sek69 Posted July 22, 2005 Report Share Posted July 22, 2005 Networks didn't have a problem with Ron Bass shredding Brutus Beefcake with spurs (which was hardcore for, when was that, 1988?) nor did they have a problem with Hawk's suicide angle or for Taker symbol-fixion'ing Austin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mike Campbell Posted July 22, 2005 Report Share Posted July 22, 2005 Bass shredding Beefcake's eye with the spur was "censored" (at least on the SummerSlam 88 Coliseum Video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 22, 2005 Report Share Posted July 22, 2005 Bass shredding Beefcake's eye with the spur was "censored" (at least on the SummerSlam 88 Coliseum Video. Much like the footage of Superstar Graham's hip surgery, the Beefcake footage was shown uncensored on the first airing then censored with the big red X of doom for every other subsiquent showing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted July 22, 2005 Report Share Posted July 22, 2005 PWI: Apparently, the decision to get rid of the Muhammad Hassan character is resulting in a lot of long-term plans for the Smackdown brand being changed. From what I understand, the working plan at one point was for Randy Orton to cost Undertaker his number one contender's match with Hassan at the Great American Bash. This would set up Undertaker vs. Randy Orton and World Champion Batista vs. Muhammad Hassan as the top Smackdown matches for the Summerslam PPV, apparently with Batista going over Hassan and Orton beating Taker, since further down the road, Batista vs. Orton is being looked at as a potential main event program for the brand. I'm not sure if WWE decided to not go in that direction before this week, but obviously Batista vs. Hassan will not be taking place at Summerslam now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2005 They're still not getting the point. They should take this as a wakeup call to start cleaning up the public perception of wrestling, figuring out where to start. Vince always takes the defensive position of an underdog fighting for survival and fighting to show what the company is. Read his interviews sometime -- he spends at least half of them trying to explain exactly what the product *is* that he's presenting. They may lose some fans in the interim, but if anything they'd be trading up by no longer playing to the lowest common denominator. Once they address the problem of public image, which will take years to complete, most of their other problems will take care of themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sass Posted July 22, 2005 Report Share Posted July 22, 2005 Bravo for UPN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cam Chaos Posted July 22, 2005 Report Share Posted July 22, 2005 If the WWE continues to ignore this sort of response because people "don't get it" they're going to dig their hole even deeper. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if in 10 years time TNA is thriving while WWE has died at the hands of Steph and HHH's booking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Alfdogg Posted July 23, 2005 Report Share Posted July 23, 2005 So what are they going to do at SS, do you think. Would they try a triple threat, or just go with Batista-Taker? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MJHimJfadeaway23 Posted July 23, 2005 Report Share Posted July 23, 2005 So what are they going to do at SS, do you think. Would they try a triple threat, or just go with Batista-Taker? A couple things.. 1) It's unconventional, but they could have Hassan win, with help from Orton to set up the Orton/Undertaker match. Then after the match get destroyed by the Undertaker to put him on the shelf til further notice/forever so he'll never get his match (I, personally, don't like this one, but it's a thought) 2) Undertaker vs. Batista with Randy Orton as the special guest ref. Teddy Long can say, to avoid anymore running in Undertaker contests, make you the special ref. for his match with Batista. And since he hates Batista just as much as he does the Undertaker, he's not going to help the other one win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slasher Posted July 23, 2005 Report Share Posted July 23, 2005 1) It's unconventional, but they could have Hassan win, with help from Orton to set up the Orton/Undertaker match. Then after the match get destroyed by the Undertaker to put him on the shelf til further notice/forever so he'll never get his match (I, personally, don't like this one, but it's a thought) Then Batista faces....who? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MJHimJfadeaway23 Posted July 23, 2005 Report Share Posted July 23, 2005 1) It's unconventional, but they could have Hassan win, with help from Orton to set up the Orton/Undertaker match. Then after the match get destroyed by the Undertaker to put him on the shelf til further notice/forever so he'll never get his match (I, personally, don't like this one, but it's a thought) Then Batista faces....who? Booker T. possibly? I think a heel turn would do him good. Christian could work if you have a loaded card...you can play to the fact that it's a split brand PPV and that Tomko will be with Christian, plus book it were the odds look stacked against Batista (Maybe a specifal guest ref, Christian forming a group or something of that nature). Or JBL again (Which I don't want, but hey...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2005 Christian could work if you have a loaded card...you can play to the fact that it's a split brand PPV and that Tomko will be with Christian, plus book it were the odds look stacked against Batista (Maybe a specifal guest ref, Christian forming a group or something of that nature). The only problem with that is that they built a RAW around that exact same concept when Batista/Christian headlined a few months ago. Also, Batista has defeated Christian since jumping to Smackdown, *and* Christian has been on the losing end of a #1 contenders match. Logically, it wouldn't work. There's no booking good enough to make Christian seem like a legitimate threat with only five weeks left to promote the pay-per-view, considering the burial he's received. That doesn't even take into consideration that he took the pin in a title match on pay-per-view for RAW in June. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slasher Posted July 23, 2005 Report Share Posted July 23, 2005 I think it'll be a triple threat between Batista/Taker/JBL. They'll cop out the GAB title match (maybe no-decision or double DQ/countout/etc) to give JBL an in to the SS match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sass Posted July 23, 2005 Report Share Posted July 23, 2005 What did everyone here think about the ESPN article CJ linked to last page? That was better fleshed out, from a casual fan's stand point of view, than anyone else I've read. The article definitely had some solid research to it unlike a lot of the other news outlets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2005 Thought it was a well-written article that I'm sure anyone in WWE would think was good press because it's press of some kind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MJHimJfadeaway23 Posted July 24, 2005 Report Share Posted July 24, 2005 Christian could work if you have a loaded card...you can play to the fact that it's a split brand PPV and that Tomko will be with Christian, plus book it were the odds look stacked against Batista (Maybe a specifal guest ref, Christian forming a group or something of that nature). The only problem with that is that they built a RAW around that exact same concept when Batista/Christian headlined a few months ago. Also, Batista has defeated Christian since jumping to Smackdown, *and* Christian has been on the losing end of a #1 contenders match. Logically, it wouldn't work. There's no booking good enough to make Christian seem like a legitimate threat with only five weeks left to promote the pay-per-view, considering the burial he's received. That doesn't even take into consideration that he took the pin in a title match on pay-per-view for RAW in June. You could start Christian on a winning streak leading up to the match. Have him beat Booker T. a couple times, even a win over The Undertaker to build him up as a serious contender. If the WWE bought Christian over to SmackDown to make him one of the top heels (if not then the drafting him over was dumb) there's probably no better place to have him booked to face Batista. It's a split brand PPV so even if fans don't by into Christian (If booked right for 5 weeks, they could), the card will be so strong that I don't think that match will hinder the buyrates. I doubt Batista vs. JBL would draw anymore people into buying the PPV then Christian vs. Batista. Now Undertaker vs. Batista with Orton as the ref is how I would go, but I still think the Christian/Batista match would work well if booked right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2005 I do think Christian v Batista is a match that can be booked in the future. I just think Summerslam is too soon, considering all the big losses Christian has suffered this year. He really needs a year of heavy push without doing any high-profile jobs (or at least staying protected when he does job) so when he gets the opportunity, he won't fall on his face. I think RAW is suffering right now because Cena/Jericho has no intrigue, because no one thinks Jericho can win the belt and they haven't put him over *anyone* to build to the big match with Cena since turning heel. I just don't want the same thing happening to Christian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slasher Posted July 24, 2005 Report Share Posted July 24, 2005 MJ, why do you want the Batista/Taker match with Orton as ref? It sounds too much like Hart/Taker with HBK as ref. Orton would take the shine off a much needed Batista victory much like Michaels did for Bret years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MJHimJfadeaway23 Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 MJ, why do you want the Batista/Taker match with Orton as ref? It sounds too much like Hart/Taker with HBK as ref. Orton would take the shine off a much needed Batista victory much like Michaels did for Bret years ago. I don't know if Orton has the status to take away from Batista like Shawn did to Bret. And during the match, Shawn's presence didn't really take away from Bret Hart's win to me, really. Maybe Bret's extended celebration had something to do with that, but still. I really hope they don't run JBL/Batista again. Atleast add the Undertaker to give it some suspense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Papi Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 Foxsports.com picks up on the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dazed Posted July 28, 2005 Report Share Posted July 28, 2005 Foxsports.com picks up on the story. Davis, the WWE spokesman, called Hassan "an interesting character." "This was an unfortunate sequence of events," he said. "Some people drew the conclusion these people were terrorists even though they were not terrorists." "unfortunate" is one word. "Intentional" is another. I missed SmackDown on 7/7, and indeed every week this year, but I did catch the GAB. The intent is ridiculously clear. WWE are saying, in every single way apart from actually coming out with the words, that Hassan is an evil Arab Terrorist, and he hates America, and he acts the same way as suicide bombers and the evil Muslims that kill people. What a joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts