10 Uplifting Wrestling Moments To Cure Your 'Mania Hangover
Hair of the dog.
It's over. WrestleMania 33 is in the books.
Traditionally, the post-'Mania doldrums are depressing in the extreme. The real stars of the show retire to their sofas and their Minnesota farms. Matches that went on second and were received with an almost subdued sadness are heralded as main event sequels weeks later. Fans are expected to get behind repurposed characters like Darren Young to fill the aching void left by talents who were actually great in the first place.
Wrestling doesn't so much have an unseemly underbelly as its skin crawls with tragedy and horror. It is an exploitative and all-consuming beast that has gorged on the souls of so many who have fed it - but somewhere within its bones, there are moments which transcend the inherent ugliness.
WWE, discounting Axxess and the United Kingdom title match they presented via PROGRESS, still presented fifteen hours of wrestling between Saturday and Tuesday - so you'd be forgiven for skipping the Network and the recesses of YouTube for the foreseeable.
But for those gluttons who cannot help but overeat, the beast sometimes rewards with moments of redemption and exultation.
10. The Resurrection Of Jake The Snake
Morbid office death pools surely had Jake Roberts near the top of the field at the turn of the 2010s.
The legend had been in a sorry state for well over a decade, notoriously embarrassing himself at the Heroes Of Wrestling pay-per-view on October 10, 1999. Paralytic, he slurred and stumbled through a promo and simulated masturbation with his snake. It lent Steve Austin's seminal King Of The Ring 1996 promo a depressing retrospective dramatic irony. Jake took his bottle of Thunderbird and emptied it.
Grim appearances at grim independent shows haunted him; a 2012 appearance for the Coastal Wrestling Federation cast yet another shadow of ignominy over his career. The man who was once able to manipulate the people like no other was no longer even capable of seeing them in front of him. It was a sad ending.
But it wasn't; Roberts committed to sobriety and Diamond Dallas Page's yoga programme. He wanted to appear in the 2014 Royal Rumble match, to both reward and symbolise his recovery, but that didn't happen. He was instead ushered into the Hall of Fame and dispatched to the ring on the January 6, 2014 Old School RAW. He capped off CM Punk's GTS on Dean Ambrose by draping a snake over his face. Ambrose, then playing the heel role, couldn't help but break character and plaster a smile over his face.
He wasn't the only person elated by Roberts' miraculous comeback.