'Kronik' problem fired by WWF

The WWF's decision to hire Kronik certainly can be debated. Its reason for letting them go, however, cannot.

Bryan Adams and Brian Clark, collectively known as Kronik, were released from the WWF last Monday before 'Raw.'

Conflicting reports said that Kronik actually quit after the WWF approached the team and asked them to consider a stint in one of its minor-league federations.

So, Kronik either declined the WWF's offer and walked out, or they were given their release.

The duo competed the night before at the WWF pay-per-view 'Unforgiven' for the WCW tag-team titles against The Undertaker and Kane, who were victorious. Kronik's only other television match for the WWF was a squash against Kaientai on 'Smackdown' two weeks ago.

After watching their match at 'Unforgiven,' it's not hard to understand why the WWF opted to demote Kronik. The former WCW tag-team title holders looked awful in their pay-per-view slugfest against the reigning champions.

Adams moved around lethargically, and he screwed up a jawbreaker move on The Undertaker, which elicited a rather loud expletive from the leader of Dead Man, Inc.

Clark, didn't look bad during the bout, but he didn't really add anything special to it, either. Kronik acted and wrestled like a team that didn't care - even though the WWF is the only viable and profitable promotion left since the demise of WCW and ECW.

Given ECW's insatiable thirst for quality wrestling and dedicated workers, Kronik probably wouldn't have had a place in the land of 'hardcore,' considering their idea of extreme is throwing a dropkick or wrestling longer than five minutes.

The Undertaker, who is a friend of Adams, asked the WWF to hire the tandem as a favor to him. In reality, the idea of Kronik in the WWF might not have enthused wrestling purists, but it did provide the WWF with two marquee names from the old WCW.

Unfortunately, Kronik also represented what was wrong with Ted Turner's 'wrasslin' group. They are two lazy big men who relied on their look and size to get by in WCW, rather than trying to incorporate new moves or learn better match psychology.

And it's that same size that has caused tension between Kronik and other competitors in both the WWF and former WCW. Kronik has a reputation for 'talking down' to some of the smaller guys, something they were notorious for in WCW.

No one ever bothered to reprimand Kronik, because, by that time, WCW was incapable of being saved. Past WCW bosses such as Eric Bischoff never bothered to reprimand big-name players such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage or Lex Luger, for fear he might lose his job. Kronik's attitude is almost identical to the aforementioned ego-maniacs.

With an almost non-existent WWF-Alliance invasion, however, the WWF probably signed Kronik out of desperation. The interpromotional allure of WWF vs. WCW/ECW is gone, for no other reason than WCW didn't have any big names available that were not under the Time Warner banner and the subsequent guaranteed contracts (Goldberg, Sting, Scott Steiner, etc.). Plus, the WWF has exhausted every possible WWF vs. WCW/ECW matchup on either 'Raw' or 'Smackdown.'

Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page, to their credit, were the only high-priced superstars who accepted a buyout and signed with the WWF.

When Kronik became available, the WWF jumped at the opportunity, figuring that they were two well-known WCW wrestlers.

The WWF easily could have ignored Kronik's poor work ethic and even poorer attitudes, simply to help a lagging 'invasion' angle.

But the WWF did what was best for business - it axed two wannabes who cared more about their supply of baby oil than having a good match or adding to the prosperity of the company.

Sound familiar• It should, because those were the kind of 'stars' that attributed to the downfall of WCW.

In this instance, the WWF was smart enough to realize that and save itself from the same fate.