BLOG #35: The Decline of the WWE Empire

 *Part 1: If You Can Read, You Know What This Is*

{Mad Cheshire's Note: To anyone reading this, please remember that I do not have direct access to the Internet and cannot post this Blog to Twitter, Instagram, or other Social Media sites on my own. Nor is my faithful Minion knowledgeable about such things. I am also unable to see responses to these things that I write. So, I encourage any and all of you reading this to link this and the installments to follow to any WWE Network forum so others can read it and respond, and let them know how to get in contact with me through JPay if they so desire. Thankee sai!}

I have been watching WWE since way back, when it was still WWF, before they got sued by the World Wildlife Foundation and forced to change their name. I grew up with the Monday Night Wars during the Attitude Era, and cheered when Degeneration X invaded WCW Monday Night Nitro. I've watched bootleg ECW videotapes in awe of the death-defying stunts they pulled. I've seen flops and I've seen innovations; I've cheered my favourites and lamented the screen time given to idiots. And yes, I was one of those kids who dove headfirst off my porch onto my buddy and damn-near broke my neck. The Biohazard/Jason Sneeze rivalry remains ond of my most epic (and physically painful) teenage memories -- I have plenty of scars to remind me of our many battles. And for those of you who don't know, I am Biohazard and my Nuclear Drop was the shit! ^_^

For the last 20 years, I've had to watch WWE from my prison cell. I was delightfully shocked when Big Show and Brock Lesnar broke the ring on Smackdown!, and I had mixed feelings when Vince McMahon consolidated WCW, ECW, and WWE. I've seen great superstars come and go, and seen amazing talent get completely shafted for reasons I cannot fathom. I was enraged when Seth Rollins broke up The Shield, and I always looked forward to the Wyatt Family's next matches. And more than anything in recent years, I hated* what WWE did to The Undertaker's Wrestlemania legacy. It should have been Shawn Michaels that broke The Streak -- if anyone! -- not Brock Lesnar. That was nothing less than a blatant, promotional money grab by Vince McMahon who then allowed Lesnar to win the Universal Championship and hold it hostage for months, disrespecting both the talent roster and loyal WWE fans everywhere by refusing to wrestle any time except pay-per-view.

But I digress.

I Love watching wrestling. Right now, I even skip evening recreation to make sure I catch every minute of the first Monday Night RAW after every pay-per-view to see what happened. If I could have access to any one Internet channel, it would be an all-Anime channel; but WWE Network would definitely be my second pick.

It is because I am such a fan that I write these next couple of installments. First, I want to address the decline in WWE's quality. This really needs to be examined and discussed and, hopefully, enough people will say something about this to inspire changes by the management. It's what's best for business. Stephanie, Paul, I'm talking to you. Hunter would have known better, and probably kicked Paul's ass for allowing this crap to happen.

When Covid-19 hit, it screwed up so much for everyone, everywhere. I get that -- it didn't get any easier for prisoners like me, either. But WWE missed an amazing opportunity to shine the spotlight on talent that wasn't getting as much attention as they should have been. But, instead of bringing fresh, hungry talent from NXT, or promoting existing roster talents like Aleister Black, Buddy Murphy, or Humberto Carillo, they decided to scrape the bottom of the barrel and bring back a barely has-been like MVP! And I'm being generous by saying that they only scraped the bottom of the barrel with him! From there, WWE has only gone downhill over the last year.

To date, their major storylines have included a failed "Fight Club" by Shane McMahon, a poisoning scam, a hit-and-run frame-up surrounding and playing on Jeff Hardy's addictions (followed by the single worst bar fight ever), Retribution's rise and fizzle (an especially disappointing flop), Shane McMahon inserting himself once again into Wrestlemania, Sammy Zane's so-called conspiracy theories, and Roman Reigns becoming the so-called "Head of The Table" and turning into a complete bitch. But worst of all has been the latest storyline concerning Apollo Crews. WWE has completely disrespected every African American in the world with this new "Real Apollo" persona. Apparently, this native of Stone Mountain, Georgia has in actuality been Nigerian royalty all this time and has been hiding his terrible pseudo-Nigerian accent. Not only is Apollo claiming that he is the only "real" African American, but his actions are among the most cowardly, entitled, and whiney anywhere in the WWE or other wrestling venues. He has become the worst stereotype of a man of colour WWE has over produced, including the "Baller" and "OG" airs MVP keeps putting on, and even worse than Virgil!

If Apollo Crews' behaviour is that of "real" African royalty, then Chadwick Boseman must be turning over in his grave. Crews has gone from a top-notch athlete with an impeccable work ethic to a cowardly, sniveling, entitled whiner who attacks his competition (currently the North American Champion Big E) from behind, then flees and crows that he "showed his enemy the steel." What steel, Apollo? The steel in the springs in your bootheels that helped you run away so fast?

Not only does Apollo Crews sound like he picked up his accent after watching Black Panther a couple times, but haven't we already had someone who used a fake accent? Are you seriously rehashing this bit? I know it was a Jamaican accent, but it at least sounded authentic coming from Kofi Kingston!
With the world's focus on racial equality and the much-needed Black Lives Matter movement, it bewilders me that WWE would promote such a blatantly disrespectful stereotype. It bothers me more than Apollo Crews himself would allow himself to be portrayed this way.

Apollo, is this really the way you want African Americans to be portrayed in one of the most popular and visible entertainment mediums in the world? It's one thing to be a heel, it's quite another to sell out in such MAGA style.

Sadly, this is only the beginning. Stay tuned, folks, because I've got another rant coming down the pipelines.

The preceding rant has been brought to you by Cheshire Industries, diehard fans of wrestling since 1983 when we dropkicked that bastard in the white coat who slapped us on our ass; and is sponsored by fans who deserve better quality from their heroes, heels and antiheroes; and by the number 3. Thank you.

I AM The Kyle and I approved this message!