The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Since starting this blog, I’ve written only one post about WWE and the reason is I’m finding it harder and harder to get into it. The booking decisions make little sense and the talent Vince McMahon & company are trying to push makes even LESS sense. Let me talk about what has transpired in the last few weeks or so to let you know what I’m talking about.

Vince recently “fired” announcer Jim Ross, or good ol’ J.R., in an angle to annoy Steve Austin. In reality, Ross had to undergo surgery and it was thought he would be brought back later on. For the record, Ross is the best play by play guy they have. Anyway, Austin and Ross are good friends both in and outside the ring, so for the next WWE Pay-Per-View, Taboo Tuesday, they put together a silly match where the replacement announcer, Jonathan Coachman (Coach), would wrestle Steve and if Steve won Ross would get his job back. Ok, easy to follow so far.

But what Steve didn’t know was that Vince wanted him to lose to Coach in some screwball fashion. Austin got upset at this and refused, so he didn’t work the PPV. Seeing that Austin was a big name and one the main reasons Vince was hoping to draw big PPV numbers, he had to do something not to screw the audience out of a big name not showing up, so he got the Smackdown Champion, Batista, to arrive. The thing is, this booking doesn’t make any sense. The match was created about Ross’ firing and Batista doesn’t have any real loyalty to him. But the whole J.R. getting his job back stipulation was just dropped and Batista won a squash match against an announcer without a chance, and it didn’t advance any storyline in any way. Off the top of my head, it would have made sense to have the Rock appear in Austin’s place, but why spoil the occasion with Rock jobbing (losing) to an announcer? If Vince wanted that outcome, I’m sure Rocky would have passed as well.

As a follow-up to Ross losing his announcing duties, Joey Styles was brought on board as the next announcer and he will be hired on a trial basis for the next few weeks. Styles was a great announcer for the now defunct ECW and I have no problems with him being considered a replacement for Ross. Because this was all last minute though, it screwed up the stories, got one of the WWE's biggest draws upset, and the people who paid to see Taboo Tuesday were robbed of seeing Steve Austin. Who wins out of all this mess?

My rant doesn’t end there, no! One of my current faves, Christian, quit the company. His contract ran out and there were reports Vince was trying to basically force him into signing a new deal Christian was unhappy with. Despite having the best-selling "Captain Charisma" t-shirt (that many of you have seen me wear proudly!) and fantastic crowd support, he was made to do job after job and was removed from main event contention. There's an interview with him on wwe.com where he says he wants to pursue other things, but doesn't discuss what they are. He's just being polite: Christian was understandably upset at the direction his character was taking so he decided to walk. In the meantime, Vince is trying to have guys like Chris Masters pass as the next big things but the crowds have been completely apathetic towards him despite the push he’s been given. Why bury someone the crowd likes, and waste TV time pushing someone the crowd hates? I just don’t get it. Screwups like this are making it harder for me to tune in.