The Thrill Is Gone

Remember how exciting Monday nights used to be?

Go back to 1997 with me and think about "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Hart Foundation, De-Generation X, Mankind/Cactus Jack/Dude Love, Goldust, Vader, and Ken Shamrock. The emergence of superstars like The Rock and Kane was just beginning. And the guy who you would almost forget about but could appear at any moment and absolutely blow the roof off the place, The Undertaker!

And what about over on Nitro where you had some of the greatest young cruiserweights like Rey Mysterio Jr., Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Juventud Guerrera, Ultimo Dragon, and Dean Malenko absolutely killing it in the ring with fantastic ten-minute matches? Move up a few pounds and you had guys like Curt Hennig, Perry Saturn, Booker T, Chris Benoit, Diamond Dallas Page, and Raven battling it out over the intermediate titles. And the main event was routinely stocked with huge names from the past like "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Lex Luger, Ric Flair, and Hulk Hogan, and guys in their prime like Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Syxx, and The Giant. And steadily moving up the ranks, the phenomenal Goldberg who you knew was destined for greatness. Add to that the hottest angle in wrestling at the time, Sting stalking the nWo, Hogan, and the World title in particular, and Monday nights were a big effing deal for a wrestling fan!

And now think about the rest of the week. Remember how excited you'd get on Wednesdays to watch more wrestling? No? How about Thursdays? Fridays? Ok, but Saturdays for sure, right? C'mon, wrestling couldn't possibly have been hotter at that time! How could you not want to watch it every single day of the week??

Simple, because it was more fun to let the anticipation build and reflect on what you watched on Monday. That way by the time the next Monday night rolled around, you were totally jacked and couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. And rarely did the show disappoint back then because they made the most of their respective two hours each and jam-packed it full of the stuff we wanted to see.

And then, the cycle would repeat. You could talk to friends all week long about what happened on Monday and speculate as to what would happen next. More importantly, you could have a fucking life! Everyone enjoys some type of meaningless fun for a couple of hours a week. That's not too much to ask of any normal human being. So a couple hours spent on a Monday night flipping back and forth between two wrestling shows was no big deal either.

But fast forward to 2012 and if you were going to keep up on all that's happening in the world of professional wrestling, or even just WWE, you're already in over your head on Monday because now Raw is three hours instead of two! Add to that an hour of Main Event on Wednesday, two hours of Smackdown on Friday, a half hour for Saturday Morning Slam, and if you're really dedicated, an hour of Superstars and an hour of NXT on the internet.

Before we look at what's WRONG with this, let's understand, WWE doesn't care if you watch all six of these shows >(SIX!!). The shows are on TV not to pull ratings(obviously, because their ratings suck), but for the advertising and sponsorship dollars, and for the exposure.

The people in charge of World Wrestling Entertainment could care less whether or not marks can keep up with all their programming. WWE is a BUSINESS. And as a BUSINESS, they have ONE GOAL: to make money. If you are buying tickets, pay-per-views, merchandise, advertising, or stock, they care about what you think. If you are not, then they don't.

Now I know that breaks all our widdle, weswing fan hearts, but grow up, already! Time to get your head out of the fucking clouds and realize this isn't your daddy's WWE! Actually, your daddy never had a WWE. He had a WW-F, and the WW-F was fucking awesome! The WWE on the other hand, is the drizzling shits.

Not that the goal was any different for the WWF, but there were more old-timers around back then. More wrestling people had a say in the product and therefore, it was good. Those people have been gradually phased out and now, Vince McMahon's family is calling the shots. And if you know anything about history, Vince McMahon is a fucking moron when it comes to wrestling.

Vince is a businessman. He deserves credit for being a businessman. He's a hell of a performer. He deserves credit for being a great performer. But when it comes to creative ideas, you're better off asking the manager of your local Pizza Hut to book your show (those of you who get that, I salute you!).

Do your research. This is the guy who wanted to bring Mick Foley in as The Mutilator. This is the guy who called Steve Austin, The Ringmaster. This is the guy who damn near had an orgasm about "Puke." He's a fucking idiot when it comes to making up a compelling wrestling storyline and no one is going to convince me otherwise!

The point? Now that Vince and his family are calling the shots more than ever, the product is suffering. It's not the first time either. It's happened before. And thankfully, there was WCW and Ted Turner to kick Vince's ass in the ratings and piss him off enough to change things up and actually listen to the talent and the wrestling people he had around him at the time.

The result? The most entertaining time ever in the history of wrestling on TV.

But I digress. So what's WRONG with six wrestling shows, encompassing eight and half (FREAKING) hours of television per week? Simple, it's just...too...much.

Think of it this way, imagine if, back in 1997, you had this many shows. Could you really have remembered everything that happened on any one of them? It's been fifteen years and I STILL remember angles from those days! Fact is, our brains can only retain so much. And the more it has to take in, the less it's going to retain. It's a matter of percentages. The better, more entertaining something is, the greater the likelihood that we're going to retain it. But when there's this much, and most of it is easily forgettable, even downright head-shakingly awful, we're going to retain even less!

It could be better. Certainly. If more wrestling people were involved creatively like they were back in the day, if the talent was given more say perhaps. But even if it were better, it's still too much. There's no chance for anticipation to build during the week and the result is, the shows tend to run together.

I watched WWE's most recent pay-per-view, Hell In A Cell, and most of the matches (not some, not a few, but MOST) were standard fare for any one of the six weekly television shows and nothing worthy of paying money to see. If that's the case with the pay-per-views, then it's certainly the case with what's taking place on the TV shows. For instance, what sets Raw apart from Smackdown? Why couldn't the things being done on Main Event have just been done during Raw? NXT might be a refreshing use of young talent but how much time is devoted to pointless segments on Raw or Smackdown that could be devoted to this same young talent instead?

The greatest danger with WWE's current programming slate is the one thing they're desperately seeking: exposure. Nothing wrong with getting more eyes on the product. Particularly when there's so much programming on TV to choose from now.

However, not that I even pretend to understand all the dollars and cents, but the fact is, there were more people watching Vince McMahon's product when there was just a FRACTION of what he has now on TV. More people were buying tickets. More people were buying merchandise. More people were buying pay-per-views. Money, money, MONEY(Cue DiBiase laugh track)!

But not only was the product good back then, but the product was also special. Wrestling on Monday nights was an event, a national phenomenon! Like Monday Night Football or a popular weekly sitcom. Everyone would gather around the TV at a friend's house on Monday night because it was wrestling night! And we all couldn't wait to see what was going to happen.

Now? "Oh, I'll just DVR Raw and maybe watch it later if I get around to it. I still have to get caught up on Smackdown from last week!"

Where has the excitement gone? I'll tell you where. It's still buried in the hearts of wrestling fans like me. An ember at the bottom of a fire that has almost completely died out. I read Twitter and Facebook on Monday nights when you guys and gals aren't working and have the chance to catch the show live. I can detect the passion that's still in the words you type as I'm sure you can detect it in mine. The hope that maybe someday, the puppetmasters who pull the strings will hear the collective voice of "The Voiceless" and return the great thing that we love to its former glory.

Maybe someday before I type my last word. Until next time true believers, die hard and..........DISCUSS!!!

{Our beloved author, "Handsome" Dan Lopez is mentioned regularly on his favorite wrestling shows, The Shining Wizards Wrestling Podcast and Turnbuckle Throwbacks. Follow him on Twitter, @DansLastWord.}