Being 20 years old and still watching wrestling, usually when I talk about it I get a funny look or (ironically) a raised eyebrow but the fact is it's never really bothered me in the slightest. I don't know what the cultural views on wrestling is like in America or anywhere else but over here in England it's very taboo and even during the Attitude Era when the target audience was men aged between 18 and 40 it was still seen as a "kids show". Obviously now it's totally different because the target audience is much younger, but when you see guys like CM Punk and The Rock and Chris Jericho cutting the promos they do, using phrases like "stick it straight up your candy ass" and "your father's an alcoholic and your sister is a drug addict" (Jericho to CM Punk) it's clear that, while it's not as edgy as it used to be, it's still not a "kids show". But wrestling when I started watching it was probably at the lowest point of it's popularity, the high point of the 80's had past and the whole Rock N' Wrestling connection had faded when Hulk Hogan jumped ship to WCW in 1995.
1995 was around the time I started watching WWF, as a matter of fact the first angle I ever remember was Bret Hart vs Diesel for the WWF Championship going into Royal Rumble '95. The Hitman was the first wrestler I ever really loved, he was like the John Cena of those days, he was the face of the company, wrestled every main event...difference was people actually cheered for him and liked him. But I remember this feud mostly because of how attracted I was to the Diesel character, he was so cool and cocky, and in the ring he wasn't bad either, but I was a Hitman fan and remained so up until the same point as everyone else; during the Stone Cold feud. Stone Cold was, and still is, one of the greatest heels of all time (during his original heel run), that went on to become the greatest babyface and most popular WWF/E superstar of all time. At the time of the feud I was around 2-3 years old and it was very strange not only for me but for most people then when you stopped liking the Hitman, goodest good guy there is, and started liking Steve Austin, the most vile human being in the WWF.
Austin remains my all-time favourite, ever since that run with the Hitman that shoved him right up to the main event in a matter of months. Of course most people remember Austin for his best moments during the Attitude Era, that may be so but there's no denying that Austin's best matches came during his feud with Bret. Obviously the one that speaks volumes is the match at WrestleMania 13 which many consider to be one of the best matches of all time, where Bret walked in the biggest good guy, Steve walked in the biggest bad guy, and in some amazing way during the match they managed to switch roles and in the end Hart was booed out of the arena, and Austin was applauded for his valiant effort. While it took him a whole extra year to get has hands on his first WWF title Austin remained to be on of the top billed stars in the company, and by this time the Monday Night Wars were in full flow. Clearly Steve Austin was the catalyst in the Attitude Era (I guess some would say) no matter how much people want it to be The Rock, or how many people believe that he was the major draw between '97-'01...there's just no way. But the one's that don't get the credit they deserve in the starting of WWF's Attitude Era was D-Generation X, in my eyes and most peoples eyes they were the real catalysts behind the Attitude Era, they started everything with all the dick jokes, booby references, "suck it"s and basically putting the 'Attitude' in Attitude Era, and it was HBK's feud again with Bret Hart that turned the volume up on WWF's edge-o-meter.
While I do love a good dick joke and booby reference nowadays, at the age of 4 it wasn't that fun. Not because it was vulgar and crude but for the simple reason I just didn't understand it, which is why I'll always prefer the '06 incarnation of DX, of course people will argue that there acts were majorly toned down and the crude humour didn't even come close to what it was in '97 but the simple fact was that I understood the humour in '06, so then it was funny to me...at 4 year old watching men dress up as women in thongs and telling their bosses to "suck it" and such was just disgusting, now I find it funny. Of course regardless of which incarnation of DX is better, I still prefer Triple H and Shawn Michaels on their own. I loved The Game around 2002 during the McMahon/Helmsley era, I thought he was a badass then, but I still much prefer him between his Evolution tenure and his King of Kings championship pursuit against John Cena. I loved how sadistic he was, I loved how he would get jealous of Batista and Randy Orton when they took "his" title...believe me, the WHC was "his" title! The sledgehammer just made it that much cooler.
Of course I could on for days about how I love wrestling...but not today. I plan to continue this post soon but there are a few other things I need to talk about first, tomorrow I'll be bringing you a part II on the Divas Destruction post, and soon a bigger look at the Face, Heel or "Tweener" argument.
As for now, don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Glipho,
Thanks again,
Andrew.
You all should be able to tell by now that I'm a huge NXT fan, in fact before I started writing this today I just finished watching last nights episode, and I have to say the new Bray Wyatt/Adrian Neville, Oliver Grey, Bo Dallas angle is coming along nicely. I'm not big on Bray Wyatt at all, I think he seems like he can cut a good promo, but that's about it, I've only seen him in the ring one of two times, and what I seen of him was rather underwhelming. Luckily his brother Bo Dallas (both are the sons of the original WWE taxman I.R.S) has some very good ring talent, he's one of the budding young stars fighting to get out of NXT. Right about now NXT doesn't seem like a place for young stars to hone their craft, but rather a place to stick hyped up talent, and mid-carders who they can't fit on the show and creative are too afraid that these young kids could get way over, just like they are down in NXT, and eclipse the boring older talent on the main shows.
We got a glimpse of Bo Dallas on Raw and SmackDown and in the Royal Rumble match a few weeks/months back, and he caused quite a stir among the fans and some Internet bloggers like myself. He wasn't well known to most people in the audience who never watched NXT but people like myself who watch NXT every week had watched him grow and start to become the main focus of the show on NXT, then what do you know, he shows up in the Royal Rumble match after winning the NXT tournament and then the next night on Raw. It didn't come as a shock to some people that Bo was the one to come up rather than other top NXT stars like Bray Wyatt and Leo Kruger. He was literally the main focus on NXT for a good couple of months or so, he was doing very well, then they called him up to the main roster for two/three matches and BAM! He's back down to NXT...but this time he wasn't the main focus. It seems like the call-up killed a bit of his momentum, despite him beating Intercontinental champion Wade Barrett, cleanly as well might I add. I was hoping for a feud and maybe an IC title match between Bo and Barrett but the storyline kind of just washed up after the one or two matches and he was back in NXT doing basically nothing until recently. The feud with his brother is interesting but I would much rather see him getting up on the main roster, if not challenging for the NXT title (which doesn't seem to be getting any airtime lately). It would p**s me off a little bit but the guy they built up instead of him was really engaging.
Adrian Neville is the guy I'm talking about, Neville is a young lad from Newcastle, England (just like myself) and is definitely the most popular wrestler they have in NXT. He's now one half of the NXT tag team champions and is killing it every week in the ring, he really is that damn good (sorry Triple H). I think finally with Neville, WWE are realising that they have a huge talent on their hands, and even though he's still in NXT, he is a tag champion, he'd only been in the company for a few weeks when they handed him the belts which shows WWE's commitment to him by naming him the inaugural NXT Tag Team champion. I think it might be a good long while before Neville shows up on Raw or SmackDown because I know you American fans aren't too hot on us English being top drawers on WWE, William Regal never got there, you all flipped out at the possibility of Wade Barrett potentially becoming WWE champion, but I think if you watch Neville he may be the one to swerve your opinion on us English. The only problem you might have with him is understanding his promos, being a Geordie most of you will probably think he's Irish or Scottish, but I'm just hoping that one day I get to hear "Wey Aye Man!" on Raw or Smackdown...please, one day.
As far as the NXT Divas go though, there is no one else you can discuss other than Paige. Some people will make arguments for Sasha Banks or Summer Rae or Charlotte Flair (yes, that's Naitch's daughter) but Paige is the main draw on NXT, possibly out of everyone! Not just the Divas, even the Superstars, she gets the loudest pops out of everyone, every time she appears. And giving the current state of the WWE Divas division (see my post on Diva Destruction) WWE need Paige and could really use her on the main show right about now, I really do hope they realise what they have in her, but as I said in my Divas post that's less likely. She really is that good, she has a really unique look and is definitely one of the best female wrestlers I've ever seen, she could give an in-form in-prime Trish Stratus a run for her money. With reports coming in over the past number of weeks that WWE are looking to bring back former Divas, we've already seen the return of The Bella Twins which is great (I love Team Rhodes Scholars and The Bellas make it just that little bit more interesting) and reports of potential returns from Maryse, Kharma, Beth Phoenix and Kelly Kelly could be around the corner just makes her main show debut look increasingly unlikely (follow Beautiful Wrestling Divas on Facebook for news updates on Divas, some great pics on there too). But personally I think the sooner the better for Paige's debut, WWE really need her and she's definitely NXT's very top drawer at the moment, WWE really need to realise that.
Don't forget to follow my twitter on @SLWrestling and also on Glipho on @amjobling,
Thanks for reading, see you next time,
Andrew.
21 Days? WOW! Has it really been that long? That's like three whole episodes of Raw, three episodes of SmackDown, and 3 episodes of NXT...you see where I'm going with this. It's been a long time, ok, I'm sorry, but I've been a little bit busy, but I'm going to get started with two words; he's back!
So the Deadman showed up on Old School Raw, the show was a bit of drag but the return of the Phenom made up for a pretty weak show, and HEY! Guess What? Taker has now showed up on Raw more in the last three weeks than the WWE CHAMPION The Rock has, a semi-retired, 47 year-old man who can only wrestle once a year is now more likely to show up than a 40 year old, able to wrestle every week, in his prime WWE champion...what's wrong with that picture? Bottom line is, as WWE champion Rocky (that new belt is fugly by the way) should be on almost every show, it's fine he misses one of two but since he's won the title I can only recall him being on about four shows, that is not acceptable, that's disgraceful. When CM Punk was champion he wrestled EVERY SINGLE WEEK on Raw and EVERY SINGLE HOUSE SHOW, and I dare say that John Cena will do exactly the same. You can't have a WWE Champion who wrestles one or two shows A YEAR, it's just no acceptable, I personally hope Cena potatoes the Rock senseless and Rocky never gets anywhere near the title picture again unless he's willing to commit 100% of his time to the company. There are people lower down who've worked their arses off for years to get to WWE and get to the top who deserve the title more than someone who never shows up, and has been away from "the company he loves" for 7 years, people like Randy Orton (I'm aware he's on two wellness strikes but he is a top player), CM Punk (should have held the title til 'Mania and defended it against 'Taker), Sheamus (deserves a lot more than jobbing to the Shield, even though I like The Shield) and yes, even John Cena (he bleeds wrestling, he loves the business more than anyone).
Speaking of part-timers; what the hell is up with Triple H vs Brock II...ain't nobody got time fo' dat! Let's face it the match everyone is going to be looking forward to the most is 'Taker vs Punk, no matter how much WWE try to shove Rock vs Cena II and Triple H vs Brock II, we don't care about these big selling re-hashes, we want a damn good match. Believe me, that's what we'll get with Punk and 'Taker, if anyone remembers the Punk/Taker matches from 2009 you'll remember that those matches were EPIC! Let's just say that this 'Mania is shaping up very nicely, from that match alone.
I know this has been a short post but this is all I have time for, I will be back tomorrow when I think of something to write about,
Holla,
Andrew.
It's no secret that WWE's Diva division has taken some massive blows over the last 12 months, big hitters have either packed their bags and quit, or been released. Around 6-7 years ago the Divas division was huge and in full flow, the likes of Trish Stratus, Lita, Mickie James, Torrie Wilson, Candice Michelle, Victoria, Maria and Ashley were all (at times) main eventing Raw or SmackDown and were having tremendous feuds and even better matches. The whole Trish/Mickie feud in 2006 was at times taking the main spots on Raw sometimes over John Cena and Triple H, but nowadays the Divas division has whithered and is almost dead, lying in the dirt just begging to be put out of it's memory by the ruthless Lord McMahon. Sometimes none of the Divas are even featured on Raw and Smackdown in one week, and when they are featured they get very little airtime, I think the longest Divas match I've seen in the past year is about 7 minutes. With Wrestlemania just around the corner I'm actually worried about what WWE are going to do for the Divas match, I imagine they'll throw together a Kaitlyn vs Tamina or Layla match with no build up whatsoever and no doubt Kaitlyn will come out on top, and 70% of the crowd will use it as a bathroom break.
The problem is not with the current crop of Divas, some of them are really great wrestlers, and some of them can be good draws, but we all know what WWE are like in recognizing top Diva talent. With the major exception of their golden generation in the mid-2000's WWE's creative team has always blew it when it came to recognizing top Diva talent, remember Gail Kim? Or Jazz? Or even Mickie James and Victoria. Of course they were all pushed at one point but no Diva has ever been given the chance to excel to the levels of the likes of Trish and Lita, arguably the two greatest female wrestlers of all time. The funny thing is they obviously had a huge amount of wrestling talent by the time they both reached their peak, but what takes you by surprise about them both is that they were both brought in to be managers, and were never intended to be the top female stars in the company, to the point where they both main-evented Raw in an epic match. In my opinion WWE has let many of it's top female stars walk out or mishandled them majorly in recent times, the current treatment of Natalya is beyond a joke.
Natalya is one of the few Divas that are part of the huge wrestling families around the WWE, Natalya of course is part of the Hart family and in my estimate should be the top heel Diva and the current Divas champion, instead she's stuck being a valet with the f***ing Great Khali and Hornswoggle, two people who shouldn't even be in the company. I have nothing whatsoever against Kailtyn, in fact I'm a big fan of hers, but Natalya should be the top Diva and pushing to achieve the greatness of Trish and Lita. But recently the departures of the likes of Eve Torres, Beth Phoenix, Maryse and even Kelly Kelly has left the Divas division so thin that it might as well not even be there, put it this way; if the Divas division was scrapped and the Divas were released, many of you wouldn't even notice. We're now stuck with the likes of Kaitlyn, AJ, Tamina, Layla, Natalya, Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendes, and Aksana...that's it! Out of those 8, only 4 wrestle regularly, and only those 4 are contenders for the Divas title...it's sickening!
The problem is that none of the current Divas are ever going to ascend to the ranks of Trish Stratus and Lita, none of them, not because they can't, because there are a few that I think could headline the company in the way Trish and Lita did, definitely the likes of Natalya, Kailtyn and AJ could be top Divas, but AJ doesn't even wrestle anymore. The thing is is that (just like the male roster) there is tons of talent down in Florida in NXT, the likes of Paige, Summer Rae and Charlotte (Ric Flair's daughter) are all tremendous talents who, given the size of the current pool of top Divas, should really be knocking on the doors of Raw and Smackdown...wait, scratch that, smashing the doors down with an axe. Paige in particular is the one that strikes everyone who knows her as the most likely to be a success in WWE, but given the handling of other hyped up female wrestlers, the likes of Gail Kim, Mickie James and Jazz, WWE are more likely to mess up her chances of being the top Diva, rather than believe her hype and push her. But for people who don't know Paige, she's a young British wrestler, born into a wrestling family who worked in the British indies, and believe the hype, she IS that good.
WWE just need to realise what the have in Paige, Natalya, Tamina, Aksana, and others, but in my estimate, it's likely the won't, and they'll blow it like they have with the rest of them. One can only wait, hope and find out happens when it happens, unfortunately...but who knows? Maybe the Divas division will make a huge comeback this year much like the tag-team division did last year, we can hope,
Time for me to leave you,
Thanks,
Andrew.
