The year in professional wrestling news basically started on January 1 around 5:45 a.m. when Matt Hardy and Reby Sky were arrested for allegedly brawling in a hotel room. It took 29 days to discover this arrest and only through TMZ, a company that knows how to trudge through figurative sludge to break news. Incredibly, Ring of Honor, that company owned by a billion dollar publicly traded corporation, put their collective heads in the sand. Hardy fulfilled his one date, and no indication has been given as to possible repercussions. You the reader might not understand the hilarity of this situation. Hardy and Sky brawling (allegedly) is nothing to laugh at given the seriousness of domestic violence in this country. However, it is the alleged actions of ROH which have me baffled. We do have a standard of innocent until proven guilty. For a publicly traded company to fine Jay Briscoe two shows worth of pay and have him fake apologize to a crowdful of people when all he did was say a bunch of stupid things on Twitter. We’ve even seen ROH wrestlers with ductape across their mouths proclaims “NO H8.”
Given ROH’s deplorable treatment of women in the SBG era, the Hoopla hotties need I say more, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by their indifference. However, their reaction to the actions of Hardy smacks of hypocrisy. I’m not advocating for the firing of Matt Hardy for these reasons, but this is a very serious situation which requires some sort of action before something else even worse happens. If Jay Briscoe gets punished for something he said while Hardy is off scot free, what does that say about the real life morality of Ring of Honor? There’s no way to transition out of this story in a good way, so we’ll move onto about a week later
As the new year continued, WWE presented everyone with a late Christmas present. You know all those PPVs which cost 60 dollars a month? Come April, you’ll only have to pay 9.99 a month. Oh, and you get every WWE, WCW, and ECW PPV as part of the package. Plus every Raw and Smackdown. Plus a linear network with NXT and Superstars. And a number of other goodies. 10. Freaking. Dollars. A. Month. This is cheap wrestling crack. Some people are joking whether or not they’re going to say good-bye to friends or loved ones before they go. My theory is they’re only half joking. The WWE Network is a boon to wrestling fans who have an insatiable appetite for the sport they love. This was a slam dunk easy choice for every wrestling fan. Nothing could possible screw that up, right. SPOILER ALERT: Then the Royal Rumble happened.
Who would have thought the revolution would start in Pittsburgh. This is the city where Bret Hart wanted to put the enema in for God’s sake. I bet Vince McMahon and Hunter Hearst Helmsley want to keep the enema in Pittsburgh because despite being in a building with Ric Flair and Ben Roethlisberger, it was two of their biggest stars who made asses of themselves and showed how petty they can be. For all the derision about John Cena, no one handles a crowd better than he does. As much as it must kind of suck being booed by half the people and told “You can’t wrestle,” I honestly respect the fact that he strides through like an adult and will even pose with trolls.
I wish I could say the same about Randy Orton. Whatever Orton and Cena were doing, the crowd in Pittsburgh was not having. Who would have thought that two guys who had wrestled 800 times on PPV before could generate such a negative reaction from a crowd who paid hundreds of dollars for tickets. While my argument is that those fans should have stayed home and used their money for Pirates’ tickets (they’re actually good again), those fans HATED Cena and Orton. Every time they performed a move, a new chant started. Again, I’m not a big fan of lots of chanting to grab attention from the performers, but these are also the die hard WWE fans who spent money to there for the second biggest show of the year. If they hadn’t responded so positively to Daniel Bryan in the opener, then we could just lump them in with Long Island and say they’re a bad crowd. But they loved Daniel Bryan. At the very least, they didn’t hate Brock Lesnar and Big Show. But they loathed Cena and Orton. The next time I hear some veteran or someone in WWE complain about indie guys having to “get their shit in,” I’m going to my computer and showing that person this match. I don’t know what the solution is, but two giant hooks taking them out of the ring after three minutes surely has to be preferable to whatever this match was. Vince McMahon blowing his two quads out while stopping the match might have helped too. This was a complete failure of a pro wrestling match fundamentally because the crowd hated it so much. This wasn’t boredom or apathy. This was outright hate, and despite Cena being millions of dollars, I kind of felt bad for him because he was working hard.
I’ve never been a fan of Orton’s, and I don’t see how the match itself or the behavior justifies his standing as being one of WWE’s untouchable stars. I’ve never seen him as the number one or two draw in the promotion, and his behaving like a baby both during the match and after (allegedly) reinforces my beliefs about him as a performer. Having seen some crunched numbers, I also find the logic behind Orton being a draw while Daniel Bryan isn’t to be a total fallacy. I’m not sure who is and isn’t a draw at this point because the metrics are so screwed up at this point, it feels like WWE itself is the draw. Based on some rumors, WWE is trying to insure some ratings success by bringing in some legends in preparation not only for the network but for Wrestlemania as well.
The Ultimate Warrior was brought back into WWE’s apparent attempt to mend all bridges before Vince McMahon forgets there were bridges burned to begin with or he just bites it. That documentary where WWE hatchet jobbed Warrior didn’t happen in WWE’s latest version of history, and we have the head of the hall of fame class. Jake Roberts will be joining him as he completes a long journey of his own in and around WWE. The Hall of Fame ceremony itself might be the most interesting aspect of Wrestlemania weekend with the potential for two wild speeches involving Roberts and Warrior. That’s not all for the legends quotient of WWE.
The piggy bank appears to have finally been emptied in TNA. Hulk Hogan is 100% gone and set to come back just in time to collect a payday for the 30th edition of the show he helped build, Wrestlemania. Depending who you talk to, Sting is coming to WWE too. Or maybe he’s TNA’s mysterious investor. Anyway you slice it, TNA is in deep trouble as they’ve cut back on the number of shows and talents used. They’ve essentially thrown in the towel on the house show business as they’ve shifted television tapings to Universal Studios on weekends. Maybe it’s not a big deal Sting and Hogan didn’t sign because those guys were legends and weren’t closely associated with the brand. It’s not like TNA would let one of their most loyal soldier go, right?
Poor AJ Styles. Technically, this is an end of 2013 story, but Styles’s return to the independent wrestling scene is really coming in earnest this year with matches against Roderick Strong, Cedric Alexander, Chris Hero, and Christian Rose. Styles did a shoot interview, which I reviewed already, and detailed his many frustrations about the company. This could have all been done with a wink and a nod. Styles might very well be angry and a jilted lover, but it’s wrestling. Styles could just as easily be back by the summer, and this could all be one elaborate work. Styles might be out, but the American Wolves are… in?
The best part about the American Wolves not getting into WWE is there’s a “Choose your own adventure” element to it. If you’re a Hunter hater, you’ve got the rumor about him saying Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards are too short and indie to make it in WWE. If you hate Davey Richards, then there’s the fact he’s a loose cannon who wouldn’t listen to the boss during a match with the Ascension. So the “investor” of TNA brought in Richards and Edwards. The lowlight of the month might have been TNA promoting the debut of the Wolves and then introducing them in two vignettes. Richards even broke this outfit out.
Seriously, look at that. He looks like a Sunday school kid waiting to hear about the New Testament. This metaphor is even more fitting when you consider Dixie Carter knows as much about running a wrestling as a Sunday school teacher knows about controlling a bunch of kids. I think it’s great Edwards and Richards get to ply their trade on national television, but asking them to cancel booking dates which were announced in advance for one reason or another is garbage and bush league. For the most part, WWE at least allows their talent to make their indie dates. Daniel Bryan being pulled off an AAW show back in 2010 is one of the few exceptions to this rule I can think of in recent memory. I fully expect Richards and Edwards to work for TNA this year and be back on the independent scene by next year. Richards will anger someone. TNA will go belly up. Eddie Edwards will… wrestle really hard?
Another aspect of TNA that needs to be addressed is the new “investor.” I have nothing against MVP, but is it believable that he can save TNA after working in WWE for a few years as a mid-carder? Tough story to believe. I’m also questioning whether bringing in yet another WWE name is going to make a difference in the ratings. If Sting, Hulk Hogan, and Kurt Angle aren’t going to make a difference, I doubt MVP makes a dent. The TNA brand is to toxic among the majority of wrestling fans that I honestly don’t believe anyone can salvage the brand. I would much rather see the company go away at this point and see something else rise from the ashes. I’m almost 1,700 words in and haven’t even attacked CM Punk, the WWN Universe, AAW, and the continued rise of the Midwest scene.
Let’s tackle Evolve next because just days after the WWE Network announcement, this company stepped big time with better production and less headache-inducing booking. When the promoter of the company isn’t writing click bait e-mails or getting into arguments with TJ Hawke on Twitter, he was able to build some tangible momentum for Wrestlemania weekend. Evolve 25 was a stand-out show. Evolve 26 and Evolve 27 were not as good but still contained some good matches and storyline building. Shine 16 experienced some hiccups technically, which means the February shows are crucial for me as a consumer going into Wrestlemania weekend. There need to be two perfect shows with no streaming problems for me to even think about giving up a good portion of Wrestlemania weekend for iPPVs. Purchasing HD cameras and being able to have a widescreen presentation serves everyone well, but the argument for iPPV is being able to see shows live. It would also help if WWN could once and for put all their content on a Roku channel. They announced Roku almost a year ago and are about to beat by another independent wrestling company to the punch.
Who would have thought AAW would have a weekly “television” show on a Roku station. This isn’t some long standing development. AAW has been trying to get on local television, but the asking price is utter lunacy relative to potential viewership and cost to produce the live shows themselves. For zero dollars, AAW gets a weekly show on Matty GTV. This isn’t going to change the face of independent wrestling, but it’s a low risk reaction to the WWE Network that might get some extra eyeballs on AAW and allow fans who want to experiment with a new company on actual television a chance to get into the promotion. Beginning March 1, AAW will have a weekly thirty minute to one hour show using content from their video library. I feel this is an important and positive step for them. The only extra cost comes in using materials for production. I don’t forsee “television tapings” similar to Ring of Honor happening but rather see AAW using their live shows for the content similar to what ECW used to do with Hardcore TV. I think this is an ideal strategy for a smaller company trying to get more eyeballs on them.
As I’ve talked about many times, the haven of pro wrestling has increasingly become the Midwest. Companies such as AAW and AIW have proven there’s a lot of quality talent within a four to five hour radius. The alarm has been sounded, and two more companies seem set on joining the Midwest party. Dreamwave has slowly been rising and building guys like Matt Cage and Christian Rose. Rose is their top star and has received the biggest opportunities of his career by wrestling guys like Matt Hardy, John Morrison, and most recently AJ Styles. The talent level is rising. Their local guys are stepping up. Dreamwave’s rise can only make the scene better, and for a small town like LaSalle, Illinois, it’s literally something to do. In addition to Dreamwave wrestling, St. Louis Anarchy has really stepped up their game in announcing a doubleheader at the very end of February and going into March. Bringing in guys like Roderick Strong and the Young Bucks to wrestle some of your homegrown talents is a really big deal and is proof St. Louis Anarchy wants to be more than a local shiny. Anarchy has a huge chance and will need to step up their DVD production if they want fans to give them a chance. With Anarchy, Dreamwave, AAW, AIW, and even some of the things being done in IWA-MS, the Midwest continues to impress.
Now we come to CM Punk. While the fans in Pittsburgh turned on the Royal Rumble match itself. CM Punk was going 50 minutes. His run ended anticlimactically as his feud with the Authority continued. Kane chokeslammed Punk through a table to set up, depending on who you believe, a match the next night with Kane or a potential match with Triple H for Wrestlemania. Regardless, Punk thanked the fans for supporting him on Twitter and we haven’t heard from him since. There is a lot of speculation concerning what happened on Monday. Lot of rumors about matches and what actually happened. We likely won’t find out what happened for quite some time, but CM Punk put his WWE career on the line by walking away. He was not on Raw or Smackdown last week. His future is in doubt. While it cannot be denied at the surface level that what Punk did was unprofessional, there are a number of issues at play which complicate this situation and muddy the waters.
Punk is obviously injured in some form fashion, be it physically, mentally, or spiritually. If his goal was to main event Wrestlemania or to see his friend Daniel Bryan main event the show, then that likely isn’t to be realized. I cannot imagine the constant frustration of going through another year and then to see other guys walk in be thrust into the main event. The logic behind bringing in Rock, Chris Jericho, Brock Lesnar, and Batista is sound. WWE wants to make a lot of money during Wrestlemania season since it pretty much sets up the rest of the year. But for a company that also complains about lack of star power and who gives up on wrestlers as consistently as they push them, I have a hard time looking at what WWE does each year as a positive.
I’m willing to give Undertaker a hall pass based out of loyalty to the company and his association with WWE for 24 consecutive years. Also, the streak. I’m not saying to mess with that, and if Taker can still go, then his match will easily be the most compelling on the show as it has been for the last decade. But for guys like Punk, Bryan, Cesaro, and Ziggler, these are wrestlers who have never gotten the sustained opportunity to prove themselves as top guys. Randy Orton was shoved down our throats for years and it took Mick Foley throwing Orton in thumbtacks to finally get him over. Batista was a happy accident, and being a Triple H guy didn’t hurt the cause. Guys like Sheamus and John Cena are always going to be protected. Guys like Punk and Bryan have fought and had to struggle. Punk had to settle for being on the lame ECW brand and playing second fiddle for all of his world title reigns to the bigger stars. He’s been one of the prime victims of the part time stars as he’s feuded with Jericho, lost to Taker, lost to Rock, lost to Brock, and was set to face someone who while not a part-time employee, certainly doesn’t need to be on Wrestlemania in Triple H.
There’s also the physical toll of professional wrestling. I have no idea if being straight edge makes this process any worse, but I have to imagine not masking the pain with pills, booze, or weed has to make things that much tougher. At 35-years-old, with enough money in the back even going back to when he first teased leaving in 2011 to apparently leave and never come back, can we really look at CM Punk in all that negative a light. Haven’t we all at one time or another imagined ourselves walking out of a job and never coming back. There are a number of reasons we didn’t do it. I bet most of it had to do with fear or concerns about feedings families. Morality? I’m fairly dubious.
I don’t know whether what Punk did was right or wrong. I think the answer is much more ambiguous than our very binary way of thinking allows. I don’t know whether Punk will go back to WWE. He might get the itch in a few months and return for three more years before calling it a career. Maybe this all an elaborate ruse to get people talking about him again and stir the pot between Punk and Triple. I seriously doubt Punk will take independent bookings again because he has nothing left to prove and if one is to put their body on the line and has the ability to make six figures, why bother? I say this with all due respect to the indies.
I had a number of other thoughts on Punk but want to let this play out (as much as I hate being that guy, I think in this case, it’s warranted) before elaborating more. Punk could very easily be on Raw next week and make us all look like files.
January 2014 contained about six months worth of new in 31 days. I think it set the tone for a crazy year as a number of wrestling companies try to step up their game and fight for your attention. Some of the news was good. Some of the news was bad. To me though, professional wrestling is as interesting now as it has been in years, and with the quality of some of the shows I’m seeing already, this could be a landmark year for excellent matches. To quote Phil Colvin, “Let’s just soak it in.”
And for those who think there might be a slowdown, Chikara announced they’re return in May on February 1. The ride chugs on.