6 Wrestling Moments That Had A Major Long-Term Impact
The little moments make a big difference.
On 15 December 1997, Vince McMahon, the WWE commentator recently 'ousted' on-screen as the company's owner, delivered a direct address to followers of his increasingly ribald product - and more specifically, its detractors.
Attempting to justify the once family-appropriate product's rapid descent into ribaldry, McMahon opined that, "you, the audience, are quite frankly, tired of having your “intelligence insulted”. Simplistic morality tales were out the window; in their place, complex narratives where the divide between good and evil was not so clear, more demanding and befitting of an emotionally maturing audience. As in other form of "extemporaneous" drama, the details, and not just the broadest of strokes, mattered.
Fast forward quarter of a century or so, and WWE barely trusts its viewers to remember a plot line for the duration of an ad break. The most basic beats are hammered home ad nauseum, literally nothing is left unsaid, and character arcs often last all of two months before being given a hard reset. Indeed, such has been the dumbing down of WWE's content that on his way out, Shawn Spears turned McMahon's word back on him, telling his soon to be ex-boss, "We're insulting their intelligence."
That's a royal 'we' as it applies to Vince however, because it's not for a lack of trying on the wrestler's part. Pay enough attention to the work of the industry's best, and you might just rewarded months - possibly years - down the line.
6. Daniel Bryan And John Cena's Velocity Rematch
Daniel Bryan, it may have been noted, is something of a master of in-ring psychology. His work is accessible enough to incite broad, popular appeal, all the whilst littered with subtleties for the more discerning analysts - and those with long memories.
Anybody who watched an exceedingly wet-around-the-ears Daniel Bryan - then on jobbing duties under his (misspelled) real name - do the honours for a still green though entirely yellow John Cena, looking for all the world like a walking banana, on a 2003 episode of Velocity, would have had synapses flying in their memoryhole when the two met again at SummerSlam 2012. The circumstances could hardly have been any different - the pay-per-view clash featured the pair as its headline attraction, rather than a routine C-show squash - but the action was identical.
As the bell rang, Bryan grabbed Cena with a textbook armbar following a back and forth grapple, only for Cena to reverse it into one of his own. The sequence was an exact replica of their obscure Velocity exhibition, but the result was different. Whereas Bryan could outwrestle a rookie, rapping Cena nine years prior, the Champ had him scouted, taking him to the floor into a headlock. See, there was a point to watching Velocity after all.