I know it’s been nearly two weeks since WrestleMania 30, so I’ll try to make my thoughts on the show quick. I had an absolute blast watching WrestleMania this year with my brother and my nephew. I thought it was the best WrestleMania in many years and it’s easily in my top five of all time.
Kicking off the show with Hogan, Rock and Austin in the ring together was a brilliant moment and in keeping with a big anniversary show like WM30. The Superdome/Silverdome screw up is my new favourite Hulk Hogan WrestleMania moment.
Of course the biggest headlines were made when Brock Lesnar ended The Undertaker’s undefeated WrestleMania streak.
I did not see this one coming. I don’t think anyone did. This was the biggest shock in the 25 plus years I’ve been watching wrestling. I’ve seen some crazy shit down the years, but nothing compares to the gut wrenching, eye ball bulging, head shaking disbelief that I felt when Brock pinned Taker.
As the final three count was made I yelled at my brother and hit him on the arm to get his attention. I said something like, “HOLY SHIT! They’ve done it, they’ve ended the streak!”
To which he replied, “Shut up, no they haven’t.”
His reply was half due to the fact he wasn’t fully paying attention to the match because it was pretty boring and half due to the fact that he, like everyone else on the planet, couldn’t believe what had happened. Taker HAD to win. There was no other possible outcome. Taker always wins at WrestleMania.
Except this time he didn’t and WWE did something they haven’t done for a very long time – they shocked EVERYONE. It was glorious and upsetting at the same time. It caused a true emotional reaction from everyone who saw it. It’s those moments that keep me watching wrestling and it’s those moments that only wrestling can produce.
Taker’s physical condition was obviously the main factor behind the decision to end The Streak. He didn’t look good at WrestleMania. He was much thinner and weaker looking than last year. His movements looked slow and you could tell he was suffering. Taker looked every day of his 49 years and the toll of more than two decades working at the very top of WWE is now painfully evident.
I guess the decision was taken that if Taker now can’t put on the kind of brutally physical MOTY candidate that we all demand (and we do demand it) at WrestleMania, then The Streak had to end. Taker would have made this call and he’d have made the call he was putting Brock over. Whether or not Brock Lesnar was the right man to end The Streak is another question for another day.
I just hope everyone remembers The Streak for what it was – a testament to the iconic greatness of The Undertaker. I’m sure most rational people won’t write off 22 years of history because the story has finally come to an end and it wasn’t the ending they wanted.
Speaking of stories coming to an end, the culmination of Daniel Bryan’s rise to the top of WWE was wrestling perfection. HHH put Bryan over as strongly as he possibly could in the opening match (which was the best match on the show). They did just enough with the shoulder injury, the amazing powerbomb/RKO through the table and a few near falls (especially Batista’s perfectly timed kicked out from a RKO late in the match) to put just enough doubt in fan’s minds that Bryan might not win the Title in the final match on the show.
Of course he did win it, which is exactly what should have happened. Some people called it predictable because everyone knew what was coming. I call it logical and satisfying – two outcomes that are very rare these days in the conclusion of a wrestling storyline.
It was one of the most emotional and uplifting endings to a wrestling show for years and one I’m glad I got to witness. It capped off a great WrestleMania and one I’ll remember for years to come.
Due to time constraints I didn’t get the chance to contribute to the great Warrior tribute article that the rest of the guys here put together, which you can find here: https://www.sltdwrestling.com/an-sltd-wrestling-tribute-the-ultimate-warrior/ These are my thoughts on Warrior’s passing:
I got into wrestling in a big way in the late 1980s via video tapes of WWE PPVs like WrestleMania and Summerslam, plus the usual Best Of collections. My wrestling addition really kicked in during the early 90s when my family got Sky TV for the first time and I could watch regularly every week. This was when Warrior was in his prime and on top of the world.
I always remember the buzz and the excitement that he generated. When I was 9 years old he was the perfect kind of wrestling star. He looked like someone out of a comic book come to life: massive muscles, crazy face paint, tassels and a promo style that ranged from nuts to bat shit crazy. Everything about Warrior screamed energy and excitement. I thought he was awesome.
Over the years the impact Warrior had in WWE has been overshadowed by his off screen conflicts with Vince McMahon. The controversial and much talked about character assassination DVD that WWE produced was a very transparent attempt to bury a guy who wouldn’t play Vince’s games and do as he was told. His public image wasn’t helped by his ridiculously narrow-minded comments about homosexuals. At times it appeared he had actually lost his mind and he became a figure of fun.
It was great to finally see all that unnecessary BS put to bed and Warrior inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame before WM30. Putting aside his attitude and his political beliefs, there’s no denying Warrior was one of the biggest stars in WWE history. He influenced and inspired a lot of people, so it was only right that he and WWE buried the hatchet and he took his rightful place in the Hall of Fame.
That’s what made his sudden death all the more shocking. Just when it appeared Warrior was home, he was gone again. It was so in keeping with his career that I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that he got what he wanted from Vince (the recognition for his contributions to WWE in a new DVD and acceptance back in to the WWE family) and was then gone again in an instant.
While the people really affected by this are his wife and children, I’m sure a lot of WWE fans will take some comfort in knowing that for a few days over WrestleMania 30 weekend, Warrior was home and we all got the chance to acknowledge and express just what an impact he had on the wrestling business and us as fans.
As Neil Young wrote and Kurt Cobain famously quoted in his suicide note, “it’s better to burn out, than to fade away.” A line that sums up Warrior, his WWE career and his untimely passing perfectly. He will be missed but he won’t be forgotten. RIP Warrior.
Ok, let’s lighten the mood and look at TNA’s decision to stick their world title on the shortest, beardiest guy on their roster as soon as they could after WrestleMania 30. Yep, time for some chat about Eric Young’s surprise TNA World Title win last week.
This all feels very similar to when CM Punk did his pipe bomb promo back in 2011 and TNA started heavily advertising their old shows with him on them. I understand trying to get eyes on your product this way, but it’s still riding coat tails and trying to cash in on something more successful than you.
TNA are the wrestling promotion equivalent of those high street burger bars that try to look like McDonalds; the kind of place where you can get a Large Maccer and fries for £1.
What caught my attention more than TNA’s decision to put their World Title on a comedy character, who a few months ago was doing lock ups with referees and was most well known for being one half of the TNA Knockout Champions, has been the reactions of fans and the way they have either defended or attacked the move.
The majority of TNA fans that I interact with on Social Media have defended TNA. They see it as something new and fresh. In their eyes Eric Young has worked hard and deserves the World Title. That’s fair enough; no one can deny EY is a hard working guy who is a relatively popular cult figure with TNA fans. They don’t see any link between this and Daniel Bryan’s WM30 win.
The majority of WWE fans that I interact with on Social Media have attacked TNA. They see it as a cheap knock off of something WWE did much better, on a much larger scale, with a much more well told story that people genuinely emotionally invested in. Again, a fair point and one I’m inclined to agree with.
I’m going to try and stay objective here. Well, as objective as someone needs to be on the internet – which is not very. But I can’t ignore the fact that TNA produce a TV show I don’t like and that their creative vision (or lack thereof) is incredibly frustrating and in this case, blatantly lifted directly from WWE.
It hasn’t always been like this. I used to be a huge fan of TNA. I spent much of 2004-2005 defending the promotion to WWE fans who would bad mouth them. During that time, even though they didn’t have a great TV slot (or even any TV for a while) I thought they, along with ROH, were true alternatives to WWE and a more enjoyable product.
I was laughed off nearly forum I said this on, but I truly believed that compared to WWE, TNA had a better show from an in-ring point of view. The angles and storylines they produced were far more entertaining and interesting than those being put forward by WWE.
That was nearly a decade ago and down the years TNA moved away from the creative direction they had in 2004-2005 and started their move towards being the wrestling equivalent of a WWE tribute band. As you can tell, my opinion on TNA has plummeted in the years since. I can no longer defend them because I can’t find anything to defend them with.
At the moment TNA are suffering from the residual effects of the mistake of bringing in Hogan and Bischoff and spending far too much money going on the road when they didn’t have the fan base to support them. They went all-in and gambled by spending big on contracts for the likes of Sting, Angle, Flair, RVD, Jeff Hardy, Mr Anderson and others. The gamble didn’t work.
TNA are like one half of a divorce, who didn’t really want to break-up, but now finds themselves with no money and no idea who they really are. They’re damaged goods and the re-building process they are going through will take time and patience – neither of which today’s wrestling fans are willing to give them.
Anyway, back to Eric Young’s title win. I’ve been racking my brain trying to understand how TNA fans can claim this is not a rip-off of what WWE have done with Daniel Bryan. They even did the injured shoulder angle. I was half-expecting them to come up with something called the ‘Affirmative movement’ during IMPACT. Maybe next week.
So how can TNA fans defend this and why do they? Is it simply because some fans are completely blinkered to anything other than their chosen promotion? I know there are WWE fans who refuse to find fault in the product, despite there being tons of them to choose from. The same is no doubt true of TNA fans and it’s very obvious at times like this.
The impression I get is some people watch TNA simply because it isn’t WWE. They prefer the taste of the Large Maccer to the Big Mac. Just like me with TNA, in their opinion WWE doesn’t produce a show they like. It’s difficult to argue with personal taste, because everyone is an individual and one man’s garbage is another man’s gold.
That said, there are certainly some TNA fans who aren’t living in reality when they deny TNA haven’t put their World Title on Eric Young because of the Daniel Bryan storyline. Oh sure, there’s some differences; Young did it in one night with no build-up, whereas Bryan took eight months (actually two years if you consider the ‘Yes’ thing started before WM28). Oh and Bryan is a vegan, whereas Eric Young eats fish. Totally different.
So WWE fans go on the attack and TNA fans go on the defensive and everyone has a great time calling each other dumb asses. It’s an argument we as fans appear to need, because there’s such a lack of real competition between WWE and TNA.
It’s not even a fight these days. TNA are as distant a second place to WWE as the sales of my home made pizza are to the global daily sales of Pizza Hut. With there being no real competition between the promotions, we as fans have to make up our own.
It’s a competition where people argue about which company sucks less or who stole what from whom. That’s how shitty creativity is in mainstream American wrestling these days – we’re arguing about who makes the least or less obvious mistakes. It’s not a question of which is better, it’s a question of which is less bad.
A buddy of mine who defends TNA regularly on the MFX Facebook group said recently that he doesn’t hold TNA to the same standard as WWE because they have less money. He also expects WWE to do better because they have more money. That’s a fair comment, but one I don’t agree with.
Good creativity and skill can overcome most financial deficits. You can be a success without money; just the same way you can be a failure with it – if you don’t know what you’re doing.
You’ve also got to keep in mind that this ‘little promotion’ is watched by a million people in the US on TV every week and is broadcast in numerous countries around the world. They employ a lot of people with experience in the wrestling industry. They have toys and merchandise and other revenue streams that indy promotions would kill for. They run shows every week and have international tours. It’s difficult to accept a wrestling promotion as being ‘small’ when it’s on cable TV every week, in prime time and is owned by a multi-million dollar company.
If anything they should be held to the exact same standards as WWE. The fact they aren’t as successful isn’t because of a lack of resources, it’s because WWE had a huge head start on them as the long-time industry leader and they know what they’re doing.
TNA have never got close to WWE in all this time because it’s an impossible task. They can’t be competition to WWE, but they can be an alternative and that’s where TNA falls down. They don’t seem to know how to do anything different from what WWE do or would do.
If TNA aren’t considered an alternative to WWE, surely everyone should just stop debating the point and let TNA go about their bargain bucket battle plan and leave them alone? That won’t do anyone any good.
The wrestling industry NEEDS TNA. WE NEED TNA. But we need a TNA that is a viable alternative to WWE. We need a TNA that takes the creative lead, instead of following along behind. We need a promotion, other than WWE, where wrestlers can make good money, become stars and live out the dream we all wish we could be a part of. They will never do that while they’re following trends and copying them, as opposed to creating them and inspiring others. WWE will steal a good idea from TNA, they’ve just never really had one to steal.
As a fan of wrestling and as someone who would love to see TNA thriving both creatively and financially, I hope they start creating some of their own memorable moments and stars. They can do it, but they’ll never do it while they’re in a tribute band, it’s time to write some original songs.
It you’d like more of my thoughts on wrestling and other such nonsense (and who wouldn’t?) you can follow me on Twitter which is @MFXDuckman.
You can also hear me wax lyrical about WWE and TNA on the MFX Podcast – which is available here on the MFX page or by hitting up www.mfxpodcast.com Give it a listen, you never know, you might even like it.
As always, thanks for reading and continuing to support SLTD and all the great writers here.
Until next time…
Peace
Duckman
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