From Where I Stand #3 (Hogan, Raw and The Draft)

To kick off this edition of ‘From Where I Stand’ I thought I would talk about something that I have been reading about on nearly every wrestling site that I have seen. Hulk Hogan and this stupid reality show that he is going to appear in. This is the most ridiculous thing that I could have dreamed of. God I thought it was bad enough when he was trying to create his own promotion with Bischoff and somehow he managed to top that.

So I take my hat off to you Hulk Hogan. Just when I think that you couldn’t do anything more awful than what you just did you manage to top it. And you have been doing it for five years. It started with the ‘MR America’ gimmick which was so bad it actually made me long for the days when he was red and blue and that is something I never thought I would long for.

And just when I thought that I would never have my TV screen darkened by Hogan again he got inducted into the hall of fame (deservingly, I must say) and made another comeback. And he made it at the expense of Shawn Michaels. Why waste a talented superstar who still has something left on a guy who should have retired half-way through 2002.

So, Hogan was back, he was wrestling worse than ever, he was cutting the same promo’s that he did in the 80’s and he was taking away valuable air time from stars like John Cena, who was in the middle of his first title run. When he faced HBK at Summerslam nobody was happy. Michaels had to do the job and Hogan went over clean and left. For anyone who says HBK doesn’t do jobs I tell them to look at that. And yes, before anyone says it I know that match made money and that was what it was about, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

He did the same thing a year later with Randy Orton and it was just as bad. And now we have to suffer through a reality show where he, Brian Knobbs and Brutus Beefcake are going to teach a bunch of C grade celebrities to wrestle. I have just one question. What do any of those people know about putting on a good wrestling match?

Now to Raw, is it just me or has it been a little off lately.The problem that I believe Raw has at the moment is that it has lost one of (if not the) most valuable assets it has. I am of course talking about William Regal. The pain his absence has caused to the product can not be down played. He was the best pure heel they had by a mile and he was capable of having great programs with the likes of Kennedy and Triple H. Even though it has only been a few weeks it’s obvious that he is missed.

Side Note – If I hear one more person praise Vickie Guerrero I am going to be sick. I’ll say it right now; there is a difference between being an extremely talented performer and being someone that is just hated. Compare William Regal to Vickie Guerrero and you will see the difference. They both had huge heat with the fans, but as much as the fans hated Regal the smart ones had to admit he had amazing mic skills. To top it off he was also a skilled in-ring performer. Tell me what does Vickie have to be respected for? (And I am being serious. Send me an E-mail if you disagree)

While I am glad that Paul Burchill is going to have an actual feud with Kennedy he is not in the same league as Regal right now, although some day he could be. And honestly Vince just isn’t the same figure he used to be. His actions are based on expectations not interaction. He just isn’t viable anymore. Him running the show just isn't working for me. I am not really going to talk too much about this million dollar mania either since it doesn’t really interest me. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to win a million dollars but its not something that I want to watch on TV.

A worry that I have is this draft that is coming up. I don’t think that the talent roster will be screwed up, but the announcers being included in the draft scares the hell out of me. J.R and king are the best announcers in the game. They work so well together that it would be awful for them to be broken up and it would make no sense. Mick Foley is doing a great job in his role on Smackdown and Tazz is doing the same on ECW. I have never been a fan of Michael Cole because he is too heavy on his favoritism to the Faces. As for the other guy on ECW I can’t see an alternative to him. For anyone who cares this is how I see the commentators.

Jim Ross
Jerry “The King” Lawler
Mick Foley
Tazz
Michael Cole
Mike Adamle

Speaking of the draft, everyone that I know has been trying to predict the people who will go in the draft. I am not going to say who will go in the draft because of the backlash that will happen when I am wrong but I will give you my three wrestlers who I think should go. It’s not really a coincidence that these three have been badly used recently.

CM Punk – like everyone didn’t see that coming. This guy has buckets of talent and has really been wasted recently in my eyes. As most people know he has some sort of heat with the guys who run the show backstage which has probably been the main reason for his recent losing streak. But it’s not just that, Punk hasn’t even been in a proper feud since Mania. He won money in the bank, and then he was put into the king of the ring tournament to help Regal get over followed by some random matches and a thrown together feud with Miz and Morrison with Kane as a partner. He is capable of so much more than that, and is a guy who could main event any PPV.

Chris Jericho – Ok, not a guy that most people would consider under used. My reasoning isn’t really based on what he’s done, more what he could do. His feud with HBK was great but now that that’s over where does he have to go on Raw. I don’t really care if he goes (a part of me hopes he doesn’t because it will put an end to his matches with HBK) I just want to see him have a run with the title. He is beyond the Intercontinental title now. After 8 runs he should be holding the WWE title instead. Him going to Smackdown would be a chance for him the get into the title picture more prominently.

MVP – This guy has all the talent in the world and since he lost to Matt Hardy he has been doing nothing. He seems like a guy who has just been biding his time before the draft. I mean what other excuse could they have? On Smackdown he was seen sitting in a skybox for the whole show. Lets set the record straight, MVP is exactly what he claims to be on TV, he is the franchise player of Smackdown. Having him go to Raw opens up a chance for him to fully ascend to the heights that he should be at.

There are others that could switch show but those are the three big stars that I think should (keyword ‘should’) go in the draft. If you have a different opinion please E-mail me the address is at the bottom of the page.

Oh, and thank you. Saying all that stuff about Hogan was almost like therapy, only less expensive. For those of you who could care less I am sorry but I just had to say some of those things and this was my chance.

That’s it for now

My E-mail is dx-rated@live.com.au

From Where I Stand #2 (Scott Steiner interview)

For the second edition of ‘From Where I Stand’ I thought id give my opinion on an interview that Scott Steiner gave recently. A rundown of the article can be found in a previous article for eWrestling.com

Ok, I was just reading about an interview that Scott Steiner gave with some magazine and the things he said in that interview I find pretty funny. First of all, he was going on about how the only way that Triple H got to look good is because he married the boss’ daughter. Now, I am not going to say that getting married to the boss’ daughter didn’t give him an in with the boss that few other wrestlers have, but to say that’s the only way Triple H got over is ridiculous. First of all let’s consider who is running his mouth about how bad Triple H is, Scott Steiner.

Now I haven’t followed Steiner's career back to front but from what I have seen of him recently and in his WWE days he is one of the worst workers in wrestling. He is so stiff and old that it’s even difficult for someone like Kurt Angle to get a good match out of him. I have heard people talk about him being able to deliver a good promo but I have to disagree. I watched his ridiculous ‘percentages’ promo a few weeks ago on Impact and I don’t even think he knew what he was talking about. To try and compare him to Triple H who has had numerous match of the year contenders and is able to cut a great promo is just insulting. Although I will concede that I wouldn’t want to have sex with Chyna.

As for his claims that HBK is weak, I tell him to look at Taboo Tuesday 2004. His knee was completely ruined; he shouldn’t have been able to walk on it. But he still went out there and gave the fans a match. He came back from a career ending back injury and has wrestled as good if not better than he did before his injury. Now I know that Shawn Michaels isn’t perfect. We all know he has a massive ego, but honestly if you were that good wouldn’t you be as well.

As for what he said about Ric Flair, right now that doesn’t hold any weight with me. Steiner has had zero credibility since he lost it on nitro and said Flair was responsible for making Stone Cold leave WCW. Everyone knew that it was Bischoff who sent him away, so right now I don’t believe him at all. If Sting were to come forward and back his story up then I would be more inclined to believe it because sting has some credibility, but for right now his story means nothing to me.

I don’t know what Scott Steiner is like but he seems to be someone who has a high opinion of himself. I can’t understand why. From what I have seen of him he is nothing more than a muscle-bound idiot. He can’t wrestle, he can’t cut a promo and he was only able to win the WCW title once it was already dead. To take pot-shots at real legends is messed, and really he should just retire. I am starting to feel bad for Samoa Joe. He is a really good wrestler, and he ends up saddled with Scott Steiner. More than Steiner's jealously, the really sad thing would be if he were to have an influence on a good younger wrestler who has as much potential as Samoa Joe does.

And that’s how I see it from where I stand

From Where I Stand #1 (The Intercontinental title)

Welcome to the first edition of ‘From Where I stand’. These will be a series of articles devoted to my personal opinions about the world of wrestling today and of yesteryear. This is pretty much just my opinions and anyone who has a different opinion should feel free to let me know about it. With all that being said lets get down to business.

Now, since before WrestleMania the Intercontinental championship has been in the possession of Chris Jericho. When Y2J got the title it fit perfectly well into the storyline. It took the title from Jeff Hardy and gave him a viable contender for the Money in the bank ladder match. It even set up a possible Jericho Hardy feud after Mania that would have been gold to watch. Instead of that Hardy screwed the whole thing up.

Now I am not sure on the specifics but since Jericho won the title I have only seen him defend it once. Keep in mind this is the same title that helped launch guys like HBK, The Rock, Stone Cold and Randy Orton to main event status. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against Jericho. Quite the contrary, I think he is one of the top 5 superstars, talent-wise, in the WWE. I think the title would be of more value to someone who actually needs a push as opposed to a man who is in a feud with Shawn Michaels. So I got to thinking and decided to list some of the superstars who could use, and deserve a run as intercontinental champion.

Matt Striker
This may catch a few people of guard but just hear me out. Striker is man who has a lot of talent and has really not been used properly in my opinion. He is obviously very talented when it comes to in ring wrestling ability. We have all seen him have good matches on ECW. On top of that he is extremely quick witted on the stick. He’s got a lot of charisma as shown in his “classroom” segment. While Striker may never really become a true main eventer, I think if the WWE use’s him correctly he could become a very good mid card- upper card wrestler.

Paul Burchill
Again, not a wrestler that is exactly in the IC title contention right now but one that is definitely talented enough to have a run as champion. Since Burchill has returned to the WWE he hasn’t really made an impact. His initial return against Brian Kendrick was very impressive with his “sister” acting as an excellent valet. although i must say that he should have stuck with the reverse swinging neckbreaker as his finisher instead of the curb stomp. Since then he has done very little, appearing only occasionally on Raw and wrestling people like super crazy in handicap matches with Katie Lea. The only good thing about this is that it has shown that Katie Lea is a potential women’s champion. Let’s look at the facts here; Burchill is a good in-ring wrestler who will only get better with experience. He also has an imposing figure that that makes a viable IC champion. He may not be a great talker yet but he’s not nearly as bad as Lashley was when he was the US champ, ad with Katie Lea by his side the male fans are more likely to be looking than listening.

Shelton Benjamin
Now I know that he has already had 3 runs as the IC champion but tell me what else he has to do right now? He started the year with this ridiculous “gold standard” gimmick that hasn’t brought him to main event status, which was the point of it I assume. Shelton really needs to start over. He needs to get rid of his blonde hair cut (its too distracting), he needs to go back to Raw and they need to give him a descent run because honestly he could be a man that could main event WrestleMania somewhere in his career if he is managed properly.

Benjamin has been putting on great wrestling matches over on ECW and his feud with Kofi Kingston isn’t nearly as unbearable as I thought it would be (from a talking perspective of course), but he’s never going to relies his potential over there. He needs to go to Raw or even Smackdown to get his career back on track and having the IC title could help him achieve that.

Lance Cade
Cade wasn’t a guy that I originally had in my thinking of possible IC champions but when I look at it closer he is a prime candidate. For the last few years Cade has formed a great tag team with Trevor Murdoch and they were one of the best teams in the WWE. When Cade turned on Murdoch and punched him in the face he became an instant contender in my books. We already know that Cade can wrestle with the best of them. He’s one of those guys who has a lot of potential and it just needs to be brought out in him. He did as much as he possibly could in the tag team division and he was ready to move on to bigger and better things. A run as intercontinental champion would be a great way to kick of his singles career and would establish him as a force to be reckoned with in the WWE. Time will tell whether or not he makes the most of his potential.

There are other wrestlers that could use the push but those are the main three that I believe deserve it. They have worked hard and they deserve some reward for their work. Like I said before the IC title has launched many superstars’ careers as main eventers and it has the potential to again.

And that’s the way I see it from where I stand

Please leave a comment or E-Mail me

DX Return as heels?

Last week I was presented with a very intriguing concept. The thought of D-Generation x returning to WWE TV……….. As heels! Sounds completely crazy, right. I mean, how could DX ever be truly heels again? They are the most liked faction of all time. As I began to think about it more, however, the idea started to grow on me.
Let’s set up a scenario. Any intelligent WWE fan will know that for the last 6 months Triple H has been dieing to turn heel. Now that he has the championship, I think he might be as close as a few months away from doing it. We all know how Triple H acts when he has the championship around his waist.
Now for HBK, The last time we saw him as a heel was when he faced Hulk Hogan at SummerSlam 2005. Poor old Shawn had to carry, not only the match, but the talking side of the feud as well. Anyone who remembers that will tell you how funny it was to watch Shawn dressed as Hogan or when they went to Montréal and the fans went nuts. I still laugh when I remember the sight of sawn rolling around laughing while the fans shouted “Fuck you Michaels”. Classic. And with this ‘knee injury thing they have going on with HBK and Y2J we could see a turn at Judgment day
In my book these two are the greatest heels of all-time, just ahead of Flair. Put them together and that’s great TV right there. Have them both ruling raw with guys like John Cena, CM Punk and Jericho opposing them, that’s must watch stuff. I am not saying it will happen, but if it did happen it would be a welcome thing in my book. Feel free to argue your point of view with me.