did all of this during his IC title reigns. And of course we could not forget who some consider the greatest superstar to never win the WWE title, Mr. Perfect. Mr. Perfect became a WWE Hall of Famer and a household name to all wrestling fans for the last 20 years because of his prowess as an IC champion.

So with all of this history and prestige what happened to the IC title? The belt has been worn by some guys who maybe were not as worthy of being champion as the guys I mentioned earlier. The IC belt was a spring board to the WWE title for most guys back when it held high prestige. But I believe that in the last 10 years there is a reason why the prestige of the belt has gone down.

I have looked at the list of men who have worn the belt, going back to 2001, and I have noticed that a lot of these guys are of the same championship mold as the 3 superstar IC champs I mentioned earlier. Of the 60 title reigns since the beginning of 2001, there are only 14 men who have not held the WWE or World Heavyweight title. And of those 14 men, 8 still have the opportunity to win the big one.

So why has the belt lost prestige? Could it be that there have been too many champions? Not necessarily so. From 1991-2001 there were 53 championship reigns. That is only 7 less than the past 10 years. Of those superstars 17 did not hold a title in the WWE (Jeff Jarrett went to WCW to become their world champion, before starting TNA and become their world champion). So what is it? I think it could have something to do with the lack of quality IC title matches. Looking back in the 90s you could point out a hand full of good IC title matches. Bret Hart vs. Ruddy Piper, Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect. Who could forget Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon in a ladder match? And if you go back even further you would point out one of (if not) the greatest IC championship matches of all time. Savage vs. Steamboat at WrestleMania 3. I think we fans of this era are lacking the big time 30 minute IC title matches that we grew up with. In an earlier blog, I sang the praises of Kofi Kingston, and Dolph Ziggler because they had a classic IC title match, on TV no less. This unfortunately is the exception not the rule.

So with Cody Rhode re-introducing the new IC title, and having some very good matches lately I may add, I hope we are returning to a time when that IC title didn’t just mean one day you will be champion, but it meant every time you had a match, it was must see TV.