Friday, July 11, 2003
London hits the big time
Hey look, I've actually got something wrestling-related to talk about. Paul London has signed with WWE. And given that London's been one of my favorite wrestlers in the world over the last year or so, I've got some thoughts on this. First of all, I must say that I'm happy for Paul in that his hard work has paid off in a job that will presumably lead to greater international exposure and a steady paycheck. WWE paychecks apparently aren't what they used to be, but I would still imagine this will be better for his bank account than shuttling back and forth between Japan and the Northeastern US for indy and Zero One checks.
That said, from a purely selfish standpoint I'm sorry to see him go. London was an unknown when I first saw him sixteen months ago, but he impressed and improved a great deal in the time since then and became Ring Of Honor's top babyface in the process with his great babyface persona and willingness to die for the audience's pleasure. And of course he was one half of the greatest match I've ever seen live (reviewed here) in April. But now he's going to WWE, where they'll turn him into Generic Cruiserweight #17 and have him wrestle six minute matches on Velocity if we're lucky. Hell, they'll probably even take the shooting star press away from him, lest he be confused with boring old Billy Kidman. I don't think I'm going out on a limb guessing that he'll never wrestle a forty minute classic the likes of his match with Bryan Danielson in WWE. And thus, another of my indy favorites gets beaten down into the WWE style to the point where I have to get excited if they even bother to put him on TV.
Now, ROH is claiming that he'll be allowed to wrestle next week's show against Samoa Joe, a show for whcih I have not yet purchased tickets. Of course, they said the same thing when Spanky got signed just before the November show last year and he wound up not wrestling, so I may just wait until the last minute to buy my ticket. Hopefully he does make it, because I know he and Joe are capable of putting on one hell of a match to send him out and I'm sure the ROH crowd will send him off in style. I'll just be thankful that the American Dragon would never fit in WWE's cruiserweight division. I don't know what I'd do if he got gobbled up by the McMahons' sports entertainment factory. ¶ joe | 4:44 PM |
Hey look, I've actually got something wrestling-related to talk about. Paul London has signed with WWE. And given that London's been one of my favorite wrestlers in the world over the last year or so, I've got some thoughts on this. First of all, I must say that I'm happy for Paul in that his hard work has paid off in a job that will presumably lead to greater international exposure and a steady paycheck. WWE paychecks apparently aren't what they used to be, but I would still imagine this will be better for his bank account than shuttling back and forth between Japan and the Northeastern US for indy and Zero One checks.
That said, from a purely selfish standpoint I'm sorry to see him go. London was an unknown when I first saw him sixteen months ago, but he impressed and improved a great deal in the time since then and became Ring Of Honor's top babyface in the process with his great babyface persona and willingness to die for the audience's pleasure. And of course he was one half of the greatest match I've ever seen live (reviewed here) in April. But now he's going to WWE, where they'll turn him into Generic Cruiserweight #17 and have him wrestle six minute matches on Velocity if we're lucky. Hell, they'll probably even take the shooting star press away from him, lest he be confused with boring old Billy Kidman. I don't think I'm going out on a limb guessing that he'll never wrestle a forty minute classic the likes of his match with Bryan Danielson in WWE. And thus, another of my indy favorites gets beaten down into the WWE style to the point where I have to get excited if they even bother to put him on TV.
Now, ROH is claiming that he'll be allowed to wrestle next week's show against Samoa Joe, a show for whcih I have not yet purchased tickets. Of course, they said the same thing when Spanky got signed just before the November show last year and he wound up not wrestling, so I may just wait until the last minute to buy my ticket. Hopefully he does make it, because I know he and Joe are capable of putting on one hell of a match to send him out and I'm sure the ROH crowd will send him off in style. I'll just be thankful that the American Dragon would never fit in WWE's cruiserweight division. I don't know what I'd do if he got gobbled up by the McMahons' sports entertainment factory. ¶ joe | 4:44 PM |
