*Welcome to TuesdayyyyyyNight Slaaaaaaam!*
As an avid sports apathist (definition: one who is apathetic about something. I apparently had to make that up because I swore it was a word), it would make sense that the only sport I've ever shown any interest in would be fake. That's right, I'm starting off this rant with the fact that I know that the WWE is more world entertainment than it is legitimate wrestling, I had to cut you guys off before you ask because that's always the first question I get when I finally tell someone about my odd fandom. I am more than fine with that fact. I am into wrestling for the nostalgia, sheer amount of content, the acting, and the characters. Trust me, there's more to wrestling than just sweaty guys beating each other up.
A thing you may not know about me is that I have 3 older half siblings; Two brothers and a sister from my dad's first marriage. When I was younger (this had to be late '90's so I was 5 or 6) my youngest brother and my sister came to live with us for a year or so in Texas. They introduced me to a lot of things that year, some of which now are just such a part of myself that I don't even remember their origin. Two of the things I distinctly remember though, are ramen noodles and WWE Wrestling.
This time in Wrestling is now known as the Attitude Era of Wrestling. These were the times of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Golddust, Kane, and Undertaker. Those are just some of my favorites that I remember best. As you can probably guess from the name, the WWE was going through their rebellious phase; no rules, extreme everything. That didn't deter my family from watching though, we would gather together on Monday nights to watch this rabid blood sport.
I sort of outgrew wrestling and didn't really stick with it much when my siblings had moved back in with their mom. I got older and forgot about it(which is for the best I heard they went through some rough patches during the early 00's.) Recently, well about a year ago, I was in a show slump. Many of my favorites were on a summer break/ recently ended (Breaking Bad, WHY!?) and I had nothing to watch. That's how WWE got its claws into me.That and this beautiful promo cut by one of the better actors (he's a veteran to wrestling, Zeb is.)
My roommate/partner in crime and I both had watched wrestling around the same time, so when he showed me that video he found we thought "hey, why not give it a shot?" We did with a Monday Night Raw and found it well...lacking the pizazz and 'tude of what we remembered but that was to be expected, we did enjoy it though in an odd way. Some of the wrestlers weren't awful and I even quickly found a favorite in Daniel Bryan, the king of the Underdog and the only man to ever make me appreciate a beard. But I'll have more on my favorites later.
Now like I said earlier, I'm not watching for the wrestling. Most of the "wrestlers" are not too good at wrestling, and the referees don't seem to know the rules any more. There is a whole lot of it though, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smack-down are the most known, but I knew I was really addicted when I started watching Wednesday Night Main Event, Saturday Night Superstars, Thursday Night NXT. I, like most people my age, need constant new stimulation an WWE is great at cranking out content! I haven't even mentioned that they have their own version of Netflix, called the WWE Network where they put even more original content, like their two reality shows(which I'm absolutely obsessed with), documentaries, review shows and more. You also get access to all old and new pay per views and the entire collection of footage from the Attitude Era and other shows like ECW (WWE's old rival company). Me and the roomies all split the $9.99 a month for the network, that's right, we infected the rest of the house too.
If you're a regular reader of my blog, you probably know that I did 3 full years of drama (both semesters each year) so I have an appreciation for both good, and really bad acting. Wrestling falls somewhere in the middle but more to the side of not so good. I have lovingly dubbed it Drama 2 level acting. That means that there;'s a few people who take it seriously and give it their all, there's a good amount of people who are phoning it in but are decent, and then there's a bunch of people who when they "act" make me giggle. I like to think of WWE, as one of the divas Nikki Bella said, "Broadway with body slams" except I can be honest and say it's more like off-off Broadway.
I realize this post is getting really long so I'm going to wrap it up with some of my favorites:
- Daniel Bryan- Like I said before, Bryan is the underdog character. He tries so desperately to win and become champion but the people in charge only see him as a B+ player, due to his slightly small stature. Also his beard is worthy of writing ballads about.
- AJ Lee- Current Divas champion and snappy dresser (I have always wanted a pair of knee-high converse and she has like EVERY color.) AJ is one of the only divas (the women's division) who has actual wrestling talent, plus she rocks pigtails. I respect that in anyone over the age of 16.
- Bad News Barrett- I'm afraid I've got some bad news! Not really, that's just his thing. When he was recovering from an injury and not ring-ready yet he used to come out on a rising podium and command all attention for whatever announcement he would make that week, and it was always something just awful. He's also British, so imagine getting all this bad news in a beautiful deep British accent. He's got great character.
- Paul Heyman- He is a legend. Paul Heyman is not a wrestler though, hes a manager. The slimiest, dirtiest, most grating-voice-est, manager there has probably ever been in the business. But he's not just an actor, no no no, Paul goes way back, he used to be in charge of ECW but when it failed he got offered a spot at WWE, because he's that awesome. His clients are known for being the best of the best.
Til Next Time!
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