Nice Guys Finish (Next To) Last…And Other Thoughts From Last Night’s Show

Imagine Kofi Kingston as a reviled heel…the crowd raining trash down upon him as his sour countenance stares back in defiance and unmitigated bile spews forth from his mouth.

Can’t picture it, can you?  Neither can I…and it’s for this very reason that Kofi Kingston (and several others) will never be considered as Top Money Guys in the WWE.

Take a look at some of the greatest Superstars who have ever graced the WWE in recent years:  Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Batista, Mick Foley and Ric Flair.  Every one of these headliners has effortlessly been able to bend the audience reaction to their own whims.  I’ve already written about “Tweeners” previously, but this is something a little different.  What we’re talking about here is the ability to fall firmly on one side of the fence or the other and still have the charisma to pull it off.

Kingston possesses talent on an unlimited scale, but no one will ever buy him as a heel.  JBL has the opposite problem:  Only in tandem with Ron Simmons as part of the APA was he ever able to gain crowd support.  His character is just simply too unlikeable to ever be a credible babyface.  The fact that neither of these two men will be able to break from their molds will hold them back from extended championship glory.  If the champion is to guide the promotion’s direction, then he must be able to adapt his character to the changing tides of public perception. 

Those who can do so will prosper.  Those who cannot, won’t.   As in JBL’s case, they may still do well for themselves.  However, they will never be true icons.

Other thoughts from last night’s show:

- What’s so remarkable about Charlie Haas and his riotous impersonations is the amount of preparation he must put into them.  Week after week, he is able to imitate each star’s mannerisms, walk, style of wrestling and speech cadence.  These are amazing accomplishments and are very difficult to achieve.

- I wonder why Snitsky doesn’t get the push he deserves.  When you look at him objectively, he’s really sort of a “Kane Lite”.  Come to think of it, those two monster heels would form quite a fearsome tag team.

- The handling of the women’s division continues to frustrate me.  Why are these women put into tag team matches if there is no Women’s Tag Team championship belt to contend for?  With so much talent on the roster, the WWE has chosen to have these women compete at Cyber Sunday not in any meaningful matches, but in a Halloween costume contest.  That’s a shameful squandering of resources.  I am disgusted with the top brass who have determined that this is the limit of what these women are capable of.

- On the same subject, why is it necessary for WWE Superstars to refer to Beth Phoenix as masculine?  Have we as a society advanced so little that we cannot, as a whole, conceive of the fact that a woman might be strong and accomplished through her own hard work and dedication, not because she acts like a man?  The manner in which this misogyny and outright bias is tolerated is disgusting and management should be held accountable….as should “The Glamazon” for allowing herself to be portrayed as such. 

- The Guantlet matches that ended the night were poorly conceived.  What does it prove to have Y2J or Batista beat a man five seconds after he has just been beaten?  If the WWE truly wanted to have a gauntlet, then Batista and Jericho should have wrestled separate individuals in three matches.  That would have been impressive.

- By the way, I happen to agree that Jericho doesn’t get the respect he deserves.

- Manu is being buried in the whole “Priceless” storyline.  He needs an opportunity to showcase his skills and is too talented not to have his own push.

- Finally, only Santino could bust open his own lip while smashing a guitar over someone else’s head.

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