My Love Affair with Pro-Wrestling

It all started way back in 1990-something when I was a young child at my mother's house. I was upstairs in the TV room and she was down in the kitchen. What struck me then was the excitement of matches and more specifically the promos. The words the wrestlers used to describe to tear each other down had me captivated. As I recall the first one I was Stone Cold in a camouflage hat. I don't remember who he was trash talking but the colorful nature of his vocabulary shook me to my core. Little me couldn't help but think, "this is badass!". I remember the first match I saw and Jerry the King pointing out that wrestlers who primarily used kicks fought like girls. I ran downstairs to tell my Mom and she told me it was professional wrestling.

I had a passing interest in wrestling after that but I didn't really know when to watch it and I didn't understand what RAW is WAR meant. The moment I got hooked on wrestling was when I was at my cousin Donny's house a little later on in my childhood. He was saying something about a Rock and Sock Connection and was talking about Mankind. He was trying to explain to me that in a way Cactus Jack and Mankind were the same person. Later that night we were watching Raw and I remember a promo where Stone Cold took the Rock's world title and threw it over a bridge into some water along with an oxygen tank, a snorkel mask, and an oxygen tank. I thought that was badass.

Also along the way I got my hands on a copy WWF Wrestlemania Arcade for my Super Nintendo (thank you Dad). I found that pretty captivating and remember vividly swinging a bat with Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon's weird arm swipe along with Doink's cleated diving attack. I'd say it was about 1998 that I really started consistently paying attention to wrestling (Monday Nitro excluded) and from 1999-2003 I was completely absorbed. I had the action figures, the ring, the hell in a cell attachment, the weapon accessories, the steel cage attachment, and my very own replica of the WWF Tag Team titles. I had a slew of wrestling games from WCW/NWO Revenge to Wrestlemania 2000 but nothing got my attention more than the No Mercy video game.

My interest level in pro-wrestling dropped off a bit until I found out Wrestlemania was coming to Seattle. I got my grandma to take me, painted my face like Goldust and watched Stone Cold Steve Austin's last match. That was one hell of a show.

But for whatever reason as I turned 14 I lost all interest in wrestling but I was always fascinated by the industry itself. It wasn't until my senior year in college that I started watching more and as soon as the Rock returned to face John Cena I was amazed at the goosebumps on my arm and my love for WWE has been fully restored. Since then I've been reading lots of stuff on Bleacher Report and often thinking to myself: "These guys have some interesting things to say but just don't seem to get it and there's a lot more they can say." After a few months of reading opinion pieces on Bleacher Report I decided it was time for me to make my opinions known. My favorite thing about wrestling was guessing outcomes and fantasizing about different storylines. Now that I'm almost 24 not much has changed. Maybe only my family and a few of my friends will read what I write here. Otherwise I want to share my caged up brilliance and ignorance and maybe just maybe I'll make someone's day or spark a sports entertainment revolution.

Why Cena will win at Wrestlemania 29 (and why that's OK)

Why John Cena will win at Wrestlemania 29 and why that’s OK

               

            I know I’m not the only one who is crying that he’s just the PG Era Hulk Hogan, that we’ve seen this movie before, and that we want something to change. I for one hate the invincible John Cena angle. By that I’m referring to the John Cena that always defies all odds and somehow routinely wins. It worked for Stone Cold because his character was full of piss and vinegar, it worked for Triple H because he was such an effective heel, and it works for The Rock because his performances are indeed electrifying and every movement seems larger than life. Cena always wins because his job is to be the face of the company and there really isn’t another place for him. My prediction is that he will be the victor at Wrestlemania 29 for one major reason: someone has to take the title from the Rock and there is no one better situated to do so. The Rock is a part-time superstar to say the least and I doubt he’ll be in more than one post-Wrestlemania PPV view for at least the next few months.

Secondly although Rock’s gimmick as the People’s Champ is entertaining and brings many of us a sense of child-like joy, the man who exists solely to entertain us only wrestles once a month. More than a couple of months of that is not in the least compelling. Sure the Rock Concert was great, as was the unveiling of a new belt that had not fallen victim to Cena’s As Seen on TV Bedazzler, and the “Rocky” chants still give me goose bumps but that’s going to get stale soon if it hasn’t already. Thirdly John Cena is poised to move from being just the face of the company and the most celebrated superstar of the last decade to taking the mantle of a full-blown legend and even becoming the second coming of the People’s Champ. This is perhaps best evidenced in John Cena’s most recent promos. We have seen him trying harder and harder to mimic the Rock with a long pause and smile before he speaks and dramatically turning from the microphone to stare up to slowly emphasize each syllable in a deep voice to name just a few things. Maybe he’ll fall flat on his face but one thing we do know is that the WWE is not afraid to beat a dead horse when Cena is involved.

Next he started off the New Year by denouncing his 2012 performance calling it “one bad season” and promising that 2013 would be the year of John Cena before showering AJ and Ziggy in feces. If that isn’t a point-blank foreshadowing device I’m going to have to ask Damien Sandow for better words to use. Then Cena went on to win the Royal Rumble. As an aside, that to me was the epitome of a travesty. I believe that Dolph Ziggler should have won and gone on to be the first PG Era undisputed champion. A renewed rivalry between Dolph Ziggler and the WWE’s first Undisputed Champion (Y2J for those of you who don’t recall) would be simply brilliant but I digress.

Lastly I must say the most recent match between CM Punk and John Cena was not only better than either of the matches Punk has had with the Rock but may well be the best match I’ve seen all year including the main event of Wrestlemania 28. What I saw was a John Cena that was determined to freshen up his act (enter a sick standing hurricanrana), prove that he is still deserving of support from the emerging “Cena sucks” crowd, and a WWE administration that realized it would be worth more money to them to show a John Cena pulling out all the stops (as opposed to just overcoming all odds) than it would be to pepper the match with commercials. I can’t remember the last time they aired such a marathon of a match on cable.

Obviously it would not make sense for John Cena to job against Punk. The Rock facing Punk again would be nowhere near as compelling as a Wrestlemania 28 rematch. Regardless of a 99.9% certainty as to the outcome my heart was still pounding and the match was full of believable “OMG” moments. Although I am still tired of Super Cena, he gained a very large degree of respect from me during that match. What does this suggest? If I’m not the only one who was awe-struck it means that they built some serious heat for John Cena and showed that he is formidable enough for fans to accept the Brahma Bull’s defeat at Wrestlemania 29.

Here is why John Cena winning may not be so bad. First and foremost when Cena wins, he (hopefully) won’t be hoisting up that joke of a title and will have left his Bedazzler at home. Secondly we will have a WWE champion that wrestles nearly every night. Thirdly there will be a platform to progress the John Cena character. If he beats the Rock this title reign will be unique enough that if indeed he is again the dominant superstar moving forward there is hope that he will freshen up his act. Next the WWE is in need of a major roster overhaul. Effectively merging the Raw and Smackdown rosters means that having a WWE Champion and a World Heavyweight Champion would be redundant. Likewise having an Intercontinental and United States Champion would be equally superfluous. What that means is that some top of the card guys will be pushed down but can still have top-notch matches and that many of the unnecessarily large number of faces on the roster will have to turn heel. So that means fresher storylines and rivalries regardless of who the WWE Champion will be. Think about it. If there is more talent in the middle of the card it won’t really matter very much who wears the belt. We may see a return of the Hardcore title and maybe the revitalization of the tag team division. That’s a trade I’d be happy to make for another John Cena title reign.

Lastly the fact is John Cena is not going to leave and I for one would argue that he will always be more effective as the hunted rather than the hunter. They’ve built him up to be invincible so why shouldn’t he be champ?