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   Well, the semester is close to over. Final examinations have begun; my
   class writes their exam tomorrow. This has been a very busy term. It
   turns out that my first ever federal research grant application has
   delivered me a very good research grant for the next four years. In
   addition, two undergraduate students will be working with me in the
   summer on research projects. Things are picking up. 

   Hey, it appears that I may not have updated links for my 03/22/2001
   update, which basically just revied Greed. If you didn't read it,
   click the "previous" link above.
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   - On 09/04/1995, the Eric Bischoff-led WCW began a new story line arc
   in the history books of professional wrestling. That was the night
   that WCW Monday Nitro debuted, with a wrestling appearance by Jushin
   Liger, a surprise appearance by in-the-WWF-yesterday Lex Luger, and
   the name recognition of Hulk Hogan. Nitro seemingly offered a little
   bit of everything for everybody; every analysis, inside and outside
   the company, credited the surprises on the show, the spontaneity, the
   "what will happen next" feel of the show for its success. Was it
   really those elements that led to Nitro surpassing WWF RAW in
   popularity or was it moreso the lack of direction in the WWF? What we
   do know for sure is that the element of surprise that was praised as
   the key to Nitro's success would also irreparably damage one potential
   key player after another in the years to come. Oh sure, there was the
   remarkable success of the nWo story line, particularly the Hogan turn.
   In hindsight, though, even that success was really only a short-term
   thing, coasted upon for the long-term and marred by the desire to
   never ever be predictable.

   Let's not pick at the bones of the corpse; it should be enough to
   perform a cursory examination. Do we need to count the number of
   inexplicable turns each year (sometimes each month)? Do we need to
   examine how many of them were strikingly similar? Due to the desire to
   surprise smart fans, fans in the know, every single booker had to
   create story lines with swerve endings that made no sense. There's
   nothing wrong with plotting a swerve, nothing at all, but, even when
   they are well-done, doing them frequently dilutes their effectiveness.
   Worse yet, throughout the successful run and right up to its death,
   the story line decisions were driven more by ego-stroking than
   business generation. The headiness of that one fantastically lucrative
   year blinded every decision maker to the fact that earning money in
   the present requires effort and focus, while setting the stage to earn
   money in the future in addition requires care and foresight. And
   looking back at the years that were, I don't think anybody would dare
   argue that "effort, focus, care, and foresight" typified WCW's
   business decisions. That statement applies well to all of the booking
   regimes, including Bischoff's first run, and certainly including the
   reigns of Vince Russo, Kevin Nash, and Kevin Sullivan.

   As mentioned in a previous article, one of the obvious legacies of the
   at-times-dominant, at-times-competitive, and in-the-end-miserable WCW
   run of the past half-dozen years is that the great workers were never
   rewarded with meaningful pushes, perhaps with the exception of Booker
   T at the end. I admit I'm selfish: I was more than happy to revel in
   the great wrestling matches that the Cruiserweight wrestlers
   delivered. Truthfully, it seems highly unreasonable to expect that
   those workers will fare any better than once-awesome Taka Michinoku &
   Shoichi Funaki in the WWF or a WWF-run WCW. The incomplete effort of
   WCW in this regard is surely better than the total lack of effort with
   a junior heavyweight style that the WWF has delivered. Yes, 'tis
   better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. The
   lack of meaningful pushes to "smaller" guys like Chris Benoit & Chris
   Jericho can also be credited to the egos on top in WCW and the
   continual desire to push has-beens who should have been shifted into
   positions of making stars while still being stars.

   Okay, enough with the walk down a frequently-dismal memory lane. Why
   is this relevant when WCW is dead? Hey, let's at least be happy that
   it looks like the cancers in the locker room and the inept members of
   the WCW crew are out of work. But, as anybody who has been watching
   WWF TV for the past few months should attest there is greater
   relevance, no, not to the WCW crash-and-purchase but to the current
   state of the WWF. Consider
     * the constant mishandling of Kurt Angle, who has been mildly
       recharacterized a few times while all the while being blocked from
       moving any further up the ladder. Angle will likely end up being
       one of the greatest performers of this new era despite it all
       because, like Ric Flair & Bret Hart & very few others, Angle has
       that intangible extra that allows him to survive events that would
       kill some other careers.
     * the constant mishandling of Chris Benoit, who has on occasion
       managed to rise to a world title match, but, in fair hindsight,
       was used primarily to make others look good before being returned
       to near-midcard status. Benoit and the other Chris (Jericho) are
       now set to feud again with the face/heel positions interchanged.
       Oooh, they are so much better off than they were in WCW.
     * the midcard status of several other strong workers.
     * the now-unchallenged ego of HHH. It's no secret that I'm not on
       the "HHH is a great worker" bandwagon. With clear eyes, I would
       point out that every one of his praised matches were mostly
       garbage wrestling. There's nothing wrong with that, per se. Mick
       Foley made himself a legend by working that style of match at a
       sicker level; but, then, nobody has the nerve to suggest that Mick
       Foley is a great worker in anything other than garbage wrestling
       or stunt man bump matches. HHH has always admired Ric Flair and
       has even stolen the occasional spot from old Flair matches. But
       we've all seen the integrity of Ric Flair over the years, his
       level of ego. We know Ric Flair, and HHH is no Ric Flair. Not in
       this regard. Look no further than the horrible HHH vs. Jeff Hardy
       fiasco from RAW last week. It left no doubt that HHH's ego knows
       no bounds. Quoth the Observer: "The theme of [RAW] was to cury any
       threats to the top position, and HHH was totally unmasked on [RAW]
       to anyone who still thought he was a team player. What's so about
       HHH is the same thing as Hogan, in that everyone from the outside
       sees it clearly, and management in both cases are totally blind to
       it. Remember how Bischoff, and he will to this day, defends Hogan
       even though Hogan was partially responsible for ruination of the
       company. WWF management defends HHH as the Most Valuable guy in
       the company. The only one who saw through things was Jim Crockett
       on Dusty, and that wasn't until after he was out of business. It's
       jhust so sad to watch the WCW mistakes on [RAW], particularly when
       only one company is left, and it can go down just as fast if they
       don't create new stars."
     * the next PPV is headlined by Steve Austin & HHH vs. Undertaker &
       Kane with all the major titles on the line in that one match. Why
       are these guys in this position? Okay, maybe one could try to
       argue that this is the post-WrestleMania PPV show, it's a minor
       thing, right? But all four titles? And what about the build to
       this PPV? It has totally killed the Hardy Boyz. And it sure hasn't
       helped Edge & Christian.

   There's one other equally nefarious legacy of Nitro. Nitro upped the
   ante by presenting non-squash matches throughout the show, by and
   large, often delivering PPV-caliber pairings on the show, with the WWF
   forced to follow suit. On the surface, this seemed like a cool thing.
   But it drastically changed the business. Unlike PPVs, the TV shows
   have commercials which generally have to occur every ten or twelve
   minutes, tops. That means that with pre-match stuff, ring entrances,
   and post-match stuff, "long" matches generally can run a mere six or
   seven minutes, tops. The reeducation of the fans that Nitro and then
   RAW brought about meant that the promotions could no longer interrupt
   matches with commercial breaks, and they couldn't pad a show with
   several short segments and frequent commercials to accomodate an
   uninterrupted half-hour final segment. So, while everybody raves about
   the great TV, the actual wrestling matches generally aren't all that
   great, even when the wrestlers in them are. There are great moments,
   but very few great matches. And, sadly, the rub is that the fan
   reeducation carries right over to house shows and PPVs. It's well
   known that at WWF house shows no matches exceed 10 minutes, except
   possibly a main event bout, which is generally going to be a garbagy
   match anyhow. And PPVs are not much better. It becomes a major
   stipulation when a match is long, and I'm not talking about 60-minute
   matches. Wrestling matches in the WWF (and WCW before its death) don't
   tell a story through the wrestling any more. If a match is lucky
   enough to get 20 minutes, in all likelihood it runs that long because
   there's a lengthy story line element involving outsiders getting
   involved, etc. Yes, another depressing legacy of Nitro is that it
   precipitated the elimination of longer wrestling matches. And, hell,
   if you survey the landscape, how many wrestlers are actually capable
   of working that kind of match anyhow? Bret Hart was not far off the
   mark when he called Chris Benoit the last wrestler cut from that sort
   of mold. Perhaps not that surprisingly, it appears that Kurt Angle
   could be another guys to fit the label.

   With all that said, I somewhat inexplicably still look forward to PPV
   events because I have high hopes despite reasonably continual
   disappointments. Sure, Angle vs. Benoit was awesome at WrestleMania,
   but it could have been even better. For some reason, though, Shane vs.
   Vince and Undertaker vs. HHH had to get so much time, right? As
   Backlash approaches, I'm stoked about Benoit vs. Angle and Jericho vs.
   Regal, but I dread that neither match will live up to my expectations.
   Both have been given gimmicks that look like they will hurt the
   matches. In their submission match, Benoit & Angle will no doubt
   submit 5 times between the two of them, which could hurt credibility.
   Given the choice of 30 minutes of heaven with these guys, would you
   let it build to one decisive fall, make it two-out-of-three falls, or
   make it a loads-of-submission match? Well, that half-hour match will
   get me to spend the money regardless of the stipulation.
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