Hornswoggled
It’s been a rough night and I need to vent.
Two of my passions are the Ravens and pro wrestling – and they both let me down in a big way. Actually, you could say they both came up a little short.
I could go on and on about the Ravens’ brutal band of butterfingers (six turnovers!), but since this a wrestling blog, I’ll focus instead on how WWE dropped the ball.
Angry and frustrated after the Ravens’ loss, I looked forward to watching my tape of Raw for the long-awaited payoff to the “Who is Vince McMahon’s illegitimate son?” story line. When the newest addition to the McMahon family turned out to be Hornswoggle, I just shook my head and rolled my eyes – basically the same facial expression I had when the Ravens decided to pass the ball on third-and-one in the fourth quarter, which resulted in an interception and led to the game-winning touchdown. But I digress – back to Raw.
The revelation of Hornswoggle as McMahon’s son is so bad that if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear Vince Russo was once again leading the WWE creative team. Before I go any further, please remember that I was all for WWE doing this story line. This is what I wrote six weeks ago when the angle began: “There is potential for a compelling story, and I am curious to see who will play the role of McMahon’s love child. It could be a major career boost for a young wrestler to get the ‘rub’ of being the illegitimate member of the McMahon clan.”
I thought it was a smart move to have a story line that weaved through all three WWE shows and created a buzz. When so much TV time is devoted to an angle, however, there is an expectation among viewers that the payoff will be worth the investment of their time and interest. For WWE to have delivered on the buildup, a high-profile wrestler or a young wrestler on the rise needed to be revealed as the mystery man.
I was expecting the son, whoever it was, to either battle McMahon or side with him in a family feud. And surely there would be pay-per-view matches involving Shane McMahon and perhaps even Triple H against the new McMahon. Somehow I doubt that Hornswoggle will be wrestling Triple H.
Kudos to those of you who actually guessed that it was Hornswoggle. I never believed for one second that WWE would go that route, but I guess the joke is on those of us who gave WWE the benefit of the doubt on this story line.
As Santino Marella, the most entertaining man in sports entertainment, so eloquently put it last night: “You trick me once, shame on me. No, shame on you. It doesn’t matter. You’re not gonna trick me again.”
Comments
I actually figured it was going to be Hornswoggle, and laughed when he came out, but a few hours after Raw and after reading this, it really isn't that good. I mean there could be some good potential comedy in here, but that's about it. I would have to agree with you and say it is a disappointment and that it needed to be someone bigger or a future superstar.
Do you think it is possible it could go back to Kennedy (since that who it was rumored to be) when he gets back from his suspension, possibly set up as HHH pulling a joke on Vince (since he was the last one in the ring, and laughing like crazy at Vince) and Kennedy end up being the real person in the end? It may seem like a bit of a strech, but like they always say, "anything can happen in the WWE." I guess we need to listen to that more often.
But it does seem like a bit of a letdown. It seemed like it was built up to be a big multi-month run and be a big push for someone, but now it just seems like it is going to be comedy and nothing meaningful come from it and then a month or so later they will act like it never happened.
Posted by: Sean C. | September 11, 2007 2:54 AM
Well as I was afraid of this, the biggest/littlest joke and disappointment of the year. Hornswoggle McMahon. So what now? So do they move Hornswoggle to Raw? (What about the Cruiserweight Title?) Does Vince appear more now on Smackdown? Or do they completely drop the son angle and have Triple H make leprechaun jokes with his rooster jokes? The amount of feuds Hornswoggle can have a physical feud with is limited. I don’t think they will bring back Little Boogey Man to feud with him. Maybe more little people wrestlers.
What I am really hoping they do is that Monday turned out to be one big joke by Triple H. Triple H admits he had hired the lawyer Jackson/Johnson (whoever) to torment Vince more. Then it is revealed that Kennedy is the true son once he comes back from his fake/real suspension. Vince will feel terrible about suspending his son and owe him big… And then finally they can go back to the story they originally had planned.
Posted by: Sitruc | September 11, 2007 9:50 AM
I saw Dykstra standing there through that whole lame guessing game nonsense. I had a spark of hope. I mean, it wouldn't have gone over at first, but would have been a nice push for the kid and get him in the mix. And then it got squashed the only way the WWE can.
What a joke. All that build-up. They might as well have made it Doink.
Posted by: JTK | September 11, 2007 1:00 PM
I was switching back and forth between Raw and the Ravens game, and aside from Shelton Benjamin and Triple “Hatche” having a decent match, there wasn’t anything that great on Raw. Although I should point out that I didn’t really pay attention to what was going on during Raw until the end of the show when the storyline was reaching it’s climax. I thought they could have done better with the Illegitimate Son angle. It’s not that it wasn’t well executed, because I thought it was built up well. I just think the payoff could have been better, with someone like Stone Cold or Ric Flair as the long lost son.
And as far as the Ravens are concerned, I thought the officials seemed to be a bit biased. I won’t give up on them now, but somebody on the team besides Ed Reed needs to step up and pull some of the load. If the rest of the team put as much heart into the game as Ed Reed does, the Ravens would be unstoppable.
Posted by: Sean | September 11, 2007 5:26 PM