Columns - Online World of Wrestling

WRESTLING COLUMNS

Commentary
Let's Discuss All The Recent CrazyTalk...
January 27, 2002 - By Brad Dykens

What the HELL is going on? Is it just me or has the wrestling world gotten absolutely crazy lately? Is it the end of the world as we know it? I think so....

First things first, I want to talk about the reports of the WWF splitting into two.. everyone is talking about the split, when it's gonna happen, and how it's gonna happen.. I've been against this angle since the very beginning and I've never eeeeever expected it would actually happen.. Jim Ross has been reporting that it WILL happen, but I think he's just blowing smoke up all your ass's.. Everyone says that the wwf is adding to their roster (Hall, Nash, Hogan, Goldust, Perfect, Godfather, Val etc) in preperation for the split, but that doesn't make ANY sense if you think about it..

The split will do two things.. 1) Cut the roster in half, and 2) split the two major shows (RAW and Smackdown) where each side would get a 2-hour show.. Which means each side would get half the wrestlers, with half the tv-time, which doesn't solve ANYTHING and if you add wrestlers you're just making it worse..

For example, say the WWF had a 10 man roster with 4 hours of tv time.. If you do a split, add 1 guy to each side and then you have two 6 man rosters with 2 hours of tv.. It works out even MORE bloated then before..

Do you guys undertand what im saying?! Plus, by splitting the rosters you limit the possibilities of matchups and angles and you run the high possibility of confusing the fans.

Next up, the recent signings of Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash & Scott Hall.. I haven't spoken to one person who thinks this will benefit the World Wrestling Federation.. From what I can tell, there's only four guys on the face of the earth that are happy with these signings, that is, Hogan, Nash, Hall.. and Vince McMahon.

Do I have to point out the obvious? These three guys are all too old to keep up with the athletic nature of today's WWF product.. Can you see Nash or Hogan taking an Olympic Slam? A Rock Bottom? A series of belly-to-back suplex's?? A Stunner? And even if you got them to take the moves, do you think they would make it look good?! Anybody who steps into the ring with these guys is automatically going to look bad..

All three of these guys are notorious for playing politics backstage.. This will cause a MAJOR decrease in locker room moral.. Hogan, Nash & Hall were one of the big reasons the WCW went under.. They consistantly held other wrestlers back, and buried everyone but themselves and their friends..

The one good thing that MIGHT come out of this is that the true talent in the World Wrestling Federation will stand up to Vince McMahon and walk out and startup a new organization.. Look at guys like Chris Benoit & World Champion Chris Jericho who stuck around WCW for years, putting up with the politics and FINALLY stood up to management and left the company.. Now they're faced with the very same scenario, but they are each a little bit wiser, and will they put up with the nonsense as long as they did before?

This brings us to the nWo, makes me cringe just thinking about it.. A year ago I would have thought that the WWF could probably pull off an nWo angel brilliantly, but not with these wrestlers.. Hogan, Nash, Hall, McMahon, who else will we see? Scott Steiner? Buff Bagwell? Shane & Stephanie will likely get their hooks into the angle if it shows any level of success.. Big Show has history with the nWo.. DDP could step up to the plate again, like he did during the original nWo run.. Austin, Rock & Triple H, as faces could lead the assult against heel nWo.. Sure it all sounds good, but they'e screw it up..

The nWo angle will be interesting for about two months, ratings will be boosted up until Wrestlemania, Hogan & Nash will take all the credit and gain massive backstage power, and then the fans will AGAIN grow bored of the novelty of these oldtimers and then the quality of the product will fall miserably..

The real story here may be Vince McMahon real life sanity.. His crazy psycho promos may, in fact, be complete shoots, and finally Vince McMahon power has gone complete to his head and given him a false sense of reality.. Living in his own little world.. I think this all started when Bret Hart left the WWF, Vince realized then that he could make and break ANYBODY and he didn't need any one person to succeed.. When Owen Hart tragically died on a WWF PPV, I think Vince McMahon snapped, and really went nuts, and his head has been really messed up every since.. He ran a company that actually killed a human being, and he still thrived afterwards, if that couldn't stop a company, what could? Of course, that is only my opinion, and Vince McMahon could be working us all, but seriously, he seems to be the only one who likes this angle, and he doesn't care what ANYBODY thinks.. He used to book for the fans, and 99% of the fans hate these recent ideas..