While last Sunday night's conclusion of HBO's long-running series, The Sopranos ended on a rather ambiguous note, the following night's episode of Monday Night RAW concluded with a cliffhanger and more of a satisfying "bang" than the bada-bing buffet had provided less than 24 hours earlier. Similarly, both shows generated quite a bit of media buzz (although, admittedly, The Sopranos got considerably more publicity).
As with any televised ending, there are always the critics who will debate how lackluster or "genius" (a word I had heard tossed around in reference to The Sopranos finale ad nauseum from friends, acquaintances, and television critics within the past week) that ending was. Everyone has an opinion, even though you may not agree completely with whatever that may be. For my money's worth (considering I am a paying cable subscriber), Monday night's dénouement proved to give the most "bang" for my buck.
Standing firm in my belief that good drama is defined by strong characters whose actions define the plot, both The Sopranos and professional wrestling have a lot more in common than the scripted violence that each brings to their respective viewers' television sets with each episode. Sure, The Sopranos may be considered to be the more "highbrow" of the two entertainment vehicles, but hey, professional wrestling is the one that's still on television and finalized its latest episode with an ending that didn't leave fans wondering if they had paid their cable bill on time.
Whereas The Sopranos did or did not wind up its loose ends with a screen that went completely and silently black, the three-hour special episode of RAW featuring the first-ever Tri-Branded Draft to shift superstars from show to show culminated in an explosion of color, namely, WWE Chairman Vincent Kennedy McMahon's limousine exploding with him supposedly in it. With the following episodes of both ECW and Smackdown!, it was widely assumed that the Mr. McMahon character had met his "demise" in the blast.
What made this past week's Monday Night RAW such good television and so satisfying was the element of surprise employed in its execution. Much like Sopranos writer David Chase had guarded the final episode of his creation by filming a rumored three endings to prevent any media leaks regarding the top-secret conclusion, RAW's production crew filmed the limo explosion in advance on a closed set in Wilkes-Barre, PA during the wee hours of Sunday night to keep the plot development as hush-hush as possible.
While I personally didn't find the ending of The Sopranos to be very rewarding, it was a logical way to end the series, allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions. Let's face it, we're a rather skeptical society, particularly when it comes to our forms of entertainment. You can't please every single fan with a clear-cut way of wrapping up the series, so Chase took the approach of letting viewers draw their own conclusion, allowing them to decide for themselves in which way the story ended.
On the flipside, professional wrestling is an on-going story, a sweaty soap opera, (insert your own Dusty Rhodes impersonation here), if you will. Every angle that is wrapped up cedes an entirely new beginning for all characters involved. Although the Tri-Brand Draft was intended to create new storylines and revive stagnant rivalries by injecting some new blood into the rosters of each of the three shows, the "McMahon Go Boom!" storyline is a common thread to unite and generate the biggest story of them all.
The tyrannical character of the Chairman, Mr. McMahon was a prominent figure on all three shows, ruling over the locker rooms with an iron fist. The latest development prior to the new angle, was that Mr. McMahon was losing his marbles and descending into mania, reeling from the loss of his prized ECW Championship title to wrestler Bobby Lashley at the One Night Stand PPV.
Although, at times, professional wrestling can be pretty predictable, it's doubtful that anyone saw this past Monday Night's ending coming.
Few in the mainstream entertainment peanut galleries will ever call this "genius," possibly for fear of coming off as less-than-hip, admitting not only that the wrestling world had pulled off one hell of a coup let alone (gasp!) that they actually watch wrestling. Hell, this particular angle has been already branded with legendary "WrestleCrap" status, although all sources have stated that it's "good WrestleCrap." And yes, in this little fandom we call professional wrestling, there is such a thing. The ever-increasing legions of us fans who proudly call ourselves not only fans, but "smart marks" know the value and particular joy that campy television can provide.
What makes this latest WWE storyline so -- yes, I'm going to use that word -- -Lanny Poffo-level genius, is that for once, the outside public that does not happen to follow wrestling wasn't let in on the wink-winking and nudge-nudging that the fans were privy to. With characters like the nightcrawler-chomping Boogeyman and the mystical, urn-bearing Undertaker long holding court in WWE rings, we wrestling fans have been conditioned to this sort of off-the-wall pageantry. With its traditions ingrained in us since childhood, this sort of thing is part of the fan vernacular.
Even legitimate WrestleCrap Hall of Fame angles like the infamous Katie Vick storyline have prepared fans for the comparatively more tame explosion that occurred on Monday Night RAW. Much like we knew that Kane didn't really engage in random (and hilarious) acts of necrophilia with his deceased sweetie, Katie Vick; much like we knew that the late, great Big Boss Man did not really kill, cook into a delightful stew, and covertly make Al Snow eat his own beloved pet Chihuahua Pepper, wrestling fans instinctively knew that Vince McMahon did not really perish as a result of his limo "exploding" at the end of Monday Night RAW. We were let in on the joke seconds before the credits even rolled.
Unlike fans of a certain, now-defunct HBO series who found their rabid, eight-year love affair rewarded with the writer's equivalent of cheating on them with no tangible conclusion, wrestling fans know that eventually, this latest mystery will be eventually solved, on-air, at that. Whether the character of Mr. McMahon cheats death and comes back, or has indeed succumbed to an exit strategy for the real-life (and still kickin'!) CEO to devote more time to the business end of his company and away from the performance aspect, is yet to be determined for fans. Nevertheless, it gives us something to talk about and keeps us coming back for more. As I said to myself on my couch last Monday night, after picking my jaw up off the floor at 11:08PM, "wrestling is fun again!"
Tuesday morning, I found myself checking out WWE.com and other wrestling message boards to see what "developments" and "breaking news" on this latest plot point had arisen. It was like being a kid all over again! This was now a major storyline, and unlike the Donald Trump/Wrestlemania angle, was completely self-contained to the wrestling microcosm. While I knew this was all just a storyline, I wanted a preview of what could be in store for the WWE universe. The potential that the Internet Age allows for to help continue to generate interest in current storylines has been effectively used by WWE, and they're wisely milking it for all its worth.
While sometimes, I will admit to being frustrated with angles that seem to insult the viewers' intelligence, this time, wrestling fans were given the benefit of being insiders. For every non-fan who has ever sneered down his or her nose that wrestling is "fake", there were a few of these oh-so-omniscient ones who were hoodwinked into wondering if this latest McMahon-concocted stunt was real. (Come on! The biggest clue to the whopping dose of fake on this one was that Vince opened the door to the limo himself and that there was no chauffer present to open it for him. Ding, ding, ding! Clue Number One!)
All kidding aside, as fans, we know the storylines are fake, but the bodily sacrifices and athleticism of these men and women is genuine. And although fans of Tony Soprano and company may never know what happened to the character and his family (and his other "family"), we sports entertainment aficionados already know that our beloved Chairman is alive and well and will no doubt continue to helm his empire for many years to come. All that remains to be seen is whether or not the character he portrays is still alive and if so, how he managed to escape the Fiery Limo of Doom.
While the taste and tact factor of this current storyline is somewhat questionable and it remains to be seen just how far down the path of good taste the "McMahon Go Boom!" storyline scampers down, for now, fans have been given a major story arc to enjoy, all in the name of (sports) entertainment. Just sit back and enjoy the (limo) ride, my dears!
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