Someone made a neat observation on The W about the throwaway bits with Big Johnny, which was something I hadn't thought about before. Basically there was a pair of quick bits with Eve and then Miz coming to see the boss and getting blown off, which wasn't mentioned again on the show. I think this might have actually been a nicely subtle bit of storytelling, showing that Ace was blowing them off because they had already served their purpose and thus he didn't have to continue kissing their ass to serve his goals. It probably wasn't intentional on the part of the writers, but if so, kudos for a nice bit of characterization. Now if only the heel GM wasn't so played out in general. That's why I initially really enjoyed the Ace character in this role, because he wasn't evil so much as he was an ass-kissing middle management type. Now he's just another corrupt authority figure in a sport that's already clogged with them.
Is it just me who seems him as Bill Lumbergh?
ReplyDeleteIf this was 10 years ago, his BlackBerry would be a red stapler
ReplyDeletePoor Miz, remember when he was in line to get some sort of...something...after WM?
ReplyDeleteNow they're both literally and figuratively telling him "Go fuck yourself, we have Brock now, you're a nobody."
...hurray?
WWE is really bad at demoting guys. They tend to just leave them off to the side until they can use them again in a main event instead of throwing them in the mid-card.
ReplyDeleteParticularly this year, where it appears they are going to do everything to make the entire roster look like losers next to Brock or Rock.
ReplyDeleteHow do you book a midcard when you've made your world title feuds the mid-card?
My guess is that they realized they had nothing for Miz and Eve so they threw that bit together at the last minute because god forbid we have a Raw without them.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm in the minority here and think that Johnny Ace was doing something deceitful intentionally. The fact that there were TWO segments showing him blowing off performers leads me to believe they might actually have a plan (then again, next week could be completely different). Big Johnny has been an interesting character thus far, and a big change in his dynamics/interactions with wrestlers could be beneficial. It's not like Lauranitis is a heel like McMahon or Bischoff that needed the spotlight on occasion. He's a guy who is legitimately employed in another possession (not the owner or Tv talent), and there remains the possibility that this could be an alternative to the "domineering authority figure" that we are used to. I think he can be a catalyst to force some of the wrestlers into new directions.
ReplyDeleteAnd his reasoning for hating Cena and Punk is sound at least. Punk verbally attacked him on air, and Cena attacked him without provocation during the title match at Money in the Bank.
ReplyDeleteCena made it clear he wanted to beat Punk fairly and cleanly without any type of screw job finish, and Laurantis was running to ring the bell. That sounds like some kind of provocation.
ReplyDeleteI don't see the big deal about him blowing them off. I took it as just their way of getting Miz and Eve on the show somehow (even for a very small amount of time) since they didn't appear in any other way (other than Miz trying to break up the fight earlier in the show, I think.)
ReplyDeleteAgree completely. The evil GM/owner thing was played out by like 2000 really, and is just such a dead horse these lazy writers beat over and over. Big Johnny as, like Scott said, kiss-ass middle management was at least a different variation. Love the character, but prefer the show to have a face figure who only makes an occasional ruling or match, like Theodore Long or ideally Jack Tunney.
ReplyDeleteIf this was 12 years ago, Russo would have already put the title on him.
ReplyDelete"Now he's just another corrupt authority figure in a sport that's already clogged with them."
ReplyDeleteHe was always nothing more than just that, he just had a differently metaphorical technical dreamcoat. The moment they booked the GM vs. GM match, I said that they should've put Teddy over, that there was a more interesting story there (Teddy finally gets to run RAW after 8 years of toil on the B-shows, Johnny sticks around to subtlety undermine him and push him towards the path to darkness that pretty much every RAW GM has ever gone down ala Gollum & Frodo). Nice to have been proven right in retrospect.
"It probably wasn't intentional on the part of the writers"
ReplyDeleteReplace probably with definitely.
I took it a different way. The way I saw it, Johnny would love to play favorites and reward those who helped him, but he can barely keep the chaos of the show in check. Whichever, it was certainly intentional. And Johnny has already made his fatal mistake by not firing Teddy when he had the chance.
ReplyDeleteWasn't Johnny about to be fired by Triple H for being an evil GM? And now hes running both shows and going back to his old ways just a couple months later.
ReplyDeleteThere was something to this effect on their YouTube show Backstage Fallout after Raw as well. Ziggler and Swagger were complaining to each other that after all they did for Team Johnny, here they are stuck where they were before. Their allegiance to him hasn't paid off at all.
ReplyDeleteCould just be Swagger and Ziggler coming up with that on their own, but combined with the Eve and Miz stuff I do think it's an intentional characterization of Ace.
I don't think you have been right whatsoever. There is no story in the face GM running both shows. Johnny's work on Smackdown with Sheamus and now having ultimate power while Teddy is his underling is the better story.
ReplyDeleteNot to a heel.
ReplyDeleteA threadjacky side note about Raw: the segment with the Three Stooges was the lowest rated point of the night, losing 240,000 viewers. How much are the movie studios paying WWE to promote that dreck that they're willing to risk turning off just shy of a quarter million fans, or in other terms, about 2 and half WM3 audiences? It doesn't really seem like a risk worth taking, to me.
ReplyDeleteI've said it before and I'll say it again. My favorite GM incarnation was Eric Bischoff after he had his head shaved. He was suddenly impartial and had a backbone. It was great seeing him tell Triple H how awesome he was, and then turning it around and saying, "you're so great, I'm sure you won't mind this latest challenge." He seemed to have a heelish swagger (he wasn't a typical babyface), but he didn't favor the heels. But he wasn't rah-rah go good guys either. I was actually really disappointed when he turned back into your standard heel GM when Cena was moved to Raw. I used to joke that once he shaved his beard, all of the nuances of his character disappered.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me smile, because that segment was atrociously bad.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Texas Kelly on this one - the "better story" would have been to do away with the authority figure all together.
ReplyDeleteI mean, now Johnny is getting involved with Sheamus, after just having been involved with Punk? Why can't the champions just fight other wrestlers? Why does it ALWAYS have to be the champion against the authority figure? It's been over fifteen years, give it a rest.
It was absolutely intentional as a way to advance the story line that while these people were instrumental in getting Johnny his job his reward for them is going to fall by the wayside. Eventually they'll get their payoff; remember how he kept blowing off the Brodus Clay debut week after week?
ReplyDelete