The Intro
Fresh off a trip to Irvine to attend TNA’s Bound For Glory, this week’s column finds your host feeling less than positive about the product and with plenty on his mind. As PPVs go, it wasn’t as bad as some of the reviews I’ve read have been suggesting. That said, I always enjoy events more when I’m there, possibly because I’m usually drinking.

Meanwhile, DX annoyed the hell out of me on this week’s Raw, and then the internet went mad for a few hours early on Tuesday afternoon when it transpired that one of the ‘ROH two’, Nigel McGuinness, hadn’t signed a contract with WWE at all, and was suddenly showing up in TNA under the name Desmond Wolf.

A few thoughts, if I may…

Criminal Misuse Of Talent
Seriously, why does it take D’Angelo Dinero not being able to make it to get Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin onto a PPV that features the endless talents of Kevin Nash? And why are you jobbing one of your company’s top performers and draws to Bobby Lashley? There were a few things that rubbed me the wrong way at Bound For Glory, but nothing so much as Bobby Lashley, who is once again receiving a main event push he does not deserve against the apparent best interests of the company and the wishes of its fans. ‘The Boss’ is a shitty performer with the presence of a brick, and this whole MMA-meets-wrestling thing TNA is so desperate to promote bodes ill for the company’s future. Only a complete fucking moron would book Lashley over Joe by shoot-style submission on the company’s biggest show of the year. That may the be the most counter-productive finish outside of the Fingerpoke Of Doom, which – surprise! – was booked by the very same douchebag responsible for this bullshit.

Putting People Over
Oh, wow, Kurt Angle put Matt Morgan over by shaking his hand after the match and then leaving so Morgan could soak up the ‘respect’ applause. It’s so good to see at least one main eventer willing to give younger guys the rub and…

Oops. Sorry. My excitement must have blinded me to the fact that Kurt had kicked out of Morgan’s killer finish and then pinned him cleanly after out-thinking him before shaking his hand and leaving him to bask in the respect of a crowd who’d been booing him just a couple of minutes before. Morgan must now be a main eventer, and not in any way undermined as a monster babyface.

While we’re on the subject, we should also be feeling a little sympathy for Abyss, a talented big man who’s far better than the horrible storylines he has been booked in during his TNA tenure. In fact, the only person not completely wasted in that clusterfuck of a Monster’s Ball match on Sunday Night was – you guessed it – Mick Foley. The logic appears to be that if Foley can’t do anything more than phoned-in half-speed garbage matches, then neither should his opponents. The miniscule rub Abyss got from winning that match meant significantly less than the physical price he paid for it, and that goes double for Stevie Richards and Daffney, the latter of whom broke her arm taking a sick, stupid bump the cameras didn’t even catch.

The next night, on an alarmingly well-received episode of Raw, DX spent much of the night burying everybody associated with the big Smackdown vs. Raw tag match at this Sunday’s Bragging Rights, making what could easily be construed as racial remarks at Eric Escobar and Cryme Tyme, reminding Chris Jericho where he stands in the pecking order, and mocking the weight of The Big Show and Mark Henry. When they weren’t doing that, they were shilling their book and making all manner of shitty insider jokes that something like 10% of the current WWE audience actually gets.

In the opinion of this columnist, The ‘Attitude’ generation has long overstayed its welcome.

Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch…
Another odd week for Poll Position, as a general lack of interest and misinterpretation of the question resulted in a response so pitiful I considered skipping the column this week and saving my time for Smackdown vs. Raw, where I intend to create my own version of TNA, use my talent wisely, write magnificent storylines, and not do anything foolish like, say, bring in a guy at least 75% of my fan base are already familiar with and give him a name that brings to mind images of distinguished middle-aged actors performing Shakespeare in the park.

On a side note, if the name is a Withnail And I reference, McGuinness is my new hero.

But far be it for me to let the Poll Position Public down. Let’s have at it.

The Results

Twenty-four votes. I’m not sure if it’s the question or the response that was crap. Feedback on the subject would be appreciated.

The Analysis
Being a leader and setting an example for the rest of the talent – 17%
You know, like The Undertaker. Or JBL. Or Triple H. Here’s a group of merry funsters that know how to lead in a locker room – by shitting in people’s bags and groping them in the shower, by enforcing all those unwritten rules of wrestling that prevent the business from improving its reputation to the extent that there would be no room for little dictators with superiority complexes, and by making sure that nobody gets over. Because that’s what everyone wants to see in the next generation of talent; the same bullying and politics that have pissed over so much that is good in this business since time immemorial. I wonder if a decade from now we’ll be talking about guys like Punk and Joe – who seem to have their heads pretty well together for wrestlers – with the same disdain we now use for JBL and HHH.

Randy Orton is a given.

Being emblematic of the company – 17%
You know, like AJ Styles. Or Austin Aries. Here are a couple of extraordinarily talented young performers who have paid their dues and deserve the belts they currently wear. Both find themselves the leading lights of promotions currently presenting an inconsistent (and at times incoherent) product, and both would likely benefit from leaving their current homes, though for different reasons.

As TNA Heavyweight Champion, Styles has been booked into a corner from which the only escape is a clean pinfall victory over Kurt Angle he’s unlikely to get. Will he beat Angle one-on-one at some point? Yes. Will it be clean? Give me a break. Like CM Punk’s first World Heavyweight Championship reign, AJ’s possession of the title is tainted by the lack of legitimacy in the way he won it, and TNA dropped the ball badly when they made him look weak against Angle on the final Impact before Bound For Glory then had him go over Sting in a match apparently designed to make the latter look over the hill. The story of the Bound For Glory main event wasn’t the triumphant and youthful TNA original being too good for the veteran superstar, it was Sting being placed in a situation where his big moves didn’t cut it anymore. His opponent could have been anyone, and they would have been better served giving this kind of booking to a Hernandez or a Matt Morgan in a match with no titles involved. As it stood, the PPV did nothing for AJ and everything for Angle, who is perfectly poised to take back the strap and relegate Styles to the upper midcard. Sadly, the only thing Angle is emblematic of is self interest.

Aries is in a decidedly different situation. If you look at the current ROH scene, who do they have that actually looks like they can pull off a main event program with A-Double? There’s really nobody save for Tyler Black, who would require the last year to not have happened as well as some great creative work to hide his shortcomings, and Davey Richards, who – as the indie scene’s next Great White Hope – is the most likely candidate for a face turn and a main event push. Ultimately, though, with Danielson and McGuiness gone, Aries is looking increasingly like a big fish in a rapidly shrinking pond. He may well have burned his bridges with TNA, and given the current environment, WWE is probably his best option.

Being the most over – 17%
In fairness, the WWE has this one sewn up. It’s debatable whether or not The Undertaker is the most over guy on Smackdown, but he’s certainly up there. On Raw, Randy Orton is far and away the killer heel of the show in terms of crowd reaction. Are they good champions? Depends on your definition. Terminating Punk’s awesome heel champion schtick for another ride with the dead man was clearly a poor decision from the point of view of the ‘smart’ fan, but I bet The Undertaker pulls bigger buyrates. Raw badly needs an injection of fresh talent into the main event scene if the likes of Orton and Cena are to remain as over as they are, and sending Cena off to Smackdown will be a smart move if they go through with it, as long as somebody comes back the other way, preferably somebody who can go right into a program with The Legend Killer. Like…er…

Going back to AJ Styles, the man is ridiculously over with TNA’s core fan base and always will be, but that hasn’t stopped his title reign bring sucked into the black hole of shitty booking. In the end, you may need to be over to be a champion, but being over doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get the belt and keep it.

Other – 21%
That thing about the belts just being ‘props’ these days bugs the shit out of me. In fairness to Dhaise, the poster who mentioned it in the forums, he was actually making a valid point about the power the belt has backstage rather than calling world titles meaningless per se, but it does seem to have become common in the IWC lately to refer to belts as props that don’t mean anything anymore.

So let’s play out a fantasy booking scenario. Let’s say Orton beats Cena at the videogame PPV and Cena has to go to Smackdown. The next night on Raw, Orton comes out and boasts of his superiority as champion, telling the world that he has taken on and beaten all the top challengers on Raw, that there’s nobody left to face. This brings out guest host David Arquette, who points out to Orton that on any given day, any guy with the talent and desire can be a champion. “Hell,” Arquette points out, “even I was a world champion once.”

Arquette then sets up a scenario for the following week in which Orton’s opponent in a WWE title match main event will be drawn at random by whomever the guest host is going to be.

To cut a long story short, I’d totally riff on both the Rikishi/HHH angle from way back when and the current A-Double L-Double angle on ROH, with one crucial difference: I’d have the guy win the belt. And in the end, it doesn’t really matter who it is, so long as it’s somebody from the undercard (for what it’s worth, I’d pick Swagger if I was going for the long term main event rub, and Bourne if it was purely a shock move). Point is, it would surprise people and it would mean something, which discredits the entire ‘prop’ theory.

Politics was another answer that came up, and it’s sadly a very pertinent one. I’ve already talked about TNA, but when that belt goes back on Angle (and it will), the reason will be simply that Kurt can play that particular game against just about anyone in the business with the possible exception of Triple H, a guy that never would have risen beyond the upper midcard were it not for his political machinations. The Tripper is an easy target, though, and I think it strengthens this argument to take a step back from lazy potshots at the master to take a look at the titleholders in both WWE and TNA over the last ten years. A list of great champions, or a list of great manipulators? A little of both, I think.

Being the best performer on the roster – 29%
One week the poll results are cynical as all hell, the next we’re all living in a world where – as World Champion – the most important thing for you to be is the best performer on the roster. This is where I think the question was misunderstood. There have undoubtedly been times in all three of the promotions discussed here where the best overall performer on the roster was the heavyweight champion. However, I can’t think of a time when it was the most important thing about that performer. More often than not, it was more important that they were over, politically favored, or both.

The Position
Which brings us to this week’s Position. The most important aspect of being a World Champion in professional wrestling? It’s Other, and specifically the art of politics. It’s the one thing all champions with any longevity have in common. They know how to play the game. Or they are The Game.

The Pimpage
Andy Wheeler says terrible things about Raw again.

Aaron Glazer proves he’s the Jermaine Stewart of Inside Pulse as he reminds us all that you don’t have to take your clothes off put on a wrestling clinic to have a good time, oh no.

Chris Morgado pays tribute to Lou Albano and ponders the lack of managers in wrestling these days.

Plus there’s all kinds of Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 goodness going on over at DHGF. Just wait until you see my storyline where Legacy become a gay boy band and an entire episode of Raw is dedicated to them mocking Bryan Danielson’s pasty complexion until he starts crying and is comforted by Hornswoggle, who is dressed as Mantaur.

The Future
Next week, Poll Position goes in search of the fan inside us all as I ask: “What Makes You Mark Out?”

The Plea
I’ve already had some good (and less than good) feedback about the column. I’m more concerned with the format and the polls than my writing style or opinions, so anything you guys have on that would be awesome.

I’m also finding it harder to think of good polls, so any you think would work for the column, send them along.