Surprises, Failures, Exposures: Five Memories from the 2008 Year in Wrestling

Coming off two straight days of attending WWE events and being a tad burned out on MMA, it's time to reflect a bit on what we've seen from the wrestling business in the past 12 months. A few things really stood out in a relatively tame year with no major growth or change:

- No More Curtains: In 2008, the business continued to be exposed and perhaps this time, there is no coming back. The curtain hasn’t just been pulled back, but yanked completely off the wall, rod and all.

What began years ago with the creation of Tough Enough came full-circle this year with the debut season of Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling. Coming from the minds of Hogan and long-time creative partners Eric Bischoff and Jason Hervey, CCW brought together 10 B-level celebrities in a reality competition where they learned how to be wrestlers, culminating in one of them being declared champion.

Different than Tough Enough, CCW gave a more in-depth look at what it takes to be a wrestler from move scripting to how to take bumps to creating a persona. Part of me who cringed at Hogan's praise of them as wrestlers as they botched moves in already heavily edited matches.

I wondered why Hogan, Bischoff, Brutus Beefcake, and Brian Knobs would knowingly put this much out there about a business I assumed they’d protect at all costs years prior. Of course, the answer is money and the long-term damage of a show seen on Country Music Television can be debated. As a second season begins to take shape, I wonder what CCW will do to build on their first year and what else they'll show the public.

WWE’s internal decree to talent to be referred to as "entertainment" and not "sports entertainment" alarmed me for several reasons. Seemingly, this is a way to bypass state athletic commissions and thus avoid drug testing and other regulatory measures designed to help athletes protect themselves from themselves.

Below the surface, this couldn’t be a worse development. Coming off years when so many have died as a result of the go-crazy days of the '80s and '90s, this is almost too unbelievable to believe. Does anyone really believe the WWE Wellness Policy is working or even legit? I hate to say it, but I wish Congress would have got involved to prevent Vince McMahon from dodging the regulatory bullets.

Enter The Wrestler, the movie that is generating mega-buzz among wrestling fans and movie critics alike. Centered around a washed-up former star (played by Mickey Rourke) and the sad twilight of a wrestling career, people that have no understanding of the business are about to get a hard slap of reality as to what these guys go through and how the other three-fourths of the business lives.

The fact the movie is supposed to be so good only helps in others truly understanding how much these guys and gals deserve respect. One issue: I've heard that one critic felt the story was almost too over-the-top to believe. Sadly, it's still probably not as truthful as it could have been.

As far as the in-ring product, there’s not much left to hide when it comes to wrestling—a reality today's wrestler and promoter has to accept. The business has been exposed so much thanks to the explosion of the internet and an audience willing to learn all they can that the only people that actually still think any of this is real are kids.

The rest of the mainstream still refer to wrestling as "fake and scripted" and probably couldn't care less about any of it. (By the way, there is still the talk of Wrestling Reality coming to light on The Fight Network in '09.)

- The Element of Surprise: There were two moments that stood out enough to give me goose bumps and say wow. Both involved the element of surprise and the unexpected—something that wrestling really lacks these days thanks to the 'net and the inability to have patience in booking and executing with organizations these days.

One was the CM Punk victory for the World title at RAW in June. Completely unexpected, Punk used his Money In the Bank clause to come out of nowhere and defeat Edge, just beaten down by Batista. As I wrote that night, they did a great job of building the "hurry up" element of Punk wanting to take advantage of Edge's situation and later teased an immediate loss to JBL.

Seeing as how Punk wasn't a top contender, I didn't expect him to win the gold but amazingly, they let him carry it. Unfortunately, they made him a weak champion but the execution of the win was outstanding.

The second moment involved Edge and his winning the WWE Championship at November's Survivor Series as a sub for an "injured" Jeff Hardy. Edge came out of nowhere to break up a god-awful HHH/Kozlov battle and immediately got his entire heel heat back in a matter of seconds after missing months.

Hardy's subsequent run-in was also well done and the entire final few minutes of the match was fantastic drama. Again, the element of surprise was here and executed to perfection.

I'm probably forgetting a few moments, but these two—and John Cena's return at the Royal Rumble to an extent—really stand out.

- The Element of Crap: With the good comes the bad and there are definitely three memories that I wish I could erase from my memory.

The first was the ending of RAW that wasn't. The angle was that GM William Regal was upset at the disrespect of the fans and cut a main event of then World Champion HHH and Randy Orton short.

Not just with a DQ, mind you, but the WWE actually went to black about halfway through the match. Boom. End of show. Done. I wasn't thrilled to say the least and months later, I think it was one of the most ill-advised things WWE has done in recent memory.

I also cannot stand the amount of restholds used today. There's a time and place and unfortunately, the in-ring product gets boring when every single wrestler uses them in every single match. The Attitude-era trained a new generation of fans to expect excitement and now, a lot of those fans have gone away because what they see is more '80s than late '90s.

Finally, the WWE attempting to disparage UFC's ppv product after Brock Lesnar won the UFC Heavyweight title was nothing short of a joke. The post they put on their site was removed within a day and hopefully they realized how ridiculous their statement was.

- Youth being served: The WWE has been criticized for years of not having enough new talent on the roster and letting the same ol' guys do the same ol' things. While that may be true for the top title runs, they have really filled out the rosters of all brands with younger talent.

Look at the 10-man tag on RAW, for example. Other than Cena, Kane, and Rey Mysterio, you had seven guys that are still pretty new to the national scene in that match alone. ECW is nearly all-new talent and Smackdown is a decent, but boring, mix of both.

Elevating them and helping them get over with crowds is a complete other task, which is where I feel WWE has failed terribly in the past five years. Out of this current crop, Miz/Morrison will continue to emerge as will Jack Swagger (seen right).

- It's the kids, stupid: Finally, I realized that wrestling can be fun if you allow it. It's a strange time for the business in that WWE and TNA aren't converting new fans at the rate they once were. The competitive nature to put on the best product has faded and WWE especially is more concerned with getting respect as compared to other forms of entertainment than focusing solely on how to improve within their own fan base.

But I did attend two straight days of WWE, first RAW from Manchester, NH, and then a RAW house show in Portland, ME. Both were extremely different in terms of production, length of matches, and the overall feel, but I sensed especially in the house show that WWE is attempting to get back to the '80s model of a few major stars and unforgettable characters, longer matches, less emphasis on high-risk and built around a few major shows a year. The transition has been happening, but it really sunk in the past few days.

And lest we forget as jaded adult wrestling fans, there is a segment that WWE is always trying to appeal to: the kids. We get upset at the PG rating, but if that means a family of four attends a show as opposed to two younger guys, what do you think they'll go with?

In case you need a reminding of this, become a fan of Live Audio Wrestling on Facebook and look at John Pollock's video he posted while at RAW in Toronto. We WERE those kids and sometimes, it's ok to just let the business be what it is—as much as it pains me to say it.

Raise your glass and join me in hoping for a 2009 with no wrestling deaths, five-star matches, and a 12 months that was better than the last 12 months!

Josh Nason - josh [at] ropesringandcage [dot com] - has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring, and Cage.com since 2007. If you are using any content or recapping from this site, please include a link to www.ropesringandcage.com. Thank you for your support!