Post by wendytorrancev1 on Oct 28, 2022 20:32:32 GMT -5
Hello all!!
Happy Payday Friday!! I hope everyone is having a great start of their Halloweekend!
I was watching the build up to Wrestlemania X-7 and my, there was some good in there, but a hell of a lot of bad, as well as missed opportunities there.
Recently, I did make a post about the Raw is War the night after No Way Out 2001, and if that Raw was any indication, the writing was going downhill sort of quick. I'm sure this was because the WWF at the time didn't have any rivals, whatwith the buyout of WCW and ECW folding (and later acquisition by the WWF). Wow...some of this stuff I must have been looking at with rose-tinted glasses.
The Good:
The Bad:
I could go on and on with the bad, but those were the highlights. Point one on "The Good" and point seven on the "The Bad" is what I'm going to delve into. These seem like huge missed opportunities that seem to be because the writers didn't know what to do with these two for some odd reason. I'll start with Kurt Angle.
Ever since losing the WWF Heavyweight Championship, Kurt Angle became a bitter, angry man. He blamed everyone for his title loss, seemingly disillusioned with the current state of the WWF. He was hurt, he was angry, and he was also unpredictable. His behavior was akin to a sociopath; he didn't care who he hurt or who he had to use to get to his objective; the WWF Heavyweight Championship. He blamed The Rock, he blamed Austin, he blamed everyone for his loss. On the March 5th episode of Raw is War, Triple H came out and was taunting Austin. Austin eventually appeared, beating down Triple H and gaining an advantage. Kurt makes the save, but this also prompted The Rock to come out to save Austin. The Rock knocked Kurt Angle over the ropes. Again, Angle, being a very bitter man, yet displaying a more vicious and desperate side to him now than when he was champion, decides to be a bully. Now, I don't like bullies in general, as I find them deplorable. However, I liked that the writers were trying to make Kurt Angle seem a bit unhinged.
I mean, he seemed a bit unhinged from the start, as you could see signs of this during the "Triple H/Stephanie/Kurt Angle" love triangle storyline. He also felt a bit weird during the build up to WWF No Mercy 2000 event where he won the WWF Heavyweight Championship, although it seemed like he had to make an effort to suppress it. Then the writers abandoned all of that to make him a prettyboy who just so happened to stumble ass first into being the WWF Heavyweight Championship. I mean, it worked, but they just turned him full on cowardly, which I mean, it worked, but whatever. I guess you could see him being a transitional champion.
Anyway, Kurt was still at ringside fuming, as at this point, he was desperate on getting that WWF Heavyweight Championship from The Rock. Too Cool came out to the ring for their match against somebody. I don't even know who they were about to fight. Kurt had enough and vented his frustrations out on someone who couldn't fight back, Scotty 2 Hotty. Poor Scotty. Kurt landed an Anglelock on Scotty and Scotty's foot was twisted at an odd angle (no pun intended). I'm not sure if this was scripted, or make up, or special effects, but Scotty's foot did not look right. If they broke Scotty's ankle just for that scene, then shame on them for that. Kurt kinda gave this evil grin when Scotty was being stretchered out. I remember this from 21 years ago, as it was such a heartbreaking scene. I think I gasped back in the day when I watched it originally. Little did I know, that would be the last time I would see Too Cool on television. RIP Grandmasta Sexay.
A few nights later, Kurt Angle, who is fully in a dark place, gloats in a backstage interview on how he snapped Scotty's ankle. Sexay overhears it and tries to attack him, but is held back by a gaggle of low carders. Test, who was European Champion at the time, stands up for Sexay, essentially standing up to the bully. Kurt Angle says that no matter how big someone is, he isn't scared of them. The two proceed to get into a surprisingly good match.
See, if I were the writers, I would have diverged right there. No need for Angle to put Debra in the Anglelock and further that stupid plotline. Kurt should have stayed out of that. There was also no need to insert Debra in the WWF Heavyweight Championship main event, but whatever. Kurt should have fixated on Test for his European Championship. It's not like the writers were doing anything with Angle at the time, as they just used him as a plot device. That's it. He was angry, sordid, belligerent, and unstable. Him targeting Test just because Test has a shiny object would have made Kurt seem even more unhinged. It was such a missed opportunity. I'm not sure who I would have had walk away with the belt, as Wrestlemania X7 was far less dark than in tone than its predecessor, but had Angle won against Test and secured the WWF European Championship, then those would have been some seriously dark days.
On the flipside of that, as you guys may have guessed, the whole Chris Benoit/Eddie Guerrero feud.
Chris Benoit had been growing emotionally distant from the reformed Radicalz at that point. Not that Chris Benoit had shown much human emotion at that point in time (RIP CHRIS), but as much as he could muster. The most emotion I had ever seen out of him was when he bumped into Steph in the corridor of some random arena, with Chris asking Stephanie how her head was after he did a flying headbutt on her the show prior. Stephanie completely bitch slapped him (and I must admit, this was one of the harder slaps that I have seen Stephanie perform). Chris then smiled at her in a display of defiance. It was sort of creepy and Steph (justifiably) ran the other way from him.
It seemed like he just reformed the Radicalz to support Triple H's agenda of getting even with Austin. However, once their feud was over, there was no need for the Radicalz to be around anymore. On a random episode of Raw from March of 2001, the Radicalz got into an argument of who should take on Jericho that evening for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. There was no deciding vote, with Eddie even mentioning that Benoit was their leader, so he should go after it. Benoit insists that Eddie should go after the title.
During the match, Benoit is on color commentary, but he doesn't say much. He's laser focused on the match. When Guerrero got the upper hand, Benoit left the commentary table, climbed the top turnbuckle, and did a flying headbutt on Eddie! Jericho got the pin and retained his championship, however, he looked up the ramp in disbelief that his rival would help him out. Benoit then gives an evil grin before heading backstage. The rest of the Radicalz were then plotting against Benoit from then on.
I will say that this was an excellent storyline, with Benoit's true loyalties in question. He was a loose cannon and a liability to Eddie, Perry, and Dean. In fact, there was an excellent gauntlet match that came of this with Perry, Dean, and Eddie taking on Benoit. The build up to that match was very well handled, with the Radicalz leaving Perry alone and Benoit spearing Perry through a wall. Benoit then deadpans "One down. Two to go", while giving a sly grin. It was decent stuff.
Too bad the writers blew their wad too quick, whatwith them placing the climax of this match on a random episode of Raw is War. Why?!?! WHY?!?! Why not abandon that silly storyline of William Regal manipulating Eddie into getting into another feud with Test (because some BS about Test aiding his loss of the the IC title, IIRC), and Eddie turning full blow heel. After the match, Chris and Kurt Angle formed some sort of weird tag team that had Kurt turn on Benoit for absolutely no reason. Well, I know the reason; the writers wrote themselves into a box and couldn't get out of it if it was soaking weight with scissors in their hands.
It is so infuriating.
Again, as a writer, I would have diverged, having Benoit turn face, taking out each member of the Radicalz until Wrestlemania where only Eddie remained. Eddie, growing more and more paranoid resorts to some desperate/heel tactics, like hitting Benoit with a chair, running away in a limo, etc. Eddie was already a damn heel at the time to begin with. His feud with Test was a wash, along with Benoit and Eddie having great chemistry in the ring to being with (I heard before that they were friends IRL, IIRC). This was strictly a match of pride, no titles involved. The best man would have won.
After that, since now Benoit is face, we could have segued into that whole dumb Chris Jericho/Benoit vs. William Regal/Kurt Angle feud we got by May 2001. That's another issue. That stupid ass team won the WWF Tag Team Championship, but didn't do a damn thing with the titles. In fact, they lost the titles to The Dudley Boyz and broke up shortly thereafter to be at each other's throats over the WWF Heavyweight Championship by King of the Ring 2001 (the absolute LAST WWF PPV I will watch, don't hate).
tl;DR: The WWF writers were smoking something at the time with those two missed opportunities that they were building towards in the late winter/early spring of 2001. Instead of Test vs. Eddie Guerrero/Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit, we should have had Test vs. Kurt Angle (WWF European Championship)/Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero (Submission vs. Submission). I mean, I think Wrestlemania X7 is the best WWF/WWE product out there period, but it isn't infallible. Some of the writers were smoking on something that isn't weed when they were writing out the plotlines.
Anyway, I've rattled on long enough. I love you all (you guys know that by now) and I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! Have a safe and happy Halloween!
Happy Payday Friday!! I hope everyone is having a great start of their Halloweekend!
I was watching the build up to Wrestlemania X-7 and my, there was some good in there, but a hell of a lot of bad, as well as missed opportunities there.
Recently, I did make a post about the Raw is War the night after No Way Out 2001, and if that Raw was any indication, the writing was going downhill sort of quick. I'm sure this was because the WWF at the time didn't have any rivals, whatwith the buyout of WCW and ECW folding (and later acquisition by the WWF). Wow...some of this stuff I must have been looking at with rose-tinted glasses.
The Good:
- Chris Benoit turning on the Radicalz (which will be explained below)
- The buildup to TLC II featuring E&C, The Dudley Boyz, and The Hardy Boyz (including the introduction of Rhyno and Spike Dudley)
- Triple H/Undertaker buildup, which made it seem as though THAT was the main event at Wrestlemania X-7
- Shane McMahon realizing that is father is a filthy jerk and buying the WCW up from under his nose, essitentially outsmarting him.
- Chris Jericho vs. William Regal
- Austin's (solo) sit down interview with JR about Wrestlemania X-7.
The Bad:
- The whole issue with inserting Debra into Stone Cold and The Rock's Wrestlemania feud. Like why? Who thought of that nonsense? The sad part is that it didn't end as quickly as I thought it did and lasted until the Raw is War right before Wrestlemania. WHY?! I would love for someone to explain this decision to me. Were they trying to harken back to the Hogan/Ms. Elizabeth/Randy Savage love triangle from 12 years prior? What?!!? WHY!?!?
- Steve Blackman and Grandmasta Sexay. Seriously?
- Albert joining X-Pac & Justin Credible to finalize X-Factor
- Vince McMahon forcing Trish Stratus to strip down in front of the LA audience and making her get on all fours and bark like a dog. That made me hella uncomfortable back in the day and it still makes me uncomfortable now. Why was this even needed? Why? I think Vince and Steph dumping that awful water in the mop bucket on her was enough.
- Tazz and Steven Richards' feud. Though, I will admit, at least the APA got a match out of the deal. So I'm kinda iffy on this one.
- Debra being a constant "damsel in distress".
- Kurt Angle turning on Benoit for essentially no reason. Nevermind, because neither one of them had a match at Wrestlemania.
- Paul Heyman on commentary for the first few shows. My god, he was annoying before he started to find his footing.
- Rikishi and Haku seemingly disappearing for zero reason.
- Fake tension in some of the tag-teams (Matt Hardy chewing Jeff out for costing Lita a WWF Women's Championship match against Ivory, but then they win the WWF Tag Team titles against The Dudley Boyz that same evening/Austin and The Rock not cooperating with each other, but then winning their tag team match that same evening).
- Two interviews on the same show (One was Shane O' Mac about his dad, the other I think was The Rock/Austin/JR interview where they were stroking each other's egos because the writers thought they struck gold with the Austin/JR sit down interview and wanted to repeat it.)
- The WWF/WCW simulcast with Vince McMahon yelling at Lilian Garcia because she couldn't get the timing down right.
- Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero seemingly forgetting they hated each other at that point.
- Al Snow and "the midgets".
- The buildup to the whole Austin/Rock feud left a lot to be desired. Another user on here told me that whomsoever put that video package together between the two of them deserved an Emmy; I'll do one better and say that they deserved a damn Oscar. The match itself was flawless, but all the buildup was basically non-existent besides Austin's sit down with JR. I would argue to say the buildup to their Wrestlemania XV match was far better.
- Mick Foley "signing some documents" back in December that allowed him to special guest referee any Wrestlemania match with a pre-sanitarium Linda McMahon. Totally random and not fleshed out at all.
I could go on and on with the bad, but those were the highlights. Point one on "The Good" and point seven on the "The Bad" is what I'm going to delve into. These seem like huge missed opportunities that seem to be because the writers didn't know what to do with these two for some odd reason. I'll start with Kurt Angle.
Ever since losing the WWF Heavyweight Championship, Kurt Angle became a bitter, angry man. He blamed everyone for his title loss, seemingly disillusioned with the current state of the WWF. He was hurt, he was angry, and he was also unpredictable. His behavior was akin to a sociopath; he didn't care who he hurt or who he had to use to get to his objective; the WWF Heavyweight Championship. He blamed The Rock, he blamed Austin, he blamed everyone for his loss. On the March 5th episode of Raw is War, Triple H came out and was taunting Austin. Austin eventually appeared, beating down Triple H and gaining an advantage. Kurt makes the save, but this also prompted The Rock to come out to save Austin. The Rock knocked Kurt Angle over the ropes. Again, Angle, being a very bitter man, yet displaying a more vicious and desperate side to him now than when he was champion, decides to be a bully. Now, I don't like bullies in general, as I find them deplorable. However, I liked that the writers were trying to make Kurt Angle seem a bit unhinged.
I mean, he seemed a bit unhinged from the start, as you could see signs of this during the "Triple H/Stephanie/Kurt Angle" love triangle storyline. He also felt a bit weird during the build up to WWF No Mercy 2000 event where he won the WWF Heavyweight Championship, although it seemed like he had to make an effort to suppress it. Then the writers abandoned all of that to make him a prettyboy who just so happened to stumble ass first into being the WWF Heavyweight Championship. I mean, it worked, but they just turned him full on cowardly, which I mean, it worked, but whatever. I guess you could see him being a transitional champion.
Anyway, Kurt was still at ringside fuming, as at this point, he was desperate on getting that WWF Heavyweight Championship from The Rock. Too Cool came out to the ring for their match against somebody. I don't even know who they were about to fight. Kurt had enough and vented his frustrations out on someone who couldn't fight back, Scotty 2 Hotty. Poor Scotty. Kurt landed an Anglelock on Scotty and Scotty's foot was twisted at an odd angle (no pun intended). I'm not sure if this was scripted, or make up, or special effects, but Scotty's foot did not look right. If they broke Scotty's ankle just for that scene, then shame on them for that. Kurt kinda gave this evil grin when Scotty was being stretchered out. I remember this from 21 years ago, as it was such a heartbreaking scene. I think I gasped back in the day when I watched it originally. Little did I know, that would be the last time I would see Too Cool on television. RIP Grandmasta Sexay.
A few nights later, Kurt Angle, who is fully in a dark place, gloats in a backstage interview on how he snapped Scotty's ankle. Sexay overhears it and tries to attack him, but is held back by a gaggle of low carders. Test, who was European Champion at the time, stands up for Sexay, essentially standing up to the bully. Kurt Angle says that no matter how big someone is, he isn't scared of them. The two proceed to get into a surprisingly good match.
See, if I were the writers, I would have diverged right there. No need for Angle to put Debra in the Anglelock and further that stupid plotline. Kurt should have stayed out of that. There was also no need to insert Debra in the WWF Heavyweight Championship main event, but whatever. Kurt should have fixated on Test for his European Championship. It's not like the writers were doing anything with Angle at the time, as they just used him as a plot device. That's it. He was angry, sordid, belligerent, and unstable. Him targeting Test just because Test has a shiny object would have made Kurt seem even more unhinged. It was such a missed opportunity. I'm not sure who I would have had walk away with the belt, as Wrestlemania X7 was far less dark than in tone than its predecessor, but had Angle won against Test and secured the WWF European Championship, then those would have been some seriously dark days.
On the flipside of that, as you guys may have guessed, the whole Chris Benoit/Eddie Guerrero feud.
Chris Benoit had been growing emotionally distant from the reformed Radicalz at that point. Not that Chris Benoit had shown much human emotion at that point in time (RIP CHRIS), but as much as he could muster. The most emotion I had ever seen out of him was when he bumped into Steph in the corridor of some random arena, with Chris asking Stephanie how her head was after he did a flying headbutt on her the show prior. Stephanie completely bitch slapped him (and I must admit, this was one of the harder slaps that I have seen Stephanie perform). Chris then smiled at her in a display of defiance. It was sort of creepy and Steph (justifiably) ran the other way from him.
It seemed like he just reformed the Radicalz to support Triple H's agenda of getting even with Austin. However, once their feud was over, there was no need for the Radicalz to be around anymore. On a random episode of Raw from March of 2001, the Radicalz got into an argument of who should take on Jericho that evening for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. There was no deciding vote, with Eddie even mentioning that Benoit was their leader, so he should go after it. Benoit insists that Eddie should go after the title.
During the match, Benoit is on color commentary, but he doesn't say much. He's laser focused on the match. When Guerrero got the upper hand, Benoit left the commentary table, climbed the top turnbuckle, and did a flying headbutt on Eddie! Jericho got the pin and retained his championship, however, he looked up the ramp in disbelief that his rival would help him out. Benoit then gives an evil grin before heading backstage. The rest of the Radicalz were then plotting against Benoit from then on.
I will say that this was an excellent storyline, with Benoit's true loyalties in question. He was a loose cannon and a liability to Eddie, Perry, and Dean. In fact, there was an excellent gauntlet match that came of this with Perry, Dean, and Eddie taking on Benoit. The build up to that match was very well handled, with the Radicalz leaving Perry alone and Benoit spearing Perry through a wall. Benoit then deadpans "One down. Two to go", while giving a sly grin. It was decent stuff.
Too bad the writers blew their wad too quick, whatwith them placing the climax of this match on a random episode of Raw is War. Why?!?! WHY?!?! Why not abandon that silly storyline of William Regal manipulating Eddie into getting into another feud with Test (because some BS about Test aiding his loss of the the IC title, IIRC), and Eddie turning full blow heel. After the match, Chris and Kurt Angle formed some sort of weird tag team that had Kurt turn on Benoit for absolutely no reason. Well, I know the reason; the writers wrote themselves into a box and couldn't get out of it if it was soaking weight with scissors in their hands.
It is so infuriating.
Again, as a writer, I would have diverged, having Benoit turn face, taking out each member of the Radicalz until Wrestlemania where only Eddie remained. Eddie, growing more and more paranoid resorts to some desperate/heel tactics, like hitting Benoit with a chair, running away in a limo, etc. Eddie was already a damn heel at the time to begin with. His feud with Test was a wash, along with Benoit and Eddie having great chemistry in the ring to being with (I heard before that they were friends IRL, IIRC). This was strictly a match of pride, no titles involved. The best man would have won.
After that, since now Benoit is face, we could have segued into that whole dumb Chris Jericho/Benoit vs. William Regal/Kurt Angle feud we got by May 2001. That's another issue. That stupid ass team won the WWF Tag Team Championship, but didn't do a damn thing with the titles. In fact, they lost the titles to The Dudley Boyz and broke up shortly thereafter to be at each other's throats over the WWF Heavyweight Championship by King of the Ring 2001 (the absolute LAST WWF PPV I will watch, don't hate).
tl;DR: The WWF writers were smoking something at the time with those two missed opportunities that they were building towards in the late winter/early spring of 2001. Instead of Test vs. Eddie Guerrero/Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit, we should have had Test vs. Kurt Angle (WWF European Championship)/Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero (Submission vs. Submission). I mean, I think Wrestlemania X7 is the best WWF/WWE product out there period, but it isn't infallible. Some of the writers were smoking on something that isn't weed when they were writing out the plotlines.
Anyway, I've rattled on long enough. I love you all (you guys know that by now) and I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! Have a safe and happy Halloween!
