Thoughts on WrestleMania 28 and why Sheamus’ victory upsets me
I haven’t watched a WWE event for a really long time. Once cable networks started introducing channels in the high hundreds, most little hot boxes in the hood were rendered useless. The switch that unlocked everything went for naught.
My attention drifted elsewhere shortly thereafter, and once my little brother became too cool for everything, my interest in pro wrestling also waned.
With that said, I ordered Wrestlemania XXVIII tonight because Undertaker vs. Triple H in a “Hell in the Cell” and John Cena vs. The Rock were matchups that would have had me excited a decade ago. Also, WrestleMania is widely regarded as the “Super Bowl” of professional wrestling — and every NFL nut knows (hates?) how the casual fans come out in droves for that.
My plan wasn’t to watch WrestleMania for the action. The outcomes are predetermined and the fighting is choreographed, as we all know. (Watch that “Divas” tag-team match with the always wonderful Maria Menounos for an example of the aerobics at work.) I watch because I’m interested in the narrative. I’m something like a writer, so the story matters. And who doesn’t like a grand spectacle from time to time, anyway?
When I was a young buck, pretending my parents’ couch was the top rope before doing an elbow drop on my pillow, the Royal Rumble meant something. Outlasting 29 other guys in the ring meant fighting for the title to headline WrestleMania. The grand daddy of them all, right?
And then Sheamus opened the show.
I don’t know who Sheamus is. I’ve seen him fight a few times while flipping back and forth between Raw and other things. The crowd always seemed to enjoy him, so that’s something. But I paid a little more attention because my understanding of winning a Royal Rumble and competing for the title meant you were at (or very, very near) the top of your game.
Hate the hackneyed expression, but Wrestlemania is the stage where a star should be born. Like when Brock Lesnar botched a shooting star press to beat Kurt Angle and solidify his spot while proving he’ll do anything to entertain.
So when WM28 opened with Sheamus and Daniel Bryan, I thought it was strange. They set the stage to undermine a potential title change. Sure, the undermining element was imminent with The Rock and John Cena main eventing, but the Sheamus-Bryan fight was an opportunity to showcase some of the WWE’s future before handing the reins back over to those wily veterans from eras of old.
The actual message tonight was, “Look at all the lights! And check out these loyal old guys still going at it because we can’t adequately replace them.”
For the fight to end in 19 seconds robbed Sheamus and Bryan od an opportunity to prove their worth to a viewer (or fan?) like me who wanted to know more about what they bring to the ring. Maybe the current, more passionate WWE fans found it hilarious — but as an aging geezer who loved wrestling more when I was eight, this bugged me.
The match is supposed to tell a story while building tension, and this failed. It made the heavyweight championship look like a feather, and I can’t understand why the WWE would do that to one of their own titles. I thought it was stupid when they created two titles initially, but understood the need for it back then.
Instead, the night was driven by matches with wrestlers who were popular when I watched religiously, pre-2003. (Cena’s popularity grew after that, but he crossed over like no other wrestler did, so I’m familiar.) The WWE handed the night to two part-time superstars when they should be establishing the full-time heroes fans will see each week. The logical thing to do here was lure in the casual viewer like me with superstars I remember, and then WOW me with the young talent I might be overlooking.
I think of football, and how an unlikely hero emerges in the Super Bowl to make the night memorable. Something like when Mario Manningham hauled in Eli Manning’s pass along the sideline to set up the Giants’ game-winning score.
Sheamus and Bryan could have been Wrestlemania’s Manningham.
