Hello WZ Readers! As you may be aware, there is a contest going on at present in the Wrestlezone forums columns lounge which will crown a new columnist for Wrestlezone.
As part of this contest, we would like you, the readers, to help decide who will be this new columnist by voting in this mini-contest.
All you have to do is read the following five short responses by potential WZ columnists to questions posed by me, and send your vote to [email protected] stating which one you felt was the best.
First up is Mitchell McGarr.
Q: ROH Pure Wrestling Champion (at the time) John Walters recently appeared on WWE RAW, in which he lost to Chris Masters in a squash match. Does his doing so devalue ROH and their Pure Title, or are WWE and ROH two completely seperate universes?
A: You can see this from two different points of views. First, It devalues the Pure Title because John Walters lost a match in 30 seconds, which in some people’s eyes, degrade the Pure Title which is meant to be treated as an equal to the ROH World Title.
Watch Weekend of Thunder where Samoa Joe and Jay Lethal lost to John Walters and Nigel Mcguiness which basically proved that the Pure Title should be right up there with the ROH World Title.
On the other side of the coin, It doesn’t really affect John. Gabe and John both agreed to do it. It’s not WWE’s fault that Gabe and John accepted the offer.
It’s really us, the fans, that it is getting too. We think ” Our precious ROH is getting degraded because of Damn Vince Mcmahon.” Vince probably doesn’t even know what the ROH world title is.
Then, a few weeks later at another ROH show, he gets crapped on by losing to Chris Masters. It is good for business because now he can become a heel. He’s been a tweener in the past, but now he can become a full-fledged heel.
It is great for business.
We, the fans, just don’t see it from that point of view though. We just think Vince is the one at fault when we fail to realize that both Gabe and John agreed to do it.
We need to think about things like these before we speak out against Vince and blame him for everything.
After evaluating both sides, I don’t think it was wrong that John Walters jobbed to Chris Masters so quick. He got easy money. He got major publicity. And he still has ROH to be there for him to have kick ass matches in.
ROH always delivers in match quality. They make their belts look credible. ROH is in a different universe than the WWE. Vince probably knows what ROH is, since he got him for the match against Chris Masters, but I don’t think he watches with a close eye.
Second was Joseph Bachman.
Q: What is needed for TNA to become serious competition for WWE?
A: This is a very simple and easy question. Let’s look at some major rumors…
Spike Tv is not going to have RAW on their primetime slot anymore. Pending whether their contract has a no compete clause or not, if NOT then this opens the door for TNA. Now TNA really needs work.
The obvious being Jeff Jarrett needs to drop his title. With Brown, Styles, Raven, Hardy, Abyss, and I would like to see some indy talent come in like Samoa Joe or American Dragon, even Homicide and the popular CM Punk would make a nice asset to TNA. Indy talent is also important but will be hard to draw away for someone like Low-Ki who makes more money in between feds than he would at TNA…SO…
TNA needs a bigger sponser than Panda Engery. They need a Ted Turner like force, they could try ANYTHING, maybe with Bill Gates? Hell “this X-Division match brought to you by the X-Box!” TNA needs to sell the image of them being the “future of sports entertaiment” or whatever they call themselves and take a guy like Jarrett who NOBODY wants to see, OUT of this future movement. TNA needa a new poster boy and Styles could do it, Daniels could do it, as mentioned before Samoa Joe could do it. Either way noone wants to sponser a “down south” wrasslin’ promotion with Dustin Rhodes vs. Jeff Jarrett as their main event.
With this new direction add 2 title…Womens and a secondary title below the world title so guys like Kid kash who would probably not be seen as a world champion or an Elix Skipper or Sonny Siaki, Michael Shane, can hold a title that ISN’T the X-Division. With the womens title we could easily bring in VERY GOOD womens indy talent like Ariel, Alere little feather, MsChif, Daizee Haize, etc…This adds something called DEPTH to your show which the WWE even struggles to find sometimes.
Nobody likes country. Get out of this country-western “NASCAR” background that TNA has. There are plenty of really heavy and not mainstream metal bands to play your theme music and shows that would do this. Same with the underground rap scene. The wrestling revoltuion does not start beside country music and nascar, and TNA really needs to define their image with this.
TRASH DUSTY. It’s obvious his idea of a good wrestling show is Jarrett going over a wrestler past his prime blended with an overabundance of gimmick matches. You don’t need gimmick matches when you have really good wrestlers like Styles, and Daniels, Sabin, Williams, Abyss, etc…Let’s focus on STORYLINES! Hey! What a concept! High Spots are beautiful, but lets tone it down and have some great wrestling and some good storytelling first. Ever since Russo left, TNA has gotten progressively WORSE. Time to find a smart booker!
Third peson up was Syed Rehmann
Q: With WWE rumored to be interested in signing Super Crazy, Psicosis and Juventud Guerrera, along with the elevation of Paul London, do you think that WWE are finally looking to build a strong cruiserweight division?
A: I think that WWE’s cruiser weight division already has a heavily impressive roster. With half the stars WWE has right now, it could be creating headlines week after week; it’s just a matter of how the cruiser weights are used and in what capacity.
TNA made a very very bold statement when they decided to push AJ to the world title status and give him the championship. I believe its moves like these which show how much a promotion takes interest in the cruiserweights or X Division stars as they are called in TNA. WWE has done nothing of this sort, which is just one of the reasons why stars like AJ and The Amazing Red have been skeptic about signing with WWE.
I think that the cruiser weights deserve at least 1/3 TV time in the whole show in order to built good strong gimmicks and define good strong characters, after all the Smack down roster consists 1/3 of cruisers so they can be justified like this. As opposed to the lame 8 minute match they get every week.
Signing new talent like Juvi, Super Crazy and Psicosis sounds great but what good is their signing if they end up on Velocity in 4 weeks. The same thing happened to the Ultimate Dragon, whose return was hyped like Mysterio but it ended up being nothing like Rey Rey and before we knew it he was jobbing on Velocity.
Giving someone like Kidman or London a US title push will be a good start, where does it say that only heavy weights can win the US title? I think someone like Mysterio can do wonders to rejuvenate the US title’s reputation.
Ever since Heyman has left the cruiser weights haven’t been done justice with. For the last 3 months we haven’t seen non title cruiser weight feud, this all implies that no one in WWE creative team knows how to use the LITTLE GUYS.
Only time will tell if the Cruiser weight division and the cruiser weights will ever get their true deserved positions but for the time being the future looks dark and scary for the cruisers and sadly, it doesn’t look like much is done about it in the titan towers.
Fourth to go was Joe Pritchett.
Q: Is Batista ready to be World Heavyweight champion, or will he fail with the belt?
A: Batista is only a few short weeks away from a spot that, frankly, six months ago none of us would of predicted him to be in. The WWE groomed Randy Orton as an ultra-face in order to step up at Wrestlemania 21 and take the World Heavyweight Championship off of Triple H. Yet we know that didn’t happen. On April 3rd, Triple H will be taking on not Orton but Batista.
A looming question arises from this match up. Can Batista, who only six months ago was no more than Evolution’s “enforcer”, step up as World Heavyweight Champion, should he defeat Triple H at Wrestlemania. I would like to argue that he has the necessary tools to have a successful run as World Heavyweight Champion.
In order to make a champion look credible, his strengths must be pushed to the forefront while his weaknesses hidden. JBL, for example, isn’t the greatest in ring wrestler. Yet he has a knack for work on the mic, and the WWE runs with that, allowing him to get over with the crowd through this avenue. Batista, on the other hand, isn’t as fluid on the mic. So, we must look at his other strengths.
Batista’s biggest strength right now is that the crowd is eating him up. He, unlike Orton, won the crowd over on his own. The WWE didn’t need to shove him down the throats of the fans in order for him to get over. He needs to keep this momentum after Wrestlemania in order to be successful.
Secondly, Batista is known as “The Animal.” One of his strengths is that he is overpowering in the ring. He is an animal. If he can continue this after Wrestlemania, and not go down the not so bright path many former heels take once turning face, he’ll have a successful run. This image will make him look unstoppable, and will pose a valid threat to anyone on the WWE roster.
Lastly, Batista has an “edge” about him. Though he isn’t as proficient on the mic as some, he has an element about him which the fans have obviously bought into. His size, along with his “no one scares me, bring it on,” attitude has obviously won over a legion of fans. In order to be successful, he needs to keep this edge.
If Batista should defeat Triple H at Wrestlemania, and I believe he will, his success will depend on many of these things. I believe Batista has what it takes to be a successful champion. He has the look, edge, in ring style, and fan base in order to succeed after Wrestlemania as World Heavyweight Champion.
And finally, Jordan Prill.
Q: Should Randy Orton be allowed end Undertaker’s 12-0 record at Wrestlemania, or is that one legend that should never die?
A: I could answer this very simply. No. If you look at the records, there is nothing, absolutely nothing like this record, and I guess I’m just one of those guys who think some records should stick around.
Randy Orton really doesn’t impress me, and hey, he could lose this match and still come out looking good, if Undertaker shakes his hand or something. Or, what I see happening, if the rumors are true that Orton is headed to Smackdown after WrestleMania, he could just as easily be put over at the next Smackdown Pay-Per-View.
The Undertaker is one of the true legends, and if he does retire undefeated, that in my mind is one record that very well may stand forever. But even if it doesn’t, imagine someone down the road, John Cena or maybe even Orton, going for their 15th WrestleMania win trying to brake the record. That would be exciting to watch!
There really aren’t any other records left anyway, except the Honky Tonk Man’s IC Championship reign, which we still hear talked about and obviously has meaning. In my eyes, having The Undertaker lose would just be a slap in the face to one of the greatest wrestlers of the past 15 years.
The importance of this record is hard for some to comprehend, so just take a look at who he has all defeated at WrestleMania: Jimmy Snuka, Jake the Snake Roberts, Giant Gonzales, King Kong Bundy, Diesel, Sycho Sid, Kane (twice), The Big Bossman, Triple H, Ric Flair, Big Show, and A-Train. That’s quite a list! If you let some new kid like Randy Orton end this amazing run, it will definitely leave a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach for weeks to come.
Please WWE, let this legend keep his record, I’ll be in the stands again this year, cheering loud for the phenom. So should Randy Orton be allowed to end Undertaker’s record at WrestleMania? I could answer that very simply. No.
These are your five entries. If you could take just a few moments to send an e-mail to [email protected] with your vote on who you feel answered their question the best, i would be very grateful for your contribution.
Thanks.
