So another month has passed in the world of professional wrestling and as we near the biggest show of the summer, much has happened since my last report at the end of June. The WWE icon that is Hulk Hogan has been fired and blacklisted by WWE without a backward glance, the WWE’s resident phenom The Undertaker returned at Battleground and last night we all received the sad news that another WWE Icon and Hall of Famer ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper had passed away due to a suspected heart attack while sleeping.
All in all it’s been another hectic month in the world of WWE and professional wrestling, only in June HOF’er Dusty Rhodes passed away due to health problems. As WWE always do, their tribute to ‘American Dream’ was truly a work of art, they truly captured the feel of the fans, critics and fellow professionals with their vignettes, interviews and years old footage, it truly was a ‘Dream Tribute’. WWE headed towards the end of June by heavily hyping WWE Battleground featuring the long awaited WWE Championship match between Seth Rollins and the returning from suspension, Brock Lesnar.
Personally I found the PPV short of what at one point looked like an awesome card, WWE once let us know that John Cena is ‘WWE’ and that will never change, well not any time soon anyway. The once promising feud between Cena and Kevin Owens was rubbished in one evening, yes the match was very good but are we really any further from where we were at Elimination Chamber? Bray Wyatt once more was made to look like a fluke with his Luke Harper assisted win over Roman Reigns, at a time when WWE have little main event players they decide again to crush the chances of another potential star. Reigns could have easily taken the clean loss at Battleground, he’s so over now that it wouldn’t have made a difference. Then in the evening’s main event WWE protected both champion and challenger by the having the ‘Deadman’ return for revenge on Brock because Paul Heyman’s comments were upsetting him.
Battleground was a wasted opportunity by WWE to forge ahead into SummerSlam with new champions, challengers and feuds. We now have another WWE PPV which is now a 4 hour show with the card looking strangely familiar, Lesnar/Taker, Cena/Rollins, Sheamus/Orton….need I say more? So in 2015 a 50-year old part timer is headlining what is being promoted as the biggest SummerSlam ever, featuring the biggest rematch ever? For me as a fan of many years I cry inside, where is the talent, where are the main eventers, looking ahead at Summerslam I ask “what is the point in NXT?” At Battleground, Wade Barrett was on the pre-show, Dean Ambrose, Rusev, Cesaro, Dolph Ziggler were not even on the card!!! It’s a complete waste of talent.
Although since June WWE have made strides with Cesaro and Rusev, I worry how long the renewed pushes will actually last, also going by Monday Night Raw what was even the point of making Rollins champion if he’s just going to job to anyone considered a bigger name than him. Would John Cena as WWE champion have lost to the United States champion on Raw??? We all know the answer… NO. As it stands now it looks as if it will be Rollins/Cena at Summerslam, I shudder to think how screwy the finish will be, plus the aura of the ‘Beast’ Brock Lesnar and the verbal barbs from Paul Heyman will fuel the road to August 23rd
The Hogan controversy took the media/wrestling world by storm in mid July, the WWE made quick work in blacklisting him and removing all trace of him from their history books, With WWE being a family friendly PG product you can’t criticise them on that decision, they have sponsors, investors and TV heavyweights to please, on this WWE yielded and did what was needed. After making disparaging comments in 2007 the past has come back to bite Hogan and he has no one to blame but himself. Friends and fellow wrestlers have defended Hogan but in this day and age you should just keep your mouth shut, Hogan surely now knows this. For wrestling it’s another let down for the business which with help from WWE has made leaps and bounds in remoulding the image of professional wrestling and bringing it into the 21st century.
Late yesterday evening the news broke of the death of ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper, when it popped up on my phone it was one of those “WTF” moments, you can’t really believe ‘Hot Rod’ was dead. There is something about wrestling/wrestlers that when you’re young they are superhuman, you look up to them and imitate their every move, and then when they pass you can’t quite actually believe what’s happening. Since last night the heartfelt messages have been pouring in on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Wrestling sites, you just know every fan is texting another one of their wrestling buddies to break the news. Piper made an impression on so many fans, he was the original wrestling rebel, he inspired and influenced so many of today’s WWE superstars and his passing will be a heavy loss to professional wrestling.
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