A Piece of my Mind-Oct 23,2007 by "The Big Cheese" Sal Corrente

There have been many stories bouncing around about Bonnie Hammer of USA Network sending over numerous ideas for WWE since the ratings appear to be dropping. It is widely known, for the most part that, Vince and Stephanie have been ignoring most of the input from Bonnie Hammer. It does seem that they didn’t ignore the direction to get the Mr. McMahon character back on television. I do agree with Bonnie that Mr. McMahon needed to get back on TV he is the biggest heel and biggest baby face in the whole company. Isn’t it amazing that Bonnie had no good ideas at all except for that one? I understand Vince wanting to ignore advice from someone who has no knowledge of the wrestling business. The only thing she has to go by is the days when the rating were strong and comparing them to the pathetic ratings of today. It is ok to show your colossal arrogance when you’re running the ship but in this case USA Network is paying you a lot of money to produce a product and for whatever the reason you are failing. You had better start producing if you’re going to take the position of ignoring your boss. Let’s face it, she isn’t suggesting that you call Jim Herd and ask him where he is hiding The Ding Dongs.
Does anyone remember The Ding Dongs? When Jim Herd was running wrestling on TBS this was one of his contributions. They were two enhancement talents that came out wearing bells on their ankles and wrists. They wore full body suits and masks; their skills were very limited at best. If this was something that had to be done couldn’t someone have convinced Jim Herd to at least make them heels? I wonder what kind of heat these guys would have gotten if they used some sort of a cowbell to knock opponents out? Don’t get my wrong I’d have never used The Ding Dong’s on my own but if I had to it would have been totally different than they were used on TBS. I would say this, if WWE ever has another gimmick Battle Royal these guys need to be in it for sure.

When you were growing up did you ever have a friend that had something really great? You know that great toy that everyone else in the neighborhood wanted but only one kid had. Is anyone starting to connect this with Corey Maclin yet? In this case it seems to be one of those durable can’t be broken toys. He obviously didn’t read the directions when he was opening the package. You couldn’t have a more perfect setup for a WWE developmental territory than you do with Corey’s Memphis setup. Isn’t it funny that even before Lawler single handedly destroyed the Fed-Ex Forum event? It was Corey’s only chance to get some real credibility in the business with the Hogan-Lawler match in Memphis. I always knew that there were dense people in the business. I would have to say that Corey Maclin takes the cake. I have to wonder if Jerry Lawler just sits back laughing at the whole thing. He is making money producing the second biggest insult to the public’s intelligence in the wrestling business. It is a shame that something with such potential is being treated like an after thought. Of course the results reflect the effort put in to the product. In this country, the difference between success and failure is sometimes a very fine line. I am not sure what constitutes it in Memphis if anyone does feel free to let me know.

In the world of TNA there is a girl named Valerie Wyndham who has been working for several years now. She was first brought to my attention by Rob Russen who discovered her while attending an Indy show on behalf of WrestleReunion. She is commonly referred to as SoCalVal. I have to admit I was not an immediate believer in her. She did win me over and she became our ring announcer for WrestleReunion 2 and our event in Davie, Fl. She has a tremendous desire to succeed in the business. She was a pleasure for us to work with in WrestleReunion. I asked her to do something that she really hadn’t done before. I wanted her to be our ring announcer. She worked hard and tried her best under tremendous time constraints. If I was running a regular company she would be a part of it in an on air role. She has a true old school type desire for the business. She loves it like the old timers loved it. I keep waiting for someone there to give her a real shot right now she is nothing but window dressing. She is the closest thing I have seen to an Elizabeth type in a long time. Of course it’s hard to give talent a break when you are to busy playing "all in the family" with your superstars.

Does Hacksaw Jim Duggan get a bigger pop than most of the talent on Raw? Maybe I am just imagining it? Hmm you wonder where Bonnie Hammer gets some of her ideas from. You would think that this stuff really was rocket science. It really is simple ... give the people what they want and they will come.

I wonder at times if Vince and Stephanie were both asked to walk with a wheel barrel between their legs who would need the bigger wheel barrel? Any thoughts let me know.

This week I included a picture of So Cal Val taken by George Napolitano the official WrestleReunion photographer.

This has been a piece of my mind

If you would like to provide feedback email me at salcorrente929@hotmail.com