The ending of WrestleMania 3 was a monumental moment in the history of wrestling, but imagine Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant hugging it out afterwards, Hogan telling Andre how much putting him over meant to him, and calling him the best in the world. Bobby Heenan then comes into the ring, and raises both of their arms in celebration. Vince McMahon tops it off by driving to the ring in that little blue cart, and hands them flowers as everyone enjoys a good cry. Kind of like the ending to most recent NXT special. Im sorry, call me old fashioned, but I just can't wrap my head around, from a business sense, having a babyface and heel hug it out while being greeted with a nice floral arrangement from the evil boss and his evil wife. It's not like a play where it's one and done, WWE needs to convince people to tune into the next special and spend money to watch it. Closing the show by saying "What you just watched was fake, tune in next month to see us pretend it's real!" is baffling. Instead of WWE constantly telling us about this womens movement, and how things are changing, just show us! Push the women as equal to men, and not have to consistently show them breaking down after a victory. It seems more demeaning than anything at this point. Everyone broke character when Bayley won the belt at the last NXT live event. Were going to do it again? Is this the new standard? Does this make me a mark? A smark? I dont know. I just know that I want to remain consistently invested in the narrative, and not have to be broken out of it multiples times every episode or pay-per-view so WWE can pat themselves on the back on-air for finally (decades after they should have) pushing womens wrestling.
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
