Death of Wrestling: Let A Man Get Over…

Greetings to all… It’s David Davis with my weekly blog: Death of Wrestling. For all of those who read this regularly, you will know that this is not a blog about bashing wrestling; it’s a blog of a frustrated fan, who loves the business and wishes that each week it could be a little better.

It was a good week for wrestling, what with Extreme Rules etc and there’s a lot that I could talk about, but for me there was only one thing that really stuck out: Curtis Axel. It’s been a while since we’ve seen an unveiling of a new wrestler; sorry… Susperstar.

You’ve got to love Paul Heyman and the gravitas he brings to any storyline he’s attached too. CM Punk had been champion for a long time, but it’s arguable his title reign only really came to prominence when he aligned himself with Paul Heyman. And we know what an athelete Brock Lesnar is, but we also know he ain’t exactly Stone Cold Steve Austin on the mic. The question has to be asked: without Heyman as his mouth piece all these years, would Brock Lesnar be the man he is today? His UFC career was born out of the stardom he gained in the WWE, and without Heyman would he have been that star..?

So another Superstar aligning themselves with Heyman is not to be sniffed at. And who should come out? Michael Mcgillicutty… Now don’t get me wrong. Mr Perfect was one of my favourite wrestlers and I’ve seen flashes in Michael Mcgillicutty that I’ve really liked. We all have to accept gimmick changes… Does anyone remember Isaac Yankem or the Ringmaster? Well they went on to become Kane and Stone Cold Steve Austin, respectively.

Michael Mcgillicutty in to Curtis Axel looked to be a good gimmick change. Well I say looked, and that’s because of the weird booking of Monday Night Raw. HHH comes down and slaps Axel to the floor. Not so great I thought. But then Axel gets right back up and challenges Hunter to a match. Great I thought…

The problem was… Curtis Axel’s debut match had to be one of the weirdest bookings for a debut I’ve ever seen. I still remember the debut of Rocky Maivia when he was the sole survivor at Survior Series and when John Cena kicked out of an Angle slam and anklelock to come within inches of beating Kurt Angle. But this debut was nothing like that. This debut didn’t even let Curtis Axel pin a HHH that could barely stand.

I thought to myself: why not let Curtis Axel go over? HHH could always come back out later and say that he wasn’t even cleared to compete or whatever, but in the record books it would show Curtis Axel pinned HHH in his first ever match. What a start to a career… No? But instead it seems like the WWE (HHH) decided that not making HHH look too weak was more important than letting a potential future star go over, and get over with the fans in the process.

This is just a clear example of the WWE failing to build stars because it is too busy protecting the ageing stars it already has. I’m not bagging on the older stars or saying that HHH can’t still go or anything like that. What I’m saying is the WWE needs to biuild new stars and do it well. Otherwise it might just be the DoW… In my opinion, the way they handled Ryback, the way they’re burying Cesaro and the way they debuted Curtis Axel, is not the way to do it…

That’s all folks… As always, post your comments, thoughts and opinions below! Or message me on twitter and let me know what you think the ‘Death of Wrestling’ is and I might just blog about it!!! Peace and I’m out…