[ad_1]
Sure Monday evening gross, Edge – the 47-year-old Sunday winner Royal rumble– came to the ring to discuss his future. His victory guaranteed him a championship match at WrestleMania on March 28, against WWE Champion Drew McIntyre or Universal Champion Roman Reigns. Here he found himself in front of the Gross defending champion McIntyre and instead of the usual champion versus potential challenger interaction – swagger and punches in a certain combination – Drew lavished praise on him. Edge called him, “I appreciate the compliments, I appreciate it. And Drew, I really love you and I’ve been a mentor to you, so I have to be honest with you. What is wrong with you? … Instead of kicking me when I came through these ropes, you shower me with compliments.
Edge was right, but you can excuse Drew for falling back on his fandom. He was 13 when Edge made his WWE debut in 1998. And he was in a nostalgic mood, having just retained his title the day before against none other than Goldberg, the iconic WWE. Monday night wars, who is still somehow watching the game. Goldberg has struggled a handful of times since his non-retirement in 2016, and if his in-ring skills have deteriorated, it’s hard to say; he has always been more of a phenomenon than a technician.
If Drew walks the range WrestleMania, he will have beaten Goldberg, 54, Edge, 48 (who, after nearly a decade of retirement with degenerative neck disease, returned to the ring a year ago), and his ex-boyfriend Sheamus, 43, and 12-year WWE veteran. And Goldberg and Edge weren’t the only mummies discovered on Sunday. Men Royal rumble match included appearances by Carlito (who made his WWE debut in 2004 and left in 2010), Christian (who is 47, made his debut in 1998 and retired in 2014), Kane (53 , debuted 1995) and Hurricane Helms (46, released 2010). The women To scold featured Jillian Hall (left WWE in 2010), Alicia Fox (2019), Torrie Wilson (2008), Victoria (2009) and Mickie James. James debuted in 2005, left in 2010, returned in 2016 and was on the active WWE roster last fall; it is perfectly integrated into the living legend. James is not alone in this division: Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton, and Rey Mysterio are all icons of bygone eras who are still making their mark. (Dominik, Mysterio’s son, who made his first screen appearance as a child in 2003, is now a full-time wrestler.)
Wrestling fans are trained to believe in immortality: If Hulk Hogan’s nickname hasn’t convinced you that fame is eternal, maybe his 40-year in-ring career has. But even with that in mind, Sunday’s Ponce de Leóns powerlifting parade puts a strain on credulity. It was a huge victory for sentimentality – and for HGH and testosterone injections – but one has to wonder if there is a limit to the charms of nostalgia. Edge, Kane, Goldberg, Victoria… I’d go crazy if I found this group of figures in a garage sale. But like my WrestleMania headliners in 2021?
To be fair, the wrestling legends that populate the top map are nothing new this time of year. Complaints about part-time flights WrestleMania the mainline pillar spots are a chorus every spring. The Rock, Undertaker, Triple H, Goldberg – they all cashed WrestleMania paychecks while the wrestlers in their prime sat in the locker room. WWE took the practice to a new level with the six-year-old Championship from Brock Lesnar, who returned from his UFC career in 2012 and was only occasionally in attendance for WWE events. The part-time legend is the new archetype.
There is a kind of business logic to this. Ratings are dropping, and the sea of fans who propelled the Attitude era to new levels of pop culture relevance have left for greener pastures. Those who want their fix of Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin in 2021 can turn to movies, podcasts, or YouTube highlights. WWE’s own streaming service, the WWE Network, has been a modest success to date, but it hasn’t brought this bevy of lost fans back into the fold. And if you needed more proof that this was the goal, look no further than last week’s news that WWE is shutting down the network after selling it to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service.
As a result, every wrestling fan who spent $ 10 a month on PPVs and the WWE Library will now receive the full catalog of Office added. Most importantly, mainstream viewers who pay to broadcast Office, Yellowstone, and the Saved by the Bell reboot will have WWE at your fingertips. NBCU is making a huge bet on its forward-looking channel by playing viewers’ nostalgia with old shows, old cast and rebooted versions of old shows. As of this writing, Peacock’s homepage features a “Best of WWE” series interspersed between Charm and Frasier—Which, no coincidence, is on track for a reboot of the competing Paramount +. It’s no wonder WWE is making a serious comeback to the ’90s. Looking back is apparently the path to the future.
And it’s no wonder that current stars like McIntyre pay homage to their ancestors in the ring with such urgency. Not long ago, the returning legend, brought back to the ring for one last time, was presented as the underdog. Now after the decade of the Undertaker Mania moments and the post-career title reigns over Goldberg, Triple H and The Rock – the real underdog is the full stopwatch. No matter what kind of form new age stars find themselves in, they will never be able to surpass the star power of someone whose perfection was in a time of greater viewership.
It is the luxury and the curse of a fake sport. If the NBA could have timed The last dance to present himself as a 57-year-old Michael Jordan reconnected with and won another championship, the league would have done it – or at least its PR department and network partners would have been in favor of the idea. In WWE, this kind of inanity is normal. And for a world that (at best) thinks of the early 2000s when they think of pro wrestling, the old guard is the institution, the money, and the Q-rated gods. If Drew McIntyre – or, the hell, even Roman Reigns – will never rise to the level of his predecessors, it will be by literally defeating them. There’s a reason Reigns versus the Rock is on Vince McMahon’s dream wall, and why John Cena WrestleMania availability is a constant source of speculation.
Just a few weeks ago, WWE became Gross in a “night of legends” to try the goose ribs. It didn’t bring back the millions of fans who watched in the ’90s, but it was a teaser for things to come. WWE to debut on Peacock in time for WrestleMania this year, and anyone who airs reruns of their favorite old sitcoms will suddenly have the chance to see some of their favorite old wrestlers try to reinvigorate the WWE product. It’s a lot to ask of a group of wrestlers who make their way out of flagship lots and “Best of” boxes, but everything is possible inside the square circle, in the land of oiled and tattooed demigods. In the heyday of WWE, when Steve Austin chased Mr. McMahon around the arena in a beer truck to the delight of millions, it was common to say that he appealed to everyone who would love to bust their boss someday. McMahon made the figurative into the literal for the enjoyment of fans. Well never forget WWE likes to call WrestleMania the “showcase of the immortals”. “Too literal” is not part of McMahon’s vocabulary.
[ad_2]
Source link