How 15 minutes changed the face of Professional Wrestling

I get it, you think you’re better than me because I watch pro wrestling.  My excuse is, I’ve been watching since I was 7 years old, what’s your sad excuse for watching “The Bachelor”?  Anyway, I’m not here to debate with you why I watch pro wrestling.  I am here to talk about last night and the 15 minutes that changed the face of pro wrestling.

Wrestlemania takes place the first weekend in April.  Normally, the WWE will spend from the beginning of January building the storylines to culminate in Wrestlemania, the WWE’s Super Bowl.  The past few years have mainly seen the usual suspects feuding with each other (Cena, Orton, etc.) and the Undertaker extending his winning streak, most recently having the 2 best matches I’ve seen in 20 years with Shawn Michaels, ultimately ending HBK’s career.

Thing is, storylines have gotten a bit vanilla and complacent. Bad guy vs. Cena, Cena prevails. Done. Sure, you had some great characters like a CM Punk or the Miz who could work a stick and the ring and get heat from the crowd, but the pops came from the new segment, the PG crowd.  Everyone remembers the wrestling boom of the 90’s – the Attitude Era.  Cussing, blood, heavy and overt sexual content – these were the calling cards of the Stone Cold Steve Austin’s, Mankinds and DX.  When the boom ended, the WWE shifted gears into PG programming. Gone were the beer-swilling, middle finger throwing foul-mouthed heroes, in came the clean-cut, all-American, love the troops, hustle, loyalty, respect John Cena.

And it worked.  A new audience was grown.  Wrestling is extremely popular, mainly with kids and not so much with adults – and that’s because that’s the demo they’re going after.  The adult crowd was turned off – like going from watching internet porn to watching Skinemax – you don’t quite get the same response that you got before.  Where were the guys you wanted to hate and the wanted to hate you?  Where were the guys that were so bad that they were actually the good guys?  What happened to the guys that could get you so worked up on the microphone, it didn’t matter that they sucked when it came to actual wrestling?

The game changed last night.  Finally, the Rock came home.

The Rock announced as the official host of Wrestlemania, and in 15 minutes, he kicked off the most exciting speculative set of “what’s going to happen” since WCW Starcade in 1997 (that’d be the one that saw me and Big jumping around a buddy’s living room for a solid 20 minutes because Sting beat Hogan. yes we both had girlfriends, no they weren’t imaginary).

In 15 minutes, the Rock gave heed to the following:

• He will be back in a near-full time capacity.  Does this mean he’s the “anonymous GM”?  Will he stay after Wrestlemania?
• He will not hesitate to fight – will we get a dream match at Wrestlemania?
• He called out the Miz – he basically called the champ a bitch.
• He called out Cena

Ahh, now we have the most intriguing part.  John Cena is the modern day Hulk Hogan.  The eternal good guy.  The role model for kids.  The guy that the WWE pushes in EVERY marketing campaign.  Cena = WWE.  The Rock came out and called Cena out on everything that the older wrestling fans hate…and the ENTIRE crowd love it.  There were no boos.  There were no Cena cheers.  So, it begs the question, is now the time for Vince to deliver the biggest turn since Hogan joined the black and white?   Will Cena turn heel and face the Rock in the mother of all dream matches at Wrestlemania? 

Makes sense – think about it.  HBK goes into the HOF. Seamus wins the Elimination Chamber takes on the Miz for the title.  Orton v. CM Punk.  Del Rio v Edge.  Undertaker retires Triple H. You’ve got your top 9 names players matched up and you biggest star is without opponent.  Enter the Rock.  Vince played his card masterfully.  I think this is Vince’s swan song.  This will be his Wrestlemania to put the WWE back on top for good, and from there he will officially hand the reigns over to Triple H and Stephanie. 

Either way, the WWE has done something that has been lacking for damn near 5 years.  The took predictability and punched it in the nuts.  Every show is a must watch from now through April 2nd.  

GMV - Nude Music Friday

Time to look at some music!

While perusing around the YouTube world, looking for a good GMV this morning, I came across this nugget, that both plays for NMF, but also Wrestlemania week.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you, from the way back machine, the 1993 smash hit "Woa Woa, its Wrestlemania"

Lets play count the dead wrestlers (too dark?) vs count the wrestlers still preforming for the wwe now.



My count was 4-3.

We asked, He delivered

Ladies and gentlemen…HUGE props to our man, Uni over at unitqm, as he has provided us with the thing we wanted most.

GMV - The Bear

Tired of wrestling yet? I hope not, because with us this year, making his first wrestling event as a spectator, our picnic basket loving friend, Bear, is making his way to H-town.

I say first as a spectator because, unbenonst to me until a few min ago, Bear is no stranger to the squared circle. As a matter of fact, he was a full fledged wrestler back in the day under the name of Victor.

Here is the funniest video I have ever found.

GMV - Wrestlemania Week - The Nacho Matches

Wrestlemania week continues! I'm sure we are going to do a full blow preview of the damn thing sometime later this week, but as with every live wrestling event, there are going to be some "meh" matches on Sunday, matches that you choose to skip in order to hit up the concession stands, or as I like to call them, Nacho matches.

The First of which probably isn't a true Nacho match, due to the nip slip possibility, but i can't put it as one that's must see either. I'm talking of course about the 25 Diva Battle Royal.



The only other true Nacho Match might be JBL vs. Ray Mysterio, but as much as JBL blows in the ring, Mysterio is always worth watching, so I guess the only other nacho matches will be the Music performances of Kidd Rock and that Chick from the Pussy Cat Dolls, Nicole slutsalot or something.

GMV - Welcome to Wrestlemania Week

We have made no secrets that we here at TB&TB are going on a little field trip this weekend, to the land of the screwed up tape, Paul wall, Webster slaughter and the sight of wrestlemania 25, Houston Texas.

So consider this your "welcome to wrestlmania week" post, because I'm pretty sure my wrestling hard on won't go away all week.

We start with a recap of wrestlmania X7. Why 17? Well I'm glad you asked. First it was arguably one of the best Mania's of the last 15 years, Stone Cold vs the Rock, tag team TLC (tables, ladders, and chairs) match, a gimmick rumble, Benoit vs. Angle, and HHH vs the Undertaker. The Card was just nuts. Plus it was the last time Wrestlemania was in Houston, and guess what, your portly pal and suntanned superman were there. If you catch a shot of the "titian tron" and look above it, those little specks that you think to yourself "surly they didn't put seats up there," that's where we sat.

So here is the recap of Wrestlemania X7,



And I know it had Limp Bizkit as the back track, but to be honest, it fits well with the time.

Wrestlemania bingo just got easier

As Big mentioned, we’re headed down to Houston for Wrestlemania in two weeks, and we’ve asked you to help us create some entries for bingo sheets and camera scavenger hunts while we’re down there.

Well…this might or might not affect your entries:

Kid Rock is going to be performing at Wrestlemania.

Continue your entries.

Ohh please lord, let this happen!

Actor Mickey Rourke to step into real ring at Wrestlemania

I loved the wrestler.

I love wrestling.

The blog is going to wrestlemania in couple months.

Please don't let this be a tease.



RAM JAM RAM JAM RAM JAM!