Hello everybody and welcome the Great Zanzibar edition of the Big TimBoski Show! I am the genius, mythical wizard better known to you as Tim Sampsell! This week we talk independent hotbeds, SmackDown and we play Could he be! All of this and of course trivia so lets go!
Is Chris Jericho Randy Savage:
On two previous columns I have done is HHH Ric Flair and is Chris Benoit Bret Hart? I really enjoy writing this type of stuff so this time I propose to you…Is Chris Jericho Randy Savage? Now let me tell you what I’m talking about here. I am not talking about their title runs, characters or anything like that. What I am talking about however is how the WWF has used these guys against people.
Both are looked at as two of the best ever and more importantly they are looked at as two of the most skilled wrestlers ever. Thats what interests me because to me it appears that both guys were used to carry other wrestlers to good matches. It is seldom not talked about but in my opinion this is a very important aspect of their careers. Jericho and Savage both were/are solid upper midcard/main event level stars so when one of these two are on the card, you expect quality and you get it.
With Savage his matches with Hulk Hogan at WrestleManiaV and the Ultimate Warrior at WrestleManiaVII are his two swan songs for carrying people. Those matches were good matches because Savage busted his butt to make sure those were good matches. With Chris Jericho I look at the Rock at No Mercy2001 and Tyson Tomko at Bad Blood2004. Now the Tomko match wasn’t a classic but it was a very good match because Jericho made sure it was. Now with the Rock before you all yell at me, the Rock never had any technical skill. Like Hogan he was an entertaining style wrestler so it was up to the skill man in this case Y2J to make sure that his style meshed well with the entertainer’s style just like what Savage did with Hogan. Because these two guys were always stuck wrestling bigger guys with less skill in the WWF, when they did get someone with their skill, they go down as absoulute classics!
With Savage you always circle Ricky Steamboat at WrestleManiaIII and Ric Flair at WrestleManiaVIII. These two matches helped solidify all three athletes career’s as top notch wrestlers. With Chris Jericho you look at WrestleManiaXIX vs Shawn Michaels and Christian at WrestleManiaXX. Now with Jericho he was estableshed in WCW but was most of the time wrestling crusierweights but in the WWF he was usually used as a guy who had to pull the big men around and I think he has done a wonderful job. His style is obviously different from Randy Savage’s but in the end they both were clutch players for the WWF both in the ring and at the box office.
Independent Hotbeds:
As many of you know I am a fan of independent wrestling but almost every company starts in Philadelphia. Now I understand because of ECW it is a good place but CZW, 3PW, World-1, ROH and PWU are just oversaturating the area so today I propose to you the top four wrestling hotbeds that could be great to start a company in. Now these are in no praticular order!
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Toronto is always the WWF’s biggest drawing city in Canada because well it is the biggest city in Canada for one but more importantly it also hosts some of the smartest die hard fans in wrestling. Die hard fans is where an independent promotion draws its fan base from and that is why it is a great place to start. The other nice thing about Toronto is that it is the center of everything in Canada and thus tourists and fans from abroad will travel to Toronto to see good wrestling. Now do not get me wrong I understand that Calgary is the Wrestling Capital of the world but that is for where wrestler’s come from, not for where you go to watch wrestling! Two WrestleMania’s have been in Toronto as well many, many other pay per views from both the WWF and the old WCW, wrestling has a great history in Toronto and if a promotion doesn’t want to start there it should at least get there and recieve a big crowd and a mixed reaction from Canada’s biggest city.
Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota:
Well if Calgary is the wrestling capital of the world well the Twin Cities are the wrestling capital of the US! Mr. Perfect, Rick Rude, Nikita Koloff, Jerry Lynn, Ric Flair and so many other legends have came from the area and it is of course the only state ever to elect a wrestler as governor in Jesse “The Body” Ventura. Now if that is not proof that Minnesota is a hotbed well then nothing will convince you! Minnesota has always been a gateway to the west for companie’s like the WWF, and ECW and also was the home of the old AWA so there is a ton of history in the area. Now because of this the fans seem to skew a little older, so a more family oriented product may be in order but the midwest lacks good wrestling and this is a great place to start.
Buffalo, New York:
Eventhough it is just about an hour and a half from Toronto this may be the northeast United States most untapped resourse to start a promotion. Buffalo, New York is a tough town with tough fans who enjoy tough wrestling. Until 1999, the Burt Flicenger Center at Erie Community College was the biggest arena that ECW would his and 3000 fans strong would pack the gym to see some of the best that wrestling has to offer! A regular two time a year spot for RAW, Buffalo has hosted many PPV’s for the WWF and WCW. The two big problems for Buffalo are first they are very close to Toronto but the bigger problem is the New York State laws and taxes that they impose on wrestling promotions. Growing up in near by Rochester I can tell you that New York is the highest taxed state in the union for everything and that includes wrestling shows! The state recieves I believe around 5% of the profits for every show that goes on there and they also charge huge insurance premiums and state fees. Because of this companies have been scared of starting there but also because of this it has left the fans in Western New York salivating to see great, innovative wrestling so if you have the money Buffalo is a fantastic place to start! What may be the biggest advantage for Buffalo that like Toronto it is very regional. Fans from Rochester, Canada, Pennsylvania and Ohio all go to the Buffalo for wrestling matches and Bills games so if you have the money then there is money to gain.
Los Angeles, California:
The only major reason that this makes the list is because it is America’s second largest city and has a pretty good wrestling fan population. It is the host of WrestleMania21 and was the host of WrestleMania2 and WrestleManiaVII but more importantly then that it sold out the Staples Center for Judgment Day this year! The reason why I think that happened is because of Eddie Guerrero. LA obviously has a very large Mexican population so a lucha style promotion may be the way go. Now people critisize the west coast because nobody goes to PWG or UWA out there but its because there isn’t enough promotion outside wrestling fans. I get the UWA newsletter online every month and I live in Upstate New York so I have heard of it but the low numbers tell me that people in the city of angels haven’t heard of it. Local promotion in LA is key and if you accomplish that then you will descover how big of a hotbed Los Angeles can be!
Well that is my list of wrestling hotbeds for indy promotions. If there are any that you think are possible hotbeds please don’t be afraid to email them to me at [email protected]
SmackDown in Rochester:
Yes for Thanksgiving SmackDown visited Rochester and while I was visiting my family I figured I would catch the show. I got to go for free and got to sit with many of the guys from NWA Upstate which was a blast and I must say I had a good time. The arena holds 11000 people but we were lucky if 4000 were in the audience as 3/4 of the upper bowl was tarped off. The Undertaker showing up at the end was the high point of the show. The low point was that there were no matches to hang your hat on and say that one match that stood out from the others. I believe this is becoming a big problem with the WWF. They are not putting on bad matches but there needs to be one show stealing match per show and there wasn’t one on this one. On a personal note I got Paul London’s autograph which was an absolute thrill and I told him that his matches with Joe, Styles and American Dragon in ROH were classics he said thanks and that he couldn’t believe that anybody has seen those. This is my second time at a SmackDown TV Taping and I enjoyed it. If you have not had a chance to be at a TV taping or live TV event please get to one as it is a great experience.
Trivia:
Its Trivia time once again but before that here are last column’s question, the answer and our Medium TimBoski’s!
Who defeated Shwan Michaels for the WWF Title at the 1996 Survivor Series?
Sid!!!
Our Medium TimBoski’s are: Accident, The Mask, WK, Ryan Cotter, Darren Romero, Dan Stenton, Lino Casas and Chancie Miller! Congrats to all of you!
Now here is this column’s question, remember if you think you know the answer please email it to [email protected] and good luck!
Well it was Thanksgiving and in the spirit of the holiday the question is what PPV used to be every Thanksgiving night?
Well that about does it for this edition of the Big TimBoski Show! I want to thank all of you for the feedback last time and I hope all of my fellow American’s had a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving and to all my international readers I hope you had a wonderful Thursday. Please send your trivia answers along with your feedback to [email protected] Because of finals coming up this will be my last column until after the 17th of December. That column will be the second annual BTB Awards where we hand out the “Golden Wrestling Shoes” to those who are worthy. Well on that note…Until next time LATER!
