The Rock is genuinely confusing because he came back in January of this year and cut a very weak promo. Then he somehow stole the Wrestlemania spot from the Royal Rumble winner, and received so much negative feedback that WWE has now pivoted and The Rock is almost embarrassing everyone else on the roster with how good he is at building this Mania. He's gone full heel and it's awesome.
I can't comment on his run this year because I haven't seen any of it to give my two cents on the matter, but I do agree. If he's gone full heel Hollywood Rock, then that definitely does make things more interesting.
That royally pisses me off because Cody Rhodes earned that spot at Wrestlemania; that could've been one of the biggest storylines in Mania history - can the American Nightmare do what his father Dusty Rhodes couldn't do, win WWE's biggest championship?
Good thing Randy Orton beat Chris Benoit for the World Heavyweight Championship there or WWE would've un-personed that title reign as well as everything else Benoit did in the ring.
Interestingly enough, WMXX and Backlash didn't seem too censored. Obviously I don't recall everything on the original broadcasts, but they certainly didn't shy away from mentioning Benoit.
The unpersoning reference, Spiner, comes from how, following the murders of Nancy & Daniel Benoit, WWE went out of its way to scrub and erase Chris Benoit's name from everything in their video vault.
There's a video of him being silhouetted out at Wrestlemania XX, when he celebrated with Eddie.
That's the unpersoning, MJF.
Imagine what David Benoit - Chris's son from if I remember correctly a previous marriage - probably has to deal with as he makes his way through the wrestling business.
I'll think about it.
because Vince liked his beef beefy guys with long wet hair
Don't get me started on how they treated the women's division back then. Just ugh....
The only reason (or one of the few) Hogan still gets treated w/any semblance of respect, Spiner, is that it was his lawsuit agst. Gawker over that sex tape (which also had racist comments of his on it) that eventually shut down Gawker.
The worst offender for me is always that storyline in the fall of 2002 which shall not be mentioned. It was so egregiously bad TSN had to cut to commercial during one of the segments.
Just watched the Summerslam 2005 Hogan vs. Michaels match. That was super entertaining, especially Michaels' sell of the final big boot. I understand why we don't want every match like this, but it was great.
I loved it for how Michaels responded to Hogan pulling the "That doesn't work for me, brother!" card. What's equally as memorable is the build-up towards the feud and Michaels' work as a heel. Don't get me wrong, his face run after returning was amazing, but damn, does Shawn play the role of prick well.
The sad part is as you get mid-way into 2008, that's where the beginning of WWE's gradual downward trajectory begins. It begins after the Great American Bash when the company shifts towards being more PG, but when you get into 2009 and 2010, that's where things really start dropping off imo.
For better or worse, I think watching just a handful of PPVs helps prevent me from seeing too much bad stuff. Sure, there are some bad or boring ideas, but that was true even in the Attitude era PPVs. In fact, early Ruthless Aggression era (2002-2004ish) was probably the most consistent era in the WWE.
