B/R Weekly Wrestling Mailbag!

Welcome to another installment of the B/R Weekly Wrestling Mailbag! You ask the questions and I give you the answers.  As we all know, I hate to keep people waiting. So let’s get started.

The first question is from Steven Davison, Steven asks:

“With the recent releases of some of TNA's X-Division wrestlers and the clear vacant cruiserweight division in WWE. Do you think the lucha-esque style of wrestling is over and wrestling is once again the realm of the big men?”

Well Steven, it’s a loaded question. If you are saying wrestling period, I say NO. Because we clearly have the CMLL and other organizations in Mexico that still have wonderful Lucha Libre action.

Not to mention New Japan. They may not have lucha libre action, but they do have X- Division/Cruiserweight-type wrestlers there. So obviously, wrestling as a whole will never lose that type of action.

However, if we are talking strictly in America, you could say the era of the big man is coming back. It is a shame, but understandable.

In the 1980s, big men as "superstars" was very common. When you have a superhuman-looking wrestler, he is easy to market. Kids around the world love to see superhero-like men wrestling as opposed to smaller men.

The WWE (more so than TNA or ROH) wants to market individuals like John Cena, Triple H, Batista, and others. What do those men have in common? All are big guys who fit in the “superhero” mold.

In truth, the WWE would rather go for money than pure wrestling. That is why they are the biggest company out there. Now, they have great wrestlers there too, but the pure wrestlers are not in the main event as often as the big men.

Back in the ‘80s, we had Andre the Giant, who was absolutely horrible on the mic, but still was someone the WWE was behind because of his size.

Hulk Hogan, of course, came along and helped to change wrestling as we know it today. He was another of the superhuman mold. We all know he clamored to the family crowd, and he made the WWE (and himself) a lot of money by doing so.

That was what the WWE wanted; when they had the families coming in they could easily make more money. The hard-nosed, beer-drinking individuals came by the hundreds.

With families, suddenly people came by the thousands.

So, what would you want more as a promoter? Money or better wrestling?

Vince wanted the money, because he knew he could get better wrestling if he had more money. Entertainment was what he was going for, and that is what the whole PG thing was then, and it looks like we are going back to that now.

We saw the Attitude era in the 90s, which many will say was their favorite era. The thing people are not seeing here is that the WWE still promoted the same thing they were before with the big men when they had one, but this time they went even more for entertainment.

We had guys like Bret Hart, Stone Cold, The Rock, and Triple H as WWE Champion. You could easily say those men are the best of all time, and I would agree. But think of this, too: they are all big men or men who were extremely popular entertainment-wise.

Bret Hart was not the biggest guy in the fight, but his matches were so good that fans had no choice but to like him.

And he was popular because he brought entertainment in there, not to mention he was a big hit with kids before and then he brought them over to the other side of him too.

Which of course made more fans like him, and that brought success to him once again. His transition was amazing, once the guy who clamored to kids now the guy who would rather beat you up.

It was a fun transition and that was something fans in that time wanted to see from him rather than the clamour to kids, and got.

We all know what Stone Cold and The Rock brought to the WWE, so I do not need to go into why they were good, it was obviously entertainment more than anything with those two. Trips is pretty big, and he is not to bad in the ring.

Did I mention a big guy we know as the Undertaker?

See, marketability was the key with the WWE then and still is. They promote the same thing they always have, and will continue to do so. Vince has always loved the big guys. And if you were big and/or brought entertainment, you were treated like royalty by the WWE.

TNA still in my opinion has a good X-Division. I feel they lost a key guy there in Petey Williams, but they still have wonderful wrestlers there who are great for that division.

Some, like AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, have been X-Division Champion but also won the TNA World Title too. This meant that the X-Division helped to make those two, especially Styles, who was one of the best in the X-Division ever.

The reason WWE got rid of the Cruiserweight Division was simply because they felt it was not needed. They could put the same wrestlers out there and have a match, just without a title, which seems short-sighted to me.

I feel the cruiserweight division was good because it helped promote smaller guys who would never be World Champion in the WWE. But there is good news. Simply put, the WWE could easily bring back the title if they felt the need too.

They never officially killed the title in the WWE. They took it away from Hornswoggle, who was the champion at the time, under the guise of keeping him safe from people who tried to harm him to get it.

So we could see it back one day, but I do not see it happening any time soon.

It looks like if we are talking TNA and ROH, they still promote smaller wrestlers and that lucha libre style we all know and love. But as for the WWE, the era of the big man has definitely returned.

The next question is from B/R’s own Celeste Winchester. Celeste asks:

“The era of dominant power divas came to a sad end with the departure of the last one of that class, Victoria. Now that Dave Finlay is no longer creating storylines for the women in WWE, what in your opinion can be done to save the women's division in WWE or is it a lost cause?”

I personally love the Divas, not just because of their looks, but because we can see great wrestling out of women that we sometimes do not see out of the men.

Take last night on SmackDown!, for example, in the match between Gail Kim and Michelle McCool. Personally, I thought it was one of the best of the night, probably the second-best match behind only Edge vs. Jeff Hardy.

The fact is that in the late 1990s, going into the 21st century in 2000 to 2007, we saw great wrestling from women such as Lita, Ivory, Chyna, Sable, Trish Stratus, Jacqueline, and others.

Around 2000, both Chyna and Sable left the WWE. After that, between 2000-2006, we had the “Invasion” from WCW and ECW to the WWF.

We saw new divas coming to the WWE like Stacy Keibler, Torrie Wilson, and Jazz. While Jazz was a terrific mat technician, we didn’t see great wrestling coming from Stacy or Torrie.

While both were very beautiful and had wonderful…assets, they were used for beauty alone. But it got them known, and since it worked and made money, the WWE had no problem that they were not credible in the ring.

Jazz stuck around and wrestled another two years or so, then left the WWE. This was a big blow wrestling-wise to the Divas. We then saw Lita and Trish still doing well, and then we saw a few others come in, like Victoria, and do well as wrestlers, not eye-candy.

What we mainly saw then, even with of Torrie and Stacy, was good storylines. The Divas were not only very good looking, but we saw them in storylines with the men and with each other.

Tell me, when was the last good storyline for the Divas? Not since, in many people’s eyes, with Lita and Trish or Mickie James and Trish. Both were years ago.

The problem has been two things:

1.)    The Diva Search

2.)    NO storylines at freakin’ all.

The Diva Search brought Michelle McCool, Eve, and Ashley to the WWE. There were others, of course, but these ladies are notable.

People like Ashley and McCool came in way too early. The WWE decided to let them just come in and wrestle after hardly any development at all.

They were terrible wrestlers because they didn’t have the training they needed. And while they were okay on the mic, by not showing anything in the ring the divas lost nearly all credibility with the fans.

Ashley was eventually released, even though she had the big WWE Diva jump when she was put in Playboy. McCool, however, wisely took time off to train in the developmental areas for the WWE. She’s been back for a little while now and is now one of the best wrestlers among the divas.

Eve actually was handled reasonably well.  She did backstage interviews but she did not get in the ring and wrestle right away. Throughout this time, she was getting training. Then, when she was ready, she went to wrestling.

She took months off from wrestling to train before going on TV, as opposed to Ashley and McCool, who came in to way too early and did not do so well, Ashley even more so than McCool.

Historically, there have not been many great wrestlers come out of the Diva Search. It was something that was hurting the Divas, which is why it was killed off.

It also seems that after probably the best diva of all time in Trish Stratus left, the WWE quit doing storylines for the female wrestlers.

If they were put in a storyline, it was only for a short time. We have not seen another Lita/Trish rivalry at all like we need to. This simply must change.

Take the TNA Knockouts Division, for example. Everyone in that division can wrestle, even the very hot, beautiful people in Angelina Love and Velvet Sky. They work well, too, which is something many WWE Divas do not do.

Also, they are not one of the first matches on the card as much on TNA. They are put towards the last, or at least in the second hour. WWE hardly ever puts their Divas in the second hour of a show. They usually start the show or are early in the first hour.

Let them be in the second hour sometimes, give them a good storyline or two, and give them some compelling promos to cut; that will help. Some real feuds would help, too.

I feel we could have a good one on SmackDown with McCool and Melina and another on RAW with Mickie and Maryse. You could have them face each other down the road even when titles were not on the line.

The Divas were something to see in the late-1990s and from 2000-2007; they can be special again with more development, better storylines, and sensible feuds.

The next question comes from another one of B/R’s own, Adam Testa. Adam asks:

“When Miz and Morrison were reigning tag team champions in WWE, they claimed to be the greatest tag team of the 21st Century.  Who do you believe truly is/was the greatest tag team so far this century?”

This is very hard Adam, but, I feel I can answer it. We have to forget about some of the best of all time like The Rockers, LOD, and others. We are looking for who is the best from 2000 and on.

I am very passionate about tag wrestling and want to see it improve so much in places like the WWE. While TNA is doing very well in tag wrestling, I feel only one team there can be in contention as the best so far. Back to that in a minute.

Thinking back to 2000 you have tons of tag teams that could be considered here. Like the multi-time WWE Tag Champs Edge and Christian, The Extreme Hardy Boyz, Undertaker and Kane, DX, and of course, Miz and Morrison.

But one team passes them all, and they have done most of their dirty work in the 21^st Century. I am talking about Team 3D/The Dudley Boys. They remind me of the Road Warriors, not small men at all. Yet they move around in the ring like men smaller than themselves.

They have wrestled in ECW, WWE, TNA, Japan, and so many other places. And every single place they have been, they were the tag team champions there. When you think tag teams, this team should be at the top of the list.

Not because they were the most fun to watch; they don’t fly around the ring to get a few pops. They just do what brought them to the party. They single-handedly revolutionized the use of tables in wrestling matches.

They helped to bring us the first-ever TLC match too. They were in almost all of the WWE’s tag team TLC matches, in fact.

To me, there is no better team out there today. They have won more tag team titles than anyone in tag team history. About 22, I believe. 

The Dudleys went to many organizations all around the world and won. They are not only the best in the 21st Century, but in my opinion, the best of all time.

That is all for this week, if you want a question answered, just ask. You can ask it here in the comments, on my profile, or e-mail me at: [e-mail]

If anyone wants to give their two cents on the questions then please do.