By Frank Ingiosi

There’s a wonderfully subtle socio-economic theme when it comes to making a villain in wrestling. I’ve spoken to this at times in the past, but seeing TNA Legends champion on Impact last night re-ignited one of my more sacred beliefs about the industry.

My first sacred belief about the industry, which I must credit to legendary publisher and rangy softballer Stu Saks is, quite simply, “Never say ‘never’”. I’ve never forgotten that piece of advice and am reminded of it every time someone mentions Randy Savage. The second sacred belief I hold as true as ever—credit, this time, to Eric Young—is that, Villains are made by insulting the masses in a finely tailored suit.

It’s as time-honored a tradition as any in the industry that I believe is rooted in the long-held belief that nothing is easier to hate than someone who thinks they’re better than you — and there’s no better way to show superiority in wrestling than by wearing a three-piece suit.

Ric Flair, Chris Jericho, Triple-H, Batista, the entire Main Event Mafia, and now Young all used the power of the suit to make you hate them. Put a guy in tights and/or a mask and he’s king; wrap him in Armani and he’s everything that has ever been wrong with the history of mankind, ever.

Honestly, I hope this never changes and couldn’t see any reason why it ever would. Perhaps the fact that the suit has, in some respects, made “the man” throughout the years and now is available to the likes of an Eric Young says something about the image’s staying power in an ever-changing business. Nothing widens the gap in the class divide like the sinister villain in classy threads holding you back.

The Week In Televised Wrestling

Smackdown (11/13)

Listen, we try our damndest to not harp on things we find trite or painful to watch. Actually, wait, that’s precisely what we do … but, so what? It’s worked for nearly four years now and since none of you have the initiative to complain, we may as well keep at it. Where were we going at first? Ah! That’s right: Even the biggest critic of women’s wrestling on the whole had to at least be intrigued by a match-up between Natalya and Mickie James, right? These two women, at one point, were considered two of the top competitors in the sport. But, alas, their painfully bad offering last Friday night on Smackdown just goes to show how far womens’ wrestling has fallen in today’s industry. As crabby as we can be, we generally don’t try to write anything off completely but, Divas, consider yourselves on notice.

Raw (11/16)

Survivor Series is, oh, you know, two days away and we still have yet to wrap our collective minds around the triple-threat match for the WWE title involving the members of D-Generation X and current champ John Cena. All three are driven and proven main-eventers who could easily carry matches on their own, yet WWE chooses to put all the big eggs in a basket that may not be big enough for their egos alone. So, what gives? Our guess is that someone is going to have to come out of this as the villain. It’s easy to assume that Cena will be booed unmercifully, but wouldn’t it be great if he finally, finally played into that and gave the fans a reason to hate him? How satisfying would that be? The answer: pretty damn.

ECW on Syfy (11/17)

We’ll be the first to admit that we haven’t exactly been fair to Paul and Katie Burchill ever since the former lost the pirate gimmick and the latter decided that she just “didn’t like him like that.”

We felt there would be big things in his future, but then he was never really given anything to work with as far as an angle. We chastised him for failing to take more initiative with the direction of his career, and crumbled with him as he was relegated to clean-up duty on the third brand.

But, then there came the light at the end of the ECW tunnel. Finally, a chance to make a name for himself by unmasking The Hurricane and cementing his place … oh … lost, again, eh? Enjoy TNA, Pat Barchull.

Impact (11/19)

How awesome is it that Bobby Lashley and Scott Steiner don’t get along? Quite honestly, with all the good that’s going on around TNA right now (hey, there’s some) it’s easy to lose sight of the greatness that is two phenomenally muscle-bound men with amateur backgrounds way, way in their respective pasts. Think of what a Lashley-Steiner feud would have been like while both men were in their primes? While Lashley may still be on the fringe of that time or, possibly, still moving toward it, Steiner’s best days are clearly in the past.

Alas, today, we’re treated to a battle between competitors who abhor speaking on microphones and likely have to pay someone to scratch the middle of their backs. This is going to be so bad it’s good.

And Finally … Fifty-five years ago Sunday, Roderick James “Jess” McMahon passed away at the age of 72. The patriarch of the McMahon dynasty entered the professional wrestling business in the early-20th century, leaving a lucrative career in boxing promotion behind. Following his death in 1954, Jess’ son—Vincent J. McMahon—assumed the family business, started the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, and the industry would never, ehhh-ver be the same a-gain.