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The Happy Go Sucky Wrestling Report 10.17.07: Booker T, Jericho Face/Heel, David Arquette Is Back, ECW/Smackdown, & More

October 17, 2007 | Posted by Steve Sullivan

And welcome back to the best named wrestling report on the internet. This is the Happy-Go-Sucky Wrestling Report.

If you’re a first timer, welcome aboard! This little column is on the rise and you’re apart of it. So thank you!

By the way, if you’re an LSU football fan, allow me to say this to you. HAHAHAHA! (Yes, I am a Kentucky Wildcats fan.)

Anyway, enough of that, let’s find the Happy (Good) and the Go Sucky (Bad) of your wrestling news the last couple of days.

News: Booker T & Sharmell were released from the WWE.

Happy: The WWE and its’ fans can finally move on past this. It’s really good to see that the WWE is making an attempt at cleaning itself up. Letting go of Booker T is a huge blow to the company, but it’s a step in the right direction as far as cleaning up the image of the company. By letting go of Booker T, the WWE is losing a man who has held 33 titles in his WWE career. He also won the last King of the Ring Tournament and the first and only Champion of Champions match at last year’s Cyber Sunday. His accolades extend far past most and by letting him go makes a statement to the rest of the roster that this steroid nonsense will no longer be tolerated, no matter who you are and what you’ve done for this business. Booker can now settle down with his wrestling school and hopefully turn it into something special.

Go Sucky: Booker T was by far one of my favorite wrestlers and letting him go is a huge loss to Raw which is already struggling with depth in it’s WWE Title picture. I mean Jeff F’n Hardy is in the WWE Title picture now. I always thought that Booker T would have been a fantastic commentator after his wrestling career was over. Now Booker is done with the company and chances of ever seeing him in the ring again is slim to none. Booker is 42 years old and his career is likely finished. Booker was one of the last great stars from WCW and with his departure from the company, WCW superstars still wrestling in the ring is edging closer and closer to extinction.

News: Sting defeats Kurt Angle at Bound for Glory to win the TNA World Title.

Happy: Sting is a huge name in the wrestling industry and a good name to bring in old wrestling fans to watch the product. Yes I know Sting won the title the title at Bound for Glory last year as well. To this day, that’s the only TNA Pay-per-view I’ve ever watched. Regardless, TNA is aiming at a new audience now. It’s offering up a 2 hour program. The last time Sting was given the strap, TNA’s ratings slowly began rising toward the 1.0’s. Now, with a regular 1.1, TNA is looking to edge it up just a little bit more before TNA calls it a career…again. I also like the fact that TNA took the title off of Kurt Angle following Angle’s DUI. This is a sign to me that steroids, drugs, alcohol, or any kind of bad publicity for the company will no longer be tolerated. This is about as close to a TNA Wellness program as we’ve come at this point.

Go Sucky: This is the cancer of TNA. TNA seems to be hell bent on pushing old, WWE has been or rejects into it’s main scene. Yes Sting and Kurt Angle are names that will bring WWE fans over to watch their program. Yes Christian Cage, Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash, Rhino, and Tomko are talented wrestlers, but what about the foundation of TNA? When does TNA push guys like AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, Chris Sabin, Frankie Kazarian and it’s younger roster to it’s new national 2 hour program? The talent, 10 years from now, TNA will NEED in order to continue to even have a show? TNA needs to separate itself from the WWE and even the WCW. Take a look at Ring of Honor. ROH is a far cry from anything that’s mainstream and it’s seeing a lot of respect, especially in the last year or so. That’s because they push their young talent and do things different than the WWE.

On top of that, this is likely the Sting Farewell tour for TNA. Chances are, Sting will not be back after New Years. His contract will expire and it seems as though both Sting and TNA are ready to go their separate ways.

And I don’t want to start any rumors or anything, but that would be JUST in time for a Hall of Fame nomination from the WWE. Sting at Wrestlemania 24 anybody?

News: TNA is in talks of bringing in former WCW Heavyweight Champion David Arquette. Arquette has talked to Johnny Fairplay about managing him.

Happy: HOLD UP! Did I really just type that? The only happy I ever see out of this is completely burying David Arquette and the awful storylines that involved him that pretty much lead to the death of WCW. Maybe David will come out and say he’s sorry he ever wrestled in WCW and sorry he ever accepted becoming the WCW champion and sorry that he ruined Monday Nights forever.

Go Sucky: Hmmm, where do I start. First of all, Dixie Carter, Jeff Jarrett, are you freaking insane???? The David Arquette WCW Heavyweight Title run was the biggest joke in wrestling history. Period. It KILLED WCW. And since Vince Russo is now behind the scenes of TNA, do you think that he’s thinking about putting yet another strap on Arquette. You better believe he is! I don’t think he’d actually put the TNA World Title on him, but I can see Arquette sporting the X Division title since Russo seems hell bent on destroying the division that was actually interesting 2 years ago.

This will just be another reason for me to not watch TNA. Once again, you spit on the hard working young talent and push someone who is not even a friggin wrestler. Someone has GOT to step in and soon or TNA will not exist in 2008. I guaran-damn-tee it.

News: Teddy Hart is fired from the WWE…again.

Happy: Ya know, if you can’t keep your mouth shut and grow up, then you get what you deserve. I don’t want to get myself excited for an angle only to have some punk ass, immature brat cry his way out of a contract and opportunity. Good riddance. I can tell you’re related to Bret.

Go Sucky: I was really excited about the New Hard Foundation angle the WWE was planning on running. With Teddy Hart gone from the company, the idea will probably be scrapped, which is a shame. This was a genius idea to cash in on old WWE names while pushing new, youthful wrestlers into the national spotlight. TNA should take heed from this. Teddy Hart has not only screwed himself out of a 6 digit salary, he has screwed his family members as well. Harry Smith, Nattie Neidhart, TJ Wilson, and Ted Dibiase Jr are all now out of getting called up now. Wilson and Dibiase Jr were all depending on The New Hard Foundation gimmick in order to get called up while Smith and Neidhart will likely get the callup sometime in the future.


News: WWE.com states that there have been meetings between Vicki Guerrero & Armando Estrada to merge ECW &Smackdown’s superstars.


Happy:
This has a lot of advantages. First, ECW’s ratings are slim to none while Smackdown’s ratings are on the rise. This is a great opportunity for some of ECW’s less known talents such as Kevin Thorn and Big Daddy V to get some face time in front of a bigger crowd. Guys like C.M. Punk and John Morrisson can only benefit from this as well. Punk will be able to hopefully gain a bigger fan base. Right now, Punk has the potential in the next couple of years to become the next big superstar in the WWE. Getting out of the talent abyss that is ECW right now, Punk can get away from ECW and move on to the Smackdown and maybe even the Raw fan bases. On top of that, ECW gets a face lift creatively and some of the talent on Smackdown that’s not getting used now has a better opportunity to get used. This could also be an interesting angle for Survior Series, with ECW and Smackdown teaming up to unseat the “A” show of Raw.

Go Sucky:
Chances are however, this is likely the end of ECW. I had really hoped to get a lot more out of ECW than we did. Vince really finished off the spirit of ECW. No longer will fans chant E-C-Dub at live events because now they will be forced to relive the awful memories that were the current ECW product.

On top of that, guys like Tommy Dreamer, Stevie Richards, Balls Mahoney, The Miz, and Big Daddy V will find themselves getting less and less air time in favor of the bigger, more popular Smackdown superstars. This will make it difficult for the WWE to bring in any new talent and get them over, which is basically what the ECW was being used as.


Happy Go Picky Poll Of The Week

In last week’s poll, fans chose that they would make Chris Jericho face instead of a heel when he returns to WWE TV. We had an amazing turnout for this poll, with 894 of you putting in your vote. This poll produced some Steve-mail as well so let’s take a look at what you said.

Hello,

I was reading the latest Happy Go Sucky report (Oct. 10th, happy B-Day!!), and you had a poll at the bottom asking if Chris Jericho should return as a face or heel. I choose heel, and was shocked to see that results had him as a face by a wide margin. Okayyyy…… I see that there are people with very short memories. Over his career (even in his WCW days), Jericho’s best work was as a heel, we absolutely LOVED to hate his ass, and he always found ways to poke fun at our favorite faces (Rey, Goldberg, et all, shoot, all one has to do is search YouTube). Then he came to RAW, and feuded with the Rock (granted people loved to hate him too, but at the same time, we loved him as a face). Yes, you can cheer for the heel (see: Austin, Steve, Malvia, Rocky, Hemsley, Hunter), but Jericho is always more fun as a heel. Now granted, RAW has few faces (especially with Cena out), but I still think he should come back as a heel. Besides, RAW needs to build some new faces consisting of the talent that is already there, like many has said, now that Cena’s out, it’s a chance for the other wrestlers to step up.

Thanks for letting me vent, Great column, keep up the good work.

The BKeeper.

Let’s take a look at the main event scene right now. There’s Orton, Kennedy, Triple H and now Shawn Michaels, making 2 heels and 2 faces. Lashley’s coming back in December and I will not be surprised if Cena’s back for the Rumble making 2 heels and 4 faces. Granted people can obviously be turned (and Lashley and Cena probably should be turned) but if they’re keeping everyone the way they were then it’s obvious that Jericho needs to come back as a heel.

Stephen Straka

I have to agree with these two. I like Jericho better as a heel better than a face. Jericho’s best work on the mic and in storylines is as a heel. Remember what happened last time Jericho turned face? He was fighting Christian over Trish Stratus in the midcard. Never once can I remember a time Chris Jericho was in the main event picture as a face. Yet, when Jericho returned to being a heel again, he found himself in his last angle with John Cena before being “fired”.

Orton has the chance to be a great heel champion and I know the WWE wants to bring in Chris Jericho as a heel because the fans love him. But I just don’t think that is the best thing for the long term or for the championship picture. There is a lot of heel potential on Raw right now with Orton leading the way, followed by Kennedy, and Umaga. When Lashley returns, Lashley is capable of running a heel angle, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen. You also have Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Jeff Hardy coming in as faces. Rumors have it that Umaga may move to Smackdown soon in favor of Mark Henry which doesn’t really swerve anything. So Jericho as a face is likely what the WWE is aiming at currently, but if they do ever plan on putting Kennedy over, or changing him to a face before Wrestlemania, then the WWE needs a heel Jericho.

As for comments made from Straka’s email, you’re not going to see John Cena back at the Rumble, unless he’s in some sort of special enforcer role. A complete tear of the pectoral muscle is not something you take lightly, especially if you want to continue to be able to use your arm sometime in the future.

Moving on! Gotta love it when I get love, especially from the lady fans!

Wow, Steve! You seem to be the only guy who can write a report about Triple H without mentioning that he’s married to the boss’ daughter! Good job!

I agreed with every point in your column and found you to be fair-minded, unlike a lot of the online columnists/bloggers.

Keep up the good work!

Charlotte

Thanks for the kind words Charlotte! I think the time of Triple H getting the big WWE Title pushes is over. Triple H has some wear and tear and enough money to make sure his great grand kids live in 10 bedroom mansions. Triple H may soon become a talent who brings in ratings and buyrates and finally FINALLY puts over younger talent. Fingers crossed anyway.

Daniel chimes in with a question about HBK:

What’s up, Steve? Just a thought here. I, like a vast majority of the wrestling fan populace, am quite thrilled to have HBK back sooner than expected. I suspect his sooner-rather-than-later return can be attributed to John Cena’s injury, and I would much rather have Michaels in the main event at Cyber Sunday facing Orton than HHH. If Orton goes over, and I feel like he should, I do agree that it would indeed add a great deal of prestige to his run as one of the stronger heel champions we’ve had in quite some time. I also agree with the popular IWC opinion that the thrill and ratings are in the chase when a heel has the title. However, I wouldn’t entirely rule out the possibility of Michaels going over and getting his possible last run(or one of his last runs). As a condition of HBK’s early return, do you suppose Vince might have guaranteed him a title win at Cyber Sunday, or on one of the following PPVs? I would not consider that a definite, but do you think it’s possible? Let me know your thoughts if you have the time. Great columns upon your return to 411 thus far, and welcome back. Take care.

–Daniel
Jersey City, NJ

Thanks Daniel! No, I don’t think we will see HBK be the WWE Champion at Cyber Sunday, or ever again for that matter. Shawn Michaels came back because the WWE lost John Cena and was in desperate need of a talented wrestler with a large fanbase that could satisfy wrestling fans until Cena can return. The week before Shawn Michaels returned to Raw, Michaels had hinted that he may be finished with wrestling. Shawn Michaels does not want another title reign as a reason to come back, but likely a good paycheck and a light travel schedule so that he can spend more time with his family. That is likely what was offered to him. A guy like Shawn Michaels does not need a title to get over. Shawn Michaels will be around to put over guys like Randy Orton as champion and make his reign legitimate. He will put on stellar performances and give us what few WWE stars can offer us these days. A good, exciting wrestling match.

This one is a doozey:

“Triple H PUTS OVER Randy Orton so that Randy leaves No Mercy with the championship.”

As much so as Undertaker put over Edge by losing to him… after a cage match with Batista AND an assault by Mark Henry. Trips is the best politician in wrestling history, bar none. He opens the show by beating Orton clean, showing himself to be the better man. Then he has to wrestle Umaga, who he buries despite getting “injured”. Then he loses to Orton, only because of the prior matches. And he has you thinking he put Orton over. WWE.com went on for pages about how tough, resilient, great Trips is to overcome so much, and that his mentoring Orton in Evolution took Orton to this level. Go look if it’s still there, they actually give him the credit for his opponent beating him! It hasn’t been this bad since 2003. I despise Orton, who at this moment should be on suspension for yet another wellness violation. Instead they hand him the title, while Kennedy and Umaga are punished on top of their suspensions. I was happy Cena is no longer champ, now they make both alternatives even worse. I’m sick of being subjected to this trash and constantly telling myself it will get better. Shelton is buried beyond all hope. London and Kendrick were great on Smackdown but just jobbed to the Highlanders? I missed that because I skipped Raw entirely for the first time in ages. Mickie James is immensely talented and hasn’t had a program in forever. Don’t even start me on what Trippy did to Booker. I am 100% out of excuses to watch Raw, and won’t watch it again until things seriously change.

In defense of Tony Atlas, not only do I not watch ECW, but in all the times I did I never once could see why CM Punk is on TV. His moves are bland and he has no mic skills. Having 45 stupid tattoos while straight-edge makes no sense. If beer swilling Austin is forever over, shouldn’t being straight-edge draw boos? In 20 years as a fan I’ve never seen someone so over where I was at an absolute loss to explain it.

If you’re happy with this product, good for you. I’m happy they turned me away just in time to see the best Monday Night Football game I’ve ever witnessed, and that I have that alternative for another 12 weeks.

Jason Mis

Jason, just because I watch Raw, doesn’t mean I’m happy with the product. I watch Raw, ECW, Smackdown, TNA, ROH, OVW, and any other wrestling event I can get my hands on because I like wrestling. And as a wrestling fan, it is our job to continue to support wrestling in order to keep it afloat. Things are only going to get worse if fans continue to turn their backs on the business.

Just because things aren’t going your way right now, doesn’t mean that the WWE doesn’t have a bigger plan sometime in the future that will not only please you, but the thousand of others who are upset that they will never see Steve Austin and The Rock in the ring again.

What’s funny is a lot of fans complain about the old days of wrestling and wishing they had angles they had back then. But at that point, aren’t you seeing the same stuff over and over again that you saw 10 years ago? You people make no sense sometimes!

You need new talent and new approaches to make new storylines. The Chris Benoit tragedy really put the WWE in a bind storyline wise and now they are rebuilding. Guys like Cena get hurt and guys like Booker, Umaga, and Kennedy shoot themselves in the foot by taking steroids. This is not Vince McMahon’s or the WWE’s fault for the bad storylines right now. This is in fact the wrestler’s faults, whether it be an accident in the ring or an ill advised mistake they made outside the ring.

It’s my opinion that despite the bad storylines that are currently on WWE TV, that Vince McMahon and his team has done a great job despite the hand he’s been dealt. I know I often times criticize some of the storylines but sometimes, it turns out for the best. If you can look past Cyber Sunday, which is my least favorite of the Pay Per Views, we have the Survivor Series coming up followed by Armageedon and the Royal Rumble. Then we get the road to Wrestlemania and things start getting really interesting. So hang in there wrestling fans and give this product a chance to make some adjustments.

And one last Steve-mail in regards to ROH:

Steve,

great job on your article and making it an interesting
read. however i felt the need to point out one small
thing…

you said:

“Go Sucky: I don’t really like how short Morishima’s
reign was. You have established a new audience with
the widely watched Driven Pay Per View and shown off
your World Champion as Miroshima. Now, suddenly that
all changes. Not only that, but many of those who have
only seen Driven, may be confused since Bryan
Danielson won the #1 contendor’s match, only to find
out that Nigel McGuiness is now the ROH Champion.
There’s a feeling of inconsistency there.”

Morishima’s title reign was NOT short. he won the
title from homcide at the Fifth Year Festival back in
Feb. His title reign was just under 8 months long
(231 days) and he successfully defend the belt 20
times.

Morishima’s reign is the 3rd longest reign in ROH
history after Samoa Joe (645 days, 26 defenses) and
Bryan Danielson (462 days, 38 defenses). considering
that morishima is from NOAH and isn’t even a full-time
member of ROH that is damn impressive.

The title reign might seem short to you cause you just
started watching, but for those that have followed
since the beginning it was a long reign that morishima
should be proud of.

I am aware that Morishima’s reign was the 3rd longest and that he was indeed a fighting champion. But I feel like they should have drug his reign out longer. Ring of Honor is now exposed to a much larger audience due to the publicity and success of the Driven Pay-Per-View. On that pay-per-view, fans were sold on Morishima’s dominance as the ROH Champion. Now, suddenly, that all changes with Nigel holding the belt now, after losing the #1 contender’s match on that same pay-per-view. I know I just started watching ROH, but I’m not the only first time customer and now, I, along with others, may have a feeling of confusion in regards to ROH’s title picture.

Phew, I think I had more Steve-mails than column this week. And with that, I’m outta here. And remember folks, whether you think the current wrestling picture is Happy or Go Sucky, always do your best to watch it. You don’t have to like it.

Just watch it.

And only if you do that may you only call yourself, a fan.

And that leads us to this week’s Happy Go Picky Poll Of The Week!

Would you like to see Shawn Michaels have one more WWE Title Run?
Yes
No
  
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Until then my friends, may your life be happy or go sucky.

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Steve Sullivan

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