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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 20, 2007 17:13:15 GMT -5
As much as they bore me as a viewer, every show should have at least one or two. It's so easy to get the right guy over. Seems like WWECW only gives squashes to "monsters" like Snitsky, Boogey, Big Daddy Vis, Mark Henry, Khali, Umaga, etc. But you could get a regular guy super over as a threat with weekly squashes against jobbers.
The perfect example (no pun intended) to me is Curt Hennig's run in the WWE. If Mr. Perfect came around nowadays, he'd have to trade doing jobs with every other midcarder, and it would take him so much longer to rise to the upper portion of the card...and he might never make it.
But send him out every week and have him beat a jobber with good, quick offense and the Perfectplex, and you've got a new star/upper card threat in a few months. WWE should've been doing this with guys like Shelton Benjamin, TNA should be doing this with guys like Daniels and MCMG. It would work for these companies better than having them lose 75% of their matches on TV, then wondering why they aren't bigger draws.
Hire real jobbers for weekly spots, you won't kill the heat of anybody on the roster (or kill interest in PPV matchups), and the guys can showcase their cool moves.
Pretty simple way to do business and create new stars. Doesn't make for must-see TV, but it could help the PPVs.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 25, 2007 17:04:34 GMT -5
1. TNA hasn't offered Joe a huge raise.
2. Joe is threatening to leave for less money instead of re-signing.
In wrestling, this is "news". On message boards, this is the "death of TNA".
However, in the real world, both sides' tactics are consistent with something called "negotiation". And in negotiation, a very popular tactic used in sports and Hollywood is to say that you're gonna sit out or work for a competitor, and your bosses go "Man, that sure would suck if that happened. Here's more money."
When push comes to shove, TNA's stupid, but they aren't stupid enough to let their biggest young star (especially someone who they've put in many marquee main events as recently as their last PPV) walk into the welcoming arms of their competition for peanuts. This is different than the Monty Brown situation, because Monty's alot older and doesn't have as much of an upside as Joe.
Joe has worked 9 of the past 12 Main Events on TNA PPVs. If he doesn't feel like he's being pushed enough, then he's a mark for belts (and himself), and I'd love to see if he main evented 75% of WWE's PPVs in any year he's there (ever).
Fact is, it probably isn't about the push. Joe probably just wants paid what he's worth. That makes him no different than any of us. TNA should give him a raise, consistent with being the main event player that he is for their company. And by the time his contract expires, they'll probably give him that raise.
I don't know if Joe has a Hollywood agent, but he should get one to negotiate with TNA for him, especially if he wants Sting money. He'd get his money, and the agent will be helpful deflect TEH BCKSTAAGE HEATZ!!!1! At least that's how it works in sports and real entertainment, I don't know about some backwoods southern rasslin' company...
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 21, 2007 2:50:50 GMT -5
I had no idea that AWA Scott Hall was The Diamond Studd and Razor Ramon. I figured that Scott Hall had gotten out of the business like Billy Jack Haynes or other guys I used to always see in the magazines when I was little, since I never saw him after his stint in '89 NWA jobberdom.
Even worse, after the NWO first started, I still didn't think it was the same Scott Hall. I thought it was along the lines of WCW's Steven Regal being a completely different guy than the AWA's old Steve Regal. I never really believed the Hall/Razor thing until Larry Z started referencing their AWA days on Nitro.
It's too bad I didn't have the internet back then, but it was almost more fun that way. Or maybe because I was 13.
Oh, and when Raven got to WCW, he had me fooled too (since our area didn't get ECW). Then once he talked, I was like, "holy ****, that's Scotty Flamingo/Polo". I was impressed at the metamorphosis.
Those two guys pretty much saved their careers with changing their look. Other than Umaga, have there been any really great transformations like these lately??? (that aren't openly referenced on TV like Matt Bentley/Martyr or Chavo/Kerwin White)
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 22, 2007 21:31:26 GMT -5
Congress can't do anything to TNA than issue a stern warning, and force them to test for steroids. They aren't in WWE's shoes where they've actually lied about stuff regarding their drug testing, or had guys on steroids pass steroid tests only because they have prescriptions for steroids.
Congress won't make TNA look like a bunch of liars like they might make Vince. Hell, Jarrett even went on the Stephen A. Smith show and said on national TV that "TNA does not drug test". I don't see how they are smurfed.
They'll test for steroids and fire some guys, but they aren't gonna test for weed and that kind of stuff because they're a private company that Jeff Jarrett owns part of, and Jeff Jarrett smokes weed.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 22, 2007 16:48:53 GMT -5
Are the people on here that complain about too much Kurt Angle the same ones that complain that TNA is too confusing when they feature 40 workers on camera in one hour? If so, I hate to break it to them, but, it can't be both ways.
If TNA is featuring too much Kurt Angle, it's because they're focusing on the major storyline in the company, not 15 different storylines every week.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 23, 2007 20:54:55 GMT -5
By the time Sid was 33 years old (1993), he had flopped in the WWF and got kicked out after failing a steroid test, and kicked out of WCW for stabbing a guy, and hadn't won a world championship.
Brock's only 30, didn't flop in WWE, won world championships and due to his flirtations with NFL and MMA he's a much bigger mainstream star than Sid was at the same age. He'd be a bigger wrestling star by default for main-eventing when WWE was far more popular than when Sid was there in 1992.
Plus Brock's a better in-ring performer. That's why I said he isn't like Sid.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 22, 2007 21:12:00 GMT -5
Brock is basically this decade's Sid. No, he basically isn't. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 21, 2007 9:07:40 GMT -5
Is this DVD going to be 10 minutes long, chronicling how Vince, Stephanie, Kevin Dunn, and Gerwitz would shoot down every single one of Gabe's ideas and send him home before the PPV?
Sounds pretty blah. Anybody could've booked a better ECW PPV than D2D, but not working under Vince.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 20, 2007 16:56:38 GMT -5
Didn't Scott Hall have a brief run in AWA as champ Tag, not singles. And he was brutal back then. Too roided up to move well, IMO. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 20, 2007 15:04:35 GMT -5
I'll have to agree with the ones that said Ted DiBiase and Scott Hall.
Both were pretty great all-around in their primes, and both would've been great main event heel champs in WCW or WWF in the 1990s.
IMO, Hall's main drawback (other than his personal demons) is that he never cared about belts. He was smart enough to realize that he'd get paid well and still be over (because he was money) with or without a belt. With that, he never cared about doing jobs, and did far too many jobs just for the hell of it. Hall even asked to job to guys like Hector Garza and a lower-card Jericho back when he was arguably WCW's most over talent in 1996-early 1997. I still think Hall was the best all-around American talent from 1993-1996.
DiBiase would've been a great babyface or heel champ in the 1980s. Most people know his Million Dollar Man work, but he was SUPER over as an asskicking babyface in UWF before he jumped to Vince. He would've made a great NWA or AWA champ if he never went to WWF.
If we're not counting all incarnations of the Big Gold Belt, I'll throw Rick Rude and a pre-1994 Barry Windham out there too. Just my opinion, but I've got these four guys far higher on my list than a Jake Roberts.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 21, 2007 11:02:53 GMT -5
Sorry this is long, but TNA needs a ton of help.
FIRE: VKM, Lance Hoyt, Test, Johnny Devine, Dustin Rhodes, Traci Brooks. If WWE signs them and makes any money off of it, more power to them.
PUSH (to the Moon): Kazarian, Senshi, MCMG, LAX, James Storm, Tomko, Matt Morgan...all marketable guys that deserve to be identified as TNA's new breed of superstars along with AJ, Joe, Daniels. All of the above guys have charisma that clicks with the type of fans TNA's trying to win/keep, and are the opposite of the kind of Eric Young/Shark Boy stuff that makes TNA look embarrassing to the average TV viewer, especially SpikeTV's demographic.
OFFER RELEASES (or Move Backstage): Raven, Mike Tenay, Don West. Offer Petey Williams an amicable conditional release, with hopes of him landing in ROH for a stint, and have him come back fresh. Maybe see if Gabe would be down for a talent exchange, Petey for an ROH guy that's gotten a little stale...with the idea that they'd both return fresh to their original promotion after 9-12 months of solid work. If you keep Tenay and West to work backstage, I have no problem with them introducing the night's card or doing control center segments, but their match announcing undermines a hip, fresh TV and PPV product in 2007.
HIRE: Brock Lesnar, Giant Bernard, Larry Sweeney (as a manager/mouthpiece for Bobby Roode), Konnan (as an English-speaking tweener announcer), and Scott Hall. But, only hire Hall as a backstage agent/member of the creative team...if he's sober, it's something he's expressed interest in, and I think he'd be money. Hall's got a great mind for the business, and a track record of successful, money-drawing ideas. Plus, he lives in Orlando, claims he's saved his money (somehow), so you could get him for cheap. And, let Hall show up on TV every once in a while to give someone a stamp of approval like Nash has done for MCMG, Lethal, and Dutt...because he's Hall and he'll always be cool and over, even as a fat old man. Never let him wrestle.
CREATIVE TEAM: Jim Cornette (head), Scott D'Amore, Mike Tenay, Scott Hall, Raven and/or Konnan. Or, throw the kind of money at Paul Heyman that they're willing to throw at ex-WWE guys, and have him book the show by himself.
ANNOUNCERS: Mauro Ranallo (PRIDE, Showtime, The Fight Channel), Konnan, and possibly Mike Tenay as "The Professor", but only as the third man on the team. If Konnan's a no-go, then Cornette (especially if he's running the creative team).
And this is a side note, but I was thinking TNA should hire Rob Conway and put him under a mask. But not a mute masked monster. Something along the lines of old school "Masked Superstar", "Mr. Wrestling II", or "The Destroyer", where they were intelligent guys that wore suits, talked, and won titles, but used the mask as a psychological advantage over their opponents.
The reason I consider Conway for the role is because his look and ability aren't holding him back at this point...it's basically the fact that he's...well, Rob Conway, and his credibility is destroyed. Bring him in under a mask, treat him like an upper card talent, and then you can eventually unmask him after a couple years...and his cred would be re-built. Knowing TNA, they'd rush this angle in two months, making all sides look bad. Brent Albright would be somebody I'd consider for this role if you didn't want Conway. But the Masked Superstar would be an immediate device for creating tons of fresh upper midcard/main event feuds with Joe, Christian, A.J., Rhino, Harris, Storm, and eventually Angle.
Oh, and every once in a while, tape IMPACT at Universal Studios but OUTSIDE at night. During the summer, so you can get the walk-up crowds from the park who are more willing to stand around outside than wait hours in line to sit in the Impact Zone for three hours. Having 4,000 people watching outside looks cooler on TV than 600 people in a studio, and would switch it up a bit.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 18, 2007 13:43:43 GMT -5
they should give him like a happy-go-lucky type of gimmick. have him lose a bunch of matches at first, but then he can be like, "thats ok. the important thing is i tired, and i'll do better next time." Haha. This would be an awesome gimmick. He could be a really well-adjusted guy who had really supportive parents growing up, and is totally complacent, win-or-lose. Doesn't care about winning. He's just out there because he enjoys it. There'd be a place for that character in my WWE. Not necessarily the Eugene version. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 18, 2007 12:50:12 GMT -5
Sydal would make a pretty sweet Red Rooster, Jr.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 18, 2007 8:17:55 GMT -5
I heard Sydal's coming in as the son of Cody Rhodes.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 20, 2007 15:53:49 GMT -5
I should add that Bill Watts was also a backstage bully, racist, and overall turdball that treated people like scum, but his booking stuff worked because he didn't take the audience for granted and wasn't constantly winking at them with his product like WWE and TNA do constantly.
This is part of the reason why ROH booking works so well (if you look past the great in-ring product). They treat their audience seriously, treats their show like a real athletic competition, which allows you to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. That can't happen when you're constantly being reminded that it's cheesy, fake pro wrestling, which is why there hasn't been terribly great booking anywhere in the mainstream since the 1990s...and I wouldn't think that Russo or Vince McMahon have ever been interested in that style of a product.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 20, 2007 15:42:03 GMT -5
Even though I was a huge WCW fan for many years, I didn't like Watt's "Top-rope" rule where you'd get DQed for coming off the top rope. By the time he went to WCW, Watts stopped watching wrestling for like five years or something, and kind of lost his mind. I thought that rule was stupid too. But 1983-86 Watts booking was full of great, compelling TV...even though there were ref bumps, run-ins, screwjobs, people waffling back and forth between heel and babyface, titles changing hands without pinfalls, loaded boots, loaded masks, throwing titles into rivers, etc. It might seem too old school to work, but I could see his style working just fine today. His Flair-DiBiase-Murdoch angle was money. Watts turned Dick Murdoch heel, and DiBiase (his top heel) into the promotion's number one babyface all in one hour of TV with a storyline using real emotions that almost anybody can relate to (professional/occupational jealousy and envy). |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 20, 2007 15:28:45 GMT -5
But go ahead. Create a "Gagne/Heyman/Dusty's Bad Booking Ideas", and fill it with all the Dusty Finishes and gorilla costumes you want. Then go create a "Russo's Bad Booking ideas" thread. See which one goes more pages. That should speak volumes. No. That should not speak volumes. The only reason there would be more pages on the Russo one is because this is a younger skewing board, and the hot ticket item on Wrestlecrap has always been books containing many of Russo's terrible ideas. If enough people knew about the booking styles of Gagne, Dusty, Watts, various Memphis bookers, etc., I'm sure there could be a long thread on it. Not enough people know enough about that time period, but everyone's well versed on major mistakes that Russo made in WCW and associate those particular mistakes with "bad booking". For instance, nobody used more ref bumps, outside interference, OMG SWERVEZ, and screwjobs than Bill Watts...yet alleged "bad booking" techniques like those weren't what killed his territory...where it did in Memphis and the Carolinas. Watts was one that somehow used this formula to draw, not piss people off until they stopped coming like everywhere else. In fact, Watts booked some of the best wrestling television ever. It still holds up, and I'm not saying this as some mid-40s guy from Oklahoma, I'm in my mid-20s. Check that stuff out, it's on YouTube. Search "mid south". Most people on this board jump on Russo because that's what they know. If this message board were themed around the Carolinas in 1988, you'd see a similar tone towards Dusty. I can't stand Russo, but the fact that more people on this board know about his mistakes doesn't make him de-facto worst booker ever. More companies have died than WCW. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 18, 2007 14:05:28 GMT -5
Because that's the MO of the IWC. Duh! You aren't a wrestling "smark" unless you think Russo is the black hole of wrestling. Ok, Only If I was explained this earlier jeez. But I really thought Russo came up with the Finger Poke Of Doom. Who did? was it Kevin Nash? It was when Kevin Nash was head of the booking committee. Russo was writing for WWE at the time, and would be for many months. |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 18, 2007 13:31:41 GMT -5
Finger Poke of Doom... damn I am not good at these things. I'm assuming you know he didn't work for WCW yet... |
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Aug 2, 2007 2:09:05 GMT -5
Has anyone ever had a worker who refused to work. In my 1986 scenario running World Class, The Dingo Warrior refused to work for me with 11 months left on a $220,000-a-month contract. His morale wasn't even below 60 at the time he refused to work anymore. I couldn't understand it, but that's just Warrior. The 1980s versions are fun. The 1985 one is pretty weak, IMO, because WWE vs. NWA isn't very realistic in 1985, but the 1986 and 1987 ones are pretty sweet with WWE, NWA, AWA, UWF, World Class, Stampede, Portland, Memphis, Continental, WWC, etc... |
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