The McMahon Behind The Curtai

The opening segment of this week's Monday Night Raw is a light shining at us from the future, illuminating what the WWE could (and hopefully will) become one day.

In it, Roman Reigns, yet again irate at the absence of his WrestleMania opponent, Brock Lesnar, took to the microphone to air his grievances.

Brock, in Roman's words, "Didn't show up to work".

This has been the essence of his problem with Lesnar, and the basis of their WrestleMania rematch. Roman, regardless of the crowd's perpetually mixed-to-negative reaction to him, always shows up to work. He "busts his ass" for the business that's "in his blood", and, just like the fans, he's sick and tired of Brock Lesnar only showing up to work "when the money is right or the city is right". He believes The Universal Champion should be a full-time member of the WWE roster; an unconditional leader of the locker-room and the company.

The Magic Of Wrestling Action Figures

I held Anakin Skywalker in my hands, and I felt nothing.

For the first time in my life, an action figure wasn’t anything more than a piece of cheap plastic. His poorly molded head stared up at me, devoid of magic. His unarticulated arm was stiff so that a lightsaber would go in and out the hilt extending from his hand, making it appear as though the blade could be turned on and off; the kind of gimmick I always hated even as a little kid. Toys with “Chop action!” buttons, bells, and whistles assumed I didn’t have an imagination. His fixed pose felt like an insult to my intelligence.

My mom sat next to me in the car, watching me open two more figures inspired by Attack of the Clones: a similarly stiff Obi-Wan Kenobi and a tiny Padme Amidala. We were in the parking lot of Wal-Mart, our custom during these sacred action figure openings.

The Architects of the Attitude Era: A Retrospective on Steve Austin vs Dude Love

The Attitude Era wasn't great because it was raunchy, sleazy, blood-soaked, extreme, and testosterone-fueled. In fact, all those segments, matches, and angles from The Attitude Era that weren't good were the ones that could be easily reduced to a set of trendy adjectives.

The assertion many modern professional wrestling fans make is that The Attitude Era was "so much better" than today's TV-PG Era, without offering a worthwhile explanation as to why. This noisy group of armchair critics likes to cite "Better promos", "getting color", "more interesting characters", "cooler stables", and "better angles" as adequate precedent. Working alongside that lack of an explanation is the unavoidably revisionist history that comes with nostalgia. Moments of time that were distinct, perhaps entirely unrelated, get lumped together and cataloged as the same event; Shawn Michaels chopping his crotch, Triple H sitting on a cannon, Chyna giving low blows, The Rock raising an eyebrow, Steve Austin stunning Vince McMahon, and Mick Foley falling off a cell.

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