My Wrestling Manifesto

I've been watching wrestling for as long as I can remember. My grandfather was a wrestling fan. Back when the World Wrestling Federation was just becoming a national empire, my grandfather would have my brother and I over to his house to watch every pay-per-view. Watching Wrestlemania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and the Royal Rumble was a treat that I looked forward to and I would get anxious in the 3 or so months in between each event. He would heat up frozen pizza and we would sit down to watch Demolition, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, the Legion of Doom, and even the Gobbledy Gooker. Occasionally, when he didn't have the money to order the PPV, we would sit there and watch static as Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby "the Brain" Heenan, Jesse "the Body" Ventura, or even Lord Alfred Hayes would describe what was happening in vivid detail, as if they knew we couldn't make out what was on screen.

When my grandfather passed in 1991, I continued watching wrestling, even if only to honor him in some way. In fact, it grew to be an obsession of mine. I would watch every episode of Superstars, Saturday Night Main Event, and even began watching WCW Saturday Night. This was the time when the characters became a bit cartoonish, but at the age of 8, the line between fantasy and reality was still blurry. I thought The Undertaker would never be defeated. I was so afraid of Papa Shango that I feared that black ooze would begin to pour out of my wrists at any moment.

As I grew older, I realized that wrestling was just stories acted out for my entertainment. I, however, didn't care. Even at age 11 I could tell that when Monday Night Raw and Monday Nitro debuted that things were changing. The Aldo Montoyas and Max Moons of the world gave way to the Attitude Era and the NWO. When Rocky Maivia, Bret Hart, and Hulk Hogan turned heel, I turned heel. I rooted for the antagonists and it just felt right. As the Attitude Era started to wind down and the Invasion began, I started to drift away from the squared circle.

After a 6 or so year hiatus, I made my triumphant return to the biz. But, as often happens in wrestling, all the faces (and heels for that matter) had changed. But so had my interests. I didn't really care so much about the main event scene. I didn't see John Cena, Randy Orton, and Batista rise to the top like I did HBK and HHH.

My focus is now on transition, trying to spot a push or a future story line in its infancy. If you need examples of what I'm talking about, try these. Chris Jericho changes from the man of 1,004 holds to Nick Bockwinkle, ECW becomes the Nexus, CM Punks kills Jeff Hardy, the Evolution of Cody Rhodes, TNA is WCW without the TV deal, and how to ruin any good heel: the crowd-forced face turn. While my counterpart on this blog @Garytt waits to catch lightning in a bottle, I'm on the lookout for the spark that lights the fire.