Back in the good old days, when men were men, and a wrestler wasn't afraid to have a full set of chest hair, we'd see some blood in big matches. It was pretty much a sure thing, as it just adds a bit of extra drama. Go back to some of the earliest wrestling pay-per-views like WrestleMania 2 where both King Kong Bundy and Cpl. Kirschner had a little color in their matches. Or check out the original Starrcade where Roddy Piper and Greg Valentine both donned the crimson mask, as did Ric Flair and Harley Race in the main event. But with the PG era in full effect, a little blood is a rare sight. And this year, there's just nothing extreme about any of the matches on the card. Besides no Money in the Bank match, there's no Hell in a Cell match like Undertaker vs. HHH at WrestleMania 28, or an Extreme Rules match like Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy at Mania 25 or a hardcore match like Edge vs. Mick Foley at Mania 22, or the classic Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart submission match. You won't see anything approaching that level of violence this year. Now, I'm not talking about wrestlers taking dangerous, unnecessary bumps like chairshots to the head, or piledrivers on the concrete floor, but it would be nice to see something a little more exciting than say The Shield vs. Kane and The New Age Outlaws at WrestleMania. We can see that type of action every week on Raw or SmackDown. We should get something a little more special in New Orleans. There have been so many classic brutal, unforgiving matches in Mania history that the show just feels less special without it.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
