wrestling / Columns
High Road/Low Road 9.28.07: The Smackdown Wedding
Welcome back to the High Road/Low Road! A brief explanation of the column: Uncle Trunx takes the Low Road (negative view) on angles, gimmicks, and other wrestling related “stuff” while Sat takes the High Road (positive view).
The Results for Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch:
High Road: 68%
Low Road: 19%
Both Roads: 14%
E-Mails:
These are all of the e-mails that we received this week. We do not respond to the actual e-mail, but the reply to your e-mail will be below.
Reichou Shinsake Writes:
Surely I am not the only person out there who thinks Lance/Garrison Cade is boring. He’s boring now, he was boring with Jindrak, and he was boring even before that. He’s a pretty good tag team wrestler, though, and I’m all for giving him a chance to become a tag team specialist like Bobby Eaton, for example. I say that Cade and Murdoch should split because I think Trevor Murdoch actually does have the personality to potentially become a legit singles contender whereas Cade may not. Murdoch excels at the little things that help build characters, like those weird facial expressions of his (which man heels tend to over exaggerate). He can play the angry redneck character well, and I would think that he’d be able to pull off an Austin-esque drunken redneck face character if needed. Would Murdoch be a main eventer or world champ? Probably not. Could he fill a gap in the upper midcard on Raw? I think so, if booked well (yeah, that’s a huge if).
Sat: I also think that Lance Cade is definitely boring and Trevor Murdoch is the guy with the potential. BUT, I think that both guys have done a good job as a team.
Uncle Trunx: I think Lance Cade is going to be the guy you see a lot more of once the team splits. My reasoning? He’s got the “WWE look” to him which, love him or not, Murdoch hasn’t.
freddy Neuwendyke Writes:
I actually think Cade & Murdoch are a great heel tag team. Or at least they would be if WWE’s creative team didn’t insist on burying an entire division just to salve Triple H’s ego. And it’s nothing new. They had DX squash the rest of the division last year too. I agree the wrestlers are responsible for at least trying to get over and a lot of the ones is on them but how can a guy get over if he’s made to look like a stooge week in week out?
I guarantee nobody would care about The Steiner Brothers, Demolition, or Legion of Doom/Roadwarriors either if they were constantly being reduced to cannon fodder for The Boss’ Son In Law.
Sat: Here’s an interesting story about last week’s column. I sent the column to Uncle Trunx on Monday. Later that night, Triple H decides to go on a burying rampage and Uncle Trunx’s part becomes very easy. This week, the polls should have come out to High Road 0 % and Low Road 100%.
Uncle Trunx: I like Cade and Murdoch, and was wondering how to approach the column. Then HHH destroyed the tag division and my path was clear…
The Wedding
High Road:
One of the good things about the wedding as been that it has had a really slow build to it. The love affair between Teddy Long and Kristal has been going on for a long time and this was the next logical step. Plus, the wedding had been announced for weeks, so that helped draw in the anticipation.
Low Road:
I hate storyline weddings in wrestling. I hated the Savage / Liz wedding, and I was a massive Savage fan. I hated the Chuck and Billy gay wedding. However, at very least those weddings involved wrestlers and served to advance wrestling storylines. This features a non wrestling GM and a non wrestling diva. It’s taking up time on the show where wrestling could be.
High Road:
Now, I know what you are thinking already Uncle Trunx. You are thinking that there should not be a wedding on a wrestling show and I would agree with you if this wedding had happened later in the year. But, it made sense to have the wedding on this show because all of the rosters have been depleted due to all of the suspension.
Low Road:
I have three letters for you: OVW. They have the likes of Paul Birchill and Harry Smith down there waiting for a call up; now would seem like the time, now the rosters need new blood. What do we get instead? Non wrestlers in a non wrestling angle.
High Road:
I personally thought that it was a good idea to have wrestlers from different brands on this show because it helped give the wedding some credibility. Now, I will admit that some of the people there did not make any sense, but after giving it some thought I think that the reason is that with him being the general manager of SmackDown, he has had the opportunity to talk to some of these wrestlers about coming to SmackDown.
Low Road:
The wedding had no credibility at all among anyone who isn’t a complete moron! It was a storyline fabrication. It was full of bad comedy and awful acting. It honestly made me cringe, the one high spot being the antics of Hornswoggle. When he’s the best thing about a wrestling show, you have to worry about the state of the company.
High Road:
I thought that the wedding was awesome because it had a lot of legends in appearance. It made sense for the legends to be at Teddy Long’s wedding because he has been involved in wrestling for a long time. Plus, who can find anything wrong with an appearance from Doom, the Godfather, and the Hos.
Low Road:
It’s a sad state of affairs when the loudest cheers go to a gimmick from 1999 and a retired tag team who didn’t even compete in WWE. This clearly shows the absolute mess the company is in right now.
High Road:
The WWE probably had no idea how the crowd was going to react to this. They probably thought that the crowd would be really into it, but they were probably not a 100% sure. Well, I was surprised with the reaction that this wedding got. The crowd was hot for the entire wedding and it helped to make the wedding that much more special.
Low Road:
The crowd was hot for some legends and the “Ho train”. I’d much rather have seen a crowd on fire because of an awesome match. WWE showed that this can be done, for example with HBK vs Cena earlier in the year. Why, then, do we have to suffer through awful storylines such as this which serve no great purpose in the scheme of things?
High Road:
This wedding was definitely one of the funniest things that I have seen on SmackDown in quite some time. First, the Godfather coming out was flat out awesome. All of the male wrestlers leaving with the Hos was funny with JBL running to get aboard the ho train. Second, it was funny to see some of the wrestlers in a dress shirt and tie. A few examples of this would be Balls Mahoney, The Highlanders, & Festus. This was definitely one of the funniest things that SmackDown has done in a while
Low Road:
It had a few mildly amusing moments but was, for the most part, poor comedy. There was some comic value in seeing wrestlers in suits but to be honest, I’d much rather have watched a match between said wrestlers. It’s often said that WWE is becoming a soap opera. Well, now it seems that it’s trying to be a sit com.
High Road:
The Teddy Long Heart Attack was a great idea because it really brings up a ton of questions. Some of the questions that have come up in my minds are:
1) Will Teddy Long survive?
2) Will Krystal stay with Long?
3) Was Foul Play Involved?
Now, I think that the third question is the most interesting one. First, WWE.com is saying that Viagra may have made the situation worse and I seem to remember Vickie Guerrero giving him some Viagra. Also, when Long had the heart attack, I recall seeing Vickie fixing one of the poles that was used for decorations. This does not seem to be a reasonable thing to be doing when somebody has had a heart attack. Either way, this wedding has brought up a ton of questions.
Low Road:
It has indeed brought up a ton of questions. Questions like “Why do I watch this rubbish?” or “When are we going to see some wrestling?” I have no interest whatsoever in this ongoing nonsense with non wrestlers and wish they’d stop doing things like this which clutter up an otherwise solid wrestling show.
Are you taking the High Road or the Low Road?
High Road/Low Road Plugs
We are taking the high road on these articles so you should read them…
Alex Mattis’ The Best of the Rest
Andy Clark’s The Shimmy
Ari Berenstein’s Column of Honor
Bayani Domingo’s Truth B Told
Buy or Sell
Daniel Wilcox’s Through the Top Rope
David, Alex, & Zach’s The Triple Threat
Fact or Fiction
J.D. Dunn’s Kayfabe Chronicles
Jeff Small’s The Thursday Small For All News Report
Joe Estee’s Keys to the Game
John Meehan’s MeeThinks Friday FreeThinks
Jordan Linkous’ Why I Love/Hate Wrestling
Julian Williams The Top Ten
Larry Csonka’s 4R’s, 4R’s PPV Edition, & Wrestler of the Week
Leonard Hayhurst ‘s The 10th Day News Report
Mathew Sforcina’s Evolution Schematic
Matt Adamson’s Destiny
Matt Short’s Navigation Log
Michael Weyer’s Shining the Spotlight.
Mike Minotti’s Can They Be Champ?
O’Dog’s Forgotten Goodness
Phill Feltham’s The Quick Talkdown
JP Prag’s Hidden Highlights
Rob Halden’s You’re An Idiot and Here’s Why
Ron Gamble’s Just S’pose
Ronny Sarnecky’s The Piledriver Report
Ryan Byers’ The Custom Made News Report
Samuel Berman’s The Independent Mid-Card
Stephen Randle’s Wrestling News Experience
Steve Cook’s Ask 411
Stuart Carapola’s Friendly Competition
Wilcox-Halden-Linkous’s The Fink’s Payload
There are other articles that we didn’t list, so check them out as well.
E-mail us your reasons for taking the High Road or the Low Road and suggestions for future High Road/Low Road at [email protected]. Your reply will be included in next week’s column.
