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Updated daily from the corner cubicle, Torch columnist James Caldwell's weekday blog focuses on hot topic current events and other items of interest from around wrestling.

Updated Friday, June 20, 2008

I believe it's now official. Samoa Joe's TNA character has fallen into the black hole known as mediocre TNA World champion. It was only a matter of time, though. Remember Christian Cage's first NWA Title reign in TNA? Yeah, not exactly the most memorable four months in TNA history.

How about Kurt Angle's first TNA Title reign? Kinda fuzzy, I know. Everyone remembers Abyss's first title reign in TNA from November '06 to January '07, right? You know, Abyss, the guy who is borrowing Triple H's prison uniform from the Judgment Day PPV video promos and subsequently disappeared this week on TV.

These are all classic examples of up-start wrestlers grasping the brass ring in TNA, then slowly slip-sliding to the standard level of mediocrity in TNA. No one stands out. No one is better than anyone else. One week, you might win a TV match. The next week, you might end up on the wrong side of a bad interview or a beating backstage.

As far as Samoa Joe goes, it's apparent where he stands as TNA champion. He's simply just another guy. And it's so fitting that Joe's storyline has developed into him giving up the keys to his special locker room to sit amongst "the boys" in the elephant-piss locker room. It was symbolic of Joe simply arriving at everyone else's level.

We shouldn't be surprised. It happens to the best of them, even the ones who set out not to fall into the black hole of mediocrity. Joe's lone segment on the show last night was in the first quarter-hour. In the elephant-piss locker room. Sitting next to Borash on a bench. Watching a monitor. Yelling at Kevin Nash. Being told he's an idiot. Ranting and raving about nothing all over again.

Joe tried to scream and yell his way into a memorable segment with Kevin Nash in his only appearance on the show. It turned out to have the opposite effect of establishing him as just another guy-who-yells-a-lot, and he was forgotten by show's end.

Even Booker T, who was a red-hot heel just a few weeks ago, was completely forgotten. In the storyline, he's best buds with Team 3D, but TNA didn't utilize Booker in the TV main event. Joe's cooling-off process has been gradual, while Booker simply cooled off in one show where he was booked in a throwaway match against B.G. James.

With so much happening on your average edition of TNA Impact, it's difficult for anyone or anything to stand out. Someone might stand out for a few weeks, but it's inevitable he or she will slowly be cooled off. It's part of the process in TNA. No one stands out over the long-term because there are only so many TV spots for too many wrestlers.

Samoa Joe has tried to buck the system and reverse the trend of first-time TNA champions, but it wasn't worked out so far. He won't increase viewership or PPV buys as the headline act because he's at the same level of everyone else, but TNA theoretically should be giving him more meaningful TV time. But, TNA operates with a different thought process. Joe is figuring that out now that he's arrived in the black hole.

***

Updated Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Morning thought: If you have access to WWE 24/7, it's certainly worth spending some time this month perusing the catalogue. Not only is there the return of the Legends Roundtable featuring the worst characters/gimmicks of all-time, but you can't miss with King of the Ring 1994 featuring Art Donovan's obsession with every wrestler's weight. With such an original and catchy title, it's amazing the "New Generation" era catchphrase didn't quite catch on.

- Congrats to WWE on effectively lowering the bar to where a 3.3 rating for the live Raw is considered a success and a vote of confidence from the viewers for Vince McMahon to continue giving away $1.0 million.

- Congrats to ECW's Mike Adamle for sounding like a world-class announcer in comparison to Art Donovan and Randy Savage, who I spent portions of the last few nights listening to during the 1994 King of the Ring. I ordered that PPV live back in the day, but I didn't recall the rough night behind the broadcast table. In all seriousness, Adamle has improved by leaps and bounds since Week 1, mainly due to crafty editing and Tazz doing most of the talking.

- Congrats to Kofi Kingston on arriving as a legitimate babyface on ECW TV after tweaking his act over the past several months. Congrats to Matt Bourne (f/k/a Matt Sydal) for achieving a comparable level of success in three weeks.

- Congrats to WWE for giving away a seemingly fresh match-up of Chris Jericho vs. Triple H on free TV with no hype, with it only seeming fresh because WWE has nothing left that could be considered fresh. Has everyone forgotten the Hunter-Stephanie-Jericho triangle from the McMahon-Helmsley era already?!

- Congrats to Kevin Garnett for taking advantage of the one night of the year where he could hit on the female interviewer like Joe Namath on Suzy Kobler and have everyone laugh it off as K.G. being K.G.

***

Updated Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Ric Flair's return to Raw was quite the surprise. You could almost hear Vince McMahon choking on dead air earlier in the show when a McMoney contestant said Ric Flair is the most famous man from North Carolina.

It's amazing WWE held off this long - a full two and a half months - before bringing Flair back. Was the surprise cameo and subsequent dismissal by rent-a-cops worth it, though?

It started off great. Flair came out on stage with a serious look on his face. No silliness. No watered-down giggly and huggable Ric Flair we saw earlier this year prior to WWE finally figuring it out with his retirement angle with Shawn Michaels.

Back from commercial, Flair sternly approaching Jericho was still great. Doing good. We're going somewhere. Then, Flair challenged Jericho to a fight in the parking lot. All right, still good. Flair dropped an elbow on the jacket. OK, classic Flair move. A little out there, but it's Flair, so it's still good.

And then, things fell apart. Jericho slowly walking backstage with Flair leading him to the parking lot wasn't great TV. Triple H then stepping in place of Flair worked on a level of creating a fresh feud between Hunter and Jericho, but what happened to Flair? Did he not see Hunter standing there? Did he not become concerned when Jericho was no longer following him outside?

It was back to the doting, dumbed-down version of Ric Flair that was also retired with his wrestling career. Flair then half-shouting and half-hugging Triple H after the commercial break was conflicting. McMahon played his part fine, as he was the one who initiated the retirement angle for Flair to begin with.

But, here's Triple H, who emceed the retirement ceremony two and a half months ago and who heaped praise upon praise onto Flair, simply letting the rent-a-cops take Flair away like it was a WCW angle with Goldberg. Is that any way to show respect for the man who WWE christened the greatest wrestler of all-time less than three months ago?

At the end of the day, I thought it was a wasted opportunity for that first TV appearance for Ric Flair. The surprise appearance probably increased viewership for the quarter-hour with friends calling up friends, but there was only one opportunity for Flair to make his first appearance after retirement. WWE hit the right notes initially, but the ending felt like just another poor presentation of Flair as a witless old-timer from six months ago.

***

Updated Monday, June 16, 2008

Week 2 of Vince McMahon's personal charity giveaway is tonight with another $1.0 million promised. For the other 4.5 million viewers who won't be getting that phone call from McMahon tonight, we can only hope the phone calls are more entertaining than last week.

Of course, McMahon being Rick rolled and Charlie Haas blankly staring at the telephone were entertaining enough to make "The Soup" on VH-1, but wasn't entertaining enough to keep viewers tuned into the program. If the TV rating drops below 3.0 for Week 2 of McMahon rotary-dialing, then it's conceivable McMahon will quietly stop at the grand total of $2.0 million given away.

Clearly, there was a problem on Raw last week with live telephone dialing producing busy numbers, no signals, ring back tones, and a lack of reaction from the winners. Viewers at least want to be able to enjoy the entertainment value of someone else making a fool of himself or herself on live air. It's why we keep the radio station locked in when they're giving away free concert tickets. The reaction of Joe Listener screaming and hollering and acting a fool is quality entertainment.

Hopefully WWE will learn from last week's mistakes and shorten the amount of time spent on McMahon dialing numbers. The idea of incorporating underutilized talent into this deal should be explored more.

For example, Haas might have been the butt of a VH-1 joke, but when in the world would he have ever been on national cable TV outside of WWE programming? In this entertainment industry, it's a matter of getting face time, even if that face time means being made mocked or made sport of.

WWE picked up a good amount of publicity in New York last week as part of their quarterly gimmick to keep the press interested in whatever WWE's latest stunt is. It will look good on a quarterly presentation and keep investors of their backs, but it shouldn't come at the expense of alienating the money-spending fanbase.

The character-development can be achieved through McMoney with more involvement of mid-card wrestlers in the giveaway, or McMahon referencing storylines that these men and women are involved in.

When the boss acknowledges an ongoing storyline, such as Murdoch's singing, it's a subtle clue to the viewer to pay attention. That's one way to make this work in the long-term. Otherwise, it will be $2.0 million poorly spent.

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