Disenchanted: The highs and lows of being a wrestling fan.

Sorry about the lack of a review last week. I was so irritated with the show that I just didn't think it was worth wasting my time to write. There is no way to sugar coat it, that show was an ABORTION. And as a wrestling fan, I feel insulted by what was presented to us. I will get to more into that later.

I became a wrestling fan on April 5th, 1992 when a friend had me over to watch Wrestlemania 8 at his Dad's house. I fell in love with the athleticism and over the top showmanship of it all. It just connected with me right away. And on that day I also became a die-hard Bret Hart fan during his blood filled match with Roddy Piper. Some kids had Michael Jordan as their childhood hero, I had "The Hitman".



A little less than a year later, WWE introduced a new Prime Time show on USA called Monday Night Raw. I didn't have cable at the time, but I did my best to catch every episode I could. Through the years I was witness to the highs and lows of the WWE product. From the Mid-Nineties downturn, to the heights of the Monday Night War with WCW, and everything in between.

Then came the year 2007, and shortly after the Benoit tragedy I just stopped watching. I don't blame it on what Chris Benoit did, but it had a lot to do with why I decided to quit tuning in every week. It felt like what little bit of childhood nostalgia I had left for the business, died too. I continued to catch it every once in a while for a few months, but it wasn't the same for me. Add to it the fact that the shows had been in the toilet creatively for some time, and would continue to get worse. How many times were we given Cena vs Edge, Cena vs Orton, Orton vs Triple H or a combination of the three? The top of the card was beyond stale. There was a few of the up and coming guys I liked, CM Punk in particular. But at some point that stopped being enough. So I just stopped watching. I would still go online and read the results, so I knew that my love for wrestling was still there, but I couldn't bring myself to tune in anymore. And that goes for TNA as well. Their shows were utter garbage at this point.

It wasn't until January 4th, 2010 when I began routinely catching the product again. Why you may ask? It was the return of my childhood hero Bret "The Hitman" Hart to the company that had "Screwed" him over a decade earlier. To this day, I believe on that night, Bret Hart and WWE gave me back the spark that had been lost over two years prior. And they gave me back my childhood in some ways.

And now fast forward to last Monday night. I had already heard that the show was bad going in, and was trying my best to keep an open mind. I am usually the first one to keep some sort of perspective while watching. I know plenty of people that are quick to say that something is "the worst ever" without stopping to think about that statement. But as I watched the show I couldn't help but agree with every word that I had read about how poor the show was. It was abysmal. By about the halfway point, I stopped writing my weekly review instead opting to write it the next day when I had a clearer outlook...and less alcohol in my system. By the next morning, I decided that I didn't want anything to do with writing anything about the episode. It was a failure on all levels. It was so bad, that I couldn't help but feel the same way I did in 2007 when I dropped sports entertainment off of my must watch list.

In two hours we were given a ridiculous opening segment with not one, but two marriage proposals. Four matches that went less than two minutes. ANOTHER Jerry Lawler vs Michael Cole match. The revelation that Hornswoggle is the mysterious Anonymous Raw General Manager. A terrible John Cena promo (His promos are all terrible, but you get my point). And a DQ in a tag match, because the Big Show (who was in the match) broke up a pin attempt. Since when is that worthy of a disqualification? This show fucking sucked!! And this was the "Go Home" show for a Pay-Per-View that they wanted us to spend $45 to watch. I declined that invitation and chose to stream the show for the first time ever, all because of how bad this all was. Money in the Bank 2012 turned out to be a pretty good show, but the damage was already done.

Tonight I am set to review what will be the last episode before Raw 1000, and their move to 3 hours. Traditionally when Raw has done three hour specials, they have for the most part been really bad shows. And if this is what I have to look forward to every week, not only will I stop writing about the shows, but I may have to "Future Endeavor" WWE again. This time possibly for good.