Good discussion fodder here, presented as is from the original e-mail:
No, not R-truth…..these are just some truths about pro wrestling/sports entertainment, based on my own observations. Thought it would be cool if the blog could pick and choose ones they wanted to discuss. THE TRUTH IS: There never was, and may never be, another Hulk Hogan. Some guys never change the landscape of a business even once……..yet Hogan did it twice (Hulkamania, nWo). THE TRUTH IS: If The Rock were a full-time performer, people would get just as sick of him as they do John Cena. Absence does make the heart grow fonder. THE TRUTH IS: CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho had MAYBE 1/4th of the "big fight feel" that Taker/HHH and Rock/Cena had at Wrestlemania 28. And it wasn't for lack of effort. It's because neither guy is the impact player that people like to pretend they are. THE TRUTH IS: Daniel Bryan losing in 18 seconds seems to have garnered him far more recognition than a 20-minute wrasslin classic with Sheamus would have done. THE TRUTH IS: Bret Hart could have saved himself a ton of stress and aggravation if he'd just agreed to lose a SCRIPTED match on his way out of the WWF, regardless of the location. Hogan lost to Yokozuna on his way out…Austin would later lose to the Rock on his way out….so who the hell was Bret Hart ? A guy who "cared so much about the fans" that he was perfectly content to have a WWF title match at the 3rd biggest PPV of the year end with a Hart Foundation run-in? Vince did the right thing. RING THE BELL !! THE TRUTH IS: Nash did not kill WCW by beating Goldberg. The same people who say that like to conveniently forget that Bret Hart beat Goldberg 3 times over the course of the next year. And at least Goldberg eventually got his win back vs. Nash. Wanna know why Kane beating Austin for the title in '98 never gets bashed to pieces? Well, aside from the fact that it only lasted one night…..the fact is, WWF continued to put out an entertaining product after that happened. WCW, on the other hand, decided that The Demon, The Dog, Master P and the No Limit Soldiers, The Maestro, David Arquette, Vince Russo's "are they shooting on each other???" moments and various other nonsense would be extremely entertaining. Not only that, but nobody who based Nash for beating Goldy ever offered a better alternative for Goldberg to lose to. And at some point, he had to lose. THE TRUTH IS: Brock Lesnar really does bring legtimacy to the WWE. New fans are not going to get hooked on WWE by watching Jack Swagger do pushups, or watching Santino prance down the aisle like a fairy with his arm in an upside-down L shape…..or watching CM Punk ramble on while sitting Indian style……and so on. Brock on the other hand, has the potential to be a serious game-changer. Everybody else can either come to his level, or enjoy the mid-card. THE TRUTH IS: Michael Cole is nowhere near as bad as people make him out to be. Once he toned down the heel character somewhat, he's as good as any other announcer in WWE or TNA, for that matter. Is he Jim Ross? No. But that's like saying Dolph Ziggler isn't The Rock. It's already obvious. THE TRUTH IS: The YES!! chants will be dead or barely on life-support by Summerslam, unless WWE makes an effort to help keep them going. Hell, they didn't even last a week. Some of the DC crowd had "YES!" signs, but if there were any chants for it, I sure as hell didn't hear them. And before anybody says "well D-Bry was only out there to help break up the Lesnar/Cena fight!!", allow me to remind you that those same chants broke out in an NBA game last week. There's no reason the DC fans couldn't have randomly broke in to that chant at various points. Outside of a few smark locations like Chicago or New York, look for that chant to be gone faster than Kizarney was. THE TRUTH IS: WWE kinda sucks without the occasional bra and panties match, or bikini contest. THE TRUTH IS: Randy Orton is the best all-around performer in the WWE. He may not cut the most epic promos, but everything from his ring movements, to his mannerisms, to his facial expressions are usually on-point. THE TRUTH IS: WWE tries to create new stars. Contrary to what people online will lead you to believe, Vince is not doing his best to put a lid on certain stars to keep them from shining. That would be stupid. We've seen the likes of Jack Swagger, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Mark Henry, etc. get pushed, after they'd toiled in the mid-card for a while (quite a while, in Henry's case). The reason Daniel Bryan lost in 18 seconds is because he doesn't usually get those rock-star reactions he got in Miami. The reason Christian isn't given overly-lengthy title runs is because he's not over enough to justify it (sorry, he's not…and I am a fan of the guy). And the reason Zack Ryder is basically an afterthought is because WWE realizes he's not much more than a midcarder, and a prop to be used in bigger and better storylines (Kane/Cena, and Eve turning heel). Think back…how many guys from WWF ever went to WCW and then became a star? Hardly any. Vince doesn't usually mis-fire often. But how many guys went to WCW, then didn't become a star until they were in WWF? Several. |