When I was 9 years old I got my first taste of something my cousin kept talking about; professional wrestling. Watching the street fight between Bret Hart and Steve Austin instantly had me hooked for years to come. Like a lot of wrestling fans, the boom of the 90's didn't keep me going into the 00's and by 2004 or so I had stopped watching nearly completely. I still would watch a little from time to time and bought the games each year and even dabbled in some of the independent promotions, but my heart was out of it. That cousin of mine never lost his love though and in 2008 when Summerslam was going to be just a few hours away he convinced me to buy a ticket and road-trip up for the show.
For the first time in years, I was a big wrestling fan for at least one more night. An indy darling turned WWE superstar (and my favorite wrestler at the time) in CM Punk was defending his World Heavyweight title, the two biggest stars at the time in John Cena and Batista were facing off one-on-one for the first time and in the main event Edge was facing The Undertaker in a Hell In A Cell match. I hadn't been paying enough attention to the product to know the storylines going into the matches but I knew that I was in for a memorable night. My favorite CM Punk kept his title, Batista reversed a top rope leg drop into a Batista Bomb, and Undertaker sent Edge straight to Hell.
I'd love to tell you that I jumped right back in but wrestling had left me wanting more before and I wasn't about to jump right back in, choosing instead to dip my toe in the water and go from there. It wasn't until my birthday in 2009 that I truly got pulled back in. There was a WWE “reality” show called NXT and the first season had just wrapped up with Wade Barrett winning a WWE contract. That next week everyone from NXT ambushed John Cena and CM Punk and proceeded to destroy everyone and everything in their path. It was the first truly shocking and huge angle they had run in a long time and it was awesome. I really thought Daniel Bryan (one of the most technically sound wrestlers on the planet by the way) and company were going to go into the stands Artest style. It was a big enough moment I was going to start paying quite a bit more attention to what was going on from week-to-week.
Wrestling obviously isn't everyone's cup of tea and it isn't without it's huge faults, but if you look close enough there are a lot of good things that even the old fan can come back and truly enjoy. CM Punk is probably the best thing in wrestling right now, being the evil mastermind and playing the role as anyone has in a long, long time. Alberto Del Rio has the kind of cocky smile a grandmother would like to smack off his face and The Miz from MTV fame has put in the time to become one of the brightest young stars in the business. We've also got the previously mentioned Daniel Bryan and a new star from Mexico in Sin Cara learning the ropes while R-Truth is losing his mind much to our delight. If you used to like wrestling but don't anymore the water is fine once again, just dip your toe in and find out for yourself.
I read this and was only able to relate to some, as I didn't rekindle my passion until May 2011 (just last month). In that time, I find that I've missed a great angle with the original Nexus. I missed CM Punk (who has been my favorite worker for about 7 years at this point; dating back to shortly after his incredible ROH feud with Samoa Joe) being brought up from OVW. I missed Bryan Danielson, arguably the most technically sound wrestler alive today and another indy wrestling icon being brought in, fired, and brought in again. I missed Ron Killings aka R-Truth getting yet another opportuniy in the WWE, but I did get to see his first few weeks as a heel, and honestly, have enjoyed his work of late. Sin Cara, aka Mistico is one of few great Mexican workers who got the big break. I hate the Sin Cara gimmick - Mistico was his situation in Mexico, but he's decent and for a WWE audience, awe-inspiring.
ReplyDeleteWhat I didn't miss was the opportunity to watch a former passion of mine (which, like yours, ended in 2004 ish) be reborn and grow. I couldn't have picked a better time, as a "smark" to become interested again. A great feud between Orton and Christian (well, mostly great), a guy for me to hate immensely (Super Cena), some new talent, Zack Ryder, and most importantly, guys like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan.
Sure I miss seeing HBK, The Rock, Steve Austin, Triple H, The Undertaker, and a few other guys in that category, but at the same time, we get to watch guys like Daniel Bryan, Sin Cara, Sheamus, Christian, and others get their big pushes. And occasionally, as we saw Monday with Shawn Michaels and a few weeks ago with Steve Austin, legends of our generation return to the spotlight.
I must say, though, if you have access to indy wrestling (smartmarkvideo.com), you ought to check out ROH (obviously), PWG, and my personal favorite promotion to date, CHIKARA.
It makes you appreciate the art form of professional wrestling to a whole new extent.
I truly am spoiled by these companies.