The Katz Files – Arnie Katz
My Weekly TNA Notebook
The Kingfish Arnie Katz wrestles with some of the major issues raise by the 9/3 episode of TNA’s weekly TV show.
The Plight of Rhino
TNA isn’t exactly nurturing Rhino’s career with the Jesse Neal angle. Perhaps Neal will suddenly reveal the ring skills of a Daniels or young Flair, but so far he doesn’t show much in the ring or on the mic.
I’ve always enjoyed Rhino, going all the way back to his run in the old ECW, He’s had injury problems that kept him sidelines for long periods tar crucial junctures of his career, but I still think his obscurity is undeserved.
His biggest drawback is one with which I greatly sympathize, because I experienced a faint echo of it as a young teen. I was the tallest kid in my neighborhood and, in the interminable schoolyard basketball games, always played the role of a big man. I stayed close to the basket, took passes from the smaller guys and pounded the ball into the hoop at close range. (No, I couldn’t dunk.)
Rhino came up through ECW, where he, too, developed big man skills. And like me, he is finding that he is not large enough to perform that act, just as I found there was no call for a 6’3” center.
TNA should be a very good environment for Rhino, because the guys are a bit smaller than in WWE. He should be matched against one of the 200-lbers, not the behemoths, so that he can show he power and strength.
The Elite Woos Hernandez
What an ill-advised angle. I don’t think anyone is getting any rub from this. It’s so similar to other recent Main Event Mafia plotlines that it has no impact, it doesn’t make the super-hot Matt Morgan any hotter and it doesn’t do much to life the World Elite’s status, either,
The best thing they could do would be to bring it to a head, have Hernandez emphatically reject Eric Young’s offer and fight a match against EY.
That’s all for now. I’ll be back Monday with a fresh installment of the Internet’s fastest-rising pro wrestling column. I hope you’ll join me then and, please, bring your friends.
— Arnie Katz
Executive Editor
Crossfire4@cox.net
(9/4/09)