“If I only had a little humility, I’d be perfect.”
-Ted Turner
On a sunny day in 1994 Eric Bischoff was led into Ted Turner’s office with his associates. He took a seat, palms sweaty, nervous, he took the metaphorical torch from Bill Watts and it was his job to make wCw a household name. He looked to Eric and asked the billion dollar question…”Why aren’t we doing better in the ratings?”…Still nervouos Eric blurted out a quick answer that even stunned some of his own associates and the billion dollar answer: “Because I don’t have primetime.”…Some cringed at the hidden demand of Bischoff but Turner somehow knew and understood. He gave Scott Sassa, head of TNT and TBS the go to give Eric his two hours. Now wCw did not reinvent wrestling, they won the ratings war with recognizable names, an ECW “raid” of wrestlers, and a crap-load of money. We had a show that was near perfect from top to bottom though. Dream matches in main events between WWF and wCw wrestlers, great cruiserweights, and a great storyline to go with it with the nWo. Is this possible again? Is it possible to create another near perfect promotion? I look into two possible scenarios, one involving Ted himself, and one involving a man named Vince McMahon.
Scenario #1 – “The CWA” or “RoH”
You can decide your own name but I went with a simple Championship Wrestling Alliance or the remote possibility that Turner would buy out Ring of Honor. In 2006 Ted Turner will be able to compete with Vince McMahon again and somehow I think billionaire Ted will want to go head to head with billionaire Vince once again. The most important aspect of this promotion is an idea seldom seen in wrestling or boxing for that matter…”a wrestling union”. Could it work? I think it could. You see Paul Heyman was on to something in ECW when he let his talent have open mic in the ring in front of thousands of screaming Philly fans. He let the wrestlers let the fans truly decide their fate. Raven had the opportunity to say whatever he wanted, Taz, Shane Douglas, etc…You won’t convince me that Batista has planned his big push from the start. He doesn’t plan what he says, or what he does, he is told what do say and what to do. The fans don’t like Batista, they like the machine behind it which needs batteries badly. (lame pun) A wrestler would have a creative control clause to a certain extent. This gets tricky because if that’s the case we could have Funaki leave the WWE for the CWA and defeat Scott Steiner for the world title. Key word here is UNION. Sounds dumb, but yes their would be a vote to decide against or for an idea. If Funaki says he wants a world title shot, other wrestlers have the power to say no, that’s not a good idea. This is based on the idea that these wrestlers would have the promotions best interest in mind. If CM Punk wanted to feud with A.J. Styles and they both agreed, then they would have the right to. Yes it sounds complicated and I have not the legal capacity to figure out the specifics, but it comes down to that every wrestler will get a fair shot to make or break themselves and every wrestler will be able to openly express their opinions on their promotion without fearing any consequences. That is something that you do not see in the WWE.
So who runs this? A wrestler that can identify with great wrestling ability and less bullshit. Bret “the hitman” Hart. We know deep down if Bret had a chance to run Vince into the ground, he would do it. He would be the head of this promotion. “General Manager” “Commishioner” “D.O.A.” whatever you want to call it. Only the best wrestling talent would wrestle under him. This is when it gets very simple. Ted Turner MAY or may not be able to swipe some WWE talent away…None of us really know the specifics on whose contracts are up anytime soon but let’s just say that it could happen. For the sake of this column I’ll decide not to include it. So here’s a quick rundown of the roster for this promotion…
Samoa Joe ()
A.J. Styles
Abyss
Chris Harris
James Storm
CM Punk
Colt Cabana
Spanky
Lo-Ki
Ron Killings
Kid Kash
Austin Aries
Homicide
Chris Hero
Chris Sabin
Petey Williams
Johnny Devine
Michael Shane
Elix Skipper
Christopher Daniels
Raven
Ariel
MsChif
Gail Kim
Traci
Trinity
Victoria (something tells me she would leave)
Krissy Vaine
Lacey
Do not kill me if I left anyone out, you get the point. It’s basically an indy filled roster. I left out Monty Brown because something tells me the WWE will get him one way or another. I also believe that TNA if it keeps going the way it is now will not be around in 2006 or at least be a near dead fed so these wrestlers would easily come over for a 2 hour primetime spot and a huge paycheck. I find it sad that the best wrestling in the country is not happening every Monday night on Spike TV. It happens occasionally once a month at a TNA PPV, but the indies hold the bulk of the talent and where the future of wrestling is going. I am still trying to keep up on the indies and learn as many names and watch as many matches as possible and it’s still hard.
Titles would be simple, World title, U.S. title (which could spark who is the REAL U.S. champ compared to the WWE) a Women’s title (about time for a respectable womens division) an Internet title (for us.) and of course a Tag team title. A Cruiserweight title is optional. Who would write and book the matches? Two outcasts of wrestling that have similar styles and for my knowledge have never worked together…
Paul Heyman and Vince Russo. It was Russo who came up with “WWF Attitude” inspired by ECW, and the styles would clash (no pun intended) very well in my opinion. Give the 2 hour TNT or TBS a good name, something tough like “Perseverance” or uhh…hell you think of it. I am sure that this fed would take off if given the opportunity. I think if people hear that there are Monday Night Wars going on again that will be enough to draw more viewers and when they see their first “Pepsi Plunge” or “Ki-Crusher” they just might be hooked.
Scenario #2 – Vince McMahon
McMahon could put an end to this idea very quickly. He could also crush TNA into nothingness by doing this very simple thing: Hire as much of the indy talent as possible and make the cruiserweight division twice the division the X-Division is. This would satisfy all kinds of wrestling fans, most wouldn’t even care who is in the main event as long as they got to see Cm Punk vs. Lo-Ki that same night. We are seeing the rise of Paul London now and it can only mean better future prospects for Vince Mcmahon. This scenario is short, and self explanatory. The perfect wrestling promotion is different in everyone’s minds, we know that there are fans who think the WWE is just perfect and they love every minute of it. For us internet “smarks” though who demand only the best, this could be a step in the right direction.
THE HIGH SPOT MATCH OF THE WEEK!
-Paul London vs. Michael Shane street fight (RoH)…you can get this match by downloading Warez which could be the best P2P program out there. It works great for me. You can download Warez at http://warez.com and just search for “RoH”
THE HIGH SPOT TRVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEK!
-After their Summerslam match in 2000, Stephanie McMahon was knocked unconscious in a match between Triple H and Kurt Angle. What was the ROOM NUMBER in the hotle that Angle took a limp Stephanie to?
-Joseph Bachman
Ring of 64 (SWEET 16)
Here’s a quick rundown of the results…
1) Triple H defeated. 8) Tajiri
4) Chris Jericho defeated 5) Big Show
2) A.J. Styles defeated 7) Yugi Nagata
3) Chris Benoit defeated 6) Raven
1) Batista defeated 8) Petey Williams
4) Kurt Angle defeated 5) Shawn Michaels (by a huge margin surprisingly)
7) Christopher Daniels defeated 2) Austin Aries
3) John Cena defeated. 6) Kane
1) Jeff Jarrett defeated 9) Abyss (by one vote)
5) Eddie Guerrero defeated 4) The Undertaker
7) Jeff Hardy defeated 2) Keiji Mutoh (a close one as well)
6) Booker T defeated 14) Kazarian (by 3 votes)
1) JBL defeated 9) Ron Killings
4) Monty Brown defeated 5) Kevin Nash
7) Edge defeated 2) Randy Orton (I had an overabundance form angry CM Punk fans who voted for Edge to get revenge on Orton for defeating Punk in the first round. Yes, we have a storyline here. Ha.)
11) Christian defeated 3) Shelton Benjamin
SWEET 16!
East Bracket
1) Triple H vs. 4) Chris Jericho
2) A.J. Styles vs. 3) Chris Benoit
West Bracket
1) Batista vs. 4) Kurt Angle
2) John Cena vs. 7) Christopher Daniels
South Bracket
1) Jeff Jarrett vs. 5) Eddie Guerrero
6) Booker T vs. 7) Jeff Hardy
Midwest Bracket
1) JBL vs. 4) Monty Brown
7) Edge vs. 11) Christian
As always e-mail all votes to freetokill@hotmail.com we had 253 total e-mails last round not counting the forums so I thank you again for voting. Next week is the Elite 8! Until then, I’m out. Go Duke!