Why I am losing interest in this year’s WrestleMania (and other messages from the voices in my head)

With all the twists, turns, additions and changes that have taken place within the last weeks and months, the lead up to this year’s Mania has left this pro wrestling fan with a very sour taste in my mouth. When I think about the reasons why my interest has waned, I can come up with a couple examples why.

1.—The Triple Threat Main Event

Why does Vince feel that we need a triple threat main event between Becky Lynch, Charlotte and Ronda Rousey? Why can’t he adapt and adjust to going with the flow of natural pushes from the fans? Look, I have a very strong feeling that before the advent of the awesomeness that is “The Man”, Vince and the creative team were probably slowly working towards a match for the RAW Women’s Championship between Ronda Rousey and Charlotte for the first ever females main-eventing WrestleMania. I honestly don’t think that they saw or felt the smoldering groundswell of people waiting and hoping for them to bring Becky Lynch, a definite fan/audience favorite back to the fore would garner. They didn’t see that finally turning Lynch into a badass brawler (something that fans have thought and felt about her for years) would affect the mindset of their audience. If I was creative and saw that the fans are really loving on Becky Lynch, the badass brawler, who fans want to see win all the awards, belts and what have you, I would adapt and adjust with what the audience wants. They’ve been doing that for the most part—that is until Vince and creative decided that for whatever reason, they want to throw a wrench in the works, add Charlotte back to the mix and devalue Becky’s massive natural push by making her do things that no true badass (and I hate to use this hallowed name, because, though similar, this push is different), “Stone Cold Steve Austin” style character would do. Why would “The Man” Becky Lynch apologize to Triple H and Stephanie for looking out for herself, when even we as the audience know the history of the authority? That one decision devalued her natural push a lot. Now, this whole feud between Ronda and Becky has collapsed into the muddled mess of the WAY overused trope of the triple threat match.

2.—What the hell are creative doing with Asuka and the Smackdown Women’s Title?

Since winning the title from Becky Lynch, in one of the best matches of last year, after being wholly misused for the majority of the year (much like Becky Lynch), what has happened to Asuka in the following months? Asuka, one of the best wrestlers (gender be damned) of today, outside of an amazing match with Becky Lynch at the Royal Rumble (which for me was tied for match of the night with Sasha/Ronda), has fallen back into the lower midcardness of it all—a Championship titleholder! What the hell, creative?! Since retaining the belt against Becky, Asuka hasn’t even been on TV much, let alone been given any real threats to her title. Though Ember Moon is hurt, and they haven’t quite moved Candice LaRae officially up to the Smackdown Live main roster, they have two very competent threats to her title in the form of both Nikki Cross and Sonya Deville.

So what are they doing to build either of these characters, Nikki Cross is barely on TV, and has only been in a couple matches since officially joining the main roster. She and the rest of Sanity should be going for multiple belts because they are ALL amazing wrestlers and they have the near perfect gimmick of four people who are bent on wreaking the winds of chaos on the current Smackdown Live roster. Eric Young could be going after the US title, Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe could be wreaking havoc on the tag scene and Nikki Cross has already shown that she has amazing talent and has been a solid threat to Asuka’s reign in the past. If Cross and Asuka had another “Last Women Standing” match at Mania, I know it would tear the house down. Instead, the only member of Sanity who’s been on TV within the last few weeks has been Nikki, while cheering Kofi Kingston (another amazing wrestler) on, while he fights to get his shot at the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.

What do they have Deville doing? She the sidekick to a conniving Mandy Rose, who they had trying to end the marriage of Jimmy Uso and Naomi; which garnered her the chance at Asuka’s belt at Fastlane. A match, I might add that was complete garbage, because Mandy Rose is nowhere near the level of Asuka in terms of in-ring prowess, even though Asuka tried to put together a competent match with her.

Now, they are finally trying to set Deville apart as a competitive threat, but story wise it’s coming out of left field, and it’s really A LOT of ‘too little, too late’ in my opinion true, but there it is. Deville hasn’t had a lot of singles matches to establish herself as a threat to Asuka’s reign, so all this confused drollery surrounding Asuka’s current run as champion has done nothing for the wrestlers involved, and has only further gone to prove that creative doesn’t know what to do with pro wrestlers who don’t speak English as a first language, and it’s ridiculously sad, because the folks over at NXT seem to know what to do with these amazing talents.

3.—There are way too many multi-person title matches on this year’s card.

What I mean is right now there are proposed four-way matches for the Smackdown Live tag titles, the Women’s Tag titles: and triple threat matches for the RAW Women’s Championship and the Smackdown Women’s Championship—why? Honestly, I think that during next week’s “go home” show for Smackdown Live, they are going to add Andrade into the mix for Samoa Joe’s US Title. Should just be Sasha & Bayley vs the Iconic Duo, if they weren’t adding anyone from NXT to the mix. Tamina/Jax vs Pheonix/Natalya should be its own grudge match.

This is the reason why I think that the WWE needs to bring back the King of the Ring Tournament, expand it to last longer, and add divisions for the Women’s and Tag Team divisions. Doing this would open up the roster for more feuds that matter, and would in many ways eliminate the need for all these triple threats and four-way title matches. Also, it would diversify who would be going up for these belts, because the whole roster would be built up, strong and relevant to the audience.

If I were running the creative of the main roster, there would only be two times a year that every title belt would be defended during the same PPV, and those two PPVs would be WrestleMania in March (because I would move WrestleMania to the beginning or middle of March, so that it is still at the beginning of the year), where all the main roster belts would be defended, as well as some feud matches that evolved out of the KoTR Tourney; and Clash or Night of Champions at the end of the year in December, where every title would be defended (that includes the NXT and NXT UK belts as well), and the King, Queen and Tag Teams of the Ring would be crowned, setting up their eventual title matches at the next year’s WrestleMania. Each winner would choose the belt that they wanted to pursue, leaving open the #1 contender for the other belt to be decided during January’s Royal Rumble PPV (which is my favorite PPV). This would give the Creative staff a solid month plus a week or two before March to build all the title matches that are set up from the Rumble, and give Creative two and a half solid months (depending on when the Clash of Champions PPV took place in December) to build the matches for the winners of the tournament and their perspective champions.

Instead what’s happening is creative doesn’t really know what they want to do with any of the tag divisions, so all these divisions (including the newly reformed women’s tag division) are mired in uncertainty as to where to go next. This comes from the top down, because if the guy at the top is changing his mind every five seconds, and there is no ability to adapt and adjust with the ebbs and flows of natural pushes, there is NO STABILITY in the lower ranks.

4.—There are too many unnecessary matches on this card.

Why has Shane McMahon had a match at every WrestleMania since returning to the company? Don’t get me wrong, he will always have major respect from me for his in-ring performances, especially since he’s not really known as a full-time professional wrestler. He has been a part of some entertaining, classic matches of WWE/WWF’s past. My issue is this, he should be used more sparingly than this. Having him wrestle at every Mania (as well as other big PPVs during the year) since his return has in many ways lessened his appeal—at least to me. I haven’t liked the build to his match with The Miz this year (even though I actually like the Miz regardless of his status on the face/heel spectrum), and honestly most of his feuds this year have been bland. Don’t get me wrong, Shane’s match with AJ Styles at Mania last year and his match against Kevin Owens at Hell in a Cell were amazing and very good stories in the ring, but other than that, I have not wanted or cared about Shane in any of his other matches, outside of some of the moves he performs.

I really hope that this is the last time we see Brock Lesnar in a WWE ring. I really could care less about him and he is honestly ruining Paul Heyman for me. I love Paul Heyman. I have since he ran ECW. He is definitely one of the greatest managers and talent of pro wrestling that harken back to and are on the same level as the greats like Bobby Heenan, Freddie Blassie and the like. My problem with Heyman right now, however, is that he is the mouthpiece of a guy who cares nothing for pro wrestling outside of how much money he can make off of it. That’s just Lesnar’s persona or gimmick folks. He exudes this air of ‘I don’t give a damn about this business. Just give me my money and I’ll go out to the ring, lay a dud and leave.’ That really just pisses me off and unfortunately turns me off  Heyman as well a bit, because as much as I love Heyman, he has to come out and speak words of loving, carnage-filled care for this pile of walking garbage—that’s Lesnar’s persona, not the man. I don’t know the man, so I can’t speak on the man behind the gimmick.

I have no problem with Kurt Angle having his last match at WrestleMania, but why Baron Corbin? I have read that Angle’s eventual opponent hasn’t really been named yet, and Corbin is just a stand-in, but what if all that is just subterfuge for the fact that Corbin is actually his opponent. If that is the case, then this match will be most unfortunate for me because let’s be frank (and this is just my opinion), Corbin sucks ass. I equate him to someone like Jay White—a wrestler who I think (true as a long-time pro wrestling fan and not one who has ever worked in the business) isn’t that interesting and honestly is getting chances that they haven’t really earned. Unlike Jay White, who I’ve seen is a very competent wrestler in the ring, Baron Corbin is another “few moves of doom” type wrestler who only really has three moves, with only two being on the level of doom. Other than that, he is so boring and bland in the ring, I often use any match that he is in as a pee break, except for the first few matches he had with Finn Balor, and that was all because of Balor, who is a top-notch, all-around wrestler. Corbin, on the other hand, if allowed to be Angle final competitor in a WWE ring is a poor choice all around. I would have loved to have seen Angle vs anyone else. Hell, they could bring back John Cena (for whom the ‘five moves of doom’ moniker has perpetuated) as the last person for Angle to wrestle for a feel of a full circle, because Angle was the person Cena wrestled for his debut on WWE/WWF TV. I’d love to see that, even if the match only last seven minutes. There is a saying that goes “Seven Minutes in Heaven”, and though that saying wasn’t made for this reason, it would fit an Angle/Cena retirement match quite aptly.

Well, what do you guys and girls think? I’ve given my reasons for why my interest is waning in this year’s WrestleMania. Are your interests waning? If so, what is causing it? If not, what has interested you the most about this year’s build to the “Grandaddy of Them All”, and what matches are you most looking forward to? Please leave a comment down below, and I’m sure the voices in my head will have something else to talk about soon…

And now many words from the music addict…

I apologize for not posting sooner, but for the last few weeks my mind has been filled with work on my short stories, gaming, and anime during the chill times, and as a music addict, I have completely become hooked on the band, Band-Maid again. For those that haven’t heard of them, Band Maid is a five-piece, all-girl hard rock fusion band from Japan. I say “fusion”, because this band adds elements from genres such as Metal into their hard rock tones. Though I first heard about them, and their music about March or April of last year, like all music addicts, I have been feening for more music from them. In January, they released two new single, “Glory” and “Bubble”, with “Bubble” being released as the theme song to a new Drama debuting in Japan, and like the music addict I am, there are times that I get the urge building up inside me to hear Music from certain bands. I’ve only felt this way before about bands like Garbage, U2, The Police, Lacuna Coil, artists like Prince, Les Claypool and Sade, groups like the Spice Girls, BlackPink, Twice, and DJs like Daft Punk and Zedd. You know…the feeling or yearning that comes from deep inside that if you don’t hear a certain song or artist, something in you might burst? That’s how I feel about bands and artists like these that have in many ways touched my soul.

There are many reasons why I love this band. From their look of being dressed as maid that you would see at many of the “Maid Cafes” that pervade Akihabara, that almost completely contrasts with their sound of being a hard rock/fusion band; I think what excites me most about this band, and the main reason why I love them so much is, as a fellow musician who is true, rusty, but who has learned how to play multiple instruments, with each song they’ve released, each member of this band (Akane/drummer, Misa/bass, Kanami/lead guitar, Miku/rhythm guitar & vocals, and Saiki/lead vocals) display their technical excellence of their given parts, and also prove that when five amazing talents come together to create a band, that one massive hit of a whole is truly the sum of its parts. They are definitely a tight group on wax (if I can display my age a little). Also, they show that they (I assume along with their producers) know how to put together amazing songs, and regardless of age and knowledge in the music industry, that can be a hard task, but this band seems to do it nearly effortlessly.

I honestly can’t say enough good things about this band, and I understand why they have garnered the monikers of Akane “The Beast”, Misa “The Assassin”, Kanami “The Tsunami”, Miku “Little Pidgeon” and Saiki “The Princess” respectively from fans, and their musical prowess is on full display in every note they utter. There are few bands that I truly fangirl over, like those I’ve already stated, and I’m not ashamed to say that Band Maid is most definitely the newest addition to that list.

If you haven’t heard of them, check out their video for DICE below.