8 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (Feb 3)
3. We Have Reached Peak Nostalgia
Millennials are in a state of constant arrested development.
Given the state of the world, we can't be blamed for our desire to retreat from it and regress back to the comforting bosom of childhood. The wider entertainment sphere has capitalised on the demand for shelter by erecting a nostalgia-shaped roof over our heads. Nothing is safe from resuscitation; Star Wars, Twin Peaks, Arrested Development, Ghostbusters - the iconography of our childhood shapes our adulthood. At this rate, Netflix will probably commission a fifth season of Stranger Things in 2035 - a show already predicated on the fuzzy neon glow of the 1980s.
Wrestling itself has followed the trend, with WWE's part-timer era in particular, but as counterproductive as their preferential booking has been, there is a calculable logic to it. Goldberg draws. Brock Lesnar draws. WWE don't just bring back folk for the sake of it. Apart from that time they brought back the Headbangers last year. Oh, and Curt Hawkins.
Still, MTV's Wrestling Society X of 2007 was an abysmal and mercifully abandoned experiment. The focus on spots was so heavy that while-we-were-away commercial break recaps often saw the likes of TJ Perkins crash through tables, just for the sheer hell of it, while the unbearable bros of the commentary booth screeched "DUDE! SICK!" at every available opportunity.
But it is back, following the petitions of nobody. Showrunner Kevin Kleinrock has discovered that he can profit from the likes of Seth Rollins and Joey Ryan with a comprehensive DVD set and new line of merchandise.
Rollins et al. probably perceive Wrestling Society X as a skeleton in their closet - the wrestling equivalent of a softcore porn flick. It is an embarrassing blot on their CV. Nobody else wants to se it. And yet, because we're in 2017, it must return.