Reported by Martin Hawrysko of WrestleView.com
On Friday, January 12, 2007 at 1:29 AM EST

Welcome to the newest installment of Within Reason, here at one of the only wrestling websites that doesn’t steal news or have pop-ups, WrestleView.com. The feedback from my first two columns on this site has been great, keep it up. One of the best parts about writing at WV is the added interaction with you, the readers.

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Do the forums you regularly visit have a lot of other posters? There’s not much fun in posting on a message board if hardly anyone else reads or replies to it. Secondly, do the forums you visit have pop-up ads? Chances are, yes. WV’s forums not only don’t have pop-up ads, but there are plenty of other people who post there as well. I have begun posting there and will continue to do so. If you have tried our forums, simply register a screen name, and you’re in!

And yes, the forums are free.

I heard the most ridiculous news item the other day, involving the use of CM Punk in ECW. Apparently, some agents (one of them Arn Anderson) backstage actually believe that CM Punk is NOT OVER with the fans! Are these people watching not watching their own show?

The day of ECW’s December to Dismember, Paul Heyman allegedly got into heated arguments with the other agents backstage in regards to booking Punk in the Elimination Chamber match. Heyman actually wanted Punk to choke out the Big Show. The other agents allegedly went to Vince McMahon, and I think the rest is history. Punk received an outstanding reaction from the live crowd, and all the momentum was squashed as he was the first person to be eliminated. Just smooth.

Then on this week’s ECW show, CM Punk’s undefeated streak ends at the hands of Hardcore Freakin’ Holly! Smooth move WWE! Kiss away more of your potential because of stupid decisions such as this!

Almost immediately, it was decided that ECW would be targeting the regular WWE fans. That meant that any aspect from the original ECW would be thrown out the windows, including the ECW originals. The point then would be to create new stars for the fans to get behind. That was going to be a hard enough task as it was. Leave it to the WWE that when one person actually is over, the company totally ignores it and buries him anyways!

I am going to inform you all of one simple fact boys and girls. When it comes to wrestling, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, is NOT a wrestling genius. Vince McMahon is someone who is very successful, some on his own merit, while other aspects can be attributed to having the right people around him, at the right time.

As the nWo angle was taking off in WCW, according to many fans at that time, the WWE was pure garbage. Something had to be done to get the fans interested in WWE again, but what? That’s where Vince Russo came in with the “Attitude era" that became one of the most prosperous times in that company ever. Vince Russo may have stolen or borrowed ideas (whichever you want to believe) from Paul Heyman’s ECW, but it was Russo who thought of the storylines that made the WWE what it was in the late nineties. All Vince McMahon did was filter out some of the bad Russo ideas, and the combination made for a great wrestling product.

During the summer of 2002, the WWE was becoming stale once again. During this time, Ric Flair had “lost" his half of WWE ownership back to Vince McMahon. Vince then began appearing on both shows, and the brand extension lost any appeal that it had left. It was that summer that the WWE hired Vince Russo back, albeit two weeks only. The hiring was even announced on WWE.com, where the website welcomed him back to the company. It was during this time that Russo came up with the idea of assigning two general managers, one for each show. Russo came up with the idea of Eric Bischoff to head Raw and then to invade Smackdown and steal a lot of its talent.

After a few days, Vince Russo was already demoted to being a consultant, I believe. Two weeks went by and Russo was done with the WWE. Stephanie McMahon, was believed to be the one who really pushed her dad to reconsider Russo’s hiring.

Anyways, despite Russo leaving the company, look who decided to take up someone else’s idea! Eric Bischoff was hired and immediately attempted to steal both Triple H and the Rock. Months went by where talent was jumping from one brand to the other. It made for some exciting television.

When Paul Heyman was in charge of booking Smackdown, back in 2002, I think it was, that show was on fire! The show had a great flow of wrestling with good fueds and promos. McMahon didn’t agree with Heyman’s direction, which led to conflict behind the scenes, which then led to Heyman being removed as lead writer. I remember the show changed and it wasn’t the same after that.

Most recently, we have seen it with the new ECW, as Heyman was sent home just last month. This new crap that you call ECW has McMahon’s finger prints all over them. Now I’m not saying claiming that Heyman or Russo are wrestling geniuses. Heyman, that could be debated, but Russo, gosh no. Russo is responsible for some of the worst horrific crap on wrestling in the modern era.

Getting back on track, Vince McMahon has always gotten hard over tall guys. That’s why wrestlers such as Gene Snitsky, Prince Albert, Nathan Jones, Umaga, and now the Great Khali and Vladimir Koslov are on the brinks on getting pushes, to a certain extent. No matter how talent-less or boring some of these big wrestlers are, Vince for some reason is infatuated with these men and as far as he is concerned, the sky is the limit for them.

Vince McMahon is the same individual who… thought the Katie Vick storyline was hilarious… wanted to have a storyline where he turned out to be the father of Stephanie’s child (I don’t care what was reported, you just know that discussion was at least brought up at some point)… thought this past week that the fans would actually be interested in seeing two impersonators pretend to wrestle as Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump.

There, ladies and gentlemen, is your wrestling genius.

I understand there needs to be humor in wrestling. I love backstage skits and promos as much as the next person. However, Vince’s sense of humor is different than mine. Vince’s sense of humor is rather sick and twisted if you ask me. Humor in wrestling is either hit and miss… and too often with Vince McMahon, it’s a miss.

There is no doubt that Vince McMahon had made smart decisions for his company through the years. It was no luck that after the WWE went public many years ago, Vince became an instant billionaire overnight. If Vince was a dumb individual, his company wouldn’t have turned into the global empire that it now is.

However, if Vince was a wrestling genius, you wouldn’t see the utter crap that you regularly see each week. Each week, it’s always one of his shows, if not two of them, that is pure crap. If Raw has a good week, then either ECW or Smackdown (if not both) are not good shows, and vice versa. If the WWE has such a hard time juggling three brands, then they need to slim the fat and cut it down to either two brands or just one.

If Vince was a wrestling genius, wrestlers who are over with the fans wouldn’t be de-pushed to the point where they become nobodies in a matter of time. Chris Jericho, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Edge, Christian, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Carlito, and Randy Orton among others. While a few of these individuals have been lucky enough to surface above the glass ceiling at times, many others continue to tread just above the surface while so many others have drowned long ago.

If Vince was a wrestling genius, you wouldn’t see ECW in the current state that it’s in. The concept of trying to push ECW towards the WWE audience is moronic. A wrestling genius would never have attempted that move. A wrestling genius would have known better to ever attempt such a move. If ECW were to be brought back, a wrestling genius would figure that the correct way to build the brand is to gear it towards the original ECW fans. A wrestling genius would know far better than to make it exactly like the shows that are on Monday and Friday nights. A wrestling genius would have known that if ECW were to have any chance, it must truly be different.

The reality is things are not going to get any better until Vince becomes scared of competition, or if the loss of ratings becomes so significant. Competition is what forced Vince to take the WWE in a different direction back in 1998, and that is what it will take for him to take his company in a different direction today.

Despite TNA continuing to slowly grow (and I do mean slowly), Vince still sees his company monopolizing the wrestling industry. As long as he doesn’t feel threatened by any other company, he is going to continue to do things his way. You will see huge wrestlers with no talent continue to get pushed, more unfunny Saturday Night Live type skits, and other sick angles involving racism, bashing the U.S. troops, anti U.S. factions, the use or mention of deceased persons in storylines, and more.

It shouldn’t take a genius to figure out that nobody wants to see more of that.

.:: Aimless Observations ::.

-This week’s ECW earned its lowest rating this returning this summer. What a joke. The WWE continues to throw away ECW. Horrible booking and not pushing the stars that the fans want is destroying this brand. Now Test is expected to be going after the ECW world title… dear gosh!

-If you thought I was negative and bitter in this column, than be thankful I didn’t write a column ripping apart this week’s Raw. I figured it was better to spare you… and myself the misery of having to relive that awful show.

-Switching gears to Impact, I liked last night’s show. As the case each week, the Kevin Nash and VKM stuff I think is garbage. But I like how the Dudleys (err, Team 3D) seem to matter now, I liked James Mitchell’s promo, and even though I suspected it was possible that Abyss would turn on Sting, it still personifies a wrestling storyline that has been done right so far. No surprise that a wrestler turns on Sting, once again, for the 349,432 time.

I did have a problem with how Angle was booked during the Abyss and Tomko match. During Angle’s match, he is watching the ramp to see if Joe is going to come out. Then afterwards, Joe implies that he is going to go after Angle before the show is over. So how is Angle booked? He comes out to lock Christian up and then keeps his back on the entrance ramp, as if he doesn’t think Joe might come after him.

Nevertheless, I did think the ending was neat with everyone out there involved in their respective feuds. Impact wasn’t perfect, but it had enough to make up for the crap that I witnessed on Monday night.

-I’m beginning to toy with the idea of starting my own blog. With a blog, I can post whenever, with any idea or observation that may not warrant its own column. If I get enough e-mailers encouraging me to do it, I’d give it a try.

-And finally, don’t forget about the WV Forums. To some people, the forums become addicting, so you never know until you try them. Remember, our forums don’t have pop-ups and we already have a large list of regular posters, so you don’t have to worry about a lack of responses.

-- I’m zonked. I’ve been out of school for about a month now, and I’m use to staying up until about 2 in the morning. Those nights are coming to an end, as the new semester begins this Tuesday. Everyone else has gone back, so I’m ready to as well, even though at this time next week, I’ll be wishing I had this free time back. I guess that’s life…

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