Monday, August 7, 2017

Pro Wrestling: World Wrestling Entertainment 2017 so far part 1

Now that all the distractions are out of the way lets get back to business.

It's been a minute since I laid out what I've been seeing and hearing about the WWE. I'm going to start out and do what you've come to expect from me. Do you know what people aren't noticing? There's a new generation of 'big man' in and coming into the WWE. Notice what the main event for the upcoming SummerSlam is. You have Brock Lesnar, it goes without saying that he is a large man. You have Roman Reigns who at around 260lbs is not a small man either. You have Samoa Joe who I've written about before and at around 280lbs moves like a man 50lbs lighter. And the obvious Braun Strouman who being a former Worlds Strongest Man competitor clearly is a man of monstrous proportions. Its been some years since the main event of one of the original big four pay-per-views had this many large men in the main event.


Now look at Big Cass separating himself from Enzo Amore. I mentioned in a older post on the old blog how the company was going to do this sooner or later. It's similar to what was done with Kevin Nash as Diesel back in 1995. He's tall so to Vince that somehow means people will want to see him. Never mind that in the NBA he would just be average height. To everyone else he must be gigantic, right? Anyway, between him Baron Corbin and Eric Rowan over on Smackdown the WWE has a nice group of large and tall performers in the mix right now. Change your view and look at NXT and you'll notice that the line is not stopping any time soon.


There recently was a match for the NXT Tag Team Championships between the Authors of Pain and Heavy Machinery. The announcers did a good job of mentioning how the wrestlers were all large men. Now remember that at some point if things go well all these men should be on the main roster in the next year or two. There are more people down there who are also in the 6 foot plus over 250lbs range coming soon as singles stars. So very quietly WWE is preparing to have a new generation of big men come through the company. In NXT the man to help build that will be Drew McIntyre. I'll write more about in my NXT post but for now let me relay a story to you.


So it was before WrestleMania 29 at the Meadowlands. I and some friends went to the Axxess show on Thursday. It was nice to see the mini wrestling convention WWE was running before its biggest show of the year. The memorabilia brought back some fun memories from my youth since I've been watching WWE before I could even walk. There was also meet and greets. I got to shake hands and get an autograph from Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat. I was good after that on autographs. Damien Sandow even did an interruption bit while I was getting my autograph. So cool. At the time 3MB was a group. My friends wanted to get a picture with them. I didn't mind so we each got our individual pictures with the group. It's funny to think about meeting Jinder Mahal and years later he's the WWE Champion. Anyway, so I go to get my picture taken and shake Heath Slater hand, shake Jinders hand and finally McIntyres hand. I see the first to and think to myself, okay there not so big. But when I stood in front of Drew McIntrye I looked up, looked left and right and blurted out with a sense of amazement, man you sure are big. His response was, yeah, I know. Perfect response by the way. So I stand in between the other two and he stands off to my right and starts doing some hair swinging air guitar thing. It didn't help the picture but it didn't matter as I was shocked by what 6'5, 250 plus pounds of Scottish pro wrestling muscle looked like. So as me and my friends walked away we each remarked how cool it was meeting 3MB. But also that Drew McIntyre is one big m@!!%f**%er. I'm not one to get awestruck by people but that day I was awestruck.


Fast forward to today and he's the ideal guy to help prepare the next generation of NXT singles stars for the main event slots in WWE. That does not mean that smaller guys won't have a chance to be main eventers in NXT. But don't be surprised if starting at the beginning of next year if NXT announces the creation of a new championship. The NXT Television Championship doesn't have a good sound to it but considering that it would be trying to channel the legacy of the old NWA/WCW Television Championship you see why they would go with it. Plus having a championship being defended on NXT television at least once a month would be good for many reasons.


That's it for now more later. Glad to get back to writing. Enjoy.

+WWE
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