Paul Burchill's new angle...

[$heriff Tom]

Sigh.

Paul Burchill has always been one of my favorite wrestlers. When he first came in as a tough-talking crony of William Regal, I was thrilled. Before that he was known on the indy scene for breaking out some savage moves he was never able to show in the more homogonized WWE. I even enjoyed his gig as the Pirate, aside from the Johnny Depp cloned costume. He did the best one could do with such material.

Recently, in the WWE minors, he had a long run as the Champ, playing a character known as "The Ripper" - coming out in a black hood, and just kicking ass. He was tough talking, made even more smarmy with the British accent. I swear, I dont think he would have been out of place being moved to Raw and put in a top program as a dangerous threat to the strap.

Anyway, here's what they found for him. They matched him up with fellow Brit Katie Lea , who is quite a looker. That tandem is alright by me. But here's where they are going with this. They are brother and sister. Ok....whatever, thats cool.

Well, here-in lies the problem. They are doing a pretty obvious "incest" angle. Um, ok then.

I had read in the last week they were trying this out in the minors, with plans to bring the joy of it to Smackdown. I did see they worked the Smackdown taping last night in a dark match, and a fan who filed a report had the same, "ok, terrific!" reaction that I did.

I am very glad to see Burchill back, I have no problems with Katie Lea showing up with him, but I am sorta creeped by the incest part of things. But I guess that is the reaction they are looking for...

[$heriff Tom]

So, I was telling Grover that I have a feeling they fiddled with the gimmick, and it may not go the way it was planned. They seem to have toned down the "incestuous" overtones, and if anything seemed to push Paul "pimping her out" to Regal to get what he wanted last week.

More telling to me was her alluding to him as "The Ripper" - that was his name in OVW, where he was known as a vicious and cutthroat villain. I would much prefer "The Ripper" as a gimmick with Katie, who really stands out from the regular crop of lookalike divas, at his side (but not as sister-lover)

Thing is Burchill is a TREMENDOUS worker, and with his look and smarmy accent, he is different. I really think he could be a major player in this game, and he does not need to be "sleeping with his sister" to do it.

[cactusjames]

I watched raw with my friend and he had no clue who Burchill was so I told him about the whole incest thing. After the meeting with Regal he pointed out right away he didn't get that vibe at all. So good for WWE.

I think "The Ripper" is a much better way to go as well. I know thry sort of done this before and they alluded to it on monday, but I like the idea of Regal being very involved in what happens with them, maybe not so much as a faction, but as a backer. It seems all Regal does lately is just come out and book matches. I like it a lot better when he's more than JUST a GM, he's that but I think he coould and should have a bigger role and who better for him to do that with than Burchill? Hopefully we'll see more Regal and Burchill in some fashion.