The Glass Is Half Full
I was reading back through some of the recent reviews/comments and I’ve come to a conclusion: I’m WAY too bitter about WWE at the moment. I know I rip on it a lot but I really don’t like getting this upset about wrestling of any form. Even late WCW was horrible but it was more of a head shaking horrible than “I really don’t want to see Wrestlemania” kind of anger. Yeah, Raw sucks right now but that doesn’t mean there aren’t good things going on. Today, I want to take a quick look at some of the things I really do like in WWE right now, because there certainly are a few of them. Let’s get to it.
These are in no particular order.
First up, we have Kidd and Cesaro. These guys have worked very, very hard in the last few months and deserve to be rewarded. At first it looked like Ascension was destined to get the big moment at Wrestlemania, but barring a sudden switch, Kidd and Cesaro are going into the biggest show of the year with the belts. They haven’t been a team that long but they deserve this spot and I’m really glad they’re getting it. They need a deeper division to defend against, but I’d love to see them have the belts until at least the summer. Hopefully they don’t drop them back to the Usos to tie into Rikishi’s Hall of Fame induction.
Randy Savage is going into the WWE Hall of Fame. No matter how you look at it, that just feels right.
I really like how Ryback has been treated lately. I was always a fan of his and there needs to be a simple monster on the good side. He’s not likely to get back into the World Title hunt for years, but it’s really refreshing to see him getting back to form instead of just shouting RYBACK RULES over and over again.
Just touching on the main event scene a bit, it’s nice to see that the Philadelphia crowd wasn’t indicative of how the masses view Reigns. No he isn’t the next coming of Steve Austin (the more I think of it, he’s more Diesel. They even look a bit alike) but he’s far from hated the way Batista was last year. That’s encouraging for WWE because it means he isn’t a total lost cause and they could fix him up with the right story and character development. He has a great base but he needs more molding.
Daniel Bryan is in the ring. Nine months ago, we really didn’t know if that was ever going to happen again.
Lana. The camera doesn’t do those legs justice and she looks even better with her hair down. Seriously, she’s just awesome.
Seth Rollins and Jon Stewart had an awesome segment that was far better than I think most of us were expecting. How cool is it that it’s Rollins getting that spot and not say, Santino? Seth more than carried his end of it and that’s exactly why I’m looking forward to him as a top star in the future.
When he’s in the ring, Brock Lesnar is still a sight to behold. The guy is the definition of a monster and he ranges somewhere from masterpiece to destruction almost every time he’s in the ring. Yeah he’s absent a lot, but it makes those appearances all the better.
Stephanie McMahon. When she isn’t standing up for Andre the Giant (I’m leaving it alone), she’s AWESOME as the evil boss. The fact that she’s a really good looking woman helps too. She was always attractive when she was younger but she’s gotten a lot better with age.
Axelmania. I mean DANG this thing is glorious. The clock is a brilliant idea and Axel has gone from the jobbiest jobber this side of JTG to one of the few saving graces of this past week’s show. I know it isn’t leading anywhere special but I’m digging it while it lasts.
Sheamus is coming back. Screw you guys, I’m still a fan. Tell me you wouldn’t see him as a MAJOR improvement over Kane or Big Show.
The Bella Twins. No I don’t like their wrestling or personalities, but they can fill out some tight clothing. While we’re at it, Summer Rae is a great looking blonde and there’s something about a pale British chick in limited clothing. I think I’m out of main roster Divas to fawn over now. Oh and Alicia Fox is good looking. There now I think I’m done.
R-Truth being insane is still a good thing. It’s not exactly “When Little Jimmy Comes Marching Home”, but him being all over the top and stealing the belt is a nice touch.
Cena vs. Rusev is a good feud and a great way to elevate the title. It’s time for Cena to step away from the main event for a bit and it’s working well so far. I don’t think Rusev keeps the title at Wrestlemania, but Cena as US Champion is going to do good things for the belt.
Santino isn’t around. Isn’t that just a nice feeling?
Sting however is around at times. That’s one of those things you never thought you would see but it’s still cool.
I’m rambling now so I’ll cut it off here. There’s still a lot of great things in WWE at the moment and it’s not good to get bogged down by all the horrible things that are going on right now. Enjoy wrestling for what it is and never forget that at the end of the day, you’re watching grown men in limited clothing grappling on a mat. It’s not something that needs to be taken so seriously.
I never thought i’d say this but I agree with gracie … sort of.
There’s nothing wrong with being dissatisfied with what the wwe is giving you as of late. Which is crap. This doesn’t mean they can’t rebound i’m sure they can. However there’s nothing wrong with being unhappy, knowing they can do better.
Oh don’t back down just cause a few delusional WWE fanboys criticized you for daring to give RAW anything but an A+
Great post, put a big smile on my face.
Amen, If only more people knew that.
Paul Heyman? He is the best thing going on today. His promos are always GOLD.
Indeed.
TL;DR version:
There are good things about 2015 WWE. That automatically makes it better than 1999/2000 WCW.
The problem is the things you’ve listed are such small parts of the big picture its not enough to gloss over the stuff which isn’t great.
Between November and January how many times did we see John Cena vs Seth Rollins? they can put on an awesome match, but week after week it gets boring and I have no desire to watch it,
The authority angle hasn’t advanced in 18 months, when it started I loved it, when Bryan overcame it it all felt worth while, now it just feels tired, Survivor Series had a fresh energy following it, and within a month its all back to the norm
The crowd is starting to feel beat, all the chanting for Ziggler Ambrose and most of all Bryan is for nothing, and people are slowing starting to give up, Reigns isn’t as hated as its all made out to be, but when theres at least 3 more popular prospects acknowledged as being more talented then people are going to give up caring
Lesnar is the most up and down opinion out, when hes there he’s great, but I’m pretty sure Bryan said in a promo the other week that he defended the title as much in his month or so as Lesnar has in his 6 months, Lesnars defended it twice?
Of your plusses I’d like to see Kidd and Cesaro having fresh matches, theres only so much of them vs the Usos I can take even though I love the match up, give us some meaningless defences against the Matadores, or against Ryder and Fandango (random jobbers make for a fine jobber defence team), but unless they’re given new chances this wont stay exciting for long,
Girls being hot I can’t see as a plus, surely I can watch any TV for that… AJ being back is a plus, but again only means anything is given the time to have matches and show the talent thats there. AJ Paige, the Bellas, Natalya, Naomi, any combination of these with Summer, Alicia and Cameron as jobbers actually might be interesting, but not in squashes that last less than a minute.
Seth and Stewart was possibly one of my favourite celebrity wresting appearances, he was passionate, knoweldgable and even though I have no idea who this guy is it was fun. Very Welcome… actually Rollins in general has been amazing since leaving the shield, thats a huge plus.
Hopefully Sheamus is a factor upon return, since the Del Rio feud he really didn’t get any solid storyline so it’d be nice to have a reason to care about him again
The added focus the midcard titles have had over the last couple of months have been VERY welcome, hopefully the tag and divas get a division to follow it, and the WWE title makes an appearance so people remember what the belt everyones meant to want actually looks like.
The dust feud and the Miz feud are lower card attractions that I am invested in. they created a story, are telling it well and its getting reactions. I believe when Miz said on Raw that Mizdow would be fired without the Miz, he was floundering, but this role and the fact Sandow knocked it out of the park every time has made this the most unavoidable feud in my eyes
So while yes there are some diamonds in there (anytime Ambrose, Ziggler, Harper, Bryan, Wyatt, are on TV i do pay attention) theres so much else around it which just screams I saw that last week… I saw that on Smackdown… thats not interesting.