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High Road/Low Road 11.02.07: The Cyber Sunday Concept.
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 Booker T as the King:
High Road: 68%
Low Road: 20%
Both Roads: 12%
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.
John Reid Writes:
Simply put WWE wanted to create Booker in their own gimmick so they could separate him from the WCW character. In that regard they gave him an identity the fans could get behind and it truly made him stand out as a heel. He seemed to be more energized as well as being labeled a threat in each match. As a World Champion it allowed him to have a real “superiority complex” that wouldn’t have been as credible if he stuck with the same old gimmick. I like the fact that they made King Booker and Queen Sharmell have a nice run with the title. Besides it made more sense than when they put the belt on JBL. So High Road on this one!
Besides, it beats re-creating G.I. Bro.
Sat: I agree with everything that you said. Booker T was one of those guys that was stuck in a rut, but by becoming King Booker, he reestablished himself.
Uncle Trunx: I suppose it is better than GI Bro. I’d just prefer them to have acknowledged the ability of Booker T and his suitability to be champ without the need for a ridiculous gimmick.
The Cyber Sunday Concept
High Road:
I have always been a huge fan of the Cyber Sunday concept because the fans are able to decide what they want to see. Usually, we have to watch what the WWE wants us to watch, but Cyber Sunday allows us to see what we want to see.
Low Road:
Yes, within the very limited parameters of the options given. I personally find it very hard to get interested in, for example, choosing between Morrison, Miz and Big Daddy V. The concept has some merit but is only as good as the choices presented. Sadly, the choices were nothing to write home about.
High Road:
The Cyber Sunday concept would have been worthless if the WWE had taken the votes and then manipulated them to what they wanted. However, this has not been the case. I remember that one year, the WWE was pushing for JBL and instead we got Matt Hardy. Last year, the WWE was pushing for Dusty Rhodes to be Ric Flair’s partner, but the fans chose Roddy Piper. This shows that what we saw matters.
Low Road:
All well and good but surely to build a long term storyline or feud, the creative team need to be able to pick opponents and write a storyline around them. Jumping on the “Phone / text / email and vote” bandwagon so popular on TV these days merely serves to either disrupt or derail such planning. At very least this time they gave a bit of time between voting and setting the matches to allow some build, a concept which was lost in previous years. It all still ends up feeling thrown together and thus loses the big event feel that a properly booked and built event has.
High Road:
I’ve written this High Road many times, but it needs to be mentioned. The WWE needs to give all of their pay per views an identity because I believe that this will help the buy rates. The WWE has too many of the same pay per views. However, Cyber Sunday has a unique concept and even though it has not shown in the buy rates for the last few years, I believe that this year the concept will work.
Low Road:
What they need to do is give people a reason to care about each PPV. Sometimes a certain gimmick or match is the way to go (Royal Rumble, for example) but surely the basic underlying principle should be to make the fans care about the people competing, to give them a reason to watch the matches presented. The Cyber Sunday concept derails this, for the reasons mentioned above. It’s all thrown together and has far less impact due to the potential lack of storylines and build.
High Road:
The Cyber Sunday concept also makes the WWE television shows that much more interesting because they are forced to focus on all of the options. The WWE usually focuses on one thing and that is it. The Cyber Sunday concept has forced the WWE to showcase all of the options and I believe that it has helped.
Low Road:
WWE TV shows would be far more interesting if they actually focused on building up new stars, promoting wrestling and giving people a reason to care about their performers. There should be more than enough time in a 2 hour show to build the main event, the mid card and the tag / cruiser division; however, instead of that we get things like the Diva search. WWE having to focus on a few more people due to Cyber Sunday is like sticking a plaster on a sword slash. It does very little to cure the problems.
High Road:
The Cyber Sunday concept is really interesting this year because there are tons of intriguing possibilities. First, we know that the WWE wants us to vote for Shawn Michaels, but I think that Hardy has a shot. Next, we have a choice of the referee. This is really intriguing because the WWE has been pushing for JBL, but we all know of the popularity of Steve Austin and Mick Foley. The Cyber Sunday concept can work if we are given an intriguing set of choices and this has happened this year.
Low Road:
That could’ve been true, but in both of those cases, the way the voting was going to go was beyond obvious. Did anyone think that Foley or JBL had a chance of being voted in ahead of Austin? The choices need to be appealing all round and it has to be possible for any option to win; to my mind they managed that last year with the tag team legend vote. This year the options were either foregone conclusions or I just didn’t care.
High Road:
I have never looked at Jeff Hardy as a main event talent and I thought that he would need a near miracle to become a main event superstar. However, this has all changed with the Cyber Sunday concept because Jeff Hardy has been thrust into the main event picture and he has surprised me because he has shown that he can hang with the main eventers. If anything, the Cyber Sunday has established Jeff Hardy as a main eventer in my eyes and I believe in the eyes of all of the other WWE fans.
Low Road:
Jeff Hardy’s potential for main eventing hasn’t come about through Cyber Sunday; it’s come about through his consistent popularity and decent matches since he returned, and has built over a long period of time, not one minor PPV. Cyber Sunday is a throwaway gimmick which has no importance in the great scheme of things; if anything, it takes away the importance which might otherwise be attached to any of the matches. It is a PPV which seems to exist almost outside of any ongoing storylines, and I could see no incentive to vote and no reason to care about any of the matches.
Are you taking the High Road or the Low Road?
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.
