FROM THE DESK OF...
Keep It Simple, Stupid (Part 1)
Written: 17/8/09
Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
It was bound to happen sooner or later. At time of writing, there has been a major shake-up in TNA wrestling. Jeff Jarrett has taken a leave of absence, and Dutch Mantel was fired from the creative team. Everywhere you look, people have criticised, not so much the talent, but the creative ideas being put forth on television and pay-per-view. TNA have a great mix of veterans and young guys, but the creative department - according to magazines, dirt sheets, and internet message boards - was always letting them down.
I would tend to agree. It's often a frustrating experience to watch a TNA show. I liken TNA to a fork in the road; one way you have a nice, scenic road that takes you straight to your destination. The other way - the TNA way - is a curving, winding road, filled with potpoles, that eventually takes to the destination, but it's a much more agonising journey then it should have been. There's a lot of rumours floating around about the nature of Jeff's departure, or "leave of absence" as it's being called. On the Jeff Jarrett side of things, it's a personal decision, that was not forced on him in any way, shape or form. From the Kurt Angle camp - it was supposedly Angle who told the company it's either me or him - they're saying that Jeff was removed from television by management.
Clearly there are two sides to the argument, and as an outsider looking in, I'm not going to begin to try and dechipher the truth in all this. It's actually not even the topic of my ramblings, although it did give me an idea for this edition of "From the Desk of..." Ironically, the title of this edition of the column - Keep It Simple Stupid - was the booking philosophy of Jeff's own father, Jerry Jarrett. As I mentioned in a previous column, where I listed my personal Top Ten Most Influential Moments in Wrestling, Jerry Jarrett was a former wrestler and booker in Memphis, one of the last great territories to survive the WWF war machine. It's little wonder then that Jerry had a massive heart attack while working with TNA with Vince Russo as the booker, and why he sold his share of the company and got the hell out. While we can simply change the channel, Jerry was right in the thick of it, with nobody apparently heeding his simple, straight forward philosophies on booking wrestling.
It's also interesting to mention that Stephanie McMahon-Healmsley, as a major cog in the WWE creative process, has called for more realism, and encouraging the wrestlers to *gasp* play extensions of their real personalities. Back in the territory days, it was the wrestler who came in with their own ideas on their character and storylines. The booker merely kept an eye on their matches, saw if they had talent in the ring and on the mic, and pushed them accordingly. In the WWF Attitude era, many wrestlers ie. Austin, Rock, Shawn were able to portray themselves, only with the volume turned up full blast.
So, in using TNA's recent creative shake-ups as a background, and WWE's belief in wrestlers being extensions of themselves, rather then playing silly, cartoonish gimmicks, I started thinking about the really good ideas I've seen play out on my TV screen, and I realised a couple of things; they were all really simple and straightforward, and they all addressed issues and situations that people encounter in their everyday lives.
Sibling Rivalry - Sibling rivalries can be heated exchanges amongst brothers and sisters, maybe even cousins. Some rivalries end once you grow up, some continue to fester for years. The WWF has produced some tremendous sibling rivalry storylines, none better in my opinion then Bret and Owen Hart in the early to mid 90s. (Perhaps the reason why Bret and Owen feuded so well was they may have drawn inspiration from their own family. Bret talks in his book about the jealousy and animosity amongst the Hart brothers and sisters, although Bret ironically maintains he and Owen never fought.) The seeds were planted at Survivor Series 1993, when Owen was the only member of the Hart Family eliminated in their match against Shawn Michaels and his Knights. (The concept of Shawn teaming with masked men calling themselves Knights seems strange, but in actuality, Shawn was a late replacement for Jerry Lawler, who had to be removed from WWF programming to address some "personal issues" - the King and his Knights, get it?). Shawn had rolled Owen up after the younger Hart collided with Bret, who was standing on the ring apron, his back turned to the action. As the Hart's celebrated, Owen returned and pushed the Hitman. The Hart's rallied around, and apparently the heat had subsided.
However, that wasn't the case. Bret and Owen teamed up to face the WWF Tag Team champions, The Quebecers, at the 1994 Royal Rumble. Bret was in trouble with a bad knee, but seemed reluctant to tag out, opting instead to continue fighting. In the end, the referee stopped the match when he deemed that Bret was unable to continue. Having lost the match and a chance to win the World Tag title - and also feeling Bret was hogging the ring time - Owen relentlessly took advantage of his older brother, viciously attacking the injured knee. Lurking in the background was brother-in-law, Jim Neidhart, whom Bret hypothesised had poisoned Owen's heart. It also led to the return of their other brother-in-law, Davey Boy Smith, who joined Bret's corner in the feud. The highpoint was a classic steel cage match on an otherwise lacklustre Summerslam 1994 card, which Bret won when Owen's leg became entangled in the cage.
Interestingly, Owen scored only one victory over the course of this long and riveting feud, which took place at the diabolical Wrestlemania 10. Bret went into the show knowing he would be doing double duty - later he would face whoever emerged as the WWF champion between Yokozuna and Lex Luger. Both Luger and Bret had simultaneously gone over the top rope to the floor in the Royal Rumble, thus both got a shot at the gold. Lex was weakly disqualified, so Bret would get a chance to wrest the belt from Yoko, the man who the previous year at Wrestlemania 9 had cheated Bret out of the gold. First however, he had to get through Owen in the opening match. It was a brilliant technical bout, ending with Owen using a victory roll out of nowhere to upset the Hitman. When Bret later defeated Yoko, it enraged Owen further, who believed he should be given the title.
It wasn't until 1997 that the simmering rivalry was finally resolved, with Bret convincing Owen and Davey that the American fans had turned them against each other. Owen and Bulldog joined Bret to fight the evils of the WWF - namely Stonecold Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels. They would later be joined by a returning Neidhart and Stu Hart graduate, Brian Pillman.
Disgruntled Employee Overbearing Boss - Only a tiny percent of people in this world have a job that they really love, and a boss they can get along with, without stress and frustration. For most people however, we've always had that annoying, preppy or abusive boss that you just want to punch in the face, but in doing so, it would cost you your job - and possibly a lot more. Thus was the reason why the feud between the disgruntled employee Stonecold Steve Austin and the overbearing boss Vince McMahon was so captivating, and took the WWF to new heights.
Austin had arrived in January 1996 as the Ringmaster, managed by Ted Dibiase and made the Million Dollar champion. Austin had an almost robotic personality, and dismantled opponents with his mechanical wrestling style. Evidentally, he was brought in to have good matches, not be the man that would earn the company more money then any other superstar in it's history, over-taking Hulk Hogan. Austin had been fired while recovering from an injury in WCW, a highly contentious issue between Austin and then-WCW vice president, Eric Bischoff. Austin had apparently offered Bisch the idea of a guy who went out in black boots and tights and raised hell. Bischoff, in his infinite wisdom, didn't feel this character would be marketable. After having been fired, Austin made the trek to ECW, where the first signs of Stonecold came to fruition. Austin showed an intensity and charisma in his interviews that nobody had seen before - he was never really given the opportunity. He also showed a highly entertaining, comedic side, poking fun at Hogan and Bischoff in a series of hilarious skits.
But, when he arrived in the WWF as mentioned, he was The Ringmaster. A few months into that run however, Austin entered into a feud with Savio Vega, which led to a Strap match, with the stipulation that if Ringmaster lost, Dibiase would have to leave the WWF (this of course was the WWF's way of writing him out of the storylines as Ted had signed a deal with WCW). It was the best thing that could have happened to Austin when he lost the match, and Dibiase. He dropped the money green tights, the belt, and the whole Ringmaster character. Slowly but surely, he evolved into Stonecold, and would go on to win the King of the Ring that year. He then focused his attention on a returning Bret Hart, who had been missing in action since dropping the WWF title to Shawn at Wrestlemania 12. Austin wasn't impressed with the hype surrounding Bret's return, and promised to make his life a living hell. A strange occurence took place, as the fans began to rally behind him, and so a double turn was booked to take place at Wrestlemania 13, where Austin passed out in the Sharpshooter, covered in blood. Bret decided to lay in a few kicks for good measure, and suddenly, Austin was a babyface.
Austin instantly became the number one babyface in the company. A year later, Austin beat Shawn at Wrestlemania 14 for the WWF title in a match that garnered plenty of attention from mainstream media, as a result of Mike Tyson's role as a DX sympathiser and special enforcer who ended up doing the right thing by the Rattlesnake. Vince immediately let Austin know that he was now the champion, and had to be corporate friendly. That meant no more finger gestures, no more swearing, and certainly no more Stunning of top ranked WWF officials (the first time Austin stunned McMahon was one of the most watched segments in WWF TV history). Austin would have none of it, and so the big feud was off and running.
Vince had reportedly always wanted to be a wrestler, but was strongly discouraged by his father, Vince Sr. However, after the chaos of Survivor Series 1997 - when McMahon "screwed" Bret for real of the WWF title and recieved heavy backlash from the pro-Hitman crowd in Montreal - Vince realised he was the top heel he was looking for. Slowly but surely, the story played out, with the fans clearly behind the blue collar brawler, Austin, who the fans seemed to live vicariously through as he flipped off, Stunned, and soaked his boss in beer, amongst other things. After months of frustration, Vince wanted Austin in a match, where Austin had to tie one arm behind his back. The big moment was spoiled by Dude Love, who placed a prone Austin in the Mandible claw. Not only were fans intrigued by Austin/McMahon, but other feuds were intertwined ie. Austin/Dude Love, Austin/Rock, as Vince tried everything to rid the WWF of Austin. On one classic episode of RAW, after Vince had publically fired him, Austin hunted him down all show, finally leading to Vince being taken to the ring, where he figuratively pissed his pants as Austin held a fake plastic gun to his head.
By the time the Vince/Austin rivalry came to a close, it had served it's purpose - the fans had loved seeing Austin do to McMahon what they had probably wanted to do to their bosses in their own jobs. It completely turned the Monday Night Wars around, and left WCW in the dust.
In the next edition of From the Desk of..., I will discuss some of my other favourite feuds in wrestling, that struck a chord through it's simplicity, which make you wonder why wrestling can be so complicated at the best of times.
