ANGER MANAGEMENT: Boring May Be Storm's Biggest Blessing Jun 24 - 01:57 am EDT
Opinion by S_D
ANGER MANAGEMENT
Boring May Be Storm's Biggest Blessing
June 24th, 2003
On the June 16th edition of WWE RAW, a very strange angle began to take place. Lance Storm came out to the ring to wrestle WWE newcomer Garrison Cade (Lance Cade). After Storm's entrance, RAW Co-GM Stone Cold Steve Austin comes out with a bedsheet and a pillow. He cites that Storm is the most boring wrestler he has ever seen and chants "boring" while he dozes off on the stage. The Internet and some wrestlers, Shane Douglas most boldly, cried afoul at this move, calling it disrespectful. Yeah, it may have been if this was 1980 and we were still in the era of kayfabe.
But it's not 1980.
It's 2003.
Wrestling has evolutioned into entertainment whether we like it or not. And along with the entertainment comes getting people over and making them interesting characters at the expense of shattering of kayfabe. This is one of those situations. Let's face it, Storm really hasn't been all that interesting of a character since his impodus into WWE in May of 2001. That's not his fault, but that's another article. And another grim reality we, as hardcore fans, must swallow is that Storm's style of wrestling does not electrify the casual WWE crowd like us. Unfortunately, our numbers are far outnumbered by they. As someone who wants to see the WWE succeed, I will gladly go along with entertainment if it's for the good of the company. 1998 proved that it can be indeed very healthy to the company when done right, so I support the entertainment aspect.
Tonight on RAW from Madison Square Garden, I watched something pretty awe-inspiring. Everytime Lance Storm got in that ring, the sold out crowd at MSG rocked the house with their loudest "boring" chants they could muster. This made me happy, not upset, and I'll tell you why. Watch the majority of Storm's matches since he started there 2 years ago. The fans, whom are mostly comprised of the casuals by the way, were generally just apathetic towards Storm's performances and really didn't react. This night, I saw 16,000+ people react to Storm in a big way.
How dare anyone say this hurts Storm? And for those that challenge me by saying, "But, dude, the word 'boring' is an insult," I bring up another man.
Kurt Angle.
I also bring up two words.
"You suck."
I ask you, how is the fans being incited to chant "You Suck" during Angle's entrance music any different than when the fans are incited to chant "Boring" during Lance Storm's matches? The "You Suck" chants were able to connect the crowd closer to Angle as a heel more than simply yelling "Booooo!" really loud. It gave something for Angle to react to and play off of. The WWE crowd now finally has a reason to care about Storm. Because they know that their ringing chants of "boring" will piss him off and he will react to it in a very pissed off manner. After all, isn't that what being a heel is all about?
I'd say Lance Storm has quite the advantage now over the rest of the heels in the WWE locker room because now the fans can feel like they are part of the show by poking at him and by being able to have pseudo-control over him.
And isn't that what being a fan should be all about? The crowd paid their money, they should be interractive with the show, which is why the "What?" stuff took off. Which is why the "You Suck" stuff took off. Which is why I know the "Boring" stuff can take off. Austin made money with "What?" Angle made money with "You Suck." Now, Storm has the chance to make money with "Boring."
I doubt Lance Storm would argue the fact that crowd reaction and the potential for making money hurts him.
