Opinion by Zedar

Hello, I am Zedar.

Some of you may know me as Zedar.

Because that is what people call me.

With the awkward introduction out of the way(I've always thought the first three lines of anything are the hardest to write), we can get down to business..


First topic: The Rock

Let's go to everyone's favorite "journalist", Dave Scherer!

"I think that people feel he has "sold them out" by choosing to do movies over wrestling. As I have said in the Lariat recently, I just can't buy that line of thinking. He made wrestling as much as wrestling made him."

There's one inaccuracy already, when the Rock was becoming big, professional wrestling was Steve Austin's world, Rock just sort of lived in it.

"It was a reciprocal, even relationship. I think that a lot of fans feel betrayed because he doesn't wrestle full time anymore, but I think they are being selfish in not looking at the big picture. Rock is a very special performer and I don't feel he owes the wrestling business anything, especially not at the expense of keeping himself from becoming a mainstream, much richer star."

Scherer doesn't understand WHY people are pissed at the Rock. It isn't that he would rather do movies, it's that he tells WWE fans that wrestling is his home and he loves it more than anything, and then directly contradicts himself through his actions. If there is one thing that people as a whole hate more than anything else, it's being lied to, and Rock's people feel like their champion is a dirty liar.

Wrestling fans WANT their favorites to be successful. It's fun watching Steve Austin on Nash Bridges, or watching The Rock in a blockbuster movie, they feel a sense of pride as fans. "I helped Stone Cold get there". When Austin was on Nash Bridges, to an extent with Hogan and his movies, with Mummy 2 and Scorpion King, wrestling fans felt special, they knew that they recognized the star power that lay beneath the surface before anyone else, and it felt good. Jealousy is not the issue. With the majority of fans, even after the Scorpion King came out, The Rock was "one of us", one of the guys, a very important member of the community that has risen up around professional wrestling. Now these same fans feel like he has turned his back on that community, and it hurts them. My question is, who is Dave Scherer to judge the way that those fans feel? They are the ones buying (or not buying) the tickets.. when was the last time Dave Scherer paid for a ticket to a wrestling show?

The problem with some journalists (and I say some because I have great respect for a few of the higher profile wrestling writers) is that they lose track of what it is like to be a fan. What it's like to wait in line, or spend half an hour on ticketmaster.com, to buy a ticket to a show. Wrestling "journalists" seperate themselves from that "community", and to an extent that's probably necessary. But it's not fair for Scherer to judge the feelings of a group of people without even knowing where they are coming from.

That would be my soapbox speech for the day. I didn't intend to write an essay railing against internet wrestling journalism, it's obvious that journalists and writers have an important role in the wresting community(some more than others). I have great respect for guys like Dave Meltzer who do it for a living and are good at it, and even more respect for guys like CRZ who do (or in his case, did) it without monetary reward. But this is a topic that has been explored over and over again, so I'll move on.


Topic 2: The HHHorsemen

Apparently, in his quest to be Ric Flair, Triple H wants to have his own Horsemen. Unlike most of HHH's ideas, I do not think that this is a bad one, IF they execute it right, and WWE execution has been sorely lacking of late. There has to be more to the group than getting Trips over. If you look back on the history of the Four Horsemen, almost everyone who has been a Horsemen has been an important character (we'll ignore Paul Roma and Steve McMichael for the purposes of this article). Arn and Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger, Barry Windham, every single one of these people were strong characters. And THAT is why the Horseman concept works, not because of Ric Flair (who would have been and was a star standing on his own), but because of the people underneath him. The reason the Horsemen worked was because when Arn Anderson stared down a Magnum TA or Dusty Rhodes, people believed that he had a shot at taking them out. When Barry Windham stared down Lex Luger, people believed that they were equals. THAT is the point behind the Horsemen. Four men who, alone, are the equals of their rivals, but together are a menacing force, something to be feared.

And that is why standard HHH IS GOD booking will not work with the Horsemen angle. If anything, HHH should always look the weakest of the four. That's what worked for his idol, after all. When Ric Flair stared down Ronnie Garvin or Dusty Rhodes, people believed that these were men who were capable of destroying Ric Flair. Conversely, they knew that Ric Flair was capable of beating either of them. But Flair was not undefeatable, Flair was not superman. Alone, he was vulnerable and human. The way it was written, it was the Horsemen that made Ric Flair "The Man". And that is the only way that this angle will work, HHH as the champion who is beatable (and he should be dropping non-title singles matches to prove this point).

Another reason why the strength of the other three horsemen is important, is in building up a challenger for HHH. If say, Booker T beats Randy Orton, it has to mean something, it has to set up Booker T and HHH. It can't mean what Booker T beating Randy Orton would mean if they did it on RAW next week, which is nothing. They have to build up the other three Horsemen, feed them every single face they dont have plans for, and maybe one or two they do. They have to make it clear that losing to a Horseman is not the same thing as losing to a jobber, there's no shame in it, these are four of the best in the world. By building them up so that losses to them dont hurt as much, you automatically make wins over them mean more.

Now, what should the lineup be? So far, we have Triple H, Randy Orton and Batista. Batista would not have been my choice, but he wont hurt in the enforcer role, the big guy who smashes people trying to get to The Game. Randy orton will be a star if the legs arent cut out from under him, and if they don't portray him as HHH's stooge, he's a good choice. And obviously we aren't getting around having HHH, it IS his group. So who do we pick for the fourth member? Jericho is established as a star just under HHH's level, but Jericho and HHH in a stable doesnt work. Nash is coming back, but we already have one terrible worker in the group, so in my opinion, he doesn't fit. I think that in looking for the fourth Horseman, you dont need to look any further than Rob Van Dam.

Van Dam as a Horseman achieves quite a few things. It freshens him up, as face RVD is old and tired, people have seen it. It allows him to be built up without directly being a threat to HHH, while still leaving the possibilty (and I would hope they would do it eventually) of an Alliance type situation building up, where Van Dam becomes too big for the Horsemen and declares himself the leader, and gives the writers another chance to pay off that angle correctly (RVD beats HHH for the title). Which of course they will blow, but we aren't looking that far ahead right now, we're just creating the opportunity. Plus, Van Dam's promos were significantly better in ECW when his main topic was how great he was, and this would allow for a return of those cocky heel promos. And Van Dam is established as a star, so they won't have to spend as much time establishing him as they will have to spend on Batista or Orton. In my opinion, Van Dam works on every level as the fourth horseman.

So of course, it won't be him.


That's all for today, I'll be back at some point with an article on whatever is happening in WWE at that time, and I intend to write something on the recent Misawa/Chono v. Taue/Kobashi match that none of you will care about, but I will write anyway..

You can reach me by e-mailing , or msging Zedar on EFNET IRC.