Some musings on pro wrestling

I've been a fan of the WWE, and to a lesser degree, TNA, for a while now. Generally I will check TNA's website to check their current roster in order to see who has been newly signed, or has has been released. That same page also shows that company's current champions. I don't have cable so I do not watch the Impact program TNA does every week, nor do I subscribe to any of the pay-per-views. I just like to check the site from time to time to see what's going on.

As for the WWE, I first became a fan back in 1991. I also started following the now-defunct WCW a few years later. I followed both companies until mid-1996. About that time the famous "Monday Night Wars" were going on between WWE and WCW. Also, in the mid-to-late '90s wrestling underwent a considerable change in content, it became decidedly more adult-oriented. It was referred to as the "Attitude Era" for WWE, and in WCW, the NWO, led by newly-turned-heel Hollywood Hulk Hogan, had pretty much taken over the company, and it led to considerably risque content bieng aired on their weekly Nitro program.

Unfortunately, I was not following the companies at that time. I took a long break from watching the shows and buying the magazines. But I decided to come back to following wrestling around 2006-2007. The Attitude Era was over and WCW had been bought up by WWE's chairman Vince McMahon, and programming was pretty much back to normal, the way it had been before. Wrestlers I had never heard of were now in WWE, and I started buying the DVD's of the pay-per-views, and I starting watching Smackdown on my local FOX affiliate so I could catch up with the feuds and the championship holders at the time.

Now WWE has entered what is referred to as the PG era. There is no more excessive violence or sexually-oriented angles being done any longer. The women wrestlers or "Divas" no longer strip each other down to their underwear, and matches like "First Blood" have been discontinued. In wrestling, bleeding used to be quite commonplace. Now, it only happens by accident, or if it was not previously planned to happen in the script. WWE used to have angles involving either extreme violence, or an insane level of sex, or both. No longer. They have gone back to the early-mid '90s way of doing things - that is, appealing to families and children. Besides the regular WWE Magazine, there is also a WWE Kids magazine as well. Which is all fine and good, I suppose.

I have a few observations I have made about two wrestlers in particular. One is about Sheamus, the big Irishman. I liked him when he first debuted on the ECW brand of WWE (which has since been discontinued) because he was neither a face or a heel, it seemed he did not fit the description for either. However, he proved to be a big fish in a little pond, as he ran roughshod over the limited roster on that brand. He was then drafted to Raw and was immediately thrust into a feud with WWE Champion John Cena. So they had a match for the Title at December's Tables Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view. One of the stipulations was that the title could change hands if Cena was thrown through a table, and if it broke, Sheamus would become the new champion. Well, that's exactly what happened, and some fans were outraged. I felt the same way, I could not believe that WWE would actually let a title change hands in that manner. Also, the fans turned on Sheamus and made fun of him for his bright red hair and pale white skin, heckling him with lines like "get a tan!". It was also said that it was only because Sheamus was good friends with "Triple H" Paul Levesque (who happens to be married to Vince McMahon's daughter Stephanie) that he was pushed in that manner and got the title shot that he did. Anyway, he has since lost the title, and he is now feuding with Randy Orton.

The other wrestler I thought was a big deal was the self-proclaimed "untouchable" Drew McIntyre, who is Scottish. He quietly debuted on Smackdown last August and the proceeded to completely squash his opponent in less than a minute. Drew and his hapless opponent, R-Truth, would feud for the next two months, with Drew annihilating him in every match. During this time, Vince McMahon personally endorsed the arrogant Scotsman and labled him "a future World Champion". Drew must have gotten a swelled head over this because he then set his sights on bigger prey than the mid-carders he was so easily squashing up to that point- John Morrison and his Intercontinental Title. So the two started to fued and McIntyre did indeed defeat Morrison for the title. He held it until about a month ago, but on one Smackdown, his antics and his incredible arrogance proved too much for SD General Manger Teddy Long to handle. He came to the ring while McIntyre was fighting with Matt Hardy, and because Drew would not stop attacking Matt, Long first suspended Drew, then he stripped him of the title and banned him from Smackdown. The next week there was a mini-tournament to crown the new IC Champion. Kofi Kingston won and was awarded the belt, but then McMahon came down and declared that Long had abused his power as GM and reinstated McIntyre on SD and declared that Drew was still the IC Champion. This caused the crowd to nearly boo McIntyre out of the building, and when I heard about this I thought, well, he's done his job, he's now the most hated heel on Smackdown. And he played the part to the hilt, cutting promos where, while speaking in his thick Scottish brogue, how he was the future of the company and that he was now "untouchable" because of McMahon's personal endorsement of him. He REALLY made the fans hate him, that's for sure!

But the story has a happy ending. Remember Kofi Kingston? He managed to do what no other SD wrestler, not even John Morrison, had been able to do: he soundly and cleanly defeated McIntyre for the IC title on a recent SD episode. I like that, it's good to lot a popular face have the title for a change.

By the way, Drew is married to one of WWE's Diva's, Tiffany. And she is very pretty. I suppose Drew must be a decent bloke in real life, but in the ring, he's all-business and the fans LOVE to hate him!

Also, before they both debuted in WWE last year, both Sheamus and Drew McIntyre were frequent opponents in numerous independent federations, both in the US and in the UK. I thought that was interesting. They are both tall as well, about 6'5"-6'6" each!

(This was from 2010. Obviously it is now extremely outdated, as I edited this in 2013!)