It’s really not a difficult concept to grasp. A performer with ability and charisma is selected to elevate a promotion and the talent in the roster to greater heights by being either universally popular or widely vilified, depending on their character. But at times it seems as though the people chosen to draw fans toward a wrestling product only succeed in driving them away through a mixture of audience apathy, overkill or genuine dislike (as opposed to heel heat). Arenas and, latterly, the Internet have become a breeding ground for disenchanted fans to vent their frustration at pushed wrestlers with the sole insurrective intention of questioning the company’s desired endorsement and ultimately affecting their role in the product. And each time it has failed. Moreover, if it has been proven time and time again that wrestling fans can’t always get what they want then why do we persist? Good question.
If you look at life from a different angle, it is obvious that every silver lining has a cloudy centre. According to many observers, HHH is an undeserving mid-carder who has benefited not from hard work or perseverance but rather from “banging the boss’ daughter”. More precisely, the suggestion is that through a combination of leverage and politics he has taken the ultimate shortcut in joining the ‘enemy’ at the expense of his lockerroom brethren. Regardless of whether you think the relationship between HHH and Stephanie McMahon is genuine or merely the hollow product of emotional sacrifice, it should be noted that the decision brings as many drawbacks as it does advantages. There are many assumptions in the WWE but one thing is guaranteed above all others ... in a storyline sense, McMahons lose. In a battle between a McMahon family member and a popular superstar it is the duty of the former to put over the talent in the hope that the job benefits the company and, indirectly, the McMahon family bank account. As the closest thing to a McMahon on the active roster, HHH has an obligation to put the WWE first and his own interests second WHEN Vince requests and to date Hunter has been the most prolific elevator of main event talent on either show. Sure, you could ask Steiner, Angle or the Spirit Squad if they emerged from their encounters with HHH still heading up the card rather than down but, with the exception of Kurt, the others were more than deserving of having their runs absorbed into Hunter’s push and equally merited the partial retirement and bump back to the feeder promotion they respectively received. Conversely, you don’t need to ask Cena or Batista if they are better off after their feuds with HHH because the gold they carry on their shoulders is proof enough. Also, whilst there have been many in-house relationships in the WWE none have carried the likelihood of career suicide should an acrimonious dissolution occur. Put another way, if the marriage breaks down then Hunter will find himself jobbing to Val Venis on Heat for the remainder of his WWE contract, which wouldn’t be long, and his release no-compete clause would ensure that his next match would be in front of his fellow retirement home residents (though he’d probably still be younger than Flair is now). Talk all you want about ‘protecting a spot’ but show me someone who willingly gives up their position to help others every time and I’ll show you someone who will never headline Wrestlemania or work for a company that turns a profit.
In my ‘seven deadly sinners’ column I labelled Jeff Jarrett a belt-hogging egomaniac who uses TNA to attain the acclaim he thinks he so richly deserves. Despite the fact that since I wrote that piece Jarrett has stepped back from the spotlight and is currently on hiatus allowing other talent to take centre stage, I see no reason to change my opinion of him. In truth, Jarrett only did ‘half’ the decent thing. The ‘real’ decent thing would have been to give all of the storyline momentum from his departure to the new champion by tucking his tail and running out of the arena like a little girl. Instead, Jarrett chose to keep most of the attention on himself by achieving some sort of clarion epiphany from his loss thus guaranteeing that his eventual return to TNA’s output will be greater than just a defeated former title holder trying to restart his push. Even though I don’t subscribe to the idea that if a wrestler carries a company for an extended period of time then they have carte blanche to subsequently use that product as they see fit (“brother”), it shouldn’t detract from the fact that Jeff Jarrett was TNA for the first four years of its survival and without him at the helm the promotion would have gone the same way as 3PW and the other independents that relied too heavily on ex-ECW workers and ex-WCW mid-carders to survive. Initially, the World title was only taken off Jarrett, and variously put on AJ Styles and Ron Killings, to add a second dimension to Jeff’s lasting dominance on TNA programming but neither champion would have been able to carry the belt to the same level. Even the title runs of Raven (three months), Rhino (two days) and Christian Cage (four months) were temporary but realistic representations of the fact that all three fell short of Jarrett’s vaunted standing in the roster. Only time will tell if the new upper echelons of TNA will be able to fill the void created by Jarrett’s absence (the low but maintained .9 rating would suggest they can) and it will be interesting to see if he has the humility to accept a shared position at the top of the card upon his return or even take some comfort from jerking the curtain on someone else’s main events. Thank or blame Jarrett for TNA’s continued existence, the attention is his to enjoy.
John Cena is as close to the physical personification of Newton’s third law (‘for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction’) as you’ll find in pro-wrestling. Every throw out and gimmicked move that he performs for the relish of his fans seems to grind the teeth of those who feel he is too cheap, too needy and not talented enough to represent the product they support. But does there appear to be a conflict in complaining about Cena’s lack of technical expertise in a ‘sports entertainment’ company? Of course he’s never going to deliver the mat excellence that Benoit can provide but then ... don’t we have Chris Benoit for that? Unlike the other two performers I have previously mentioned, to date no accusations of backstage politics have been levelled at Cena and this is possibly more an indication of why Vince is so keen on him than his polarised fan reaction. Say what you want about Cena (God knows I have) but at the second ECW One night stand PPV he turned up as promoted, took the hatred from the fans on his bizarre testicle-shaped chin and did the job to RVD with suitable zeal. Though the evenly split cheers and boos that Cena garners from a standard WWE crowd might look like poor judgement from management, the alternative would suggest otherwise. If a heel turn had been hurriedly applied when the vocal split originated then his fans would have followed storyline and cooled to him while his detractors would have taken heart from the forced victory but still be indifferent to his talents, resulting in a drop in atmosphere and energy levels at WWE events. John Cena is where he is right now not by accident or ignorance but because he provokes a opinion and, despite a creative void being responsible for the current lack of meaningful, heated feuds on WWE television, it is refreshing to have someone on the shows that makes you either want to stand up or throw up.
In the first paragraph I asked why wrestling fans persist in trying to influence the product when it clearly doesn’t work and I suppose here at the end it’s time to wheel out the whole ‘our voice is important’ stuff in response just in case anyone is contemplating not doing it anymore, which would be a shame. Unfortunately, I’ve got nothing. It’s an indifferent world out there and as long as our voices don’t make a single dent in corporate growth then ‘fair-trade’ will still be nothing more than a harmless and acceptable allowance, governments will continue to issue bad news in the days after national emergencies so the public don’t notice and wrestling promotions will still push ideas through a rousing chorus of disapproval simply because noise is better than silence no matter what is being shouted. Redundant as it is for me to condemn complaining (an oxymoron if ever I heard one), I believe that our salvation lies not in bringing down the establishment but engaging in the work. If it wasn’t for fans choosing to side with Steve Austin’s rattlesnake persona, rather than against it, then the whole Austin 3:16 era would have ended shortly after the mixed reaction to Stone Cold’s attack on Brian Pillman’s already shattered ankle. And without the ‘DIE ROCKY DIE’ signs we would have probably been subjected to the grinning Samoan greenhorn for a lot longer than up to his second IC title run. And even though Cena is still throwing out cheap pops like he’s trying to get blown at a Britney concert, when his heel turn eventually happens (and it will) if it is done properly then it should be greeted by storyline shock from his die-hard supporters and relief from the rest that finally the collar matches the cuffs and his gimmick seems whole again. It may be a stretch to fairly or unfairly compare a wrestler to cancer ... but enjoying pro-wrestling and buying into the entertainment that it brings is definitely the cure.
Lee
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