Reality From Ringside #77
August 16, 2010
By: Doug Lackey of Wrestleview.com
WWE Summerslam 2010: The Hangover
It’s amazing how much WWE’s landscape can change in the span of one year. Well maybe not the landscape itself; after all this was the same locale, arena, and stage setup as last year’s Summerslam. Maybe it wasn’t the house that changed per say, but the hedges and brick layout leading to the front door of the house.
Before last night’s WWE Summerslam pay-per-view, I chose to review last year’s event. Walk with me for a short while down memory lane. Don’t worry; it’s been reopened since Matt Striker has put so many potholes in it…
Rey Mysterio © vs. Dolph Ziggler [Intercontinental Title]MVP vs. Jack Swagger
Kane vs. The Great Khali
Chris Jericho & Big Show vs. Cryme Tyme [Unified Tag Team Titles]Triple H & Shawn Michaels (Degeneration-X) vs. Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase Jr. (Legacy)
Christian vs. William Regal [ECW Title]Randy Orton vs. John Cena [WWE Title]CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy [World Heavyweight Title – TLC]
Look at that card! Don’t look at the matches themselves and try to compare them to last night’s, look at the names themselves.
Of the 20 performers from 2009, only 8 made a return appearance this year (Mysterio, Ziggler, Kane, Jericho, Big Show, Orton, Cena, and Punk)! Staggering! All 8 performers from the first season of NXT made their WWE PPV in-ring debuts last night, including the interwebs’ vegetarian savior Daniel Danielson.
There is so much that can happen within the span of one year in professional wrestling. Injuries, releases, acquisitions: All of these can dramatically alter not just a roster or a wrestling card but also your perception of professional wrestling in general and straw-grasping comparisons that can inevitably fall flat on their noses.
That’s where someone like me comes in. I’m the kind of person who loves to keep records, statistics, evaluations, analyses, and anything else that would enable me to shoot down opinions and observations from every angle. I believe the correct term for this human condition is ‘fact checking’.
With all of this said and less than 24 hours passed since every pasty-skinned troglodyte tossed Cheetohs in the air in jubilation for the return of their personal Jesus, let’s try to combat this PPV hangover…
Was the Daniel Danielson (Daniel Bryan, Bryan Danielson, whatever the hell his name is this week) fiasco a work?
Who cares?
If you were worked into a frenzy over the “necktie incident”, would you feel embarrassed to admit it? If you would, then you are not a wrestling fan. In order to actually enjoy this form of entertainment, you need to be worked every now and then.
You cannot remain ‘in the know’ or maintain ‘shoot mode’. This only leaves you cynical and pessimistic about professional wrestling for the rest of your adult life (that is if you ever become one).
If this was a work, would the return of Daniel Danielson have been lackluster?
If this wasn’t a work, wouldn’t you be pointing your finger at WWE calling them hypocrites?
I have always had a very hypocritical view of the interwebs. I have never liked their place in the world of professional wrestling for the sake of how it just fuels pessimism, cynicism, and annihilates the naiveté and innocence that the entertainment form is supposed to bring.
In order to be a fan of professional wrestling, you need to be worked.
If you can’t be worked and believe that you will forever know what is ‘happening’ in professional wrestling, then take that same amount of energy and put it to something that does not destroy someone else’s joy and merriment.
Is this the end of ‘The Nexus’ angle?
I cannot believe how quickly everyone answered this question, not but maybe 10 minutes after the end of the pay-per-view.
It’s time for me to put this to the test… If this is the end of The Nexus, what are you going to do with all 7 of these guys now?
You have spent the past 8 weeks watching WWE paint a picture of this faction as the ones that could potentially destroy WWE as you know it. All seven of these young men have been on every form WWE programming since the beginning of June, either live or through produced video segments.
There is no way you can eradicate two full months of involvement on every WWE television program with one match on a pay-per-view!
How many times have you seen a clean loss on a WWE PPV and a program still continue? Never mind Cena-Orton from 2009, how about Cena-Orton from 2007? Degeneration X-Legacy from last year? How many NWO references would you like in this column today?
Put the shovels down. Take off the black sunglasses. This program is FAR from over. Barrett-Cena is inevitable as well as singles matches involving everyone from last night’s main event!
Is Chris Jericho still correct in saying that WWE is in a ‘crisis period’? (From “WWE Summerslam 2009: The Hangover”, 8/24/09)
**Jericho was never correct to begin with. I have been claiming for the past month and a half WWE has the talent to get them through these troubling times, the problem they have been encountering are the methods to go about bringing them to the forefront.**
Success.
Until next time, mouth-breathers!
Annoy me with your assumptions and affronts… adore me with your adulation’s and acknowledgments: doug@wrestleview.com
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