Jim Ross has posted a new blog entry. Here are some highlights…
On Last Night’s RAW:/b> Solid RAW from Dallas Monday night. As usual, enduring a three hour TV show of any kind is challenging but that’s the hand that’s dealt and it’s getting somewhat tiresome to hear critics continue to lambast the three hour format every week. It simply is what it is even though Monday night’s show seem to move quicker than usual for me. Perhaps that was because of all the bell to bell content that was featured. Multiple segment matches, in my view, helps 3 hour RAWS as the talents have the time to tell a compelling story if their skill level allows such.
On Orton vs. Bryan:/b> The highlight of the night was the strong, WWE World Title Bout featuring Orton and Bryan. Excellent story….good pacing…plenty of near falls….the live audience engaged and emotionally invested…a tried and true, villainous conclusion that put all the steam on Orton and not on the referee. Plus, the message was made loud and clear that Daniel Bryan looks to have Orton’s ‘number.’ This was one of Orton’s best matches in a good while as his chemistry with Bryan is noticeable. For the record, I can’t recall the last time that I saw Daniel Bryan have a bad match. Bryan may be the definitive, best wrestler in the business at this point in time.
On WWE’s Tag Team Scene: Multiple, solid to good tag team bouts featured on RAW. Seeing all the tag team action reminded me of back in the day when Jim Crockett Promotions used to feature ample, tag team wrestling highlighted by the Jim Crockett Memorial Tag Team Tourney. I enjoyed being a part of that process and feel, if presented creatively, that a similar tournament would be a nice, TV attraction. Tournaments are naturally episodic in how they are structured so the ‘story’ of the process is organically in place.
Tag Team wrestling allows multiple talents to get viable, TV exposure. Plus it builds upon their individual personalities and encourages talents to creatively mesh with their partner in some shape, form or fashion. If it’s a good presentation, the fans win because the competition is enhanced and the creative directions that a tag team match can take are essentially endless. Plus, many young fans have never seen truly great tag team wrestling in their lifetime so what’s old becomes new again.
My fascination into the world of pro wrestling as a young kid was facilitated by the amazing tag team rivalry in the Oklahoma territory between the masked Assassins vs. the Kentuckians. This program was making the territorial loop for Lee Roy McGuirk around 1963-64 and it ignited the territory to new heights. Tom Renesto and Joe Hamilton were the Assassins and their deliberate and somewhat soft spoken albeit hauntingly evil promos are ones that I can still remember these many years later.
I’ve often said that the Assassins were arguably the best tag team that I ever saw. Amazing villains who were a well oiled machine and who always wrestled logical matches that suspended one’s disbelief regarding the entertainment aspect of the genre. The Kentuckians were Luke Brown and Grizzly Smith, the father of Rockin’ Robin, Sam Houston and, of course, Jake the Snake Roberts. They were sporting those Duck Dynasty beards before they were fashionable.
You can read Jim’s full blog by clicking here.
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