WWE beckons its sole survivor
And that was it! The end of a painstaking legacy that mesmerized the crowd for almost a quarter of a century. People who have been following the WWF/WWE week in week out would know that the show may have been packaged around several undercards and a dazzling main event, but it’s always a character (NOT a face!) that keeps the crowd turn out soaring to bizarre numbers, no matter wher the bandwagon decides to stage one of the most celebrated slug-fests. From the arrogance of Hulk-a-mania, to the anti-hero Rattlesnake days of the Attitude Era, followed by the Evolution and the superfluous Cenation wave – all of them were eye-catching gimmicks that looked special because a workaholic like Shawn Michaels played the role of a survivor and the perennial underdog to perfection. It’s characters like these who’d take all the beatings, cuts, bloodbaths, painful stints on the sidelines, as a part of their duty that makes the show what it’s meant to be – a scorching entertainer!
Michaels, unlike the other superstars that achieved unparallel success in the WWE framework, never had that contagious attitude, or a physique that would make him a straightforward crowd favourite. Yet, it was his charisma and verve to implement theatrics (which are now a benchmark for any upcoming superstar) into his game that made him one of the more complete wrestling packages in the mid-nineties, when the franchisee was going through a turbulent phase of experimentation.
When in need of someone who can pull off unbelievable stunts in the first ever ladder match of the nineties or the back-breaking, relentless contests with Bret Hart in the Ironman matchups, the hammer blows in the Elimination chambers and even pulling off his way through 30-men to a couple of thrilling wins at the Royal Rumble – the plots may have been scripted but none would have that stirring effect on the onlookers or the grip on the viewers at home that had found their way out of sitcoms to a show where hope was everything. The appeal, the grace, the steel which people expect in an underdog to fight his way out of the deepest of pits – Shawn Michaels portrayed them all with an effortless panache about it. Some superstars were made with the glitz and glamour architecture around them; Shawn Michaels just walked towards the ring and the roars from the crowd were enough to exemplify his glory days at the biggest stage the wrestling events could ever provide.
People somehow expected superhuman things of him – that he would survive off every tyrant hour with an effort which could only typify his role of rising up every single time. The reputation he built on the back of so many electric evenings in the ring and some more on the hospital beds made people in the industry feel that with him being the core, the rest would only have to be anything but poor to sway this bunch of crowds. The core of the WWE was always built on the soul of this survivor, at least for the great part of the 90s and the 2000s, yet none had foreseen what would happen when he’d decide to move on and end those animated run of appearance forever.
It did happen after Wrestlemania 26 and to be fair, WWE has been crawling its way through on the back of some mundane creative lines, inefficient lot of growing talent and the Hollywood like appearance of the Rock. Everyone now knows that the Undertaker’s winning streak at Wrestlemania will never end, Vicki Guerrero would never stop screaming to annoy the fans, John Cena is being wasted in bizarre love episodes and the Rock is only up for the ring if his ego and his pockets are taken care of – that’s just how one of the greatest entertainment shows in US in now thriving on. They have the biggest of statures to lure the crowd to the arena but the core ‘wrestling’ is losing its sheen, until someone could actually turn it around.
In talented wrestlers like Daniel Bryan, Ryback and Sheamus, WWE could have had a better future. Instead, the creative heads are swayed away by the entertainment quotient of the show, ultimately making the WWE a failing 3 hour comedy act that uses wrestling as an obligation they need to fulfill. I mean, where are the high-flying maneuvers? The dogged, unrelenting contests and the never ending feuds between the best wrestlers – wasn’t that all an indispensable part of WWE?
It’s not that the show hasn’t seen shocking exits of the superstars, yet none of them decimated the running of the event. Michaels left the arena, but the void has proven to be bigger than what he could have ever envisaged. They say that the ‘show must go on’ but is it possible without its beloved showstopper? Probably not.