The Phantom Rant: Hey Triple H…We Care A lot

Greetings conversationalists all across the world wide web. I have to say I enjoyed the last two columns I had written because they were coming from a positive mindset. While others might not be happy with the build up to Wrestlemania, I’m in the other boat feeling generally pretty good about it. Now granted, on tv the build up has been pretty lackluster for the rest of the show outside of the main events. I will concede that. But people in the industry wonder why do we fans get so worked up over this stuff? Well, I’ll tell you why. It’s because wrestling/sports entertainment…whatever you want to call it touches a nerve in people. Think all the way back to the olden days of pro wrestling. It has always got people wound up. Remember the old granny with a brick in her purse who always would take a swing at the bad guys?

The only difference is in the last twenty five years we have this lovely thing called the internet to voice our opinions on.

With Wrestlemania coming up, the IWC is at a fever pitch over what is and isn’t working. Triple H said in a recent interview the following. “The internet is not real life and the bitching and the f*cking complaining that is on there is not real life. You could read the internet and it’ll sound like this thing is dead. I’ll use Cody as the example, ‘Cody’s already jumped the shark, he’s dead as a babyface’. He goes ‘really? I don’t know, I’m in an arena with 10-15,000 people every night going ape shit for me, selling the most merchandise’, but sure whatever you wanna say on the internet, that’s the golden rule — It’s just opinion of a few people.”

Okay so it’s just the a FEW people. Well, if you were going by RAW and Smackdown’s Neilsen ratings, the WWE was averaging about 1.5 million viewers give or take a week. I don’t know what the exact Netflix numbers are so they could be more or could be less. Anyway, lets assume that the IWC makes up 5 percent of the viewing audience. If google math is to be believed, 5 percent of that is 75 thousand (I am a product of the old NYC Board of Education so my math is shaky at best) Sure in the grand scheme of things, that’s not a lot of people when you look at something like The Pitt on Max which is averaging over Ten Million viewers a week (If you haven’t watched the show, you should…it’s great). So looking at the numbers, it’s more than just a FEW people.

Triple H and people in the positions of power in Wrestling have never liked hearing people’s opinions especially if it goes against what they are producing. That’s a nice way of saying they don’t like critics. So I can buy his argument that Cody is still way over. I have never said he wasn’t. But much like I said in the last column, Cody is great at the chase. Corporate Cena with all the power of The Final Boss Rock behind him and Cody is up against that would make for some good television and Cody would still be selling all his shirts, workout belts, and whatever else they have of him on merchandise. So, Cody has not jumped the shark. We just prefer a different story being told.

One can be a critic and still be a fan. My God just look at what we deal with watching AEW. I criticize the hell out of Tony Khan and his decision making. But despite all of that I’m still a fan. Same thing goes for the WWE. I criticize because I care about what I’m watching. We as fans want the best product possible and when we see something that goes against that we rightfully call it out. As I said before, I like most of the build to Wrestlemania but I’ll tell you what, this past Monday on RAW was a terrible go home show in building interest for such a huge Wrestlemania. Sure, they built up the night one main event triple threat, but where was the rest of the show? That’s the kind of stuff we on the internet criticize and it drives them nuts.

At least it’s not as bad as it was in the mid 2000’s. That was a prime era for internet writers like me and others. Now if something sucks, you have so many outlets like youtube and podcasts to get your thoughts out. Back then you had to really be dedicated by writing something like this out. I think Triple H is not fond of the internet because of how we reacted to him back then. For those of you not old enough to have lived it, from like 2003 to about 2005, Triple H was doing what I call a Ric Flair cosplay. He had the different color tights, his own Horsemen-esq stable with Flair. Only difference between him and Flair was Ric Flair could get someone over even in defeat. With Triple H you knew it was going to be a sledgehammer shot followed by a kick…wham…pedigree.

Hell, most of us still haven’t forgiven him for what he did to Booker T at Wrestlemania 19. Though that also was probably more Vince just wanting to stick it to a WCW more than anything else. So I can see why Triple H is so sensitive to us on the internet shouting out thoughts about the product. He should be happy though. For the most part, people like me have forgiven him for the reign of terror back then and are generally happy with the WWE today.

I just hope Wrestlemania goes off without a hitch and there will be no need for a very angry column next week. Until then I’m going to try and keep up with The Collective going on in Las Vegas thanks to Triller TV. I’m looking forward to Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport with the debuts of Natalya, return of Shayna Bazler, and other WWE stars getting down and dirty with the graps and submssions.

So until next time thanks for reading and as always you can leave feedback down below, on twitter or email me at phantomlordnyc@gmail.com