The short fact (from Variety) is that The Rock has (finally) come back to the WWE after a seven year absence. He appeared on Raw last night to announce that he’ll be hosting Wrestlemania XXVII next month for some mutually-beneficial cross-promotion. Basically, the Rock wants to “put over” Fast Five while McMahon hopes that having Mr. Johnson on the bill will give the pay-per-view sales a much-needed spike. Not surprisingly, he’s been trying get the people's champion to return to the WWE ever since the ol’ Hollywood career took off.
This announcement’s kind-of a timely follow-up to my editorial about whether tough guys have become passé at the movies because, let me tell you, it’s absolutely thrilling to watch an actual superstar at work in his element. And it's doubly-awesome to hear him just rip into the current crop of dudes like Cena and the Miz.
I was too obsessed with wrestling for too many years to ever totally lose an interest in the stuff (even if that interest is at arm's length, now, and even if I haven’t been watching in years.) Chalk the drop to "growing up" or whatever, but I’m still convinced that the WWE’s more organized approach to content has cut the teeth off any crossover appeal it could have these days. Sure, it makes sense internally for them to script their stars' promos, but it also dampens any of the awesome, wild spontaneity you use to get regularly from the likes of the Rock, Austin, Hogan, Savage, Roberts and, yeah, even the Warrior.
Seeing Johnson back in his element also harps on how frustrating it is to see him so often blocked from being himself. It’s the same thing that happened with Piper. Did you really want to see him as a laconic leading man in They Live, or were you just waiting for the Hot Rod to bust out (even if that sounds dirty?) The Rock promises he's here to stay and I hope that's true. I do hope so.
There was great stuff about the Attitude era and there was horrible stuff about the Attitude era. There was great stuff about wrestling in the 80s and there was horrible stuff about wrestling in the 80s. There is great stuff about modern WWE and there is horrible stuff about modern WWE.
@alsnuts2 said:
Again, this article and its comments are barely paying attention to the content and instead looking at everything in extremes. CM Punk is going down as one of the top villains wrestling has ever seen, Daniel Bryan is tearing it up as US champion, The Miz is the most improved wrestler in the entire world, and whether people like it or not John Cena is the most loyal and committed guy in the business. None of these men have tribal tattoos, and people's memories of childhood are clouding the fact that they really should've been watching Harley Race when they settled with Doink the fucking Clown.
Whenever you next see them watching a war film, ask why they're such pussies that they'd rather watch a fake movie than participate in a real war over in Afghanistan!
The entire "fakeness" of wrestling is exactly what makes it enjoyable (and certainly far more enjoyable than MMA). It's why we watch film and television, go to the theater, read books, etcetera. Escaping from reality is necessary for art and growth. If Star Wars was a real thing with a real intergalactic bloody war we had to deal with on a day-to-day basis, that wouldn't be cool, it would totally suck.