What's the Point? #9

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Hello and welcome to another edition of What's the Point?
I know i've been absent and lacking in the promo department and in this column aswell but i am back and ready to dwell on subjects.

First of all i want to say that nobody pitched a theme in particular for me to talk about, i read alot of stuff regarding TNA and the condition of the company, however i don't feel prepared to write an in-depht analysis of it just yet. That mainly because i wouldn't know where to begin.

Let's move on to shocking news, which are not that shocking.

1- Shane McMahon turned in his resignation from the WWE. I accidentally discovered this and knew it just had to be featured here. What's the point in this?
It has been written of Shane that he was the heart of the company and that he had good business sense. We all knew, or at least i knew, that Triple H and Steph would inherit the company, but always assumed that Shane would stick around and keep on working in WWE. Is this good? And if so for whom?

To answer the first question i would say that it probably was a good decision by Shane, he worked hard in every single department, or at least he gives me that impression. After leaving the WWE he will have a new world to explore and new mountains to conquer.
This is also good for Triple H and Steph, they will get an empire so solid that it would take several hecatombs to destroy, and i'm not even sure it can be destroyed. They will control every little thing they want and can cater to every friend's need.

But who will suffer with this decision?
Obviously it's complicated to answer, if the couple play the cards right WWE can reach new heights, if they don't then the business will suffer quite a bit, but will still have a market for the fans. And those who can suffer with that are the fans and most of all the wrestlers.
I'm going to guess, and note that this is just a guess, that once or if HHH and Steph get to reign the company...it will be chaotic.
Who will have the power positions of booking the shows? Who will be favored? Who will be relegated?
Everybody knows that a wrestler in charge can only do a good job or a terrible job, WCW showed us that in the past.
Having said this: what will be the point in having the couple taking charge of the biggest wrestling organization on the planet?

Moving on to a rather amusing subject: Nigel Mcguinness.

If you are not aware, there was a problem with the signing of Nigel in the WWE, apparently he failed a prescrenning test and, as such, WWE decided to not hire him.
What happened later? TNA was in talks with him and he was hired, this has huge implications.

What IS the point?
Seriously.
What's the point of not hiring one of the best wrestlers in the planet today just because he missed a screen test?
I will never understand the minds of the people who work in the WWE. They lost a major league talent to TNA and i'm pretty sure they will rub it in their faces. I'm not even going to describe the skills Nigel has, this issue is beyond that.

Another interesting aspect is the fact that TNA rushed to hire Nigel. And yeah he's talented, but really TNA? Really?
While securing him in the company will be great news and a spectacular signing i cannot shake off the feeling they are doing this because of WWE.

Let's face it, TNA is chaos.

So Nigel will get money and more exposure he got at RoH, but i wonder if it wouldn't be better to just head off towards Japan where he could really shine bright.

Anyways this is all for today, since i'm writing this with a migraine.
Don't forget to suggest a theme or subject for me to write for the next edition.

Hope you enjoy this.

[Baby Dogg]

Nigel debuted attacking Kurt Angle. That's pretty friggin' huge! However, I miss his little yellow spikes Oh and for Nigel to be in the same company as Doug Williams is very exciting, the two of them are always electric together whether they're allies or enemies.

For the first time in god knows how long, TNA seems interesting to me right now. The MEM is just about done - Angle turned face, Booker is gone and Sting & Steiner seem like they're not going to be around much longer. And it did its job waaay better than the original attempt (for those too young to remember it, YouTube "New Blood vs Millionaires' Club"). AJ vs Daniels vs Joe is set for Turning Point, they're finally doing something with the Legends title, the old Abyss is back, the old Rhino is back, the Machine Guns are getting a push, Amazing Red is being made to look actually halfway credible and not just a transitional jobber, Suicide/Kaz is beginning to have an actual point, and my homeboy Doug is Tag Champ... I'm not a huge fan of either Brutus Magnus or Rob Terry sadly, and I'd rather see him teamed with Bashir in all honesty, but hey, you can't have everything.

For once, the Knockouts division is the part of TNA I find boring... but then, it's basically been built entirely around ODB and The Beautiful People, both of whom I find entirely overrated. ODB has a great look and excellent promos but she's very sloppy in-ring. TBP are just plain dull, and Angelina was the only one I found remotely entertaining. Hopefully the stuff with Kong and Tara will go somewhere.

I'm guessing they were setting up Daffney & Flash as the next Tag champs, but apparently Daffney broke her arm at the PPV. Shame, as there's basically no other contenders unless keep TBP fighting for the belts (which would suck) they do something particularly contrived like rewrite Raisha Saeed back in, turn Hamada heel, and have them join the World Elite... urgh, too many hoops.

Speaking of Daffney, I really want to see her in the X-Division. She's basically a glorified stuntwoman right now. Her high spots are great, but her actual wrestling is far below what she's capable of. All she does right now is get put through tables and thrown into thumbtacks. But she's shown that she can hold her own in hardcore environments alongside Abyss and Foley, and I think she'd do well in an Ultimate X match. Obviously she's no Christopher Daniels, but I think she'd be credible enough for a reign or two.



I've always enjoyed Shane McMahon's onscreen work. He's natural and witty on the mic, great at playing both a heel and a face, and has far, far superior in-ring skills to either Vince or Steph. In fact I suspect if he hadn't been Vince's son, he could've pretty comfortably been Intercontinental Champion a couple of times, or had a much longer run in the hardcore division.

But fair play to the man, if he wants a change then more power to him. This doesn't mean he's gone from wrestling for good either.

However I think it's premature to be trying to second guess the Trips/Steph reign. For one I don't think Vince is going anywhere anytime soon, and for two, while Trips certainly has his excesses, he's done a lot more for the business than he often gets credit for. He's jobbed at WrestleMania more times than just about anyone else, pretty much single-handedly elevated Cena, Orton, Batista, Benoit and Jericho to genuine main event status, and he and Shawn have just done a sterling job of putting over Legacy. How many other WWE vets would have jobbed to the green nobody Shelton Benjamin, or been willing to look weak next to Goldberg? Trips' record suggests that he really does know what's good for the company. He's done nothing that every other promotion hasn't done, and that is to make the franchise player be someone reliable. Verne Gagne in AWA, Carlos Colon in CWC, Kevin Nash in WCW, hell even Trish Stratus in WWE's women's division a few years ago... no doubt there's a degree egotism at play, but equally the booker knows that he's not going anywhere, and won't have to risk a Brock Lesnar style debacle. Something like that hurts the promotion's image more, imo.


As for nominating a subject, it's hard because things change so fast. But one that's particularly amusing me right now is Mickie James and the supposed 'weight gain' issues. While I can't help but think that Mickie's been off her game recently, it's still a pretty awful double standard when you consider that Jericho has been putting on quite a paunch, yet he was the centrepiece of all three brands this week.