Your new hero, your party host...

Hey, I'm Bobek, and like my good man Hoffa, I love wrestling. I'm flattered that Hoffa asked me to contribute to The Stunt Granny... wish I'd gotten computer access at home sooner, but such is my laziness/poverty.

Thankfully, wrestling fandom goes well with laziness/poverty.

I'm not entirely sure what all I'll be putting on here, but I think I'll be taking more of a "big picture" view -- I'm fascinated by the particulars of booking and promotion, so those will likely be my main focus.

Of course, I planned a whole big first column a couple weeks back talking about fundamental booking concepts and where I see the companies (particularly WWE, since I mostly can't be bothered with TNA's third-rate presentation and Russo) failing to stick to the fundamentals of solid wrestling programming, but then saw excellent columns on the subject by Jim Cornette and Lance Storm, both of whom know a hell of a lot more about the subject than I do.

Trying to think of other subjects, I keep coming back to this thought about the superior heel depth at the top of the WWE card, and the real struggle the company seems to be having with creating top babyface stars. In Randy Orton, Edge, and Chris Jericho, WWE has three of the great heels of recent memory. All three performers are at the top of their game, and are among the rare characters in the company that have been well-booked.

Orton has grown by leaps and bounds. While some complain about his in-ring work ("Another chinlock, Randy?"), I find his work in the ring to always be solid and convincing. Sure, he lacks a spectacular moveset, but his ability to incorporate his pouncing, snake-like character into his in-ring work has impressed me. Moveset isn't that important anyway -- digging into a chinlock to actually make it looks like a move that matters, desperately grasping the hold, sneering at the audience, and building heat are far more important than "big moves" (in my opinion, a big reason for TNA's failure to connect with anything beyond a hardcore audience). Orton's use of every movement to tell the story, from the way he walks down the ramp, to the pauses in his promos, to his posture in the ring, reminds me a great deal of Jake Roberts at his best -- perhaps the "viper" thing isn't such a coincidence...

Having once despised Edge's performance as a babyface, I've been pleasantly surprised with the heel character he's developed. His babyface run seems like such a distant memory, and in fact it's hard to imagine him as anything but a heel at this point. The "Ultimate Opportunist" character is a perfect in-ring fit for a talent who's best at selling and out-of-nowhere indy reversals... of course, you would think this would serve him well as a babyface, but his offense in that context was less convincing than even Cena's. On the mic, he's rivaled only by Jericho among current heels. He can rely on cheap heat at times, but really excels at selling the conniving and sneaky elements of the character. I think it says a lot about Edge as a performer that he's never booked particularly strong, but is always seen as a top threat. Any number of other performers would lose all of their heat in such a context (see Jericho's Undisputed Championship run).

Speaking of which, the heel character that Chris Jericho has developed over the last year or so far eclipses even his ever-popular heel run in WCW. WWE seriously dropped the ball on his Undisputed Title run through inept booking, but this time around the character has been given a whole new dimension, mostly through Jericho's performances. To say that his time trying to make it an actor has paid off in his return would be a serious understatement -- Jericho has crafted a rich, compelling, and shockingly well-acted (for wrestling) character. The pathos, the comtempt ooze through the screen, and I'm sure an old school performer like Jericho (hard to believe, but he really is one of the last) is even better in person at connecting with the fans and drawing their ire -- which his heat levels would suggest is true.

The same goes for Orton and Edge. In fact, all three draw levels of heat not seen in WWE since Triple H's first top heel run back in 1999-2000. While I may not get a lot of agreement on this one, I would go so far as to say that Orton, Edge, and Jericho are all currently performing at all-time great heel levels.

So, if you know your basic booking philosophies, it would stand to reason that WWE should be awash in top babyface characters, with the fans eager to see the hated heels get theirs. Yet this is far from the case -- aside from The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels, who are clearly being phased out of the main event picture, there are very few babyfaces with the kind of heat one would expect. Jeff Hardy and (maybe) Batista are probably the closest, but only the always-unreliable Hardy seems to have a run on top still left in the tank. The company's other top babyfaces would probably be best served as heels at this point...

Which leads to quite a quandry. I'll pick up next time with a look at the top babyface performers and where they fit in this context, and maybe along the line try to figure out why such top heel talent doesn't seem to be drawing out the depth of babyface challengers one would expect.

I'd love to hear any feedback if there's anyone reading this besides myself and Hoffa. Regardless, it's been fun!

Hoffa, more recaps!