I want MY WWE !!!

I remember a time when I loved wrestling. It was the characters that drew me in. I loved the Boogie Woogie Man, Junk Yard Dog, Koko B Ware, The Honky Tonk Man and the Immortal Hulk Hogan. At the time when these characters dominated the business the debate raged on amongst the fans, "was wrestling real?" Most observers, who didn't live in a trailer park, knew that what they were watching was nothing more than and elaborate play. The brilliance of the hoax was the fact that the wrestlers said it was "real" the industry people said it was "real" and it was presented on T.V. as if it were a "real" sport. There was never a time that you saw the stars out of character. They had brilliant promos where they would show the host of the show going to Australia to find, Out Back Jack or going to the Uganda to find the Ugandan Giant, Kamala.

In the late 1990's the industry changed and they admitted to the public that wrestling wasn't a sport but rather "sports entertainment". Many of the gimmicks disappeared and they replaced them with people who fancied themselves as legitimate wrestlers. To be legitimate you had to be in shape, be able to execute high risk maneuvers and able to put over other wrestlers. This new breed of wrestler no longer had the great nick name or the gimmick. The new wrestlers were introduced to the audience by their own names, wrestlers like John Cena, Chris Benoit, Mick Foley and Chris Maters. These wrestlers do interviews out of character and talk openly about the industry. This new open and more "real" wrestler ruined it for me. It took away the magic and the soap opera that was wrestling.

When wrestling was “real” the characters weren’t and when wrestling was no longer “real” the characters became “real”. From my perspective I will always take an angry drill sergeant (Sgt. Slaughter), a giant from Grenoble France (Andre the Giant), two bushwackers from the outback (Bushwackers) or a barber (Brutus the Barber Beefcake) over some oiled up guys with names like you and me who wrestle well. I don’t know how this happened to my favorite soap opera but I want my, I want my, I want my WWE.