Courtesy Pro Wrestling Ponderings, here’s Jim Cornette calling out Eric Bischoff for some very prickish comments about Ring of Honor. I can’t find the full text of the Bischoff article, but the gist of it can be found here on PWPonderings’ Facebook page. Jim Cornette’s response is here (also on PWPonderings’ FB page, via the Ring of Honor boards).
I found Cornette’s article more interesting, mainly for his analysis of the current state of the wrestling business and it’s devolution (in my estimation) from “professional wrestling” to “sports entertainment”, of which Bischoff was a part. As unfortunate as it is, championships don’t seem to be nearly as prestigious anymore, and in large part I think that can be traced back to booking moving away from winning, losing, and chasing championships. I think Sheamus’ WWE Championship runs have been a good exemplar of this shift; the WWF Championship used to be “the richest prize in the game” and it alone was motivation enough for one wrestler to go after another. The catch, and the reason why the story worked, was that the holder of the WWF title was tough as nails, too courageous to quit, or a cunning tactician. Sure, everyone wanted his belt, because it meant they were the best in the world… but he had the belt. He WAS the best in the world. To be the man, you’ve gotta beat the man. Now look at Sheamus’ two WWE title runs. The first resulted from winning a table match by accident, which could have led to him having to prove himself against a series of difficult challengers. Instead, he dropped the belt two months later to the same guy he won it from. In his second run, he won the belt by accident again, this time with interference from Nexus in the Fatal Four Way match. And he’s being booked as a giant pussy who only wins cleanly against mid-carders. And will probably drop the belt to Randy Orton tonight at SummerSlam (if he hasn’t already, since at the time of writing SummerSlam has been going for about two hours already).
Now don’t get me wrong, I LIKE Sheamus. He’s not spectacular, but he’s good a good combination of solid speaking and working ability. But the value of the WWE Championship is being lowered during his title runs because the writers aren’t letting him do anything with it. He started as a monster heel and has since been morphed into a cowardly heel despite being built like a truck and being nicknamed the Celtic Warrior. The WWE title belt situation isn’t a case of beating the man to be the man, it’s a case of who can jump on the patsy wearing the gold first (with the Miz lurking in the shadows with his Money in the Bank), but where does that leave the new champion? Diesel becomes a legitimate champion by beating Bret Hart, another legitimate champion, for the belt. What does beating Sheamus accomplish, at this point? It’s actually a KNOCK on the next champion, not an accolade.
And that’s the kind of thing that Jim Cornette is upset about.