Author: The Cynic

I’ve just spent the last 2 months without wrestling. Of course I had access to the net, but no Sky! And in a four star hotel too! It’s terrible to have to live in sumptuous surroundings, with only my enormous bank balance and talent to keep me warm at night, but I survived. And just as I return, something extraordinary has happened…

Rejoice, for a saviour has come. He will cure the sick Federation. He will bring the moneychangers back to the temple. He will make the dead walk (hopefully right out of the building, in the case of the Undertaker). Yes these are certainly strange times indeed when the Messiah of Smackdown is a portly, balding gentleman with an over compensatory pony tail, but that’s the case.

Brock Lesnar turns heel and no one cares. Rey Mysterio executes one heart-stopping move after another and we just yawn. Chris Benoit is one of the best wrestlers in the world today- and no one gives a damn.

Let me take you back to the recent past. The WWE was struggling; buy rates were down, fans were turning away and the product was stale. Then Shane McMahon appearing on Nitro, in the middle of Raw, and suggesting that he was about to take over the recently purchased WCW. It was a great idea. McMahon v McMahon, brand v brand. Of course, the Invasion angle was so badly handled that it crippled WCW, and it was folded into its more successful parent. The biggest storyline of that or any year, and the best reaction Vince got from the fans was a yawn.

The Rock’s done it. Jesse Ventura’s done it. Hulk Hogan just couldn’t do it. The wrestling world craves it. What is it? Legitimacy.