The State Of Wrestling and other "shoots"

[DrayvensCrow]

In today's Sports-Entertainment industry, It seems as though mediocre story lines, characters and champions-of-the-last-30 seconds are the norm. When someone like Chris Benoit can hold the WHC and not be involved in a meaningful storyline for most of his short-lived reign, it doesn't bode well for the industry. As Badseed commented on about Raven's winning the NWA title, though he was deserving of the win, the way in which it was done was more than just disappointing. Which brings me to another point: Should wrestlers like Jeff Jarrett and Triple H have as much power as they do in their promotions? Just because HHH is married to TPTB in WWECreative doesn't mean he should get all of the meaningful shots at whoever hold the belt when he doesn't. And JJ is no longer the driving force in TNA, so why should he have been their top dog for two years when they have wrestlers like A.J. Styles, America's Most Wanted, Christopher Daniels, etc.
One other point I'd like to bring up is the way WWE seems to be going with their female talent pool. So far, they have lost so many actual wrestlers and are trying to replace them with so much eye candy. Wrestlers like April Hunter and Alexis Laree would give their left arm to be battling it out for the Women's Title, which hasn't even been defended for over 30 days since Trish Stratus' injury. While I enjoy the eye candy just as much as anyone else, I want to see the Victoria's and April Hunter's going after the title!

But that's just my take on things....anybody else?

[jpmessiah]

Well, you can see that HHH is the focus of RAW and now you have John Cena as the champion there, but he has to contend with HHH and Kurt Angle; two egomaniacs, who if they are not fighting Cena, will feud with each other and take the spotlight away from the champ. It's really sad. I mean, Benoit held the belt from Wrestlemania to Summerslam last year and it didn't mean much at all. They put over his work ethic, but he didn't have any story. Pointless. They pushed Eddie Guerrero's reign a lot better. They really pushed JBL's title reign better and I think that was the best they have ever done with a wrestler. They made him a star. His title reign made that belt important again. They really did. Batista's title reign could mean something if you see what they are doing next with him.

The women's division is a joke. There are so many great women out there. Trish is still a good worker. Lita is a good worker. When they are both healthy, they can tear it up. Victoria is a great wrestler. Laree can do it. I heard Melina can wrestle. April Hunter is awesome. Sign her. She can wrestle men, too, and she is better looking than Chyna. Trinity is an awesome catch. Sign her. The women's division can be both hot and competitive. It shouldn't be all T & A.

[DrayvensCrow]

OK, I know there's gotta be more wrestling fans in here than me and The 'Seed!

It's now Friday a.m. after the Raw/SmackDown draft and all the draft picks are known and the trades have been made. [glow=red,2,300]WARNING!! SPOILER ALERT!![/glow]If you haven't gone to WWE.com to see the trade news DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!!!!

Well, the so-called "Blockbuster" 11-person trade has been made: Raw gets Mark Jindrak, Rene' Dupree, Danny Basham, Kenzo Suzuki with Hiroko, and Chavo Guerrero. SmackDown gets William Regal, Candice Michelle, Sylvain Grenier, Simon Dean and Steven Richards. After looking at the list, I could only ask myself one thing: "This is a blockbuster?!"

Chavo was the only one involved in a meaningful storyline(with CW champ Paul London) as of last night's SD and even that was not up to the level of what fans would consider as an average storyline. The rest of the in-ring talent hadn't been used for anything other than filler for the last month-month and a half. Hiroko has hardly been seen and Candice gets more exposure doing commercials than she does on SD. Raw is short-stacked on the women's side as far as in-ring talent, so why not send Michelle McCool to Monday nights? She availed herself quite nicely against Melina and Fit Finlay gets big props for bringing McCool along in a relatively short time.

La Resistance is no more(thank the wrestling gods!) but all WWECreative is doing is trading one original member for the other. Steven Richards could have been used in a rivalry against Chris Masters but that went the way of so-much tissue paper as is Dean's budding partnership with former Tough Enough I champ Maven in today's version of the BodyDonnas-minus one. Regal has been under used since the tag titles were taken away from he and Taijiri months ago.

And as far as this year's Diva contestants go, there only look to be two or three serviceable entrants, where last year there were four or five and this year's contestants had the last one to go by as to what Vinnie Mac was looking for. As the late Owen Hart would say, "It's time for a change!"

Tune in next week for my look at the top female talent not on TV. ;D

[jpmessiah]

The trade sucks. It is as simple as that. Rene Dupree will be better served on Raw after being jobbed out on Smackdown. I would like to see him not reunite with Rob Conway and instead feud with him. Change his gimmick up but keep the French tickler, because I find it funny. Kenzo, I swear he should have an angle with John Cena, where Cena molds him into the ways of Hip Hop. I think that would be funny. And Hiroko could suddenly transform into this hot chick. Yeah baby!! You know, they could have used Kenzo and turned him face and had him feud with Hussan, because Kenzo loves America, or they could have moved Sylvian Grenier over to Smackdown and formed a stable with Hassan, Daviari, La Resistance and Kenzo. Who knows? Simon Dean is better served on Smackdown and should play his Nova character from ECW in the cruiserweight division. He is a master of unique moves. Who cares about Candace. Just have her look hot. They should have moved Val Venis over. Steven Richards could be used better on Smackdown. I think that was a really good move. Maybe they will have him play his old ECW character with Simon Dean, as the BWO. Bring back the Blue Meanie and start a feud with JBL. Ooooh. I think I may have stumbled on to why Richards and Dean were both put on Smackdown. Vince must have liked their performance together on ECW One Night Stand. Chavo Guerrero's move to Raw could be good, becuase he has been used too much in the cruiserweight division and with Eddie bad, the fans expected a reuniting of Los Guerreros and the WWE did not want that. Like Tajiri, it was time to do something different with Chavo. Maybe a new team. Mark Jindrak should team with Garrison Cade again. They should have so traded Charlie Haas. I was fiending for a feud between him and Shelton. I don't get the Basham trade. I can see a feud with Rob Conway between the two based on their OVW days or have them team. Regal will fit in the wrestling mold of Smackdown against Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Christian and whoever else and maybe he could form a good team with another young star trying to move up. Well, that's all on my trade thoughts. Let us know what you think. And pass this board out to all other wrestling sites and boards. Let's get people talking

[DrayvensCrow]

Sorry it's taken so long but with the events going on the last two weeks, I haven't had the time to get back here and talk about one of my favorite topics: Women's wrestling.

Buried under the WWE's debacle with its talent was TNA's release of Trinity, leaving them with only one full time female wrestler, Tracy Brooks. Trinity, who is also a great stunt woman, looks to be headed to WWE's OVW if things with her main squeeze Kid Kash go well. But with the Matt Hardy/Lita/Edge situation, WWE may just steer clear of her and that would most certainly be a shame. Tracy needs to not throw stones when it comes to her fellow female co-workers. Thumbs up to Trinity for standing her ground and putting the former "Miss Apocalypse" in her place.

Believe it or not, WEW actually has some very good wrestlers on their full time roster. Plus, they can rely on some of the industry's top talent to pop in and out when needed.

Note to WWE: If you wake up and smellalalalala the coffee, bring Donna Derring up from OVW ASAP!

April Hunter is known as "The Prize" among those in the know in the industry. Her combination of looks, ability, flexibility and durability make her one of the most sought after names around the world. She is also one of very few American women to compete overseas in the toughest organizations Japan has to offer. Why WWE hasn't signed Big Red is a mystery to everyone who watches the industry.

Alexis Laree looks to be the next big call up to Stamford if Vince has any assemblages of a women's division left this year. The petite star has the work ethic of promoter's dreams and is usually the smallest competitor in her matches. Lita paid her the biggest complement by saying she wanted to wrestle Laree in WWE soon in an interview with WWE's Byte This.

Do yourselves a favor and check out as many female wrestlers as you can, anyway you can. Tape trading may have given way in the Digital age, but look at the strides many women are making in wrestling and tell Vinnie Mac to "Bring The Women Back!"

But That's Just My Opinion!

[DocMidnite]

See JP..thats what I mean. In your small little post there are numerous good ideas. Ideas that would IMO possibly flourish. Hass and Benjamin feuding? Absolutely. Hass upset over Benjamins ppush and success? It would work. Bring back Gayda with Haas and have some hint of an affair...wait a minute.Oh yeah that was just used. Sorry Never Mind!

Absolutely have Simon Dean shed the jack la loser jumpsuit and go ECW on their @sses!

As for the Womans Division. There isn't one anymore. They have gotten rid of just about any worthwhile female for the bubble headed beach bimbos who can't wrestle or talk for that matter. A nice set of IMPLANTS only go so far. Just look at NIDIA. Well at least she got a "set" out of Vince. Nidia was coming along. She coulda used more training and she could have been competitive. You gonna tell me that If Stratus gets hurt the whole womans division goes down the crapper? For a time You had Lita, Trish, Molley Holley, Nidia, Kimon wanna Leia (sorry I liked that name for some reason), Jazz, Victoria. A few more women like the GORGEOUS Miss Hunter, Laree and maybe Doring wouild bring some respectability. For gods sake let them wrestle.
Trouble is you have to stop having women like Tori Wilson and Stacy involved in a wrestling match. Cover em in whip cream? Absolutely! Have em wrestle. No Freakin Way! God I am to the point I pray for IVORY to come down that ramp and wrestle. She is still gorgeous and can wrestle too.

[jpmessiah]

Mmmmmm....whip cream. Not Torrie though. She is not hot anymore. She is tired. Bring bacj Joy Giovanni. She was way better looking. I miss Amy Weber too. On the wrestling side. Bring back Jazz and Gail Kim and Molly Holly and add Laree and Hunter. Let Ivory go at it again. She is still on your roster and you do nothing with her. What a waste. Why haven't they let her go yet. Outside of wrestling, she is kind of annoying. I remember how cool she was on GLOW. What happened? She talks too much now and is just way too happy, but I guess if you were getting paid a lot to host one one hour show, you would be very happy too.

[DrayvensCrow]

[glow=red,2,300]SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT![/glow]

Sorry to break up the whipped creme party, but there is exciting, if not unbelievable news coming out of WWE!

Due to pressure from UPN and their advertisers, WWE has said that they will be doing away with the Hassan character! This is being reported by Dave Meltzer, one of the industry's most respected reporters!

Mark Copani, the wrestler behind the controversial character has not commented as of yet and neither has Shawn Daivari. You can check out the message boards at shawndaivari.com for fan reactions.

[DrayvensCrow]

On the Women's division front, April Hunter has gotten two try outs in the span of a month with WWE! This is great news! April has been one of the hardest working Indy performers on the circuit and deserves her shot! I'm just beggin' WWE not to put her in a crap storyline/character or sending her to OVW!

[DrayvensCrow]

OK, it's been a while since I've been here to comment on the state of women's wrestling but here I am with some important comments and questions for the masses.

First up, unfortunately the lovely Ms. Hunter was not signed to a WWE contract. More's the pity. She has, however, taken a new tag team partner! The lovely Talia, recently seen on Sunday Night Heat against Victoria, and Hunter have joined forces to become T&A. They will be regular partners on the indie circuit and it's something that hasn't happened for years. So my question to all you peeps is: Would you pay to see a regular women's tag team match? I ask all of you that since it has been so long since two female wrestlers have partnered up for regularly scheduled matches and not just thrown together as in WWE.

Secondly, some of you may have seen my reviews linked to Badseed's columns on Women's Extreme/Erotic Wrestling. Unfortunately, this seems to be the rule and not the exception for women's promotions: Have some women who can wrestle and double the number who are there for T&A purposes. At least GLOW made the attempt to have wrestlers with looks instead of dancers who might be able to wrestle. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy a little T&A just as much as the next straight guy. But I would rather see two or four female wrestlers have a well wrestled match rather than see two jabroni's haphazardly crawl through their match! So here's your next question: How would you put together a predominately female wrestling promotion and who would you use?

Thirdly, Trish Stratus has finally returned to WWE programming. And she still has the Women's Title. Since when can you justify not stripping the champ of the title due to injury? Vince has beaten into everyone's skulls that you must uphold tradition and yet he lets an injured talent keep their title beyond the 30-day time limit that titles have to be defended. True, he who signs the checks makes the rules, but what kind of precedent does he set by doing this? So your next question is: Has Vince opened up a legal can of worms by allowing Trish to keep the Women's title?

Next up is a personal question: Where on Earth is the original GI Ho? During her time in WEW, she was the one bright spot outside of the mainstream talent brought in. She worked some great matches for a dancer who was turned into a wrestler and was good enough to be the promotion's main face when she held the WEW title. So I say again: Where is the original GI Ho?