Judgment Day WAS NOT a bad event. I read everywhere that this would just be a horrible PPV and that the matches were mistakes, etc. Frankly I don't think most of these people who write wrestling columns on the net know shit anyway, so it's not like this would affect whether I buy the event or not. Anyway I thought it was a fairly solid PPV. The first three PPVs the WWF put on this year set the tone, and it's a hard act to follow. Backlash wasn't bad though, and neither was Judgment Day. Everyone bitches about it anyway, but I'll get to that in a minute.
At Judgment Day I particularly enjoyed the Tag Team Turmoil match, the ladder match portion of the Angle/Benoit match, the HardCore match during the part where it was in the ring, and my favorite part was the chain match between Kane and Triple H. That was a great match, simply put. The main event was pretty decent, but I knew what the outcome would be, so I wasn't that worked up for it. King of the Ring will be interesting, especially considering what happened on RIW Monday night, but I'll get to that in a minute.
RIW was considered by most to be a breakthrough show for the sagging ratings, mostly because of the fact that Jericho and Benoit actually beat Austin and Triple H cleanly for the tag team titles. I agree it was a good decision to enter some fresh blood into the main event scene, and Jericho is a good choice. Benoit, I don't know. I still wonder why Kurt Angle was yanked out of the main events so suddenly back in early March. He was doing a great job. Oh well.
Elsewhere on RIW, Kane retained the IC title against Kurt Angle, partly thanks to Shane McMahon, who attacked Kurt for giving him a very impressive Olympic Slam off the medal stand earlier in the night. Big Show beat Rhyno for the HardCore title. Uggh, why? The Big Ho sucks so bad! As far as him in the HardCore division, I enjoy watching people hit him with things as much as the next guy, but he's not a hardcore wrestler, he's not even a good wrestler, and putting that belt on him just fucks up Rhyno's impressive reign and makes me want to puke. I think Big Show should go back to feuding with Kaientai, they speak the same amount of English. Geez.
What happened at the end of RIW Monday night will quite frankly really fuck up the WWF storylines for the next 3-6 months. In case you didn't know, Monday night as Triple H went to break up the Walls of Jericho, he planted his left foot, and his quad muscle tore. The Game finished the match, he even took the Walls of Jericho on the announce table, which I'm sure only worsened his injury. Anyway the diagnosis is 3-6 months out with surgery needed. Triple H, like him or not, adds and has added for a couple years now, a great deal to the WWF main event scene, and he always delivers a great performance. Those people who are laughing or saying "good" to his injury are probably the same people who said "I didn't like that guy anyway" when Owen Hart died (which, by the way, was 2 years ago today, May 23rd), and frankly you are the same people who give wrestling fans a bad name and I really am disgusted by each and every one of you. You know, I don't like Rikishi at all, but I am not glad that he got injured last week. It's just a matter of being a human being, not just a blood lusting jackass.
Speaking of jackasses, what about these morons who come out week after week talking about how the WWF sucks so bad now and that the ratings won't stop falling, McMahon is slipping, the main events are stale, wrestling isn't cool anymore, yada yada. Give me a damn break. Wrestling goes in cycles. We were on a giant upward swing of that cycle for about 2-3 years, and yes, it may now come back down for awhile. That's okay. I hope it's not the case, and I don't really think it is, yet. With the Rock gone, Austin heel, and WCW dead, the elements have combined to make some fans turn away. When I say "some fans" I basically mean the fans who probably weren't real fans to begin with. Those are the people who started tuning in because it was "cool" and they by god had to fit in. Anyway, the people who are saying "yeah, wrestling sucks now, I'm not going to watch anymore" are nothing more than bandwagon jumping fools. Go watch Survivor or whatever the hell is supposed to be "in" and stop whining about wrestling.
I will admit that I have found the events since Wrestlemania to have been less exciting than they were before. And while I hate to admit it, and I hate the idea that one man can add that much to the company, the fact is that the Rock has a lot to do with it. Even though I didn't like him for the last year or so, the Rock added a lot to WWF broadcasts, and he was the top babyface. What happened after Wrestlemania was basically we had the top two faces just disappear. Rock was off to make movies, and Austin turned heel. That may have been too big of a jolt to the storylines at one time. Think about it, to the "casual" fan, and to some others maybe, why would you watch the shows or find much excitement from them if you suddenly could no longer cheer for the two guys you had been cheering on for so long? I despise the people who put the blame on Kane and the Undertaker for not being able to draw or some bullshit like that. Undertaker has been the top face (except for about a year there with the satanic shit) for years. Kane has not been the top face, but in 1998 he carried the company as the top heel without question. It's not Kane and Undertaker's fault for the lack of interest by some fans lately.
Yes the storylines need some freshening, yes the main events need some new faces, or at least new combinations, but to those of you who seem to be ready to put the nail in the coffin of the WWF, I say shame on you. It's things like that which make people make statements about the attention span of today's wrestling audience. Give it time, be patient. Vince McMahon hasn't let us down yet, the WWF hasn't let us down. I am actually looking forward to seeing how the WWF will handle the loss of Triple H, but at the same time I'm looking forward to seeing the return of both the Game and the Rock. Jericho and Benoit will have their chance to prove themselves, and maybe the fans will finally get used to a heel Austin. One way or another, the WWF isn't dead, they're not going to disappear just because of a few difficult weeks, and it's way too easy for some of these so called "internet journalists" to sit at their computers and condemn the WWF, especially when 90% of them are short term fans who basically know as much about the wrestling business as the Big Show does about taking a good shower (not much). Just please, as a certain WWF star would say, do us all a favor, and PLEASE, shut the hell up!
Until next time...
