James’s blog
Extras:
- Harry Hill’s book - index of famous names (PDF)
- Cover Paije (Spotify playlist)
- Now That’s What I Call Wigging Out (Spotify playlist)
Why not:
Sites I’ve linked to:
- Amardeep Singh at Lehigh University
- Anglican Church Music
- Billie the Vision
- Books by Mark Billingham
- Einar Egilsson’s chord image generator
- Garry Knight on Flickr
- Harry Pearson
- Korall on Wikimedia
- Lille Cathedral
- Michael Rosen blog
- Nadia Oh
- Nick Hillman on Twitter
- One Post Wonders
- Popjustice
- Red Bubble
- Slate: Owen Pallett
- Sputnik Music forums
- Stewart Lee
- Survivors Fund
- Tour de France Lanterne Rouge
- Wordle
- Wyclef on YouTube
Other good sites:
The next big thing
4 Feb 15 | Re: Sports entertainment storylines | Link-U-Post
Fantasy booking time! I’ve been steadily getting more and more (back) into WWE over the last year, and that’s been sent into INTENSO MODE in 2015 now that the WWE Network is available in the UK: you get all the current main events, plus a vast library of all the old ones you could wish for, over the internet for £9.99 a month. A two-month trial had to be worth a bit of Christmas money, and so it’s proved.
The big controversy at the moment is over Roman Reigns. As the winner of last month’s Royal Rumble, he (as a good guy) will get a title match against the champ Brock Lesnar (bad guy) at Wrestlemania in March or April. However, fans are not cheering for him as wildly as might be hoped, and sometimes they’re booing him. He has a problem which is interestingly unique to the blurry world of sports entertainment: in sport, people become number 1 by winning. In entertainment, people become number 1 by being scripted to do so. In wrestling, people used to become number 1 by being scripted to win, but now people know there’s a script, they don’t always buy it. Reigns isn’t necessarily being bought.
The problem isn’t insoluble, though. As someone with no involvement in WWE whatsoever, I can say from my armchair with complete certainty that my plan would work. At the next big event, Fast Lane, Reigns is already set to defend his title shot against (the wildly popular but possibly too small) Daniel Bryan. This is perfect. Here’s what should happen next:
- WWE should spend the few weeks between now and Fast Lane doing everything they can to make Reigns a convincing and popular good guy. Make him win hard-fought matches against capable hands like Cesaro, Bad News Barrett, Luke Harper. Bring out the Rock to whip up the crowd in his favour. If this works, proceed with plan A, have him brush Bryan aside and ride the wave of popularity to the title at Wrestlemania. But it won’t.
- Assuming Reigns remains a questionably popular boo-magnet, he has to cheat to win at Fast Lane and become the bad guy. After a hard-fought match, of course: before the cheating starts, Bryan can do as good a job as anyone of making him look strong, capable and resilient. He needs to do this. But when the time comes, Reigns will cheat to establish himself as the strong, capable, resilient villain.
- The next day, bring out the Rock and get him to use all his power to solidify Reigns as a hate figure. The Rock is loved at the moment, but he’s as skilled as anyone at turning the crowd against him. They’ve already been playing up the family connection between Rock and Reigns, so it shouldn’t be hard to spin that into Reigns being an entitled upstart who thinks his connections should walk him into the hall of fame. It’s a far more natural role for him, actually.
- You now have two villains set to meet at Wrestlemania: a problem. But to solve it, you have the other most gifted talker in WWE, Lesnar’s manager Paul Heyman. Get Heyman to play the good guy for once, talk up Lesnar’s very real qualities as a competitor who deserves the title, who’s brought the title more credibility than it’s ever had, who’s given the fans some all-time great matches including the one at the Royal Rumble just weeks ago. Lesnar has all the qualities the fans want to cheer for: dominance, edge, charisma. The only thing against him is that he only shows up once every couple of months, but that’s also true of the Rock, so putting the Great One in Reigns's corner will even the balance in that department.
- So far, I think this is what a lot of people are suggesting. But the next step I would take is:
- Have Lesnar keep the title at Wrestlemania!
It’s well known that Lesnar is leaving, and I’m assuming he won’t be persuaded to stay, but I don’t think that means he needs to drop the title. I know it’s a wrestling tradition to lose on your way out, but winning wouldn’t be without precedent: two of the best-loved wrestlers of recent times, Trish Stratus and Edge, both retired as champions. Edge’s retirement was admittedly forced on him, but no one begrudged Trish the chance to go out on top, and I believe Lesnar is even more of a special case than Trish was.
On the other hand, losing to the wrong person might not go down all that well. Lesnar has destroyed just about everyone in WWE, so if he’s losing, it needs to be to someone deserving. Fans don’t see Reigns as deserving. I would compare it to the Undertaker’s Wrestlemania streak, which Lesnar ended last year. Fans were dubious about even Brock Lesnar ending the streak, so maybe it would have been better if it hadn’t ended. This might be the same.
After Wrestlemania, you explain completely openly that Lesnar is leaving to go back to UFC, or do whatever it is he’s going to do, and surrendering the title. You then set up some kind of tournament or qualification process to crown a new champion worthy of following Brock. That will give WWE an extra couple of months to see if they can finally get Reigns to the level required, or bring an up-and-comer like Seth Rollins or Dean Ambrose through — either way, without the pressure of a Wrestlemania coronation. Failing that, go with Daniel Bryan, who gave up the title due to injury, and give him his vindication in what would be a hugely popular move.
Sound good? A strong losing performance at Wrestlemania won’t hurt Reigns at all, whereas winning might get a bad enough reaction to send him off the boil for a long time. Plus, by having Lesnar leave looking as strong as possible, you leave the door wide open for him to come back and demand a match against the new champ, whether that’s months, a year or more down the line.
What WWE can’t do is ignore the fact that people are dubious about Reigns: some like him, but I don’t believe he can get to a position where winning at Wrestlemania would bring the universal euphoria people crave at the year’s biggest event. What they need to do instead is be honest about the reaction he’s getting, be intelligent, and ride on top of the tide instead of swimming against it.
Posted by SIENNA BROOKS at 21:31
[Or dive into the blarchive...]