Notes from the Nosebleeds #65

Notes from the Nosebleeds #65
May 8, 2010
By: Matt O’Brien of Wrestleview.com

There is a frequently quoted phrase used tirelessly. The more things change the more they stay the same. As cliché as it is, it’s a terrible truth. You see this in your everyday life between work, school home and even your pastimes such as professional wrestling. But even if things stay the same that does not necessarily guarantee redundancy. Sometimes staying the same allows one to perfect what they are doing and in turn change for the better when the time is right.

A great example of this is Edge. A couple of weeks ago Edge was drafted to the Raw brand where he turned heel by attacking Randy Orton. After spending months recovering from an injury, he made a surprise comeback at Royal Rumble and claimed a title match for Wrestlemania. Leading up to Mania he engaged in a bitter rivalry with Chris Jericho that cast Edge in a baby face role he had not played since 2004. That’s six years as a heel. There was a time when Edge was an up and coming baby face, struggling to break into the main event scene. After finally finding his stride as a heel and becoming a main event star, a return to the baby face ranks was a natural progression. It happens with every heel that has stayed in that role for a long period of time. Triple H finally got to a point where he could do no wrong as a heel that he became a baby face. Randy Orton is now feeling that same affect. Unfortunately the baby face run didn’t go as well as it could have for Edge. After headlining Wrestlemania as a baby face challenger returning from an injury, Edge turned back around out of nowhere to his heel role. Edge is once again the Rated-R Superstar. What is different about his run as of right now is his loner status. As others at Wrestleview such as Doug Lackey, Hunter Golden and Adam Martin have discussed recently, Edge is rarely on his own. In fact, he is much more intriguing and entertaining with someone to play off of. Anytime Edge was on his own was dull compared to his team with Christian or Randy Orton as well as his relationships with Vickie and Lita. So now that he is on Raw, who would make a good partner for Edge, should WWE pair him with someone? What follows are a few possibilities.

Maryse
WWE has teased a Maryse-Miz alliance but she would also fit very well with Edge. Maryse is a fantastic heel with so much charisma it seems a shame not giving her a big-time partner to play off of. She is the star diva on Raw and a pairing with a main event star would do well for her and the divas she feuds with.

Melina
While she is still on the injured list, Melina could make quite a splash upon her return. She makes a good baby face diva but a spectacular heel. An alliance with Edge could turn up the volume on both characters. Looking at his stint with Lita and his time with Vickie, Edge utilized the partnership to push his character in a direction he had never gone before. Both relationships were very different. With Melina, Edge could truly become the Rated-R Superstar again with Melina at his side at her downright nastiest. They could make the most mischievous alliance in recent memory.

The Bella Twins
The Rated-R Superstar being escorted to the ring by the Bella Twins would be similar to the Edge’s pairing with Lita and the whole sexual emphasis on the relationship. The Bellas also could benefit from a bigger storyline.

There are other choices for Edge. He may even gain a lackey in an undercard talent or maybe a bodyguard, but when looking at the R theme the character, a female cohort seems the most appropriate.

Another change/constant going on is wrestling is the state of TNA. The company announced this week that Impact! is moving back to Thursdays. The news comes after Impact! suffered a significant ratings decline and failed to grow its audience while competing with Raw. Thus far, the Hulk Hogan experiment has not done for TNA what the company had hoped. Back in January, they did something very special with their January 4th show by putting Impact! on Monday night for a live three hours against Raw. When TNA made the move fulltime, talk of the Monday Night Wars II psyched fans up for what could have been a great time for company. Instead the ratings went down and TNA fans began to split on whether Hogan’s presence had helped or hurt the product. Here they are months after signing Hogan and trying to turn things around only to be where they were last year. Still, one cannot fault the company for trying.

What TNA needs to do now is look to the future. They do not need to grow right now. What they need to do is perfect what they are. However, what they are seems to be something they are still struggling to figure out. They have incredible talent, some would argue they have better talent than WWE, but they need guidance. Creative also needs assistance as well. There is no one single solution for the issues the company needs to work through. TNA needs to find itself and then develop and grow from there. They were humiliated by the Monday night move. It failed miserably. TNA now back to where they were before but that is the best thing for them. From here they can structure and mature.

Change is inevitable. But when something changes it is not always for the better. It can happen before its time or not at the right time at all. Sometimes things have to stay the same so that they can change. Looking at Edge and TNA are perfect examples of this. Here’s hoping that staying the same changes things!

Thanks for reading.

Matt O’Brien

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