WWE’s Major Problem With RAW 25
“Remember when is the lowest form of conversation,” said Tony Soprano - tellingly, as the seminal show drew to a close. He tired of Paulie’s nostalgic reverie as he suffered his own present-day existential crisis and bleak long-term future. The parallels are miserably clear; it is inconceivable that WWE could present a show like this in 10 year’s time, which, depending on your perspective, is either all the more reason to enjoy it now, or an indictment of the company’s regressive short-term booking philosophy.
Entire eras in the company are entirely immune to this sort of nostalgia. The stars of Ruthless Aggression are so profoundly overexposed that it is impossible to imagine a point, even in the never-say-never world of professional wrestling, at which we will enjoy similar cameos from the likes of John Cena and Randy Orton. The star power transmitted by the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels propped up the PG Era, the true headliners of which have already dined out on this nostalgic buzz for years. The Reality Era was a reality check for the younger set, in how thoroughly they were sidelined at the expense of the nascent part-timer trend. CM Punk left precisely because of this mentality; the Ballad of Daniel Bryan strikes more minor notes by the week. There’s little to truly celebrate because WWE already celebrated the past during it. The so-called ‘New’ Era we are apparently in the midst of is almost comically ironic, given the inexorable lunge back into the past WWE embarks upon relentlessly.
WWE affectionately celebrated the cartoonish Golden and New Generation eras with WrestleMania X-Seven’s Gimmick Battle Royale. The then-WWF promoted the show in 2001, about a median decade removed from the heyday of those who entered it.
2018 - 10 = 2008, and consider the field of that year’s Royal Rumble. If CM Punk ever comes back, he probably won’t look back with a wry smile at getting jobbed out to every part-timer available. Cody used his own miserable WWE experience to inform his freed bird Indy darling act. Mr. Kennedy is as likely as Chris Benoit to receive a warm invitation back into the fold, having fallen victim to the company’s creeping toxicity. Snitsky, Elijah Burke, Chuck Palumbo - none of these drab, colourless acts carry the currency to even crack smiles in a cameo appearance. The overexposed, aforementioned Cena and Orton won the two marquee matches, too, in a further indictment of the stasis in which we remain.
They obviously can't - but if WWE did attempt such an attraction on RAW 25, using the same time metric, it would bring into brutal focus just how regressive the landscape is.
Enjoy the RAW 25 party while it lasts; even this dead-inside d*ckhead will, believe it or not. Much like that Sopranos finale, the end of nostalgic days will flash to black when you least expect it.
Soon, there will be none left to mine.