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Posts Tagged ‘the Great Khali’

Professional wrestler Paul Wight, better known to WWE fans as The Big Show, has signed an all-new WWE contract and is set to return to television any time now; in fact, he could conceivably end up as a Royal Rumble surprise guest, either in the Rumble or inserted into one of the other championship matches scheduled for that PPV event.

Wight may be hard to recognize when he returns to the WWE ring. During his year-long hiatus, Wight spent 2007 training as a professional boxer. In that time, he dropped 60 pounds to 440, and at a solid seven feet high, may be a bit shorter but is now cutting a figure a bit closer to the physique The Great Khali has achieved. In some online interviews, he has also confessed to giving up a smoking habit, which may help him breathe better and therefore perform better in the ring.

While out of the WWE, Wight wrestled an indy match against Hulk Hogan and adopted the new moniker of Paul “The Great” Wight; however, it is expected that, at least initially, WWE will reintroduce him to their audience as The Big Show. Whether the company will eventually incorporate Wight’s new in-ring persona into his wrestling career remains to be seen; it’s just too early to know.

There are several ways for Wight to make an impact in his return. The most obvious would be to have him be a surprise entrant into the Royal Rumble. With his new, trimmer physique, he could be sold more credibly as an unstoppable threat.

When Wight last appeared in a WWE-owned ring, he was part of the ECW on SciFi franchise and his return could help that broadcast, which is struggling in the ratings as more and more people are tuning out of TV as the writer’s strike has a bigger and bigger impact on audiences with new episodes drying up. Even though WWE broadcasts are unaffected by the strike, and feature new episodes every week of the year, it seems a receding tide lowers all boats and as viewers abandon TV in general, WWE’s broadcast numbers are sinking at a time one might expect them to be gaining.

If handled well, Wight’s return could help reverse this trend. Inserting Wight into the ECW title match at the Royal Rumble would be another way to go; he could be used to cost CM Punk the title and become an immediate title shot threat. Or Wight could be shipped to SmackDown to help that show’s ratings.

About the only place ProWrestlingViews.com doesn’t want to see Wight is the already overstocked with main event talent Raw broadcast. If Wight is placed on the Raw roster, he’ll almost certainly sink to second-tier status, as happened to Chris Jericho, who also recently returned after an extended hiatus from the Fed.

One thing’s for sure: if Wight is as fit as billed, an eventual clash with the Great Khali, if built up correctly, could be a match that would be WrestleMania-worthy. Just be sure to keep the medical supplies on hand at that one!

OK, here’s where the night takes a bad turn.

We all get the David vs. Goliath allusion, but it’s a gimmick that’s been done to death, and definitely the wrong direction for a monster like the Great Khali. Khali has the potential to get more over with the fans than Andre the Giant, because Khali is younger, bigger, and in much better physical shape than Andre ever was. But to do it right, they can’t jerk him into meaningless storylines like this; that’s how they wasted the wrestling career of The Big Show.

The pre-match pep talk from Vinnie Mac to Hornswaggle was good fun, but the match itself just didn’t come off well. Next to the Great Khali, Hornswaggle looked even tinier, like a midget on hoodia. The match itself was mostly ring intros, some crowd interaction when the “We want Shaq” chant filled the arena; and that was a fun tease, because Shaq is one of the few folks who has the height and weight to maybe put together a good “wrestler vs. athlete” match, but if they do something like that, it’ll be a WrestleMania, not Survivor Series.

The match itself was too predictable, with Hornswaggle unable to even make Khali blink, but striking the Midge down effortlessly when Hornswaggle started getting a bit of action in against Khali’s manager. Then, even more predictably, the save comes in the form of a Finlay run-in, which sets up a feud between Khali and Finlay, which is what this was all about to begin with. And since Finlay is the most boring wrestler on earth, that is ALSO a program that holds no interest for me.

Now, a Khali-Undertaker program… THAT would be something.

WINNER: The Great Khali (via DQ)
RATING: 2.2 (out of 10)

Let’s hope WWE milks this one slow.

For the past three or four years now, it’s been obvious that two of the young stars WWE has wanted to build around are Randy Orton and John Cena. Considering Cena’s the champ and has been for the better part of a couple years now, they’ve handled his rise to the top well.

Now, just as they did with Steve Austin and The Rock, it’s time for the always-planned feud to come to fruition. It’s time for Randy Orton and John Cena to start butting heads … and, probably, trading title reigns a bit.

Cena has loads of personal magnetism and is the electrifying personality that gets people tuning in, much like Steve Austin at the height of the “Stone Cold” era.

Like The Rock, Randy Orton is a third-generation superstar who makes the perfect foil with the right set of skills to be a great feuding partner with Cena for years to come.

In the early days of the Austin-Rock feud, they only clashed seldom and usually at PPVs. That was before the era of five hours of weekly programs of WWE TV to fill. Cena-Orton could be the feud that defines the careers of both men.

But, just as it marked the end of the appeal of seeing Austin and The Rock go head-to-head, overexposure is the greatest risk the Cena-Orton feud has. If they overplay the feud and don’t mix in enough other rivals in the title picture, it could get boring pretty quickly.

Don’t believe me?

Hogan-Andre headed two WrestleMania events. Cena-Khali lasted, what, maybe two months before the mismatch was overexposed?

Cena-Orton could be a great feud. Or, if overexposed, it could become as welcome as an outdoor fireplace at the height of an Arizona heatwave.

The feud between John Cena and Bobby Lashley is just getting started. The two men put in an impressive effort at the Great American Bash main event, which made the PPV memorable, even though the match was kept to an all-too-brief 15 minutes.

Choosing this route is definitely a wise choice by WWE. Cena could not have kept staving off the Great Khali indefinitely between now and next spring’s WrestleMania if they had stayed on Raw together. Khali is too over as a monster big man to waste him as a jobber the way WWE did with The Big Show.

Using the WWE Draft to move Khali over to Smackdown gives Khali time to win a lot and build his fearsome rep before an ultimate showdown with Cena … who I believe MUST be his ultimate showdown partner.

Meanwhile, Cena could use a legitimate threat to his dominance who’s not an indefatigable monster, and Lashley is just the guy to pull it off, no matter how many commercials for diet pills drive away viewers in the wake of the Benoit tragedy.

Here’s how I would play things out between now and WrestleMania.

The rubber match between Lashley and Cena is almost assured for SummerSlam, but it’s time to freshen up a Cena feud by allowing a legit contender to win and hold the title for a while. Aside from WrestleMania, there’s no better place and time than at SummerSlam for the title to change hands. Give Lashley his first WWE Title run with an upset victory over Cena at SummerSlam.

Of course, that would trigger another rematch for September, and I see that one as a No-DQ Last Man Standing match, something long and harsh that would take a toll off both men. Have Cena come close to recapturing the title, but then introduce an interference angle by having World Title champion (from SmackDown) the Great Khali interfere in the match (without penalty, since it’s a No-DQ match) by putting Cena down and Lashley on top of him.

If not the Great Khali, then perhaps Triple H could fill this roll; he’s returning and the man’s always been at his best as a full-on heel. Sorry, but the De-Generation X revival was a pure dud.

This could lead to a “Lashley retains, and Cena’s out for a while” result that would accomplish three important things:

1) It would provide Cena some much-needed time off to shed the “we’re getting tired of him winning all the time” boos he’s been receiving for at least the last six months at Live Event matches. Cena could use the time to perhaps do another movie, relax and spend time with family. It would give fans something fresh so that when Cena returns, he feels fresh to the audience and welcomed back by Cena-weary fans.

2) It would give Lashley a chance to build his rep, perhaps by feuding with Triple H through Survivor Series.

3) Bring Cena back in time to win the title shot of his choice at the Royal Rumble. Shut out of a title shot under storyline, Cena could win the Rumble to get a shot at either Khali or Lashley. Have him choose Khali. Then have Cena somehow stumble into a Fatal Four-Way at the final PPV prior to WrestleMania, winning back the title from Lashley, perhaps by beating one of the other men involved in the match… let’s say, Triple-H or Mr. Kennedy. That would make Cena the WWE champ again, with a WrestleMania match against Khali that, through storyline, could be made into a WWE Title/World Title reunification match. One could even toss the ECW title into the mix, just for kicks, and whoever wins would become the first WWE World Champion, the first undisputed title holder since Chris Jericho.

That undisputed champion, for my money, would have to be John Cena.

OK, someone has to speak up before an opportunity is blown.

The Great Khali-John Cena feud has the potential to be the biggest thing since Hulk Hogan-Andre the Giant, but not at the pace it’s going.

For two PPVs in a row, Cena’s managed victories over the Great Khali, despite dramatic size differences. Cena no-selling a fear of Khali in the latest chapter might make Cena seem tough, but it hurts the necessary fear that any Cena-Khali match should inspire.

Something’s needed. Something has to change the tide of this feud or it won’t even last until SummerSlam, let alone next year’s WrestleMania. Unless something dramatic is done, by the time next year’s WrestleMania comes around, the Great Khali might be no more frightening and imposing than a round of golf at Firestone using Ping Golf equipment.

There are some legit ways to take the feud.

1) Change belts. Put the strap on Khali and have Cena “injured” and our of action for a while, at the hands of Khali. That’d give Cena some time off to make The Marine 2 or something, and turn some of this negative, “Cena sucks” fan heat back into cheers upon his return. In the meantime, Khali could have some squash matches and dominate in a way that makes the audience wonder if anyone will ever defeat Khali. Keep it this way until at least SummerSlam, or maybe even until the Royal Rumble as the point of Cena’s return. Having Khali hold off Cena until a final WM showdown would be a better way to promote a Cena-Khali main event at WM.

2) Use the multi-brand draft to separate the two for a few months, until the big push toward WM starts, around the time of the Royal Rumble… or maybe a bit sooner, at Survivor Series.

3) Have Khali banned for some reason, and maybe even wrestle in disguise for a while. Hey… it worked for Andre!

Remember when WWF wrestlers went around wearing motorcycle sunglasses as a way to either seem like a shifty bad guy or a cool good guy? Simple wardrobe cues like that are no longer commonplace, and modern WWE wrestling is that much better for the change. No longer pretending to be anything but entertainment has allowed wrestling storylines to enjoy a broader array of babyfaces and heels.

However, there’s nothing quite so classic as the big, huge, unstoppable, David-and-Goliath type of storyline to get a good-guy champion over with fans as vulnerable and perhaps doomed. It worked best, and at its most classic, at WrestleMania III and IV when champion Hulk Hogan faced the most storied giant in wrestling history, Andre the Giant.

The only regrettable thing about Hogan-Andre was that Andre was not well late in his career when the classic match-ups took place, making the matches themselves seem a bit sad, rather than being quite as dramatic as they would have been, say, five years earlier in Andre’s career.

I’ve been advocating for a long time – well before this year’s WrestleMania, that the WWE needed to focus on putting over a John Cena – Great Khali rivalry that would reach its zenith at WrestleMania. Instead, WWE pushed the mostly-uninspiring Cena-HBK feud that fizzled more than it sizzled at the annual main event, the Super Bowl of WWE PPVs.

Now, at least, the feud between Cena and Khali is finally underway and the matches are being booked correctly, with Khali as the unstoppable force of nature and Cena as the immovable champion. So far, the feud is hitting all the right notes and even when Cena wins, it seems more by chance than dominance. Considering Cena is suffering from typical overexposure and fans booing him despite his face-style booking, this is exactly the kind of feud Cena needs to rebuild his popularity.

The only problem? Unless the title changes hands to Khali at some point, there’s little chance that a Cena-Khali feud can be sustained through to next year’s WrestleMania. There’s just too many hours of WWE TV and WWE PPVs between now and then.

While they’re taking their sweet, slow time about it, it’s clear WWE is grooming The Great Khali to become a legit giant in the tradition of Andre the Giant. That’s a trick they never quite got right with The Big Show.

The main problem right now with The Great Khali is that he’s so large – a legit 7’2″, 420 pounds – that building him up makes his matches a bit boring, because they’re all squashes. How many times can we see Khali absolutely destroy Super Crazy and Carlito before it becomes a joke that the man’s not a number-one contender for a WWE title?

But at least he’s being promoted the right way, unlike Umaga. Umaga is way heavier than Khali, without being anywhere near seven feet tall. Seriously, Umaga should do a diet comparison and work out with Khali. Drop about 60 pounds and Umaga might just be as fearsome as he’s being promoted as being.

Sure, it played in front of a huge live crowd, but don’t for a second think that WrestleMania 23 was a success on the level of WrestleMania 3, 20 years ago. That memorable 1987 pay-per-view featured Hulk Hogan doing the near-impossible… bodyslamming the un-bodyslammable Andre the Giant. As weak and quick as Hogan’s bodyslam of Andre was, it is still the most memorable moment in WrestleMania’s 23-year history, and no figures produced by modern budgeting software to declare WM23 a bigger moneymaker will change that fact.

Nothing about WrestleMania 23 really measured up, and mostly it was due to poor, run-of-the-mill booking. The main event, John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels, lacked heat for many reasons. First, Michaels is too past his prime to really be a main event threat to the red-hot Cena. Also, both were crowd favorites and wrestling is at its best when there is someone to boo. That lead folks to have to choose between a legend like HBK and the WWE’s hottest champ since Stone Cold and The Rock walked away from the biz.

The “billionaire’s hair match” was too predictable to be interesting, despite some decent story-building. No one believed Donald Trump would agree to be shaved bald for WrestleMania, especially since he’s in the middle of a season of The Apprentice. So the outcome – Vinnie Mac getting shaved bald due to an Umaga loss – was entirely too predictable.

The ECW Originals vs. New Breed match was OK as far as it went. The lumberjill women’s match was nothing special. Undertaker continuing his undefeated streak by becoming the new SmackDown champ was also entirely too predictable, and another example of booking two crowd-favorites against each other with neither playing a true heel.

I liked the Money In the Bank ladder match best of all, but the rest of the card was purely average at best. It’s a shame that wiser minds didn’t prevail. Even though he’s not yet established very well, a far more compelling main event would have been a title match between Cena and The Great Khali… it would have called to mind the classic Hogan/Andre main event of 1987.

Missed opportunities.

Bafflingly, Umaga is still getting a bigger push from WWE than The Great Khali. I mean, both are monster-sized heels, but considering neither are very good on the mic, the best way to compare them is by their physical presence.

Bottom line: Khali is more impressive in every way. He offers WWE something they haven’t had in a while; a guy who, by his very appearance, really can be believable as an unstoppable force.

Umaga, by comparison, may be heavier, but he’s also shorter and looks like someone who needs to be on a fat burner medication.

While it’s a waste of talent either way, the “battle of the billionaires” between McMahon and Trump would be a lot more unpredictable if Vince’s representative was the Great Khali, not Umaga.

This year’s WrestleMania is quickly gearing up to be one of the most lackluster outings the WWE has seen since the days when Sid Viscious, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were headlining main events for Vince McMahon’s promotion. Unlike those days, it’s not that the WWE lacks star power these days; it’s a matter of uninspiring booking that would make even Donald Trump prefer a boat charter cruise to watching the annual four-hour pay per view event.

As things stand now, the top two titles are being booked like so: The Smackdown world title holder, Batista, will be facing off against the Undertaker, while the Raw title holder, John Cena, will be facing off against Shawn Michaels. It’s an example of WWE favoritism booking at its worst.

Batista has had an uninspiring second title run as champ and while he’s a younger, fresher face in the title mix, his opponent has been around for over 15 years and lacks any hint of freshness; the Undertaker’s schtick was old at least five years ago, and his vaunted “undefeated at WrestleMania” run isn’t a compelling enough storyline to really put butts in the seats anymore. I couldn’t care less than I do right now about the outcome.

Making matters worse is that Batista is over with the Smackdown crowd as a “face,” while ‘Taker will simply never be booed at this point in his career, no matter what he does. Far more interesting for the WWE title would be to add Smackdown’s two top heels into the mix for a Fatal Four-Way match for Smackdown’s world title. I’m speaking, of course, about Montel Vontavius Porter (MVP) and Mr. Kennedy. A four-way clash between Batista, Undertaker, MVP and Mr. Kennedy would be far more compelling.

Over on RAW, the same “face vs. face” dynamic holds solid. Shawn Michaels, like Taker, is a long-term vet who lacks freshness and is so established with the crowd he really won’t ever be meaningfully booed or hated, which means another match in which a face champion, John Cena, could be booed in favor of a veteran challenger who can’t get over as a heel anymore. A heel turn for Cena is a possibility, but would only hurt his star power at this point in his title reign.

Far better would have been to book Cena against a true monster heel, the physically impressive and imposing Great Khali, in a sort of Wrestlemania III flashback match to the classic Hogan-Andre match. This would allow for a lot of David vs. Goliath excitement, and if McMahon felt he owed Shawn Michaels a main event nod, he could serve as a “where do his loyalties lie” special referee to the match.

I could list the handful of other matches that, so far, seem ill-conceived, but what’s the point? If the two main event matches are already a bust, this year’s WrestleMania is destined to be, as well.

As recent broadcasts reveal, the WWE’s top four superstars are now clear. The only people considered “WrestleMania main event-worthy” are The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, John Cena and Batista. Arguably, only one of those superstars belongs in that elite group.

Heck, even though WWE claimed Undertaker could lay claim to ECW champion Bobby Lashley’s title just as easily as Cena’s or Batista’s, he wasn’t even featured in the big showdown on SmackDown last week. He finally showed up on Raw this week, but it was too little, too late. Despite ECW being more entertaining than SmackDown, WWE clearly doesn’t respect the promotion.

John Cena is unarguably WWE’s current top superstar and belongs in a WrestleMania main event. But the rest? Well, Batista doesn’t put butts in the seats and doesn’t really belong in that elite group, and if SmackDown wasn’t such a roster wasteland, he wouldn’t be there.

As for Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker, anyone who was main eventing back when Hulkamania was still running wild in the WWF ought not still be main eventing today. And it’s sad, since there are many younger superstars who would be better fits for a WrestleMania main event.

On the SmackDown side, Mr. Kennedy is very close to being ready, and nothing would help him peak better than a WrestleMania main event against Batista. Matt Hardy is also close to breaking through to main event status as a singles wrestler, after years and years of being a star tag-team player and having to make the adjustment to singles wrestling the last couple-three years.

The talent pool is even deeper on the Raw side of the pond. Both Edge and Randy orton are already ready to main event WrestleMania, and would make worthy adversaries for Cena. And if VKM really wanted to call back some memories of Hogan-Andre, he could easily toss The Great Khali against Cena un a man vs. monster type of storyline.

But for now, it seems, VKM can’t look past the stars of two decades ago, so it’ll be a retread of Undertaker and Shawn Michaels sharing main event stages with the current champs. And with ‘Taker having an undefeated record at WrestleMania, they may as well put his address plaque on Batista’s belt right now.

Uninspiring. Predictable. Too bad…

We’re in mid-January and ought to be in the middle of WWE’s annual build-up to their top PPV of the year, WrestleMania. But the current “main title” storyline on WWE Raw is simply uninspiring. Pitting an energetic champion like John Cena against a boring and uninspiring brute like Umaga is so boring, the audience may need energy pills just to survive an episode of Raw, let alone a PPV.

I understand the thrust of the storyline, pitting Cena against a man who, physically, should completely dominate him. It’s basically a redo of the classic WrestleMania III, Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant idea. But I really hope this push for Umaga isn’t the best thing WWE has up their sleeves for WrestleMania.

It comes to this: Umaga isn’t that imposing and he’s certainly not a charismatic heel. Sure, he’s big, but I think Viscera should be an object lesson that not all big men work out. (Let’s stop kicking the semi-retired Big Show while he’s inactive, after all.)

Here’s how Vinny Mac and company can save WrestleMania, and a recent Raw suggests it’s a possibility: Inject The Great Khali into the feud, with an eye toward a triple-threat match at WrestleMania between Cena vs. Umaga vs. The Great Khali.

That would really up the ante for Cena and make it seem completely impossible for him to pull off the victory. Cena versus two monsters? That would be intriguing.

Plus, WWE has never had a talent the likes of The Great Khali. He’s taller and leaner than Andre the Giant, and that makes him a much more imposing opponent. And with Daivari as his manager, it’s basically a four-on-Cena storyline. Finding a way for Cena to credibly win against those odds would truly make for a memorable WrestleMania main event. Get it done, Vince!