WWE: Survivor Series thoughts

Rather than write a full review here, I thought I'd give a few thoughts about the main things I took another event which demonstrated both WWE's strengths and weaknesses.  In truth, I've recently felt very down about WWE's weekly programming - I turned off in disgust last week - while realising that the E's current saving grace is that they do raise their games for PPVs.  I felt that, being free on the Network and thus a big draw, Survivor Series needed to knock it out of the park.  It managed that in the final few minutes, right enough, but was often severely disappointing before that.  We'll start with the one big question:

Are PPVs now just episodes of Raw with a few extra bells and whistles?

Once, the demarcation between television and pay-per-view was clear.  On the weekly TV shows you built up the storylines, and on PPV, those storylines would be resolved.  Today, those lines have become blurred, and while last night, one big storyline seemed to end, there were still plenty of question marks left lying around.  The other point is that, due to budget cutbacks necessitated by the failure of the Network to capture enough paying customers, most PPVs don't have specially designed sets any more, just using standard Raw layouts.  Little things like that actually matter in creating a 'big event' feel, so I think this is a mistake.

But I think something deeper is happening here, and it may even be only happening on a subconscious level,  rather than something that's intended.  As WWE fans are supposed now to be watching everything on the Network (a somewhat sore point if, like me, you live in the United Kingdom), the distinction between what you see on weekly shows and on PPVs is lost, as they both are covered by your monthly fee (I can't remember what the monetary amount is, by the way...must be losing my memory...).   Let's look at the evidence.

The first warning sign came in the opening segment of Survivor Series.  In the final moments of the pre-show, we saw Vince McMahon emerging from a limousine, and right enough he opened the show by introducing Steph and Trips.  There then followed a lengthy segment where they discussed the stipulations for the main event, and Cena eventually joined in.  In other words, it felt just like a normal episode of Raw, which almost always starts with a twenty-minute talk-heavy section involving the Authority....Now, this is not how PPVs should work at all.  By all means, use a short promo or montage film to set the scene for each fight, but the amount of talking should be severely curtailed, to create a different mood and ensure the focus is on action.  It certainly didn't help that the exposition-heavy dialogue sounded very unnatural.  WWE Creative have a tin ear for creating promos these days, which explains why the only decent verbals come from people like Heyman, Ambrose, Wyatt and (occasionally) Cena, who can improvise when required.  Sadly, Cena seemed to stick to a clunky script last night.

Also, later on, some of the more inconsequential matches felt like they'd been airlifted in from poor editions of Raw.  Adam Rose and the Bunny vs Slater Gator was probably never going to be a five-star display of technical finesse, but it was over before it even began.  As Edge recently said in an interview, you cannot tell a decent story in just a couple of minutes.  In fact, the segment that set up the match was probably longer.  Even worse was a Nikki Bella vs AJ Lee match which led to Nikki winning in under 30 seconds.  That's even shorter than the average Divas match on Raw.  Has AJ done something to offend senior management?   WWE should have nixed both these matches, but quality control is sadly often missing.

WWE's hottest new babyface...is a heel?

OK, who saw this coming?  Just a few short months ago, Damien Sandow engaged in a weekly fancy dress party, where he would dress up as some historical or fictional character, insult the audience, and then get humiliated in some way.  It was dire stuff, but Sandow emerged as a trouper, performing ridiculous segments with a fair bit of conviction.  It seemed to be the last gasp for someone whose career had been on the slide since failing to cash in his Money In The Bank briefcase.  However, someone noticed how good his performances were, and he was given a new role.  As The Miz returned from Hollywood as an obnoxious film-star heel, he employed Sandow, renamed Mizdow, as his personal stunt double.  This led to weird scenes where, during Miz's matches, Mizdow would copy all of his employer's moves, even selling his injuries.

This proved far more entertaining than it sounds, and crowds starting cheering Mizdow, who has became a de facto babyface.  In last night's opening match, a four-way tag bout, the crowd were impatiently yelling 'We want Mizdow' throughout. Heelishly, Miz refused to tag his partner in, clearly jealous of the fan reaction.  WWE also teased the crowd, by allowing Mizdow a tag, but then saw him getting blind-tagged before he could mount any offence.  The match was entertaining enough, with the Usos coming off well again, but for the crowd it was all about Damien, ultimately.  He did manage to pick up the winning pin, but that was his only meaningful action.  Hopefully, they are saving him for a big turn shortly.

Clearly, the tag team won't last too much longer, and Mizdow will become Sandow again when his proper face turn means he feuds with Miz (expect that to happen by TLC).  But this is really heartening stuff.

The Divas division sinks further

Ever wondered why Raw matches featuring the cast of Total Divas only last a couple of minutes?   Last night proved the answer.  They worked an interminable Survivor Series match which proved how unsuited most of them are to working a full-length bout.   This did had a handful of moments, supplied by their decent female wrestlers like Naomi and Paige.  I wonder if the latter misses the excellent bouts she used to have on NXT? But by and large, it was a mess of blown spots and inane catfighting.  Earlier in the evening, I watched a TNA bout in which Gail Kim, Havok and Taryn Terrell came across as strong, forceful women.  It only highlighted how insulting the portrayal of these childish, shrieking Divas is.

Eventually, with heel Paige facing all four faces alone, the crowd got behind her and I looked forward to seeing the East Anglian ploughing through her vacuous foes.  Unfortunately, she was quickly pinned for a babyface wipeout victory.  The Divas division needs a complete re-think.

Dean Ambrose is now the WWE's most reliable PPV performer

I sometimes wonder if I should just turn this into a Dean Ambrose fan blog, but last night he did it again.  For some reason his rivalry with Bray Wyatt hasn't really ignited as it should in terms of build-up, but last night they had an absolute war.   Despite his weight, Wyatt proved an excellent partner, capable of keeping up with the manic speed at which Ambrose works.  Both men worked an ultra-stiff style; if Brock Lesnar's famous victory over Cena needs to be remembered for its German suplexes, then this was all about the vicious series of clotheslines delivered by both men.

It ended in a DQ.  Bray took a mic, and goaded Ambrose, who grabbed a chair.  Despite warnings from the ref, Dean decided he just wanted to beat up his tormentor; winning no longer mattered.  Wyatt was then laid out through a table, and Ambrose, living up to his unstable reputation, piled further chairs and tables on top of his prone victim before climbing up a ladder to survey his handiwork.  The record books will list Bray Wyatt as the winner, but Dean Ambrose again comes out with enhanced status, even if he's back in the midcard.

This rivalry will now continue through to TLC.  Suddenly, I'm quite happy with this, as the temperature has risen considerably after last night.

An interlude with Roman Reigns

There was a brief moment where Michael Cole continued his series of video interviews with the injured Roman Reigns, who promised he'd return next month.  These interviews have drawn criticism, apparently inside WWE as well as among fans, for Reigns' lifeless and wooden delivery.   As a result, he's been ordered to take acting lessons, and tonight was our first chance to see the results of his.  And, yes, he has improved.  He varied the tone of his voice more, and used pauses.  Unfortunately, it still wasn't very convincing.  It's partly down to the predictably hackneyed script (please, WWE, get some new writers), but I never got the sense that he believed in what he was saying (ironic, given his catchphrase...).  He's never going to be a natural mic worker, so WWE needs to find a way round this.  Could he be the next Paul Heyman guy?

A very eventful main event

When the Survivor Series teams were announced, I thought that they had made a considerable mistake by packing both teams full of the type of big men Vince prefers.  A match like this needs to build momentum, so faster, high-flying workers are more appropriate.  The idea of Big Show, Mark Henry and Kane dragging their huge, ageing frames round the ring was not particularly engaging, therefore.  However, WWE had a plan here: ensure that lots of surprises occur to keep the interest up.  The first surprise was that almost immediately Big Show eliminated Mark Henry; so much for the World's Strongest Man whose performance was curiously weak.   Ryback then ran through his tedious arsenal of power moves.  I don't like the guy at all, but his face run has been well received by fans, so it was very odd to see him cleanly pinned by the admittedly red-hot Rusev.  While I don't like his booking much, I'm coming round to the Bulgarian, who is starting to emerge as one of the better big men.  Is this the end of the Ryback push?  Seems premature.  More likely, this was just a side-effect of WWE stuffing the match full of moments people would remember.  Rusev's own exit was cleverly booked.   Attempting to lay Dolph Ziggler out, he found that Ziggler moved too quickly and instead he knocked himself out on the announce desk, failing to beat the count.  In this way, he can be eliminated but can still claim he's never been pinned.

The other oddity was the performance of Cena, who was curiously marginal and far from a leader on the night.   He put in a disinterested performance, before being blindsided by a sudden Big Show heel turn.  After being floored by someone who frankly has turned far too often, Cena was eliminated.  Show shook HHH's hand to confirm his new-found villainy and walked off, and the fact he'd earlier taken out a heel was forgotten.  This was the first point that I thought that the surprisingly elaborate booking was starting to go too far.

Now the attention turned to Dolph Ziggler, the last remaining member of Team Cena.  Initially, he was tossed around the ring like a rag doll by the three remaining heels, but, in line with standard babyface booking, he hulked up and found the strength to pin both Kane and Luke Harper.  Finally, we were left with a final coupling of Ziggler and Seth Rollins, who are ironically the kind of quick, average-sized guys who should be been used throughout.  Following some good exchanges, Ziggler hit the zig-zag on Rollins and rolled him up for the pin....at which point the real shenanigans started.  Triple H, seeing his power slipping away, got desperate.  He pulled the ref out the ring so he couldn't count to three, and then went wild, laying out a second ref before pedigreeing Dolph.  With both legal wrestlers laid out, HHH laid Rollins across Ziggler and called for crooked Authority-approved ref Scott Armstrong. As he arrived, the real coup de theatre finally was unleashed.....

The Sting in the tail....

WWE played an absolute blinder here, let's be honest.  Social media had been buzzing all week with rumours that Sting would make his WWE debut at Survivor Series.  This was roundly dismissed as yet another groundless internet rumour, and it was inevitably mocked by humour sites such as Kayfabe News and Wrestling Memes.  And, to be honest, the main event was so incident-packed that I'm sure everyone had already forgotten this rumour already.   So when the Titantron stopped everyone in their tracks as it played Sting's video introduction, and the man finally walked out into a WWE arena, it was an amazing moment.  Sting then marked his debut by dropping Armstrong (really not a good night to be a WWE referee...).  Obviously, WWE themselves started this rumour clandestinely, then sat back and watched it develop entirely according to plan.

It really says something when two men (in this case HHH and Sting) can stand in a ring merely staring each other down and the crowd responds with chants of 'This is awesome',  It's a testament to how well this was set up.

After this, it was relatively simple.  Sting moved first, and floored Trips with the Scorpion Death Drop, then moved the still-lifeless body of Ziggler on top of Rollins.  The original ref conveniently recovered and counted a victory for Team Cena.

The match was overbooked, and needed some odd twists to work, but it seemed worth it for the conclusion.

Where now?

It looks like the immediate career paths for Ambrose / Wyatt (continue feuding) and Damien Sandow (turn on Miz) are pretty clear.  Elsewhere, it's less obvious.  Three big questions arise now:

• What is Sting's agenda here?  Presumably he has Triple H in his sights, but why?
• No-one has experienced the rollercoaster of stop/start booking quite like Dolph Ziggler.  Does his strong booking in this match mean his push is back on?
• And is this really the end of The Authority?  The last thing we heard was Steph hysterically yelling that this wasn't the case.  I believe her; after all, though she and her husband have now been forced back into desk jobs, Vince has said that the one man who can restore them to power is John Cena....could this be *gasp*, the long-awaited Cena heel turn?

I'm getting ahead of myself here.  Some, but not all, of the answers may be presented on tonight's Raw.....

The 10 Dumbest Things in Modern Wrestling

Normally I try to wring something positive out of my pieces on modern wrestling, even this means I end up writing fan pieces about how great Dean Ambrose is.  However, we have to face facts.  Wrestling is getting dumber.  Sure, you might think of the dying days of WCW, and WWE's Attitude Era, as being wrestling's true dumbest days, the former characterised by terrible booking, the latter by puerile toilet humour.  However, both WWE and TNA have outdone themselves in recent years with a number of questionable angles and ridiculous ideas and appalling performances.  So here's a run down of ten things that should never have happened.  Some are one-off events, but others have dragged on into infamy.

10. Samoa Joe's ninja kidnap

In 2010, Samoa Joe was bundled into the back of a van by masked ninjas during an edition of Impact.  This felt like it could be potentially juicy story.  Who were these guys?  Were they working for Eric Bischoff?  What did they want from Joe?

So, I tuned in the following week expecting answers.  Had a ransom demand been received?  What was Dixie Carter doing to rescue one of her main assets?  But, no, no mention was made of the whole affair, nor the next week or the week after that.   Three months later, Joe re-appeared, without saying anything about his horrific ordeal.  In fact, he looked surprisingly lacking in any signs of trauma at all.  The kidnapping was never mentioned again, but I still live in hope that one day the true story will be revealed.

Basically, this was a prime example of Vince Russo's inept booking.  He quickly lost interest in ideas he was bored with, and he seemed to assume fans would forget loose ends that had been left dangling.  However, even by his standards, this was absurd; the angle was literally over in a matter of minutes.  Joe was later interviewed about it all, and had some scathing comments about Russo's career as TNA head booker:  "He has the audacity to blame all of his silliness on other people. And by the way wrestlers, pro wrestlers all over the world and people in the business, stop whoring yourself out to shoot interviews. This man couldn't write his way out of a kidnapping. That's how much respect he had for the product, how much respect he had for the fans and that is indicative of his style of what he did.".  Harsh but fair words.  Joe did reveal one upside though: he had a very enjoyable three month paid vacation.....

9. The Anonymous Raw GM

This selection is mostly to do with how it was eventually wrapped up, really.  The initial gimmick wasn't too bad, I suppose.  The set-up was this: in 2010 a new general manager for Raw had been appointed, but had demanded that his or her identity be kept secret.  No reason for this, but maybe it's still arguably a credible arrangement.  Anyway, the Anonymous Raw GM issued edicts via e-mails sent to Michael Cole's laptop.  Every week, Cole would faithfully read out the orders which showed this mysterious authority figure to be deeply mischievous, often overturning results or placing wrestlers in unfair handicap matches.  Who could this be?  Had Vickie Guerrero taken on the role and decided that her power was best exercised at a distance?  Maybe Teddy Long had turned heel and....actually, no, I can't remember the Anonymous Raw GM arranging random tag team matches on a regular basis, so this couldn't be him.

However, there was no real storyline.  This new GM just acted capriciously to annoy both faces and heels week after week without rhyme or reason.  Furthermore, the credibility of this was undermined by badly-chosen camera angles that revealed that Cole was actually reading from sheets of paper placed on top of the laptop.  There was a flicker of interest when Edge, announcing a 'war on stupidity', started feuding with the GM, memorably destroying the laptop in a fit of anger.  This led to the Canadian star being picked on, suffering losses due to interference arranged by the still-unmasked GM.  But this fizzled out after Edge was traded to Smackdown.

In 2011, over a year after it began, the angle was quietly dropped with HHH becoming the de facto boss of Raw.  The identity of the Anonymous Raw GM was still not revealed.  Yet in 2012, suddenly Cole's laptop pinged back into action during an episode of Raw.  As he read out the new instruction, the area under the ring was searched by Santino and the true culprit was at last unveiled as.....Hornswoggle.   Yes, apparently, an inconsequential joke character had been running wild in the role.   No reasons were given for his reign of terror, and the whole thing was basically laughed off.  This was a tremendous anti-climax, the unfunny punchline to a joke everyone had already become tired of.

8. Michael Cole turns heel

During the first season of NXT in 2010, Cole, a long-time play-by-play announcer on Raw, turned heel in order to become a sarcastic color commentator.  This became a truly weird move, as clearly Cole had been told by Vince McMahon to trash the show completely.  In particular, during the first season, he relentlessly picked on former Ring of Honor star Daniel Bryan, castigating him as an 'internet darling' who wouldn't be able to cope with the 'big leagues' of the WWE.   The same happened the following year with Low-Ki (named Kaval for his brief WWE career). This already breaks two golden rules of television:  don't, under any circumstances, talk down your product and don't insult your audience.  This felt like Vince pointlessly trying to settle a grudge with cooler indie wrestling cultures and followers.  Also, the show itself was deeply awful, full of childish party games disguised as 'challenges'.  A whole compendium of dumb, then, and nothing like the excellent HHH-helmed reboot of NXT that currently airs.


This heel run continued onto Raw, where fresh problems emerged, some of which I've already covered above.   Overall, the commentary dynamic was now all wrong, given that he was again working as a play-by-play guy.  Now this role basically requires the commentator to be the friend of the audience, calling the action straight while displaying babyface sympathies.  Only the color commentator should be an antagonist, but of course, Lawler was performing that role as a face.

Things got worse when the two commentators starting feuding in an immensely childish way.  This reached a nadir when Cole insulted Lawler's dead mother.  Stay classy, WWE.  Once again this ignored time-tested rules: the commentators should report on the story, they shouldn't be the story.  The feud culminated in a terrible, waste-of-time match at Wrestemania XXVII, which was even repeated at two separate minor PPVs.   The heel run continued into September 2012, when Jerry Lawler suffered a heart attack during a live Raw.  Cole deservedly drew praise for how he handled a stressful situation with calmness and professionalism.  After that, the heel persona seemed inappropriate, and he reverted to his old style.

Even so, the entire run was misconceived and badly executed for over two years, in which several rules of how to run a wrestling show where totally ignored and flouted.

7. Piggie James

I'm afraid I can't find any humour here.   In the words of good ol' JR, this whole angle was 'bowling shoe ugly' and clear evidence of deeply-entrenched sexism in WWE.  Mickie James, playing babyface, was constantly taunted by the heel partnership of Layla and Michelle McCool ('Laycool') who likened her to a pig.  Basically, this was Vince's way of telling James (who was far from fat, and had a perfectly normal figure) to ,lose weight, so that she could have the figure of a Kelly Kelly or an Eve Torres.  He wanted to humiliate her in public.   The whole angle made a clear mockery of WWE's anti-bullying campaign which was running at the time.

As well as being disgusting, Laycool were an absolute carbon copy of TNA's Beautiful People faction.  At times, both Layla and McCool (neither of whom have ever been comfortable as heels) actually seemed to be copying the mannerisms of Angelina Love and Velvet Sky, reproducing that mixture of cruelty and vacuity.  Although not even TNA's pair of mean girls would sink as low as this. An absolutely horrible storyline.

The only good thing about this is that it seemed to persuade Mickie that she was better off elsewhere.  She moved on to TNA, where she found love in real life with Magnus.  Earlier this year, the English wrestler became the proud father of her first child.  Don't you love a happy ending?  Meanwhile, Magnus is up next....

6.  Magnus' convoluted title defence

TNA has often been criticised for needlessly overbooked angles and matches, and this criticism was certainly valid during Magnus' title reign in late 2013 / early 2014.  Magnus was unfortunately booked as a 'paper champion', whose reign was only possible due to the baneful influence of heel boss Dixie Carter and her associates Ethan Carter III and Rockstar Spud.

Whatever, Magnus became the first British star to be champion of a televised US wrestling organisation in December 2013, by winning the 'Dixie-land' match against Jeff Hardy.  This curious confection was a combination of a cage match and a ladder match.  Basically, you had to escape the cage and then collect the belt using a ladder positioned on top of the ramp.  The match was, despite this gimmicky approach, still watchable, partly because of Jeff Hardy's willingness to take spectacular bumps.

However, when it came to Magnus' first defence, against AJ Styles, the booking was spectacularly awful.  It started with a couple of minutes of stalling from the champion, who plainly was in no mood to face his experienced opponent.  When they did finally start to grapple, the ring was immediately invaded by EC3 and Spud, who were perfectly entitled to do that as the bout was fought under no-DQ rules.  Ring invasions are a valid tool in the booking armoury, but should be used sparingly and should never occur this early in a fight.  Anyway, Sting then emerged to counter the heels (he had a beef with EC3, so there was a semblance of logic here).  Then the Bro-Mans joined in, despite having no connection with the main event feud at all.  By the time Bad Influence arrived, I started to wonder if the entire TNA roster was going to appear in the match.....

Eventually, after the over-populated ring was finally cleared of surplus personnel, Magnus got the pin over Styles to retain.  However, it almost felt like he only had a cameo role in his most important match to date due to the number of guest spots crowding him out.  AJ Styles is one of the best technical wrestlers in the world, while Magnus' improvement in the ring has been impressive during his time in TNA.  It was a real wasted opportunity; an interference-free match could have been one of the matches of the year.

Ironically, the best match of Magnus' title run was the match in he dropped the belt to Eric Young.  This was a gimmick-free straightforward match in which both men looked good.  See, TNA, you can book a simple fight if you really want to...

5. Divas play musical chairs

One of my favourite wrestling memes shows a bunch of bored-looking WWE divas playing musical chairs on Raw in 2013.  The text reads, "Move Raw to three hours, they said.  It'll be fun, they said...."

As the meme points out, the expanded running time for Raw has led to a lot of filler being aired, but surely nothing as inane as this was ever booked again.  As a song by Florida-Georgia Line played, divas gathered round the chairs and played a game designed for five-year-old children.  This being Raw, everything broke down eventually into a mass brawl full of shrieking and hair-pulling.  Not just dumb, but very predictable....

At least it was over quickly.  I always smile when people claim that WWE is the best wrestling promotion because it is the biggest.  The fact is, there isn't a single other wrestling company on the planet that would book anything like this patronising nonsense.  WWE may be big, but it's also extremely complacent when it comes to quality control.

4. Raw is Springer

As I've argued before, the whole 'guest host' strategy for Raw was deeply flawed.  For every hit (Bob Barker, Hugh Jackman, William Shatner) there were twenty misses.  Who can forget boxer Ricky Hatton resembling a deer caught in a car's headlights, or right-wing 'humorist' Dennis Miller getting the silent treatment from the crowd?

But the most awful edition was surely Jerry Springer's turn to be guest host in 2010.  The low-brow king of trash television promised to reveal WWE's most intimate secrets, as superstars turned up to tell-all live on Raw, just like on the Springer Show.  So we learned all about Kelly Kelly's sex-life (some things just should stay in the bedroom) before she started brawling with Eve.  Oh, and apparently one of the Bella Twins is actually a man.  Once again, the humour just consisted of puerile sex jokes, because that is what Vince thinks is funny.  In fact, they barely counted as jokes.   Incredibly dumb stuff; I felt my IQ dropping rapidly as I watched it.

But there was a twist, right at the end the WWE stars turned the tables on Springer by revealing his secret love: Mae Young!  Oh God.....at least Mae got a payday that night.

Nor could Jerry Springer stay away; he returned to Raw in 2014.  See entry number two below for details....

3. Claire Lynch

I seriously considered making this my number one choice, and only put it down to three as I could create a case for saying it wasn't totally without worth (I'll come to my reasons later). Anyway, TNA has one even bigger skeleton in its well-stocked closet (see number one before).  It was still one of the most painful and nonsensical angles ever.  It all started in 2012 with Christopher Daniels and Kazarian embarrassing AJ Styles by showing candid photos taken of Styles entering a motel room with Dixie Carter, the implication being that they were having an affair.

However, Styles and Carter, playing face roles, had a convincing explanation.  They were actuallly helping out a mutual friend, named Claire Lynch, who was a pregnant addict.  It's at this point that the story went south badly.  Lynch turned up in person, and soon allied herself with Kazarian and Daniels (why, given that Dixie and AJ are her friends?  We were never told.).  Unfortunately, as portrayed by actress Julia Reilly, Lynch was simply painful to watch.  She was not what you'd ever call subtle, with her exaggerated facial gestures and loud piercing voice.  It was like watching a high-pitched female American version of Brian Blessed (without the beard), particularly when she started shouting for effect.  But she had a shock for Styles, as she claimed he was the father of her unborn child.  At one point she even showed a photo of herself lying on bed besides AJ (who had clearly passed out; it was an obviously staged pic).

A few weeks of awful promos from Lynch followed.  Severe eardrum damage was reported by TNA fans across the world.  Then, all of a sudden, the angle ended.  A man purporting to be Lynch's lawyer read out a prepared statement admitting that it was all a scam concocted by the the two heels, and she wasn't even pregnant.  Wait, what?

And that was it.  What caused this abrupt ending was the simple fact that Julia Reilly had walked out.  She wasn't used to a wrestling crowd which is very vociferous and opinionated, and found the whole thing stressful.  She also wasn't very experienced as an actress (she had actually been spotted by TNA in her role as Olive Oyl at the Orlando theme park where Impact was then being filmed) and feared that the negative reaction was harming her career.

So what are the good things about this feud?  Well, to start with, though the material was poor, it successfully established the heel team of Kazarian and Daniels, who developed stable personae at last.  In particular, Kaz had been drifting between a series of face and heel turns that no-one cared about previously.  The two had clear chemistry (it helps that they are best friends who know each other inside out), and performed a number of memorable promos and matches under the name Bad Influence.  They now work together in Ring of Honor as The Addiction.   The other mitigating factor was a terrific last man standing match between Styles and Daniels at Destination X in the middle of this feud, possibly the best match staged in TNA so far this decade.  That almost made the storyline feel justified.  Almost.

2. The Bella Twins in: Twin Malice

Despite having distinctly average in-ring skills and below-average acting ability, the Bella Twins currently have the biggest storyline given to any female wrestlers in years.  They've even main-evented Raw once.  Basically, they are extremely good-looking, and that is basically all Vince looks for in his female wrestlers. He is known to favour the sisters from Arizona above all the other Divas.

The angle started when the twins, both portraying face roles, fell foul of the Authority.  This led to Brie quitting the company, just as she was about to be fired, while Nikki, the remaining twin, was relentlessly bullied by Steph in retaliation for her sister's perceived sins.  A few weeks later Brie re-appeared at ringside and had an altercation with Stephanie McMahon.  As a result, Brie filed a complaint, and police led Steph away in handcuffs to spend a night in the cells.  This was the first sign that this was not going to feature much in the way of logical scriptwriting.  If police were always willing to act in this way, the cells would be full of heel wrestlers every Monday night.

At the next Raw, Brie somehow re-appeared in the ring, despite no longer being a WWE wrestler (she even got her music played, which is strange for someone no longer on the roster).  She offered a deal to Steph; she would drop all charges if she were reinstated and  given a Wrestlemania match against the Billionaire Princess.   Steph agreed, and the match was on. To promote the fight, a series of promo segments appeared on Raw, and it became clear that there was gaping chasm between Steph and the Bellas in terms of promo abilities.  Steph has improved a lot on the mic, hitting a confident tone of insincere patronising, and was carrying these segments.

The Wrestlemania match was, to be fair, better than expected and ended with Steph picking up a victory. But the real swerve was Nikki's sudden turn, foreseen by the entire audience (it was very obvious that Nikki would turn heel on her sister at the end; I even correctly anticipated the exact moment it was going to happen).   As Brie reeled in horror at the betrayal, Nikki walked away.

At the following night's Raw, we found out why.  At this point the story was past the point of no return, because nothing made any sense at all.   We learned that throughout her entire life Nikki has resented Brie, who she feels has always held her back in everything she's done.  She cut a series of filmed promos, entitled Growing Up Bella, where she outlined how awful Brie had been to her throughout her life.  For example, Brie once took Nikki's car out for a ride and totalled it.  She handed police Nikki's driving licence when arrested, so  Nikki claimed.  At the end of each segment, she pathetically whined, 'But I never told anyone.'

Several problems here.  For several years, the Bellas were inseparable allies as both faces and heels.  Everything they did, they did together.  We are now asked to believe that Nikki was only acting here, and was working 24/7 with someone she actually despised. Every victory celebration, every tearful embrace, was entirely fake.  I realise that wrestling contains a lot of suspension of disbelief, but I couldn't buy this for a second.  Secondly, you've got the Growing Up Bella nonsense.  By supplying a litany of Brie's many sins, Nikki was unintentionally coming across as a face here, which felt a little weird.  Finally, Nikki blamed Brie for her mistreatment by the Authority, saying nonsensically that it wouldn't have happened if her sister hadn't quit.  This is why she was now allied with, er, the very people who were directly mistreating her.   In which bizarro world does any of this add up?

It got worse.  Their screaming promos intensified as they covered each other with badly-acted bile, and often Steph wasn't even there to help carry them.   This reached absurd levels when Jerry Springer (him again!) arrived to stage an intervention between the warring sisters.  Of course, he failed and after a further display of atrocious acting, a mass brawl broke out (on a WWE show? really?) and it ended in chaos.  Springer was legitimately injured when he was knocked over by the brawling twins and had to be stretchered off.  It was that kind of night.  Another time Nikki invoked the ghost of Claire Lynch by presenting a woman who she claimed had slept with Daniel Bryan (Brie's real life husband).  Thankfully that was soon dropped.

This is so much more painful because, unlike the Claire Lynch stuff, it's seemingly endless.  The latest development is that Brie is now forced to work as Nikki's personal servant for 30 days.  So, that's a repetitive stage of this tanking storyline that will drag on for a whole month.  Deep joy....

1. Victory Road 2011

While I'm just going to concentrate on the main event for understandable reasons, it should be pointed out that the entire event was riddled with problems, and overall this disastrous TNA PPV deserves its reputation as one of the worst wrestling shows of all time even before the jaw-dropping conclusion.  Search out Botchamania 164 for a round-up of the the full horror.  An incredibly sloppy Knockouts tag match is a particularly highlight of low quality. Rosita stands over Winter waiting to hit her with a title belt.   Unfortunately, Velvet Sky, who was supposed to make the babyface save, completely missed her cue, so Rosita just stood there, poised with belt as if paralysed. for a number of agonising seconds. Eventually, the tardy New Yorker finally runs in to thwart Rosita's assault on Winter. It's horrible....

Anyway, onto the most pathetic excuse for a main event ever staged.  It lasted 88 seconds in total, simply because Jeff Hardy was too drunk and/or stoned to perform.  He was slated to face Sting in a kind of facepaint vs facepaint contest, but it was clear something was up when Hardy's music rang on and no-one initially ran out into the dry ice billowing into the arena.  Eventually, Hardy just, well, stumbled out and made unsteady progress towards the ring, half-heartedly shaking hands with ringside fans.  Eventually, as he climbed into the ring, Eric Bischoff also arrived, purportedly to announce a new stipulation for the match.  In truth, he was actually telling everyone to wrap things up quickly.   The match started with Hardy stalling before throwing his t-shirt out to the crowd.  Pathetically, he didn't even have the co-ordination to chuck the shirt out of the ring.  Eventually, Sting covered Jeff Hardy after his first serious piece of offence and held him down shoot style for the three-count before exiting the ring in disgust.  Even in the aftermath, TNA couldn't catch a break.  As the shout chanted "that was bullshit", the camera catches a furious-looking Sting yelling 'I agree!"

Now while the ultimate blame must lie with Hardy himself, TNA's conduct here was mystifying.  Hardy was clearly in no fit state and should not have been sent out at all.  A better compromise would have been to send out another wrestler to take his place, even if that meant someone working a double shift.  Someone like Bobby Roode would have been able to improvise an acceptable match with a veteran like Sting.  Not ideal, but better than what transpired.  But it goes back further than that.  Given Hardy's reputation, surely TNA should have been keeping an eye on him to ensure he was still sober during that evening.  Leaving him to his own devices as they did was severely negligent.

The aftermath was depressing.  Jeff Hardy wasn't sacked, mostly because he shifts more merchandise than any other TNA star, but he was suspended indefinitely and written out of all storylines.  Meanwhile a penitent TNA offered six months' free use of the company's on-demand library to anyone who had purchased this awful event.   During his suspension, Hardy was sentenced to ten days in prison after being convicted on drugs charges.  On exiting prison in September 2011, he returned to Impact Wrestling by apologising to his fellow wrestlers for his dreadful state at Victory Road.  He has, to be fair, performed with apparent professionalism ever since. But, for his disgraceful performance on 3 March 2011, he deserves to be crowned the dumbest wrestler of recent times.

WWE: Getting the guests right

We all know the story by now.  Vince McMahon is the most successful wrestling promoter of all time, and that is indisputable.  However, this also isn't enough, as he apparently sees pro-wrestling as essentially a disreputable carnival sideshow and he desperately wants to join the gleaming entertainment mainstream.   Hence his re-branding of WWE as 'sports entertainment', and his attempts to reach out into other spheres.  Mostly, these have ended in failure; his football league and movie studio have lost a lot of money for example.  Basically, the only thing he's any good at is promoting wrestling shows.

Nonetheless, he seems to think that if he gets a load of celebrities on Raw, no matter how badly they fit, the show will become more respectable and mainstream.  This is, of course, very flawed thinking, and this week's Raw proves how this can go awry when the wrong celebrities get involved.  The appearance of daytime TV hosts Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford, which had the laudable aim of promoting a breast cancer charity, backfired horribly.  There is almost no crossover between their target audience and the WWE's audience, which is predominantly young and male.  Personally, I felt sorry for the two women who were heavily booed, and probably needed all that wine for Dutch courage.  Given how the typically smark-heavy New York audience was certain to react to a segment like this, it almost feels cruel to subject them to such a crowd.

The annoying thing is that WWE has done this too often and has invited completely unsuitable people on a regular basis.  The notorious 'guest host' era of Raw was a low point in the show's history, largely because guest hosts were seemingly selected by sticking pins into lists of random celebrities.  The result was largely deflating.  For example, ZZ Top were clearly only interested in promoting their upcoming tour, and phoned in a series of lame backstage skits with Santino before eventually making a token appearance in front of the crowd.  And the least said about turning Raw into an edition of The Jerry Springer Show the better, quite frankly.   Although the worst host was probably alleged comedian Dennis Miller, who hosted the Slammys one year.  His routines were delivered to an entirely silent crowd, who were in no mood for political diatribes disguised as jokes.

However, this is likely to continue, as Vince continues to crave mainstream acceptance, so it's worth looking at the few categories where guest appearances actually worked.  Firstly, we have the obvious case of celebrities who are actually wrestling fans.  Hugh Jackman was almost the perfect choice.  Firstly, unlike many other guest hosts, the Australian actor is well-known all over the world.  Furthermore, his appearances in the X-Men franchise of films mean he's a good fit for the WWE's target demographic.  Finally, because he's a fan, he understood how the show works and what was expected of him. The fact he was clearly enjoying himself helped him get over, and overall he added something to the show.

The second category that basically works is American footballers.  This is a little more problematic, given that the sport's popularity is patchy outside the US.  Nonetheless, given that gridiron stars have the kind of build that Vince favours for his wrestlers, they look credible when standing up to WWE heels.  Certainly, when Ben Roethlisberger appeared alongside several members of the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line in the ring, it made for a memorable visual image.  I was considering also including boxers in this category, but then I remembered Ricky Hatton's stunningly inept performance and realised we'd probably better narrow the focus to footballers.

The final category is an odd one: eccentric older men.  For some reason, they come across pretty well, partially because they seem less self-conscious and are more prepared to send themselves up.  So Ozzy Osbourne reprised his befuddled old rocker routine familiar to viewers of his reality show, while William Shatner amusingly performed WWE entrance themes in the spoken-word style that he used on a series of records.  This is worth watching if you haven't seen it:

Then we have the curious case of The Price Is Right host Bob Barker, who was a surprise hit.   On paper, 'The Price Is Raw' looked like a terrible idea, but Barker managed to make it work.   It seems that he quickly realised he didn't understand what he'd got himself into, but decided he was going to have fun anyway.  He proved an admirable verbal sparring partner for Chris Jericho, although he later admitted in an interview that the Canadian grappler frankly scared him during rehearsals.  However, this category is not entirely foolproof, as Jerry Springer's two dire appearances prove.




So there you have it.  Guest appearances can actually work, but celebrities need to be chosen more carefully.  Unfortunately, WWE is pressing ahead with more randomly-chosen guests on next week's Raw.  Apparently NeNe Leakes (from The Real Housewives Of Atlanta....nope, me neither) and businessman-turned-reality-show-star Todd Chrisley are lined up to appear.  They might surprise me, but I have no idea who these people are and my hopes aren't high.  Who actually benefits from this?

WWE SummerSlam Review

So, guess which match I enjoyed most?  I know, I know...so predictable.

SummerSlam emerged out of an uncertain build this year, and was at the very least full of surprises, though not all of them were for the right reason.  Let's break this down.

First of all, I'm not going to waste any time on the pre-show filler match, which I don't consider part of the canonical event.  I'll just note that RVD didn't need that win, and Cesaro's slump is so disheartening.  This guy's a frigging main event talent, for goodness' sake.

Match 1 - The Miz (c) vs Dolph Ziggler (Intercontinental Title)

This was basically a tidy opener.  The Miz is working his obnoxious movie star persona well, and refreshingly has a character that works.  Ziggler is of course a consummate worker with a series of crowd-pleasing moves, and both started at a fine pace.  Miz was predictably funny when he tried to hide his 'moneymaking' facial features, and the match ended with Ziggler hitting the zig-zag to send the show off to a happy start.  So why was I left so deflated by the whole affair?  It's partly the lack fo build; I had little idea why Ziggler is feuding with Miz, and besides I get the feeling neither at this stage can progress beyond the lower midcard.  The title belt is also meaningless now.  A major event like this needs a high-powered start, not a pleasant little diversion.

Your winner, and new Intercontinental champion: Dolph Ziggler.  My rating: B-

 

Match 2- AJ Lee (c) vs Paige (Divas Championship)

This, on the other hand, would have made a better opening match.  Ever since AJ won back her title back, Paige has metamorphosed from a frail-looking face to an enjoyably devious heel, showering her rival with insincere praise and using mind games to mess with her famously unstable mental state.  At the start, these mind games looked like backfiring badly as AJ just snapped, biting Paige's hand (leading soccer fan JBL to make the inevitable Luis Suarez reference on commentary) and pulling out a weave from her opponent's hair.  Taken aback, Paige took a while to fight back against AJ's furious brawling and AJ hit some impressive spots, including a stiff-looking clothes-line.  Yet she fell just short as Paige cleverly turned a Widow's Peak into her own successful finisher, this time using the 'Rampaige' DDT instead of her more usual Paige-Turner manoeuvre.  The match was too short, granted, but both women made the most of it, as the action never seemed to let up.  In an odd moment after her victory, Paige tenderly kissed her stricken victim instead of launching an expected heelish attack.

This set me thinking.  Any casual fan unaware of the backstory of AJ watching this would have instantly assumed AJ was the heel from her opening vicious attack.  Meanwhile, Paige's clean victory and post-match pleasantness suggest to the unenlightened that she's a face.  So, has there been significant misdirection here?  My new theory: both are actually unstable tweeners, and these mixed messages are deliberate.  Because AJ's moodswings mean she's too unpredictable, she cannot be a pure face.  But have we also misjudged Paige?  Could it be that she's genuine about this 'frenemies' business, that, in her confused mindstate, she simultaneously admires AJ and yet wants to beat her up badly?  I could be reading too much into this, but this is potentially fascinating territory for what is looking to be the best Divas rivalry in years.   This was their best match together so far.

Your winner, and new Divas champion: Paige.  My rating: A-

 

Match 3 - Rusev (w/ Lana) vs Jack Swagger (w/ Zeb Colter)

I hate this angle.  I hate the fact that Vince McMahon's geopolitical outlook is firmly stuck in 1985 (and is heavily informed by Rocky IV).  I hate the fact that Zeb Colter's evil xenophobic heel is now a face without any significant change of character (you're playing with fire, WWE...).  I hate the fact that Lana delivers the exact same promo every week (and she did it again last night - we get it, you've got a crush on Putin).   In fact generally, I hate the fact that this rivalry contains far more talking and flag-waving than actual wrestling, although given that both men are very poor wrestlers, this is understandable.  Oh, and Bulgaria is a very different country to Russia.

This was rotten.  The lumbering Bulgarian hit his usual power moves with little conviction, while Swagger attempted to lock in the Patriot lock, which these days is about all he ever does.  There was one admittedly decent moment where because of a leg injury, Rusev could not quite lock in the Accolade.  However, mere minutes later, the injury had totally disappeared, and the submission move was locked in until Swagger passed out.  Cue jingoistic comments from commentary.  Cue Rusev attacking Colter. Cue Russian national anthem.  Cue bored British fan wishing this whole nightmare would end.

Your winner: Rusev.  My rating: D- 

Match 4 - Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins (Lumberjack Match)

It was OK, I suppose.  If by 'OK' you mean 'absolutely the tonic I needed to relieve my sour mood and make me believe in pro-wrestling again'.....

I've expressed my admiration for both men in the past, but here they found a way to exceed all expectations.  It looked like a lumberjack match was potentially a limiting situation, but excellent booking found a way round this.  The set-up worked, pointing out that that everyone ringside, face or heel, had suffered at the hands of The Shield at some point, so there was never going to be any goodwill for either wrestler, which was a neat twist. The match started as expected, with Ambrose's brawling style dominating opening exchanges, yet when Ambrose got thrown out the ring, we had the first sign that this was not going to be like other lumberjack matches.  Instead of waiting for a beatdown, Ambrose lashed out with wild punches before anyone could lay a finger on him.  It's not just that the guy is unpredictable and unstable, he's also fearsomely quick-thinking.  However, Rollins took control after cleverly throwing Ambrose out to ensure he got roughed up.  From then on a thrilling back and forth saw both men cancelling out each other's moves, until Ambrose managed to send Rollins out the ring.  The Lunatic Fringe then delivered the spot of the night with an amazing suicide dive that took out Rollins and all the lumberjacks.

With the lumberjacks incapacitated temporarily, Rollins sought to escape into the crowd.  But Ambrose was quick in pursuit, and the two adversaries had a no-holds barred brawl in the wings.  Cue the entrance of Corporate Kane, furious that the lumberjacks had done a poor job of containing the fight.  He ordered them to catch Ambrose and drag him back to the ring.   At which point Rollins tried to escape the arena, only to face a quartet of face lumberjacks on the ramp, who all ensured he made a quick return to the ring as well.   The action continued with Ambrose taking the upper hand, once again clearing the lumberjacks with a thrilling dive, and later countering an attempt to send him out the ring by using the ropes as leverage to bounce back and deliver a huge clothes-line which floored Rollins.  Then he cheekily stole Rolllins foot-stomp finisher, and would have surely covered for the pin had Kane not intervened.  From then on, chaos reigned as all the lumberjacks invaded the ring for a feverish massed brawl.  At the end, Rollins returned the compliment by knocking Ambrose with the MITB briefcase behind the ref's back; precisely the kind of desperate move that can be found in Ambrose's playbook.  See the symmetry here?  Rollins then picked up the pin.

If I'm being picky, I might complain that the end was overbooked because, well, it was.  But I'm not going to complain because this match was fantastic in every respect and the dusty finish means that the feud will continue.  This is definitely best for business.

Your winner: Seth Rollins.  My rating: A+

 

Match 5 - Bray Wyatt vs Chris Jericho

Something really has gone badly wrong with the Bray Wyatt project.  He came out second best to John Cena in their feud and just has never gelled with Y2J.  They just aren't a good fit, and at this point, I'm also getting bored with his promos. It's not because he's doing anything wrong, it's just that I've already heard it before at this stage.   Likewise, the first time he did the crabwalk, it felt like the spookiest thing ever.  Last night, when he did it again, it was just that thing that Bray Wyatt always does.  Repetition has dulled the novelty of this character.

There was nothing particularly wrong with this match; Bray was suitably creepy and Jericho was keen to put him over.  But there was little tension, and I just willed it to be over quickly.  Not least because the result was never in doubt.

Wyatt now needs a serious reboot.  He should lose the family, who are now capable of standing on their own and can bolster a flagging tag scene, and embark on a slow face turn.  The question is, who should his next feud be with?

Your winner: Bray Wyatt.  My rating: C-

 

Match 6 - Stephanie McMahon (w/Triple H) vs Brie Bella (w/Nikki Bella...or so Brie thinks...)

Now a number of sensible people have gone rather overboard here based on the fact that this wasn't a total disaster.  One excitable WWE fanboy even gushed that it was possibly the best Divas match ever.  Oh really, get some perspective!  This wasn't even the best Divas match at SummerSlam 2014....

OK, I'd admit that some of my initial scepticism was unfounded.  This wasn't a Sharmel vs Jenna Morasca-sized fiasco at all, and Steph had some decent moves.  Furthermore, encouragingly, this was built up well enough in advance, even if last week on Raw they jumped the shark by inexplicably ripping off TNA's horrible Claire Lynch storyline.  Steph has worked hard to perform here; she clearly had practised her lines and certainly looked the part in her dominatrix-style costume.  However, it was very noticeable that her offence contained mostly single moves.  She isn't a good enough wrestler to produce a combination of different moves in succession, so her arsenal looked disjointed and slow.  This still puts her ahead of Brie, who remains a horrible worker.  How she can have worked for years for the world's biggest wrestling company without mastering the basics of a believable offence simply beggars belief.

Brie is also an unsympathetic face and a terrible actress, so she really has nothing to offer here.  Except, of course, a treacherous twin sister.  I'm not even sure Nikki's heel turn counts as a swerve here, given that siblings turning on siblings is one of the oldest tricks in the playbook, and had been telegraphed from some way.  I realised the exact point at which it was going to happen. But is she just being controlled against her will by the Authority, given how regretful she looked afterward? This means a feud that has only one interesting factor will continue.  I hope they resist the temptation to mine the Claire Lynch angle any further...

Your winner (after shenanigans): Stephanie McMahon.  My rating: C

Match 7 - Roman Reigns vs Randy Orton

Awkwardly placed between the two most hyped matches, this was another fight that failed to deliver anything much.  Starting off as an uninspiring slugfest, this was never fast-paced, and when Randy Orton unleashed a series of chinlocks the contest just ground to a halt, with the silent crowd refusing to interact in any way.  This doesn't reflect well on either man, and shows the extent to which Orton has just become stale.  He only really works as a badass heel, but too many months serving as the Authority's lapdog has just robbed him of any aura he once had.  Technically, he's still a really good worker, but he's not connecting at all with an audience now.  Meanwhile, my doubts about Roman Reigns' push continue.  It's clear that he is being protected heavily by the booking which is designed to hide his flaws.  Essentially, he cannot carry a
match on his own, and relies on a small number of admittedly impressive power moves to make an impact.

The real worry is that this is starting to get really obvious.  Orton did most of the work here, and the eventual turnaround, where Reigns powered out of the RKO, proving he's strong enough to work with the big boys seemed rushed.  I sense his 'Superman punch' is now looking less impressive than it did before being, well, just a punch, which leaves his best move, the spear, as something he relies on.  This won him the victory, and does look suitably devastating.  Reigns got a small pop at the end (in contrast to the huge excitement generated by his former Shield colleagues), but questions remain.  He lacks natural charisma and needs to develop an all-round game fast if he's to be a main eventer by the end of the year, which seems to be the plan.  This looks too ambitious, as Reigns is nowhere near the finished article.

The end of the fight was pretty exciting, to be fair, but it was never enough.

Your winner: Roman Reigns.  My rating: C+ 

 

Match 8 - John Cena (c) vs Brock Lesnar (w/ Paul Heyman) (WWE Championship)

Now this was very odd.  The story of the match was quite simple. Lesnar dominated from the start with a somewhat monotonous attack largely consisting of German suplexes (16 to be precise).  Cena looked battered and worn from the beginning and only had a couple of hope spots that were soon extinguished.  As soon as Lesnar easily broke Cena's notorious no-pressure STF (was the booking team poking fun at Cena's hopeless inability to pull off that move convincingly?), the writing was on the wall.  Lesnar flattened Cena one last time, and there was to be no kicking out at two here.

Just let that sink in.  In the main event of their second biggest PPV of the year, WWE booked a squash match in which their supposed biggest star played the jobber role.  Yes, Mr Never-Give-Up, Hustle-Loyalty-Respect, The-Champ-Is-Here was booked as someone totally out of his depth who could not live with the returning MMA star. This is totally unprecedented.  I mean, I expected Lesnar to win, but I didn't expect anything this one-sided.  Several questions now emerge; firstly, how can WWE cope with having a champion who almost never fights outside of PPVs (they didn't do a good job when The Rock was in that position)?  At least this time we'll get more Paul Heyman promos, so that's good news.  Secondly, have they booked Lesnar too strongly?  Who can conceivably match up to him now on the current WWE roster?  And conversely, have they damaged Cena too much?  Where's he going now?

Finally, what were WWE hoping to achieve here? Well, I can answer that by looking at the build-up.  Paul Heyman reflected last week on the sheer sense of disbelief that followed the end of the streak.  He showed a montage of faces in the crowd taken just after the end of that Wrestlemania XXX match including, inevitably, Ellis Mbeh, the 'shocked Undertaker guy' who spawned a thousand memes.  Right enough, straight after the three count last night, the cameras picked out several crowd close-ups clearly looking for a similar reaction.  However, this was never likely to succeed as well, given that the result was less of a shock, even if the manner of defeat was unexpected.

It wasn't, in truth, great wrestling, but it was tremendous television, hence my rating.

Your winner and new WWE Champion: Brock Lesnar.  My rating: B

 

Well in conclusion that was a mixed bag of a PPV.  I do have some more thoughts, but this blog post is already long enough (well done if you made it to the end), and I want to see how tonight's Raw pans out before saying anything further.

One last question: where was Sheamus?

WWE: The Importance Of Being Ambrose

I'm trying not to be too negative about WWE at the moment, but they're making it hard for me.  If I had to sum up how the promotion currently appears in one word, it would be 'panicky'.  Just look at, for example, the farcical sacking of Emma following a minor shoplifting misdemeanour.  After the announcement of her release, the IWC turned on the WWE's perceived double-standards (Cameron and Swagger remain on the roster despite their more serious arrests for DUI) and went on the attack.  Seemingly, as a result, the WWE re-employed the Australian star a few hours later.  This is not the action of a company that is in control of its strategy, but instead is reactive and not very good at understanding what the likely outcomes of its decisions are.  Even more serious is how the failure of the Network to garner enough subscribers reflects on the company.  This was obviously a flawed idea from the start, as the number of people who want to watch wall-to-wall wrestling are limited.  Still, it's certainly good value and yet it still can't retain subscribers.  As a result, Raw this week was a truly bizarre spectacle.  It started with a lengthy speech from Triple H that was supposed to promote SummerSlam but ended up as a desperate-sounding plug for the Network.  By the end of it, the audience were sarcastically joining with Trips' assertions that the Network costs just $9.99 a month.  And throughout the show the commentators regularly returned to this theme with monotonous predictability.  I might be imagining this, but I seem to recall at one point they told us that #9.99 is now trending worldwide on Twitter....

The problem is that desperation is not a good marketing tactic, and so this relentless plugging may even be counter-productive on a psychological level.  From a viewer's perspective, it also means that Raw resembles some kind of charity telethon.  The same tactic of needy relentlessness is being employed, after all ("For just $9.99, you too can make a difference to these Azerbaijani orphans....").

Another aspect of this panic-stricken attitude is that too many angles seem to be booked almost on a whim, with little planning.  Few would disagree that The Shield was not just very entertaining and refreshing, but that it also was simply one of the best factions WWE had ever assembled.  Each of the three members looked the part and contributed something a little different, be it the technical expertise of Seth Rollins, the action-packed brawling of Dean Ambrose or the sheer power of Roman Reigns.  But, just as the Hounds Of Justice seemed to be at its peak following a surprise but effective babyface turn, Rollins turned on his colleagues and aligned with the Authority for reasons that were never properly explained.  It was dispiriting booking that put an emphasis on short-term sensation rather than the long-term storytelling that previously had been in evidence with The Shield.  It just felt like a waste.

However, it's done now and The Shield is history for the moment (though expect the trio to re-unite somewhere near the end of 2015).  And from its ashes has emerged one genuine triumph, which I'm happy to acknowledge, not least because during The Shield's heel run I would never have foreseen it.  But today, Dean Ambrose has become the hottest babyface star in the WWE.  Week after week, he's getting huge pops whenever he emerges to foil Rollins' devious plans.

In one sense, the creation of an Ambrose/Rollins feud is pretty much a can't-miss prospect.  Both are seasoned indie veterans who had already worked a strong series together in their FCW days.  They were always likely to light a fire when put against each other on Raw.  But WWE deserves credit for how it has staged the feud.  Most notably, the pair has been deliberately been kept apart in terms of one-on-one matches, so that their match at SummerSlam will feel more special.  And, even if the reasons for Rollins turning are obscure, Ambrose's psychological bitterness at his former friend's betrayal is very believable.   Ambrose is a superb talker (his memorable 'case or face' promo at Money In The Bank drew deserved praise) and I can buy into the fact that his character genuinely hates Seth Rollins.  

I was initially sceptical that this feud actually needed the prop of the MITB briefcase, as it felt it would work well without that distraction, but the case has been seamlessly integrated into the storyline.  We quickly got a couple of examples of the standard booking where Rollins would be directly thwarted by Ambrose as he attempted to cash in the case.  However, this week the stakes were raised further.

The scenario was this.  A Beat-The-Clock challenge was arranged so that Ambrose and Rollins would face separate opponents, and the one who won in the shortest time would get the pick the stipulation for the SummerSlam match.  In a tough match against a motivated Alberto Del Rio, Ambrose struggled in an attritional battle and eventually connected with his Dirty Deeds finisher after 15 minutes.   After the Authority pulled strings so that super-jobber Heath Slater would be Rollins' opponent instead of the advertised Rob Van Dam, this didn't seem to be enough.  However, as the second match started, Ambrose walked out to the ringside and stole the briefcase.  He then proceeded to tear up the contract (his face was a picture at this point).  Then having stolen a soda and some popcorn from ringside fans, he poured the sugary beverage into the briefcase and chucked some popcorn in for good measure. He then curiously stole JBL's hat and crumpled it up so it fitted the briefcase which he then closed.  Rollins was increasingly distracted by Ambrose's mischief, and eventually paid so little attention to his opponent that Slater was able to roll him up for a shock win.  After the match, Ambrose cleared off and Rollins dejectedly retrieved a soggy, hat-filled briefcase.

Now with slightly gimmicky storytelling like this you can find holes in the booking if you want.  Firstly, were the Authority napping?  It was obvious that Ambrose would attempt to derail the second match, so why were no security guards sent out at any stage to remove him?  Secondly, isn't stealing people's snacks a heel move?  Also, there's a risk that Rollins ends up looking weak, given that he suffered a loss to a wrestler with a terrible win/loss record.   So long as you ignore the gaping first hole, the fact is that Ambrose was so entertaining that you didn't really worry about this.  And the Slater victory can be reasoned away by the fact that Ambrose's mind games were so effective that Rollins completely lost the plot and, indeed, the match.  Given that Slater has become something of a fan favourite in a seemingly thankless role, giving him a victory is also a pleasing touch.

These two matches together formed the backbone of an otherwise disappointing Raw, which shows what this pair is currently offering as singles performers.  They've both contributed strongly to a well-worked storyline that is connecting with fans.  And there's room for the storyline to develop; at some point, Ambrose could even face Rollins for a chance to win the briefcase from him.

Indeed, I think that now Dean Ambrose is taking advantage of Daniel Bryan's long-term absence to establish himself as the 'cool face', even if he's a different character.  At the moment, he really feels like the most important character on the show, and the main reason to watch the show (which, incidentally, I can currently watch without paying $9.99 a month to WWE...).

WWE & TNA - Call the action, dammit....

I've just been thinking that both Raw and Impact would be more enjoyable at the moment with the sound turned down and a musical accompaniment selected.  I feel a playlist of 80s heavy metal would work well....It's just that every week I get so annoyed by the commentators.

Let's break this down.  Michael Cole is probably the least worst of WWE's commentary team.  He's a reasonably competent play-by-play guy who has recovered after a dreadful, ill-advised heel turn a few years ago.  Aside from the obvious fact that the main anchor should be on the side of the fans, as he's the one who is guiding us through the action, Cole's horrible heel performances were weirdly counter-productive.  Put bluntly, his relentless negativity was basically shitting on the product and the performers.  How is the audience supposed to take a show seriously if the main announcer apparently hates it?  No matter, this is now finished.  Actually, as a neutral figure, he tends towards blandness.  He lacks JR's talent for inspiring hyperbole.  But he can stay for the moment, as he's basically assured on the mic, and drew deserved praise for how he handled proceedings during Jerry Lawler's on-air heart attack.

The principal problems are elsewhere.   Talking of Lawler, he is a true legend who deserves respect.  But, just how out of touch does he appear now?   His performances are lazy and phoned-in, and his casual sexism while talking about the Divas is irksome.  During the days of the brand split, it was noted during a PPV that Lawler had a crib sheet enabling him to identify all the Smackdown stars.  As he never watched the b-show, he had no idea who these people were, so the supposed 'expert' actually had less knowledge about half the roster than the average WWE fan.  This speaks volumes about Lawler's apathy concerning the current product.  Indeed, the best role for him currently might be alongside Gene Okerlund on WWE's excellent Vintage show.   Clearly, he has little feel for today's WWE, and he might regain his enthusiasm if allowed to talk about a past that he is far more knowledgeable about.

But the ultimate irritant is the bellowing bore that is JBL.   This guy just has one note.  He spends the whole show shouting everyone down with insight-free assertions.  I realise he is supposed to be annoying, but there is an art to heel colour commentary, and the audience should be able to love to hate him.  Instead, whenever those bullying Texan vocal chords fly into action, people are reaching for the migraine pills.   He's just too loud, too overbearing.

A common complaint is that all three commentators only pay minimal attention to the action happening in the ring, and spend too much time with frankly irrelevant discussions about random topics.  In particular, JBL will crowbar references to current sporting events in a most tangential fashion every week.  At present he's supplying running commentary on the football World Cup, which at least is an event which has captured the imagination of the world (including, at long last, the United States).  However the other week, he started talking about the World Snooker Championships in Sheffield, to the basic bemusement of his fellow commentators.  The impression I get is that sometimes JBL is employing an avoidance strategy; he'd rather talk about anything other than wrestling.

Of course, as with so many other problems with the show, the real issue is standing behind the curtain in the Gorilla Position.  The commentators are just reacting to Vince McMahon's instructions, and if he wants them to ignore the impressive suplex that's just been performed and  talk about an obscure sporting event in Yorkshire instead, they'll jump through that hoop.

It doesn't have to be this way.  The contrast with the commentary team on NXT couldn't be more pronounced.  Of course, this show is HHH's baby and Vince stays away.  The result is that the rotating commentary team (including Byron Saxton, the charming Renee Young and the Artist Formally Known As Albert/A-Train/Tensai) seems more relaxed and more focused.  In particular, William Regal displays a true old-school commitment to putting the talent over. No matter whether he's discussing a heel or face, he'll talk up their attributes and point out their most powerful moves.  He wants us to believe in these characters.  In interviews, Regal has responded to praise about his current role with typical English modesty.  He points out that he doesn't know if he could handle the pressure on Raw, and that the low-key atmosphere of NXT allows him to develop this onscreen character.  I actually reckon he'd be just fine on the main show.  He can't be any worse than JBL.  Interestingly, there seems to be backing for Ms Young in WWE, as she'll now be handling commentary on Superstars.  Could Renee become the first female commentator on Raw eventually?

Meanwhile on TNA Impact, the problem isn't with Mike Tenay.  He's an authoritative-sounding broadcaster whose urgent commentary helps build up the product.  Unfortunately, he is teamed up with Taz, who simply is not up to the job.  His rambling commentary is full of malapropisms and other weird phrases.  Sometimes he'll get halfway through an overly-complicated sentence then lose his way and try to bail himself out with a feeble joke.   In the Impact discussion group I am a member of, we have a running joke that Taz appears to be drunk for much of the show (his habit of yelling random things in a high-pitched voice seems to back up this theory).  I suspect that the truth is that he isn't drunk, but just incompetent; however he often sounds inebriated, which is just as bad.  It's painful to listen to his verbal fumblings.

I'm amazed that someone this poor is still employed in this role.  In fairness, Taz can work well when he has a prepared script.  As an onscreen character in the Aces & Eights saga, he was effective in pulling off a major swerve at the Bully Ray/Brooke Hogan wedding.  TNA needs to get him out of the commentary booth and into backstage angles, I feel.

Who should replace Taz?  Well, the obvious candidate is Jeremy Borash.  Indeed, Tenay and Borash  already team up to supply commentary for matches on Xplosion.   Both are perfectly professional, but there's no real tension between them as they are too similar and basically do the same thing.  They even sound alike; sometimes on Xplosion I have to listen carefully to discern which one of them is speaking.  I think Mike Tenay needs an antagonist to work off.   I wonder if Don West, whose heel commentary was often hilarious, would consider a return to TNA?

TNA - A Tale of Two Cities

Although I've avoided spoilers concerning TNA's recent spate of shows in New York, which will be edited to produce their programming through the late summer, the impression I get is that these were successes.  The company genuinely achieved sell-outs in a 1,200 capacity arena according to reports.  While it's true that the UK (still the company's principal market) supplies much bigger crowds, this is a significant advance on the company's domestic house shows, which sometimes have dipped as low as 400 paying customers.  What may be of more significance is the nature of those audiences.

Now, firstly, let me say that one of the things that drew me to TNA in the first place was that the Orlando soundstage that became the Impact Zone was pleasingly intimate.  Whereas the WWE juggernaut travelled to faceless corporate enormodomes, this felt like a pleasant low-key contrast.  However, after a couple of months, the drawbacks of the Florida theme park became obvious.  Crowd response was, at best, unreliable.  Crowds, consisting of curious holiday-makers who, having paid to enter the park, could claim free tickets to the tapings, often behaved as if they were at the library.  During the Hogan years, a silent crowd would often only come to life when the Hulkster nursed his bruised body to the ring, simply because he was the only person there who most people actually recognised.  Some weeks it was better, but you couldn't depend on the location to deliver the kind of constant crowd response that a wrestling show needs.  Realising a change was needed, TNA took to the road and got better responses across the USA.  Unfortunately, they were losing money so fast that they had to return to Orlando temporarily to face more flat crowds.  Now they've found what seems to be a reasonable compromise.  During their British tour of early 2014, they embarked on an ambitious taping schedule.  Over just four nights, they shot six regular editions of Impact in Glasgow, Manchester and London, plus a One Night Only special in Birmingham.  This was a good way of squeezing maximum value out of their travels, although it meant punters sat through extremely long shows.   I can testify from experience that, in London, a show which kicked off at 7pm with a dark match only packed up after 11pm.  Both myself and my companion missed our last trains home as a result.

So, this is the new strategy.  TNA will travel across America, staying in one place long enough to get a month or more's worth of programming before moving on.  The obvious flaw with this approach is that there's such a delay between the shows being filmed and actually airing that fans need to be vigilant to avoid spoilers.  But this does seem to ensure that TNA can tour on a more economically-sound basis.  However, I feel the company needs to choose its venues carefully.  At the moment, we're getting a run of shows filmed in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (no, me neither) and frankly they suffer from the same problem they had in Orlando.   The crowd occasionally wakes up (the other week they responded strongly to Dixie Carter's heel promo) but also remains inactive for lengthy periods of time.  It cannot be overstressed how important audiences are.  Not only do they create the show's atmosphere, a vibrant crowd will psychologically encourage the wrestlers to put on more of a show.   All TNA wrestlers say how much they enjoy coming to the UK, and I believe they mean it; they get large, loud crowds on this island, so of course they'll look forward to that.

Meanwhile, on a recent PPV taping in Dallas, they had a terrific crowd who showed appropriate enthusiasm.  The lesson here is a little brutal.  While I appreciate them going out to small towns like Bethlehem, you will only get small town reactions there, and the promotion will look small.  Appearances matter, so TNA needs to be shooting its programming in large cities with big wrestling cultures.  And this is where New York comes in, as maybe only Chicago can supply wilder crowds than the Big Apple.   Looking at photos taken during the tapings, the venue certainly looks very handsome, so there's a good chance that these shows will at least have the right feel.  Also, with the return of the six-sided ring and some familiar names, TNA seems to be reaching out to its hardcore fanbase who perhaps became disillusioned when Hogan tried turning the company into WWE-lite.  TNA says it's pressing the reset button in NYC; worryingly that's the second time they've made a claim like this this year, but this time it may have more substance.  Whatever, I can't wait to see the New York shows.

However, even more exciting news involves the second city alluded to in the piece's title is addressed.  A big announcement out of the blue has boldly stated that Bound For Glory will take place in Tokyo this year.  This is exciting on many levels.  The first thing it confirms is that the relationship between TNA and the Great Muta's fledgling promotion Wrestle-1 is taken very seriously by both parties.   It also suggests that, after a year of making cuts to manage its costs, TNA is starting to expand its ambitions again.  Presumably, by presenting the show as a joint promotion with a third party, costs become more manageable.  The logistics of this will have to be worked out carefully, but I think this is a great move.

Most importantly, it makes a statement about TNA's direction.  As I've stated earlier, a big problem was that TNA became too much like WWE under Hogan's watch.  This is a mistake, as TNA will never be as big as Vince's company, and needs instead to build a distinctive niche for itself.  At the moment, a lot of adult wrestling fans are uneasy about where WWE is going, with its recent poor decision-making, including misogynist toilet humour and yet another Cena title run, adding to the dismay.  A company offering a fresh approach could mop up some of that disillusioned fanbase. 

Some of the comments already made say that TNA will need to alter its product radically to suit Japanese tastes, and this should also affect the build-up.  Basically, this means fewer gimmicks, fewer screwy finishes and a greater emphasis on in-ring action.  All of this will benefit TNA, as the problem this year is that the show has moved too fast and has frequently over-booked important matches.  Take, for example, last winter's "Dixie-land" title match, a convoluted mix of a cage match and a ladder match that offered ample scope for outside interference.  Shenanigans like that won't work in Japan.  Meanwhile, the show is currently continuing a dizzying and confusing set of multiple turns.  This week, Brittany turned heel on Madison Rayne after her affections were spurned, while Samuel Shaw has apparently turned face, under the psychological supervision of Gunner.  Oh, and Rhino reappeared to make a babyface save for Bully Ray, only to immediately swerve and attack the former Dudley Boy.  It's all too much, and I hope that in New York the storytelling slows down and they build existing characters without further swerves.

The interesting thing is that, in the quieter corners of Impact Wrestling, this may have begun to happen.  One real benefit TNA has already reaped is the loan signing of 26-year-old Seaya Sanada, whose road to stardom is being carefully mapped out by Wrestle-1.  Sanada is a brilliantly smooth and confident ring worker, who can use the limited timespan of a TV match for optimum effect; he can always fit in a series of memorable spots.  So far, Sanada has spent time in an impressive program with Mexican luchador Tigre Uno.  This is a very simply-managed rivalry, an unusual face-on-face battle underpinned by mutual respect.  This feels far closer to what you'd expect to see in a Japanese ring, and not just because one of the competitors is Japanese.  Reports suggest that the loan spell, due to run out this summer, may be extended as the American experience has been beneficial for Sanada's development.

There is also an echo of this kind of booking in the Knockouts too.  Last year, the division's highspot was a pair of scintillating, hard-hitting contests between Gail Kim (then playing the heel role) and Taryn Terrell.  This rivalry was cut short due to Taryn taking maternity leave, but one year on she's back in the company.  On her return she was welcomed back by Gail, now a face again due to TNA's massive deluge of turns, who paid tribute to her former opponent, thus laying a trail that should lead to a third bout in the series, this time a face-on-face encounter again based on mutual respect.  So far, the pair have either teamed as tag partners or been kept apart, which again suggests the kind of patient booking that TNA needs to do more of.  The longer they are kept separate (while their match is still hyped up), the more special it should appear when the match happens.

Meanwhile, a taster for the big Tokyo show is aired on Challenge this Wednesday (9th July) at 10pm, as there is a special broadcast of a show taped this year, where TNA talent faced up to Wrestle-1's roster.


One final point is that some of my compatriots have been a little put out that Japan gets a major PPV ahead of a loyal British fanbase that has helped the company stay afloat.  There is some justification here, but I don't think we're being forgotten.  Next weekend, Jeremy Borash will be taking a group of TNA stars to appear at a comic con in London, and he promises a big announcement about the UK will be made there.  Surely he will announce that one of the 2015 PPVs will happen over here?   And anyway, this perhaps misses the bigger picture.  TNA need to focus in the short term on their partnership with Wrestle-1, which is only just starting to get established itself.  In the immediate future, New York and Tokyo are the cities that will determine the company's destiny.

WWE & TNA - The Turn of the Screw....

Well, it's certainly shaken things up in the WWE.  This Monday, just 24 hours after making a major contribution to an epic Payback main event, Seth Rollins turned his back on The Shield and joined Evolution.  Let me first say that I think this is a huge mistake.  For one thing, it's very abrupt and rushed, as there were no signs that Rollins was anything other than totally committed to The Shield; if anything, the storylines had teased possible tension between Ambrose and Reigns for some time.  Then there's the point that at Payback, The Shield and Evolution had an absolute war, and Rollins was the key to The Shield's eventual triumph.  But just 24 hours after beating up Evolution mercilessly and plotting their downfall, he joins Evolution's ranks? Eh?  This doesn't work psychologically on any level.  Doubtless on tomorrow night's Smackdown we will get an attempt at justification from a heel who had only turned face a couple of months ago.  Good luck with that....

This is not the first time this year that WWE has botched a heel turn.  Famously, they had Daniel Bryan turn heel by joining the Wyatt Family during their feud.   Yet when 'Daniel Wyatt' started to fight as a member of this sinister family, he was still getting much bigger babyface pops that the nominal faces he was opposing.  Realising this looked ridiculous, WWE reversed the heel turn within a fortnight, and the whole sorry business was never mentioned again.  Bryan then started a fresh face run which led to the Championship belt.   I think WWE deserves credit for realising that it wasn't worth digging deeper with a storyline that wasn't working and essentially owning up to their mistake.  However, they showed a total lack of foresight.  Given the depth of Daniel Bryan's popularity (he is probably more over than any face since Stone Cold), wasn't it obvious what would happen here?

There is a deeper issue here.  Isn't the whole concept of heel and face turns inherently ludicrous?   On a dramatic level the notion that someone who is supposed to be a baddie can, overnight, become a good guy and vice versa seems somewhat absurd.  If this happened in a television drama or a film, you'd struggle to take it seriously unless the script gave a convincing psychological explanation for this sudden change.  In wrestling, this happens all the time, usually with scant justification.

As I've said previously, TNA is currently something of a blur.  Storylines are developing so quickly that it's hard to keep up with what's happening.  MVP joined the company as a face in late January, but turned heel a few weeks ago.  Even more jarringly, Bully Ray, who, as leader of the Aces & Eights, was the company's star heel is, somehow, now the principal face.   As it happens, Ray is a strong enough performer to pull off his new face role, but this seems a waste given that his re-invention as a monster heel was one of the most triumphant performances in modern American wrestling.  He's worked so hard on the character, and now he's had to adjust it further as a not-entirely-convincing good guy.  It doesn't seem natural at all.  And it seems as if over half the roster has turned over the past six months.  This is all too much.

I apologise if I'm about to come across as a nostalgic old man banging on about how 'it used to be all fields round here', but when I watched British wrestling as a child, characters were far more coherent and consistent.  Turns weren't unknown, but they were rare.  Mick McManus was a career heel who was surely playing to his strengths by being a villain.  In fact, as the principal booker for Joint Promotions during the 70s and 80s he could have changed this at any time, but he was happy to remain a bad guy.

This touches on another point.  Most modern wrestlers are more comfortable in one particular role.  Edge is an example of a wrestler who could play a face if needed, but, surely, people will recall his heel runs more.  He was far more convincing as the conniving, opportunist character that dominated Smackdown in the mid 00s.  To an even greater extreme, The Miz is a wrestler who can only play a heel; when he's a face, he comes across as too smarmy to be likeable.   On the other side, Daniel Bryan is the reverse of Edge; he has played a heel pretty well, but the character is far more suitable for a face role.  Performers who are equally effective in both roles are rare: examples include C M Punk and the aforementioned Bully Ray.   Perhaps the oddest example is Austin Aries.  He's been turned so often in TNA that it's often hard to remember what his current role is.  And yet, he never actually changes at all; he's always the same cocky, superior character with a series of crowd-pleasing moves.  He genuinely seems beyond classification.  And he has a cool cape....

So why are turns so popular?  Well, on a basic level, they help shore up flagging storylines by altering the dynamic, so writers can always reach for a turn when a story has reached a dead end.   TNA actually used Bully Ray creatively during the Aces & Eights saga.  Before he was unmasked as the leader of the faction, he was given a fake face turn, as he pretended to be on the side of Hogan and TNA's other senior faces.  This led to a real shock when he revealed his duplicity.  The story sold us a very effective dummy here, and they sealed this with a superb montage section featuring Bully's explanation.

As an aside, it has also been argued that Rollins' heel turn could also be fake, and is a ruse to infiltrate The Authority.  Sounds a bit convoluted, but we'll see....

Of course, the most famous swerve of all was Hulk Hogan's heel turn to form the NWO in WCW.  This worked because it was so unexpected.  Hogan had spent the 80s as the embodiment of all that was good about the vitamin-taking, prayer-saying American dream.  Now, suddenly, he'd laughed off everything he previously stood for and betrayed every last one of his fans.  The crowd went ballistic, and an avalanche of garbage was thrown into the ring.  Eric Bischoff must have been delighted!

It's fair to say that no other turn could ever have the impact of this, and overuse of the device has robbed it of a lot of its power.  Usually at this point, it is customary to drag out pro-wrestling's ultimate scapegoat, Vince Russo, for another beating.  Here, he probably deserves it.  From WCW through to TNA he was singularly uninterested in storyline coherence.  Inspired by the sensational nature of reality TV, he wanted programming to rely on a series of shocks to hold the viewer's attention.  And, of course, swerves of all descriptions would be utilised as the rug would be repeatedly pulled from under the audience's collective feet.  In defence of Russo, it could be argued that his approach was revolutionary and helped shake up a stale culture.  If you really wanted to be contrary, you could draw parallels with the French cinematic 'nouvelle vague' of the 1960s.  There, young directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Alain Resnais would react to what they saw as a dying French film industry by throwing out the rulebook and gleefully breaking well-established narrative rules.  Reportedly, Godard's 1965 film Pierrot le fou was almost entirely improvised.

I think this line of thought ultimately breaks down because a long-running episodic broadcast is a very different beast to a 90-minute movie.  In the latter, it's easier to maintain the illusion of a world out-of-kilter as you only have a limited timespan.  But in a serial, after a while this approach will get a little tiresome when viewers are struggling to make sense of each show every week.  David Lynch, the surrealist-inspired American film director, has made a number of weird but compelling films.  However, when he got to make a major network TV serial, Twin Peaks, he struggled a bit.  The show's originality and daring led to some brilliant moments but the programme ultimately collapsed as it was getting too strained and confusing by the end.  In the same way, Russo's philosophy of throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks would eventually just become migraine-inducing.

Today, wrestling has moved away from Russo's chaotic approach, but it still feels like his influence remains in the need for shocking moments.  Rollins' apparently inexplicable actions on this week's Raw is just the latest example of this.

Before I end this piece, I must consider the one event that so many wrestling fans have been longing to see: the fabled John Cena Heel Turn.  The argument correctly notes that Cena is currently beyond stale, and as a result faces a mixed audience reaction which is noticeably getting more negative.  So, as he already is a heel in many fans' eyes, he should become a heel.  It would arguably be almost as big a shock as Hogan's turn in WCW.  There is a certain logic here, but it's still a flawed idea.  For one thing, modern fans are so contrary, that heel Cena would probably get cheered by those who are currently booing him, so the mixed reaction would remain and a lot of kids (who form Cena's main fanbase) would get needlessly upset.   Also, it wouldn't be as much of a shock as so many people have anticipated the heel turn for years.  It's for these reasons that I feel that the real answer is to keep Cena face but change his character so he is more serious and less of a cartoon Superman character.  He should evolve rather than change overnight.

And maybe that is the conclusion that should be applied more generally.  Sudden swerves too often look awkward, but if a character is allowed to change gradually, it is far more dramatically convincing.  WWE has on occasion managed it.  When C M Punk delivered his famous pipe bomb worked shoot in 2011, he has actually at the start of a face turn.  He was still berating the audience heelishly, but he was also delivering a message that many fans agreed with, so the speech was couched in ambiguity.  Punk would continue to be a tweener prior to a full face turn that seemed almost organic.  WWE has apparently announced that there is no such thing as 'heels' and 'faces' anymore.  This is obvious nonsense, but it's still intriguing, suggesting that there should be more room for shades of grey.  The problem is that the approach I suggest requires patience and long-term planning.  WWE in particular struggles with this concept, with reports saying that Vince McMahon demands re-writes at whim.  I even read that one peculiar edition of Raw was actually being re-written as it aired!  Maybe what I'm suggesting goes against the grain of that company's current ethos, sadly.