Fan Support

I had read reports on SummerSlam and have been able to watch some of the 2005 edition. Watching Kurt Angle destroy Eugene to the delight of the crowd was fun; however, Angle is the heel in the feud and Eugene is the babyface. That got me thinking.

I’ve watched WWE wrestling for a while now and I’ve noticed that there are two different kinds of fans that show up. There’s the TV crowd and the PPV crowd. The TV crowd, for the most part, follows the storylines with the fans supporting the faces, and booing the heels.

The PPV crowd is a different animal. The crowd will support whoever they feel like. The respect level increases. Fans will cheer good wrestling by a face or heel. Fans will cheer effort. Fans will boo The Rock when they all knew he was leaving. Fans will cheer Kurt Angle because he is a phenomenal worker. Storyline heels and faces are not absolute during the PPV’s.

Should the WWE be trying to please the PPV or TV Crowd? If the fans are going to cheer Angle, should the WWE just acknowledge it? If the fans have turned on Eugene, should the WWE go with it? The WWE may be testing the waters with the Hardy-Edge-Lita storyline. With that, the WWE took a shoot and said “to hell with the storyline and Kane” let’s go with the real life feud.

If the WWE goes ahead and tries to please the PPV crowd all the time, I wonder if a new PPV crowd will emerge.

Raw is Angle

Last night, I watched Raw as it ran (instead of my usual PVR delay).

Shelton Benjamin vs. Kurt Angle
I had mixed feelings about this match. I think that the WWE could have done a lot with this matchup, but they gave it away on television with no fanfare. A great match, and these two should have had a SummerSlam match. Little reference was made to Former Team Angle, mutli-time WWE Tag-Team Champion, Former Intercontinental Champion, Shelton Benjamin’s connection to Kurt Angle.

That being said (or typed), it was a great match. Benjamin and Angle had a great match with the amateur wrestling breaking down into a fight.

I knew they were going to push Kurt as the next challenger the WWE Championship, so I had an idea that Kurt would win. He did win. The problem with this is that the match didn’t do much for Shelton other than show he’s a great competitor.

The rest of the show
I should have known that after the great match between Kurt and Shelton that the rest of the show would be garbage until the main event.

I didn’t watch SummerSlam, but I heard that Jericho and Cena had a great match. They had a pretty good one on Monday. I’m glad I didn’t pay for it (also, I still don’t understand why the video package promoting SummerSlam encores show so much of the highlights. Why bother watching 3 hours of a show when you just saw some of the best highlights?).

Jericho’s fired, huh? Great.

Angle Returns
I’m surprised WWE quickly switched gears from Jericho to Angle. Angle coming out and destroying Cena was great. I’m a big Kurt Angle fan. When he starting beating the hell out of Cena, I was getting a great kick out of it. It’s like someone told Angle, “When you go out there, I want you to have the intensity of 2 Chris Benoits.” The super-intense Angle is great. Hopefully, they won’t turn him into Bischoff’s boy and just let him be the super-intense competitor that wants the championship because he’s the best. Not because he doesn’t respect Cena, not because he doesn’t like what Cena has done with the belt, not because it’s a moral fight. It should be Kurt Angle gunning for the title to prove he is the best wrestler in the company today.

Who’s Directing Raw tonight? Questions and Comments

HBK’s promo – he’s a heel and he’s damn good as one.

A.D.D! Too much damn camera movement.

Carlito’s great, but Bischoff’s plan is to get John Cena booed? How about explaining that John Cena is no Bret Hart? That’s cool, eh?

Cena vs. Y2J and Carlito Canadian Cool
BTW, I’ve seen that spinner belt in person, it looks much better in real life (as opposed to seeing it on television) Cena’s a merchandise machine. I don’t like Cena as a face. I get it, you’re like the fans, so they must love you.

I miss the old days of announcing where JR used to call the action as if it was a sport – take a look at the Ultimate Ric Flair Collection DVDs to see what I mean.

Why must the Intercontinental Champion be pinned almost every week?

Raw Diva Contest Winner – Ashley. Good for her – although, I’m not sure what they’ll do with her.

Hurricane (??) vs. Rob Conway
How did these guys get on Raw? It’d be crazy if these guys were going after the IC championship. Then maybe there would be a purpose for this match. Speaking of secondary titles, are either the IC or US Championship being defended at SummerSlam? Hey, wait – does Chris Benoit have a match for SummerSlam? [I looked up the official SummerSlam site and there was no match for Benoit until they announced it on Raw tonight. U.S. Champ – Jordan vs. Benoit. This should be a 3 minute dismantling by Benoit.]

Flying elbow by Conway – he looked pretty uncomfortable up there, but nice elbow. Not as graceful as Randy Savage or Shawn Michaels, though.

The 3 man announce team gets annoying when they bicker

So Angle vs. Eugene is a “No Time Limit” match – do matches even have time limits (aside from the Invitationals)?

Angle vs. Hogan
Angle is the only person to have made Hogan tap out (I know Lesnar knocked Hogan out with a bear hug, but Hogan didn’t tap). I wonder how Hogan gets over in Canada with “Real American” as his theme. Hogan’s acting like a heel in this match; that’s interesting. I wonder if it will be mentioned that both Hogan and HBK led a version of the nWo at different points in time. Angle makes a headlock look intense – that’s damn impressive. Ever notice that when Kurt pins a guy he sticks a forearm in their face? Quite the show of strength by Angle with that Angle Slam – pretty much deadlifted Hogan up there.

It’s a good thing they had HBK break up the match. It keeps both Angle and Hogan Strong for their matches.

HBK with the sharpshooter! A really bad sharpshooter – but in Montreal.

Kurt Angle’s Monday Night Raw Promo

Talk about intense.

It’s like someone backstage realized that there wasn’t enough material for the SummerSlam pre-match video package and told Kurt to cut the most intense promo that could ever be done. It’s what Triple H used to spend 12 minutes explaining – but this time in around 2 minutes. Kurt Angle with that promo put behind him all of the Mrs. Booker T crap storyline. He’s the man.

Immense intensity. Also, it sets up his next feud with WWE Champion John Cena. As a super-intense heel, the only thing to go after is the championship (after he gets those medals back).

SummerSlam Is Coming

We’re a week away from SummerSlam – one of the WWE’s original PPV’s. Here are some thoughts on the card:

Kurt Angle vs. Eugene: I believe that this will be one of the earliest matches on the card (unless some other match is tacked on). I can’t imagine hearing “The opening contest is for the custody of a child!” Those gold medals are going back to Kurt. This should be an entertaining match. If any of you have seen Chris Benoit vs. Eugene, you know that Dinsmore can really wrestle and this match could steal the show.

Eddie vs. Rey Part 5,002: Can they have Eddie lose every time? Obviously, this is the storyline that will never end, so why would it end at SummerSlam? Eddie wins and gets a boy. Oh, it’s a ladder match? Look for some good spots then.

John Cena vs. Chris Jericho: I watched their Vengeance match back when John Cena was the man without a gimmick. It was quite good. Cena was the inexperienced rookie and Jericho was in charge. Cena was reacting in this match (not on offense too much). Cena won with a roll up or small package, I forget. This new match for the WWE Championship with “The Doctor of Thugonomics” vs. “Y2-Cheap” (BTW – how stupid is that Y2-Cheap name?) will be interesting. Jericho has lost his fire and I don’t buy the WWE taking the strap off of Cena and giving it to Jericho. I can’t remember the last time Jericho won a match at a PPV and I don’t think he’s going to pull it off here. PLUS, the WWE’s already advertising Cena vs. Angle for the WWE Championship on their Unforgiven PPV.

Matt Hardy vs. Edge: It’s personal. Quite the tag-line the WWE has given this feud. I don’t see any “No DQ” stipulation on the website. Either way, expect a stiff match with Edge going over and Matt getting his heat back immediately after the loss.

Randall vs. Mark: Since Mean Mark won at their Mania match, it’s time for the RKO to finally win. Will there be a tremendous amount of cheating for the demi-god Undertaker? You better believe it. The last man that has gone over the Undertaker semi-cleanly was Brock. If he came back at this PPV to cost Mark the match, that’d be something. Then Brock would proceed to be beaten down by Taker.

Hogan vs. HBK: This will probably be a very entertaining match. Both men can tell a story in the ring. I don’t expect Hogan to use “wrestling moves.” Back when I was a kid, I saw some footage of Hogan using submission holds and using technical wrestling in Japan – I didn’t know he had a larger moveset. I expect HBK to go over because it’ll cement his heel turn. Hopefully during Hulk’s Hulk-up, a superkick will come out of nowhere.

Batista vs. JBL: I expect this to be the “main event.” I’m also expecting buckets of blood because there’s no way these guys could really wrestle. I saw their Great American Bash match and I’ve seen them wrestle in a dark match at Raw. Awful. Just awful. Batista wins because he needs that belt badly to be over.

This ought to be a decent PPV. Can’t wait.