One Count Kickout – 3 Pet Peeves

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There are things within the world of wrestling that drive wrestling fans insane.  One of the fun things to do as a wrestling fan is to talk to your friends, whine and argue about what works, what doesn’t, what is awesome and what is just stupid.  If I have discovered anything in my years of wrestling watching it is that its difficult to find a group of people who agree with each other about the direction or current state of wrestling.  There is always something you thought was the best thing in the history of the business that your best friend thought was the worst thing he’d ever seen on television.

This week I thought I would take a break from my typical column and focus in on some of the things that have been getting on my nerves lately.  Rather than debate the good and the bad, rather than write something that seeks to be unbiased and easy on the eyes I want to take this opportunity to give my opinions on some of the happenings, comings and goings and storylines of wrestling that are driving me insane.  I’m going to call this my top three pet peeves.

1)  The Matt Hardy drama.
If there is one thing my father attempted to instill in me as a child it was to live up to your commitments.  Now if you’re working a terrible job that you can’t stand then you need to exit, however you do this the right way.  Matt Hardy has spent the past few months whining, bitching and moaning about how WWE has treated him poorly.  Of course they have treated him poorly, the man has as much charisma as a shoe and his physique is much like that of a water balloon.  I used to like Matt Hardy, back when he seemed like he actually gave a shit about what he was doing.  I haven’t seen that in him for quite a long time now, and it is unfortunate.  So what does Hardy decide to do?  If what he says is accurate, then he has spent the past few months pretending to be on something, acting as though he has done all of these things with the purpose of getting his release.  What a fine example to set, Mr. Hardy.  When life hands you lemons, run away.  WWE revolves around money and if they saw money in you, they’d put money into you.  Your brother is a drug addicted weirdo and they put the strap on him so its hard to say if you actually possessed any kind of drive or charisma they wouldn’t do the same for you.

2)  TNA and the New World Older
How many weeks of impact teased the emergence of “They?”  How often did we see something occur that resulted in Abyss screaming about “They” and how on 10-10-10 “They” were going to change the face of TNA.  Then we find out who they were, and it is the same people we figured it was going to be from the beginning.  Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Jarret.  Wow, that is exciting.  A bunch of old men are going to run the future of TNA.  You mean.. Hogan and Bischoff and Jarrett are going to be part of an organization that revolves around destroying a wrestling company and doing with it what they want, playing by their own rules, being badasses?  What a unique concept.  I’m absolutely blown away by it, this has never been done before!  The Jeff Hardy twist was interesting, and I don’t want to judge it before it is fully executed but I still feel this is either going to be very good or very bad.  I don’t think there is much of a middle ground here.  I hope for Hardy’s sake it goes well, because if this thing starts caving in I think we all know that these guys are going to do whatever they have to do to save themselves and bury the baggage.  I was going to mention Fortune getting involved with They but the idea of reliving that retarded storyline twist made me feel nauseous.

3)  Too Many PPVs, Too Little Cash
There are, plainly and simply, too many PPVs in wrestling today.  Now, WWE is more at fault here than TNA is, but it is becoming ridiculous.  Having a PPV two weeks after another one is a mistake.  Raising the fee during a time of economic collapse is a huge mistake.  Not to mention the quality of the product has dropped so the price should follow suit.  How can they expect fans to want to doll out this kind of cash for something that isn’t working out well?  If I see a movie, and it sucks, I’m not going to pay out to see the sequel.  That is just a matter of fact, and I certainly wouldn’t be willing to pay more to see that sequel just because a year has passed.  PPVs are flooding the market right now and you can see the damage it is causing what with us getting gimmick PPVs.  If I had it my way, WWE for example, would cut themselves down to 6 PPVs a year.  We’d have them in this order:  Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Elimination Chamber, King of the Ring, SummerSlam, Survivor Series.  You’d have time in between them to build up meaningful feuds that didn’t feel rushed or repetitive, you could spend more time focusing your television programs on the initiation and build up of feuds rather than wasting your main event matches on free TV.  The world of wrestling has changed since the fall of WCW and the end of the Monday Night War.  WWE needs to realize that.

So there you have it.  Three things that have been on my nerves lately.  I’m actually very curious to know what is on your nerves right now.  What aspects of the business are making you angry, making you want to change the channel?  I feel as though we’re slowly headed back in that direction where being a fan of wrestling is something you have to hide because you don’t want anyone to know.  I don’t want it to become something you watch in secret again, like the early 90s.  However, I can’t change the creative direction of these companies and I can’t make them put more energy and intelligence into what they’re doing but I can turn the television off when things are going downhill instead of forcing myself to be tortured by it.

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