Marking Out: 'What the Funk?' and the Possible Beginning of a New Era

Hello again and welcome to this week's edition of Marking Out. For the second week in a row, the WWE has put on a show that makes me actually glad to be watching wrestling right now.

Last night was the highly touted and pumped up return of former Alberto Del Rio protege, Brodus Clay. Fans have been hearing about his return for what seems like months. The promos have been portraying him as the next monster heel—bent on destroying the top names in the company—and John Laurinaitis has been going on and on about how Clay was coming back.

Then it was time for him to have his return match against Curt “Mart Jannety” Hawkins. And while fans were expecting some booming rock anthem and huge pyro for the big man, what they got instead were two backup dancers in body suits and funk music. This is followed by Brodus Clay coming out wearing a blazing red leisure suit and hat while lip-syncing to his theme music.

The cherry came when he joined his backup dancers before posing for the crowd. He would go on to squash Hawkins and made what looks to be a decent face turn.

When I saw it happening I couldn't believe what I was seeing, especially with how Clay was being promoted for the past couple of months—yet I liked what I saw.

The “Funkasaurus” gimmick really worked for Clay in the same way the Akeem gimmick worked for One Man Gang years ago. In both instances, you have a bigger Caucasian wrestler portraying African stereotypes and instead of them being offensive with it or not taking it seriously, they have fun with it which makes it better for the crowd.

This brings me to the point that I marked out at—with the return of Brodus Clay in his current gimmick, the WWE may have finally shown their whole hand in what might be the beginning of a new era for their product.

While it may not be fully leaving the PG aesthetic, it is definitely a step towards something new. With last week's return of Chris Jericho and the previous return of a monster Kane, the WWE is taking a step away from the childish and cartoon-like image that is has held for the past few years and becoming something more of an amalgamation between the serious technical portion of the mid '90s era WWF along with the lighter side of the Attitude Era with outrageous characters.

It is with that in mind that I marked out when I saw Clay's return on Monday—not only was Clay into the role that he had been given, but the fans were into it as well. The deciding factor of this gimmick now will be how well Clay can carry himself in a promo as this character. If he can sell himself well in that and get the audience really involved, "Funkasaurus" will be here to stay, at least for the time being.

As for next week's Raw, I can't wait to see what happens—something I haven't felt for a while in pro wrestling.