With the inception of the WWE Network, wrestling fans now have decades of wrestling content at their fingertips, so of course my brothers and I have been doing the natural thing: watching every WCW Pay Per View from the beginning of the Monday Night Wars in the fall of 1995. Thus far we have reached World War III in November of 1998, and journey has, thus far, been amazingly entertaining.
The one thing that stands out, that I love the most, is the party atmosphere that surrounds all of these shows due to a very important facet that is always present— variety. These shows feature comedy matches with the likes of Disco Inferno and Alex Wright; world class in ring workers like Chris [name redacted], Ultimo Dragon, Dean Malenko, and Eddie Guerrero; excellent psychology from Curt Hennig, Raven, Saturn, and Ric Flair; charismatic mic workers like Chris Jericho, DDP, and Scott Steiner; great tag team action from the Faces of Fear, Harlem Heat, the Outsiders, and Steiner Brothers; electrifying cruiserweights like Rey Mysterio Jr., Billy Kidman, and Juvy Guerrera; and unmatched star power and charisma in the main events with too many to mention, though Goldberg, Hogan, and Sting stand out. The point is, there is something for everybody, and no one is ever totally disappointed with a show.
This all brings me to this years WrestleMania. Typically, I am bored to tears by the run of the mill build up to many WWE shows, but this show has me more excited than I have been for any event in a few years. Battle Royals, multi-man title matches (IC and US titles), tag team matches (Smackdown tag titles), matches with excellent stories and psychology (Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax, Braun Strowman’s one man wrecking crew), star powered circus shows (the Ronda Rousey match, the Shane/Bryan tag match), a sure-to-be brutal main event between Brock and Reigns, and even hardworking cruiserweights on the pre-show. 2 matches that my expectations are not so high on, though they have much of the internet wrestling community salivating (AJ Styles/Nakamura, Asuka/Charlotte), could provide powerful wrestling in the mold of Savage/Steamboat if given enough time.
This show is shaping up to be a variety show with something for everyone, and for many frustrated WWE fans, this should be considered something special in todays WWE. Here’s to hoping that WWE can put a little more work like this into their shows throughout the year, rather than making us wait 10 months every year.
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