WE ALL NEED SOMEONE WE CAN BLEED ON
At “Hardcore Justice,” Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney, Team 3-D and the Gangstas brawled, bled and hugged. That’s right, after everyone was covered in plasma and “beaten senseless,” they embraced. Then, on Impact, the Fortune faction unleashed similar punishment on EV2…but nobody hugged after.
The “Hardcore Justice” bloodbath, you see, was about mutual respect and yeah, just a little bit of FUN! The Impact beatdown, well…THAT WAS SERIOUS. Axl, Balls, Bubba, D-Von, New Jack and Mustafa are PALS. But OMG, RVD is in the ICU!
So…how am I supposed to distinguish which bloodbaths are faux, and which are legit? Do I believe RVD is near death, or does the ECW world…I mean, TNA world champ just need a HUG? Better yet, a hit off a big Bob Marley-style reefer?
It’s lack of respect for the audience, and for logic. When do I suspend disbelief, and when do I tell disbelief to f*** off?
What idiots.
One thing was real about Fortune’s beatdown of EV2: Ric Flair’s smile. Having dodged the pathetic Internet “challenge” of THE FRANCHISE, SHANE DOUGLAS, Flair’s troops put a whuppin’ on a genre of wrestling he never liked nor understood. As the greatest of all time, that’s Flair’s prerogative. Just as it was Flair’s prerogative to treat that “Hardcore Justice” PPV like it might give him syphilis. Which, considering the participants, it might have.
I’m a FRANCHISE fan. For ECW, he was the right champ at the right time. But if Douglas believes there are unresolved issues between him and Flair, he needs a shrink. If he believes fans want to see a Douglas-Flair match in 2010, he’s mistaken.
If Douglas is just trying to steal a paycheck from Dixie Carter, I wish him well. Why should he be left out?
Getting back to “fun” bloodbath vs. “real” bloodbath, it shows the disrespect bookers have for fans. Fans are assumed to be morons. During my time in WCW, no one had more contempt for the fans than Vince Russo. He considered them idiots. If anyone pointed out gaps in his logic, he’d smirk and say “It’s only wrestling.” I heard it dozens of times: “It’s only wrestling.” Russo and his disciples chanted it like a mantra: “It’s only wrestling.”
I have a pretty healthy contempt for the marks myself. But booking as if they’re all fools is a mistake. They’re not all fools. Even if you think the fans are dumb, that’s still no excuse for dismissing logic. Just keep it simple…and logical.
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