WWE Homecoming was, without a doubt, a historic night for the company, for the talent, and for the USA Network. The Homecoming accomplished its goals to an extent, and delivered great ratings (although, weren’t you expecting just a bit higher?). It was fun to see the legendary Austin/McMahon rivalry heated up for just one more night, when Austin cleaned house on the entire McMahon family. Two PPV-calibre matches were delivered to us, in the form of a Ladder Match and in an Iron Man Match. And at least 20 legends from WWE’s past, ranging from Dusty Rhodes to Ted Dibiase, from Arn Anderson to Jimmy Snuka, came together to give one of the “new, young punks” the what-for (in this case, the unlucky recipient of a veteran ass-beating was Rob Conway).
But I ask you… no no, I implore you to dissect the Homecoming and present to me something legendary. Something historic. A match or segment that will be talked about for years to come. Can’t do it, can you? I don’t blame WWE, because the night was a huge success, and I was left smiling and wanting more. Well, I was left smiling after the legends took on Rob Conway. Most of what came afterwards (Hogan; Smackdown match cancelled; Bischoff/Cena; the 2nd Raw vs. Smackdown brawl in as many years) was barely passible as normal Raw events.
Still, even without the last 30 or so minutes, what of the first two and a half hours was historic? The best that I can come up with was the Austin/McMahon family segment, although even that ran a little long. The rest of the show was great entertainment, but once Taboo Tuesday hits, we likely won’t recall much about WWE Homecoming. And I can’t help but look back on the past Raw clips that I saw (in the Raw Exposed special, as well as the Austin/McMahon segment) and feel as though we haven’t had very many historic moments or matches in the past few years.
My most loyal of readers will know that I returned to WWE television in March of 2002. In that time, I cannot recall many events that I would call historic. The best I can come up with are: Eric Bischoff debuting on Raw (July 2002); HBK superkicking Hogan (July 2005); Rock vs. Hogan (March 2002); The Brand-Split (March 2002); Goldberg debuts on Raw (March 2003). That’s the best I can come up with, and I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel with Goldberg.
Where are the history-making events? Where is the modern-day equivalent to Austin confronting Mike Tyson? Where is the modern-day equivalent to Mankind winning the WWE Title on Raw against The Rock? Where is today’s version of The Rock and Mick Foley’s “This is Your Life” segment? The Austin/McMahon rivalry is filled with legendary and historic moments that many of us will never forget, but there is nothing that can possibly match it today. Cena and Bischoff? Please, don’t make me fall off my chair and giggle uncontrollably. Cena and Bischoff’s feud pales in comparison to Austin and Bischoff’s feud in 2003, which in itself pales in comparison to Austin and McMahon’s legendary feud.
This Is Your Life, Rock. Remember that? I did not witness it live, but I’ve seen the recap videos and I enjoyed what I saw. But there is nothing of that calibre today. There is nothing that lives up to what The Rock and Mick Foley could do, most notoriously with This Is Your Life. There is nothing today that can possibly rival the uncountable amount of historic moments that Hulk Hogan has given us. To present these segments today would require us to have solid enough babyfaces and heels, and we just don’t have that. My “on-the-fence” opinion of Triple H still continues, but I truly believe he is the only solidified character in the WWE today. The two top faces don’t hold a candle to Rock and Austin, in creating history. When’s the last time you recalled John Cena segment, or a Batista segment? Never.
I’ll use a Ric Flair comparison for John Cena. You see, John Cena is good. He’s a good wrestler, a good champion, and a good top draw. But great? Not quite. A legend? Not at all. By WWE’s definition (and by the definition of millions of young girls with puppy love over the Dr. of Thuganomics), Cena will be a legend down the road. But he just doesn’t have it in my book. The same can be said for Batista, but then again, Batista’s forté is his matches. He isn’t required to be strong on the mic, and to be honest, he’s not. But, Cena’s forté is the complete opposite. His in-ring work isn’t his strong point, and it doesn’t have to be, while he has to excel on the mic, thanks to his gimmick. In my eyes, these mean are “good” at the points were they need to be strong. But great? No.
WWE Championship Matches are meant to be the cream of the crop in matches. When recalling the year’s biggest matches, you’re more likely to immediately draw yourself to the title matches and work back from there. Back in the day, you had Mick Foley beating The Rock on Raw and WINNING the title. How about Chris Jericho’s “win” over Triple H on Smackdown a few years back? Sure, it was reversed afterwards, and it was on Smackdown, but my point remains. Steve Austin won his title back the very next night after losing it to Kane in 1998. Hell, even Vince McMahon won the title a few years ago on a televised event, not on PPV. When is the last time this has happened?
There are only two times within the past three and a half years where the title has changed hands. One occasion, the title actually changed hands, while the other time, it was some sort of a draw. The Iron Man match on Smackdown between Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar back in 2003 gave us a title switch. However, on Raw in 2004, with Randy Orton as GM, Chris Benoit and Edge supposedly won the match, but neither were declared the champion. That can be ignored because Triple H ended up winning it back anyway at New Year’s Revolution.
People enjoy the idea of a spontaneous show, so the prospect of a switch of any title (but mainly the WWE/World Title) at any given time will add more to Title matches on Raw or Smackdown. I don’t think we want the titles to switch hands every week, but once in a while, an IC champion losing his championship, or the WWE champion losing his belt on either show would help ratings. I don’t believe the WWE feels the need to do this anymore simply because there’s nothing to compete with, so wrestling fans watch anyway. The WWE doesn’t feel the need to steal away viewers from a rival show, because there aren’t any, so we’re getting a lot less spontaneous title switches on either show. This segways right into my most important point of this entire column. Competition.
The WWE competed with WCW and ECW for many years, and the ratings battle was a tough brawl. The wrestling fans won big time when both WWE and WCW were neck-and-neck in the ratings, because each show felt the need to outdo the other for the ratings. Today, we don’t have competition for the WWE. This week was an important week for WWE, TNA, and the UFC. Raw moved back home to USA to the tune of 5.6 million viewers. However, UFC didn’t quite match Raw’s old ratings on SpikeTV, scoring just 1.9 million viewers. Even worse (but still notable, considering it’s a new form of wrestling for a lot of people), TNA Impact snagged just 850,000 viewers on Saturday night, only a slim 300,000 viewers more than Velocity’s average, and that show wasn’t a big part of WWE’s schedule.
However, I feel both UFC and TNA gave solid debut numbers, and while I don’t want the UFC being the alternate to WWE, I think TNA could and will build on those numbers over time. It may take a while, but I believe more people will watch, and maybe someday, we’ll see a new Monday Night War, between the WWE and TNA. That is what we need for an even stronger WWE product. That’s what we need to witness history-making moments.
We know that the WWE is a great company, with great shows on USA and UPN, every Monday and Friday night. But, I think we’d all love to see a legendary WWE resurface. A WWE that feels compelled to give the fans even more than they already give. I’m not complaining about what we get, I’m just trying to do my part to see the WWE attracting more viewers, the numbers of viewers that the WWE got in the Attitude era, in the Austin era, in the Rock era, and in the Mick Foley era. Maybe then we’ll see the next Austin/McMahon. The Next Rock. The Next Eric Bischoff arriving on Raw. The next Mick Foley winning the WWE title on Raw. The Next Shane McMahon claiming WCW as his own. Maybe someday, we’ll have brand new history-making moments in the WWE.
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