Its been a pretty long hiatus for me blogging here, but with the recent goings on in mainstream professional wrestling, I felt the need to put aside some time and really discuss what has been happening.  I decided to stop live blogging at the absolute worst time.  So lets start from the beginning.

Ive been a wrestling fan since the earliest memories of my life.  Since the days that I would wrestle my brother and my hulk hogan and ultimate warrior wrestle buddies.  

As Ive evolved over the years so much has changed.  From the whole good guy vs. bad guy gimmick heavy WWF to the emergence of ECW to my first ROH show to my first Chikara show to my first viewing of japanese wrestling, I have continued to evolve.  As of late I have felt utterly betrayed by the companies I grew up loving.  I have to admit that I was never a fan of WCW, but I did give it a few tries.  WWE until July had become so watered down and so pathetic.  TNA continues to bury itself to the point of no return.  How the hell can you have a 62 year old flair fight a 52 year old sting as your main event, heavily edit it, and expect people to continue watching your product.  You have so much talent, yet you continuously BLOW IT.

Let me stop myself for a moment because I seem to just be going off on tangents.

This column is not about ROH, Chikara, PWG, Japan, or anything else.  This is about TNA and WWE.

The reason I stopped blogging here was #1 because of my TNA challenge.  I followed TNA and live blogged Impact! and their PPVs for an entire month.  It made me utterly disgusted.  I have continued following, but I just read the results, and it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.  When you have guys like Aj Styles, Samoa Joe, DAngelo Dinero, Aries, Shelley, Sabin, etc. why not made them a focal point and create stars.  Anderson, Angle, Sting, Flair, Hogan, blah blah blah, its not getting it done and its holding back the guys that can shine and really help make a difference for TNA.  They are obviously not interested in doing that and its only a matter of time before they bite the dust.  Moving on to WWE.

WWE has struggled to find the right mix for a few years now.  They completely did away with tag team wrestling which up until the end of the attitude era, they did phenomenally with.  It looks like they may be trying to revive it but they are not trying hard enough.  It seems like they believe that 1 on 1 is better because thats how it is in boxing and UFC and the popularity of mixed martial arts is hard to ignore.  They need to take a step back and remember what made them so great.  The great teams fighting for the tag titles, the storylines that continue to evolve and keep you on the edge of your seat, that keep you asking for more, that keep you guessing at what will happen next.  They couldnt get it done.  They gave up on storyline after storyline instead of letting them play out and tell a nice storywell that is until the night it all changed.

This isnt the first time Ive seen this side of CM Punk.  (See the Summer of PunkROH 2005)

CM Punk on the 6/27/11 Raw changed the landscape of professional wrestling.  He broke the 4th wall.  He cursed.  He name dropped wrestlers who are no longer in the company, called wrestlers by their real names, he called himself a wrestler instead of a superstar, he name dropped other companies, he even name dropped Paul Heyman.  Its safe to say that this was a shock to the system.  The internet wrestling community was as giddy as that kid who got N64 for christmas.  Money in the bank became the most anticipated ppv in the last 10 years and it delivered.

CM Punk has become must see TV because you really never know what he will do next.  The storylines that have occurred since that promo are exactly what makes me love wrestling.  Everything from Kevin Nash to the firing of Miz and Truth.  Since the Punk promo and even before, this storyline was slowly being crafted and perfected.  Will Truth and Miz come back with a stable of released wrestlers?  Will Punk, Cena and Triple H become allies to fight off a plague of wrestlers trying to destroy WWE?  What will happen at hell in a cell?  What will happen next week on raw?  What is going on with the Sin Cara vs. Sin Cara storyline?  Why does Mark Henry feel the need to injure everyone in his path?  When will Daniel Bryan start his road to wrestlemania?  Will Dolph and Ryder feud for the US title?  I could go on.  I cant remember the last time I had this many questions because up until that Punk promo the shows would always end with a sense of completion.  It was more like a sitcom where every episode had its problems and then they were always resolved.  Now it is back to being like a thriller or action show ala 24 or Lost where you are left every single week with a cliffhanger and tons of questions you want answered.  There is also the perfect balance for marks, smarks, and kayfabe enthusiasts.  Everyone is happy with the product except for TNA ass kissers, but they are a whole other breed. (OPEN YOUR FKING EYES!)

WWE is the longest running weekly episodic program in history.  To treat the show as anything other than entertainment, that tells a story with its skits, promos and wrestling matches, is just dumb and will only lead to disappointment.  You need to watch it as an ongoing story.  There should never be instant gratification, because you always want people coming back for more.

Can mainstream wrestling still have fun? Of course it can.  It always had the ability to, but they are finally doing what makes wrestling so great and I for one am enjoying the ride immensely.

I know that I really only covered CM Punk, but I also know and understand A.D.D. when it comes to reading long articles, so I will stop here.  Hope you enjoyed and you can count on more columns in the weeks to come.  Now where are my damn CM Punk Ice Cream Bars!?!?

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