Things took a real turn for the stupid in the hours following the Royal Rumble. It's one thing to not like the choice of Roman Reigns to win the Rumble, and you're more than entitled to boo if you're in the building. But blocking people from getting to their cars after they worked their butts off to entertain you because you don't like the way the show they worked was written? That's a bush league move at best. And trying to drop your WWE Network subscription is even more stupid. As much as I believe the booking for the Rumble match was bad I was still entertained by the show. And that's pretty much what matters. It's a show, not life or death. It's not your job, where someone you didn't want getting a promotion might end up costing you money or advancement. It's not like you applied for college or a loan and got turned down so someone you think is less deserving could get it. Do you react this way with everything else you watch on TV or in a movie? If you wanted Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia to get together would you have turned off the movie and never watched a Star Wars flick again after it was revealed they were siblings? Did you leave your parents house never to return when you were 12 if they didn't buy you something you wanted? I'm betting the answer to both is no. You don't always get the story result you want, but what matters is that the story or the show entertains you.
Let me take you back to the late 80s NWA. A lot of fans wanted for Lex Luger to beat Ric Flair for the championship, and it never happened. They didn't like it then, but years later it would all be explained. Luger wasn't a good enough worker to be the champ and have to go night in and night out against all kinds of opponents. Flair made him look great in their matches but being champ means you have to be the one to make people look great and Luger wasn't up to that. Another example I'll give you is Sid Vicious, or Psycho Sid to WWE fans. Sid was an impressive physical specimen, and as a result there was constant clamoring for him to be put at the top of the card and challenge for big things. It never happened; Sid was constantly put in tag team matches or quick squashes and didn't get much of a chance to do anything in WCW. Again, we found out later why that was. When he did get to work some big solo matches in the WWF later on.....he was terrible unless he had Shawn Michaels to bump and sell for him. Try watching Sid vs The Undertaker from WrestleMania 13; if you think Roman Reigns is a bad in ring worker, you clearly have not had the full Sid Vicious/Psycho Sid experience. In either case had the fans gotten what they wanted the results wouldn't have been so good.
Now the situation with Daniel Bryan is different. In Bryan's case it is really just upper management (aka Vince McMahon) not feeling he is up to the standard of being Face of the Company. He wants, and has always wanted somebody like.....Roman Reigns. It's why he never really committed to Bret Hart or Michaels after Hulk Hogan was done, and why there were the constant attempts to go with Luger or Diesel during that time. It's why he's clung to John Cena and didn't want to go all in with CM Punk. It is what it is. He could very well be making the wrong choice, but that doesn't warrant a full on abandonment by the fanbase. If you like wrestling, and want to see the best overall product, then you have one option: the WWE. Now if your issue is that it's not as good as it was back in the day then I've got news for you. Go watch some WWF TV from the 1980s. And if you're talking about the vaunted Attitude Era, if you haven't dumped your subscription yet go watch some of those awesome RAW episodes from back then. Watch Mae Young give birth to a hand. Go watch the Val Venis vignettes or the Oddities or the payoff to the Higher Power angle. Watch Vince and company botch what could have been the easiest money making storyline ever - the Invasion. The good old days weren't always so good, folks.
Now that doesn't excuse the awful booking of the Rumble match on this year's show. The fan favorites were all buried early except for Dean Ambrose and even he got dumped quickly when it got down to the final four. There's no reason to waste two final four spots on Kane and Big Show. Bryan shouldn't have come in at number 10 just to get dumped less than 20 minutes later. Ziggler shouldn't have been held until number 30. No reason to even have Curtis Axel come out just to get jumped by Luke Harper. No point in having a faux elimination for Rusev just so he can get tossed at the end anyway. Why even bother with Titus O'Neil? But one badly booked match doesn't mean you throw the baby out with the bath water. We watch this stuff to be entertained, and that doesn't always mean it's going to get written the way you want it to. Sometimes it will be written badly. My other big subjects on the blog here, comics and movies are perfect examples. When a bad comic book movie gets made we don't stop asking for more. Same with a bad issue of a comic series or a bad video game. We don't stop listening to music because of a few bad releases or because an artist we don't personally like gets blown up. So just pipe down a little. You can protest by not watching WrestleMania if they don't make changes, but getting out entirely is a bit much.
No comments:
Post a Comment