Planet WCW presents.....
Animal Talk!!!
From A Fan's Prospective ~ 04-03-04
From A Fan's Prospective
By: Kevin Gillman
Another week has gone by, I still can't believe it is spring time and my favorite pastime is going to start up here this week. Baseball, what a great time of the year but this isn't about baseball this is about wrestling so shall we get to it?
I wasn't sure what to talk about this week, but then it hit me. I was talking to a co-worker that likes wrestling and we talked about what took place on Raw and what a great match it was seeing Shelton Benjamin take on HHH. I'll get to the ending here in a minute but I have to talk about the set-up and what this, at least hopefully means. A few years ago in fact about four to be exact, injuries hit the biggest stars that the WWE had at the time. Austin had his neck problems, Taker had his knee problems, and The Rock was just going off making his first movie so Vince needed someone to step up to the plate and carry the ball for a bit. That man was a man who still was in his twenties and had tons of talent. He had been with the company for awhile, and had paid his dues, more so in fact then any other guy in my opinion. He was over with the crowd, pretty good with the mic, and all in all a good performer. His name was HHH. He had been with DX, one of the more popular factions at the time. They decided to have him go heel and see what they could do with him. He was ready for this moment and you could tell that he had "It". So they gave him the ball and he ran with it, some may even say he still has it and won't let go of it. He became a student of the "Game" and asked people all around him how to do this and that. At the time or shortly afterwards, they had another kid who had "It" but he also had a different background. He was an Olympic athlete and he even won a gold metal, oh it's true...it's true. That kid was Kurt Angle, and with each show the kid got better and better, even winning the coveted WWE title within the first year of him being in the business. The point to all of this was they had to establish new stars because Vince didn't know if he could depend on Austin or Taker, or even The Rock for that matter in the next ten years.
We fast forward to this past week. Rock is an even bigger movie star and in my opinion he is done with the wrestling business. Taker is still around but really only a part-time basis. Austin is done competing, he may still have "One more match" in him, but he is pretty much done. HHH? He is a nine-time WWE champion, but only two years ago he blew out his quad and some say he hasn't been the same since. Vince needs to market fresh, young talent that are as hungry as HHH was four years ago. That process started two weeks ago with the draft. Actually it started two months ago at No Way Out when Eddie Guerrero became the WWE champion for the first time in his career. He was someone new that Vince could look to for quality main event matches and he hasn't disappointed yet. Not only that, but Eddie had to literally fight for his life with the demons of alcohol abuse and drug abuse that he so far has maintained and I applaud that. Chris Benoit a 14-year veteran that always had the tools but for some reason or not never had the chance. He got that chance last month at Wrestlemania and it's exciting seeing him with the title. I hope they both keep their respective title a little longer.
But now there are some young lions that are ready to take notice starting with the guy that proved he can handle it this past Monday night. Shelton Benjamin always had the skills, he was an amateur Wrestler, a Collegiate all-american that was once a teammate of Brock Lesnar and who until recently was paired up with another amateur Wrestler named Charlie Haas. The draft lottery happened, I wasn't sure if he could go from tag team wrestling to singles wrestling quickly to make it work. I am glad I was wrong. He wrestled HHH in one of the best matches Raw has had in quite some time. I was pulling for Shelton to do it but I figured it would be a "close but no cigar" regime and HHH would pull of the Pedigree, but instead the roll up to end the match and a victory over HHH, Shelton pulled it off. I hope this wasn't a mirage and that this coming week he will be back to mid card, but I don't think so, or else they wouldn't have had Shelton cleanly pin HHH, but instead have HHH somehow get the win. Now I am looking forward to seeing a Orton-Benjamin feud, or at least hoping.
Speaking of Orton, the man has it all. Charisma, talent, mic work, everything. I also love the way they are pushing him. A third generation worker whose father is the legendary "Cowboy" Bob Orton. Nuff said right? He is at the perfect place right now, as the Intercontinental Champion. I know he is a future World Champion and I also know he can carry it, but they are taking their time with him and not rushing him like perhaps WWE has been accused of in the past (I.E. Rocky Maivia, Angle). Now what he does need is a feud that can help both himself and his opponet to get to that next level (Shelton?) like HHH and The Rock helped each other out before. I am not interested in seeing Foley Vs Orton anymore, it was fun to watch for a few months but it's boring now. I hope this feud will end after Backlash.
You think you know me? It's great seeing Edge come back and on Raw. Now it's his time, I like the fact that he has Kane as an opponet at Backlash and it will be a good match. I would love to see his yearly cycle of becoming champion now. In other words, he feuds with upper talent until at Royal Rumble, he wins it and goes on to face the champion at Wrestlemania and wins that match to become champ. It was supposed to be his year this past year but unfortunately he got injured and missed 14 months. Believe me, he is ready to make that next step and I am looking forward to seeing his return on April 18th.
Ditto to the master of Thuganomics, John Cena. Everytime he appears on screen, he is entertaining and he is a talented worker who is hungry to gain that spotlight. His time should be Wrestlemania 21 and hopefully he can win the WWE Title then as well and see how far he can carry the ball.
And last but not least, what about the "French Phenom"? I just got on the Rene Dupree bandwagon just recently right before he left Raw to go on Smackdown and it looks like they are beginning the Cena-Dupree feud and all I got to say is go Rene, have fun with it. He is a potential WWE World Champion but for now he could be the next US Champion with some help with Fifi of course.
Those five men I just mentioned are the "Future of WWE" and their time is coming shortly, it should be fun to watch them and see how far they can go with them. I need to also mention Dave Batista as well or what I like to call him "The Monster", I think his time is coming very shortly and has a great guy to listen to in "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. So I guess you can say these six men are future superstars that can certainly carry the WWE flag for the next five years. I can't wait. Thanks for reading and you comment to me by emailing me at DJKevinGillman75@AOL.COM.
[PeterPorkr] Before you go, remember to check out The Ring Post where you'll find a ton of great posts by some of the best writers (of any genre) on the Internet today, including Annie, Der Kommissaar, Jones, Tony D., Ginger of "Sort of" fame and her diametric opposite, the always evil & utterly vile giver of the famed "Bag of Hell" awards, BarbWireMike (who also happens to run the all new Lethal Wrestling. If you stop by their forum, just tell Mr Monday Night I sent you. He's my biggest fan.). Then, cruise on over to the PhenomForest for all the latest in the ever evolving story of the American Badass and his friends. Until next time, this is PeterPorkr (peterporkr@netzero.net) saying good night world and God bless. Oh yeah, thanks for reading!!!!!!
|
