EDITORIAL: Suspend your disbelief and ignore the obvious

I consider myself one of the lucky ones , lucky enough to have been brought up during and fallen in love with the WWE's attitude era. It was during my time in primary school, everyone was talking about the World Wrestling Federation, I couldn't have been older than nine years old and I had no idea what they were all going on about. Monday nights on sky sports, luckily my grandparents had just had Sky TV installed at their house and I could get them to record Monday night Raw is War! By the time I started watching Raw is War it was full of so many amazing characters Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Mankind, Triple H, The Undertaker, Kane, The Hardy Boys, Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, Owen Hart, Bret Hart, Rakishi, Vince, Shane and Stephanie McMahon, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Edge, X-Pac to name just the ones off the top of my head. I wasn't born in time to witness the 'greatness' of Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff et al, they're not my generation of wrestler and I never had the time or the patience for WCW.

I'm a child of the Hollywood epic Blockbuster, of amazing (and at times, shocking) storytelling, fantastical effects and ridiculous budgets. At nine years old there was nothing that would suspend my disbelief more than the WWF (even though it wasn't PG I still got away with watching it) it was fantastic, it was amazing, it had storytelling, it had characters, it had women, it had violence, it was competitive and exhilarating whilst at the same time entertaining. It's looking back at those days of the late 90's/early 00's which makes me love the WWE today, It's a rather love/hate relationship however. I believe that along with it's name the World Wrestling Federation lost a lot of it's charm, it's pizazz if you will. The legends of the Attitude era have moved on past pro-wrestling to new endeavors such as starring in films (most notably, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and most recently Triple H) and the creative team at the WWE seem to be unable to replicate the great mastery of storytelling that was prevalent during the Attitude era, if you go back and watch shows from that time such as Armageddon from 2000 (This was quite possibly my all time favourite PPV as a child) the crowd was hysterical throughout the entire show (even for the mid-carders... something nobody really gives a shit about today... watch a show from now and half to three quaters of the event will be deadly silent, no heat, no pops, just dull acceptance), everything flowed together beautifully and the pace was so much quicker.

Much of the time these days I find myself zoning out, losing interest and just having no connection to any of the characters... I don't care about Kofi Kingston, the one from Ghana who is actually just an American... but has a Jamaican gimic? I guess if I was a 12 year old girl I may have an undying love for the loveable 2D face, but that's all he is 2D... there is no character there. The characters of the attitude era had exactly that, attitude and that's what I loved about them... maybe it's a British thing of liking the underdog or our perpetually negative outlook on the world that left me rooting for people who were never really faces... come to think of it a face in the attitude era had a completely different meaning to what it has today... people like The Rock, Stone Cold and Kane weren't good people... Stone Cold was a lager lout who mouthed off at everyone... The Rock... well there's not much to say apart from he was a bit full of himself... and Kane... the burnt and scarred ruined shell of a man known as the devil's favourite demon... consistently accompanied by that stumpy little urn fellow... Paul Bearer. WHAT? (no pun intended). These people weren't good, but they were cool!

Nothing in the days of Attitude was predictable and this is the ultimate point that this editorial is aiming to reach. I want to suggest ways, in a series of posts, in which a bit of the old vigor and fighting spirit can be re-injected into the WWE, WWE creatives... pens to the ready... take note and have my contract in your out-trays! In this series of blogs entitled Ignore the Obvious I will examine current storylines, developing narratives and up coming fights to create my own distinct take and suggestions which will 'ignore the obvious'. Suggesting storylines I believe will be the most productive, but most importantly entertaining!

Shall we begin?

The first topic really to begin a discussion on a change of direction within WWE must be it's PG guidance rating for viewers. Now i'm not suggesting that the WWE should strip itself of the rating immediately and without question and that it is the most fundamental reason for the company's sinking entertainment ship. I believe that the PG rating has both it's pro's and con's and probably at it's inception made good business sense. On the face of it the WWE is doing quite a noble thing in restricting itself to Parental Guidance... it allows everybody of all ages to watch it's shows without causing offense to anybody. It gets more people watching the sport... or does it?

The con's of course are far more numerous and perhaps more important to the audience. Firstly wrestling in PG is unrealistic... you're telling me that if you were getting a beat down from some hench motherfucker you would be able to resist the urge to spout profanities every which way possible... when you're in a rage stopping yourself swearing isn't something you think about... so when we have John Cena coming out to face off with the Nexus in the opening segment of every single episode of Monday night Raw, you expect both him and the Nexus to be a little bit frustrated by this. They are polar oppositions they should be spouting hatred, bile, profanity and rage at one another like there's no tomorrow... i'm not suggesting that foul language in anyway makes something cooler, more attractive, but simply more believable, the ability to swear would allow for the freedom of improvised promo's which just flow naturally when you're in the heat of the moment on stage. When I was 9 years old I knew every swearword going and I knew that the people on the TV were talking from the heart... it was an improvised promo that made Stone Cold Steve Austin into the legend he became, not some shoddily scripted half arsed effort from creatives.

It's not only the language that isn't realistic, if anybody ever watches boxing or any MMA promotions... what is it that happens to people? They get bloodied up! Fighting and violence hurt! And when i'm watching my thrice weekly dose of WWE I can't believe that any of these people are in any kind of pain, they can sell the moves all they want... I still won't believe it. What it was that made wrestling different from boxing and MMA were the gimmick matches, your "no holds barred" matches, "Hell in a Cell", "Street Fights" the ingenious ways weapons were used and the physical endurance on display from the athletes. I don't believe that any moment in time will ever surpass seeing Mick Foley fall from the top of the Hell in a Cell onto the announce desk and also seeing Mick Foley fall through the top of the Hell in a Cell through the ring, but saying that Mick Foley is one crazy ass motherfucker.

Really my general point is this... I think that the WWE is too surreal it almost has no basis in reality anymore, it needs to take a few steps back and employ a bit of realism. Making their programs more realistic makes the people from my demographic believe in the product... anyone my age is intelligent enough to know what they are seeing is nothing compared to what guys did ten years ago. So wake up and smell the sweet smell of blood because realism in wrestling is the king.

Shughes




Notes on the article: Since beginning writing this article it is worth noting that several things have happened. The Rock is back (winner) and is swearing.... Stone Cold is back (winner) and is still drinking... John Cena is still there and is again rapping?.... Trish Stratus is back.... Booker T is back... Kevin Nash (Diesel) is back.... Kane, Undertaker, Triple H, Edge, Christian, are still kicking around. The locker-room must have quite a funky vibe about it at the moment! Is Attitude back? I doubt it... but I do like what is going on!