Say farewell to my little friend.
2011 was…a year. I’m not quite sure what 2011 represented in pop culture or in wrestling culture. Perhaps this year could be best described as The Year of Farewells. Sure like any year we also said “hello” to many people but really we said farewell to many and also farewell to many beloved characters. Let’s start with the most sad farewell: Randy Savage. The Macho Man passed away tragically earlier this year in a car accident, a hear attack being reported as the cause of the crash. It was a dark cloud on wrestling, and here is hoping Macho Man continues to get the respect he deserves. The WWE hasn’t always been so kind to him in contemporary history. Then in April after Edge fended off his title to Alberto Del Rio we also said goodbye to him as an active wrestler as he retired due to neck injuries. Edge is one of my top 5 favorite wrestlers of all time so I was saddened to see him go, but it’s better to walk out of the ring on your own power than having to be carried out. Speaking of Del Rio by Del Rio winning the Royal Rumble it was also an unofficial farewell to those of the elite hierarchy. Say what you will about WWE but this year they have really been trying to usher in the new blood, and doing that due to the goodbyes of the ones so prominent.
Peace out byotches
We can no longer really complain rookies and lesser known stars aren’t getting their chance to shine. Farewell to the titans of yesteryear they can’t draw forever and soon like Edge they will all have to hang up the boots, you can’t have a power vacuum when it happens either. So we saw Zack Ryder, Dolph Ziggler, Kelly Kelly, Evan Bourne, R-Truth and CM Punk begin their rise to the top. Speaking of CM Punk we also said farewell to him as a character as well. I have no doubt in my mind his battle with John Cena in Chicago at Money in the Bank was one of the most well executed, most well done bouts in the past decade. Think about it, we didn’t know what was real, kayfabe, accidental, scripted etc. Many were moaning that CM Punk was leaving, some were thinking Del Rio was going to cash in instantly all our questions were answered all our fears realized for split moments only to be resolved moments afterwards. The WWE gave the people what they wanted to see: CM Punk a new “people’s champ” on top of the world….or so we thought. This isn’t WWE’s fault so much so as it’s Punk. My fellow co-hosts on PWTR have pointed this out: CM Punk is not a good face champion. Partially becuase of how he’s booked but also how he wrestles and cuts promos. He diminishes the threat of his opponents possibly more than Cena does. Because at least Cena sees the fight as a challenge, Punk sees the fights as a nuisance it’s like he doesn’t like wrestling, he rather talk, talk, talk. Gosh even Mick Foley would tell CM Punk to shut up. I’m not Punk hating either, I like the guy his character just needs a change. We said goodbye to the Punk we loved too fast and were stuck with one aspect of his persona that is cool, but only when attached to a full person.
Kiss from a rose with thorns
CM Punk pretty much said farewell to his fanbase and age old tradition of keeping stuff in the ring, too much now of what makes Punk top dog relies on him not necessarily breaking the 4th wall but at the very least knocking on it. Which brings me to the next thing we said farewell to: the attitude era. What did I say? The attitude era has been gone for like a decade plus, how could we have said farewell this year? For years WWE has been trying to reinvent the attitude era, sometimes giving us sparks of the glory days other times giving us embarrassing moments. But they’ve consistently have tried, but now it seems they’ve given up. Even CM Punk one of the faces of the company doesn’t believe in the attitude era anymore, it’s dead. So long, farewell. And they are right, we can never have another attitude era, we can only have a new era that we focus on. The last 5 years have been the Cena era and now it seems a new era is starting to emerge. I fear however that it is the “twitter” era. Now I understand twitter is a valuable social networking tool. You can even follow me on there *cough*. But the WWE in a very smart attempt to become more mainstream with today’s pop culture have also made WWE very hard to follow and unbearable to listen to. I’m sorry but I find it stupid when people in real life get into quips over twitter, when I see it happen to these legends of men and women I just feel short changed. I don’t have a problem with storylines continuing outside the parameters of a weekly episode, but there has to be a limit and WWE is overdoing it. It’s an easy fix, but WWE has a way of complicating very simple problems.
WWE's hotness level went from 10 to 5 overnight.
We also said farewell this year to wrestlers that for my money’s worth had a lot of potential. Chris Masters was released which I found to be a shame, WWE pretty much fumbled Gail Kim. Chavo Guerrero one of the most underrated talents in all of wrestling was let go too. Sure there were some releases that needed to happen like Melina’s and Michael Tarver but why in the world would you release D.H. Smith? Also possibly one of the most seemingly random and just flat out strange releases was that of Maryse. Now Maryse was a diva who had to grow on me. I remember watching her in OVW and thinking nothing of her, but when she actually started wrestling she was so much fun to watch. (And no not because she was hot, that was a bonus.) Maryse actually had talent, was good on the mic, did good segments and had appeal across mainstream audiences. Which is honestly probably why she and WWE parted ways. It couldn’t have anything to do with her talent, not when you are having Kelly Kelly walk around with the belt. I doubt it was backstage issues never heard about that, and the whole rumor that is was due to her posing nude previously…well that just doesn’t make any sense. Orton has posed nude before and he’s one of the top men in the company. But it was a sad departure as we pretty much have said farewell to Maryse and thus the Divas division. WWE has almost no chance of reviving this division, it’s in shambles it will take a miracle. A woman like Trish Stratus or Lita making a comeback and wrecking havoc. Perhaps when Karma returns that can happen. I like Beth Phoenix but she will probably never reach that superstar level, not the level Maryse could have reached with the belt. Oh well though, that’s what happens.
I guess I should mention TNA, but I didn’t watch too much TNA this year really only watched Winter and Angelina Love. Didn’t care for anything else. But that’s okay I think this year was the year I pretty much said farewell to TNA as a potential competitor to the WWE. And there are reports Spike TV may be about to say farewell to the program as well. We’ll wait and see I have some small flicker of hope for the company after hearing of its vast improvement but I never try to get my hopes up too high. This was also the year I finally got to say “goodbye” to all the people doubting if the Rock would ever return and the year I said ciao to J.R….again. But this was the year of farewells, some of the goodbyes were welcomed others were not. It’s a shame were ending the year on such a sour note, it actually wasn’t that bad. Bring it on twitter era!
Meal of the Week: Okay it’s a new year, don’t you want to start it off right? Well apparently in some cultures its considered good luck to eat fish when starting a new year. So I recommend fish and chips. Get some nice fried fish and some good fries. Skinny fries do not go well with fish (and yes that’s meant to have a perverse double meaning.) Make sure to add a side of coleslaw cause all the luck in the world won’t make up for bad eating habits and sprinkle it with some pepper and chives. If your eating fish I recommend some white wine some pinot grigio. Barefoot wine is really good and it’s not too expensive. If you are under the age of 21 it’s still the holiday season so I recommend sparkling apple cider.
