Post by nail on Aug 29, 2009 14:44:52 GMT -5
Ok first of all let me say i went back and actually my last column wasn't the third, i wrote many more articles entitled What's the Point? so this is probably the 7th, if not feel free to contradict me.
I believe the topics for this piece would be the Kurt Angle Saga and Wrestling and Soap Operas. Let us begin with Kurt.
I know i jumped the gun talking about Kurt's little incident so soon, his side of the story wasn't even heard at the time. Last week he told his side of the story and to be completely honest with you i intend to give him the benefit of the doubt. Apparently Rhaka Khan has some holes in her story and you know i don't intend to give you gives a summary of what happened. If you want to read it you can search it on Google and read it from people much more qualified than me.
But i do have something to say due to the many responses i got.
There is a difference between wrestling and real world and we have seen it go wrong too many times when someone tries to blend both toghether. It works to an extent, but most of the times it ends up damaging the wrestler's reputation. Keeping the title on Angle would be trying one of these things. A much better option would be having Kurt Angle loosing due to interference, having him get beat up by the MEM, take some time off and then return to kick some butt.
Would it work? I don't know because sincerely i haven't given this much thought. But in my view one thing is for sure: you just can't let things like these go unpunished, it's just too serious.
I just read that Misterio violated the wellness policy and is going to be suspended for 30 days. Rey is a minor champion in the company, WWE did the right thing. TNA did not, because TNA didn't react at all. It is obvious that something is going to happen with Rey and his storyline and his title.
Putting your talent in front of your company is never a good thing, it's a puch in the face to everybody else and makes your company look desperate in my view.
You know, this Kurt situation is not just about him stalking his girl, it's not just about him going to jail and hurting TNA.
This is about showing who's boss and about what is tolerated and what isn't. Oh and just another flashback that applies to this situation: RVD got suspended and lost his belt for smoking pot. I'm not going to pretend i know what's going on in TNA, i have no clue, but if i was a part of their staff or roster i would be pretty pissed about this entire situation. And obviously there's the fact that there were drugs in Kurt's car.
In this case TNA had a golden opportunity to set a standart: we don't want Prima Donnas hurting our company and our product, and whoever does something like this is not going to be a part of this company. TNA had a chance to make a tremendous impact on the wrestling world, firing or suspending your ace would mean everyone on the roster would have to be clean or else they would be sacked.
I don't care who you are, if you screw the company you don't work for us. Sure, Kurt Angle is their ace but don't tell me you think he's unreplaceable, nobody is. Wrestlers come and go, people get older, their skills deteorate. Furthermore there is a huge amount of talent out there.
And instead of taking advantage of this oportunity TNA just sat back and didn't even issue a statement instead deciding to punish wrestlers for talking about the situation. What does this say about TNA?
What IS the point?
I do not know. But if they did what i said i bet new wrestlers would think twice about getting involved in drugs and whatever. Yeah i know, i'm such a dictator, but that is my view on the subject.
Ok moving on to lighter subjects.
Last month i had the time to read FMW's history, not a comprehensive thing obviously but...it was very interesting stuff.
That motivated me to think about soap operas. And bear with me throughout this entire thing, i know i may be overthinking stuff.
I believe first of all i should explain something: in Portugal there are series and there are soap operas. It is very rare when a portuguese series is on tv, mostly we just watch american shows in that department. Portugal focuses much more energy in producing soap operas which are a different format, whereas series are 20 episodes a season, soap operas have over 250 1 hour episodes a year and in some cases even more. Not that i like most of them anyways.
I'm babbling, here's my point: wrestling and soap operas or even series have a lot in common. Both intend to cause interest by having drama or comedy mostly centering a dispute between a bad character and a good character. We all know that. However wrestling has to be different from an ordinary television show because wrestling is action. Without action it just wouldn't be wrestling, and a wrestling show without angles and segments in which the wrestlers speak just wouldn't be the wrestling he have grown acostumed to. Both are important.
However there is one thing that bothers me. And i'll make the connection to FMW don't worry.
I haven't seen a WWE show in quite some time so i'll just talk about what i remember. There isn't any cohesion between storylines. Do you remember the ECW storylines? the ones that could run for about a year and more and would still be compelling? Have you seen such things on the major companies? I haven't. Most of the time a storyline runs for about three months in which the guys that are feuding have a match between them at every single PPV. There is nothing new here, there is no depth which is so common on compelling shows. I've read a Paul Heyman article where he talked about how he tried to copy film ideas that would fit the product. Tommy Dreamer vs Raven comes to mind: the hero is an ordinary guy that has to try his hardest to overcome his opponent and only in the end he gets to win and to defeat his opponent. Taz calling out for Sabu for months and months is also great drama. These examples don't exist in WWE and TNA countries. But they exist in films and tv shows.
Another thing that i haven't seen is character development. Where is it? You see people in a feud talking about that feud and that's it. It is very rare to see examples of past feuds involved in storylines. Everybody just works for the now. Who are these characters? What did they do? Do they talk about themselves other than saying they are going to defeat this and that? I haven't seen that sort of thing. I simply just can't care about the characters, they are boring.
Ok, now comes the FMW part.
There was a particular moment when Onita retired and Hayabusa was going to have a tag match in which 2 million dollars were involved i belive. Hayabusa lost the match and cost his company one million (obviously kayfabe). Onita slapped him and asked him if that would be the performance of the ace of the company, hayabusa walked out in tears. He then took some time off and worked hard to prove everybody that he could be the ace of the company until he eventually became the one. This is great drama, this makes you care.
Another thing that impressed me about FMW, which is something ECW also did very nicely, was picking up involvement in past storylines and question the character's attitudes. This my friends, is character development in my book. This is something that i see on soap operas and something i see on tv shows, this is compelling.
Do WWE or TNA try this?
They just go from a feud to another feud and forget what's in the past and how that could be important to the future. It's these things that transform characters.
A character's quest is a great way of developing your wrestler and turning him into a major star.
Imagine this: you pick up a young kid with say 22 or 23 years old with solid basics and within 4 or 5 years, if you play your cards right, you can have a Rock or a HHH in terms of drawing power. Everthing else he can learn along the way, just give him a belivable character for starters and let things flow, have him feud with a few ring generals for him to learn to wrestle even better, pair him up with a manager to have him learn to cut a promo. Eventually use him to improve others in his condition, use long and extensive storylines...that's how i'd do it. And remember this: after those 5 years he would be 28 years old tops, meaning he could work for the company for another 10 years.
And now look at TNA: they have Kevin Nash. And Booker T. And Mick Foley, the list goes on.
And they aren't developing new guys.
What's the point in that?
Yeah i know, i'm rambling again.
My point is: learn from successful TV Shows and portray wrestling as a soap opera, otherwise the drama department will continue to suffer.
I could say more, and i will on the next edition.
Also on the next edition i'll talk about, hum...i don't know, i'll think about it.
Tell me what you think about all this, hope you enjoy the read.
Nail
I believe the topics for this piece would be the Kurt Angle Saga and Wrestling and Soap Operas. Let us begin with Kurt.
I know i jumped the gun talking about Kurt's little incident so soon, his side of the story wasn't even heard at the time. Last week he told his side of the story and to be completely honest with you i intend to give him the benefit of the doubt. Apparently Rhaka Khan has some holes in her story and you know i don't intend to give you gives a summary of what happened. If you want to read it you can search it on Google and read it from people much more qualified than me.
But i do have something to say due to the many responses i got.
There is a difference between wrestling and real world and we have seen it go wrong too many times when someone tries to blend both toghether. It works to an extent, but most of the times it ends up damaging the wrestler's reputation. Keeping the title on Angle would be trying one of these things. A much better option would be having Kurt Angle loosing due to interference, having him get beat up by the MEM, take some time off and then return to kick some butt.
Would it work? I don't know because sincerely i haven't given this much thought. But in my view one thing is for sure: you just can't let things like these go unpunished, it's just too serious.
I just read that Misterio violated the wellness policy and is going to be suspended for 30 days. Rey is a minor champion in the company, WWE did the right thing. TNA did not, because TNA didn't react at all. It is obvious that something is going to happen with Rey and his storyline and his title.
Putting your talent in front of your company is never a good thing, it's a puch in the face to everybody else and makes your company look desperate in my view.
You know, this Kurt situation is not just about him stalking his girl, it's not just about him going to jail and hurting TNA.
This is about showing who's boss and about what is tolerated and what isn't. Oh and just another flashback that applies to this situation: RVD got suspended and lost his belt for smoking pot. I'm not going to pretend i know what's going on in TNA, i have no clue, but if i was a part of their staff or roster i would be pretty pissed about this entire situation. And obviously there's the fact that there were drugs in Kurt's car.
In this case TNA had a golden opportunity to set a standart: we don't want Prima Donnas hurting our company and our product, and whoever does something like this is not going to be a part of this company. TNA had a chance to make a tremendous impact on the wrestling world, firing or suspending your ace would mean everyone on the roster would have to be clean or else they would be sacked.
I don't care who you are, if you screw the company you don't work for us. Sure, Kurt Angle is their ace but don't tell me you think he's unreplaceable, nobody is. Wrestlers come and go, people get older, their skills deteorate. Furthermore there is a huge amount of talent out there.
And instead of taking advantage of this oportunity TNA just sat back and didn't even issue a statement instead deciding to punish wrestlers for talking about the situation. What does this say about TNA?
What IS the point?
I do not know. But if they did what i said i bet new wrestlers would think twice about getting involved in drugs and whatever. Yeah i know, i'm such a dictator, but that is my view on the subject.
Ok moving on to lighter subjects.
Last month i had the time to read FMW's history, not a comprehensive thing obviously but...it was very interesting stuff.
That motivated me to think about soap operas. And bear with me throughout this entire thing, i know i may be overthinking stuff.
I believe first of all i should explain something: in Portugal there are series and there are soap operas. It is very rare when a portuguese series is on tv, mostly we just watch american shows in that department. Portugal focuses much more energy in producing soap operas which are a different format, whereas series are 20 episodes a season, soap operas have over 250 1 hour episodes a year and in some cases even more. Not that i like most of them anyways.
I'm babbling, here's my point: wrestling and soap operas or even series have a lot in common. Both intend to cause interest by having drama or comedy mostly centering a dispute between a bad character and a good character. We all know that. However wrestling has to be different from an ordinary television show because wrestling is action. Without action it just wouldn't be wrestling, and a wrestling show without angles and segments in which the wrestlers speak just wouldn't be the wrestling he have grown acostumed to. Both are important.
However there is one thing that bothers me. And i'll make the connection to FMW don't worry.
I haven't seen a WWE show in quite some time so i'll just talk about what i remember. There isn't any cohesion between storylines. Do you remember the ECW storylines? the ones that could run for about a year and more and would still be compelling? Have you seen such things on the major companies? I haven't. Most of the time a storyline runs for about three months in which the guys that are feuding have a match between them at every single PPV. There is nothing new here, there is no depth which is so common on compelling shows. I've read a Paul Heyman article where he talked about how he tried to copy film ideas that would fit the product. Tommy Dreamer vs Raven comes to mind: the hero is an ordinary guy that has to try his hardest to overcome his opponent and only in the end he gets to win and to defeat his opponent. Taz calling out for Sabu for months and months is also great drama. These examples don't exist in WWE and TNA countries. But they exist in films and tv shows.
Another thing that i haven't seen is character development. Where is it? You see people in a feud talking about that feud and that's it. It is very rare to see examples of past feuds involved in storylines. Everybody just works for the now. Who are these characters? What did they do? Do they talk about themselves other than saying they are going to defeat this and that? I haven't seen that sort of thing. I simply just can't care about the characters, they are boring.
Ok, now comes the FMW part.
There was a particular moment when Onita retired and Hayabusa was going to have a tag match in which 2 million dollars were involved i belive. Hayabusa lost the match and cost his company one million (obviously kayfabe). Onita slapped him and asked him if that would be the performance of the ace of the company, hayabusa walked out in tears. He then took some time off and worked hard to prove everybody that he could be the ace of the company until he eventually became the one. This is great drama, this makes you care.
Another thing that impressed me about FMW, which is something ECW also did very nicely, was picking up involvement in past storylines and question the character's attitudes. This my friends, is character development in my book. This is something that i see on soap operas and something i see on tv shows, this is compelling.
Do WWE or TNA try this?
They just go from a feud to another feud and forget what's in the past and how that could be important to the future. It's these things that transform characters.
A character's quest is a great way of developing your wrestler and turning him into a major star.
Imagine this: you pick up a young kid with say 22 or 23 years old with solid basics and within 4 or 5 years, if you play your cards right, you can have a Rock or a HHH in terms of drawing power. Everthing else he can learn along the way, just give him a belivable character for starters and let things flow, have him feud with a few ring generals for him to learn to wrestle even better, pair him up with a manager to have him learn to cut a promo. Eventually use him to improve others in his condition, use long and extensive storylines...that's how i'd do it. And remember this: after those 5 years he would be 28 years old tops, meaning he could work for the company for another 10 years.
And now look at TNA: they have Kevin Nash. And Booker T. And Mick Foley, the list goes on.
And they aren't developing new guys.
What's the point in that?
Yeah i know, i'm rambling again.
My point is: learn from successful TV Shows and portray wrestling as a soap opera, otherwise the drama department will continue to suffer.
I could say more, and i will on the next edition.
Also on the next edition i'll talk about, hum...i don't know, i'll think about it.
Tell me what you think about all this, hope you enjoy the read.
Nail
