{"id":5462,"date":"2011-07-12T20:58:47","date_gmt":"2011-07-12T10:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=5462"},"modified":"2011-07-12T21:50:42","modified_gmt":"2011-07-12T11:50:42","slug":"tv-show-round-up-wwe-raw-curb-your-enthusiasm-season-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=5462","title":{"rendered":"TV Show Round Up: WWE RAW, Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

WWE RAW<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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CM Punk - The 'CM' is rumoured to stand for Charles Montgomery, Chick Magnet or Cookie Monster<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s been said that the wrestling business is ‘cyclical’ meaning that it undergoes peaks and troughs in popularity and relevance to popular culture.\u00a0 When I was a kid, Hulk Hogan and Rock N’ Roll wrestling was a staple of Eighties pop culture.\u00a0 It then underwent ten years in the wilderness before being revitalised again by Steve Austin and The Rock.\u00a0 Even my dad who hates wrestling can recall the boom period when he was younger during the ‘Golden Years’ when Haystacks Calhoun<\/a> was the big drawcard in the United Kingdom and wrestling briefly overtook the F.A Cup final in popularity and tv ratings (that didn’t last very long but it seems incredible that it could happen at all).<\/p>\n

Today, Pro Wrestling is most definitely in a lull.\u00a0 So much so that I’ve largely checked out of watching it when I once thought I’d be a lifelong fan.\u00a0 It’s partly due to the lack of competition.\u00a0 The WWE has been the only major player for ten years now and there isn’t any real external pressure to improve the creativity of the product.\u00a0 For some reason, irrespective of the quality, there is always enough people around watching wrestling that it’ll remain a permanent fixture on television no matter how bad it gets.<\/p>\n

Secondly, the astronomically high death toll in the industry and the infamous double-murder suicide by the quintessential pro wrestler Chris Benoit basically forced the WWE to make over their product and re-brand themselves.\u00a0 Instead of installing a serious drug-testing policy and unionizing wrestlers so they have access to proper health care, they instead turned the product into an incredibly bland, sterile and corporate spectacle that is so self-conscious and ashamed of itself that the word ‘wrestling’ is banned from being mentioned on TV.\u00a0 Similar to how Kentucky Fried Chicken legally became KFC to remove any references to ‘Kentucky’ and ‘fried’, words that were considered to have negative connotations with the public, World Wrestling Entertainment became WWE.\u00a0 No wrestlers here, just ‘superstars.’\u00a0 Almost every aspect of ‘wrestling’ was marginalized.\u00a0 Managers were removed.\u00a0 Belts were de-emphasized.\u00a0 Any allusions to having a meaningful win\/loss record or the fascade of being a competitive spectacle were gone.\u00a0 Wrestlers made way for people who looked good on television.<\/p>\n

This isn’t to say there aren’t talented wrestlers around anymore.\u00a0 There certainly are.\u00a0 It’s just that most of them aren’t in the WWE or if they are, their ability to perform in the ring isn’t emphasized in the slightest.\u00a0 For long suffering fans of wrestling, this has probably been one of the least interesting eras in the history of the business.<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, CM Punk, a WWE wrestler who rose up the ranks from the independant wrestling scene ended a show by cutting a promo expressing his frustraution at the creative direction of the company.\u00a0 It caught people’s attention.\u00a0 He basically verbalized in a matter of minutes, on live TV, why the WWE was so awful.\u00a0 His name and talking points became trending topics on Twitter.\u00a0 For the first time that I can ever remember, the WWE was mentioned on ESPN and it wasn’t because someone had died or murdered someone.\u00a0 Latenight talkshows came knocking on the door to interview CM Punk.<\/p>\n

CM Punk’s promo and subsequent match at this weekend’s upcoming pay-per-view show Money In The Bank <\/em>is considered to be an important milestone in the WWE.\u00a0 Similar to Steve Austin’s groundbreaking “3:16” speech, it could potentially be the springboard for the company to turn its fortunes around and regain its diminished popularity.\u00a0 Or it could be a final nail in the coffin for longtime fans hoping to see the WWE move away from its policy of marginalizing wrestling.<\/p>\n

Wrestling is notorious for blending reality with fantasy.\u00a0 Punk’s upcoming match with champion John Cena is billed as being his last due to the expiry of his contract which apparently is the case off-screen.\u00a0 Whether the WWE chooses to re-sign Punk will give their audience a big indicator as to the long-term creative direction of their product.<\/p>\n