Returning from the head (and it’s not the Undertaker)
By Shawn Stinson
Much like the wrestler who shares my first name, I have returned to the wrestling writing world.
While I don’t expect the people who read the many talented writers on this site to remember me or care to know why I disappeared, I have decided to return and ink this column and hopefully many, many more to come.
Granted I haven’t been keeping up with the soap opera which is called the WWE or NWA-TNA like I have in the past, I have watched each pay-per-view with the hope of catching lightning in a bottle.
What exacting have I been waiting for? To be honest, I know the days of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and Mick Foley are long gone. Those guys and I also have to include the beginning days of the NWO. when they would do something which you couldn’t miss or you would feel like an idiot the next day.
I could have been berating the creative department or the owner for keeping their heads in the sand and ignoring the big problem – the lack of new ideas. The WWE has tried to keep their writing on the top of the game by hiring outside writers from Hollywood to come up with bigger and better storylines. This hasn’t worked at all, in fact, I believe this has alienated its core fan.
Hiring writers from Hollywood on paper isn’t a bad idea, I think the storyline with the “gay” marriage of Billy and Chuck was a bit of a stretch, but in the end the twist of having Eric Bischoff as the minister was classic. Unfortunately, with every good idea there has been about five which didn’t click. Any wrestling fan want to talk about the horrid Katie Vick-Kane angle?
In fact, some of the angles they are doing or have done recently is a rehash of angles they just did a year ago.
The Shawn Michaels-Kurt Angle feud is a repeat of the Brock Lesnar-Goldberg Royal Rumble staredown and eliminations. I have to give the writing team credit, they had a lot more to work with in Michaels and Angle. If anyone remembers, I am a huge Angle fan and believe he is the current Ric Flair of the wrestling world. And Michaels is just as strong in the ring and on the microphone.
Having Angle appear on Raw and Michaels returning the favor on Smackdown getting under the other’s skin was classic wrestling feud at its best. If anyone who cares a little bit about wrestling was excited about these two superstars finally getting into the ring with each other.
During the buildup to the match between two of the greatest all-around wrestlers in WWE history, the one thing which aided in getting the most out of the feud was something unfortunately isn’t going to happen often – time. With these two on separate shows, the possibility of the creative team throwing the two in a throwaway match on Smackdown or Raw was not possible.
While I may sound like the typical internet writer which does nothing but whine and complain about the state of wrestling without coming up with solutions. I have written a many columns with ideas about how to use a certain wrestler or trying to come up with the next superstar.
Wrestling will bounce back with the next big angle, it always does. But the key is trying something new which might capture the lightning in the bottle.
