What If... Wrestling's WORST Era Never Happened
Can you remember watching those first few wrestling shows with a full live crowd in what felt like decades?
Of course you can. It was a transcendent experience after a year or so of artificial, trainee, very few fan, or even no cheers.
The sight and sound of actual in the flesh fans losing their damn minds as Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston made their way through the Double or Nothing crowd or John Cena made his shocking comeback at the end of Money in the Bank were enough to bring a tear to your damn eye.
And this was all just the beginning of one of the hottest stints in North American professional wrestling history.
CM Punk's long-awaited return to the wrasslin' world, Bryan Danielson, Ruby Soho, and Adam Cole's All Out arrivals, Becky Lynch and Brock Lesnar's SummerSlam comebacks, and Cody Rhodes' insane WWE return at WrestleMania 38 were all ridiculously exciting moments that were only enhanced by an audience who hadn't been allowed to cheer for this madness up-close for too long.
Would all of those aforementioned happenings still have produced a big ol' pop even if folks hadn't been stuck on their couches throughout 2020/21? No doubt. But there was just that little extra passion and love sitting in the voices of those who'd realised just how much they'd missed this live experience during the COVID era.
Many of the seeds planted during what is largely considered the absolute worst time to be a wrestling fan eventually grew into the foundations of the boom period fans are currently enjoying, too.
Yes, they had to sit through the odd RETRIBUTION or Exploding Barbed-Wire Deathmatch disaster. But those hours spent connecting with 'The Tribal Chief' and his Usos, a Bianca Belair growing into the true 'EST of WWE' before our very eyes, an anxious millennial cowboy becoming properly Elite, and so many more, felt like time well spent by the time they were blowing the roof off of arenas all around the world.
Some folks will never be able to happily revisit a wrestling period which brings with it memories of so much real-life pain, and that is absolutely fair enough. But even at the worst of times, wrestling proved that it was still capable of moments of inspired creativity, pulling you away from the harsh reality outside your door, and providing you with that little bit of hope to get you through the day.
So, while it is interesting to ponder what a world without this largely and understandably detested era would look like, it's also important to remember that it really wasn't all bad - some of it either was then or at least led to something quite bloody good, actually.