Really? Sean Mooney? Have we gotten to the point where announcing is so bad that Vince is getting nostalgic for announcers who were even shittier than Michael Cole? Mooney was terrible, he didn’t understand the product or how to get it over on commentary, and he’s been out of the business for 15 years. He probably even calls referees by name and talks about people winning “belts”, too. What’s next, bringing back Bruce Pritchard as Rio Rogers? Turning Michael Hayes back into Dok Hendrix? Pardon me for being Captain Obvious here, but they have FUCKING JOEY STYLES under contract, working on the WEBSITE. They could always hire Tony Schiavone back to really bring the bitchslap of irony around full-circle, I suppose.
i’d love to see tony return. We can once again hear, “this is the greatest night in the history of our great sport!”
haha well they’d probably sack him for saying that, he’d have to change “this is the greatest night in sports entertainment”
More like, “this is the greatest night in the longest weekly episodic series in telivision history thanks to the wwe universe”
Yeah, they have Styles, but he’s not that popular with Vince.
They should fire Jerry Lawler, cause he sucks for years now.
Mooney would be a better commentator!
Just kidding…..
I know everyone likes JR, and I do to.
But I really do believe Joey Styles is the greatest announcer of all time. He was a one man wrecking machine. Hell, just listen to Barely Legal. He never misses a beat, ever. Not even during the 6-man NJPW match, and the moves there were a mile a minute. It hurt me bad to hear him reduced to a sports-entertainment zombie. But no one will be able to touch his performances from ECW.
And I don’t even know who the fuck Sean Mooney is. I’d like to have Johnny Polo come back for commentary. Him and Gorilla were a great team.
- Caliber
scrublife.wordpress.com – I talk wrasslin, Man Movies, and what works best for stain removal; club soda, our friend till the end!
OK. That’s just crazy. Joey Styles was good, but JR’s calls are legendary.
“As God as my witness, he is broken in half!”
“The Stone Cold era has begun!”
“Pin him! Pin McMahon’s champion!”
I mean, JR has the advantage of having been able to do commentary for some of the biggest moments ever and Joey hasn’t. Maybe if Joey spent 20 years working for the two biggest promotions in the history of North America, instead of for one run out of a bingo hall, he’d have a better shot of being the best?
I remember Mooney from the old “in studio” shots. Seemed like he was just a replacement for Mene Gene at the time. I honestly don’t remember him ever calling a match, which I guess is both bad and good as far as what he brought to the table in that capacity.
I actually agreed with MoeCristy… until the just kidding line. I can’t believe Lawler isn’t criticized more. He’s done the same shtick for what, a decade? 15 years? Except now he’s even more watered-down than ever. If we’re looking through Vince’s eyes, what does he bring to the table? He’s old and doesn’t look great on camera anymore and really isn’t adding anything to the product. I guess he listens to direction in the headset, though.
Honestly, I pop in WM 17 every now and then, and I just love Paul Heyman in the booth. I honestly think his work as a color commentator during that time will be forever underrated. He brought an edge that seemed sincere. His on-air “battles” with JR definitely turned some people off, but I dug it, because it gave something to even a lame match. I know that kind of broadcasting will probably never be seen on WWE TV again, and it’s a shame.
Hopefully Sean Mooney has at least grown an “evil” goatee… to really make his debut special.
I hate Lawler, but he is not as bad as Mooney would be today…
I think, I don’t know, but I think…..
Yeah, just fire Lawler and give Styles a chance…..or someone motivated….
Completely, utterly agree with you, PC.
Firstly, Lawler is downright awful these days and has been for years. His spirit is gone, and he has sounded like a totally bored shell of his former self. He’s never been the same after he left the company in very early 2001. And each year he just gets worse and worse.
Cole and Lawler are a terrible team. Cole is the motor-mouth who spews everything Vince wants broadcast while Lawler goes through the motions. They are one of the many reasons why Raw is usually rather difficult to get through.
Paul Heyman was terrific, and horribly underrated. I think it’s a bit unfortunate that half of his announcing run in 2001 was twisted into becoming an Alliance cheerleader because before then he was an absolute dynamo. I too often pop WM XVII in and I just love his commentary with JR. I honestly can’t, or at least don’t want to, imagine Lawler calling some of those modern classic matches.
I’m slowly going through all of the Manias again and between that and 24/7 it’s difficult to beat the combination of Venture and Monsoon.
Matt Striker is the only announcer in the entire WWE today who consistently elevates the product, gets wrestlers over and actually knows what is going on inside the ring. He and Todd Grisham have always made for a strong team, and though I would never wish an ailment of any kind on anyone, the absence of JR and Striker’s substitution has helped to make Smackdown better the past few weeks (that, and some generally better booking than just a month ago on the blue brand). Striker is simply a great presence, like a very toned down version of Ventura: he sides with the heels, something I fear could become outlawed in WWE, has respect for the faces and gives the wrestling action a sense of urgency and importance. And his little battles with Grisham are better than any of the forced little duets between Cole and Lawler.
I honestly don’t know why they don’t put Styles back on ECW, and then fire Michael Cole and replace him with Josh Matthews. It makes me think Vince doesn’t even pay attention to ECW at all, because Matthews doesn’t scream all the time like a little girl the way Cole does.
Don’t get all the Mooney hate. Aside from some of his stuff in ‘88, I always found him to be very enjoyable, and his banter with Hayes to be amusing.
Never got the hate for Monsoon either. And I altogether never got “Snoozefest” Solie or how he got to be thought of as the best.
Think of it this way: how would Styles’ ‘Oh My God!’ and Ross’ ‘trip to the woodshed,’ etc. sound over a match that was 40 minutes long, slower paced, and all about holds and counter-holds?
Solie sounds bad today because the product has changed. He was perfect for the era when wrestling pretended to be a sport.
Never, ever said I needed catchphrases.
And considering the ’70s and ’80s are my favorite era, I still don’t get Solie. Sorry.
It’s always been in the back of my head that maybe, just maybe, the “boys” looked at Solie as the best because he WAS “one of the boys” to the fullest extent. He was simply boring for any era. The change in the product has nothing to do with that.
Always found Joey Styles irritating as hell.. His voice is almost as annoying as Bitchell Cole. It’s laugable to compare Styles to JR… he sounds bush league next to him.. hence WHY he was working bush league for so many years. Can you imagine Joey Styles voice dubbed over JRs voice in WWFs greatest moments? Ha.
Oh and the ‘Oh My gawd’ line got tired very quickly.
Mooney was always crap but reminds me of good times back in the 80’s/early 90’s so this seems like pure nostalgia. However he could be bought in to help the newer guys as he has been working on TV as a news guy for years now.
As for “Snoozefest” Solie I totally agree with that… he emitted as much emotion as a brick wall, I just think people loved him because he so happened to be the guy who was the announcer at the time rather than this brilliant commentator.
When Georgia Championship Wrestling (I think) was replaced with WWF wrestling on Black Sunday on the TBS networks, the letters flooded TBS studios because they missed “Gordon Solie wrestling.”
And Solie was damn good. Anyone who appreciates the true history of wrestling enjoys him.
Not so. I’ve probably traveled more miles than most because of my appreciation of the true history of wrestling…and I’m not a fan.
Don’t generalize.
I guess they want new ECW announcers since Striker/Grisham are on Smackdown now? I really hope it’s not to replace Striker/Grisham cause right now I think they are the best team in the business. Especially Striker, I watched an entire episode of Smackdown end to end the other week because of his announcing which is something I hadn’t done in almost a year.
I also myself have always liked Josh Matthews a lot myself as well. But if they are bringing this guy back it better just be for ECW.
It’s a pity that JBL and Heyman aren’t interested in commentating (though not sure Vince would want Heyman anyway) because they’ve been my favourites during this past decade. Heyman was outstanding in 2001 and, in my opinion, WM17 was better for having him instead of Lawler. Agree with others that Striker is also very good.
As for Mooney, well, I would prefer them to bring back Todd Pettingill.
oh please don’t remind me of Toad Pedophile! I agree that JBL should come back to commentating, Heyman was pretty good but I don’t think there’s a hope of that happening again
Did anybody actually report that Sean Mooney was returning? The only thing I heard was that he was spotted walking out of Titan Towers.
Or did you just phrase it as a question, like “Is Wendy Testaburger using your lunch money to buy heroin? Probably not. But how can we know? I don’t want my lunch money going to drugs. Who’s taking these drugs? What would be the point? I’m asking questions.”
Haha that cracked me up… as long as you answer it with a question then it is ok.
Toad Pedophile FTW!!! I remember those awful video game tip and tricks he would do at the end of videos. “Hey kids! It’s the Toadster here…i got a *tip* for you…the tip of my….errr ummm…heh heh heh. Now here are some hints and tips…”
Goddamn, no kidding…
“If you want to do the Undertaker’s PhantomFireBall, it’s left, left, up and X!”
Those two wrestling games were fucking shit. But you better believe I played them till my eyes bled.
Even though the N64 games rule, I still love my Super Nintendo Raw, and Royal Rumble.
One surprising thing to me is that JR is still around.
Really? I never liked JR. His “bah gawd,” etc. Constantly talking about what is coming up later on Raw (or later on the PPV) instead of what is in front of him. King is just as bad. Jerry was okay as a heel announcer, but now, he is not.
Gorilla was the greatest ever. And, actually, I like Tony Schivaonne better than JR. But, preferences preferences. It could just be me, especially on Tony over JR.
I agree — Jim Ross was great in WCW, but once he started back with the WWF, he turned into a totally different type of announcer. Kudos to him for making us forget his NWA style commentating and WWF-izing it, but the overall quality of his announcing has been way down from his WCW days.
Bobby was the opposite of course — fantastic in the WWF and aside from 1994 and part of 1995, he was pretty mediocre in WCW. Making him play a face announcer in the NWO era didn’t help, but he seemed less inspired once he didn’t have Gorilla or Gene at his side. Even when he commentated at WrestleMania X7 with Gene you could just see he felt like he was home.
I would have loved to see Gorilla end up in WCW with Jessie in 1992. That would have been some kind of bizzaro world there.
I think Tony was always a good commentator, but he kinda got the Michael Cole treatment during the Nitro run, having to parrot everything the execs wanted.
Heck, they still employ Mean Gene Okerlund via WWE 24/7. Plus, he still looks and sounds the same as he always did. Use him.
Or give that Jack Korpela a shot at something besides telling us what PPV won a poll for the month on WWE 24/7.
I know this is gonna sound wacky. But I wonder what how Tony Atlas would do on the mic? Gives him something to do besides annoyingly laugh at Abraham Washington.
How about Flair on the mic? or Austin? Piper was fun to listen to.
I think Austin is physically incapable of putting other people over, in any form, so he’s probably a no-go.
Isn’t it true, however, that he came up with the Flair retirement and Jericho-HBK feud? I honestly don’t know but I’ve read as much. If so, he was responsible for probably the company’s two hottest angles of 2008. Maybe he should become Raw’s top booker.
Mooney was okay when he did commentary for live matches and he was serviceable for the syndicated hype-spots (Event Center, the PPV countdown shows as a replacement for Okerlund). The only time I recall him being actively bad was for his commentary for the taped Coliseum Video matches along with Lord Alfred Hayes, which unfortunately was the bulk of his material. He never was really a regular commentator though was he? He seemed to be more of a backstage announcer guy for the bulk of the time I remember him being around.
Here’s the bottom line: Sean Mooney is better than Michael Cole. It’s that simple.
And Mooney has a mainstream background now since he’s been doing sports for 15 years. They tried with Mike Adamle but that guy really didn’t know the product. So they try again with a guy who has been there before and is passable.
Their problem is the fans want another JR (or Gorilla Monsoon)….but they’ve been training their announcers for almost 20 years to NOT be JR…so they’re F’ed in the A.
“…and we’ll send you to the back with Sean Mooney.”
Bobby Heenan “Who???”
Haha, I can’t believe I got this far down the thread before someone posted that. Good work.
Maybe he can even pull the Ian Mooney trick.
One thing Mooney has over alot of people is that he is used to working broadcasts. For those who live/lived in the NYC Tri State area should know Mooney had worked for Channel 9 news as the top news broadcaster.
So him working in the biggest media market in the country helps him.
Plus Mooney wasnt that bad. He called some matches on old coliseum videotapes and he did ok. Just the matches he called on had sucked. Can alot of people do a great job calling a Warlord vs Jim Duggan match without going to sleep?????????? I didnt think so.
But did anyone ever notice he used the word “encounter” alot? Like “We are about to witness a great encounter between The Nasty Boys and The Hart Foundation.”
hahaha! I rememeber that. He would also always look into the camera, tilt his head down, and cock his eyebrow.
I always enjoyed JBL commentating with Cole. They had great chemistry, Cole wasn’t completely annoying, and JBL managed to make the most insignificant things seem like a big deal, like Gregory Helms’ year long Cruiserweight title reign.
Hell, he made me believe that Matt Hardy was a main eventer waiting to happen.
But what the company really needs is a good heel announcer; Striker does fine I’m told, but I want to hear someone like Bobby Heenan or an old school Jerry Lawler. Even 2003 Lawler wasn’t that bad, especially during the Booker/Triple H match at Wrestlemania:
“You know, I went to the mall with Booker over the weekend, he tried to pay for everything with cigarettes!”
There’s no better heel announcer than Jesse. His bias towards the heels was almost as great as his hatred for Joey Marella.
agreed. Heenan was very close second, IMO. The Marella thing was a rib on Gorilla, as Marella was Monsoon’s adopted son in real-life. The best for me was the way Ventura used to bitch-slap McMahon on Main Event, particularly on the one from LA: “Shut up, McMahon, we’re in California, you don’t speak until I tell you to”. I love how he used kayfabe and TV to embarass his boss like that.
The Marella treatment was spectacular, as was his kayfabe hatred of “Chico” Santana.
Nothing beats “That idiot Marella!” from the mouth of Jesse Ventura. Always makes me smile and crack up.
Yeah Jess and Bobby were the best. Gorilla with either of them was the best announce team ever. After them I’d put JR and Bob Caudle as my second favorite, and for me honestly after that everyone else is pretty far down the list. I was never much of a fan of JR and the King together and wrestling doesn’t exactly have a history of good, intelligent announcing teams.
No Titantron on Raw tonight. First time since March ‘97 if I’m not mistaken although I’ve only watched sporadically the last 5 years or so.
I’m pissed they didn’t do a McMahon/Piper match. They all but promised it, setting up the angle, and then Randy Orton comes out for his legend killer bullshit… Kofi makes the save… I don’t know, I would have liked to see Piper beat the piss out of Vince.
Piper did an interview a couple of weeks ago promoting his appearance on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia and he mentioned he wanted to face Vince McMahon at next year’s WrestleMania so I wasn’t expecting the match tonight.
Just read the Raw results, with Taker going over constantly, you would hope that Jericho will be the one to walk away with the title at Survivor Series. But really, all I want is to see Jericho walking around with three belts.
Plus, I think it would be the perfect way to resume Edge/Jericho by making it a title feud.
WWE just made a new star tonight. About damned time.
And Triple H took the pinfall in the main event, so let’s cut him some slack for a while.
His actions with Hornswoggle may be the foreshadowing of a heel turn.
And those final moments are definitely pointing to Taker-Cena at WrestleMania.
In short, this was a tremendous and historic episode of Raw. It may have been PG, but its free-wheeling sense of unpredictability recalled Attitude in its better moments.
I wonder how big a face pop Sheamus would have gotten if he’d kicked Cole in the head instead? If tonight was a dry run for Cole/Striker on RAW, I’m all for it. Heck, I like Striker so much I’d like to hear him on all 3 shows but I know that wouldn’t happen.
Agreed, Darryl.
Cena vs. Taker?
Will the streak end?
Probably not, but if anyone, it would be Cena. That would push him from his Bret Hart, Ultimate Warrior, Goldberg-level status up a level to the Hogan and Austin status.
Cena v Taker is my number one match at this point.
Cena’s my favorite wrestler of the 00’s, and Taker has been very high on my list ever since WM23 when he decided to start being a great wrestler again.
- Caliber
scrublife.wordpress.com – Top 5 Wrestling Video Games, plus the only ranking of the Friday The 13th films you’ll ever need.
Was it that Taker decided or just that his opponents improved? I remember he had a great match with Angle at NWO 2006 then he got saddled with Mark Henry and The Great Khali immediately afterward. So maybe if Taker had different opponents, he would have “decided to be” a great wrestler again sooner?
There’s no question, the past three years or so have proven if you give Taker a strong worker, he’ll carry his end of things. He must have had Giant Gonzalez flashbacks taking on Khali.
Taker-Cena and Edge-Jericho are two of the only major marquee potential dream match-ups WWE has to offer at this point, and indications are I may be getting to see them both live in a little over four months. (Keeping fingers crossed for Edge, even if it remains quite doubtful. That is a horrible injury and extremely difficult to come back from at all.)
I do find it funny that they’re teasing WrestleMania but can’t properly put any heat on their Survivor Series WWE Title match. Oh well, it’s been clear for years now that the only two pay-per-views you’re sure to receive proper all-around build-up for are the Rumble and Mania. The rest of the year, it’s just a matter of timing for certain hot feuds like Punk/Hardy or Jericho/Mysterio for example.
Edge is walking around without crutches now, and was apparently seen running around the stage during the UK Nickelodeon Awards last week.
Good to know. That is highly impressive.
If his rehab goes speedily, I could see him be the 2010 version of Cena, popping up at the Rumble and winning it.
All of this does point to Jericho going over Taker–they teased how that could happen this Sunday with Big Show knocking Cena out and Jericho covering him–leading to Edge vs. Jericho at WM XXVI.
Hope Jericho’s experience with a badly injured former awesome heel champion returning at the start of the new year as a babyface and confronting him at WrestleMania goes better this time around.
Now that you bring up the former, they should give Edge the same treatment Triple H got before he returned from his quad injury. He needs a bunch of hype videos to remind the fans that he’s coming back, that he was injured, and that he is a face now.
Because if he comes back at the Rumble as a surprise entrant, it will seem more like his “Ultimate Opportunist” heel character, and fans may boo him.
Oh yes, Taker v. Angle is my all time favorite match.
But let’s look at his feud with Orton, who was able to work great matches at that point. Other than Hell in a Cell, they didn’t do much at all. Also, Taker’s feud with Big Show back in ‘08. They had a stellar match at No Mercy, then proceeded to stink the place up at the next [2?] PPVs. So I really do think Taker can turn it up with anyone when he wants to.
Shit, just look at Biker-Taker. That asshole was one of the worst wrestlers we’d ever seen. He couldn’t have a decent match with anyone. Not The Rock, Stone Cold, Triple H. The only decent Biker-Taker match I can think of is his one with Cena at Vengeance ‘03. And maybe, maaaaybe his bout with Triple H at WM17. But as Scott said regarding that match “WCW wrestlers were forced to sit in the nose-bleeds while Triple H and Taker lumbered around the top of the card to show them how to ‘main event’”…sure, that isn’t the exact quote, but it’s close enough.
- Caliber
scrublife.wordpress.com – I’ve got Top 5 Wrestling Video Games, and slides are available in the gift shop.
I’d be happy to see Cena vs Undertaker at Wrestlemania. With the current roster, I don’t think any other match would draw as big.
The hype for Cena/HHH/HBK has been terrible but I’ll probably order Survivor Series for Batista/Rey and the traditional survivor series matches (I’m a sucker for them). I’m also clinging to the possibility that Jericho will win the World Title and HBK will turn heel on HHH. I’m not sure which of those is less likely!
Speaking of Raw, I was really disappointed with Piper. His promo was incoherent and most of the crowd was silent – I actually think Vince got the better of him on the stick. It’s a pity because he gave a phenomenal promo earlier this year with Jericho. But I now wish McMahon had saved this appearance for Ventura next week.
Finally, big props to Kofi for running with the ball that creative have given him. He and Orton were great tonight and I really hope they’ve dropped the racist crap that started last week. It was even more impressive that they salvaged the botched spot where Orton was about to punt Piper. I think Orton actually motioned to the production/camera crew, as if to say “what the heck was that?”.
Why I enjoyed Raw so much last night is mainly because, to paraphrase what so many people have complained about for years concerning WWE’s product, it seems like “nothing happens.”
It’s been clear for years Vince doesn’t want Raw to be a wrestling show. He wants it to be an entertainment show. For once, Raw finally entertained me, and at this point that is all I can ask for.
Things “happened” last night. Even Piper’s promo in its bizarre, ranting and incoherent way, was entertaining, and his exchange with Vince was the kind of nervy and uncomfortable confrontation that reminds me of some of that 1997 Raw is War stuff between Bret Hart and Vince or Austin running around like a lunatic. Heck, it’s even possible the DX-Hornswoggle-Cena garbage we’ve sat through for weeks is actually going to mean *something* at a character-narrative level, and I can’t believe I’m writing that.
As a wrestling fan, I’d love to see a 25-minute match between Shawn Michaels and Jack Swagger, or just see MVP and Miz get something closer to ten minutes. But if Vince only wants to throw entertaining things against the wall like Sheamus kicking Jerry Lawler in the head or Kofi taking it to Orton and turning a pro-Orton crowd into a mass of people screaming “KOFI!” then, well, at least he and creative did a bang-up job last night.
The production snafu was pretty hilarious. I thought, “Wow, this segment is dead on arrival.” Rarely has it felt so good to be so wrong.
Cena/Taker is the kiddies Hogan/Andre.
They main event (IE LAST match) the WM card and Taker eats a loss. The streak does nothing at this point. FOR ANYONE. Taker’s cred is golden cuz of who he has beaten the past 8 years.
Cena gets the WM moment. The kiddies believe in him more. Taker rides off into the sunset and never works WM again.
Then you turn him heel when those kiddies grow up to be rebellious teenagers.
I think Cena/Taker would probably be a biggie internally to the WWE, but comparing it to Hogan/Andre, which coincided with wrestling’s zenith in appeal to a large portion of the entertainment world seems to laud too much praise upon it. Maybe that’s not really what you meant though.
Also — I still don’t buy the whole argument that turning Cena heel is magically going to reinvigorate the business and usher in Attitude 2.0, although again I may be reading too much into what your saying. I guess the broader point is that wrestling hit big-time popularity in the 1980s by catering to the conservative tidal wave in American politics, our Xenophobia and the general fear of potential foreign threats, and then mixed it with something pretty innocuous (mainstream music) in order to achieve acceptance. I think a lot of the reason the “Attitude” era was so big was because the Austin/McMahon feud came right out of the general trends of cynicism and questioning of authority that started to pop up in culture in the early 1990s and became particularly prevalent in mainstream culture in the late 1990s.
I don’t think it had a lot to do with the core of teenage wrestling fans getting “bored” with their good guys and bad guys, so much as it attracted an entirely new audience by reflecting the mood of the country, by articulating the rage and cynicism people felt about the direction of the country, the behaviors of the president, etc.
You have to take what you can get at this point. With all the PPV and TV these days, the fresh matchups are few and far in between that are “WM worthy.”
We all know that the name WM draws, but the only real legit draw they have is face Cena vs. the streak.
I mean, other than merch sales, why not turn Cena even for a month? Like they do with Big Show? Why not just do a test run to see what happens? They do it with everybody else.
I believe they have a bigger plan with Cena. Everybody claims wrestling is cyclical, but nobody can tell you why. It just is. I honestly believe that a combination of:
kids believing in superhero face for years +
kids growing up into rebellious teenagers +
turning superhero face heel +
youth movement breaking glass ceiling +
gearing towards edgier product =
upswing in business.
I honestly believe that what is old becomes new again (with tweeks due to society) and that the WWE has people that is looking at the same thing that I am saying. I think its a formula.
Taker vs. Cena would be almost like Andre and Hulk for a new generation.
They said Andre was unbeaten for 15 years (he wasn’t, but whatever) and now they can have the streak be that for Taker.
The only difference here is: does anyone think that Undertaker might get bigger pops than Cena? He seemed (to me) to be a little more over at WM XXV than Shawn. That would be interesting, if Cena got booed for ending the streak.
One of the things I love about a potential Cena-Taker “encounter” to quote Mooney is that it would be the one match to make the kids–who are Vince’s primary target these days–split. It would be borderline excruciating for them and would enhance the spectacle of the match, a bit more like Warrior-Hogan than Andre-Hogan, perhaps.
I’m rather certain, however, that Taker will receive bigger pops than Cena at WM XXVI because Cena seems to always be booed at Mania. It would be refreshing if they actually planned ahead for that and just have Cena play heel in the actual match despite the build being thoroughly face vs. face.
An encounter. Good one from Mooney. He should come back if we are going to do our Hogan vs. Warrior for this generation (Hey, it is 20 years later).
Yes, some in the crowd will boo Cena. But I generally agree, kids will be split on this the way they were for Warrior/Hogan. Austin and Rock and Wrestlemania X-Seven should have had that face vs. face vibe, but it did not come off that way. Maybe because they had several “encounters” before.
And finally, the odd thing about Cena being a heel is that I think he might get more cheers. Kind of like the Rock. Did anyone else ever notice that he always got booed as a face and cheered as a heel? Well, not always in either case, but he worked his way to it eventually.
It is an interesting theory (the wrestling is cyclical theory and the superhero into heel reinvigorates business) and I agree with it in principal in terms of helping ratings/buyrates/attendance on a smaller scale – within the core audience of wrestling fans, sure. From a dramatic standpoint it is interesting, and in that sense a universal story to be told that will always have mileage, but I guess where I differ is in the idea that it has anything to do with wrestling finding wide mainstream acceptance. In my mind, Hogan getting over big with people had little to do with the fact he was “the ultimate good guy” as much as it did the other things I pointed out. I think that if Hogan had turned heel in 1994 or 1995 that it wouldn’t have done great business at all, but after WCW was already riding the wave of interest that Nitro itself brought, in spite of the fact that Hogan was basically tanking as their main face, then they could pull off the Hogan and enhance the business along with everything else going on. The primary interest was in Nitro and all the exciting things that were always happening, and not on Hogan, the guy WCW fans had spent the last year being sick of and booing already. I think you’re right though, you have to take what you can get. I think wrestling is going to have to reinvent itself yet again and I don’t think there is any real formula to massive success, it’s got to be out of the box thinking and frankly a lot of good luck.
I do see the comparison of Hogan/Andre though in terms of the characters, it’s pretty damn good casting.
I’ll mark the eff out if Sean Mooney starts introducing RAWs from a studio each week. When I was a kid, all I watched were Coliseum Videos and he was all over them. Then all they will need is the wrestlers giving spazzed out promos for their action figures.
Heh…watching ECW for kicks…did I just see that Punk has been booted back down to ECW??? WTF??
As ever, who knows how true it is but in the newz today:
Sources say that Michael Cole has some major heat on him right now from within WWE. The feeling is that he isn’t taking his job seriously anymore and officials aren’t happy with some of his “stupid” comments made on TV lately. They also feel that he is no longer putting the company first.
There may be another shuffling of announcers soon as Jerry Lawler being attacked on RAW Monday night and Matt Striker filling in for him was done so WWE could test the waters to see how the different announcers work together. Vince is said to be very high on Matt Striker at the moment.
Word is that several people who had been trying out for the new WWE announcer spot were contacted this past week and thanked for applying but were told that someone else had been hired.
There are also rumors that Sean Mooney has been re-hired by WWE although I have been unable to confirm that just yet.