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Contact the Ditch at LdBeaumont@aol.com



Point of View, April 2, 2002: Of ref bumps and Raw turns

We're often told that 'sports entertainment' dictates having non-finishes and non-matches on Raw and Smackdown in order to build interest for the PPVs. I can appreciate that, to an extent; it's the old "why buy the cow when the milk's free" scenario. But, do we REALLY get our money's worth?

To me, a PPV should be about stars having matches with the kind of decisive finish that we simply wouldn't be privy to on free TV. When something happens like a run-in or a screwjob, you're left with a longer version of a TV match, with a finish that's little more compelling than what we get for free.

The WWF has moved away from the Russo era, in which nearly every single match requires a run-in. However, they've simply replaced the run-in with another time tested way of cheating the fans out of actually having big names to real jobs. The ref bump. Here, now, is a look at ref bumps from 2001 on, in PPVs.

Royal Rumble 2001: HHH and Angle have their last PPV match to seemingly blow off the feud from the summer. The match progresses, HHH has it in hand, but the ref gets bumped and Austin runs out. Kick, wham, stunner, Angle retains. This was used to build to Austin vs HHH at No Way Out, even though the feud was very much established without having this screwjob ending.

No Way Out 2001: Ref is bumped for some transitions in the Angle vs Rock match. Poor Earl Hebner...

Wrestlemania X-7: Angle vs Benoit is marred by a ref bump, when Angle taps but it isn't seen. Angle comes back to win, and they feud some more, even though any number of things besides a ref bump could have prolonged the feud.
Ref is bumped for about 12 minutes during HHH vs Undertaker, allowing HHH to get in a sledgehammer shot for a nearfall. Undertaker wins anyway. Boy, doesn't HHH look good here after headlining for the whole of 2000?
Ref is bumped in Austin vs Rock, and misses no pin attempts. It was a no-DQ match, thus there was no reason at all for this to happen. Oh, my bad, it's Earl Hebner.

King of the Ring: A ref bump saves Edge from Angle in the KOR final, allowing Shane to run in and cost Angle the match. Way to build the future star, WWF!
Earl Hebner gets bumped in the main event. What a shocker.

Invasion: Earl Hebner gets bumped, allowing Austin to screw Team WWF. Earl is 6 of 7 in taking bumps in the main event of PPVs.

Summerslam: Ref bumps are the FINISH of the main event. Earl: 7 of 8.

Unforgiven: Dueling ref bumps screw up the finish. Earl: 8 of 10.

Survivor Series: Hebner and Patrick bump each other, allowing Angle to screw Austin and Team Alliance. Earl: 9 of 11.

Vengeance: Hebner is bumped for most of the finish. Jericho becomes the undisputed champ ONLY because of Booker T's interference. Boy, that's the sort of push Bischoff was never going to give him, right? Earl: 10 of 12.

Royal Rumble 2002: Rock vs Jericho sees Hebner get bumped, allowing Nick Patrick to screw around with Rock enough for Jericho to get a layered cheating victory. Earl: 11 of 13.

No Way Out 2002: Ref is bumped for most of the Rock vs Undertaker finish, which is nothing but dueling screwjobs.
HHH vs Angle has about six or seven ref bumps AND a screwjob ending.
Austin vs Jericho sees Hebner get bumped, allowing the nWo to beat up Austin and give Jericho the win. Earl: 12 of 14.

Wrestlemania X-8: The ref gets bumped in both nWo matches, yet Austin and Rock go on to win clean anyway, thus making Hogan and Hall look about two or three notches below them.

Earl Hebner got bumped in 12 of the last 15 main events, and 8 of those were vital to the finish. At what point, exactly, did we start paying our hard-earned money for ref bumps? I say, watch PPVs in a bar until they start giving us at least moderately clean finishes for the big matches.


Raw has become a mecca for interviews, backstage segments, recaps, "moments ago", and recaps of what happened "moments ago" in an interview taped backstage. We give up match time in order to have well-developed storylines... right? Well, let's look at ten major plot points, and see what impact they're still having today.

1. Jericho & Benoit beat Austin & HHH. This led to the King of the Ring main event, after which both HHH and Benoit were out for the rest of the year. Jericho was forgotten about until his feud with Rock. Most of the problem here is injury, which I can forgive them for.
2. ECW re-forms in Atlanta. This was just an excuse for Stephanie to put herself on TV again. The only ECW guy to get a push was RVD, and that was only because he got so over so quickly. Today, ECW is dead and buried, along with WCW. No impact of this development.
3. Rock returns to the WWF. No real impact, because he just did everything he's been doing since 1999.
4. Regal screws Angle out of the WWF title. This was supposed to be the "Biggest Raw ever", but the main development was canceled out mere WEEKS later when Angle turned on the WWF. Ye gods.
5. Angle turns on the WWF. Well, he hasn't gone back to being a face, but the actual action has long since been forgotten.
6. Rock and Austin sing songs before Survivor Series, at which point Rock attacks because he still hasn't forgotten about what happened at Wrestlemania. Anyone remember how many WEEKS after this it was before Austin (who never apologized for trying to kill the WWF, or for screwing Rock at X-7) was tagging with Rock? Why should WE care about main event storylines if the writers drop major plot points which are overtly brought back into the spotlight mere weeks earlier? If the WWF was a normal television show, Stephanie would be fired for gaffes like this, but because her last name is McMahon she's set for life.
7. Raw is Flair. This still has impact, since it led to the Flair/McMahon feud, which is still going on and caused the fed split.
8. Undertaker makes JR kiss Vince's ass. Undertaker is still a heel, but this action is long since forgotten. JR doesn't seem any more upset with 'taker than with any other heel.
9. Raw is HHH. They still play up his heroic return from injury, so I guess that's impact.
10. Stephanie and HHH break up. This only happened a month ago, and they wrapped it up last week (I hope). Let's try and forget the whole "Vince and Steph are fine with each other" part. This had all the impact it could have possibly had, and was specifically brought up over and over again. Interesting that Stephanie is involved, eh?


So, to sum up. PPVs are no longer for settling feuds, but for having screwy non-finishes designed to make sure nothing is blown off ever. Raw is used for storylines, but only rarely do said storylines contain plot points which are brought up after the next PPV. Also, said storylines are usually filled with holes and are only rarely intriguing. The WWF has the most talented roster in the history of wrestling, but rather than revolve around the wrestling, the product revolves around the abysmal writing of Stephanie McMahon.

And people wonder why I'm so critical of the WWF lately.

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The major problem has been nobody getting elevated to keep things fresh.

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the problems of the WWF

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