Marks Talking Out Of Their Asses #1 - First Defence Title Change



Randy Orton hitting the RKO to finish Christian off in his first defence.

Okay, I'll be the first to admit it. 'Marks' as a collective really are the one-eyed supporters of wrestling. We are either right, or you're wrong. We go ballistic that CM Punk has an "official" five snowflake-rated match in WWE, but we refuse to acknowledge that John Cena was a part of it, until we get to the point where most of us sound like five year old children arguing over toys in the sandbox. Even for those who can't face the facts, there needs to be a realisation that not everything we say or do is right. One of the worst things about this, is when two companies, of different personal or global popularity, do a very similar match/angle/booking decision. The most recent one happened this Saturday, which I'm sure 100% of my readers (that'd be you ,TH) would've heard about by now. But I'll build up to that. If you don't want any spoilers regarding the ROH TV Tapings, I'd suggest you bail out now (and read one of my non-spoiled posts!)

Let's go back to May 3rd 2011, when a huge news story had broken out of the Smackdown! tapings. Just two days after winning the World Heavyweight Championship, Christian had been defeated by Randy Orton, after a fan poll at the start of the night by GM Teddy Long. The Internet exploded. It went off like the 4th of July on Twitter, Facebook, carrier pigeon, smoke signals, anything any fan could get their hands on to display their disgust that "WWE was just falling back on the same pattern" and "They just see Christian as another vanilla midget". I couldn't agree more honestly, it really upset me that they couldn't just run with this amazing win. Obviously, we all know how that story goes, with Christian and Orton working some fantastic matches together for over 3 months now, and basically everyone forgetting the whole incident happened (I think Razor might still be upset...) Looking back at it, it was probably for the best. We've had an amazing series of matches out of it, a revamped heel Christian (which is pretty damn awesome), and also a feud that helped Sheamus turn face (another fantastic move). So then, what's my big issue?



Tina Turner posing with the Television Title.

My big issue came, when an equally as frustrating booking decision (if not more so...) came into fruition. El Generico, in his first defence of his newly won ROH Television Title, lost to the only recently returned, Jay Lethal. And from the same people who tore apart furniture about the Christian debacle, made not a single squeak about Generico's instant loss to a man who only just had his second match back in the company. This really shows that with a big target like WWE, we can all take potshots at it, without fear of hatred or annoying any of the brass. If a company we really like (ROH/PWG/CHIKARA) does it, we kind of let it slide into the gutter, because we can just turn a blind eye to it. It's really ridiculous if you look at it like that. Let's just compare the two situations here:

- Christian (WWF turned TNA turned WWE superstar who could never quite crack the main event in WWE, despite a great run as champion in TNA) lost his newly won World Heavyweight Championship to Randy Orton (6 time WWE Champion, 1 time World Heavyweight Champion, and arguably the most popular wrestler of 2010).

- El Generico (ROH/PWG Indy darling, coming off of a possible MOTY with 1-2-3 Kid, and also the 2010 Feud of The Year) lost his newly won World Television Championship to Jay Lethal (recently released TNA superstar, multiple time X-Division champion, and only making his 2nd appearance in ROH since 2006).

... Am I insane for thinking that the second scenario sounds a lot worse than the first? I like Jay Lethal as an in-ring competitor and as a person (his Art of Wrestling appearance sealed that). But I am also one of the biggest El Generico marks out there, and I couldn't be more upset with ROH. Generico has been working his butt of every year for the company, and the title should be a reward for all that hard work. Instead, ROH do a very Russo-esque thing, and slap the title on a guy who only has just landed back in the company. Yes, Lethal does have a past with ROH, but at least make him fight for a shot at the title, or at least let them have a short competitive rivalry for the title. It's this knee-jerk reaction booking which can really upset fans, and cause them to get frustrated with your product.