Conscience’s Cauldron #9
09.30.2008

Greetings all you WWE fans to the eighth edition of my weekly blog - ‘Conscience’s Cauldron’ – this week the gauntlet has been laid down, will I accept the challenge? A warped journey through the views, memoirs and musings from your favourite most-controversial Superstar – that can only be found EXCLUSIVELY over at vwwe.com.
 
Each and every week you can expect a no-holds barred, uncensored, opinionated rants and evaluations on the current status of the industry, the latest goings-on in the WWE and all the up-to-date gossip from the rumour mill. Essentially, just a collection of thoughts, plucked right from the mind of the Thinking Man’s Wrestler – the Conscience of the WWE!

Well, on with this week’s column! As controversial as ever, with the issues that everybody’s talking about…

- Assassin’s Creed
There is a lot of hype currently surrounding WWE’s latest recruit from development – the young starlet, Assassin. Word buzzing around is that this kid is hot property, and that Vince signed a major coup when he whipped the Aussie native up on a lengthily contract with TNA waiting in the wings to see if the WWE dropped the ball. There is already talk of Assassin being placed into a huge storyline in the future with him being portrayed as the on-screen son of WWE legend, Silent Assassin. Now, of course these are merely rumours at this point in time, but I am salivating as the idea! However, don’t rush this kid into anything big too soon. He needs time to grow and be nurtured – learn his trade. We don’t want another Brock Lesnar on our hands. First he needs to prove himself, and then he needs to establish himself with the fans – by getting over and shifting merchandise. That sounds like a pretty shallow take on things, but at the end of the day, crowd reactions speak for themselves. If the kid has as much talent as is reported, it won’t take long. Would I be interested in being involved in the angle? Hell yeah I would! Me & Jon go way back, and it was he who took me under his wing and showed me the ropes. It would be like coming around full circle. Again though, it needs to be done right. In my mind any future pairing of Silent Assassin with Assassin Jnr. needs to be done properly, and I cannot see it working any other way other than as a heel duo. You only have to look at the previous success of Randy & ‘Cowboy’ Bob Orton, ‘Classic’ Chavo & Chavo Guerrero Jnr and of course, most recently, ‘the Million Dollar Man’ Ted DiBiase and his Priceless namesake son.

- Art Imitating Life (… & vice-versa)???
Last week’s column brought it’s usual bout of controversy and major talking points, but none more-so than the increasingly popular debate of kayfabe. Of course, the whole dynamic of wrestling has changed from over a decade ago. Fans no longer buy what was presented to them 10-15 years ago. The internet has changed the way our customers view our product, and how we present it to them. This is evident in gimmicks, as well as storylines. But I suppose what I have more of an issue with than kayfabe dying out, is more of when real-life tries to spill over onto the soup opera scene – because that’s when the laws and boundaries of reality become blurred and in the mix, interpretation gets lost. One particular segment from this past week’s RAW stands out like a sore thumb in this particular bracket. It angered me whilst I watched it backstage. I guess, one could argue that because it angered, the job was well done. But I felt angered more because I felt that the individual delivering the speech believed it, as opposed to had it written. Now let me tell you. Saying one stupid comment doesn’t lose you credibility. Hell, a plethora of stupid comments doesn’t even get you fired evidently (Michael Shane), and I should know. But if you have no credibility to begin with and then make an offensive, disgusting or questionable remark – that’s when the shit hits the fan my friend. I don’t like you. I don’t like the fact you’re back. And I don’t like the fact you seem to be on the verge of a push and everything has been forgotten and swept under the carpet. There were guys who were around when it all kicked-off who are still here now, walking around, whistling a merry tune, acting like nothing happened – and that stinks of BS to me. But you wanna know the real reason I don’t like you? It’s because you took something I loved, and you turned it into a joke. Oh, & I’m better than you.

- Big Red U-Turn
We finally saw the unveiling of the culprits behind the Kane burning at long last, a storyline having panned-out great from start to finish I’m sure the majority of you WWE faithful will agree. But am I the only one missing something here? I could’ve sworn that you were on the verge of a fully-fledged heel turn, Kane, having been swaying in the tweener role for the past month of so. But now, it suddenly seems you’re an undeniable face again, being paired back alongside your brother, the Undertaker, as the Brothers of Destruction – arguably the most dominant combination in professional wrestling history. I gotta say, I hope there is a swerve of 2 still ahead of us in this one. Just because Regal & Burchill revealed themselves to be behind it all, I don’t think this one is over by a long shot. Last time I checked, Taker was still deeply involved in a feud with reigning WWE Champion, John Cena. I hope that this has not been forgotten, as there is definitely more potential in that angle in my opinion. And call me a killjoy – believe me, I mark out for a Kane/Taker reunion like any other fan, but this storyline seems a bit old hat now, especially after we were already treated to Taker versus Doomsday earlier in the year. So Kane, make me fall in love with your character all over again! Don’t blow this chance to re-ignite (pardon the very deliberate pun!) your stale and flagging, storied singles career. I don’t want a masked crybaby – I want the Big Red Monster!

- McMahon-O-Mania
I like the direction this week’s closing segment of RAW gave us all – I think it gives the angle impenetrable girth now, and who can honestly say they know what’s going to happen next? Only a minor concern is that after yonks and yonks of having scarcely even any tag teams, we now seem to be increasingly inundated with stables popping up left, right and centre! I have no doubt that this is going to be a huge success in terms of business for the WWE, but let’s keep it simply people. There’s no need to through faction after faction into the melting pot. Do that and all you get is WCW in it’s darkest days. On a related note, several fans have approached me unsure if Vince can pull off the ‘mad’ gimmick after the drastic failure that was ‘Mad’ Ric Flair in WCW. Trust me on this one guys, Vince has this locked-down. And believe me, despite what Michael Shane might have you believe, Vince Russo is nowhere near on this one!

- Michael Shane
Nothing more needs to be said, other than: I accept.

That is all for this week! Holla at me, for your feedback! Next week, all of the topical stories from the week just gone plus all the latest from the World of the WWE! Catch you later, Steve