Saturday, July 21, 2007

Just Can't Watch Anymore...

Tuning in to the WWE is a rare experience nowadays, that often leaves me wondering why I bothered. Most of the matches are absolute crap, with a 450 pounder put against a dude weighing 185, or mismatched styles...etc.

Yet, tonight, I flipped in for a moment. Seemingly, with no reason (I had to look on the net to find out he was injured), World Champ Edge drops his belt. And to START the night off, they have the match to replace him as champ.

While the Smackdown roster is mostly bereft of top tier talent, the belt gets put into the hands of the guy least able to defend it...the Great Khali. I know crap happens, and decisions have to be made on the fly...but Khali? UGH.
I mean, if they wanted a bad guy, and were willing to deal with slow and awkward...why not Mark Henry? He can at least cut a promo, and semi-sell a story in the ring. If the idea was to piss off the fans by giving them a world champ they'd never accept...then why not MVP? He's cocky as hell, the fans hate him, and any time a heel holds more than one belt, the fans go crazy! If looking for someone who seems odd and incomprehensible...there's always Umaga on Raw. At least he can move, and, on RARE occasions, puts on a good match. Plus his manager is really annoying (as opposed to Khali's bland personality-less one), so at least he gets dislike, as opposed to apathy. If we want a monster, perhaps Kane. He's scary looking, but loved. He can be either face or heel, with no change to his personality or explaination, so he can work with anyone. And come on, he's only had a 1 night reign in his almost decade long run in the company. Or, finally, if we're just looking for a champ who will make the fans shake their heads...choose Eugene. At least he's fun, and would be a cute novelty champ for a couple of weeks before the fans got bored.

Instead what has been done here, is to give the belt to someone who can't wrestle to save their life, and can't sell. He can't talk, and is slow as sin. He can't be put in a story line because he doesn't even have a gimmick. He was moderately useful in his undefeated streak, but now he's not only been pinned but has tapped out as well. He's so big, that he can't lose well, and him winning just hurts ratings.
In short, we have a no-winner here. If they let him keep the belt, the fans will hate it. If he drops the belt, it's like "why the hell put it on him in the first place?"

It's crap like this that turns wrestling fans off. We have three crap champs. On Raw, we have Cena who's held the belt for damn near 3 years, which is boring as hell. Even fans who used to like Cena (including myself, as I enjoyed him in the ring before he even had a gimmick), are getting sick of him. He makes his opponents look like crap, and has a winning streak that even Hogan is envious of. They're so desperate to give him new opponents that not only are they elevating sucks like Khali and Umaga, but they're booking awkward matches like the 5 way, and are now resorting to putting him against other faces. And ECW fully deserves it's reputation as the C show with a midcard champ holding the title.

As far as it goes for me, I can't watch this crap anymore. WWE has been on a slow decline for years, and this just speeds it up. Watching Vince's programming is painful. And as he seems to have no desire to give us entertaining programming, I have no desire to go through the visual equivalent of root canal once a week.

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