I want to write about wrestling, which means I’m about to alienate about 101.3% of my readers. If this affects you, just know that I am not sorry, nor do I care. *Insert smiley face*
Perhaps you can give this post a chance, anyway. After all, it’s still me. And you like me. Remember?
Tonight is the Royal Rumble. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a wrestling event put on by the WWE. Essentially, there are matches throughout the night and the main event is known as the Royal Rumble. Like Christmas, it happens only once a year.
Every 90 (or 60) seconds, a sweaty wrestler enters the ring and attempts to throw the people in the ring over the top rope and to the floor. That is the only way to get eliminated in this match.
The last one standing goes on to challenge the champion at WrestleMania, which is the Super Bowl of wrestling.
That’s your crash course lesson; impress your friends with your knowledge. Now I’m just going to write as if you all know everything about wresting because I can’t be bothered to explain everything.
*Insert smiley face again*
By inserting a smiley face, I’m basically pulling a Don Rickles. I say things that may not be nice and then I smile so you know I don’t really mean it and we’re still friends.
Before I give my thoughts on the Royal Rumble match, I just want to give some thoughts on the current state of the WWE product.
That was a really boring sentence. Sorry. I can’t be entertaining all the time.
What bothers me about the WWE right now is the characters their wrestlers have. There is very little difference in character from one good guy to the next. They all try to be funny and say witty things that could trend on Twitter.
It’s the same script, but for a different wrestler. Most of the time.
Another thing – the wrestlers the fans want to cheer, are heels (the bad guy); while the wrestlers we dislike are the good guys.
It’s bothersome. We don’t want to cheer John Cena anymore, but little kids love him and he sells a bunch of merchandise, so he’s a good guy.
We don’t want to cheer Roman Reigns, but he has “the look”, so he’s the good guy.
By the way, why does Reigns get to wear a vest with padding on it when he wrestles? He’s supposed to be this big strong guy and he’s out there wearing equipment? I don’t like it.
Every time someone kicks or punches him in the chest, I don’t believe that he’s hurt, or even “fake hurt”. He’s wearing armour. Get rid of it.
Kevin Owens is disgruntled, cantankerous, and entertaining all at the same time. His quick responses, facial reactions, and overall attitude is something I want to cheer for. Plus he’s Canadian. But no, he’s booked as the bad guy.
I could go on and on, but it frustrates me as I write it.
So what ends up happening is the crowd doesn’t react like they’re supposed to because they don’t really hate the wrestlers the WWE wants them to, and they don’t really like the ones they’re supposed to.
Maybe it’s all a ploy, so when these characters finally turn, we’re ready for it. But it’s hard watching something when you know…that they know…they have to force something down your throat.
Dolph Ziggler turned heel (became a bad guy) a few weeks ago and I already don’t care. Why? Because he turned on two of his “friends” by attacking them. Quite frankly, his friends were boring and I don’t really have any sympathy for them. So why should I hate Ziggler?
Regardless, Ziggler is now a heel, which is just him looking really angry all the time because apparently that’s what every bad guy should look like.
If I were a heel in the WWE, I’d smile as much as possible. Kill ’em with kindness. They need more bad guys like that.
Another thing that bothers me is how the WWE seems to stall for time on every storyline. They try and stretch them out as long as they can.
For instance, Kevin Owens won the Universal Championship in September. Since then, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins have been the only two guys who have challenged for it. Really? In five months, no one else on the RAW roster wants the biggest prize?
Okay.
Owens won the championship when Triple H interfered in the match and helped him win, screwing over Seth Rollins in the process.
It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that Rollins actually started trying to get revenge on Triple H. What was he doing for four months? Watching Stranger Things on repeat?
In real life, it doesn’t make sense. In the wrestling world, it does, because nothing ever makes sense.
In actuality, the company wanted to push back the Rollins vs. HHH match until WrestleMania in April. So we’ve had to endure a bunch of mini feuds that don’t really matter, until then.
As for the women, I’m tired of hearing about the “Divas Revolution”. Yes, it’s nice that the women are finally being treated equally but I just need them to stop talking about “making history.” We get it. You’re making history. Stop saying it every episode.
Rapid fire thoughts on the women’s division:
- It’s quite clear that they want Charlotte to eventually match the number of title reigns that her father, Ric Flair, had (16).
- Bayley is going to win the championship at WrestleMania, not tonight.
- Sasha Banks needs to turn heel. She’s better that way.
- Nia Jax should move over to Smackdown when the WWE Draft comes around because I can’t see her holding the title for a lengthy amount of time (which she eventually should), with Charlotte, Bayley, and Sasha Banks consistently challenging her.
- Alexa Bliss is probably my favourite women’s wrestler right now. She’s just so bitter all the time – it’s refreshing.
- Carmella needs to get away from James Ellsworth before she becomes too much of a joke.
- I’m glad Natalya and Nikki Bella are in a feud with each other because I don’t really care that much about either one at this point.
- So happy to see Mickie James return. Was always a big fan of hers.
- Give Naomi a title run. Do it.
- Becky Lynch needs backup.
As for the cruiserweight division, get rid of it, or have them at least interact with the rest of the roster. Stop changing the ring ropes to purple (from red) every time it’s their turn to perform.
One last point before I get to the Rumble – the WWE needs to make the championship titles mean something. There should be a long list of people who are motivated to win a championship.
Currently, there are just a bunch of guys who are seemingly there to have a match of no consequence and go home. There needs to be a story, or a pursuit, something.
At least make it unpredictable. Before some matches even start, we already know the winner. Let the guys who lose 100% of the time, sneak out a victory. Keep me on my toes, as I lay on my couch.
Time for my rapid fire Royal Rumble thoughts:
- This is the most unpredictable Rumble in years.
- Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, and The Undertaker are all in it, but the first two won’t win it because they’ll end up facing each other at WrestleMania.
- Based on internet rumours, The Undertaker won’t win it. I think he was supposed to at one point and challenge John Cena for the championship (Cena would have to defeat A.J. Styles tonight).
- That being said, I can’t see The Undertaker being eliminated by anyone. Not cleanly, or one-on-one, at least. Unless the person who eliminates him is his WrestleMania opponent? I DON’T KNOW.
- Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho has to happen at WrestleMania, doesn’t it? So maybe Jericho wins the Rumble and Owens defeats Reigns and then the Canadian friendship finally dissolves.
- That match can happen without it being for the championship, though.
- Baron Corbin better not win the Rumble.
- Braun Strowman will probably get eliminated by 9 people because he’s so big (or just one of The Undertaker, Goldberg, or Brock Lesnar), but not before he throws people out of the ring like they’re hamburger wrappers.
- Dean Ambrose better not win the Rumble, either. I’m tired of him. Why does he insist on wrestling in jeans? I hate just standing in jeans.
- There are so many guys who could win the Rumble, but for each of them I can come up with a good reason why they won’t win it. I’m so confused. This is why wrestling is fun, though.
- I want The New Day to turn on each other, even if it’s just in a playful manner. Do something new with them.
- The list of potential surprise entrants really interests me. I’ll talk about them now.
Kenny Omega – I’m not fully convinced that Kenny Omega re-signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling. I think the whole thing might be a work (fake). Because him appearing at the Royal Rumble got to the point where it wasn’t really going to be a surprise.
So what better way to turn a non-surprise into a surprise? Squash the rumours that you’re joining the WWE by creating a fake story that you’re going back to NJPW and tell the most respected professional wrestling writer in the world, your decision.
I’m not buying it. Or maybe I just don’t want to. Probably the latter.
Other guys I hope are surprise entrants:
Kurt Angle – I’ve been waiting for this for a decade.
Shelton Benjamin – Is he still injured?
Finn Balor – It’s time to come back. Maybe win the Rumble and face Owens at WrestleMania in a “I never lost my title to you, I got injured” match. Maybeeeee.
Daniel Bryan – There, I said it. Long story, short: He retired a year ago because the WWE doctors wouldn’t clear him. Other doctors have cleared him; maybe the WWE doctors have too, now? Plus, he needs to face The Miz eventually, right? Their storyline needs a destination.
Hulk Hogan – I’m not really hoping that he enters the Rumble, but it would be interesting.
Samoa Joe – He’s gotta, right? He just has to.
Tye Dillinger – “The Perfect 10”. Everyone pretty much knows he’s debuting at the #10 spot. If he doesn’t, the crowd will hijack the show and it’ll be a disaster.
Shinsuke Nakamura – STOP WASTING HIM IN NXT AND BRING HIM UP TO THE MAIN ROSTER ALREADY.
Matt & Jeff Hardy – My spidey senses predicted Jeff Hardy’s last return to WWE before anyone even made a rumour about it. I JUST SENSE THESE THINGS, OKAY.
Don’t know how confident I am about this one though.
The Young Bucks – No chance. Right?
Well, that’s it. I just nerded out for 1800 words, but it was necessary. If you read all of this, dinner is on me. If you didn’t, well, I didn’t care about you anyway.
*Insert smiley face*
I know literally nothing about wrestling except that Chyna was a boss and Hulk Hogan was a wrestler…. is a wrestler? I watched The Wrestler? Does that count?
It sounds like they could do with a cartoon-Harley Quinn-type character, a bubbly, cheerful bad girl who can skip in and acrobat her way around the place, bouncing off the ropes and tying the wrestlers into knots without breaking a sweat.
But maybe you can’t have gymnasts in the wrestling ring. Maybe that would break some sort of rule. I don’t know. Like I said, I know nothing.
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Wow! You know more than you think. Look up Alexa Bliss – she basically dresses up as Harley Quinn sometimes. And she used to be a cheerleader/gymnast so you pretty much nailed that perfectly.
Hulk Hogan went on a racist rant in a video that didn’t come out until a year or so ago, so they fired him (he wasn’t wrestling anyways because he’s old), but they’re waiting for enough time to pass to re-hire him.
A+ to you Quinn.
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Yay! wrestling trivia. Jesse Ventura apparently became a decent Minnesota governor. Surprised this doesn’t happen more often, since (obviously) wrestling and politics are part of the same skill set.
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He did, indeed! Linda McMahon (Vince’s wife) also became a politician and is a part of the Trump administration now.
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Yayay you can send me some Chinese take-out (or pizza) because I did read the whole thing! I’m more than a little confused, but a little interested. 🙂
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Wow! I might just send you both Chinese and pizza. At least you found it interesting!
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“Keep me on my toes, as I lay on my couch.” It was worth it to endure the pain of reading about wrestling just to reap the joy of that sentence. Good stuff.
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Hahahaha I was hoping that sentence would appeal to my non-wrestling fan readers! Thank you!
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Could Hulk Hogan be an announcer? Does wrestling have announcers? Do they whisper like in golf or shout like in soccer? I am immediately sending this to my daughter’s fiancee. My daughter likes Bayley the best so you should have talked about her more, lol. I’ve said it before, Paul. You are the most passionate when writing about sports.
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Wrestling does have announcers lol. He doesn’t have a good track record of saying things while on camera so I wouldn’t make him an announcer. LOL they shout like people are beating each other up 10 feet away from them.
Lol I’m most passionate when writing about sport because I have too much to say.
I’ll write about Bayley here:
I like Bayley – she’s a breath of fresh air, as I mentioned in my first wrestling post. I don’t like how they called her up to the main roster and let her sit in the shadows of the Charlotte/Sasha Banks feud, though I get it. She was too good for NXT but putting her right in the title picture would’ve been too fast. That being said, everyone was already a fan of her. But now that she’s getting her title shot, they’re trying to give her a “woe is me, I’m just a fan who didn’t expect to be here” character in order for the fans to side with her. We were already on her side because she was likeable and one of the best wrestlers to come up in a long time. We don’t need her to dumb her character down. I also hope she doesn’t turn into the female John Cena where she’s such a huge asset for merchandise sales that they never turn her heel. Hopefully a few years down the line they do.
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Judging by the t-shirts my daughter has, the merchandising for Bayley is working.
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It’s an “I’m a HUGGER” shirt, isn’t it?
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No, Picture of Bayley but not the hugger one.
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Saw the pay-per-view ad. I have to tread lightly stepping into this ring because I don’t watch now…but I will say this from watching the sport years ago. If that is true the villains aren’t being embraced as such and the good guys aren’t being loved so much that’s a huge problem indeed. I can see why you’d be frustrated enough to get some WWE execs into a sleeper hold and ram them into the turnbuckle, finishing them all off with a chair or two. Enjoy the Royal Rumble.
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Haha well said. There are some villains that people hate but there’s never an eruption of boos for them. Hopefully they line up the wrestler’s personas with how the fans feel about them, soon enough.
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When I was in high school, I got into wrestling for a few years. I don’t know if it was an attempt on my part to bond with my dad or if it was an attempt on his part to bond with me. Either way, I think that we were both pretending to be more into it than either of us really were. But I do have fond memories of watching with him during the WCW’s heyday. Back when Hogan turned bad guy with the NWO and Sting took to the black and white motif while dropping from the rafters with a baseball bat. Good times.
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Sting was still doing that schtick, minus the dropping from the rafters, a couple of years ago when he finally debuted in the WWE. Then he hurt his back and retired. I never watched WCW outside of the YouTube videos that I’ve seen.
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“If I were a heel in the WWE, I’d smile as much as possible. Kill ’em with kindness. They need more bad guys like that.” — I think if you did this, you’d be the scariest bad guy ever. Just think of The Joker. He smiles all the time when he does mean things.
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Why do you think I inserted 3 smiley faces in this post, Jess? Hahaha. This would be perfect for me, though after a few minutes it would turn into a fake smile which is even creepier.
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Hahaha I instantly thought of the NFL. You know, when you’re watching a game and one of the players pops his head up so you can see his stats and some of them can’t keep a straight face? Aka Gronk.
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Yes! Where they slowly tilt their head up and laugh at the camera and then wonder how much longer they have to sit there.
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Haha yes! It gets me every time. I don’t even listen to the stats. I just stare at their awkward faces to see how long they can last.
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Ever seen the ones where they play with the ball in their hands?
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No! At least, I can’t picture it as sharply as the other scenario.
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This isn’t it, but funnier.
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Oh my goodness, that’s the best. Oh, SNL. And I love Chris Pratt. “I burned down a strip club.”
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The Undertaker is still wrestling? It’s like soap operas, for men (*insert Rickles*).
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Yeah, just once or twice a year now though.
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That is waaay back in the time machine — like three decades ago!
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Well, I believe you owe me dinner hahaha I honestly haven’t watched wrestling in ages. I used to tune in with my dad when I was younger but some of those names are still familiar. Triple H was always my favorite. The undertaker as a child is probably the scariest thing next to that courage the cowardly dog show or lightning storms lol
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The Undertaker was creepy back then! The kinda guy you expect to be staring through your window during the middle of the night. Triple H is still around from time to time, but he cut all his hair off.
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Why would they make Orton win? Boring.
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I think Bray Wyatt is going to win the title at the elimination chamber and then they’ll face off at Mania. It’s the only potential feud that needs a championship involved in order to be elevated to the level of the other matches – Goldberg v. Lesnar & Undertaker v. Whoever. I don’t like that HHH, Orton and Batista have won 3 of the last 4 Rumbles (I think) though. Let the new guys shine.
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I hate Wyatt. Live Owens. My favorite is Lesnar and Angle
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I was certain Angle would be there last night. Sad he wasn’t.
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He screwed himself with addiction. I hear Cena will fight Undertaker at mania
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Possibly. Though last night they teased a Reigns and Undertaker match ugh
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If I not mistaken Shelton Benajmin is out injured men
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Good thoughts. Check out my Royal Rumblings
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Will do!
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