Now, for those who don’t know me or my site or column, let’s just do a brief background here. I’ve been watching professional wrestling for over ten years now, and I consider myself to be a bit of a walking encyclopedia on all things WWE. I do have a life, I swear. However, I do spend a ton of time reading about or watching, or somehow else involving myself with wrestling. My all time favorite wrestlers are Bret Hart and Kane, if I had to pick just two. If I could list a few more, I’d throw in Mick Foley, Triple H, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, and Kurt Angle. I also find myself being won over by Matt Hardy, John Cena, the Hurricane, and a few others to a lesser degree. I should probably also mention that outside of certain people who I will cheer no matter what (Kane, Angle, Bret if he were still active), I tend to be a bit of a heel slut. What I mean by that is I find it harder to cheer someone if they are an extremely popular face. Anyway, that’s just a little quick background for you. Let’s move on. It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything, so I’m going to try and cover a few major happenings over the last year or so and tell you what I think about those things without making this column too terribly long.
First of all, the name change from WWF to WWE. While it still feels weird to me, I can call it WWE now without getting upset about it. I’m not saying if there were a way to get the F back I wouldn’t be all for it, but I’m fine with the change now. I certainly wasn’t fine with it a year ago.
The title picture. The Hardcore and European titles are gone for good. I really don’t miss either of them, especially the European title. The title picture was a bit of a clusterfuck before they consolidated it a bit and unified those two belts with the Intercontinental Title.
Speaking of the Intercontinental Title, they retired it for a brief period from October until May. What a stupid move. It was semi-cool for me as I was there for the match at No Mercy that ended the Intercontinental Title’s 23-year run, but it was a huge mistake by the WWE no less. Obviously, they realized this and are now trying to correct their mistake. I have no problem with either Christian or Booker T holding that belt, but some fresh faces in that title picture could be a good thing too. I think that maybe Scott Steiner, the Hurricane, Rob Van Dam, and a couple other guys who will never wear the World Title will benefit from the IC title greatly. It gives them something to fight for.
Elsewhere in the title picture they have un-unified the World Titles and also made separate tag team championships for each show. I like the idea on both accounts. My only real problem with the tag titles is that the RAW side doesn’t have much in the way of tag teams to contend for the belt. La Resistance vs. the Dudley Boys just doesn’t excite me. Yet, who else is there to fight for the belts?
The man who the internet seems to want to put in front of a firing squad, Triple H, remains one of my favorites. I do admit that I’m ready, and have been ready for a while, to see him lose the title. Is Triple H pulling strings backstage and refusing to job the belt? Probably. Do I think he should be shot or fired? No. Do I wish he’d get hurt? No. Do I wish he’d lose the damn title? Definitely. I still find him entertaining and I like Evolution as a group. What I don’t like is knowing that every time he steps into the ring, I know who is going to win that match, especially if the title is on the line. I think it’s a problem that Triple H has lost only one singles match in the last year, and that was to Kane last OCTOBER in a casket match where Kane, the FACE, had to have help from Shawn Michaels to win the match. Damn, isn’t it usually the heel that has to cheat to win? And don’t bring up the title loss to Shawn Michaels as evidence of jobbing the belt, because giving the belt to your semi-retired friend for a 3 ½ week reign doesn’t count.
Kane. Let’s be really clear here, I’m a 100% Kane mark. So anything that has to do with Kane, I tend to be pretty opinionated about. Kane has, ever since joining the WWE, been kind of the redheaded stepchild of the main event scene. He gets put in the title picture and gets a decent push, then gets shoved back down. He gets stuck with some of the most horrible storylines ever (Katie Vick) and still keeps his head high and does what he is asked. He gets stuffed in mid-card tag teams and gets held back even though he gets one of the most solid face reactions (when he’s a face) of anyone on the roster. I’ll probably write a whole column on this in the near future, but when the mask vs. title match was announced, I almost puked. I knew Triple H wasn’t going down, and I knew that Kane wasn’t getting the title with a whole one week of build, no matter how over he is. The unmasking was horrible, the haircut especially. They have somewhat managed to save it in recent weeks, and I am very much in favor of the heel turn and the return to his savage beating ways that he hasn’t shown since his arrival in the WWE. I am however, worried for Kane’s long-term future now. To me, the mask was a major part of the Kane character, and without it, I’m worried about how long the character will survive. I guess time will tell. Like I said, this is probably a future column topic, as I have many thoughts on it.
That’s it for now. Until next time…