One Count Kickout – Moving Forward

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Wrestlemania 27 has come and gone.  The grandest stage of them all, the epic event wrestling fans wait all year for, the place where superstars become legends.  Well, maybe not this year.  Overall Wrestlemania 27 was a one match show which fell short of it’s hype, failed to capitalize on it’s opportunity to catapult midcard performers to the top and delivered a main event which was, if nothing else, fairly predictable.  Of course all of this is debatable and what was a sub-par show for some may have been absolutely amazing for you, and for those of you who did truly enjoy Wrestlemania 27 that is always a good thing.  For those of you who did not enjoy it, and for whom the WWE now feels a little less exciting, a little more broken and a lot less enthralling the question now looms dark on the horizon:  where do we go from here?

WWE majorly dropped the ball with the Rock.  The idea that the Rock would come out and cost John Cena his opportunity for the WWE title seemed almost like a foregone conclusion before the show even began, but those actions left an expectation.  The expectation was that we would see the Rock and John Cena step into the ring, face to face, and we’d get a knock down, dragout performance that would be worthy of the hype and perhaps we still will, though not for a year.  Can WWE maintain the interest of the fans for a year?  What will John Cena do to bide his time and show us that he is invested in this match?  Recently, via twitter, Cena posted that now that things with the Rock are set he can turn his attention back to the Miz and the WWE title.  Are fans supposed to grateful that Cena now, following the biggest show of the year, once again cares about the WWE title?  This has been quite a way of devaluing that which is supposed to mean more than anything to him.  Its like “sorry guys, Wrestlemania and the title wasn’t my top priority, but stay behind me because it is now!”  Thanks for that, John.  I’m sure we all have supreme confidence in your abilities now.

One thing which could be a positive coming out of Wrestlemania is the Miz.  A lot of fans hate this guy, for reasons that are somewhat beyond this columnist’s comprehension.  He’s fresh and he’s got something good to bring to the table.  Hate the way he is booked, sure.  He’s made to look weak and like he can’t win a match against a notable competitor on his own.  However, he’s entertaining, he’s athletic and when granted the time and the space he can put on a good match.  There is hope that he will continue to do so, that he will remain WWE champion for a while and WWE creative will pull their heads out of their asses and actually book him as a formidable champion.  They did it a little bit late in his feud with Cena, having Miz get the best of Cena at the end of Raw for several weeks in a row.  Of course Cena, being the superman that he is, didn’t sell a bit of it the next week.  The Miz is one of the absolute best thing WWE has going for it right now.

The streak continues and with that we get to know that next year at Wrestlemania we have the possibility of the Undertaker going 20 and 0.  The smart money says that win or lose, Wrestlemania 28 will probably be the last time we see the Undertaker defending the streak.  His age is getting to him, his body is worn down, the road can’t go on much longer.  So the question will hang in the air, does the Undertaker retire undefeated at Wrestlemania?  Most likely, and considering Triple H’s comments on Raw last week there is a good chance we’ll see Triple H vs Undertaker 3 (yes they did compete at Wrestlemania prior to this year despite them not mentioning it.)  There is a good chance we’d see this be a Wrestlemania in which both men hang up the boots for good.  Triple H is being groomed to take over the company and the Undertaker is getting ready to walk into that last sunset.

Considering the possibility of Triple H and the Undertaker being gone this time next year, John Cena’s lackluster standing and the absence of the legendary performers we’ve had in the past WWE needs to build up its younger stars, it needs to groom the next generation.  That currently isn’t happening, and the loss of some tops stars could be what is needed to prompt WWE to do what is necessary in preserving their product and supplying the fans with new angles, new matches and new main eventers.  One of the less discussed aspects of the Monday Night War was that WWE lost many of its top tier superstars and was forced to build new ones and this lead to people like Austin, Triple H, Edge, Christian, Hardy Boys, Jericho and more being pushed.  It granted us a reprieve from the old and ushered in the new.  Where does WWE go from here?  Hopefully, a new, exciting direction.  This will be a very interesting year.