Loose Cannon
03-01-2007, 10:35 AM
http://www.tpww.net/forums/showthread.php?t=22075
Credit: Wrestling Observer.
In recent months, and more so in recent weeks, Patterson had become vocal about the direction of the product to everyone. A few weeks back, he confided to a long-time friend, Nick Bockwinkel, that he was ready the quit, so it was not a shock, nor a decision made in haste. Internally, because Patterson was there from a major architect during the big run in the 80’s, as Vice President of talent relations, filling roles similar to those of both Stephanie McMahon and John Laurinaitis in today’s company, this represented something big. Alsom Patterson was one of the few people in the company who would vocally disagree with McMahon, because he was one of the people it was believed that McMahon would never fire. He confided to people that he thinks the company is being run into the ground and even though he was a big part of the toilet humor and cartoon aspects that categorized the 80’s, he has now been asking, “Why are we doing this stupid Hollywood Crap?” Another person very close to the situation said, “He’s been beyond vocal about HHH, HHH’s power over the Raw show and HHH’s burying of opponents….He’s said it loud enough to make sure everyone hears.” He expressed concern because of the belief HHH, in his role, should be making new stars, and the only person someone could argue he’s really tried to make over the past two years, was Randy Orton, and to a degree, Chris Benoit. He was heavily involved in the screwing up of Bill Goldberg and got Scott Steiner, who was on fire, off on the wrong foot, by working matches that exposed their weaknesses (although Steiner wasn’t going to make it long-term regardless of what HHH did, nor would Goldberg, although they left millions on the table by screwing him up).
HHH buried in meetings an admittedly overrated Rob Van Dam (although fans had not caught on and Van Dam had enormous potential at the time) when he was on fire. Benoit got the monster push this year largely because HHH needed a strong opponent after Shawn Michaels ran his course, and Benoit’s role on Raw diminished greatly when he wasn’t working with HHH, even though he had the belt. There was never a period, no matter if Benoit or Goldberg had the belt, where the shoe wasn’t booked around HHH, and HHH was then portrayed as bigger then the belt. Even though HHH did do a great job in making Shelton Benjamin earlier this year by putting him over in a great match, the follow-up, where HHH made it seem unimportant, translated to the audience believing it was unimportant, and Benjamin didn’t get the elevation from it that was expected. HHH also pulled Edge from Smckdown, with the idea of making him a new opponent, but when Edge didn’t go over like expected in his program with Kane, they rushed the Randy Orton turn, and eveb though they’ve done everything to get Orton over, thus far it’s been a disappointment.
Patterson’s concern, when sent on the road to study problems with the Raw product, were that HHH was over, but not enough people overall were, and blamed it on them not getting adequate exposure to be viewed as stars with the one man dominating. The argument is tat for the most part, the McMahon family company has always been built around a singular star, but during most of the history, that singular star can be argued was doing better business model overall than any time, except during the 1998-2000 era. One source claimed that McMahon’s reaction to Patterson leaving is that he lost his passion for wrestling after the death of long –time soulmate Louie Dondero, but that happened many years ago.
There was an incident some time back, when a lot of controversy over HHH being a detriment first came out internally, that the agents decided to go together to McMahin and express their real viewpoint. However, at the meeting, Stephanie, was there, and everyone involved changed their tune, realizing whoever said anything would be the one hung out to dry immediately. It’s eerily similar to the bookers who would tell Fritz Von Erich about his son’s drug problems, and wind up being the ones fired for doing so.
Within the company, Patterson is acknowledged as the best finish man in the industry, even by others who are pretty strong in that regard themselves. Still, most of the recent finishes have lacked the creativity with the over reliance on ref bumps, which is key to a lot of Patterson’s finishes. And the belt shot and babyface kick out spot. Patterson, also not only created, but usually had a strong hand in the layout of the annual Royal Rumble, the company’s No. 2 event of the year, a lot of which was taken because the heyday of his wrestling career was in Northern California, working for Roy Shine, who was a genius in both promotion and layout of the annual January Battle Royal, which the Rumble was an offshoot of.
Another major star with experience in the spotlight noted when Benoit got the Title, that HHH was still portrayed as the star, and his matches were the PPV main evetns and Benoit would be in the No. 2 match, which showed HHH was more important than the belt, categorized it as “bullshit,” even though Michaels vs. HHH in a Hell in a Cell drew the company’s only good buy rate after Backlash. It’s been noted that even though the company considers HHH it’s biggest star, and the Raw brand has major advantages over the Smackdown brand (as noted by getting Edge and Benoit this year as HHH opponents when the company did nothing to help Eddie Guerrero when he desperately needed a top foe when Angle and Big Show went down with injuries and Brock Lesnar quit), Raw is also more “popular” with the fan base the company management understands. But there hasn’t been much of a difference lately when it comes to business, because Smackdown’s ratings are bolstered by it’s huge Hispanic TV audience, an audience the company has but really doesn’t understand, and Smackdown outdraws Raw when the tour hits the Hispanic markets.
Credit: Wrestling Observer.
In recent months, and more so in recent weeks, Patterson had become vocal about the direction of the product to everyone. A few weeks back, he confided to a long-time friend, Nick Bockwinkel, that he was ready the quit, so it was not a shock, nor a decision made in haste. Internally, because Patterson was there from a major architect during the big run in the 80’s, as Vice President of talent relations, filling roles similar to those of both Stephanie McMahon and John Laurinaitis in today’s company, this represented something big. Alsom Patterson was one of the few people in the company who would vocally disagree with McMahon, because he was one of the people it was believed that McMahon would never fire. He confided to people that he thinks the company is being run into the ground and even though he was a big part of the toilet humor and cartoon aspects that categorized the 80’s, he has now been asking, “Why are we doing this stupid Hollywood Crap?” Another person very close to the situation said, “He’s been beyond vocal about HHH, HHH’s power over the Raw show and HHH’s burying of opponents….He’s said it loud enough to make sure everyone hears.” He expressed concern because of the belief HHH, in his role, should be making new stars, and the only person someone could argue he’s really tried to make over the past two years, was Randy Orton, and to a degree, Chris Benoit. He was heavily involved in the screwing up of Bill Goldberg and got Scott Steiner, who was on fire, off on the wrong foot, by working matches that exposed their weaknesses (although Steiner wasn’t going to make it long-term regardless of what HHH did, nor would Goldberg, although they left millions on the table by screwing him up).
HHH buried in meetings an admittedly overrated Rob Van Dam (although fans had not caught on and Van Dam had enormous potential at the time) when he was on fire. Benoit got the monster push this year largely because HHH needed a strong opponent after Shawn Michaels ran his course, and Benoit’s role on Raw diminished greatly when he wasn’t working with HHH, even though he had the belt. There was never a period, no matter if Benoit or Goldberg had the belt, where the shoe wasn’t booked around HHH, and HHH was then portrayed as bigger then the belt. Even though HHH did do a great job in making Shelton Benjamin earlier this year by putting him over in a great match, the follow-up, where HHH made it seem unimportant, translated to the audience believing it was unimportant, and Benjamin didn’t get the elevation from it that was expected. HHH also pulled Edge from Smckdown, with the idea of making him a new opponent, but when Edge didn’t go over like expected in his program with Kane, they rushed the Randy Orton turn, and eveb though they’ve done everything to get Orton over, thus far it’s been a disappointment.
Patterson’s concern, when sent on the road to study problems with the Raw product, were that HHH was over, but not enough people overall were, and blamed it on them not getting adequate exposure to be viewed as stars with the one man dominating. The argument is tat for the most part, the McMahon family company has always been built around a singular star, but during most of the history, that singular star can be argued was doing better business model overall than any time, except during the 1998-2000 era. One source claimed that McMahon’s reaction to Patterson leaving is that he lost his passion for wrestling after the death of long –time soulmate Louie Dondero, but that happened many years ago.
There was an incident some time back, when a lot of controversy over HHH being a detriment first came out internally, that the agents decided to go together to McMahin and express their real viewpoint. However, at the meeting, Stephanie, was there, and everyone involved changed their tune, realizing whoever said anything would be the one hung out to dry immediately. It’s eerily similar to the bookers who would tell Fritz Von Erich about his son’s drug problems, and wind up being the ones fired for doing so.
Within the company, Patterson is acknowledged as the best finish man in the industry, even by others who are pretty strong in that regard themselves. Still, most of the recent finishes have lacked the creativity with the over reliance on ref bumps, which is key to a lot of Patterson’s finishes. And the belt shot and babyface kick out spot. Patterson, also not only created, but usually had a strong hand in the layout of the annual Royal Rumble, the company’s No. 2 event of the year, a lot of which was taken because the heyday of his wrestling career was in Northern California, working for Roy Shine, who was a genius in both promotion and layout of the annual January Battle Royal, which the Rumble was an offshoot of.
Another major star with experience in the spotlight noted when Benoit got the Title, that HHH was still portrayed as the star, and his matches were the PPV main evetns and Benoit would be in the No. 2 match, which showed HHH was more important than the belt, categorized it as “bullshit,” even though Michaels vs. HHH in a Hell in a Cell drew the company’s only good buy rate after Backlash. It’s been noted that even though the company considers HHH it’s biggest star, and the Raw brand has major advantages over the Smackdown brand (as noted by getting Edge and Benoit this year as HHH opponents when the company did nothing to help Eddie Guerrero when he desperately needed a top foe when Angle and Big Show went down with injuries and Brock Lesnar quit), Raw is also more “popular” with the fan base the company management understands. But there hasn’t been much of a difference lately when it comes to business, because Smackdown’s ratings are bolstered by it’s huge Hispanic TV audience, an audience the company has but really doesn’t understand, and Smackdown outdraws Raw when the tour hits the Hispanic markets.