That's my story and I'm sticking to it 4/18/07

[drwrestling]

This week for That's My Story and I'm Sticking To It I'll be telling you what I think of Vince McMahon on Raw.

Did anyone notice the opening segment on Raw? The segment started with Vince talking and about twenty minutes later...Vince was still talking. The only entertaining part of the segment was the crowd with the chants and can someone tell me who exactly is the "fan" that won the IC title on Raw? The segment was terrible and the WWE has been trying to push Umaga as an unstoppable monster for months and they have a "fan" pin him. The WWE having a "fan" pin Umaga makes him not only look weak but also makes the months the WWE has been pushing him as a monster pointless because Umaga must not be much of a monster if fans can pin him. It also makes the IC title look weak because how prestigious is the IC title if fans can win the title?

This could be yet another example of the WWE bringing a wrestler to a main roster just because the creative team has an idea for them before they are ready for the main stage. The Spirit Squad,Idol Stevens, and Mike Knox are just a few examples of this and Santino Marrella has yet to prove that he's ready for Raw. You have to wonder what was the creative team thinking during the production meeting for Raw. "Hey Vince Raw is in Italy and he's italian...let's make him the IC champion" Vince probably thought it was a great idea and as a result there's a new IC champion. Italy's own SANTINO MARELLA is the new IC champion and one of the many reasons this is ridiculous is there's more then one wrestler on Raw that could be a good IC champion, Carlito, Shelton Benjamin, or Johny Nitro would have been a more logically choice then Marella. Another reason it's ridiculous is that the IC title is just being used to push a feud that McMahon is involved with and to build the ECW title match at Backlash.

Bobby Lashley helped Marella pin Umaga...that will make the buy rates for Backlash go through the roof when McMahon is once again appearing at a PPV. McMahon had the match with HBK at Wrestlemania 22, the DX feud, the Trump feud, and now the Lashley feud. I wonder if Vince realizes he's getting more T.V. time then the wrestlers? McMahon has been involved in most of the main feuds on Raw for months and it's time Vince let's the wrestlers get the spotlight on Raw.

It seems like McMahon is Raw and if you think about it Vince can have any storyline he wants on Raw not only because he is the owner but also because the wrestling fans don't have another wrestling show to watch during Raw. If wrestling fans want to watch wrestling then they are going to watch Raw because there's no alternative. That was the great thing about the ratings war and it's that each company had to present the best show possible because if the other show was better the other company would get better ratings. Now Vince can put basically anything he wants on Raw and that's why there needs to be competition in wrestling. There's no other wrestling show to get better ratings then Raw and maybe that's why Raw has been less then a good show the past few weeks.

I know some TNA fans will probably say TNA is better then the WWE but the bottom line is TNA isn't even close to the same level as the WWE and until they do TNA won't have a major effect on the wrestling industry. TNA might have better matches but the bottom line is how many fans they have watching the TNA product. An example would be when TNA had Bound For Glory the company's biggest PPV of the year drew 3,000 fans in Detroit. The WWE's biggest PPV of the year Wrestlemania drew 80,000 in Detroit and I think it's obvious that TNA isn't even close to the same level as the WWE. Now, I wouldn't expect a company that has only had shows for five years to be on the WWE's level but there are some TNA fans that think TNA is going to be competition for the WWE and at this point TNA isn't going to be competition for the WWE.

Until next week
That's My Story and I'm Sticking to it
Dr. Wrestling

If you have comments or questions e mail me [e-mail]

[Angremanigmiento]

thats a great column, best for weeks, but i completley disagree with everything that you said, (except the last paragraph about tna). but thats ok.

i think that it was a great idea for santino marella to pin umaga for the title, i mean lets face it, umaga has been built up as some unstoppable monster, so who could possibly stop him? guys on the roster who have been beat dozens of times and are considerably "weaker" than umaga, the guy who knocked jeff hardy out cold to win the title in the first place, john cena stuggled to beat umaga, so why should nitro carlito or shelton be able to do it. and to be honest the thing thats making umaga look weak as of late is bobby lashley and his "one spear" victories.

the deal with the "fan" is that wwe wanted to get this guy over big time. in true underdog style he was plucked from obscurity, he was one of them, (supposedbly) wwe.com called it a rocky balboa story. something the marks can relate to.

and i also like the fact that vince is appearing on tv a lot and helping people get over, because now there isnt any competition, wwe cannot just sign people who are already established main eventers in another company, like they signed Goldberg, Steiner, Nash, and straight away they were big enough to headline ppvs and fight triple h for the title. but now they have to build stars up from within, and thay have to do it quickly because people would get bored watching the same people year in year out, thats why your kennedys and your lashleys start out at a high midcard level and get pushed very hard. one way to push them hard? work with mcmahon, mcmahon is wwe, everyone knows who is, most want to see him get his ass whipped and will rally behind anyone that goes against him. hogan, austin, dx and now lashley, and if he can give a debuting marella a head start in the company, like he got last week, then that can only be good news.