Murder Angles in Professional Wrestling: My First Rant

Hello and welcome to my first wrestling rant, through these I will release the pent-up frustration that builds after watching something that hinders my enjoyment of professional wrestling.

For my first installment, I need look no further back than this week's RAW, featuring an angle that riles me like few others in wrestling - homicide.

Monday's RAW overrun saw John 'Bradshaw Layfield' disappear from the arena following a dubious disqualification in the 6-man tag team main event. John Cena gave chase, ending up in the parking lot. What followed was an abomination.

In a segment that was clearly pre-taped, JBL attacked Cena from behind. He then propped the prone Cena up against a white car, getting the 'Chain Gang Commander' to sit up straight on his second attempt. The 'Wrestling God' then jumped into another car, and drove directly at Cena - supposedly crushing him between the two vehicles.

JBL then got out, and as shown in the picture accompanying this article, leaned against the offending vehicle thinking about what he'd just done.

It was soon announced on WWE.com that Cena was not dead (surprise!), but was merely 'grazed.' This pathetic segment did absolutely nothing to add to the angle. Up until this charade, WWE had actually done a decent job building the feud between Cena and Layfield.

Though the two Superstars have faced each other in numerous matches of varying types in recent months, the bookers were able to prevent the angle from becoming stale by adding new elements to the situation.

The introduction of CTC - the collective of Cryme Tyme and Cena - gave a much needed boost to Cena's gimmick. Though endlessly popular with kids and many female fans, Cena's relationship with male fans over the last few years has been strained at best. Teaming him with the popular Cryme Tyme has been helping Cena get over, and brought something novel to his character which has been in desperate need of an injection for some time.

For his part, JBL has also been offering much of the same in recent times. Still good on the mic, still below-par in the ring. With fans underwhelmed by his in-ring work, maybe WWE felt that something spectacular was needed to get more heat behind JBL. This wasn't it. The angle is nonsensical on many levels. Adults, teenagers and even many younger kids, would all find the scenes laughable.

We are willing to suspend our disbelief that competing in the WWE allows Superstars to bash each other with blunt objects at will, but asking us to accept apparent vehicular (attempted) homicide is too much. Even the most brain cell deficient felon on World's Dumbest Criminals would know not attempt a murder on worldwide (supposedly) live television - let alone a stock market shark like JBL.

If we are to assume that the angle was aimed at kids young enough to buy this silliness - is it really right for WWE to show children what they believe is the cold-blooded slaughter of their hero taking place right before their eyes?

To this writer, fluff like this is a way for WWE to lazily attempt to build interest in a pay per view without intelligent thought, or entertaining wrestling. No matter how much time or money this took to stage, it remains a poor substitute for a drawn out angle with mystery and suspense, or a for a wrestling match with drama and great psychology.

Angles such as this are an example of the WWE habit of going for lowest common denominator tabloid style sensationalism for its own sake, forgetting that often the most sensational scenes come from the most basic, traditional facets of pro wrestling.