Criticism Works Both Ways – My Take On WWE Bias
A lot of people will look at this column and instantly think “this is just another WWE bashing column by a TNA fanboy”. Well, in that case, just please close your browser and head off into your land of ignorance. If you have any interest, feel free to read and let me know what you think. This is something I’ve taken from all over the internet, from various forums, this website (Mitchell Jones in particular), to supposed insiders like Lance Storm and Bryan Alvarez. Everyone seems to call out TNA for what they consider stupid ideas, yet when WWE does something equally, or god forbid, more stupid, that is never touched on, or if it is, WWE seems to get more of a break from these people because they are “the big show”.
The first thing I am looking at is how people see TNA do something that would be a bit, how do you say, unique. I am in no way defending some of TNA’s stupidity like the reverse battle royals, but there are a lot of times when TNA do something and a lot of people shit all over it, yet WWE do something equally as stupid and yet everybody praises the company.
Looking at this past weeks RAW, we saw Cryme Tyme steal the tag title belts from Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. I agree that it wasn’t under the same circumstances as Booker T stealing Joe’s title at Victory Road, but my key point is regarding the match itself, not the title belt theft. John Cena defeated the World Tag Team Champions, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. Now, the whole point of tag team champions is that they are supposed to be the best tag team in the company who are capable of working together which should make them more than a challenge for any single wrestler, yet how many times has John Cena defeated Rhodes and DiBiase almost single handedly? I have the score at about 3 (including the 6 man tag team matches where Cena stood on the apron for most of the match before dominating the tag team champions). Now, if TNA did this and had someone who had been on a pretty long losing streak and put him over the TNA Tag Team champions in such a fashion, I would honestly consider the tag titles to be worthless as they are held by a team who aren’t as strong as a single person. Yet I think people will still say it makes sense because John Cena is a former WWE champion. Well, I think the Dudleys put it best in a shoot interview, the tag team champions are effectively world champions as well as it shows they are supposedly the best team in the world. In WWE, it seems that logic doesn’t fly in WWE.
Another thing which I can draw comparisons to, this past Sunday at Summerslam, Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix defeated Kofi Kingston and Mickie James to win both the WWE Intercontinental and Womens championships, this is a similar situation to the Winner Takes All at last years Hard Justice event. Granted it wasn’t for every title, but its the same situation in that winning a single match won all titles on offer.
The final comparison I am going to make in this column would be the main event for the next pay per view. Mike Adamle called it the Championship Scramble, a supposed “Adamle Original” seems awfully familiar to a match I recall at Wrestlemania 2000 for the Hardcore title, infact, apart from the number of participants and the title on the line, it is the exact same match. Now this is a unique gimmick, I will give credit for that, but people will probably praise this as a great concept for a title match when if TNA did something similar the same people would shit all over it because its not WWE.
As I said at the beginning, this isn’t a rant on WWE, nor is it a column bashing them. What I am saying is that criticism should work both ways. If a company does something stupid, it should be called out on it, regardless of the company name. Whether its TNA booking a reverse battle royal or WWE having a championship scramble, people should be willing to admit when either company does something stupid, not just one company.
The only problem is that people do actually raid on WWE when they do stupid shit. The Championship Scramble, for example, is TNA-level horseshit. And I haven’t heard anyone say otherwise. But whatever helps the argument, I guess.
Oh, and your bit on Kofi/Mickie v Beth/Santino is not only wrong, but the most desperate argument for beating on WWE that I’ve seen in a while.
The big difference, forgetting that one didn’t headline a PPV, was that the WWE match was a tag match where the winning guy would win the male title and the winning girl would win the female title. These are two titles from a possible 4 on the one brand, and 9 in total in WWE. The TNA match was between two men for every single title in the company, including the tag team titles. Yes, a singles wrestler winning both tag team titles.
That’s why TNA’s version was infinitely stupid.
But it was never announced that Santino would get the IC and Beth would get the womens title as up until the match started, there was discussion on a number of different forums/sites questioning if WWE would be putting the womens title on Santino (something I think would suit him), it wasn’t until it was either explained during the match or when Santino grabbed the IC belt that it was known.
There are also a lot of people around the internet saying how great it is WWE is doing something new, regardless of them doing it 3 times in a single night, I wasn’t saying about a single person as many people seem biased to WWE. If TNA had someone almost getting run over to end an iMPACT, people would say it was retarded and typical Russo booking, but WWE did it with Cena and people were saying it was a good ending to RAW.
And the stipulation was supposed to be that if one of the tag champs was pinned, the person who pinned them would get to pick their own tag partner, thing was, Joe never did, that was stupid, but it was still the same concept. And you hit the nail on the head, it was 2 of 9 WWE titles, so how much are they really worth?