Over the past few weeks, I've read articles and chatted with people on IRC who have been complaining about the new comedic roles, namely The Hurricane, in the WWF. They say that Helms should've said no to his comedy role, and tried to get over as a wrestler, instead of ruining his career.
The problem is he's not ruining his career. He's saving it.
With Vince running the only big time federation left, I would dare anyone on the lower tier to say "No Vince, I don't like that idea. I won't do it." You'll be gone so fast that they'll be hiring nobodies who only have a few weeks of wrestling training to take your spot. (Oh, wait...Tough Enough.)
As much as I love the old school wrestling, watching The Hurricane these past few weeks has been one of the bright spots in the WWF. It doesn't look like he's going out there with the "Man, I hate this gimmick" attitude, but he actually seems to love his gimmick. And if you didn't laugh when he took Molly back to the "Hurricycle", or has dubbed Lance his "Hurritwin", then you don't have a great sense of humour.
Being The Hurricane keeps Helms on TV, and if it catches on like it seems to be catching on, it'll keep him employed with the "big boys" for a while. And since he's a cruiserweight, he'll need all the help he can get with Vince running the show.
Another new gimmick I love is "Creepy DDP". Forget stalking Sara, or face DDP from WCW, but this new always smiling "I like me" DDP is hilarious. I hope he goes completely overboard on hyping his book as part of this gimmick, like I assume he will.
More fun would be Raven and DDP teaming up, with Raven going back to his old "life sucks" routine, and DDP keeps trying to cheer him up and smiling forever. That or The Flock reforming.
ECCW pushed back a house show date in Nanaimo. In other news, the sun rises and Jeff Ranger didn't write a column.
I hope to have information on a new wrestling TV show that is supposed to be coming on a new TV station here on Vancouver Island. I'll tell you this much though; if this federation does get a show, ECCW might be kicking themselves for a long, long time to come.
Hopefully my next column will feature a review of the ASW show from this weekend that my buddy taped, and any other information I can think to include.
Traditionally Yours,
The NWG