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Columnists : Palace 3.0
The Palace - Broadcasting in WWE & much more...
By MIKE SICILIANO - MOP Squad Sports Staff Writer
May 3, 2008 - 11:55:37 AM

I guess with the product being as lackluster as its been over the past few months, that its time for WWE to dip in to another aspect of the package to come up with some ideas for new storylines. Now, we have stories on the microphone for all three brands that need to be addressed.

Before I continue, I'm going to be honest. I haven't seen Raw or ECW this past week. I saw the videos on WWE.com. Now some people are going to criticize me for that, and my response is simple. So be it.

First, with Raw. There's a secondary story with that that I am going to address as well. But, first things first. King of the Ring & Raw GM William Regal pulls the plug on the program mid championship match between the new WWE Champion Triple "Hay-ch" and Randy Orton. Personally, I thought the segment was done beautifully. What I am enjoying with this immensely is the ego trip that winning King of the Ring has given Regal has almost made a new element of a Mr. McMahon character, and personally, I would love to see Regal take that characteristic and evolve it in to something fresh and new. It's no secret that Regal is as good as anyone on the planet with the stick, and this role, from what I have seen thus far since the tournament, will absolutely suit him to a T.

Now, back to the lecture at hand, Regal pulls the match mid stride, which could set up feuds with both the champion and challenger, as well as a backlash from the entire locker room for his actions. Now, the question remains is, how does the GM handle the retalliation? I think it's a hell of a cliff hanger that is unpredictable to handicap and something I am going to be very interested to see how it plays out.

I am very pleased with this idea for one specific reason. It delays any potential return of Vince McMahon to WWE television. With all due respect to the Chairman of the Board, the less we see him right now, the better it is for the product. Regal being the despot of Raw will provide a possibility that is virtually endless, and all of it will be absolutely fresh, new, and enjoyable to watch. I think initially you'll see Triple H take on Regal in a power struggle, eventually leading to Regal winning over the Game, and the Game finally turning heel as he has been wanting to do so since his initial return from the second quad injury.

Not much else can be said here, except it should be very interesting where things roll forward.

On ECW, things are a little more muddled. I still stay with the opinion that Mike Adamle joining the ECW announce team over Joey Styles is an absdolute head scratcher. Adamle is a professional broadcaster, there's no question about that, but the facts are the facts, Adamle has not enough experience with the product to be able to sway the load as a play by play announcer. The initial broadcast was so God awful it was painful to watch. Tazz really also seemed kind of pained by how bad things seemed, especially with the product in the ring for Adamle's first main event, (Undertaker & Kane taggin' on tuesday night).

Now, with this walk out, first things first, I don't know if there was preceding events that seeded the idea of a walk out before the show ended. Is it a shoot? Doubtful, but it's possible. Adamle has the aura of possibly being a little over sensitive, according to my opinion of him from seeing him on television. It appeared from what Tazz sounded like that this was a surprise to him, and he even leaving kind of looked a little puzzling. It's iether one terrific work, or a semi-shoot turned work, whatever the case may be, but what happens next is anyone's guess.

What can be said for certain is this move has been done to try and boost the product in the opposite effect. As much as I can't stand Paul Heyman's articles on the Sun's website out of the UK, this particular time, he's right on tap. McMahon put Adamle in this position to make the product sound so much like a train wreck that people are going to be forced to watch to find out what happens next. What surprises me is that they "crashed" the train so soon after the transition from Styles to Adamle. Now, as I said, the question is what do they do to re-start the train of the ECW product come tuesday night.

And here's a swerve for you that I'd like to bring out. What does this angle say to the talents that are assigned to the ECW brand? To the Kofi Kingstons, to the Mike Knoxes, to the Shelton Benjamins, to the Tommy Dreamers, to the Kelly Kellys, et al, all of them who have been on the roster for some time, and speaking for Knox, Dreamer, and Kelly, been there since the relaunch, how do their egos handle the fact that the focus of their show has become the men behind the microphone, and not the talents inside the ring? It's got to be riding on their minds a little, or frankly, they're just not human beings.

Next, moving on to SmackDown!, let's just put this on the table. I am not a Michael Cole fan. However, Cole is a professional play by play man. He can call it with the best of them. With that being said, Cole & Tazz were terrific. Tazz's knowledge, wit, and edge made that pair very successful. And truth be told, JBL was doing the same thing with Cole during his time behind the microphone. His work was nothing short of spectacular during his short tenure behind the mike. I loved it.

Now, Jonathan Coachman on the mike as the color commentator was just awful. More than once I cringed listening to Coachman do his commentary thinking that he would suffer some more finishing moves as punishment when the cameras were turned off for some of the hair hurting doctrine spewing from Coachman's mouth. Maybe he stretched himself too thin with his new MSG stint, but his tenure as SmackDown! color commentator was nothing short of abyssmal.

And it's obvious, we're not the only one who thinks that.

Mick Foley joining the booth as SmackDown! color commentator is a good call, with one exception. Can Foley skim the tide and be a "tweener" color commentator, ala Tazz, ala JBL? If Foley and Cole gush all over the faces as Cole does incessantly, it will become a sugar coated fun fest that will be impossible to endure. If Foley can maintain his opinion, and not try to put over every single babyface on the product, it's going to be a good match, eventually. Bottom line on one thing, it's a plus compared to what was going down with Cole and Coachman, which was nothing. There's nowhere to go but up with the product after what they did over the past couple of months.

One thing is for sure, there hasn't been this much news with the WWE broadcasters since the last time they fired Jim Ross.

Now that I had the chance to listen to Foley on SmackDown! as color commentator, I can only say this.

He's not the Coach. Thank God.

Foley is funny, informative, and he's putting over the people who need to be put over. He put over Miz and Morrison as being legitimate, heavy duty tag team champs, while Cole continues to follow Yang and Moore like he's their resident groupie. Personally, I really wonder about Cole's personal dealings with Matt Hardy off the air, because on the air, it's sounding a little creepy how much Cole is trying to put Hardy over. It's not hard to do, Hardy is having some terrific television matches, and the feud with MVP has elevated to a new level now that the title change has happened, but the way Cole fawns over the babyfaces has been, and continues to be annoying. However, Foley being the lovable, informative sidekick is a welcome addition by subtraction on SmackDown!. Like he said on a couple of choice times during the broadcast,

He's not the Coach.

Thank God for that, Mick. I think the fans agree with me on that one..

I have to say something about the recent arrest of Santino Marella for driving under the influence. First question is, are the people that were with him, such as Thorn, Katie Lea, and others, are they that ignorant enough to not realize that Marella had too much to drink and should not be behind the wheel of a car? With that being said, one way or another, a mistake is a mistake. I'm not going to degrade Marella for making a mistake. I'll disparage the people in the car with him for not using their common sense and getting Marella out from behind the wheel, but the mistake is the mistake, and Santino's going to pay the price. I don't condone what Santino did, in any way, shape, or form, but there's one thing that is a virtual certainty. Whatever penalties were levied on Marella during his tenure with law enforcement will be absolute child's play to what Vince McMahon is liable to do to Marella's push, and Marella himself.

I would suspect that this blemish on Santino's record will virtually kill any possible idea of a tag team title run for Marella and his new partner Carlito.

And if that is the case, I would suspect that the Caribbean superstar is going to be one pissed off individual when he realizes that Santino's idiocy may be a primary reason that would cost him a shot at wearing gold again.

I was preparing to attend ROH's Hammerstein Ballroom debut next week, but due to circumstances, I will not. Sorry people, family comes first, and something came up that I have to attend. It's a shame too, as I would love to see Marufuji vs. Danielson, but the DVD will have to do for this one. C'est la vie.

ROHWrestling.com has an article up about talent exchanges between themselves and TNA. Daizee Haze worked the television tapings, and they're negotiating to bring the Motor City Machineguns back. After that, nobody else is on the table. Question. Wouldn't both companies benefit from a talent exchange? More exposure for both companies when the schedules allow it. I continue to be befuddled by the lack of creativity by the suits in pro wrestling. I'm not saying I'm the answer by any sense of the word, but the fact remains is this, there's got to be a way to make the product more affable to fans, and that would be the beginning of the puzzle, as far as I can tell, for the competiiton to WWE.

Going back to WWE discussion, As I said earlier, I watched SmackDown! tonight, or should I say last night, and it was enjoyable. I am wondering, and getting increasingly annoyed at the Vickie Guerrero character with Edge. Align, ok, I can dig that. This lover storyline is so ridiculously old, it's pathetic. But, what's got me worried is this stripping of the World title. It appeared in every sense of the word that Undertaker was due for one last long run at the top of the mountain, and if this is the end of a much shorter reign than I think most of us would believe, it's a travesty of justice in the ultimate sense.

This diva feud on SmackDown! is getting intense. It's a shame they don't have a belt to compete over. Why can't the titles start getting defended on all the shows periodically? Everyone is jumping ship like its the Titanic hitting an iceberg whenever the product needs it, so start doing random defenses of the other titles elsewhere. It'd liven the product up, and in this particular case, give a nice little carat to a feud that has begun to blossom nicely. Cherry needs to change her outfit, though. No offense.

Who else here thinks Vladimir Kozlov is a waste of television time?

Can Colin Delaney be the 2008 version of ECW's Mikey Whipwreck? I don't know, but I think WWE is going to find out. I just hope they don't kill the kid in the process, literally.

How many more challengers are going to pass through the turnstyles of the tag team division before Miz and Morrison find a viable challenger? I thought they were trying to put Yang and Moore up there, but they got cleanly beat tonight. How can WWE justify another title shot for those guys any time soon? It's a connundrum that WWE is going to have trouble trying to skirt around, as far as I can see.

Big Show continues to get some really tough draws. Floyd Mayweather. The Great Khali. Now Mark Henry. Damn. Someone needs to give this man a yeoman's check as a bonus, because he's been bringing his lunchpail to work for some time now with the lack of talent he's been paired with for the past couple of months.

Ok, now, it's almost 3am, I'm listening to old shock jock DJ bits, and slowly becoming delirious, so it's time to go.

Thanks for reading.

My email is Klac1102@aol.com

My blog is http://mikesiciliano.blogspot.com



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