Signs of Life in Wrestling?

This past weekend, I ordered the Royal Rumble pay per view. It's my wife's favorite wrestling PPV, one where you are guaranteed to see many of the superstars compete in one show. Although we have ordered and enjoyed the show over the years, I really was not expecting much from Royal Rumble because of the dull streak WWE has had over the past few years. Now that the brand extension is now three different brandnames (Raw, Smackdown and ECW) following the multiple wrestlers and storylines has become more work than its worth. To my surprise, the past few days have given me some hope for wrestling.

Royal Rumble started dull enough, with a disappointingly boring match between the Hardy Boys and M & M. The bordom continued with a meaninglessly empty title match between ECW champ Bobby Lashley and journeyman wrestler Test. It looked like we had spent a lot of money to see the same quality of matches that are on tv every week for free.

But, the World Title match between Batista and Mr. Kennedy surprised as Kennedy delivered an energized performance. Kennedy injected drama and realism in his futile quest to become champion. The Last Man Standing match between John Cena and Umaga was also well done, they hit the right pace and gave an all out performance that left each other bloodied and bruised. Cena has finally gotten playing the underdog down and I found myself rooting for him the way a major face should be. Then, the actual Rumble was well paced with few slow spots and ended with a classic matchup between Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker.

I came away feeling the WWE is just a crossover hit wrestler away from really getting it together as the storylines were engaging and interesting for the first time in eons. I checked out Raw the next night to see if it was a fluke. It was no fluke, on top of great matches they had a guest spot with Donald Trump putting down Vince McMahon and then proceded to drop actual cash from the ceiling onto the audience. A great move and excellent use of a guest star.

I also saw MTV's new wrestling program Wrestling Society X. This program is determined to bring back the big spot, reckless style of pro wrestling that the WWE has moved away from. The matches were fast, acrobatic and contained no promo interviews whatsoever. It was an exciting stunt show worth giving a second look to.

Finally, I have some hope for wrestling and hope the WWE can continue to up the ante and produce strong programming. I don't know what changed, they may be just getting lucky, but I hope they continue on the current path and can find a major crossover face to bring in a new audience (Like Hulk Hogan in the 80's or Stone Cold Steve Austin / The Rock in the 90's).