The Showoff has been The Highlight so far
There was a time, in the 80s and well into the 90s, where I did not miss a Monday Night Raw or Nitro. And if there was a live event within 300 miles of my house, I was going to do everything in my power to make sure that I made it. Then, for one reason or another, about the time that the "Attitude Era" ended in the WWE and Vince put WCW out of business, I just lost interest. I would check in from time to time and catch a segment of Raw, realize I had no idea who any of these guys were, and click it back off. But, recently, mainly because of the WWE Network (which I signed up for so I could go back and watch some of the archives. And, trust me, it's worth the $9.99), I've gotten back into it. I have several thoughts and feelings about it that I just want to vent, get out there, and maybe start some discussion, so I thought, what better material for my first post?
The bad thing is, I feel like I missed a lot of good stuff during my hiatus. I missed the rise of Daniel Brian, and now he's hurt. I missed the entirety of CM Punk's stint in the WWE, and, from the sounds of it, he's done. I missed the end and/or demise of the careers of The Rock, Stone Cold, The Undertaker, Hall and Nash, and Rey Mysterio, among many others. The good thing about the Network is that I can go back and catch up, which I'm doing as much as I can. But all I have to go on is from September until now to judge the current state of the WWE, so that's what I'm going to do, and from time to time, I'll probably revise my stance or my thoughts, or I'll have more things to vent about. But for now, let's get the venting under way.
First of all, the face of the WWE right now: John Cena. When I first started watching again, I was kind of amazed of how the crowd is so split on him at these shows. And if it's not 50/50, then crowd is usually mostly against him. So my thought was, "Aren't the WWE higher ups watching this? Why are they resisting it? Just make him a heel. People want to hate him right now." But the more I've watched, the more I've realized that, by letting Cena be Cena and the chips fall where they may, it's actually pretty genius. I've never seen a guy in any sport or form of entertainment more polarizing to a fan base. Not with the passion that WWE fans are towards John. Seems like you either really love him or really hate him, but you have a very strong opinion. But, everybody cares about his matches no matter which side of the fence you're on. And, he gets to just be him. He gets to do the "Loyalty, Hustle, Respect" thing and play the great American hero, and it will garner some reaction. Personally, I really like him. No matter how the crowd reacts to him, he plays off of it perfectly, and he's great on the mic. His actual wrestling is decent, but it seems like he knows his limitations and knows his strengths, and he plays to them both really well.
My favorite guy so far since I've started watching again has been Dolph Ziggler. Aside from having a horribly awesome name, I haven't seen him have a match where he A) didn't make the other guy look better than I've ever seen him look in a match, or B) didn't do something that made me go "Whoa...". In all the years I've watched wrestling, my favorite guys, whether they were a heel or a baby face, were the guys that could have a great match no matter who they were wrestling. For example, to me, Yokozuna was kind of boring to watch in the ring. He was a spectacle to see live and in person, but 80% of his matches were just slow paced with little action. However, one of my favorite matches ever is when he fought Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 9. Why? Not because Yoko was "on" that night, but because Bret could make any match great, regardless of his opponent. And that's why he's my favorite ever. A couple of other examples of my faves are Mr. Perfect, The Rock, Edge, and, although I've never really liked him personally, I loved watching Shawn Michaels. Dolph belongs on this list. He's good on the mic, and a superstar in the ring. He sells moves as good as anyone, delivers them perfectly, and he's always going 100 miles an hour. He's my favorite guy to watch right now.
My second favorite, and it's a close second, is Cesaro. The reason he's not equal is not his fault. I don't feel like the WWE knows what to do with him. And, it's a shame because he's awesome. Lately, he's been used to put over guys that are confusing for him to put over because he's better than them. Or, he's in lame tag team matches with partners that don't make any sense. The most interesting thing they've done with him in a month is use him to troll team Cena before Survivor Series. And then he didn't even get on the main card (and lost on the pre-show). The guy has incredible strength (watch the Andre the Giant Invitational Battle Royal at last year's Wrestlemania), and I've never seen him have a bad match against anyone. I don't think I'm alone at being confused by the way he is being used right now, because, in Stone Cold's interview with Vince McMahon on his podcast, he asked him what was going on with Cesaro, and that's the only guy he asked about specifically.
Cesaro is just one of several guys who I am confused by how they are being used. Or, just confused about in general. Let's go over a couple or a few. First of all, why can't Kofi Kingston get a good push? Is there a more athletic guy working today? Or maybe ever? The guy is pretty solid on the mic, and he's incredible in the ring. But now they've got him as a side show on New Day. And, it's gonna be tough to get people to care about New Day. I THINK I understand the reason behind that stable, and, if I'm right, I understand it. But, you can't make us care about it. And the only parts of it I care about right now is that it's funny when Big E pulls out a handkerchief and wipes down during the match, and I want to see Kofi doing something else. Maybe that'll change...
Another thing I'm super confused about is the break up of the Wyatt gang. For a few weeks, we see all these promos of Bray and Luke Harper and Erik Rowan in a field and a barn being culty and weird. Then the next thing you know, Luke is attacking Dolph to prove he's a team player to Triple H, and Erik Rowan decides he wants to fight with Cena against Luke, and we have absolutely no explanation for any of it. Instead of doing all those promos, which all seemed repetitive and they did like eight of them, they could have come up with a story line as to why these guys don't like each other and why they left Bray Wyatt. You can tell they really want us to like Erik, and I really want to like Erik, but telling us he has a genius level IQ and likes Rubic's Cubes ain't enough of a reason for me to like him. He gets little to no reaction at live shows, and that's WWE's fault.
Why do the powers that be at WWE love Rusev so much? Maybe I'm alone on this one, but I feel like the only reason he is getting good heat as a heel is because he sucks, but they keep shoving him in our face. He is the anti-Ziggler in that his matches are painful to watch. Lots of stomps. Lots of punches. Maybe a generic suplex or two. And then a Camel Clutch (I'm not even going to dignify his finisher with the name they want us to call it in this post. It's a Camel Clutch. Stop it). And, why isn't he wearing shoes? He's not the Superfly. He's not from a tropical island. He's from Bulgaria. Get some boots. The taped up feet look stupid. Nothing to like about Rusev. Even as a heel.
Brock Lesnar should wrestle or don't. I heard Vince's answer to Stone Cold's question "Where is Brock?" and it was as unsatisfying as any answer he gave. If he's going to be the champion, he needs to be on TV. And, if he contractually can't or doesn't have to be on TV, then he shouldn't be the champion. It's probably tough on the writers to come up with story lines that don't or can't involve the title for the main guys, and as a fan, I want to see some title matches. Vince said if Brock is on TV all the time, then it's not special when he is on it. I'm calling BS. It was always special when The Rock was on, or when Stone Cold was on, or Hogan or Sting or Flair. When ratings were at their peak, these guys were on every show, and we couldn't wait to see what they were going to do to each other. Having a champion who's never around sucks for the fans, and I can't imagine that the guys who work their butts off every week are too thrilled that the pinnacle of the business is with a guy who shows up 10-12 times a year.
Anybody know why the Bella Twins are completely cool and supportive of each other again all of a sudden? No? Me either. Maybe we'll get some explanation sooner or later, but for me, it's already kinda been too long. They spent a lot of time getting them to hate each other, and then Brie's "slave" term was up, and now they both hate AJ and love each other again. Why?
From time to time, I'm going to rank my five favorites, and five guys I could do completely without. These probably won't change too much, but from what I've seen watching some old matches of Daniel Bryan, and knowing that I really like Randy Orton and he'll be back, the favorites list should have some shake up at some point.
Favorites:
1) Dolph Ziggler - I explained this extensively earlier, but, he's the guy I get most excited about watching.
2) Cesaro - The guy I would love to get excited about watching every week because he is as entertaining and freakishly good in the ring as anyone, but, for whatever reason, he has become a jobber lately.
3) John Cena - I just love the heat this guy gets, and he knows how to play off of it from one night to the next, while staying true to his character. Never been another guy that polarizes fans as much as he does without doing anything different than just be who he is.
4) Adrian Neville - I haven't heard him on the mic too much, but this guy is freakishly good in the ring. If you haven't watched any NXT programming, it's worth it just for him. Trust me. Think a perfect combination of everything that was awesome about Chris Benoit and Jeff Hardy combined.
5) Damien San(Miz)dow - I honestly haven't seen too much of him in the ring, but what I have seen, he's pretty good. And he absolutely cracks me up. This whole angle with him being the stunt double may be a big part of it, but he is performing it to the hilt and I love it.
Diva - Naomi - She is the most athletic woman I've ever seen in the ring, and her moves all look great! I've been really confused as to why she hasn't gotten more of a push, but it looks like she might be getting one now.
Can't stand:
1) Rusev - The. Worst.
2) Big Show - Lots of slow, uncoordinated punches and "moves" from a dude who is terribly out of shape and unathletic and old. And it gets tiring seeing every one of his baby face runs end with him whining. His only purpose as far as I'm concerned: to make people look strong when they can do moves to him.
3) Mark Henry - See Big Show.
4) The Usos - Not sure what the appeal is here, other than they have kind of a cool look. They scream
"Usse" so that the crowd will scream "Oh", and they dive between the ropes at opponents sometimes. And other than that, what do they offer? Is it because they are Rikishi's sons but managed to be not fat? Seriously, tell me, because all I see is that their interviews and promos and ring work are all kinda bad.
5) Bray Wyatt - The only reason he isn't higher on this list is because he has cool entrance music, and I like his finisher, even if it has a stupid name. Again, explain the appeal of Bray Wyatt to me. Do people like his gimmick of being a creepy cult leader? Do they like that he pretends to blow out an LED lit lantern? Is it cool that he can crab walk even though he's fat? Or that he wears Kramer's shirts from Seinfled? Because all of these things get on my nerves, and he doesn't do anything in the ring to make up for them.
Diva - Lana - Solely because she hangs with Rusev.
Also, I have a lot of thoughts on the CM Punk interview that he did on Colt Cabana's podcast. I may do a post dedicated just to that, if time permits.
