The Wrestling Doctor 09.16.08: Help Wanted

THE SECOND OPINION

The Doc’s memo pad was filled up with lots of great comments last week. Some people are very much in favor of using the Intercontinental and US Titles as territorial-like championships that feed into a Unified World Title, and others feel that the time has past for those two secondary belts. It would be interesting to see how the WWE product would develop if the IC and US titles were retired for six months or a year. The titles do not have much standing right now, so the disappointment of their dismissal would not be as substantial as it was when the IC belt was retired in 2002. (Though I must admit that the current angle with Santino Marella is gold. It does nothing for the IC Title, but it is gold.)

I did not bring the tag team titles into last week’s discussion because I already addressed the issue back in April. Of course, no one can be expected to remember that, so I could have flushed out the piece more by including some comments on the much-beleaguered tag straps.

I agree that basic ring-based storytelling is the key to reviving the X-Division Title, but TNA has been very short of that over the past year. I still assert that retiring the X-Division Title for a brief period would give TNA time to decide where they want to take the championship in the long term, as opposed to devaluing it further with weak booking as the WWE did with their secondary belts.

THIS WEEK’S PATIENT: A CASE OF BOREDOM

I do not have a lot to diagnose this week (more on that further down) but here are some thoughts on recent WWE and TNA events.

Item #1: C.M. Punk marks are crying in their Pepsi over last week’s lackluster Unforgiven pay-per-view. The title switch sucks for Punk, who was finally getting a big push, but putting the belt on Jericho was the best thing for the WWE right now. Jericho is currently generating the kind of sincere loathing that only comes along every few years, and his angle with Shawn Michaels has been brilliantly done. The WWE can make that feud and its aftermath the centerpiece of the company going into the fall and winter, while Punk most likely could have only continued on in his role of over-matched and under-appreciated World Champion. The good news for Punk is that he has transitioned into a long-term Rey Mysterio-like role where he will be used for upper-card angles and bouts, but the downside is that he will probably never get another run with top gold.

Item #2: The MMA battle at No Surrender was the equivalent of the boxing matches that were run by various promotions during the kayfabe era. Those matches were heavily hyped, and none of them delivered a thing except yawns and wear on VCR fast forward mechanisms. The 1976 Antonio Inoki vs. Muhammad Ali match is considered one of the biggest disappointments ever in wrestling. The Mr. T vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper boxing match at Wrestlemania 2 was as exciting as a white bread toast buffet in an all beige-room. (Mayweather vs. Big Show was essentially a wrestling-style brawl, so it hardly counts.) The crowd at No Surrender wanted nothing to do with the MMA match. The entire situation with Frank Trigg was an unnecessary and ridiculous addendum to A.J. Styles’ feud with Kurt Angle. Styles is one of the few sure things that TNA has, so they need to keep his storylines hot instead of cooling things down every third pay-per-view. Twenty-first century wrestling needs to realize that these cross-sport matches do not deliver, and fans are not as willing to give them a chance as they were two decades ago.

Item #3: Samoa Joe requiring assistance yet again to win on TNA pay-per-view does nothing for his championship credibility or his badass character. I agree with Big Boss Csonka that such booking is slowly but surely weakening Joe as a top star. TNA is focusing on the Joe vs. Sting Bound For Glory bout as the only important aspect of the angle instead of pulling as much interest as they can out of the tension between the younger TNA-bred stars and the established veteran talent. TNA could tweak certain storylines and produce a long-term angle similar to the intriguing New Blood vs. The Millionaires Club that WCW never fully delivered in 2000. Such a move could produce several months of stellar and big money events for the company.

Unfortunately, TNA Creative seems to view their project as constructing a pay-per-view card and then devising angles leading into that line-up instead of writing compelling storylines from which quality pay-per-view shows can be pulled. It is a subtle difference, but the latter is how all of the best periods of the PPV era have been scripted.

I understand that TNA wants to push Bound For Glory – No Surrender is essentially their No Way Out – but they could accomplish such a build for both the PPV and the long term just as easily as what they are doing now.

Item #4: The cancellation of the Starrcade DVD is the biggest disappointment since – well, since the last five Starrcade cards – but the decision is further proof that if you want collections from the WCW archives, you have to let the WWE know through direct complaint. Otherwise, we will end up with a Hacksaw Jim Duggan set next year instead of a Great American Bash compilation. I am not advocating taking out frustration by boycotting the Kane DVD as some have suggested. Kane may not be the best wrestler, but he has certainly paid his dues and been a loyal company man. His current angle with Mysterio may be the last opportunity the WWE has to push such a release. You will not see me buying it, but the DVD’s time is certainly now.

Item #5: Help Wanted! The summer of 2008 was pretty dull from a wrestling standpoint. That situation is not entirely bad considering what the summer of 2007 brought, but at the same time both the WWE and TNA have exhausted their weekly TV to PPV formulas. The storylines are not necessarily bad and the in-ring action is not consistently lousy, but both are highly predictable and stale. A similar stagnation afflicted wrestling in the mid-nineties – the first eight months of 1995 were particularly dull – but then the Monday Night Wars broke out to completely change the industry. Wrestling needs something similar now.

Every week, all of the 411mania writers take a guess at what the site’s loyal wrestling audience wants to read. That task becomes more difficult during a period of stagnation, so I am asking readers to make recommendations on what wrestling-related problems you would like to see discussed in this column in the future. Where should one or both big companies go from here? Whose character is under- or over-used? What should be done with pay-per-view X, title Y, and angle Z? What should be on the 2009 DVD release schedule? What happens to be sticking in your craw right now? Send your suggestions to the Office of The Wrestling Doctor and I will use the column to diagnose the most compelling situations over the next several weeks.